Basketball? In MY Pokemon forum?

[RealMrGame10]

Originally Posted by phoopes

>Rhee

I respect the decision to put the Celtics above the Cavs, I don't think it's just because you're a homer. I remember looking up the stat not too long ago and I think in the seven years that LeBron's made the finals his team has only been the one seed coming out of the East three times? Something like that. Add in the fact that Thomas is out for awhile, and I get it... but I mean LeBron is LeBron so I had to put them at the number one seed.

You're straight up drawlin' if you think the Heat are going to be the 5 seed. Yeah they're probably not going to start 11-30 again, but there's no way they're as good as their 30-11 finish. I do have them making the playoffs, but I can't see them being that high. In clutch situations, who do they give the ball to when they need to score? Dragic can score, but I wouldn't say he's lethal. Whiteside is definitely more of a defender/rebounder than a scorer. Winslow and Johnson haven't shown me they can take over a game, and Waiters... well he can do it sometimes but I'd be so damned if I had to rely on Dion Waiters to win a game for me. The 7 teams I have ahead of the Heat all have THE GUY (or maybe multiple guys) that you can definitely say you'd give the ball to in the final seconds. They all have at least one transcendent player. I can't say the same thing about the Heat.

As for the Sixers... you're sleeping on them. I know it was only the first preseason game but Ben Simmons looked like he was able to get to the rim at will. His passing was on point, and he already looked kind of seasoned. Probably because he's a "rookie." He projects to be a good defender too, so between him, Covington, and Embiid I think we're going to be able to lock it down pretty well. Fultz didn't look as good, but he's an actual rookie, so. Shooters shoot, and he just needs to keep shooting. He'll start knocking them down. Also, Embiid is now playing full contact 5 on 5. Think he's going to be ready to start the regular season, or at least after the first couple games. As long as him and his agent don't hold out on the contract extension.

I also think you're disrespecting the Hawks a little bit. For me, they're like a poor man's Spurs team. They always seem to do better than they should do to me, and I think a lot of that is coaching. I do think they miss the playoffs (barely), but they're not going to be a cupcake by any stretch of the imagination.

I agree with your placement of the Thunder, but I don't see how you think they got worse after the Melo trade. I definitely think it makes them better. Melo was shackled with Phil Jackson there, and he's finally in a place where he doesn't have to be the number one option. Can't find the quote at the moment, but Melo has said that he's wanted to play with another star and be the number two option before. Like think how good Team USA Melo is, when he doesn't have to be THE GUY all the time. I think he does really well in OKC (even if they only end up with the four seed).

Definitely disagreeing with the Jazz in the playoffs over the Blazers. I know defense wins championships, but I just can't see the Jazz getting in because of their offense. Rubio is fun because he's a great point guard, but who does he have to pass it to? I'm not as high on Rodney Hood as you are. Maybe him and Gobert can get some good pick and roll action going but Iso Joe Johnson is one of their better scoring options... and I don't have confidence in that. It worked for a bit in the playoffs last year, but he's only getting older. I just can't see a team with a one-two punch of Lillard and McCollum missing the playoffs.

Also I think any team with Boogie and AD can't possibly finish 12th in the conference. But after seeing a little bit of the Lakers it wouldn't surprise me if they jump them. I'm riding the Kyle Kuzma hype train lol.

>Heat
As far as regular season rankings go, I think the Heat match up better with better teams than the teams I ranked under them if that makes any sense lol. Like, I agree that in close games, it'll be tougher for the Heat to win,
but man I love Dion Waiters lol. They're definitely not as good as their 30-11 record, but I think that they'll have runs in the regular season that'll be the difference between like a 45 win team and a 48 win team. They're capable of competing with the likes of the Cavaliers better than the Raptors are imo. That's partially due to coaching, too, as Erik Spoelstra demonstrated last year that he's great at getting his guys to do their best when they're the underdogs. Regular season-wise, I wouldn't be surprised if they got this far up, especially in the East.

>Sixers
I definitely think this team looks really good, and I absolutely love what I've seen from Ben Simmons thus far. Like you said, Covington, Simmons,
and Embiid are each great defenders, and Fultz, Simmons, and Saric have all shown good playmaking abilities thus far. I even forgot to talk about one of my favorite players who wasn't around last year because of injury,
Jerryd Bayless, who is as good (if not better) of an off-ball shooter as Redick. You're right, this team has playoff potential. I actually hope they make the Playoffs. Even so, I can't help feeling that SOMETHING will go wrong *knock on wood* since, yaknow, it's Philly. Embiid has come out and said that he doesn't expect to be playing at the beginning of the season I believe, so that's why I say that.

