Congrats To Bam On Winning NBA ID Fan Favorites Performance Of The Year! (via @MiamiHEAT) - View now in the NBA App - https://nba.shar.estori.es/go/clip/4113258e-ce0e-53f5-4f94-3a245cb44eed?collectionId=opening-week-fire-moments

This is not what you want to hear from your leader. For this Sixers team to achieve their ultimate goal of making it out the 2nd round, these guys must be willing to sacrifice.

Source: https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/50199797/lebron-james-76ers-working-our-rhythm-opener-nears

There’s a large group of people who believe that the Pacers run to the NBA Finals in 2025 Game 7 (which they led at half) was in large part a fluke.

However, there was also an even larger group of people who viewed the 2024 Pacers who made the ECF a fluke.

The 2025 Pacers proved that the 2024 team was not a fluke.

Much like the 2014 Spurs proved that the 2013 Spurs would have been a deserving champion over the 2013 Heat, and got to prove it in dominating fashion, I expect the Pacers to make it back to the Finals, and beat the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Teams that made a Game 7 of the NBA FINALS, typically go on to win championships, or have already won a championship or make it back.

Game 7 Losers:
2013 Spurs, won the 2014 Championship.
2016 Warriors, won the 2017 Championship.
2010 Boston Celtics, won the 2008 Championship.
2005 Detroit Pistons, won the 2004 Championship.
1994 Knicks, made 1999 Finals (injury led to loss)
1988 Detroit Pistons, won back to back titles.

For a team to back a conference Finals, make a Game 7 NBA Finals, lose in the most heartbreaking fashion.

My bet is that they go back to the Finals, as the number 1 overall seed, and win in 4 or 5 games — hopefully against the team they would have beaten before.

Expect a Haliburton MVP campaign.

This past NLCS (National League Conference Finals for those who don't watch baseball) the Brewers faced the Dodgers. Brewers had 103 regular season wins to the Dodgers 100 wins. Heading into the series, the Dodgers were favoured to win, even though they finished with a worse record than the Brewers.

Has this happened in the NBA where the team with fewer wins was actually the favourite to win that playoff series?

1. Sixers winning the title. Mostly because of the implications it would have for both them and the Celtics. Embiid becomes a made man, Lebron adds the cherry on top of his legacy, Brown silences the haters and might alter the perception of analytics. The craziest part would be the consequences for the Celtics, who seemingly would have traded away title contention, can't even imagine what the fan reaction would be, especially if they matched up in the postseason. All around this has to be no. 1 to me no question.

2. Spurs return to the finals and seal the deal, Wemby immediately puts himself on the path to becoming an all-timer, Harper and Castle fill out a dynasty in the making. Spurs immediately become the main power in the league and set up some crazy matchups down the line.

3. The Kings are good -- speaks for itself.

4. The Knicks repeat. Seems like not many have them as the favorite for this season, which is understandable given the roster flux, but a repeat seals them as an all time champion squad, NYC legends, Brunson as an all-timer and best little guy of all time, Jimmy Butler look even worse with KAT doubling up on chips.

5. The rookies are ready to lead - one or more of Dybantsa, Wilson, Boozer or Petersen are just straight ready-made for the league and can start leading their teams to some wins. Would totally shift the landscape of the league and elevate some teams that have been bad for a long time, and have a fascinating effect on the overall competition level of the league. Think you could throwing Cooper Flagg in with this mix too.

6. TWolves make the finals. Even just making the finals and getting past OKC and/or the Spurs would be a wild validation of Ant and LaMelo. You can just imagine some of the shit that would come out of these guys mouths if this comes to fruition lol Any cements his reputation as a giant killer.

7. Pacers return to the finals. Legitimizes them as arguably the third major power in the east, having beaten the Knicks two season ago, and competed with the '24 Celtics. Validates their '25 finals run and reminds people they basically should have won the chip in 25.

8. The Nets are good. Arguably could be no. 1 lol.

9. The Clippers make the playoffs - having them bounced back after getting fucked for the 118th time through reason we didn't even know could exist would be an awesome storyline, and honestly pretty shocking given.

Do you think it would be smart for the Spurs to offer Castle a max next year? Is his value closer to Amen Thompson who took around 22% of the cap instead of 25%? Of course Castle could take a huge jump this year and make this conversation obsolete, but what do you think?

