Around the League: Week 4 11/6-11/12

[carey]

Nationally televised games this week

Monday: None.
Tuesday: Milwaukee @ Cleveland 7:00 PM EST NBATv, OKC @ Sacramento 10:00 PM EST NBATv
Wednesday: L.A. Lakers @ Boston 8:00PM EST ESPN, Minnesota @ Golden State 10:30PM EST ESPN
Thursday: Cleveland @ Houston 8:00PM EST TNT, OKC @ Denver 10:30PM EST TNT
Friday: Milwaukee @ San Antonio 8:00PM EST ESPN
Saturday: Brooklyn @ Utah 9:00 PM EST NBATv
Sunday: None

NBA News

D.A.'s top 15 - http://www.nba.com/article/2017/11/06/m ... aldridge#/

D.A.'s Mailbag Questions - http://www.nba.com/article/2017/11/06/m ... aldridge#/

Love back at practice, echoes Wade's comments about starters - http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/2131 ... g-starters

Givony's first big board of the season.

Top-25
1. Luka Doncic
2. Michael Porter Jr.
3. Marvin Bagley III
4. Deandre Ayton
5. Mohamed Bamba
6. Miles Bridges
7. Robert Williams
8. Collin Sexton
9. Jaren Jackson Jr.
10. Wendell Carter Jr.
11. Trevon Duval
12. Bruce Brown
13. Lonnie Walker
14. Kevin Knox
15. Justin Jackson
16. Dzanan Musa
17. Troy Brown
18. Hamidou Diallo
19. Mikal Bridges
20. Chimezie Metu
21. Mitchell Robinson
22. Rodions Kurucs
23. Nick Richards
24. Nickeil Alexander-Walker
25. Emmanuel Akot

[The Bobster]

Right now FiveThirtyEight.com projections would give the Suns draft positions 6 and 9 pre-lottery.

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/20 ... id=rrpromo

[Split T]

Bridges and Jackson are both good prospects although I don't really like the fit of Bridges here. At 6 I'd go Robert Williams and then not sure at 9. In reality I'd try to package 6 and 9 to move up.

[Superbone]

Right now FiveThirtyEight.com projections would give the Suns draft positions 6 and 9 pre-lottery.

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/20 ... id=rrpromo

So prepare for 8 and 11 or worse.

[Mori Chu]

Thanks for the thread, carey!

[specialsauce]

We really, REALLY need to be top 4

[carey]

Going to try something new on the board. I'll ditch it if it does not work. I'm going to call it, 'QOTD' or Question of the Day.

QOTD for 11/8/17 - What's wrong with the Oklahoma City Thunder?

Last night they were beaten by the Kings 94-86. Melo and PG were both 25% from the field and Russ was 33%. Their record is currently at a meager 4-6, last in their division.

[Flagrant Fowl]

QOTD for 11/8/17 - What's wrong with the Oklahoma City Thunder?

I think the contending teams in the league are playing for April now, which means there will be some head scratching losses through the All-Star break. This is especially true of teams like OKC who are working in major pieces, but even established teams like GSW have had poor performances this year because they all realize that how they play now doesn't really affect what happens in the playoffs.

So there's basically nothing 'wrong' with OKC at this point. Are they good enough to win the title? Maybe. A lot of things will change between now and when the playoffs start, but they have the pieces to be included in that conversation.

[Mori Chu]

Going to try something new on the board. I'll ditch it if it does not work. I'm going to call it, 'QOTD' or Question of the Day.

QOTD for 11/8/17 - What's wrong with the Oklahoma City Thunder?

Last night they were beaten by the Kings 94-86. Melo and PG were both 25% from the field and Russ was 33%. Their record is currently at a meager 4-6, last in their division.

Great idea! I love it. My answer: Their stars don't actually fit together well. As some predicted, there is only one ball, and having 3 high usage-rate stars together doesn't always work well. And their supporting cast is mostly dreadful.

[JCSunsfan]

Going to try something new on the board. I'll ditch it if it does not work. I'm going to call it, 'QOTD' or Question of the Day.

QOTD for 11/8/17 - What's wrong with the Oklahoma City Thunder?