>Hawks
Eh, I stand by my prediction. If they do well, that's great. They really do outperform on a regular basis. But if there were ever a time for them to fall,
I think this would be the year. I do like John Collins, though, and I don't expect the organization to properly tank, so you may well be right.

>Thunder
To be clear, I don't think the Thunder get worse with Melo. They'll have far more success in the playoffs with him. My comment about dropping them from #2 to #4 was more about the fact that I think this team has more to figure out now during the season. As good as Team USA Melo is, I think it'll be an adjustment for him to do that in 82 NBA games, and that'll be reflected in the first bit of the season. With Doug McBuckets and Kanter, they've always been kind of secondary or tertiary scoring options anyway, so I figured they'd fit right in next to PG13. There's more adjustment to be made with two new guys used to being the first options as opposed to just George. I think that the Thunder will probably use the regular season to figure out how to bring the best out of all of their guys when the postseason rolls around, and experimentation leads to a couple more losses.

>Jazz over Blazers
Like I said, this largely depends on whether or not Rodney Hood can step up to, say, 22 ppg production, which I think he might be capable of, but it is admittedly a pretty big "IF". I'm also pretty sure that the Blazers are better at scoring than the Jazz, but they'll be outscored by nearly everyone else as far as I'm concerned. There's even less defensive identity in Portland right now than there is in Houston, which is fine, but it'll be a grind for the Blazers to make it into the Playoffs.

>Twin Towers in New Orleans?
Yeah it seems blasphemous to rank a team with the two best big men in the league #12 in any conference, but I'm 1. not convinced that the Pelicans won't trade Boogie if they don't seem to be any closer to the playoffs by, say, around January (especially bc it's a contract year for him) and 2. pretty sure that Rondo and Jrue Holiday are not who you want as your backcourt.

It's a lot of "if"'s, though, so I'm open to admitting that these predictions are far from sure things[



BIG EDIT: OKAY SO I TOOK A BREAK FROM COLLEGE APPS TO LOOK AT THE NEWS AND OH BOY

Nicolas Batum is out for the next 8-12 weeks due to injury. This hurts the Hornets BAD. dang.

[RealMrGame10]

@phoopes

Looks like you guys are stuck with Embiid for a while

[Doppleganger]

I'm not high on the Thunder at all. I think they're a pretender. Westbrook isn't fit for this era of basketball, and I think his performance last year was something of an aberration.

By contrast, I think the Rockets will be a tremendous regular season team but get KO'd in the playoffs once they get some cold games. They're very high variance on offense and their defense remains atrocious.

I dunno what the Spurs will be like. I feel like the Celtics are better than the Cavs and don't have an opinion on other teams.

[phoopes]

Originally Posted by RealMrGame10

@phoopes

Looks like you guys are stuck with Embiid for a while

Oh helllllllll yeah, Trust the Process! Woo!

(I'm secretly glad there's insurance in the contract if he stays injury-plagued)

[RealMrGame10]

NO

SIX MINUTES IN?

NO

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by RealMrGame10

Rhee's official 2017-2018 NBA rankings predictions before the season

Title says it all, here we go!

Eastern Conference:
1. Celtics - yeah, I know, I'm the resident Celtics fan, but this really has more to do with the Cavs' roster situation than how much better the C's got. Even so, Kyrie seems to be more than willing to buy into the system,
Hayward will be phenomenal under Brad, and Jayson and Jaylen already look like really great contributors. Easily a 50-55 win team, which will be more than enough to win the East.

Originally Posted by RealMrGame10

NO

SIX MINUTES IN?

NO

Originally Posted by CBS Sports

Celtics' Gordon Hayward breaks left ankle in gruesome NBA opening night injury

Well how about that.

Look at the bright side: at least it wasn't like what happened to Kevin Ware of Louisville in 2013. ^^;;

[RealMrGame10]

At this point, I hope Gordon takes the time that he needs to fully recover and get back into basketball shape before he comes back. If that means he doesn't come back until right before the Playoffs, that's all right. Boston is still better than 80% of the teams in the East without him, so we need him at full strength.

Terrible to see an injury like that though, regardless of who I'm a fan of.

There's a lot of talk about the Disabled Player Exception, which basically clears up 8.4 mil$ of cap space in times like these to acquire a player with only a year left on a contract. The C's could use the depth.

