Pardon the Interruption - Off Season/Preview Edition
Dec 29, 2015 18:00:01 GMT
Sarawak, New York, and 2 more like this
Post by Tel Aviv on Dec 29, 2015 18:00:01 GMT
Draft
Recent Trades
Player(s) to watch out for this season
Season Predictions
Odds Maker Round
Talk about the recent draft class that entered the league.
Everyone is talking about Shaq and rightly so, he looks like he could become a dominant force in the league from day one and make a similar impact that Elgin Baylor made last year as a rookie. This draft class has a lot of other talent in it also. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist is a player I really like, raw on the offensive end right now, and will need to develop there, although being the athlete that he is will help. It's his defense which sets him apart, great pick by Moscow but were a little lucky to have him still on the board. Also Andrew Toney was a nice pickup down in the 18th position.
Like you said very hard to talk about anyone but Shaquille O'Neal, we haven't seen a prospect like him in a long time and I doubt we will for a long time after, he will give the Milano franchise a real boost. Outside of Shaq I agree this draft class has some good talent, Draymond Green is an interesting prospect, feel Fubon Braves have a very versatile player on their hands he can do a lot of things on the basketball court and those kind of players are rare to find. Then you have players like Kevin McHale, Anthony Davis, Andre Drummond, Latrell Sprewell who all should make big impacts on those teams.
Dicuss Off-season trades
As usual there has been quite a few offseason trades with some big names of the move including Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon, Grant Hill, Karl Malone, Arvydas Sabonis, Terry Porter to name a few. I'll leave some of them for you to go over, but I'm going to talk about the Karl Malone/Horford deal. It is an interesting move for both teams, Boca has been a great team for the first two seasons of the league, performing better than I thought to be honest, so flipping Al Horford for a ready now star in Karl Malone is a great move for them, adding that to the signing of Zoran Slavnic and Kevin Durant's continuing development they could be a team to watch this season. Another trade I want to quickly mention is the Real/TWolves trade, Smart is a player I really like and adding him to the young core they have there in Wiggins/Garnett/Ewing then that will be a fun team to watch for a long time. Belov is a good player but he is on a max contract and does Real have enough talent around him to make the move worthwhile, time will tell. Then there is the Michael Jordan trade, didn't really get it for Barcelona, but Kevin McHale will be a great player just wouldn't be moving Jordan in that kinda deal personally.
There has been quite a bit of movement this offseason, I am gonna start with the obvious team, the Vancouver Grizzlies. It's been a very busy offseason for them, picking up two all-stars in Hakeem Olajuwon and Grant Hill. The Eagles had made it known that Olajuwon was available as they look to rebuild and Vancover jumped on the chance to add him to the team, Mcdyess and Exum are good pieces but not on the level of Hakeem. Grant Hill has gone under the radar slightly but is one of the best small forwards in the league. Worst trade of the offseason for me goes to the Michael Jordan trade for Barcelona.
Player(s) to watch out for this season.
Talked about rookies earlier, Shaq is obviously one to watch but past that Chris Paul is one. Seems to have put the work in during the offseason and with a much improved Boston Celtics team, I am expecting him to put up big numbers this season. Andrew Wiggins on the Timberwolves is another one to watch, the 20 year old has looked to have taken a step forward, alongside Garnett and Ewing that is easily the best frontcourt in the league.
Agreed with those guys you mentioned there, another one I would add is John Stockton. He looks to have put in a lot of work in the offseason and for me is the best point guard in the league right now hands down, look for him to put up MVP type numbers. Can't look past last season's MVP Charles Barkley either, that team is built around him and his strengths so look for him to put up monster numbers once again as he looks to put last years playoff injury behind him.
Season Predictions:
Name a team in the both conferences who made the playoffs last season but won't this year.
For the America, they are a couple of teams who could not make it again, Warriors, Raptors, Blazers but I'm going to go with the Warriors. They had 51 wins last year but losing Grant Hill and Anatoly Myshkin think it will be a tough ask of them to make it again this season. For The Eurasian, again there are a couple of playoff teams looking to rebuild, Barcelona, Olympiacos, Wildcats so those three could easily miss out and probably will but after the Jordan trade no way Barcelona are making it.
