Around the League: Week 16 2/6 - 2/12

[Aztec Sunsfan]

Is Denver really positioning for taking Okafor? This move came out of nowhere and brings a center.

[carey]

https://twitter.com/MarcJSpearsESPN/status/830968830130216961

[Mori Chu]

#FreeBoogie

[Mori Chu]

Uh oh.
https://twitter.com/markschlereth/status/830974965952499712

[Split T]

I wish we could cure injuries. I really hope we get to see a healthy career out of Embiid. Injuries suck.

[pickle]

Please don't jinx Embiid. He's the pillar to my fantasy team, which has been playing like shit for 2 straight weeks.

I don't get the Nuggets either. They may see Plumlee as a long term backup solution to Jokic, no way they would play the two of them together. Plumlee as a backup is more than capable, but then now they need to give him money. If his brother got 13 per, you'd have to think that that's his starting point.

Agree that Portland didn't necessarily get worse. I don't think they *can* get much worse than they are now. Nurkic is a big body who can change the dynamic, but good luck making the rest of their front court relevant, now that Plumlee isn't there to dive down the middle and distribute the ball.

[SDC]

Do any of you guys follow the Heat closely? What is causing them to have such a great winning streak lately? What has changed relative to the beginning of the season? Who is stepping up?

their starting lineup is dragic, waiters (now ellington), mcgruder!, babbitt, whiteside.

mcdo and watson made a big boner in not starting knight. staring 5 should have been bledsoe, knight, booker, warren, chandler.

edit: could dragic, if he was still playing with the suns, get this current suns roster competitive in the playoffs? ANSWER: Hell Yes!

[SDC]

Do any of you guys follow the Heat closely? What is causing them to have such a great winning streak lately? What has changed relative to the beginning of the season? Who is stepping up?

Dragic is playing extremely well. But really they have a great coach and they defend every possession like it is the last.

interesting theory.

dragic is the only common denominator between miami (beset with injuries and playing dleague players) and phoenix (a team that traded gortat before the start of the 2014 season, the gm wrote an op ed piece at ESPN that the team was supposed to tank).

pat riley wants to tank this season. and he still hasnt given any guarantees that dragic will not be traded this year. so there's still uncertainty in dragic's case.

i give spo credit for trying to win games with dleague players. spoelstra not taking orders from the front office. but the style they are playing is not traditional miami heat basketball. it helped that winslow is out for the rest of the season. spo had the idea of winslow as point forward to minimize hide his lack of outside shooting.

[SDC]

question: fluke team, Phoenix 2014 or Portland 2016? or both?

[Mori Chu]

I don't know about Portland, but Phoenix 2014 was definitely a fluke. We thought we had struck gold with a 2-PG idea. But really that only worked well because one PG or the other was out for most of the season, so we really just had two starting-caliber PGs available all year. The reactions we made to that season were pretty bad overall.

[pickle]

I don't know how we define fluke. We had a good year, and we caught some people by surprise, but generally unselfish basketball has a way of making the team greater than the sum of the spare parts. Both teams may have enjoyed some regular season-itis where the opposing team doesn't scout and prepare properly, but generally speaking I wouldn't call those two performances flukes.

The decline in the follow year was inevitable. For the Suns it was more easily understood with the bad chemistry. For the Blazers, since I don't follow them, I don't really know. Defense fell off a cliff? Or is Turner causing some chemistry disruptions too? Statistically Lillard and McCollum have been as good as ever.

[TOO]

Portlands back court doesnt defend a lick.

[Split T]

If Portland turns all these 1sts into serge ibaka, they might have something. Lillard-McCollum-Turner-Ibaka-Nurkic is interesting. They'd need to find a way to cut some salary though. Can't imagine they could afford a bench with Crabbe, harkless, Aminu, and Leonard. That's 40 million off the bench. Starting lineup is another 60 million and that doesn't factor in the 20 million dollar raise for McCollum next year. Plus ibaka would get a big raise in free agency.

[Wally_West]

https://mobile.twitter.com/CBSSportsNBA/status/831354805566181376

[Shabazz]

https://mobile.twitter.com/CBSSportsNBA/status/831354805566181376

He's so, so good. Juancho had a great game too.

[Mori Chu]

These periodic losses are the best thing that can happen to Golden State. Trying to go on long winning streaks wears out their players and adds stress to the regular season. They should just win about ~62 games and call it good, saving some gas in the tank for the playoffs.

[carey]

https://twitter.com/WojVerticalNBA/status/831536258824429568

[Ring_Wanted]

Ha! I knew I was late already Carey .

Steal by the Raps if they have Ibaka's consent to sign. It will cost the max for sure but I think Toronto needs to seize their moment and they probably were maxed out with just Lowry and DeRozan.

[carey]

Does anyone actually think Serge Ibaka is only 27?

[Ring_Wanted]

Probably not, but if you can extract three good years out of him you did ok.