I've never seen a week day game start at this time unless it's being played in London or something. And on opening day no less.. what in the world is going on here?

The "face of the league" is more of who can gain the most following around their image, than just who is the best player on the best team. Part of that image is personality. Part of that image is look. JB's game is fun, he's clutch, he's in new york, but he doesn't have the mannerisms or personality to carry it further.

Jokic got close since his game is fun to watch and he has this goofy big oaf persona around him. But Denver is not the coolest team nor do they have the coolest jerseys, so it falls a little flat.

SGA is very private. We don't really know his personality. His smooth game is appealing to the youth, his jersey colors, his signature headband with cornrows, that is more "cool" but he has a flopping reputation that lowers the "cool" a lot.

Luka. No. Giannis had a chance but not really.

It's honestly just LeBron and Curry that feel right to be called that.

LeBron constantly goes viral with how goofy he is. He plays the media game well. He does commercials, acting, and he obviously is funny. And he's LeBron. Everybody wants to watch him play.

Curry has the mannerisms. People love walking like him, chewing the mouthguard, doing his dances. He sometimes has a dry personality but he can be funny with his antics pre-game. And ofc his game is extremely fun to watch for most fans.

I honestly don't see any player right now who can capture and combine the "fun to watch" and "cool persona" aspects like LeBron and Curry have done. Maybe Wemby? He seems like he has the personality, the image, to be the face of the league. I'm being serious when I say the black and grey of San Antonio might hold him back. The colors are a little dull and don't pop out like the Cleveland Maroon for LeBron and the Golden State Blue for Curry. But idk what yall think.

Naz Reid was a highly coveted acquisition by Jeff Peterson, who traded Lamelo Ball, the only PG on the Hornets, to get. Reid is a former backup center for a Timberwolves team who loved him for being a meme player that could do unusual things. Now that he is a starter playing completely out of position, more scrutiny is needed.

If this is what can be expected from Reid going forward, it is one of the worst contracts in the league

Happy new NBA season y'all! We're almost there.

Now that rosters are (almost) finalized, what are your picks for the 6moty/MIP awards?

MIP might go to BMill, insane usage without Melo + new contract.

6moty? Honestly, I thought that it would be Demar or Dylan until I saw that Dylan is a starter and Pritchard is probably starting off the bench yet again. He's my pick, without JB his usage is going to be even higher.

HD version via Reddit

Did not play in the 4th quarter.

I’m from Trinidad & Tobago and looking to get into the NBA, but I haven’t picked a team yet.

I want a team with:

🏆 A realistic chance of winning championships

🔥 A passionate fanbase and strong team culture

📈 Good management and a bright future

🏀 An exciting team to watch

👕 Cool jerseys and a good history

I don’t want to just bandwagon the current best team. I want a team I can support for the next 10+ years, through the good and bad.

If you had to recommend ONE team, who would it be and why? Also, which teams should I avoid? Be honest!

Too fast

I’ve been really fascinated by the whole Cam Thomas saga. He didn’t sign over the summer, didn’t even take a camp deal before they opened last month

I haven’t seen any stories about him going to Europe or China? Anybody have any idea what he’s up to

We all know how risky draft pick deals can be. You're trading a player for what is basically a lottery ticket (or more than one).

Some worked out real well for one team (besides the obvious PG deal working out for OKC, or KG/Pierce deal worked out for the Celtics), but what about those trades that are looked back on being a bad move for one team where the draft pick panning out would've changed the entire way people viewed the deal?

For instance, on the note of KG, the TWolves got 5 guys and 2 picks for him. Jefferson was the only guy to have a good career with the Wolves. But they also got the 6th and 28th picks in the draft. Let's say that 6th wound up being Steph or DeRozan. How much different would a KG deal have been viewed in that case? An obvious win win for both since the Celtics get the future HOFer who helped win a title, and the TWolves get Jefferson plus a future face of their franchise.

And not as drastic, but the Vince Carter deal for the Raptors, while they got the bottom of the barrel return for him player wise, what if those picks panned out? Instead of Joey Graham they get Danny Granger (07-12 Granger was an underrated played)?

This is not a joke. This team has no chemistry, has horrible coaching, has no direction, and looks completely lost out there. This team genuinely may not even reach 15 wins this year and they still won’t get a good draft pick. This is going to be a crazy year for them.