Pound the Pavement

Oklahoma City Thunder Additions: Victor Oladipo, Domatas Sabonis, Ersan Ilyasova Losses: Kevin Durant, Serge Ibaka, Randy Foye This is such a hot take that it might burn my ass - the Oklahoma City Thunder will finish with one of the top four seed in the Western Conference. Why? Because of this . And little bit of this . When the Thunder made their draft night trade of Ibaka, I questioned their judgment. But the more I think about it, the more I realize that the Thunder are going to be one helluva of a fun team. Westbrook and Oladipo are going to create havoc for opposing backcourts, breaking several ankles during the years, taking turns running interesting pick-and-roll schemes with a top-three center in the NBA. I'm banking on Cameron Payne and Waiters contributing as the third and fourth guards, in some order, in a team that will play as up tempo as any team in the NBA. But why am I so unconcerned for the Thunder losing Durant? Westbrook will get free reign of this team and ...

Over the next week, I'm going to write about my musings about the 2016 NBA off-season and how I see the NBA Draft and free agency shaping these teams in the near future. We're starting today with the Central Division. A few thoughts about this division - this might be one of the most exciting groups of teams in the league right now. Cleveland's definitely going to coast and stay near or at the top of the conference. Indiana has definitely changed their playing style with the moves. The Pistons and the Bucks have a young core that's prime for improvement. And Dwyane Wade is back home. Compelling shit all around. Cleveland Cavaliers Additions: Mike Dunleavy, Kay Felder, Chris Andersen Losses: Matthew Dellavedova, Timofey Mozgov Honestly, I have two words about the Cavaliers - status quo. There's a caveat though. The gains and losses on this roster seem insignificant, but given the fact that LeBron can no longer summon Herculean feats on a game-by-game basis, ...

The individual awards for this season were actually quite easy to pick. Because All-NBA teams have odd positional restrictions, these picks were agonizingly difficult. Here goes: First Team All-NBA G: Stephen Curry G: James Harden F: Kawhi Leonard F: LeBron James C: DeMarcus Cousins It pains me to leave Draymond Green and Chris Paul off the first team, replacing Cousins and Harden. But Curry, being the consensus MVP, is obviously for the first team. Leonard is the best two-way player in the league; he deserves the spot as well. LeBron is still putting up 25-7-7 on 52% shooting on the best team in the East. The Cavs without him literally cannot win a game. James Harden, even with his record-breaking season of turnovers and utter lack of defense, is carrying a Houston team without another playmaker scoring 29 points a game. Dwight can no longer provide 8-10 possessions of paint scoring. Putting Boogie on the first team is interesting. The Kings have a terrible team, but imagine...

It's the end of a pretty mundane season, in general, but handing out awards was an interesting thought exercise. If I had a ballot, here's what it would look like: Most Valuable Player Stephen Curry Kawhi Leonard Chris Paul LeBron James Draymond Green The case for Curry is obvious: he's the best player on one of the top two teams all time. He has a PER over 31 given 30 minutes a game, something that only LeBron or MJ has done in the shot clock era, is pushing 50/45/90 splits, and has shattered our expectations for shooting threes. So, let's just hand him the trophy. Let's talk about the bottom four in that list. Kawhi is a consensus number two, the best two-way player in the league and the hands-down best player in the second best team in the league. He's developed a killer midrange pull-up and is starting to develop a great pick-and-roll chemistry with Aldridge. His defense is something we'll talk about later. Paul over James is a hot t...