The East is not the West my friend. In the West there are teams set to kill you every night. They’re 10 teams deep.

In the East, you might play Boston or Toronto, Philadelphia or Indiana on a good day but the rest of the teams legitimately suck. The Bucks, this season are in that group, previous one they were not so don’t @me.

Side note: last night we saw that the Raptors are more dependent on Kawhi then the Bucks are on Giannis and that’s concerning

Raptors were missing Fred Van Vleet and Delon Wright, while Bucks had all bench players. That's a big difference.

Of course, the game also wasn't very close, and that's not good for the raptors. But Bucks also shot extremely well. Better than they typically would.

Overall, I think it's a tough game to draw conclusions from.

Watching Houston play Portland. End of first, score 19 - 15 to Portland. The Rockets shot 19% from the field. If this game doesn't put me to sleep, nothing will.

Chris Paul and Rondo legit took the talent out of each other

How Freeza is talking about Rondo is how I felt last year tbh.

I loved what he brought to the team from a leadership point of view, but his performances where so inconsistent where to the point he barely closed games for us.

That Portland series was nowhere close to representative of his performances throughout the year. I do find it funny how he was apparently this great performer though when for the past few years before Anthony Davis he was struggling to get more than the minimum.

The narrative people have been spewing is quite frankly hilarious and incredibly ignorant of his performances in the league over the past few years.

Is it though?

Everyone knows Rondo shows up for the playoffs. It's kinda clear the guy couldn't care less for the regular season, other than the random 20-25 assist games he decided to show up

CBarca wrote:Raptors were missing Fred Van Vleet and Delon Wright, while Bucks had all bench players. That's a big difference.

Of course, the game also wasn't very close, and that's not good for the raptors. But Bucks also shot extremely well. Better than they typically would.

Overall, I think it's a tough game to draw conclusions from.

The game was also in Milwaukee which is an even bigger factor but of course, you’re right. FVV is a potential 6 man candidate and I rate Delon

CBarca wrote:Is it though?

Everyone knows Rondo shows up for the playoffs. It's kinda clear the guy couldn't care less for the regular season, other than the random 20-25 assist games he decided to show up

It's not even true though, he had a favourable matchup and exploited it.

It's a myth which has been pushed because of who we played, if we played Minnesota, OKC, Utah or San Antonio nobody would be saying it.

Rondo has always been good in the playoffs, but last two years have made it seem crazier than it is cuz he's regressed harder in the regular season

What he did with the Bulls before his injury was amazing, and he followed it up with a fantastic performance vs Portland.

Can't take anything away from Rondo the last two years playoff wise

Yeah.... no.

He's been very inconsistent outside of two matchups over like an 7 year period lol.

Because people shout playoff Rondo from the rooftops tops doesn't mean it's true. Like I said he took advantage of a favourable matchup and that's all it is.

Take it from someone who watched it him all year, he had severe issues with dealing with pretty much every Western Conference playoff team except... the one we played.

Like I said even in the playoffs which people praised him for he was guarding Aminu aka standing in a corner and offensively he didn't have a particularly great impact either.

Before he got to play with Anthony Davis, he was struggling to get the minimum. I don't know why people ignore this tbh.

Like I said I loved a lot of what he did for us but there's far too many myths which surround him which need to be busted.

Luke says he's an all star though

Chris Paul is sucking hard this season, I guess this is the season when Paul starts his decline rather than 2020 lol. Gordon being his usual inconsistent self. Capela looking like he has abandoned every thing good he had going for him.

Don‘t care about the injuries excuse, we should be able to win some games even without Harden.

Trading for Butler may spark something but he‘s probably wondering why would he join this mess lmao.

Curse of Carmelo if I’m being honest. I hate to scapegoat a player but the guy is a bum. Not sure why the Rockets would disrupt a really good team to add a player like Melo.

Personally, Mbah a Moute and Ariza all day over this version of Carmelo. Easy.

