Art Vandelay

This is looking tremendous!

Tony Parker signing with the Hornets is the epitome of sad. Just retire.

Here’s an absolute belter to start your day with 😎

On 6/22/2018 at 1:55 AM, jimufctna24 said:

Add me to those who are enjoying NBA Live 18. 

I find it very easy to pick up and play. Which is exactly the sort of game that I was looking for. 

16 hours ago, Keith Houchen said:

It sure is!  Love the intensity of the streets games and using that as a base for the league games, an excellent approach to career mode.  Really enjoying it thus far and I'm only about 3 months in to the season (Got drafted 1st round 4th pick to Orlando)

Just a heads up, if you now have Live 18, you can pre-order Live 19 with £20 off through the main menu of the game. I did mine last night. Just make sure you update the game and the offer will appear. That makes it half the price of the 2K19 special edition that’s released the same day.

Oh and there’s another bit of footage too. It was made before all the recent free agency moves, FYI.

Boogie Cousins signing with the Warriors! Man, the NBA is crazy! 😂

LeBron to LA confirmed. http://www.espn.co.uk/nba/story/_/id/23967725/lebron-james-joining-los-angeles-lakers-4-year-1533-million-deal

They’ve also signed Lance Stephenson. Amazing! 😂

Been listening to Jay Rock's latest album 'Redemption' today. Some great stuff on there!

Also great is Black Thought's new relase. The whole thing is only 17 minutes but it's awesome.

8 minutes ago, Keith Houchen said:

I love the individual career modes in sport games and it's the mode I play most.  I love the 2k ones but heard nothing but bad stuff about their latest, so will plough a lot of hours into this one I think!

Knox gets a mention in FiveThirtyEights draft review. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/which-teams-made-the-biggest-gambles-on-nba-draft-night/

On paper, the idea of an open world basketball career mode is awesome - but 2K just messed it up badly. It's a chore to play, the world itself is dull and everything is micro-transactioned. You can't even change your guy's hair without paying to even see a preview of it. Live's 'The One' is just so much fun and going between the league and the streets is awesome. The ESPN integration with First Take and all the history of the street courts is great too. Apparantly they've really expanded on it for 19 as well.

Re: Knox...I want to see him and Frank both start next season. I like Frank, but like I said, I kinda think he was held back by a bad coach last season.

Thoughts on the draft? I'm actually happy that the Knicks picked Knox. I love his attitude and what I've seen of him so far. I'm actually excited to watch the team this year. I know we won't win much, but I want to see the young guys get out and play under Fizdale. I felt that Hornacek held the younger dudes back last season. Glad he's out now.

20 hours ago, Keith Houchen said:

Just noticed that live 18 is part of EA Access so downloading it now. Cheers chaps. 

Enjoy! 'The One' mode is awesome and Live 19 is looking even better and so much smoother.

7 hours ago, Really Big Shoe said:

Dwight was great for the Magic and was very reminiscent of Shaq in his heyday there. I think he had back surgery and never really bounced back. Essentially he became a journeyman and D-Rose career followed a similar trajectory too. Makes you think in hindsight how players like Dirk who wants to play his 21st season in the NBA,LeBron etc are still consistently great over the years. But if injury takes it toll and impacts your game then its super difficult to be the player you once were. 

Draft should be fun, I think trades will go down, draft picks switching teams etc. Seems a good place for a rebuild or to rejig your team. The Suns might move their pick as a trade piece or alternatively as a foundation for the future. 

I have heard not so good things about 2k18 with the OTT micro transactions so I skipped it. I think Live could step in its place if they keep it simple and don't overload the game with transactions like 2K has. The NBA live mobile game is quite fun too.

If you have a PS4, Live 18 is 9 quid on the PSN summer sale right now. Absolutely worth it. The awesome career is worth it alone.

Also, NBA Live 19 is looking great. I’ve been a 2K player for years but hated 2K18. Gave up on it and went to Live 18 and had a blast with it. Their career mode (‘The One’) is awesome!

Trailer: 

I think we’ll see some movement around the draft. It’ll be interesting to see if there’s any last min trades during the event.

Dwight Howard traded to the Nets yesterday. It’s crazy to see what’s happened to his career since he left the Magic. Basically the Nets now have two max salary slots going forward from 2019. I do wonder if they could attract any big names...

On 6/16/2018 at 6:02 PM, Really Big Shoe said:

Long answer, so I've spoilered my reply

 

  Hide contents

Interesting article here

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2781345-how-the-lakers-can-trade-for-kawhi-leonard-and-still-land-lebron-paul-george

about Kawhi and his possible destinations. I don't know if they'd want to lose him to the Lakers unless they get like Kuzman. There's also talk about trading him to a Eastern conference team. Where ideally LeBron should stay since he'll be up against the GSW sooner in the Playoffs. Maybe as early as the 2nd round or semi finals of the Western conference. The East almost guarantees a free path for him to the Finals. 

Going to the Celtics with Kyrie and Gordon Hayward would be a really good option. There's also the 76ers who have a younger team where LeBrons presence could help to get them over the line. 

I believe ESPN broke down George, James and Leonard going to the Lakers. They'd have to trade majority of their younger promising players. They have to move Loul Deng's contract and they all want max deals. LA would be more than willing to pay luxury tax but it would leave little to bring in nothing more than players on veterans minimum deals.

Golden State have assembled a super team where even their B team has quality. So really you have to match them equally with a big 3 and talented role players around them. Maybe they'd be older players willing to take less to join up with them to win a Championship so there is that. 

Another story is James met up with D-Wade and Udonis Haslem in Miami where in theory they could assemble a super team there with Pat Riley masterminding it all.

