What i've learned from the NBA so far....week 1

[szyy604]

ok. Lets start with the good,

Surprisingly good teams:

1. Denver: Wow. hammering mavs, and up on UTAh by 25 as i'm typing. Expected them to win both, but not by this number. They just look good, outrun people, and score a lot. Will they fade? i don't think so, i think denver will be legit in the west this year and a lot of people have overlookd them

2. San Antonio: A lot of people had these guys as getting older, slower, and will suck this year. Completely destroyed clippers, but then again, don't know how BAD clippers actually are yet do we? plus they're gonna need some time to gel. And memphis doesn't look that impressive either to be honest, even though they went t2t w/OKC tonight...

3. Toronto: is cleveland that bad?? or is is toronto actually good?? pushed pacers HARD, who i think is a top 4 team in the east this year. All i know is toronto is A LOT better on defense, so start playing the Unders. TOR will be undervalued imo.

4. Charlotte: ok, i'm biased, I'm a kemba fan. But coming from behind against the bucks was impressive. Considering they're missing thomas as well. I don't know how much this game against the heat tonight says about them, as we all know how tired the heat were, and 10.5 was a ridiculous number. However, i do expect bobcats to have a good year, and be undervalued. Also look for them to push the pace a little more and play more overs this year.

[szyy604]

The bad and over valued....

1. Washington: officially the first team on my "DO NOT BET LIST". Gave up midway through the nj game, and openly criticized the coach afterward. watched the game tonight and they looked like they didn't care, John wall, leader, was often seen jogging back after they turned it over or he missed a shot...cannot happen. They're not untalented, but so far they are lazy, disoriented and don't seem to care.

2. Detroit: to get routed by indy in indy is one thing....to get routed by CLEVELAND in your home opener is another thing. It's not about the loss, its the fact that they just don't seem to care. The contracts to prince and stuckey were wrong IMO. Knight did look good tonight though, I don't see how they're gonna do much this year. fade fade fade.

3. Phoenix: steve nash is great...but he's not gonna drop 30 and keep your team in the game. Phoenix just isn't talented or deep enough, plus they're getting old. Blowing that lead NO was a terrible sign, and while philly is a good team, getting blown out at home to them doesn't say much about you...

[szyy604]

The "its just too early to tell"

1. Philly, NO: both teams have been impressive so far....but.....imo too early to jump on the wagon. Philly is young, and i feel will struggle when they play bigger stronger teams in the east, until then, i can't believe they're forreal, although they should do well against western teams. NO has 2 VERY impressive wins, tonight w/out gordon. But does that say more about a tired boston team, and a terrible phoenix team? or does it say more about how good NO is?

2. mavs, celtics: they WILL turn it around. Celtics when they get a rest, and get pierce back, and go home. You have to remember they have A LOT of new players this year, so its gonna take some time for them to get it togetehr, especially defensively.

My top 5 (in no order):

miami
denver
OKC
san antonio
ATL

bottom 5:

detroit
washington
phoenix
houston
minny

thoughts and opinions?

[ksnooksk]

I'm with you on all of this. I think the 76ers will play well and cover against most of the teams in the league except the Elites like Heat, Spurs, Thunder, etc....

Also, I think Minnesota will get overlooked and overlooked and therefore will become undervalued bc I bet you they will be a beast ATS this year

[szyy604]

i watched the bucks game yesterday, don't know if they were tired from the OKC loss (probably) or what. But they looked TERRIBLE. bucks literally helped them get back in the game in the 4th, shouldn't have been that close. But i agree, they CAN be good, and i will still back them, but based on that performance i don't know what else to say.

the problem i have w/philly is that they haven't played a "bigger" team. We'll know much more when they go back east and play the likes of indy, heat, orl and atl.

[ksnooksk]

Yeah, the Bucks have talent but do not know how to finish games and win, yet.

Just be cautious playing these types of teams bc we simply do not know which team will show up....

Bucks
Wolves
Grizzlies
Raptors
Bobcats

[szyy604]

i think at home all those teams will be pretty good, its on the road that we have no idea how they'll do. I had cleveland against toronto 100%, i actually had TOR as the worst team coming in this year. Guess that makes me look like an idiot lol