NBA 2025-26 Season Thread: THE NY KNICKS ARE CHAMPIONS! BING BONG!

No team with Harden & CP3 as the two best players on it is beating a team with Shaq & Kobe on it in a seven game series under any circumstances or set of rules.

i think you'd be surprised just how well harden and cp3 stack up when you look at advanced analytics

kobe - 48.2 efg% 22.9 PER 172.7 WS
shaq - 58.2 efg% 26.4 PER 181.7 WS
harden 52.5 efg% 23.7 PER 174.7 WS
cp3 52.4 efg% 23.5 PER 215.1 WS

both harden and cp3 had great win shares, greater PER, and were more efficient scorers than kobe

cp3 is also arguably one of the most underrated players in the history of the NBA as well, just look at the records of the teams before and after he plays for them and then after they leave - every team sees a huge surge in wins after signing him

and no, this is not a dunk on shaq nor kobe but it's laughable that you think that this would be an incredibly lopsided event to the point where they'd never win - if anything i think they would be the favorites

This happened! Well for part of it and not as many spotlights as what the Bulls did, though.

No they wouldnt rick.

And if you dont respond to my message.. then next time you visit my favorite pizza place, Sbarro’s, will Not be on me!

LeBron with an old man injury. Sciatica.

Projected to miss first 5 regular season games.

Abed on Community was my favorite character.

+100K TZ Points

Magic looking mighty good so far. ECF could be their ceiling.

Relax its the preseason.

What do you all think about Dallas.

I really wanna bet the over on there season win total.

I'm worried about A.Davis getting injured.

But I feel like they will be super tough to beat this year if AD stays healthy.

I think most people don't realize in Harden's prime, how good that Rockets team was with CP3 & James.

First thing, CP3 got injured in the playoffs while they were up 3-2 on The juggernut Warriors team with KD.
That in itself is a huge accomplishment.

Also they went 42-3 WHICH IS ABSURD with CP3, Harden and Clint Cappela in the lineup.
42-3 is historically good. RIght up there with any team.

So I agree with you its no gimmie that Shaq & Kobe would win.

But one thing that never gets talked about is what era and what rules are we playing with.
Shaq is the greatest physical specimen to ever play. He also can't hit free throws.

But Shaq wants old school basketball. The rougher the game, the better it is for the greatest
physical specimen. The more Shaq can elbow you out of the way, and dunk on your head, the better.
While CP3 and Harden want the game called softer. Specifally Harden, who in his prime, was one
of the greatest I've ever seen drawing fouls.

Most people put Kobe ahead of Shaq also. I'm not one of those. I think its really close. But Shaq
was the finals MVP for all 3 of the Shaq Kobe championships.
Again Kobe vs Shaq depends on the rules. If its old school basketball with fewer whistles, i'm taking Shaq.
Probably today I would take Kobe as the game gets softer.

so did the league take any action on that under the table payment cap circumvention stuff, or are they pretending like it didn't happen?

cmon, man

The league is definitely hoping this goes away quietly.

Luckily Pablo releases new bits of information to keep the story alive.

But still pretty crazy that Kawhi is about to play without any type of disciplinary action being taken.

Sure you can just accept 50 mil for a Sopranos type no show job and get away with it these days. No accountability from the league looks like a complete joke.

I encourage all nba court side fans to drop a deuce on the court to protest.

Dave Stern would've suspended Kawhi for half the season.

Or send him off to play baseball if he wanted to keep it quiet.

Don't worry, AD will get injured.

I don’t give 2 shits about preseason but wemby dunking while essentially doing nothing but getting on his tip toes and euro stepping a layup from the 3 point line will be the craziest ****ing things I’ve ever seen a player do

How the spurs can’t manage to win literally every single game this guy plays in is beyond me. The guy will easily go down as the greatest talent in nba history (til new Wemby comes along)

Serious question... are you really surprised?

The NBA is a product that depends on stars playing to make money. The NBA has a track record of turning a blind eye.

Look at PED's as an example. You want to tell me no player in the NBA takes a drug that allows them to jump higher, react faster, and recover from injury quicker, with all that money in contracts out there? It's just baseball players, and NFL players that do this?

They don't care... as long as the product is on the floor.

I wonder why people don't say the same things about other star players that have missed more games than AD over the last 5 seasons.

George, Durant, Simmons, Klay, Zion, Kwhai... etc...

But yes, AD will get injured. Dude just doesn't have strong legs and ends up on the floor more than most players.

Just you wait until the Bucks start terribly, Giannis demands out, and he lands in San Antonio!

On opening night can we change the thread title to something like 2025-26 NBA Thread: There Is Trouble In The Forest or some arborist thing?

i got spurs at 70-1 to title a month or so ago.

yeah i can change this thread to that if no one comes up with something better

so yeah someone come up with something better

Sorry if I already mentioned Lauri to Spurs for Harper picks filler.

I know I know, but the Simmons pod with House & Zach Lowe was pretty good. They all seemed to think at a minimum Ace was great value at 5, albeit no sure thing but passes some eye tests.

/end yazztardation until ace leads svp sc

I will also just reiterate that guys like Ballmer behind closed doors with the CFO’s team scream until they’re blue in the face over a .30 per case increase in the cost of copier paper—and every person on that team has a minimum of ten years experience in high level public accounting and/or investment banking. GoldSach KPMG junior executive level at least.

“Hey Paula, what the **** is going on with Paul Bunyan?”

Stern or Rozelle would have had Ballmer shuffling out of their office with his sac in a bag.

The best part obviously:

Kahwi: Chill Unc, 7M ain’t worth attracting attention. The bankruptcy don’t affect us, they don’t know anything about us.

Dennis: **** that shit *****, ***I*** need that mfing money!