NBA Season 2026-27

[Who]

I don't know about Hezonja. He looks chunky. He used to be an athletic SF. I thought he was a big man for the first few minutes before I realized who he was. Some bad decisions in trying to create his own offense leading to middling percentage shot attempts. Not much impact defensively either. He is still a gunner. Not an efficient spot up shooter. A gunner who can't tell the difference between good and bad shots causing him to have dodgy scoring efficiency.

CLE have poor depth at forward. Hezonja could be an asset if he worked out but I am not hopeful. He looks slower / less athletic. Still a gunner. Not doing much defensively. I am not sure he brings anything more to the table than Jaylon Tyson. I trust Tyson more. He plays within himself and is more reliable on D.

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Peyton Watson has been good defense on Ant. It hasn't made any difference. Ant lit him up for 20pts by halftime. But it is notable that CLE have an athletic wing defender for once. No longer Max Strus getting beaten up by everyone.

P Watson looked good driving to the basket and in transition but still questions about his jump shot. He is only 2-10 3PTA to start the season. CLE's offense did not look good with their starting 5 out there. Lack of shooting in that frontcourt with P Watson and the two big men. Harden playing too slow. Everything looked easy for Minnesota's defense.

[Who]

Interesting matchup between Giannis & Cooper Flagg. The difference in them is startling. The decision making. Everything Giannis does has a purpose. He knows exactly what he wants to do and where he wants to go the moment he touches the ball. Clarity of thought. Cooper Flagg doesn't. He is playing off talent. Not thought. Hoping his talent bails him out.

Interesting to see the gap between the two of them and what Cooper Flagg has to do to become an MVP level like Giannis. To have that purposefulness in everything he does.

Giannis is giving him a lesson. Triple double for Giannis early in Q3. He is putting on a show.

Cooper Flagg not far off a triple double either. 16pts 10 dimes 6 boards. One quarter still to go. Good shot at it.

[Phantom255x]

Giannis has 27/14/11, and the Heat are in a dogfight with the Mavericks. Yeah it's like Giannis never left Milwaukee 

[Goldstar88]

Brandon Miller with back to back 30pt games. Tonight he finished with 39pts/6rebs/3stl/2blk/1ast. 15-28 from the field, 5-10 from 3pt. Hornets won the game and are now 3-1 on the season.

[johnnygreen]

Very happy the Heat are 0-4. Couldn't happen to a more deserving franchise.

[Who]

Brandon Miller with back to back 30pt games. Tonight he finished with 39pts/6rebs/3stl/2blk/1ast. 15-28 from the field, 5-10 from 3pt. Hornets won the game and are now 3-1 on the season.

I watched most of the 2nd half. I switched off midway through Q4 when they built back up their double digit lead after B Miller checked back in and hit some big baskets for them.

B Miller and Diabate were excellent for them. Diabate had 16reb in 26min at one point. 12 of the 16 rebounds were offensive rebounds. He was killing Washington. Outworking Washington's big men (AD, Sarr, Ayton). Grayson Allen was very good for Charlotte as well. I do not understand why he isn't starting while Knueppel is out injured. When Charlotte have both G Allen and B Miller on the floor together, they have great shooting on the wings.

B Miller shot the ball very well. 15-28 FGA including 5-10 3PT. At one point in the 2nd half he had more made 3s (4 or 5) than the entire Washington team. It looks like that turned around in Q4 for WAS. Carrington hit a couple of 3s early in the period. Some others must have made some later in the period. They finished with 9. But for a time it looked like he would out-gun WAS by himself.

[Who]

Washington were very disappointing in that game against Charlotte. My first thought was this team ain't making the playoffs but then I remembered Dybantsa still has to return. So I will hold off on that.

AD was playing center with Alex Sarr at PF. Alex Sarr was an afterthought for their offense most of the time. Peripheral. They made little effort to get him involved. Makes no sense. He is a 7 footer who can score inside and out. The one thing he does well is score the ball.

Even worse, when one of them would go to the bench then DeAndre Ayton would come on. So AD would shift down to PF. Or A Sarr would stay at PF. I am not sure what WAS was gaining from this. It looked to me like it was hurting them more than helping. That they would benefit more from opening up the court with a shooter at PF alongside AD or Sarr at center. Like CLE do with J Allen and E Mobley. They start them together but then play only 1 big lineups with one of them on the floor the rest of the time. I believe that would work better for WAS.