Eric Gordon has also been struggling, normally a dependable scorer so there’s several things going wrong in Houston right now but Melo is the devil

Last night's game was the first Rockets game I've seen this season, but seemed to me that they really struggled to defend the paint.

Luca wrote:Curse of Carmelo if I’m being honest. I hate to scapegoat a player but the guy is a bum. Not sure why the Rockets would disrupt a really good team to add a player like Melo.

Personally, Mbah a Moute and Ariza all day over this version of Carmelo. Easy.

Eric Gordon has also been struggling, normally a dependable scorer so there’s several things going wrong in Houston right now but Melo is the devil

I don't thik any single player in the world can change the team that much for the worse.

Every player on that team is just not as good this year, Melo or no Melo.

I think Carmelo can @vibe

@mole pls confirm

Luca wrote:Curse of Carmelo if I’m being honest. I hate to scapegoat a player but the guy is a bum. Not sure why the Rockets would disrupt a really good team to add a player like Melo.

Personally, Mbah a Moute and Ariza all day over this version of Carmelo. Easy.

Eric Gordon has also been struggling, normally a dependable scorer so there’s several things going wrong in Houston right now but Melo is the devil

underrated analysis

Don‘t agree, blaming this one on Melo sounds very /r/nba. Melo was not and still is not expected to replace Ariza, he is there to do what Ryan Anderson couldn‘t last season: be an offensive outlet from the bench while on a minimum contract.

And he has done that so far, only the rest of the team bar PJ Tucker have massively underperformed and not just defensively, I think it‘s even worse in attack. Chris Paul and Capela basically summed up the Rockets this season when they wasted an attack just passing between them and keeping the ball for 23 seconds only for a hard 2 point shot which was obviously missed against Portland.

I think it‘s a lack of collective effort. This team has stopped believing they can win a championship and are basically coasting through games thinking they can win with 70% effort. Last season Paul and Capela fought for their contracts, now they have them. Harden fought for his MVP, now he knows he has no chance of winning it even if he repeats his season (see Westbrook). Gordon knows he would‘ve been traded away if not for Thibs’ stupidity, he doesn‘t care for this team anymore. Combine that with Melo/MCW getting more minutes than previously expected due to injuries/suspensions and you get this shitty start of a season.

Carmelo is shooting 37/34%

It's like rookie Lonzo without the passing and defense.

He's a washed up horrible player that's a detriment to any team he's on.

Not entirely his fault. I blame this mainly on morey signing him and not going after same type players that succeeded last year.

I'm not saying he's fully to blame but given that its Halloween, I am superstitious enough to believe in the Curse of Carmelo Anthony

Last time he's been on a successful team? Hasn't happened

Last time he's been, at the very least, a liability of a player, poor teammate, poor defender, volume scorer -> his last game

I rest my case. He's CHEEKS.

Melo is shit and the Rockets shouldn't have signed him, but their real problem is that their whole bench is equally shit. Combine that with Harden's injury and a couple of the starters underperforming and the result is this.

Luca wrote:I'm not saying he's fully to blame but given that its Halloween, I am superstitious enough to believe in the Curse of Carmelo Anthony

Last time he's been on a successful team? Hasn't happened

Last time he's been, at the very least, a liability of a player, poor teammate, poor defender, volume scorer -> his last game

I rest my case. He's CHEEKS.

Nuggets were great that one year.

And before that... Syracuse

Yeah, fair. Easily he's a very talented scorer and that's what made him still have a name that carries weight in certain circles but he fizzled out at the Knicks, understandably considering what a shit show that team is, his age, lack of supporting cast, managerial issues, you name it. But he also flopped hard at OKC, so much so they were a better team without him on the floor.

Now we have at Houston, finally, reluctantly, accepting bench role but on a very small sample mid you, is looking a lot like OKC Melo, which is very poor

Lowry seems revived this season.

Small sample but yes, whole team has generally been very good with Kawhi being unreal

Lowry has never been a problem in regular season. Same with his better half.

It's later on it becomes a problem.