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

[nickmitch]

I remember that clip from The Herd.  She was trying to be a journalist and ask him questions about why BBB doesn't have a women's line, which is fair.  He kept blowing her off, not wanting to talk to her because of her parenting comments (also fair) before he began to over-react.

I sincerely hope there's a "There's only two people better than me and I'm both of 'em" shirt next.  The Raw appearance was hysterical.

[Adrock]

Kristine Leahy basically asked the same question Colin Cowherd did (how many shoes has Big Baller Brand sold). LaVar was still salty because of Leahy's previous comments from like a month and a half prior. It's certainly Leahy's right to say Lonzo and his brothers are scared of their father (among other things), but I don't know how fair that is from a journalistic standpoint. What evidence did she have for more or less accusing LaVar of child abuse? I can see why LaVar would take offense to what Leahy said. At the same time, it doesn't justify his response and how he treated her.


I don't really know much about Kristine Leahy so this is less about her. LaVar Ball's schtick is already old. I can roll my eyes to comments like "[Lonzo is] better than Steph Curry" (he isn't) or "Lonzo Ball is going to take the Lakers to the playoffs in his first year" (he won't even with Paul George). But when he gets on national television and talks down to someone (regardless of gender) like he did, I just can't deal with it.

[ShyGuy]

Kevin Durant was in town for Hoopfest this last weekend. I think he has a new shoe coming out.

[Adrock]

Paul George got traded to the Thunder for Victor Oladipo and Domantis Sabonis. The silver lining is that isn't the worst trade this summer (certainly no Jimmy Butler to the Timberwolves). Oladipo can play though he's overpaid. Sources had the Celtics offering three first round picks (not 2017 Nets pick or 2018 Lakers/2019 Kings pick via pre-draft Philly trade), Jae Crowder and another starter. That's a hell of a better offer than what they got. Pacers wanted both picks Celtics weren't offering plus two starters for a great player who almost certainly would be a one-year rental. Talk about overplaying your hand. Whomp whomp.

The Thunder won big though. They get to try to sell Russell Westbrook on resigning by offering him the super-max and the chance to play with another superstar that he sorely needed after Durant bolted. It may not work, leaving the Thunder with another rebuild if both Westbrook and George leave (at least the latter will), but hey, rebuilding will be a hell of a lot easier without Oladipo on the books. The best way to rebuild is to lose with low salary guys and use caps space to take on **** contracts for draft picks or young albeit unproven talent, just continue acquiring assets until you either draft your superstar or flip a bunch of picks/players for an up and coming one.

[Soren]

PG is totally leaving for LA, so it will be fun to see how much he's alienated by Westbrook.


Warriors decline the team option on James Michael McAdoo, understandable given who they drafted this year. Livingston got paid and I could not be more happier for him. Ditto for Curry.

[Adrock]

Worst case scenario for the Thunder is if George convinces Westbrook to come back to Southern California with him. I mean, if you're going to get dominated by the Warriors for the next five years, might as well do so in Los Angeles.

It would be nice to see the Lakers not be total trash anymore, but even a combo of George and Westbrook won't get it done. Curry's new contract complicates the Warriors' ability to make significant roster changes. At the same time, Durant committing to take a pay cut (for what a top three player should be paid anyway) to give the team flexibility allows the Warriors to remain the favorites for the foreseeable future.

The East just got hella weak too. The Cavs got worked, a team no East team could touch, then Butler and George got traded to the West. Sure, one can argue that the West got tougher, but really, those trades just rebalanced the middle. The Timberwolves aren't touching Warriors. The Thunder went from a first round exit to maybe a second round exit. The Rockets with Chris Paul still aren't better than the Spurs who aren't better than the Warriors. It's a tough time for fans who care about competitive basketball. One can only hope the Warriors get bored and/or complacent.

[Soren]

The West dominance is a smoke screen. Yes they have pretty much 8 of the 10 best teams in the league but we're in the Warriors/Cavs era and everyone else is fighting for scraps. Utah was the 5th best team in the West last year and they have so many questions it's easy for them to tumble back to the cellar. Spurs are in flux and it looks more and more like they struck out on Aldridge. Minny needs to make the playoffs before we can even start including them in the discussion. Same with New Orleans. Portland could still be frisky, ditto Denver. Clippers aren't looking that bad if all they lose is CP3. But there's just a whole lot of teams stuck in the middle.


As for the Warriors it's interesting to look at the possible ring-chasers available. Vince Carter, Arron Afflalo, Nene. Maybe David West sticks around for another year.

[Shaymin]

So what would it take to make the East competitive again? People deciding they don't want to play in, I dunno, Curry's conference like happened in the 90s with Jordan? Collective brain transplants for every Eastern GM in the US?

