NBA 2019-20 thread.

What's funny to me is the Suns won that trade totally by accident. It grew out of the 3-way trade when the Suns thought they were getting Dillon Brooks from Memphis but Memphis insisted it was Marshon Brooks. In that deal, Oubre was going to Memphis. That trade got scrapped so Phoenix agreed to the Ariza for Oubre and Rivers deal.

 

Is there a deal to be made for McCollum that brings back a player who fits better with Dame and Nurkic? I wonder if it’s worth giving up Dame without a return similar to what OKC got for PG.

 

I've thought about that and I don't see one that makes a lot of sense. The Blazers are an older, win-now kind of team and any McCollum deal seems like it would likely have to trigger a rebuild. I don't think they're willing to do that.

 

Dame with 61 tonight in an overtime win over the Warriors. 11-20 on 3-pointers and 16-16 from the line.

I see Draymond didn't play. Is he retired or just refusing to play until his more talented teammates come back from injury?

 

Injured left index finger in last Friday's game vs. San Antonio.

And Dame's 61 should not deter from the brilliant analysis of the Blazers on this thread.

 

Only saw the final ... were the C's really 32 better than the Lakers?

 

Celtics shot 47 percent from 3. That's pretty much the thing with them - If you catch them on a night when they're shooting well, they seem unbeatable, because they have plenty of guys who are going to play their ass off. They're also the type of team that gives the Lakers an issue in January - when LeBron isn't going to give you 100 percent, and Davis is working back from an injury - but probably gets handled in a playoff series.

 

Celts also are a major momentum team, real streaky. What they deem a bad loss (like falling to the Embiid-less 76ers) will send them into a week or two tailspin. A big win like this will have the opposite effect. They'll probably be hot until the Super Bowl now.

 

I would assume they would consider losing to the Suns at home a bad loss.

 

That's part of the hangover effect, yes. But for whatever reason, the Celts' self-esteem seems to rise and fall real dramatically after games with opponents they see as rivals (they see themselves as a deep into the playoffs team, which they sometimes look like and sometimes don't). So they were flat against Phoenix, then came out inspired last night on the "here's our chance for redemption" idea. This is not a prudent nor productive approach to the regular season by an NBA team, but the subtraction of Kyrie and addition of Walker has not seemed to have raised its maturity level all that much.

 

On a night that sees Smart(!) hit 11 threes.