[aamir543Participant]

Happy holidays everyone, and to top it all off the lockout is finally over! With that being said, here are some things to keep in mind before the season starts.

• Most of the players who went overseas have opt out clauses, but those who decided to go to China can’t comeback until the Chinese season is over. These players include Aaron Brooks, Wilson Chandler, Dan Gadzuric, Luther Head, Kenyon Martin, Josh Powell, JR Smith, and Yi Jianlin. Half of these guys are scrubs, however a couple guys are instremental pieces to their team, and it just happens to be that three of those guys are on the Nuggets. The Chineese season ends midway through Febuary, plus the playoffs. All of these guys are free agents, so a contender could get a big boost in the last leg of the season, when these guys come back to the states. And the poor Nuggets will be short three key players that they most likely won’t be able to sign once they come back.
• Who got fat! That is another factor of the lockout. With players limited to thier own personal luxaries, and with no trainer or coach breathing down their neck, the players had to be diciplined to work out hard on their own, and I’m not sure all the guys were able to do so. The most Likely culprits we would assume is Baron Davis, but I believe Baron played some summer ball, so I think he’s fine, and I don’t even want to know what the scale reads for Eddy Curry. But on a serious note, being out of shape for some guys could be a career changer, as it was for Shawn Kemp and Vin Baker the last go around. Some guys will always get another chance due to their talent, (ala Michael Bealey, DeMarcus Cousins) however others are still gighting for their NBA lives and can’t afford a setback like that.
• I am not 100% percent sure, but I remember FranFran posting about Kyrie being out for three months. That toe added to the fact that he didn’t have training camp, that will make it really tough to make the adjustment, as it will be for all rookies.
• I don’t know whether the schedule will be bunched up like it was in 1999, but that will be an important factor. If there are a lot of back to backs and 5 games in 7 nights, than the older guys might run out of gas, and guys like Durant, John Wall, Rose, and even Lebron and Wade would have the advantage over aging guys like Nowitzki, or Garnett, or Kobe. On the flip side, guys like Nowitzki or Kobe, who didn’t play in too many pick up games like Durant and Wall may be a bit more rested but that may not be a big deal

Overall, I’m just glad they got a deal done, and now it’s time for hopfully another great season of ball!

[BothTeamsPlayedHardParticipant]

Yi can come back right away. The Chinese league rule only applies to foreign players.

I don’t think there is going to be an issue of Shawn Kemp or Vin Baker proportions. It isn’t as if the NBA players have been in hiding. They have been out and about in charity games and international competitions since July. If a name guy blew up, it would be known by now. The bigger issue is going to be the guys who look like they are in shape, but aren’t conditioned for competition. That will be a league-wide issue and one with major injury concerns. I think there was a mentioning of Dirk being out of shape and that being why he wanted to shop around for European gigs. He won’t look any different, but Dallas won’t be playing him 34 minutes per until April.

Jimmer is probably in the best spot for the rookies. He will have the Beno Udrih spot on the Kings, and with both Evans and Cousins drawing attention will be more open looks than he ever did in college. That doesn’t help Sacramento guard anybody, but it should help their offense. I’d also give players who went abroad like Nikola Vucevic (MVP contender in the Adriatic League) and Kyle Singler because they will be game conditioned as well as better prepared due to the professional experience they have gotten the past three months. If Philadelphia allows Spencer Hawes to leave, Vucevic could get big minutes. Put his play in the Adriatic League and Eurocup up against Jonas and his play in the VTB United and Eurocup, and then figure out the difference in hype over the two. One actually has an offensive skill set.

Depth will matter, but also how a coach handles his roster. If Pops doesn’t play any of his guys 30 minutes per and gives guys like Duncan, Parker, and Manu veteran nights off, the Spurs will be fine. It takes quite a bit of job security and long-term thinking for a coach to do that. I don’t know how many will.

 

[The Scare Crow ReturnsParticipant]

because that would suck for a few Teams like The Nuggets who could have resigned Wilson Chandler…It does show that NBA players that went overseas were thinking foolishly by going over, they really had nothing to gain but a few Dollars and a Injury(JR Smith)…It made 0 sense

[TallmanNYCParticipant]

 Hey, the lockout could have been the entire season. This deal isn’t going to pass easily. There were only a few open positions overseas so guys had to commit or the teams weren’t going to sign them. Also, keep in mind the marketing advantages for your endorsement brand by playing in China. China folks might not have a lot of money individually, but there are 1.2 billion of them. So next time their endorsement deal with Nike comes up, maybe having been big in China for a year could payoff for some of these players. Also, and I’ve been to China, China is a fun place to be, especially if you’ve got some money.

It is easy to second guess the guys who locked themselves up for a season overseas, but you can’t say it didn’t make any sense at the time. 

[The8thDeadlySinParticipant]

 Speaking of China, Wilson Chandler had like 44 points and 20 rebounds in his first preseason game there.

Crazy…

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