The Eurasian is easy, Barcelona who have gone into rebuilding mode, trading away Michael Jordan, Delibasic and Kersey. In the America it's Toronto. Was a very rough free agency for them, coming in their 3 best players were in the FA pool and they only managed to bring back Chandler, losing both Gerald Wallace and Andrew Gase.
Name a team in the both conferences who didn't make the playoffs last season but will this year.
Cairo in the Eurasian, they missed Sam Jones for the majority of last season and that backcourt with Stockton is hard to stop. The Celtics had the worst record last season but have done a great job in the offseason and look like a very strong team, could be a similar turnaround that we saw from Tel Aviv and the Timberwolves last season.
Cairo is a good shout I think they will make it aswell, I do think the Eurasian is wide open and they are opportunities for a few teams to make a move or two to get a playoff spot, teams like the Tigers, Aoshen and with the addition of Shaq feel Milano had a great shot at making it. For the America it will be tougher for a team to make that jump, think it will be out of the Celtics, Grizzlies and Titans, I'll go with the Grizzlies though.
ROY:
Shaq, this is an easy one for me, aslong as he doesn't suffer an injury he will get it. There are other players like McHale, Zo, Davis, Drummond who should be up good numbers year 1 but not quite on the level of Shaq.
Shaquille O'Neal hands down.
MVP:
It's difficult to look past the two time MVP Charles Barkley, was such a shame to see him injured in the playoffs last season. I think he will get the award again this time around, he was a suprise drop in the creation draft and I'm still not sure why Istanbul didn't just pick him up. Although saying that John Stockton is someone who I think has a chance to take that crown from Barkley, the Cairo point guard looks in great shape coming out of training camp and looks set for a big season.
Yeah I remember talking at the time about Barkley still be there at 12 and then surprised by Istanbul moving the pick when he was still on board for what he did. I agree though it will be between those two guys, it will depend on if Cairo make the playoffs or not an injury or two could hurt them. I think they will but if they don't then that might affect Stockton's chances. It's hard to look past Barkley but I'm going go with John Stockton.
Title:
Gonna go with the Timerwolves, reached the finals last year before losing in game 7, they have the best frontcourt in the league who are still improving and with Marcus Smart in the backcourt alonside Rodgers they have enough there. Depth may be a slight concern for them though. The Bulls have been great in the regular season, can this be the season they can reproduce that in the playoffs?
I do think Timberwolves had a great shot, Tel Aviv have improved on last season so can't rule them out, I really like Boca's team just worry if they have enough depth, Auckland have a chance as do the Bulls and Seahorses who had a good offseason. If I had to call it out of those six, umm I'm going to go with Timberwolves.
Odds Makers
Time for the quick fire Odds Makers round, for you new to PTI this is where we give a percentage prediction on a certain event happening. Lets go...
Chance of a team losing more than the 6-76 Washington Generals team in the 2001 season
Flamengo: That will take some beating, don't really so it happening so 1%
Tel Aviv: 0%. Not sure if that will ever be beaten.
Chance of a Shaq winning ROY
Flamengo: Like we talked about before no chance of Shaq not winning it. 99%
Tel Aviv: Yea unless he gets an injury I don't see anyone else winning it, 95%
Chance of a Tel Aviv repeating
Flamengo: Think our trade improved you, Rimas and Vikor are underated players, but it's never an easy thing to do. 30%
Tel Aviv: 20% Don't think it will happen, quite a few teams with a chance, think the Timberwolves will win as I said earlier.
7 Teams making the playoffs that didn't last season.
Flamengo: I do think the Eurasian is wide open and there are a couple of teams in the American that can make the playoffs. 75%
Tel Aviv: I think we could see that teams like Cairo, Real, Olimpia, Southern Tigers, Celtics, Grizzlies, Titans and Franca have a shot to get there aswell as maybe 1 or 2 others, but 7 is a lot. 60%
Thats all for now, from Tel Aviv and Flamengo, Pardon the Interruption.
