Topic: NBA Thread: Brought To You By The Tampa Bay Raptors Of Toronto

[BeautifulShy]

Finally Howard is Howard and is he the best fit with the Lakers?

Absolutely.  They can re-create this iconic image, only with Anthony Davis:

I feel like you are being a smart butt with that comment and considering how that season went I may not be up for it this time around. 

[nickmitch]

On the one hand, yes that ended up not being the best look. But on the other hand, wasn’t it the last time the Lakers made the playoffs?

But yes, I was mostly being a smartbutt.

[BeautifulShy]

On the one hand, yes that ended up not being the best look. But on the other hand, wasn’t it the last time the Lakers made the playoffs?

But yes, I was mostly being a smartbutt.

I hate to say it was the last time the Lakers made the playoffs... I blame Dwight for our 6 and 7 year playoff drought. Wouldn't of had to rebuild these years if not for him and chemisty issues.

Anyway SS&R did a video on who should get the 15th roster spot. 

For BnM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrPQ5eUnO_Y

[broodwars]

On the one hand, yes that ended up not being the best look. But on the other hand, wasn’t it the last time the Lakers made the playoffs?

But yes, I was mostly being a smartbutt.

I hate to say it was the last time the Lakers made the playoffs... I blade Dwight for our 6 and 7 year playoff drought. Wouldn't of had to rebuild these years if not for him and chemisty issues.

Anyway SS&R did a video on who should get the 15th roster spot. 

For BnM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrPQ5eUnO_Y

You could do worse than adding Thabo to your team.

[Adrock]

I hate to say it was the last time the Lakers made the playoffs... I blade Dwight for our 6 and 7 year playoff drought. Wouldn't of had to rebuild these years if not for him and chemisty issues.

Ew, no. If anything, Dwight Howard did the Lakers a big favor by not re-signing. He was already on the decline due to back surgery. Howard had some decent years after he left, but he never regained his Magic form. With Kobe coming off a ruptured Achilles, how good would that team have been? Howard would have made the Lakers better but not good which means they would have lost all of those draft picks. Because the Lakers sucked so bad, they only owed the Magic two second round draft picks due to the Stepien Rule.

I guess one could maybe make the argument that the Lakers could have traded Howard for assets had he re-signed. Then again, Jim Buss and Mitch Kupchak never wanted to rebuild the right away. They would have either kept Howard too long (diminishing his value) or blown those assets on like Greg Monroe or something. Being trash for so many years in a row was weirdly the best thing that happened to the team moving forward. It gave Jeanie a reason to fire her brother, the same man who hired his bartender as an advisor. It eventually led to the Lakers having the assets to trade for Anthony Davis.

Many Lakers fans are salty about the way Howard left. I’m not for the reasons stated above. Also, without that trade, the Lakers would have signed Andrew Bynum to a maximum contract. He only played 26 more games in his career after getting traded and has been out of the league for like half a decade. I’d entertain the Lakers bringing Dwight Howard back because it’s such a low risk move. He’d be on a minimum contract. If he’s still a fucking clown, waive him. With DeMarcus Cousins injured, the Lakers need a body to keep Anthony Davis from playing defense against opposing centers. Send Howard out there; protect Davis.

I’m not saying Dwight Howard is the only option, just that I wouldn’t absolutely hate it. There would be plenty of skepticism, mostly regarding his attitude.

[BeautifulShy]

I guess I see your point Adrock. Going my route would get into What if? territory and that can spawn out into many directions. I mean Denver got Iggy in the Bynum/Howard trade and then Iggy went to the Warriors and well everyone knows how that went.

In any case is anyone paying attention to the Team USA games lately?

They had a game against Australia and they did well and it was a pretty good game.

For BnM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxDuYTBkoS0

[ejamer]

The Australian team must be under some pressure after losing to Canada and then US. I'm sure by the time the actual tournament starts they'll find their groove though.