Jaylen and crew came out to play, though, and it's still a tight game against the Cavs. I have faith in this squad.

Such a shame about Hayward, though

[Doppleganger]

I laughed at the Warriors game.

Harden called it a "playoff game", while the talking heads were saying the Warriors were still in "preseason mode".

[RealMrGame10]

Originally Posted by Doppleganger

I laughed at the Warriors game.

Harden called it a "playoff game", while the talking heads were saying the Warriors were still in "preseason mode".

They were one Durant finger (or one more minute of Draymond) away from taking an L too smh

Hearts out to J Lin. Two of my favorite players down already ;-;

[Doppleganger]

Bobby Portis slugged Nikola Mirotic in the face, broke his jaw, and gave him a concussion.

The entire East is bowing out for the Cavs.

[RealMrGame10]

>implying that the Bulls would have challenged the Cavs at all with Mirotic

>implying that the Bulls aren't gonna tank just like every other team in the East wants to except the Nets (since they don't even have their first round pick)

good stuff :P

(yeah but between Batum, Hayward, and to some extent Lin, it's true that the East is slowly losing what power it has left)

[phoopes]

Quick thoughts:

>Mirotic

Damn, the Bulls are tanking on a level that the Sixers never even attained. Our players at least got injured on accident.

>Hayward

This was gruesome. Looks like he's not returning at all this year, even for playoffs. Hope he recovers and comes back at a high level a la Paul George. Speaking of...

>Thunder

Maybe it's because they were playing the Knicks but they looked deadly. Really really fun to watch.

>Warriors

0-1 lol. I hope a series against the Rockets is as close as this game was.

>Sixers

I'm really happy with how we played in our first game even if it was a close loss. The Wizards are a good team. RoCo went OFF, Embiid played more than I expected, Simmons looked good. Fultz and Dario left a little to be desired IMO but overall great first game. If we didn't turn it over so much in the third quarter and at the very end of the game then I wouldn't be surprised if we won.

[RealMrGame10]

Hayward's agent says he's unlikely to return this season, but he's already started rehab, and the Celtics have said that the earliest he could come back would be March. Best wishes to him.

(Don't sleep on the fact that the Pelicans signed Jameer Nelson... better pickup than Rondo... this could be interesting)

Damn, will the Grizzlies ever go away? Now it's the rookie Dillon Brooks (the 45th pick!) who's shocking the world. They're about to beat the Warriors with healthy roster tonight. They're certainly not intending to miss the playoffs quietly...

[phoopes]

...the Warriors are 1-2? Steph gets ejected for throwing his mouth guard? KD ejected too and taunts a fan in the stands? lol they're not even trying to hide the fact that their villains anymore and I love it, such great entertainment

Tough opening stretch for the Sixers tho, 0-3 but they were against three teams that are supposed to be better than us. I'm pretty satisfied with how we've been playing so far overall, obviously there's room for improvement. Should be seeing the first win against the Pistons on Monday

[phoopes]

First win of the year and first of many Ben Simmons triple doubles the other day! Also a close loss against the Rockets. Think we kind of got screwed but we gotta learn to finish games and not blow late leads. That'll come as the team gets more experienced but I'm fairly happy with how we've done so far, I don't think the 1-4 record reflects how good of a team we are. Also happy that the team has finally done something about the Fultz shoulder situation. I admire that he was trying to play through injury but he certainly looked like someone who was trying to play through injury. No shots outside of 14 feet, weird free throw form, etc. Some rest will do him some good then he'll be back out there, new and improved.

[RealMrGame10]

The Nets are lowkey gonna make the playoffs this year wow they look fire

They beat the Cavs without D'Angelo Russell last night lmao

Glad I have Demarre Carroll on my fantasy team

[Doppleganger]

So phoopes is it time for the 76ers to start contending again or is this just the end of the rebuilding?

I remember when the Astros stopped rebuilding they were sort of mediocre, due to some unbalance in their development: the pitching lagged behind the hitting, so the Astros still looked awful despite a lot of offense.

[RealMrGame10]

Giannis is looking nigh unstoppable to me, and Zach Lowe agrees...

Originally Posted by Doppleganger

So phoopes is it time for the 76ers to start contending again or is this just the end of the rebuilding?

I remember when the Astros stopped rebuilding they were sort of mediocre, due to some unbalance in their development: the pitching lagged behind the hitting, so the Astros still looked awful despite a lot of offense.

