Things that surprised me this NBA season

[jlprk]

My biggest surprise is that Lakers and Knicks fans were surprised they sucked as much as we all expected they would.

This. I'm surprised that New York City is surprised that Phil Jackson sucks as a General Manager.

I'm not surprised that I have to read every day about the soap operas in New York and Los Angeles.

I'm surprised that the Microsoft boss hired Doc Rivers as both GM and Coach. Never, ever do that. What a conflict of interest, as well as too much work to do, to do both well.

I'm surprised that the Russian owner is surprised that the Nets didn't make a championship run immediately after he tried to buy them one as a present.

I'm surprised that the Lakers, Knicks, and Nets never consider just patiently, slowly drafting and signing young skilled non-superstars. Especially after the Knicks have failed with their approach of just buying a team, since their inception in the 1940s.

I'm surprised that Laker fans revere Dr. Buss, the drunken old playboy who created the family-run zoo that should be studied at business schools as the bane of all organization charts.

 

[stampedehero]

• I didn't think the Grizzlies would be this good. Teamwork rules!
• I didn't think the Spurs would get knocked out by the Clippers.
  
• I didn't think the Knicks could possibly be as bad as they were.
• I thought Kyle Anderson would do something for the Spurs (I still think he'll work out in the end)
• I was surprised at how comparatively good the Bucks were. Jason Kidd might be a good coach.
• I was surprised at how much worse Rajon Rondo made the Mavs.
• What happened to Tony Parker?
• I didn't think Mirotic would contribute this much this soon
• I was surprised at how bad Papanikolaou shot.
• I didn't think Rose would ever contribute again as he has done
• I hate Westbrook, but he can certainly put up cartoonish numbers
• When did Blake Griffin turn into Magic Johnson?
• I didn't think Rudy Gobert would be this good
• I didn't think Meyers Leonard would be a meaningful contributor in the playoffs
• Kawhi Leonard really made the leap, didn't he?
• I never thought in a million years Mo Williams would win NBA player of the week once, never mind twice
• Atlanta surprised me. Is it just Horford being healthy?
• I didn't think Brook Lopez could be productive again, let alone this productive
• Brandon Jennings looked pretty good for a while there. That surprised me.
• Ditto Isaiah Thomas.

You?

I was surprised anyone would spell Papanikolaou correctly

 

[PDXFonz]

I completely forgot how huge Kyle Anderson was supposed to be for the spurs. He didn't really do anything this year. Great points Rastapop.

As far as Gobert goes, to me he looked primed to have a great season after his play in the fiba worlds.

 

[Denny Crane]

The verdict is out on PJax as GM.

So far he's unloaded lots of big salaries to give them room to go after free agents. They also are in line to get a very good draft position.

Considering what he inherited, I'm not sure there is any better strategy.

 

[Draco]

The verdict is out on PJax as GM.

So far he's unloaded lots of big salaries to give them room to go after free agents. They also are in line to get a very good draft position.

Considering what he inherited, I'm not sure there is any better strategy.

He traded away Tyson Chandler, a valuable starting center for an inferior player on a longer contract.

He traded away Shumpert, their only young player with upside, just to get out of a reasonable mid level deal.

He signed a number of minor free agents and coaches all who've been a disaster. It's still early in his tenure but he hasn't made any move that's good. He lives on the other side of the country and is held in high esteem exclusively for what he did as a different career. Reminds me when people thought Jordan would be a great GM with the Wizards because he was a great player.

 

[Fez Hammersticks]

He was fined about talking about specific college prospects before any of them declared.

He's an amateur.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

The verdict is out on PJax as GM.

He's no Jerry Krause.

 

[Pinwheel1]

I completely forgot how huge Kyle Anderson was supposed to be for the spurs. He didn't really do anything this year. Great points Rastapop.

Kyle Anderson was a rookie. Of all the things discussed in this thread, this is the least surprising to me due to the fact that the Spur's bench is so deep and Kyle did not have a consistent jump shot in college. Pop is bringing him along slowly. For the 30th overall pick I would say he is right on schedule. He was a project IMO.

