Around the League: Week 13 1/18-1/24

[carey]

Nationally televised games this week

Monday: New Orleans @ Memphis 2:30PM EST ESPN, Orlando @ Atlanta Hawks 5:00PM EST NBATv, Golden State @ Cleveland 8:00PM EST TNT, Houston @ Los Angeles Clippers 10:30PM EST TNT
Tuesday: Minnesota @ New orleans 8:00PM EST NBATv
Wednesday: Golden State @ Chicago 8:00PM EST ESPN, Atlanta @ Portland 10:30PM EST ESPN
Thursday: Los Angeles Clippers @ Cleveland 8:00PM TNT, San Antonio @ Phoenix 10:30PM EST TNT
Friday: Miami @ Toronto 8:00PM EST ESPN, Indiana @ Golden State 10:30PM EST ESPN
Saturday: Chicago @ Cleveland 8:30PM EST ABC
Sunday: None.

NBA News

D.A.'s Morning Tip: http://www.nba.com/2016/news/features/d ... star-2016/

Flannery's Sunday Shootaround: http://www.sbnation.com/nba/2016/1/17/1 ... hootaround

[Gladiator]

The Warriors are absolutely destroying the Cavs in Cleveland at the moment (26! up at the half) It's been an unbelievably impressive performance

[Mori Chu]

If you're on the Cavs, you can't be feeling very good about your prospects to avenge last year's Finals loss right now. (Though they have a great chance to get back to the Finals, I'll give them that.)

[ShelC]

Just another example of the Warriors understanding the focus it takes to be great. They clearly went into Cleveland wanting to make a statement. I'm sure they know people are saying "If the Cavs had Kyrie and Love, the Finals would've been different". Well the Ws put that to rest for one night. Once again, the Cavs showed their lack of focus and discipline by not showing up.

[Mori Chu]

The Cavs have some issues to figure out. They have a lot of strong defensive players like Lebron, Shumpert, and Thompson, but it's all undermined by sieves like Love and Mozgov. They have some good shooters, but nowhere near the kind of shooting a team like Golden State has. Cleveland is a very talented team that just doesn't look capable of beating Golden State or probably San Antonio. They're a mortal lock to get back to the Finals and then lose in 5-6 games convincingly.

[JCSunsfan]

The Cavs have some issues to figure out. They have a lot of strong defensive players like Lebron, Shumpert, and Thompson, but it's all undermined by sieves like Love and Mozgov. They have some good shooters, but nowhere near the kind of shooting a team like Golden State has. Cleveland is a very talented team that just doesn't look capable of beating Golden State or probably San Antonio. They're a mortal lock to get back to the Finals and then lose in 5-6 games convincingly.

They only really have one two-way player and thats LeBron.

[djy2j]

I'm still awaiting an explanation as to why they drafted Anthony Bennett #1 over all....still waiting.

[SwingMan]

I'm still awaiting an explanation as to why they drafted Anthony Bennett #1 over all....still waiting.

I was a Bennett fan and wanted us to select him at #5 in 2013, but even I can't explain why Cleveland used their #1 on him - especially after it was known that he, like Adrien Payne, had a lung condition.

[pickle]

I'm pretty sure Thompson is not a good defensive player. He rebounds, that's it. Basically a larger sized Manimal with an even larger contract. Absolutely agree with JC that the only two way player on that roster is Lebron.

The way they look at it, Lebron will win two games for them in a series all by himself. If Kyrie can win one and Love can win another, they are golden. I assume that's the strategy going forward.

[Ring_Wanted]

Thompson can defend the pick and roll well. The Cavs have two apparent big flaws. Role players reliability on offense (see JR, Sumpert in the finals). Then defensively the Kyrie-Love combo, like Nash-Amare, is awfully exploitable in pick and roll/pop situations, and turns out the Warriors and Popovich are masters at attacking it. Depth is also questionable. Their roster was really short last season, and this year they have added just Mo and Jefferson.

Thay already carry a brutal payroll, but if they want a real chance against the two juggernauts they need to use that trade exception to acquire some fresh and useful legs. That's why Kieff-PJ make sooo much sense (but not at the cost of Love haha).

[pickle]

Agreed. I guess "bad defense" is a bit of a broad statement in this scenario. When I last saw advanced statistics, Thompson sported one of the highest at-rim %s on defense for big men that made the cut. He may very well be far more mobile than your average center on pnr defense though.

However, I don't think him alone is enough to hold down the fort for them on that end of the floor, and with Mozgov playing very underwhelmingly, they need an upgrade at center to not waste all the money they dropped into this big 3.

[Ring_Wanted]

...they need an upgrade at center to not waste all the money they dropped into this big 3.

They have dropped too much money on too many players. Varejao, Thompson and Shumpert are making almost 33M combined. An average of 11M for these three is insane. But that's what you get when the your Carters and LeBrons play GM.

[Mori Chu]

This is just nasty.

[streamable][/streamable]

[Ring_Wanted]

So the allstar game starters are set. Here are the top 3 in votes:

Western Conference

Frontcourt
1. Kobe Bryant (LAL) 1,891,614
2. Kevin Durant (OKC) 980,787
3. Kawhi Leonard (SA) 782,339
4. Zaza Pachulia (Dal) 768,112
Guards
1. Stephen Curry (GS) 1,604,325
2. Russell Westbrook (OKC) 772,009
3. Chris Paul (LAC) 624,334

Eastern Conference

Frontcourt
1. LeBron James (Cle) 1,089,206
2. Paul George (Ind) 711,595
3. Carmelo Anthony (NY) 567,348
Guards
1. Dwyane Wade (Mia) 941,466
2. Kyle Lowry (Tor) 646,441
3. Kyrie Irving (Cle) 580,651

[carey]

https://twitter.com/WojVerticalNBA/status/690556479875579904

https://twitter.com/WojVerticalNBA/status/690556990762823680

Doubt this helps Houston at all.

[Ring_Wanted]

He was decent last year for them and since he is Howard's friend I was midly surprised he didn't resign, especially since he ended up getting just the vets min. The Rockets lose nothing for trying.

[djy2j]

https://twitter.com/WojVerticalNBA/status/690556479875579904

https://twitter.com/WojVerticalNBA/status/690556990762823680

Doubt this helps Houston at all.

In other news: Josh Smith still sucks and Houston now has 13 forwards on their roster.

[Indy]

Cleveland just fired Blatt. Fire sale!

https://twitter.com/WojVerticalNBA/status/690638214307168256

[carey]

What?

[carey]

Maybe one of our old heads can answer this but has a conference leading team ever fired their coach mid-season after a bad regular season loss before?