In my personal opinion, this is the time for the Sixers to stop rebuilding. They've got three players that have franchise potential in Joel Embiid (best post scorer we've seen in a while and already a phenomenal rim protector), Ben Simmons (deserves comparisons to LeBron already lmao) and Markelle Fultz (elite scorer... if his shoulder starts working)

They've got some vets who fill in roles well like JJ Redick and Amir Johnson, and Robert Covington is a great 3 and D guy. The team matches well with a lot of teams in the East, so I think the time is ripe for them to start developing and competing in a couple of years or so.

The biggest issue is obviously injuries, and there have been legitimate concerns brought up about the Sixers' management of their star young guys' injuries. Fultz's shoulder in particular recently... there seems to be a lot of miscommunication between Fultz and the organization at the very least. Even with Embiid's knee last season, there was apparently a couple of misdiagnoses before he was finally sidelined for the season. The core is there, though, so i hope we can see them rise up.

Jaylen Brown may have a good case for MIP this year. Jayson Tatum probably has a good case for ROTY this year. If Kyrie plays like he did last night against the Bucks more consistently, the Celtics will be in good hands (MVP candidate?????).

Blake Griffin has a crazy three point shot now apparently??? MVP if he plays 72+ games?????????

Giannis'll get MVP if the Bucks are top 3 in the East though

[Doppleganger]

Only tangential to basketball, but the Houston Astros are the gold standard for "Trust the Process". Phila gonna be killa soon.

[phoopes]

Now is the time for the Sixerd to stop rebuilding. Joel Embiid looks incredible as always. Ben Simmons has blown away every expectation that people have had for him. He's definitely the front runner for ROTY. Fultz was trying to play through injury, once he's healthy and back he's another great young addition. Covington is lowkey one of the best 3 and D players in the league. We have some solid contributors off the bench. I'm loving it. Reddick is playing well and Amir is not but it's fine, they're both on one year deals. We make a playoff run this year, our pieces coalesce a bit more and we make moves in free agency. I think we're finally out of "3-4 years away from contending" to "1-2 years away from contending." I'm hype.

Also fun fact: this is the first time we've been .500 or better since November 2013. We've beaten the teams we're supposed to beat and stolen a game from the Rockets (almost two). I'm very satisfied with how we're playing so far.

Giannis is easily the MVP front runner so far.

Also cause for concern with the Cavs???

And what's up with the Magic???

[RealMrGame10]

Originally Posted by phoopes

Also cause for concern with the Cavs???

And what's up with the Magic???

The Cavs are playing like the team that they should be on paper - an eclectic of injury-prone veterans who are out of place in today's NBA. I saw a stat that showed that the free agency pickups for Cleveland this summer averaged 25% or so from three point land, and that's just not what LeBron needs around him at this point in his career. Their best move this season was moving JR Smith back to the starting lineup, and even that looks like it's not paying off. Eventually JR and Korver will start hitting their shots, but how far will that go? LeBron's getting the stats, but the Cavs' defense is abysmal and unlike last year, doesn't have a high ceiling in that regard. Their best hope to improve on the offensive end is for Isaiah Thomas to come back and be a shadow of the player that he was last year, and even that can't put them at the top of the East as it stands right now. The only thing keeping them in contending conversation is the fact that they have LeBron James. Eventually, even he won't be enough.

I think that all this talk of how "weak" the East is has actually made it possible for the Magic to do as well as they have been doing. So many known talents moved West this summer, leaving the possibility for lesser known talents to shine. D'Angelo Russell looks more comfortable than he's ever been. Aaron Gordon is hitting nearly 60% of his three pointers on more than 4 attempts per game! He probably won't hit as many as the season goes on, but damn if it's not impressive. Evan Fournier and Mario Hezojna have been trying to earn their keep, and have done so successfully! Nikola Vucevic has joined the Gasol School of adding a three pointer to his game and looks like a complete baller. Kristaps Porzingis is making a case for Most Improved Player. On my Celtics, Jayson Tatum has been incredibly efficient on offense (15 ppg with a 60-50-80 spread!) and Jaylen Brown has shown the ability to take over games next to Kyrie and a willingness to play hardnosed defense (and a good thing too, since Gordon Hayward has ruled out a return for this season... best wishes to him!). Lauri Markannen's potential has to be making this Bulls' season at least a little bit palatable to Bulls fans. We already know how great Giannis is just two weeks into the season. Victor Oladipo and Sabonis have been let loose from the chains of Westbrook and have the Pacers fans wondering if they actually won the Paul George trade. The future's bright for the East.