[BlackNMild2k1]

The PG Trade is very suspect.
Pacers owner got way better offers and decided that he didn't want PG to stay in the East, so he flipped him to OKC for almost nothing... not even a draft pick (not sure if OKC had one... but Boston had already previously offered much more)
They turned down a great offer at the trade deadline, which would have seen PG vs the Lebron in the ECF instead of the 1st round. Then Boston offered an unspecific commitment to trade for PG after they make a run at Gordon Hayward, and Pacers panicked, figured Ainge was bullshitting w/ his horde of assets and took the first Western deal that came his way.

They even had a 3 way deal that would have placed PG on the Cavs, but like I stated above, Indiana really didn't want PG to stay in the East. so OKC's table scrap offer it is...

and Paul George is totally gonna recruit WB to go to LA with him next year.
but seeing how stacked the West is, I really doubt Lebron follows suit too, most likely to just be content being the King of the East laid out in a lawn chair on the sideline through most of the regular season.

and the Warriors.
Curry has now signed the NBA's 1st $200M contract. just records everywhere for this boy.
Livingston took a discount @ $24M/3yrs to stay on the Warriors
West signed for Vet Minimum and plans to retire after this year
Iggy is expected to resign, but had to feel out what his value is so the Warriors could match it (fingers crossed... looking like a 3yr/$45M contract is what he's trying to get)
and Durant will sign discount as soon as Iggy signs... or take his full pay if he don't(?)

So our roster is looking like
Curry / Klay / Durant / Dray / and maybe Iggy
Livingston / West / McCaw / Jones / Looney / Bell

no word yet on Zaza, Clark, McGee or Barnes

Macadoo didn't have his team option picked up, but I'm sure he'll get paid somewhere. 2X NBA champ and all.

and with everyone headed West... I'm really wondering what the All-star game looks like next year.
There's no way the Warriors get 4 on the squad again. But role players will be pulling up on the 2nd unit for the East. They might have to get rid of East vs West and just do top 20 voting and pick team captains who pick their squad the day before the game. LOL that would be interesting.

Here is the 2017 All-Star roster:
http://www.nba.com/teams/allstar/2017
The East has already lost 2 in PG  & Butler
Millsap is shopping to get on T-Wolves
Lowry hasn't landed anywhere yet
Not sure what's up with Carmelo
and Cavs were trying to trade Love to Denver in 3-way to get PG from Ind.
Assuming some of those don't stay East... who takes their place on the East squad?
and which of them make the squad in the West ahead of who is already on the likely to be back list?

Honestly I think they should do a Top 16 Playoffs (conference-less / evens vs odds) and do the Team Captain Top 20 All-Star Game. could be more interesting especially considering how stacked the West is right now vs how weak the East looks in comparison

[Adrock]

What's suspect about the trade? Pacers didn't want to trade George to any team in the East and didn't want to trade him to the Lakers, his prefer destination. It's petty considering all George did for the organization especially telling them before the draft that he didn't intend to re-sign. At the same time, the Lakers, knowing they had leverage, weren't going to give up anything of value without also dumping Mozgov or Deng, two of the worst contracts in the league right now.

Hindsight is 20/20, the Pacers should have taken the Celtics deal at the trade deadline which included this year's Nets pick. Considering George's blatant desire to play in Los Angeles next year, I would have taken the Celtics offer: three draft picks and two starters who they could have traded to go into full tank mode. Take the chance of George staying in Boston for the much better assets.

[BlackNMild2k1]

That's exactly what was suspect about the trade. The fact that the Pacers turned down multiple better offers at the trade deadline, and then again before the draft, and then decided to dump him for basically nothing moments before free agency hit!? especially when you still had a better offer on the table from the Celtics who told you they just need to take care of something else first before giving you valuable usable assets from the Boston vault.
What was the rush? PG wasn't going anywhere.... OKC had no leverage to do anything with any free agents... and Boston just needed a few more days before they got back to them with a formal offer of assets/picks/etc.

Were they really that damn petty about him not staying in the East, that they wouldn't trade him for something actually useful to the team? They even turned down Kevin Love from the Cavs in the 3 way trade w/ the Nuggets.

oh, and that Nene deal that fell through, that was kinda fucked. Over 38 rule... (not really sure what that is, but apparently it was violated by the deal)?
back on the market for him. Or maybe the Rockets get something else worked out

[Soren]

How many times is Danny Ainge going to insist that "no, we actually had a better deal in place" before people start calling him out on his bullshit? Yes, Forman/Paxson and Pritchard are idiots who have no business running a franchise with the way they've bungled their respective deals but the more this happens the more I'm willing to believe that Ainge is being needlessly stingy with the picks he's offering.

[Shaymin]

oh, and that Nene deal that fell through, that was kinda fucked. Over 38 rule... (not really sure what that is, but apparently it was violated by the deal)?
back on the market for him. Or maybe the Rockets get something else worked out

It used to be the over-36 rule, apparently. It's designed to stop high dollar frontloaded contracts that there's no intention of completing from either side. (Think a 17 year deal worth $102m that pays <$1m in the last six years of the deal: this was initially agreed to in the NHL before the league stepped in.)

