Basketball This Week (Done) Quickly

The Sixers have rotations now that make a little more sense.  Overall I think they’ll end up having a pretty good season, although they look very bad without Embiid.  Some of their past messiness existed as an insurance policy to the fact that Embiid doesn’t play a full schedule.  The Sixers will need to find a way to overcome that or he needs to find a way to play more.  

Brooklyn is is a very nice spot.  KD looks fully healthy, Kyrie is engaged, and they are deep offensively and good enough defensively.  So giving up a ton of that go bring Harden in . . . it’s not a no brainer.  With that said, stars win titles much more than depth does, and Brooklyn would have the most star power in the league if they did make that trade for Harden.  I dunno.  It’s a good basketball question to be in position to ask, especially considering where Brooklyn was this year and last year.

System stills pristine but definitely are looking like they are a little light on talent on offense.  The Heat proved last year though if you’re a solid defensive team and you can make it to the playoffs you can go a long way.  A Harden trade would obviously help that offensive talent issue out quite a bit, although I’m not sure he can keep up with their defensive standards, and it’s hard to keep defensive standards if you make exceptions for one player, although the Raptors are mature enough to maybe try it?

This. Team has a great offense!  So it might actually be pretty fun to watch them this year.   I hope Beal and Westbrook will have some fun chemistry.  The defense though . . . it might be pretty dire.  They are going to have a lot of ABA losses on their hand this season for sure.,  Worth watching, though. 

This team was in command of their playoff series last year, and things just went ary.  They didn’t have a lot of room for error with Bojan hurt, and Mitchell started to lose those.  This year should hopefully be different for them.  The thing that is most important to them is health.  

The Spurs were right behind the Blazers for the play in game, and arguably had more right to be there since were a consistently better team most of the season.  Unfortunately that constant level has become not enough.  There’s a solid team here for sure, but they are going to need to find something dynamic to be better than 8-10 in the West. 

I think things are starting to come together offensively for the Kings. Defense might be a pretty big problem.  At least in the preseason, it looks to be dire.  I wouldn’t be shocked if they pull the plug and fade for Cade if things start slow. 

Don't believe the hype    CJ and Lillard are back to being the worst defensive backcourt in the league now that Murray has taken a bit of a step forward.  Covington has slowed down, and won’t be able to carry the defense himself.  Kanter will play and is still one of the league’s worst defenders.    I dunno.  Lillard’s ability to just go nuts will be enough to let them a few games above 500 if Nurkic is healthy, which might be enough for home-court this year.  But if he gets hurt again then things could get dark pretty quickly. 

Oh boy the Chris Paul fluffing has already begun big time.  In the end, though, if the Suns really take the leap everyone expects them to, it will be because Ayton takes a step forward and Booker can manage to play a little defense.   They have added a little depth, which will certainly help them stay in games a bit more, so I won’t be shocked if they can keep it together enough for the eight seed, but honestly I won’t be shocked if the wheels come off and they end up disappointing. 

I dunno.  They’ll probably make the playoffs again because someone has to.  Not much to say about them.