Hoops Dreams

A look at 2017-18 NBA Hoops. 

I picked myself up a post-birthday present the other day in the form of my first real basketball cards of the young season. I wasn't able to find anything in stores, but the price I found for a blaster online wasn't too outrageous. Besides, each box comes with either a memorabilia card or a certified autograph, so what could possibly go wrong? Last year, some lucky folks even ended up with their very own Festus Ezeli Trail Blazers auto!

More on that later. He's a look at an insert design that crops up every season, the Lights Camera Action cards. This would probably make a good set on its own, since NBA cards tend to be very light on action and focused more on close-ups and dribbling.

Speaking of dribbling, here's Blazers all-around goofball Evan Turner... dribbling.

Even though Moe Harkless is usually in the starting lineup, he is more of a role player on a team that features a ton of shots by Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum.

Blocked shots are fun.

This is my first card of the former Oregon star Jordan Bell. The first of many, hopefully. Please send me all of your Jordan Bell, Tyler Dorsey and Dillon Brooks cards. It's crazy to have so many Ducks making the jump into the NBA all at once.

I bet the whistle blew long before this dunk.

Alex Len got into it with Blazers rookie Caleb Swanigan in preseason. That tells you how intense he is, or something.

Man, Hoops cards really do look the same every year.

Now in blue form! There were two of these parallels in the box, and not the half dozen or so that I originally reported.

I can't believe I scanned a Russell Westbrook card. Anyone want this?

This is Dennis Schröder. He has an umlaut in his name. I just realized that those "lights" are part of the design and not really there, by the way.

There is, inexplicably, a Shaquille O'Neal-themed NBA2K18 insert set featuring video game Shaq, numbered 16 through 25. Perhaps 1 through 15 are in another product? Also, this rainbow foil card actually shows human Shaq and isn't numbered at all. What is this?

Here's video game Shaq, non-shiny, with an actual card number on the back.

Looking for more? I posted the whole first pack over at APTBNL.

And now that you've waited this long, here is my hit. This set seems to just be an excuse to get rid of extra pieces of jerseys that didn't find their way to rookie cards in the last couple of years.