Coulibaly still looks crap. I am not sure he is any better than Jordan Walsh.

WAS were essentially a four man team of Trae, AD, Sarr (who they ignored) and Kyshawn George. Bub Carrington had some moments too. Nobody else in the supporting cast impressed. They all looked like empty calories / non-contributors / negative contributors. That is why I thought this squad wouldn't make the playoffs. Too many non-contributors. Not enough help for the stars. But we'll wait and see if Dybantsa can help smooth some of that over.

I am worried about the development of Alex Sarr after seeing that. He had 12pts on 4-6 FGA 4-6 FTA. He only had 6pts, 7pts, 10pts in the previous 3 games. He is not involved enough. Trae and AD are taking all his touches away. He is an afterthought.

[ozgod]

Very happy the Heat are 0-4. Couldn't happen to a more deserving franchise.

 They?re like Giannis and the seven dwarfs? Every night he scored 30+ and nobody else scores over 10. Bam went from scoring 83 points to 8.3 points. I don?t know how anybody could?ve thought that the two of them would compliment each other given they occupy the same space on the court and do the same things.

[SparzWizard]

Did Giannis ever had a choice on where he wanted to be traded to?

If he picked the Heat, and the Bucks supported his decision, then he deserves this 0-4 record.

He could've teamed up with Tatum in Boston

[Vermont Green]

Giannis had some sway over where he would go due to his ability to extend or not.  There were all kinds of reports that he wanted to go here and not there, not sure how accurate any of it was.  I suspect that if he is in MIA, he was at least OK with it.

But yeah, I never saw how he and Adebayo were going to co-exist.  They are both PF.  You don't need two of them.  Neither can stretch the floor.  They don't have much else.  Even at best, it takes a while to figure things out when a team makes a big change like this.  Not sure what Spoelstra is going to be able to do with this roster though.

[Donoghus]

That's what happens when you gut your team.

Once & always, screw the Heat.

[Donoghus]

Shocking.

Shams Charania
@ShamsCharania
?
16s
Toronto's Kawhi Leonard is expected to miss a period of weeks due to swelling in his left knee, sources tell ESPN. MRI on Leonard's knee showed no structural damage, but sides will use the shorter term to ramp him back up after the stoppages during the offseason.

[Who]

Miami's wings have been killing them.

* Andrew Wiggins in particular would be a source of annoyance if I were a Heat fan. Only 8.8ppg. He is shooting badly but is not shooting much anyway. Passive Wiggins in full display. He has to be their 3rd scorer. He needs to give them 15pts a night. Only 3.5rpg and 1.3apg as well.

Wiggins also needs to be their main wing stopper. With Bam and Giannis back there, and a strong defensive PG in Davion Mitchell, Miami should be a top defensive team if not a good offensive team. Wiggins has to take that responsibility. His defense is fine but unremarkable. Going through the motions on both ends of the floor.

* Klay Thompson is killing them. I can't believe they thought he was starter material. He has been lousy for at least 2 years now. 9ppg while shooting around 33% from the field and from three. Poor defender nowadays as well.

Davion Mitchell has been great for them. He has been their 3rd best player. 18ppg 7apg. Good shooting percentages. Low turnovers (as usual) except for one game. Top defense as usual.

Their backup wings, P Larsson (9ppg 3rpg 3apg 38% FG) and Timmy Hardaway (5ppg 20% FG), haven't contributed much either.

So they are getting absolutely nothing from the wings. Not just nothing. But negative contributions. Their wings are killing them.

[Phantom255x]

Grizzlies being 4-0 and Ty Jerome looking like a Top-20 player in the NBA was not what I had in my bingo card 

[Donoghus]

Week into season and injuries already adding up. Sheesh.

Shams Charania
@ShamsCharania
?
31s
Utah Jazz star Jaren Jackson Jr. has sustained a torn MCL in his right knee and will be sidelined for 6-to-8 weeks, sources tell me and
@BannedMacMahon
. Jackson will not require surgery.