I don't know whether all three will land in the same destination. Kawhi definitely wants out so unless they can offer him something special to stay he's on his way out. SI are saying Paul George is important factor in all this https://www.si.com/nba/2018/06/12/paul-george-lebron-james-nba-free-agency-domino-lakers-rockets-celtics He was great for the Pacers so if he returns to his prior form he'd be a big pick up. There's a multitude of LeBron articles but one I read is where he wants to raise his family and that might be a huge deal for his possible destination and most likely his last stop in his NBA career.

Id be surprised if he stays in Cleveland unless they move Love elsewhere and trade Hood, Hill et al. There's talk of Kevin Love to the Trailblazers. But a journeyman type team probably won't work and would take too long to gel. Had Kyrie still been a Cav then you have two solid foundations to build around with him and LeBron.

But now it's a situation I see the Cavaliers trading for James and focusing on rebuild 3.0 without LeBron again. Magic will no doubt pull out all the stops to assemble their big 3 but it doesn't guarantee a NBA championship especially if they don't have a strong enough bench. GSW will continue to dominate unless they are matched up against a team of a similar quality across the board. They have role players like West, Livingston, Iguodala who step up and are integral parts of the team. So it's real important you don't just assemble a big 3 but a super team where everyone plays their part. Otherwise even if you do make the NBA finals you are up against the Warriors and once KD, Curry and Klay are on fire and shooting 3s and the guys off the bench are playing their parts...you're done.

You need to neutralise the Warriors. A younger team say the Sixers could out run them or you could play tough defence like the old Pistons "Bad Boys" team but that would 9 times out of 10 send them to the foul line. So you really need to study tapes, find their weakness(es) [if they even exist] and exploit them. They are beatable though as Houston proved but once Chris Paul got injured they didn't have the same quality and intensity. 

I think had he stayed healthily they might have pulled off an upset. But teams have to play 110% every second of the game to stand a realistic chance. Only rarely do they have off games. Plus when Durant, Curry and Thompson are at their best they are near unbeatable. So to conclude at this is very TL:DR type post I think there's a good chance we'll see Paul, Kawhi and LeBron as Lakers. But that doesn't guarantee they will dethrone the Warriors. As a big NBA fan I'd definitely like to see much more competition and another finals match up. It's 3 years now in a row we've seen Warriors vs Cavaliers. It's the 2010s Lakers v Celtics. Speaking of which, we might see that as the 2019 NBA Finals

 

Could you imagine LBJ going back to Miami? I do think he'll go to LA, but stranger things have happened.

I do wonder, even if Kawhi says he'll only go to certain teams or he won't re-sign, if some team like Boston would just take him for the year anyway? The Kings are also desperate for a star too and could end up making a play. If things really break down, I could see the Spurs just trading him there as an FU to Kawhi.

Perfect Sunday morning hip hop.

https://youtu.be/2UQ7R02SiSA

7 minutes ago, Keith Houchen said:

Even as a Celtics fan, LeBron being LeBron against Boston was a sight to behold.

Yup! I really wanted the Cavs to somehow pull off another title rather than see another Warriors win, but I guess there's only so much LeBron can do on his own.

Thought I'd bump this. Been away from the forum for a long time, but wanted to get folk's thoughts on Kawhi wanting out of San Antonio. Where does he go? LeBron, Kawhi and Paul George to the Lakers next season?

Really digging 'Contra' by Logic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KwN3s7JZZo 

18 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

Anyone listened to the new Nas album 'Nasir' yet? Had a quick look about this morning before work and couldn't find it. And seen loads of people on twitter complaining it's not on iTunes, Spotify or anything yet. Anyone know what the crack is? 

Edit - forget this, it's a day late but it's finally up on iTunes! 

Yeah, listened this morning. I'm liking it! 'Everything' is the standout track.

Lillard looking like a real good outside bet for MVP!

Wow, AD drops 50 and STILL loses to the Nuggets. He’s wasted on that Pelicans team.

Embiid looked so good in his debut. If he shakes the rust and stays healthy, he’s gonna be a beast!

Lakers win! I thought they were going to get to 150 points in that game. No defence but it was fun to watch.

Sad to see the T-Wolves lose, but they still looked good.

The NBA is BACK!

Stayed up for the games last night and I must say, I'm DELIGHTED the Warriors lost. They looked really off, despite Curry and KD having a good game. I wonder if losing most of their bench is really going to have more of an impact than we thought?

My Knicks...dear god, my Knicks. I know it's only one game, but man they were careless. KP looked good and they had a decent first half, but LeBron just completely shut them down after that. I know it's the defending champs on ring night etc etc. Fingers crossed for Friday's game.

And Dame Lillard...wow. I knew I should have stuck a few quid on him for MVP.

Posted this in the games thread but thought it fit here too.

NBA 2K17 is coming out on September 16th but they've just announced that a week before on the 9th, they're releasing 'The Prelude' as a free download on consoles so you can start the career mode early! It's available for free and to everyone. You can scan your own face into the game with your phone too. Storyline is still being kept under wraps but there's a sneak peak here:

NBA 2K17 is coming out on September 16th but they've just announced that a week before on the 9th, they're releasing 'The Prelude' as a free download on consoles so you can start the career mode early! It's available for free and to everyone. You can scan your own face into the game with your phone too. Storyline is still being kept under wraps but there's a sneak peak here:

The schedule has been released!

Christmas day games looking good! Glad to see the T-Wolves getting some love.

Nice feature on the schedule here: http://www.sbnation.com/2016/8/11/12440048/nba-schedule-2016-17-release-news-rumors

Full schedule here: http://www.nba.com/schedules/national_tv_schedule/?ls=iref:nba:gnav