NBA 2014-2015 Season Discussion Thread

Also, re: Pau Gasol on Twitter: he has one of the most positive presences on that space that I've ever seen, especially among pro athletes. I don't feel it's as personal as say, some of the Seahawks I follow, but most of Pau's tweets are encouraging or offering congratulations to someone.

Also, I love practicing my Spanish via his tweets, because he always tweets twice.

 

Yaaaaay, the Blazers won!

Rip City!

 

His Mavs teammates were so ticked at how Rondo handled himself that they made a very rare move. They voted that he be excluded from getting paid a playoff share.

 

And we're done.

So, the season wrap-up for the Portland Trail Blazers:

We were battered with injuries this season. Almost every starter, with the exception of Damian Lillard, missed some time due to injury. LaMarcus Aldridge put off surgery in order to play. Robin Lopez was out for two months. Nicolas Batum had recurring issues with his wrist and then tweaked his lower back later in the season. And finally, we lost our heart, our Iron Man, Wes Matthews, to a blown Achilles tendon.

At the beginning of the season, Rip City crowed about our deep bench and our lack of injuries last season. Well, we needed that deep bench this season. We saw some younger, newer players really step up and take a role. Meyers Leonard became one of the biggest surprises of the last half of the season, and pulled the team through Game 4 against Memphis. CJ McCollum helped get things done, and had some very hot games. We had some new players join us, and the addition of Aaron Afflalo helped considerably, especially after the loss of Wes Matthews, but even he got hurt too. Even our trusty bench suffered injuries: our British Bulldog, Joel Freeland, who usually is a solid presence for the Blazers, missed a good portion of the season due to a shoulder injury.

I hope the guys get some much needed rest. Who knows what the team will look like next season? We only have four players with guaranteed contracts for next season: Damian Lillard, Meyers Leonard, Nicolas Batum, and CJ McCollum are all guaranteed to be back next season. Everyone else is either entering free agency or has a player option to exercise.

It's going to be a long wait until July 1st.

 

I trust Neil Olshey to put together a good roster for the team next year. I think there are several players who will choose to stay in Portland.

Helps we've got this guy to pay for stuff...

 

Lol Twitter

Noah: "I never thought I'd say this but I'm excited to go to Cleveland."

 

What a game in LA.
30 seconds left in Game 7 and we are still tied.

 

Golden State played Memphis. The Spurs played the Clippers.


I will say this about that series. As hard fought as it was, and even coming down to the last second in Game 7 with the buzzer going off prematurely (they had to reset the last play), it seemed that everyone involved on both teams was extremely classy. Lots of hugs and handshakes, lots of congratulations, and in the post game press conference Pop was going on and on about how great the series was and how all the credit should go to the Clippers for playing tough and winning. That is the kind of stuff I like to see.