I have him with AD, Giannis, and Harden: a step below Steph, KD, and LeBron. If he hadn’t sat out a season with a mystery ailment and played back-to-backs, he’d probably be higher. 

He doesn’t get to stomp on the injured Celtics and the frightened husk of the Raptors anymore though. Not to mention that the team that’s knocked him out of the playoffs three out of the last four years is now in his conference. I realize he’s a different player in the playoffs, but so are each of the Warriors four…

I agree with all of this. GS is definitely a step slower this year and have laid a few pretty remarkable eggs thus far (last night being just the most recent). But last year, they went through a miserable stretch where it was basically Durant and Quinn Cook out there and by playoff time, they locked back in. Draymond,…

They’ll be starting five all-stars and two of the best three players in the league come April, so I’d wager they’ll be fine. The West’s markedly worse this year too (OKC’s probably the second best team in the conference and they’re well below Houston’s level last year). 

I mentioned he was “solid but unspectacular,” which might be underselling it a little. His defense is well above average (hip surgery hurt his mobility) but his offense is pretty blah.

You’re spot on about the bench–Looney’s solid but unspectacular and Jerebko’s been surprisingly good (especially after the abject sorriness of Casspi last year)–but the other big issue is that they’re just small as hell.

If we learned anything from the last year of NBA PG tin-foil-hattery, it’s that Westbrook’s gonna need to get into chemtrails if he ever wants to win a championship. Those are the rules now.

Their bench is a lot better than it’s been in the past, with a lot of serviceable dudes who fill their roles nicely. Shroeder’s a little too much of a ball stopper to be a good starting PG but off the bench? He’s a prototypical sixth man who absolutely earned his minutes bouncing around with the starters. Big upgrade…

Utah was merciless with Melo in the playoffs last year–thought it sort of killed the Thunder’s spirit a couple games. Getting rid of him is a plus. Getting a real player is a giant plus. (Plus, Presti’s pretty good at finding quality rotation guys too, so that $10 mil should net someone who can get run in the…

I like them more without Roberson, honestly. He’s sub-Tony Allen bad on offense.

I’m still amazed they got Shroeder for Melo. He’s not a world beater or anything, but he’s been a nice fit with the second unit and, surprisingly, with Russ on the floor. Last couple seasons have left me skeptical about how this translates to the playoffs but this is the best they’ve been since they lost KD. 

YOU’RE GOING TO FUCKING LOVE SHREVEPORT AND SHREVEPORT IS GONNA FUCKING LOVE YOU BACK, BUDDY. 

The championship hangover is real.

The new Aquaman movie looks fucking terrible.

KD gets a ton of shit for being a cornball–and he should!–but Harden has the corniest on-court game of any player in the NBA.

GREAT Kinja.

A bad player passed to a different bad player who passed to a washed player who barely dunked.

“They’re like just another Philadelphia couple.”

“an entertaining strain of semi-bad that you can really get behind”

The crowd, the chair ump, and Serena all showed their ass that day. She wasn’t exactly some blameless saint there, man.