As for the Spurs.......I think if they get LMA they can bounce back. Even though Manu is done they can replace him. Parker is the key. He will 33 this month and has a lot of mileage. Not sure how much longer he can go. Look at the teams left and you will see teams with very good PG's. Cp3, Curry, Conley, Irving, Wall, Rose, Teague. Only Houston is left without an elite PG and Harden controls the ball for them. So can Parker be strong enough at the end of next year? Pop will have to rest him alot.

 

[magnifier661]

Thing that surprised me the most was how good defensively GS was. I never imagined that a high potent offense was able to shut teams down like they did

 

[Denny Crane]

He's no Jerry Krause.

Right. People actually like PJax. And he got a 2nd and 3rd job in the NBA.

 

[Denny Crane]

He traded away Tyson Chandler, a valuable starting center for an inferior player on a longer contract.

He traded away Shumpert, their only young player with upside, just to get out of a reasonable mid level deal.

He signed a number of minor free agents and coaches all who've been a disaster. It's still early in his tenure but he hasn't made any move that's good. He lives on the other side of the country and is held in high esteem exclusively for what he did as a different career. Reminds me when people thought Jordan would be a great GM with the Wizards because he was a great player.

$24M of that $35M committed is Melo. $7.4M is committed to Calderon.

He can cut another $1.6M due to team option on Shane Larkin.

All I'm saying is the jury's out. Let's see what he does with the cap space and draft pick.

 

[Natebishop3]

Biggest surprise to me, by far... HOU getting the second seed in the West. After letting Parsons, Asik and Lin walk for nothing so they could court Chris Bosh, Bosh left Daryl Morey standing at the alter in a tear stained dress. At that point, I honestly thought HOU would be in a 3 way dogfight with DAL and NOP for the 7th and 8th seed - and I thought HOU would be the ones left on the outside looking in.

Then, there were the injuries. Howard, Terence Jones and Pat Beverly all missed significant portions of the season due to injuries, but they just kept winning...

Then they picked up cast offs from crappy teams and just kept winning...

After giving up Parson, Lin and Asik for basically nothing and then getting Corey Brewer and Josh Smith for the same, I started to wonder if there isn't some sort of unwritten rule among NBA GMs that when a team gives away players for nothing, they get first dibs when other teams start to do the same.

And no, adding Josh Smith did not cause the Rockets to implode. He played well for them and Corey Brewer was even better. And they just kept winning...

And when Dwight came back, you heard all this rumbling about how HOU was a better team without Dwight than with him, how he killed their offensive flow, etc. And they just kept winning...

And then they enter the playoffs and it's clear that Josh Smith and Dwight Howard have great chemistry from their AAU days and they easily dispatch DAL in the first round with Smith looking like Andre Miller throwing about 6 lobs per game to Dwight Howard...

And, the most surprising thing of all, they did all this, with Kevin McHale as their head coach!

I still can't figure out how they did it, but HOU won 56 games and captured the 2nd seed in a ridiculously tough Western Conference. Hell, they came in first in the toughest division of the toughest conference in the NBA. I can't believe, after all the players they gave away and all the injuries they had, that they finished ahead of both MEM and SAS in the SW Division and ahead of the Clippers in the Western Conference.

I still hate them, but am amazed by what they accomplished this season. I just wish someone on the Blazers staff could figure out how they did it. I mean fuck, if I look at the two teams on paper, it sure looks like we have a better roster, a better coach and had fewer injuries, yet they won 56 games, took the second seed and won in the first round while we won 51 games and barely put up a whimper of a fight in the first round. We were better than the Rockets last year and should have been better than they were this year, too. So, how the fuck did they do it???

BNM

I was actually pissed that they got those two players for nothing, and honestly I don't think they'd be where they are right now if they hadn't been gifted Smith and Brewer. Some people thought the Smith pickup was bad, but he gave them a (once) All-Star caliber power forward without giving up anything. That's a nice value. And yes, he has the chemistry with Howard. It's annoying that teams like Houston get free handouts.