Also... are the Suns... actually better without Eric Bledsoe?????????

[RealMrGame10]

All right, we're about a third of the way into the season, so let's review.

Spoiler: show

James Harden + CP3 + Clint Capela + the Mike D'Antoni Experience.tm = fucking bonkers

LeBron James can shoot really well now! What?

The Cavs are starting to get it together behind Dwayne Wade's revitalized career as a bench unit leader and Jeff Green being really good for some reason? And Isaiah Thomas still has yet to come back? The defensive ceiling on this team is still super low, but their offense has started to figure things out

Kevin Durant is showing that he's still really, REALLY good in Steph Curry's absence, meaning that the CavsxWarriors Christmas matchup will still be one to behold.

I'd hate to be a player under Tom Thibodeau. Either you play the entire game and get blamed whenever you lose or you don't play at all. KILL THE COACH/GM ROLE!

The Thunder have had the exact problems that I kind of figured they'd have. Melo is playing a little bit more offball in recent games, but not nearly at the elite level that "Team USA Melo" used to. Paul George is playing the best defense of his life but can't get any touches. Russell Westbrook looks so lost whenever he doesn't have the ball. If he were capable of cutting off the ball or, god forbid, setting a ball screen, the team would be so much better! Billy Donovan has done an okay job of getting Melo to play less iso, now can we get Russ to play offball sometimes? Not even all the time, he should still be the focus of the offense, but for the love of God, Russ, do SOMETHING when you don't have the ball!

The Pacers are looking nice. I doubt they stay in the top 4 in the east for the rest of the season, given the unprovenness of their players, but they've far surpassed my expectations. (Darren Collison is on that team?) Oladipo's a stud, so's Domantas Sabonis. (wow! It's almost as if playing to Russell freaking Westbrook means that you can't show off your stuff as much! Who knew? (Kevin Durant tweets on a burner account))
TRADE MYLES TURNER TO THE CELTICS

gdi, Heat, get it together. Trade Whiteside, start Olynyk, and pay James Johnson, man, he's carrying.

The Pelicans are doing... really well, all things considered. Demarcus Cousins is like even more dominant than he used to be, which is like, how? Plus he's not getting ejected nearly as much, so that's great! Rondo is actually sort of fitting next to them? It's weird, the bigs are kind of doing this thing where they space to let Rondo drive and kick or lob. Plus Jrue Holiday's making some threes, so that's nice.

Where did the Bulls come from? First, it looked like they were pulling off one of the best tanks ever, then Mirotic comes back and leads them to SEVEN WINS IN A ROW? and those wins weren't even all against pushovers! The duo of Portis and Mirotic has been semi-affectionately dubbed "the one-two punch" and I'm here for it. (Mirotic is probably getting up his trade value, though, tbh)

The Process has been trusted! (Unless your name is Jahlil Okafor)
The Sixers look like a team! Simmons is playing an honest-to-god point guard, and somehow, it's working? Robert Covington got paid, and he came out to play (fortunately for my fantasy team) and Embiid's actually played! (God, I love that guy (he should work a bit on decision-making, but he's crazy impressive skill and talent-wise))

the Spurs are still #3 in the west, damn

I got to watch the Celtics play against Memphis recently, and damn if they aren't fun to watch.
Terry Rozier is just... so crazy athletic!
I feel like our scoring falls apart in bench units, especially when Shane Larkin's struggling (which is more often than not), but Jayson Tatum plays like a silky smooth and athletic Paul Pierce and Kyrie Irving is just a bad man. Plus our defensive is atrociously good. I can't even imagine how good this team would be if Marcus Smart stays and Hayward comes back healthy.

Speaking of the Grizzlies... what a mess smh
At least Dillon Brooks, Tyreke Evans, and Marc Gasol are still good

Holy fuck, Donovan Mitchell, holy fuck

Also Lonzo ball's good, people need to chill the hell out. He's, like, a bigger and more athletic Rubio right now, and Rubio's a serviceable starter. Lonzo seems hard-working enough to be a really good player someday.
Plus the Lonzo/Kuzma connection is so fun to watch.

Also,,, are the Raptors,,, actually,,, good? and moving the ball? and hitting threes? with a young bench? wtf????

God, the Wizards' bench sucks. just blow it up.

