NBA 2025-26 - 1ST HALF

[Dolfan in NYC]

IT'S BAAAACK~!

 

[RIPPA]

It is believed to be the tallest starting lineup in NBA history (I think Durant is listed as the Shooting Guard)

[blitzkrieg]

My last minute predictions:

Western Conference 
1. OKC Thunder
2. Houston Rockets
3. Denver Nuggets
4. Golden State Warriors
5. Minnesota Timberwolves
6. Los Angeles Lakers
7. Los Angeles Clippers
8. Dallas Mavericks
9. New Orleans Pelicans
10. San Antonio Spurs

Eastern Conference
1. Cleveland Cavaliers
2. New York Knicks
3. Detroit Pistons
4. Atlanta Hawks
5. Boston Celtics
6. Orlando Magic
7. Philadelphia 76ers
8. Milwaukee Bucks
9. Indiana Pacers
10. Chicago Bulls

I don't feel any confidence about who is going win it all but I think Cleveland makes the Finals, I don't know who comes out of the warzone that is the West. That said I don't think OKC makes the Finals.

Edited October 21, 2025 by blitzkrieg

[Contentious C]

Decent game in OKC that took a *weird* turn as it goes to double OT. Evidently it matters whether the refs award you the Chris Webber timeout, and somewhere he's screaming, "See?!?! They didn't have to award it!!!"

[RandomAct]

Looking at Houston, they are going to have REALLY lean on their defense until FVV gets back, because their half court offense was abysmal. I'd like to see Shepard get more burn for them. Thompson looks like he's already taking a leap, and if that happens this might finally be the team that Durant doesn't ruin.

I say this as someone who will admittedly never act mature when it comes to Luka Doncic being a Laker, but that team fucking sucks dude.

Lastly, I liked NBC's presentation. They leaned enough into the nostalgia, and made an effort to be as different as possible from ESPN. I even liked that they kept the intro -> exterior shot w/announcer bit.  The only gripe, as always, is the fucking AI voice of a dead guy.

[hammerva]

The presentation of the NBA in NBC is definitely not at the same level as ESPN.  Need to work on that.  But there is no thing that they have already improved on and that NBC realizes that people are watching the NBA and NOT ESPN showing an NBA game.    

Edited October 22, 2025 by hammerva

[blitzkrieg]

There was a clip last year of Steve Kerr "introducing" Buddy to Steph after not passing him the ball, there were a couple moments that I felt like Ime Udoka needed to do that with Reed Shepard and KD. 

Lakers definitely looked like they are going struggle some without Lebron. Even then they really look like they could use one non-starter that can create on their own.

Really enjoyed NBC's video packaging and that outside of a few plugs for NBC shows, it was all about basketball. I liked their scorebug, it sat in a good spot to not block anything important and the animation for 3's and dunks were cute. Someone pointed out early in the first game the lack of timeouts on the scorebug but they seemed to only put that up at the end of the fourth and overtime which I could get behind. The timeouts did look janky in the Rockets/Thunder game but looked fine in the Warriors/Lakers game. Thought both sets of announcers were good, though I don't know if they need the three man booth.

Also NBC got my Peacock money a little early, I was going wait till next Monday to re-subscribe and ended up having to rush and re-subscribe because of the Warriors/Lakers game starting on Peacock. 

[Dolfan in NYC]

Mitchell Robinson has been announced as being out for New York's game tonight versus the Cavs.  

The Knicks say this is for "Load Management".  

Tonight's game is the season opener. 

[jaedmc]

19 hours ago, blitzkrieg said:

Eastern Conference
....
10. Chicago Bulls

 

Play In 4 Life!

At this point it's become kind of fascinating that over multiple years we can jettison our "best" players for the rebuild, and our end of season record will remain unchanged.

[Kuetsar]

24 minutes ago, Dolfan in NYC said:

Mitchell Robinson has been announced as being out for New York's game tonight versus the Cavs.  

The Knicks say this is for "Load Management".  

Tonight's game is the season opener. 

Nba should fine them $1 million for that bullshit.

[RandomAct]

Load managing the first game of the season is crazy work. I heard KAT might be out too?

[Tabe]

5 hours ago, Kuetsar said:

Nba should fine them draft picks for that bullshit.

FTFY

[Contentious C]

8 hours ago, RandomAct said:

Load managing the first game of the season is crazy work. I heard KAT might be out too?

Al Horford didn't sign with GS until about a nanosecond before the first game and played 20 minutes.  Al Horford is not older than dirt. AL HORFORD NAMED IT DIRT.  He played 20 minutes.

I would say 'fuck the Knicks' but they still won anyway, so...DP the Knicks.

Also, with Tatum injured and LeBron finally losing the battle to Father Time, I think we can safely say Wemby is now in the Top 5 in the league. And that's his *floor*.  40/15/3 blocks & zero turnovers with AD & Lively as the primary Dallas bigs.  He's here.  SA is my sneaky Western Conference pick - not to win it all, but to play a massive spoiler for someone and upend the conventional wisdom.  Just saying it now.

[RIPPA]

13 hours ago, RandomAct said:

Load managing the first game of the season is crazy work. I heard KAT might be out too?

KAT played but apparently he has a Grade 2 Quad strain

[blitzkrieg]

22 hours ago, jaedmc said:

Play In 4 Life!

At this point it's become kind of fascinating that over multiple years we can jettison our "best" players for the rebuild, and our end of season record will remain unchanged.

At this point, I just assume that the only thing that the Bulls care about is ticket sales, so they rather be good enough to sell tickets than ever take a season or two to actually retool. 

That said they were a really fun team toward the end of last season and they actually looked really good against the Pistons tonight even without Coby. So they should be at least a fun watch before they get knocked out in the play-ins. 

[RIPPA]

Tiago Splitter will be Portland's interim HC

[Cobra Commander]

Enter keyword "TIAGO" for a free bet on if he makes it to the 2026-27 season as a coach

[Contentious C]

Let's just skip straight to the playoffs so we can get a Best-of-17 series between GS and Denver.

[Dolfan in NYC]

Cam absolutely looks like the "Guy who missed the 1:21a train to Ronkonkoma because he's buying drinks for a girl who is not interested".

[RIPPA]

There is a reason that man is already in the "Players who you knew played for the New York Giants just by looking at him" Ring of Fame along with Mark Bavaro

[RandomAct]

Nico Harrison doesn't deserve a moment of peace in Dallas. Luka is killing it, meanwhile the team built on "defense wins championships" is pretty GD bad defensively. On top of that, there is absolutely no offensive identity on this Mavs team.  The roster is just weird, and there is no Luka level player to cover up the fact that Jason Kidd is a lousy coach.  Vomiting all over yourself against the Wizards should land you in prison.

PJ Washington, Lively, Nemhard and Cooper are the only bright spots on this team.

Edited October 25, 2025 by RandomAct

[Dolfan in NYC]

So far this season, SGA has

27 FG made

33 FT made

...

[RandomAct]

4 hours ago, Dolfan in NYC said:

So far this season, SGA has

27 FG made

33 FT made

...

But people will tell you with a straight face that he's not a FT merchant.

[Contentious C]

Just out here doing 0-3 things. At least we got '24.

[Dolfan in NYC]

Let's look at how Giannis is doing