[BeautifulShy]

Looks like Howard is returning to LA but on a non-guaranteed contract so he will have to prove his worth in training camp if he wants to make the team. Question is who will be waived from the non-guaranteed players to allow Howard on the roster?

Aric Holman (Exhibit 10 contract, meaning he can be converted into a two-way player or waived, but with a bonus for going to the South Bay Lakers and staying at least 60 days)
Devontae Cacok (Exhibit 10)
Jordan Caroline (Exhibit 10)
Demetrius Jackson (Likely an Exhibit 10)
Those are the non guaranted players on the training camp.

I do like Cacok and Holman so maybe Caroline and Jackson will be waived from the training camp roster. Another option for the final roster. Add Howard as the 15th player and send THT to the G-League and then have that slot for buy out candidates like Iggy.

[Adrock]

I like the part of Woj’s tweet: “He’s been warned.�

The most important thing is to have a body to protect Anthony Davis. It didn’t really matter to me how the Lakers did that. They want to keep Davis happy which means playing him at power forward like he very blatantly said in his introductory press conference.

As for Howard, my opinion hasn’t changed: shut up and do your job. No whinging about touches. Just play defense and rebound. And great (albeit unlikely) if he can manage to do this with any kind of consistency:

For BNM: https://youtu.be/JV589PhHykk

[Soren]

There's a world in which JaVale and Dwight play the center role for the Lakers perfectly and everything goes well for them.

This is not that world. The fact that we needed 3 tweets from Woj saying "he's on thin fucking ice" is all we need as proof when he gets cut in January.

[ejamer]

The Australian team must be under some pressure after losing to Canada and then US. I'm sure by the time the actual tournament starts they'll find their groove though.

Re: Team USA

So that whole "looked good in a victory over Australia" thing didn't last long...
Australian National team is now 1-30 against US National team after that victory.

I don't read too much into that result. Took a come back behind huge play from Mills, and every team loses eventually. But Team USA this year is more vulnerable than I remember seeing in a long, long time. Should be some exciting basketball coming up.

[BeautifulShy]

Looks like Kuzma is out of the Team USA roster after an ankle sprain.

[broodwars]

The Australian team must be under some pressure after losing to Canada and then US. I'm sure by the time the actual tournament starts they'll find their groove though.

Re: Team USA

So that whole "looked good in a victory over Australia" thing didn't last long...
Australian National team is now 1-30 against US National team after that victory.

I don't read too much into that result. Took a come back behind huge play from Mills, and every team loses eventually. But Team USA this year is more vulnerable than I remember seeing in a long, long time. Should be some exciting basketball coming up.

Hey...
.
.
.
.
.
.
...that's the power of Joe Ingles.

[ejamer]

Ugh... The Canadian national team right now is so disappointing.

There is a growing amount of NBA-quality talent in the country, but almost none of it on the roster; even stalwarts for the program like Cory Joseph and Kelly Olynyk aren't playing this time around.  It's sad to see our guys get knocked around by the US, because we could field a competitive team if there was stronger interest from our best players... but our current roster is outmatched across the board.

Oh well. Don't think this was a surprise to anyone given the lineups.

[BeautifulShy]

This is going to take some getting used to.

https://twitter.com/Stadium/status/1166093145169379329

Howard has officially cleared waivers and the Lakers have signed Dwight Howard to a non guaranteed contract. Howard picked jersey number 39. Nobody has ever had that jersey number for the Lakers before.

SS&R did a video on how Howard can be a better fit for the team this time around.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MawCxzsMVbA

Looks like they waived Aric Holman to make room for Howard.

So they should still have that 15th roster spot available if my math is right.

[broodwars]

So, I mentioned the Jazz were getting a new 90s retro court this coming season, but through a massive leak of images on reddit (now on Imgur) it seems a lot of teams are getting new courts:

https://imgur.com/a/tWlbdMB

Some highlights:















WTF at that Orlando court.