I love Jokic and the Nuggets and they should be doing better. Just trade Mudiay and Faried for someone and be done with it (my preference would be Kemba bc god does Charlotte's cap situation stink)

Drummond makes free throws. Drummond passes. Drummond plays defense. Drummond needs to be an All-Star. (also Tobias Harris ain't bad either)

I'm all for this Michael Beasley hype train, he's a cultural icon

Award predictions as of now

Spoiler: show

MVP: Harden (smh, Giannis, I believed in you)
Honorable mentions: Giannis, LeBron, Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Chris Paul, Michael Beasley (kidding! (sort of))

COTY: Brad Stevens (voter fatigue is real and people might not give it to Mike anyway if Harden wins MVP)
Honorable mentions: Mike D'Antoni, Gregg Poppovich, Dwayne Casey, Jeff Hornaceck

6MOTY: Tyreke Evans (also the third best player on the Grizzlies, how sad)
Honorable mentions: Eric Gordon (who can drive again? wow), Michael Beasley (not really kidding this time), Enes Kanter, Marcus Smart, Dwayne Wade, Kelly Olynyk

ROTY: Ben Simmons
Honorable mentions (aka the got-screwed-over-by-Ben-Simmons-being-a-rookie-this-year squad): Jayson Tatum, Donovan Mitchell, Kyle Kuzma, Lauri Markkannen, Dennis Smith Jr., Frank Ntilikina, Jordan Bell, Lonzo? (damn this draft is deep)

MIP: Victor Oladipo
Honorable Mentions: Tyreke Evans, Kristaps Porzingis, Brandon Ingram, Domantas Sabonis, Andre Drummond, Tobias Harris, Michael Beasley, Aaron Gordon

DPOY: Anthony Davis
Honorable Mentions: Paul George, DeAndre Jordan, Draymond Green, Rudy Gobert, Manu Ginobili??????

[RealMrGame10]

also, spoiler, the Suns aren't better without Eric Bledsoe

(also Markelle Fultz exists apparently. WHEN)

[phoopes]

Rhee, you don't have to revive a dead basketball thread every so often with great posts. But you do. And for that, I thank you. I normally have some bones to pick with some of your takes but in all honesty I think your commentary is 100% spot on.

...Just a quick note about the Sixers, however.

On the Okafor trade: I don't looooove it, but I'm finally happy to be rid of him. He was eating up a roster spot that could go to a contributor, and I was just sick of the whole situation. Do I like the fact that we gave up him and Stauskas and a pick for Trevor Booker? I mean... I'm lukewarm I guess. I'm a believer in Sauce Castillo the role player, but honestly I value the pick we gave up more than him. I was initially more negative on this, but I really like the way Trevor Booker has been playing for us. As cliche as it is to say it, he's a big hustle player, and it really works and he gets the job done. He should be playing more than Amir Johnson, who's probably a good locker room guy, but is the stiffest looking human I've ever seen on the offensive end.

It's funny though, we traded away two guys that weren't playing (Stauskas because of injury) and got a guy who's been serviceable (Booker), but we're doing terrible since the trade. We were 13-10 before the trade and now we're 14-17 and the current 10 seed in the East. Yikes. Part of this is due to Embiid missing a few games with back tightness, which is huge. He's absolutely, 100% our number one option, and Ben Simmons can score when he's on the floor. When Embiid isn't on the floor though, Simmons struggles with being the number one option. I think he'll get there eventually, but for now it seems that he can't quite do that. I'm so so so so happy with him overall though. And the good news is that Embiid will be back for the game on Christmas Day (which I'll be seeing live at Madison Square Garden!!!), and hopefully he'll have his act together by then.

EDIT: I KNOW I WANT MARKELLE TO MAKE HIS DEBUT ALREADY AAHHHH

[Doppleganger]

I hope Harden doesn't win because he has a lot of off-court stuff that makes me dislike him, and I love the idea of "best player to never win an MVP". I'm really hoping for LeBron to get it because he's playing at the peak of his career now.

That said, the NBA perception is warped and I think Harden is getting more credit than he should be. Yes, he's improved, but the Rockets are still not in the same tier as the Warriors/Cavs/Celtics. The Warriors have been coasting on the strength of their awesome bench, even better than the 2014-2015 bench, and the difference between the Rockets/Warriors records is 0.1 seconds. They're pretenders and are going to get wtfstomped.

I think the Celtics are a clear #1 if Hayward comes back, even if LeBron keeps up this Super Saiyan James routine.