2019 Preview

Are the 2018-19 Miami Heat Good?

- by Fox Doucette

The Miami Heat won 44 games in 2017-18, won the Southeast Division, and got smacked by the Philadelphia 76ers in the playoffs because the Southeast Division is garbage. The Heat are staring at a 41.5 over/under in 2018-19, expected to come in second behind the Wizards. This implies a regression, but what grounds do we have to expect that? The roster is pretty much the same as a year ago, Hassan Whiteside is healthy (even if he’s a whiny, pouty jerk in the media to the front office and to Erik Spoelstra’s coaching staff, basically Dwight Howard Lite), Bam Adebayo …

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2019 Preview

Are the 2018-19 Washington Wizards Good?

- by Fox Doucette

If you want to know what Salary Cap Hell looks like in the brave new world of the 2016 TV deal, the Washington Wizards are a fantastic example, the single worst salary cap disaster since the mid-aughts Knicks. John Wall, Bradley Beal, and Otto Porter make a combined $70 million. Wall’s extension, which kicks in come 2019-20, will pay him $37.8 million a year, and with the way his health has been, he seems vanishingly unlikely to be effective in that player-option year in 2022-23, when he’ll be in for $46.872 million. Beal is in the midst of a five-year, …

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2019 Preview

Are the 2018-19 Charlotte Hornets Good?

- by Fox Doucette

Is there a more fan-ghetto franchise in all of the NBA than the Charlotte Hornets? Besides Sacramento and Memphis, what other city has an NBA team that attracts less notice from literally every other fanbase in the entire league plus the generic NBA fan? Since changing their name back from the Bobcats, the Not Cats have gone 33-49, 48-34, 36-46, and then 36-46 again. They are the definition of Mediocrity Hell. They haven’t won a playoff series in their revived-in-Charlotte franchise history since the Bobcats were expanded into existence in 2004. They’ve had only three winning seasons in 14 tries. …

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2019 Preview

Are the 2018-19 Orlando Magic Good?

- by Fox Doucette

Man, the Southeast Division is a Dumpster fire, isn’t it? In the old days, the Heat would’ve been one of the worst 4 seeds the playoffs had ever seen, the Wizards are a capped-out Roland Emmerich movie, Charlotte seems to exist entirely to ensure the continued underrated status of Kemba Walker, and the Hawks and Magic are…well, they’re signs that Atlanta and Orlando are fine ersatz sports cities, a problem that seems to plague the southeast for every sport other than college football. So, like yesterday, the question at issue in today’s post isn’t whether the Orlando Magic are good …

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2019 Preview

Are the 2018-19 Atlanta Hawks Good?

- by Fox Doucette

And the award for “Dumbest Headline” goes to…Pace and Space! You like me! You really, really…wonder why I picked that little Google-friendly…never mind. The Hawks suck. That’s…not actually the question we’re trying to answer here, though. The question is not “are the Hawks good”, but “are they good enough to win 24 games again and clear the low bar of their 23.5 over/under. Or, put another way, “are the Hawks somehow even worse than last year?” Well, they replaced Dennis Schroder with Trae Young, who showed in Summer League that he’s either Stephen Curry Evolved…or about as accurate as setting …

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2019 Preview

Are the 2018-19 Toronto Raptors Good?

- by Fox Doucette

Dwane Casey couldn’t win for trying last year. Curing his case of Scott/Hollins Syndrome (well, except for DeMar DeRozan, but you can’t make chicken salad out of chicken…something else…beyond the arc), leading the Toronto Raptors to a 59-23 record, the best regular season in franchise history… …and getting his butt kicked by LeBron James, meekly surrendering in four games in the second round… Anyway, longtime assistant Nick Nurse is now the head coach, a man whose coaching experience includes 11 years in Britain, seven in the G-League, and six as Casey’s errand boy. On the bright side, Nurse is said …

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2019 Preview

Are the 2018-19 Boston Celtics Good?

- by Fox Doucette

TVTropes defines “Artifact Title” as “A series title that made perfect sense when it began, but after a number of changes to the premise, no longer makes sense to people who don’t go back to the beginning.” Asking if the Celtics are good is an artifact title. Let’s have one thing understood; if they stay healthy, the Boston Celtics can win the NBA championship in 2019. Last year’s injuries to Gordon Hayward and Kyrie Irving might just be the catalyst that gave them the bench depth that was otherwise a matter of question. But hey, just because we all know …

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2019 Preview

Are the 2018-19 Philadelphia 76ers Good?

- by Fox Doucette

Talk about your mood whiplash; when you sort the Atlantic Division from worst to first, you go instantly from the Nets and Knicks to the 76ers, Celtics, and Raptors, a massive gulf in talent that instantly trades the 23rd and 22nd best teams in the league for the top three seeds in the East last year. We begin with the third-best among them, and the team that a lot of folks have pegged for the 2 seed this season behind a newly-recovered-from-injuries Boston squad. The first thing that jumps out at you is that Wilson Chandler is the second-highest-paid player …

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2019 Preview

Are the 2018-19 New York Knicks Good?

- by Fox Doucette

When you do season previews for all 30 NBA teams, not every question is a nuanced, open debate. Sometimes… Coming soon to a quality #NBA site near you: "Are the 2018/19 New York Knicks Good?"Ehhhh… pic.twitter.com/A7U5JdVTNd — Fox Doucette 🏀🍳🥓🥞 (@RealFoxD) September 6, 2018 Man, where do we even start with this? Well, let’s start at the beginning. 2017-18 Record: 29-53 2018-19 Over/Under: 29.5 Wins Unicorn Nonexistent The elephant in the room: Kristaps Porzingis won’t be back until at least February—and there’s plenty of good reason to suspect that unless the Knicks massively overachieve, the team might just decide at …

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2019 Preview

Are the 2018-19 Brooklyn Nets Good?

- by Fox Doucette

The last time the Brooklyn Nets were a relevant force in the NBA, they played in New Jersey, Jason Kidd was their point guard and LeBron James was in high school. Since moving to Brooklyn in 2013, they started out with a 49-win season and first-round playoff exit, traded for Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett and faceplanted to a 44-win season in 2014, and promptly fell off a cliff. And they traded away their climbing equipment. Thankfully, the worst of the storm has passed, but because this is Brooklyn we’re talking about, their highest-paid player is Dwight Howard, who has …

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