Odin

Euro-bros came to play.

Gordon’s been doing everything but score.

A certain portion of who wins a game comes down to randomness and a team's current form, so there is always a chance.

I think we might be able to steal a game or two, but I don't think anyone should be surprised or upset if we go through this stretch and don't as these are almost all projected to be top 4 seeds in their conference, besides the Hornets and we do not have good recent history vs. the Hornets.

Looking at our schedule over the next five, it is possible that we end 1-5. Hornets are the team we have the best chance to beat, but Kemba plays well against us, and for some reason we haven't beaten them since 2015. This is going to be a bit of a tough stretch.

Pelicans are looking great

What a great sequence.

Ok. Those types of plays are why you have to love Simmons.

Wasn't our defense with both on the court (as limited as that was) incredibly good last year?

Two more days until the Magic season begins. My optimism is at an all time high right now (even after a so-so pre-season). My brain says we aren't going to be very good, but my heart says that we are winning the championship.

Fivethirtyeight is predicting us to go 32-50. Not great, but better than a lot of predictions based upon nothing have us going. They have us as the eighth worst team by record.

I mean I listened to a whole ringer podcast to find out that they think we will be the most boring team to watch in the NBA. And Lowe has us in his bottom tier again. We are getting some major disrespect. Hopefully Gordon, Isaac, and Bamba can force teams to respect us again.

Wasn't Iwundu a good-in-practice guy last year? I don't know if I am holding out much hope for him: he seems to have a lot of skills, good size, decent defensive ability, ok dribbling, etc. But it all is basically pointless if he can't get the ball in the hoop during a game.

I would not take too much from this game. flamengo was way overmatched- almost any line up from the team would do well.

I don’t trust their numbers on size or weight. I always take them as approximates. Durant does have about 3 inches or so on Gordon- but the weight difference is probably not significant. Gordon is probably heavier than listed. I can’t help but wish that they would do a “weigh in” at the beginning of every season where everyone’s measurements are taken.

What is the feel on Martín? Another player we were paid to take.

So- this competition level is too easy for Gordon. But would it be fair to say Bamba has been the second best player for us? It is only pre-season against a non-nba team but he seems way further along than I expected.

I just think it is a bit strange- but I guess it is like soccer where you can schedule the number friendlies you want before the season starts (within reason).

Ahh, I did miss a game for us. But there is still the same difference. The 76ers play 4, we play 5, lakers play 6. I am guessing the 76ers have less since they have had to travel overseas, but it still doesn't quite make sense.

So, I was looking at pre-season schedules and it makes no sense. Why do some teams have 4 pre-season games, others have 5, and some have 6? Every team should have the exact same #. Has it always been this way and I was just ignorant of it? I am happy that we only have 4, by the way. It should give the team more time to practice which is more important right now. Just doesn't seem to make sense to have this type of difference.

So I couldn’t see the game, but sometimes fouling on defense is ok for a young guy. Usually means they are active and trying to do good things- but still don’t have the timing/positioning yet.

Gordon with 3 assists already- people who can watch the game, were they in the offense type moving the ball type assists, or signs of some creativity and vision? I will take the former, but it would be nice they were mostly the later. (I see the fast break assist to Issac. That was legit.)

Agreed.

Yeah. Arron Afflalo, who was probably supposed to be no more than a bench warmer/ good vet presence played 682 minutes last year. Speights, our 5th or 6th best big man, played 675. At full strength, we weren't as bad as our record showed. The issue was that barely anyone could stay healthy. None of our starters from the opening game made it even to 60 games. We only had one player hit all 82 (Biyombo) and 2 other players reach over 70 (Mario and Augustin).

Real Madrid and Barcelona is definitely great, but I don't know if the personal rivalry is really there between Ronaldo and Messi. I think the individual rivalry between Bird and Magic was greater. I think American sports is a bit harder to find the type of rivalries found in European football, as American sports are much more cyclical in nature with almost all teams spending some time at the top and some at the bottom. And there is nothing that fuels rivalry more than two teams trying to beat each other to the top. While I don't care much about baseball, Yankees vs. Red Sox has to be up there. Lakers Vs Celtics. Can't think of any other very strong and historic rivalries in US sports.