Last night they were beaten by the Kings 94-86. Melo and PG were both 25% from the field and Russ was 33%. Their record is currently at a meager 4-6, last in their division.

I will answer that question with another question. What has allowed Kristaps Porzingis to explode this year?

[carey]

I will answer that question with another question. What has allowed Kristaps Porzingis to explode this year?

Don't steal future questions!

[Split T]

I haven't watched any OKC, but it might just take some time. Also they've played pretty good in a few games and just lost close ones.

[Split T]

I will answer that question with another question. What has allowed Kristaps Porzingis to explode this year?

Well he was already really good to begin with and he's aged another year and now he's the focal point of the offense. I assume that you were referring to Melo leaving and that has given him the opportunity to do what he's doing right now.

[bajanguy008]

Going to try something new on the board. I'll ditch it if it does not work. I'm going to call it, 'QOTD' or Question of the Day.

QOTD for 11/8/17 - What's wrong with the Oklahoma City Thunder?

Last night they were beaten by the Kings 94-86. Melo and PG were both 25% from the field and Russ was 33%. Their record is currently at a meager 4-6, last in their division.

I have watched them because I really like PG-13 game and fore me it is just an adjustment period. I actually talked about this in one of my FB groups last night and will share the same stats here. Most ppl who were not fans of the trade go with the "they will not be able to play together" thing which is a fair concern but I don't really agree with that because George is not a ball stopper and can play without the ball better than the other two, he is getting most of his shots coming off screens and spotting up. Melo on the other hand is still basically just an Iso guy but he subs out first and usually leads the 2nd unit when PG and Russ sits, their ball movement has been fine IMO. The prob is like last night as carey pointed out, the fg% has been whack in multiple games for the 3 of them and Russ is shooting 60% from the line which is another puzzling thing.
Anyhow post getting long lol but this is the crazy stat I wanted to share, after the ten games all three of them are avging 17 shots , 20ppg and have literally each scored 201 pts so far this season . Russ still almost avging a trip dub 20.1/9.3/10.9 so I personally feel they will figure it out because they are solid defensively

[O_Gardino]

Going to try something new on the board. I'll ditch it if it does not work. I'm going to call it, 'QOTD' or Question of the Day.

QOTD for 11/8/17 - What's wrong with the Oklahoma City Thunder?

Last night they were beaten by the Kings 94-86. Melo and PG were both 25% from the field and Russ was 33%. Their record is currently at a meager 4-6, last in their division.

They are still figuring out the offense. Maybe they wont. We haven't seen a good balanced offense out of OKC yet. But Anthony and George are not creating for others. It's still just Westbrook running the whole team, then the other two acting as ISO options here and there.

[O_Gardino]

Going to try something new on the board. I'll ditch it if it does not work. I'm going to call it, 'QOTD' or Question of the Day.

QOTD for 11/8/17 - What's wrong with the Oklahoma City Thunder?

Last night they were beaten by the Kings 94-86. Melo and PG were both 25% from the field and Russ was 33%. Their record is currently at a meager 4-6, last in their division.

I will answer that question with another question. What has allowed Kristaps Porzingis to explode this year?

1. He's a young guy just now growing into his game.
2. The coach can build an offense around him instead of trying to force the triangle on Rose and Melo.

[JCSunsfan]

I will answer that question with another question. What has allowed Kristaps Porzingis to explode this year?

Well he was already really good to begin with and he's aged another year and now he's the focal point of the offense. I assume that you were referring to Melo leaving and that has given him the opportunity to do what he's doing right now.

Bingo. Melo is a net negative for any team.

[bajanguy008]

How do you guys get to keep track of all these prospects, every year even when I was just in the shadows and not a member you guys will just be posting about so many players I hardly got to see play

[bajanguy008]

this one is making the rounds on Twitter, I mean the truth is nobody does know who their marquee player is. Are you gonna put Justin Holiday or Markkanen....
that's crazy tho, not one true "recognizable" player
https://twitter.com/BleacherReport/status/928417113831804928

[bajanguy008]

Lakers are here playing some fugly basketball and Kyrie looks like he is doing a Uncle Drew clip