I still bet that they’ll end up on the outside of the West’s playoff picture by the season’s end, but how hilarious would it be if the Hawks don’t even end up with a lottery pick from the Mavericks? What a ridiculously dumb trade.

It’s early in the season still, of course, but holy shit, the first 14 teams in the Western Conference are separated by just 5.5 games!! That’s nuts!

The Nets passed the Knicks in the tankathon with an epic collapse against the Thunder. It’s funny, they’ve lost a lot of close games during their long losing streak. Their expected win/loss is a shocking 11-14! That’s a whole lot of bad luck! On top of the bad luck to lose LeVert, of course.

Kawhi has to resign to make it a good deal. I think he will if they make the finals.

I like it even if he doesn’t resign. When the offseason began, some of us were talking about whether the Raptors wouldn’t be better off just dumping DeRozan to clear his salary to use on players who could fit the future of the team better, and they did that and got one of the best players in the NBA for a year! Even if that’s all they get, I think it was a reasonable price to pay. But of course, they need him to re-sign for it to be amazing.

I read that as “they are getting Cousins for Christmas,” and it still works as a statement. 🙂 It’s a hell of a present!

I mean the whole NBA, full stop. Of course, if Curry comes back healthy and Green and Klay remember how to play basketball again, they’ll be the best team in the NBA. But this current iteration of the Warriors is the weakest contender yet, and I think Draymond really has lost a step and Klay is out of his depth. And, of course, Iggy isn’t getting any younger. They’re quite vulnerable even if Curry and KD play to the level we’re accustomed to.

I think Giannis has been the best player in the NBA this year (followed by Jokic and AD), but if this is Kawhi shaking the rust off, he’ll be right in the mix for MVP.