A lot of this is Houston related and why the hell not, just some of the things of the top of my head.
Definitely Cousins to the Pelicans..with the kind of "assets" they had I could never imagine they could get him. I also didn't expect the Wizards and the Heat doing so well and on the other hand Minny only managing to win ~31 games. Beal from one year seeming like one of the worst contracts in the league, now playing like a near All -Star.
Looking at the East standings, I would've expected Indiana to be higher in the east + Chicago to have a much better record than Miami. Philly getting more than 10 Ws was unexpected as well.
My pick is Kawhi entering superstar stage of his career. All this talk about LeBron and Durant, and yet Kawhi is the best two-way player in the league right now. Scary part is that he's only 25 years old and playing for Popovich who will squeeze every ounce of greatness possible out of him. Kawhi may end up with more rings and Finals MVPs than LeBron or Durant.
Kevin Durant joining the Warriors, the team he could have eliminated had he himself not choked in game 7. By joining them, he confirmed that he is a fake tough guy...... in a spectacular fashion.
May as well cancel the poll and just have a discussion. Too much stuff happened, which is the case each and every season. Also, I don't think "Dekker doing great" is an accurate statement. Until he can hit open 3s consistently, he'll never be in anyone's rotation.
Uh, no. Maybe Kawhi does end up with more rings and Finals MVP then Lebron or KD, but it has more to do with Kawhi going to the Spurs than Kawhi's talent. Kawhi is definitely a superstar in his own right but he has an easy life in the Spurs, they have a veteran team and a ridiculous array of offensive threats in LMA, Parker and Gasol. If Kawhi was put on a crappy team like NO without Anthony Davis and he was forced to be the sole offensive force on that team I doubt Kawhi can keep his efficiency up. Also both Lebron and Durant are entering the tail end of their prime they've been to so many playoffs runs their health and game are taking hits, it's not fair to compare them to Kawhi because Kawhi is not exactly a minutes leader and even gets days off due to being in a deep Spurs team and as you said he's only 25 years old, right in the prime of his career. That's like comparing Prime Kobe to old and about to retire MJ and saying Kobe was better. If KD, Lebron and Kawhi were all 25 years old and perfectly healthy are you telling me you'd rather have Kawhi over KD and Lebron? C'mon dude. Compare Kawhi to superstars in their prime right now like Harden and Anthony Davis, I'd take both those guys easily over Kawhi.Btw Anthony Davis is the best two way player in the league, he's just in a really crappy team.
The Triple Double and Harden breaking the NBA record for Points Produced (not just Assist leader) are pretty stratospheric -- well above everything else. Isaiah scoring 29ppg shocked me, as well as Kashi over 25ppg. Houston's record is up there, too, plus how DM/MDA analytics on a 1-star team actually produced such a historically high Team ORtg. Not so much Boston, as that's just a 4-5 game increase after landing the summer's #2 FA prize -- Horford. Cousins to NOLA was pret Here's another one: A new CBA being agreed upon with little argument.
HP, where can i find points produced stats? They talked about it during the first half last night but then stopped.
Hard to find. NBA stats shows pts from assists (accounts for 3s), so you have to add that manually to ppg. here http://stats.nba.com/players/passing/#!?sort=AST_POINTS_CREATED&dir=1 However, that doesn't go back very far in time. But pre-3pointer era is an easy calculation, just double assists and add to ppg. Need basketball-reference to include the stat by scraping their pbp archives for 3pt era. Harden is a near lock to break Tiny Archibald's record.
Is Archibalds record 56.8 and Harden is at 56.6? A couple of 25 minute games for Harden and he may not catch up. I may have tiny's number wrong but I believe they flashed 56.8 last night.... Although it appears last night's game isnt counted yet. He had to have close to 70 last night.
oh, drat, you're right. Since no 3pters in his era, you just double his assists. Harden was over 57 not too long ago. Explains why he launched 19 threes against Detroit.
I read in another thread that he had 72 last night. It will be close. Hopefully he gets it against LAC and sits against the T-pups.