[ejamer]

So, I mentioned the Jazz were getting a new 90s retro court this coming season, but through a massive leak of images on reddit (now on Imgur) it seems a lot of teams are getting new courts:

https://imgur.com/a/tWlbdMB

...

Wow. Highlights were good, but totally worth clicking through to see the rest.
Some great courts there. Some not so great ones too... 

[Adrock]

Will someone please throw away the Jazz’s City Edition court? Their colors offend me, and for that, the rate just went up 10%.

I feel like I should hate the Hawks’ new City Edition court, but I don’t. I guess the peach color is closer to the actual color of a red-tailed hawk (based on cursory googling).

[broodwars]

Will someone please throw away the Jazz’s City Edition court? Their colors offend me, and for that, the rate just went up 10%.

I feel like I should hate the Hawks’ new City Edition court, but I don’t. I guess the peach color is closer to the actual color of a red-tailed hawk (based on cursory googling).

Yeah, I'm not fond of the Jazz's City court, either. It's supposed to be the sunrise over Arches National Park, but if I have to explain the meaning of the court & the gradient uniforms, it's a bad court.

And hey, Atlanta isn't using the geriatric Pac-Man gobbling his last power pellet as a logo anymore!

[broodwars]

So the Jazz officially announced the 90s throwback jerseys today, and...MAN, I missed this design. That said, there's just something...off about them, and I can't quite place my finger on what. I feel like the mountain range isn't "quite" right in the reproduction.



Edit: And sure enough, it's not. It's a reasonable copy, but they got the proportions and color shading wrong in translating the design to the thinner modern jersey style.

[BeautifulShy]

So USA didn't even make it to the medal platform and got 7th place in the FIBA Cup and Spain got 1st place.   Rubio got the MVP award and I am pretty happy about the Suns chances this coming year and going forward.

[ejamer]

So USA didn't even make it to the medal platform and got 7th place in the FIBA Cup and Spain got 1st place.   Rubio got the MVP award and I am pretty happy about the Suns chances this coming year and going forward.

FIBA results don't always carry over into the NBA. Luis "God mode" Scola, for example, regularly romps through these tournaments despite his age.

But sometimes it does!  Suns this year should be more interesting to watch than they have been for a while.

[BeautifulShy]

So USA didn't even make it to the medal platform and got 7th place in the FIBA Cup and Spain got 1st place.   Rubio got the MVP award and I am pretty happy about the Suns chances this coming year and going forward.

FIBA results don't always carry over into the NBA. Luis "God mode" Scola, for example, regularly romps through these tournaments despite his age.

But sometimes it does!  Suns this year should be more interesting to watch than they have been for a while.

I mean they have a good pick and roll point guard in Rubio and with Booker, Ayton, Oubre Jr and Bridges as options on the offensive end they will be a better team than last year.  I am not sure they will make the playoffs this year but I think they will be a mid to high 30 win team which is a vast improvement from last years 19 win campaign.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Drama league coming back soon. Who's ready for the latest helping of DRAMA!!!!?

Could there be some upcoming punishment over the Kawhi Leonard signing on the Clippers!?

it appears his family rep went outside the lines to make this deal happen:


and apparently Adam Silver isn't just letting this slide....


I wonder what happens next. Does PG13 get screwed for yet another season as punishment for not signing with the Lakers 2 seasons ago? LOL

[nickmitch]

Voiding contracts is the only way you'll really enforce tampering rules, I'm afraid.  A fine is payable, and who cares about draft picks if you're not a lottery team?  They're not particularly valuable assets if you already have the guys you want.  But making a bunch of moves to sign a player, getting caught, and losing that player and whatever you might've given up to sign them would hit teams where it hurts.  That's a multi-season impact.

That being said, I really wanna know how egregious this was.  Were there a lot of "outside benefits"? What were they, exactly? And how influential were they on the player's decision making?