[Soren]

This blog comment(!!!) actually explains what happened with Nene. Houston tried to sign him with a non-Bird rights exception, but because that particular deal would trigger the over-38 rule it means it's not really possible under the terms Houston originally agreed to.

http://deadspin.com/1796576778

[Adrock]

What was the rush?

Every day you have a guy who admittedly doesn't want to play for your team you're losing leverage, damaging locker room morale, and frustrating the fan base. Larry Bird gambled and lost. Kevin Pritchard was on clock. Paul George was losing value by the hour. Everyone and their mother knows he's going to the Lakers unless he falls in the perfect situation so most teams weren't offering great deals. Pritchard was balancing his own pettiness with his need to improve the team.

Were they really that damn petty about him not staying in the East, that they wouldn't trade him for something actually useful to the team?

Well, yeah. Pritchard called George telling the Pacers he had no intention of returning a "gut-punch" three times in the same interview. He should have said thank you because George didn't have to say ****. In any case, this happens all the time in sports. That's why I don't think there's anything suspicious going on. It isn't against NBA rules to be an asshole to a player halfway out the door even if he meant a lot to the franchise and city for the past seven years.

[BlackNMild2k1]

and with everyone headed West... I'm really wondering what the All-star game looks like next year.
There's no way the Warriors get 4 on the squad again. But role players will be pulling up on the 2nd unit for the East. They might have to get rid of East vs West and just do top 20 voting and pick team captains who pick their squad the day before the game. LOL that would be interesting.

Here is the 2017 All-Star roster:
http://www.nba.com/teams/allstar/2017
The East has already lost 2 in PG  & Butler
Millsap is shopping to get on T-Wolves
Lowry hasn't landed anywhere yet
Not sure what's up with Carmelo
and Cavs were trying to trade Love to Denver in 3-way to get PG from Ind.
Assuming some of those don't stay East... who takes their place on the East squad?
and which of them make the squad in the West ahead of who is already on the likely to be back list?

Honestly I think they should do a Top 16 Playoffs (conference-less / evens vs odds) and do the Team Captain Top 20 All-Star Game. could be more interesting especially considering how stacked the West is right now vs how weak the East looks in comparison

So the All-Star East team also lost Millsap to the West (Denver Nuggets)
Lowry decided to stay East
Carmelo still looking to move... if he can't get to Lebron, he's trying to join CP3 and Harden in Houston
and no idea if the Cavs are still trying to deal for Love
But Hayward might go East, so that's something.

and I still think Indiana could have waited, and/or reached out to Boston for a definitive offer to wait for, instead of hastily taking the deal they did, when it was obvious people were willing to give more than what they ultimately took in exchange.

[BlackNMild2k1]

so just incase you were wondering... how much does it cost to keep a Super Team in the current NBA?



Them boys better go 82-0 +16-0 for the next 3 seasons.
that's a hell of a tax bill coming to The Bay.

[Shaymin]

The owner's a Silicon Valley techbro with more money than Nintendo. If he wants rings, he'll pay up.

[Soren]

Look at this ridiculous roster:

Starting 5: Curry/Klay/Durant/Green/Zaza(just re-signed!)
Bench Unit: Livingston/Swaggy/Iggy/Casspi/West
Depth: McCaw/Bell/Looney.

Warriors actually managed to improve over what they had with Clark/McAdoo.


EDIT: Also the Cavs become the latest team in the league trying to convince themselves that Jeff Green is actually a good basketball player.

[Shaymin]

I know it's just a name's the same situation, but I saw "Cavs sign Jeff Green" and thought "Wait, why did they sign a former writer/podcaster in his 50s?"

[Soren]

So....I don't really follow college basketball that much. Good god Lonzo Ball's shooting motion is atrocious. Was it really just her asshole father that got him to this level?

[BlackNMild2k1]

He makes shots though.... regardless of the motion, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
I have to admit I haven't seen too much of the man myself, but if the scouts put him that high... there has to be something to his game that we all just haven't witnessed yet.

Look at this ridiculous roster:

Starting 5: Curry/Klay/Durant/Green/Zaza(just re-signed!)
Bench Unit: Livingston/Swaggy/Iggy/Casspi/West
Depth: McCaw/Bell/Looney.

Warriors actually managed to improve over what they had with Clark/McAdoo.

and we still got room for what? 2 more? Did McGee get paid in Sac? I thought I heard he signed w/ the Kings. and what happened to Clark and MacAdoo? did they get resigned anywhere?
Also I assume Zaza took a vet minimum again?

[Soren]

It might be a Shawn Marion situation where it's better to just let him be instead of trying to fix it, lest you break him down completely. But still, he went 2-15 in his summer league debut and they were giving him open looks.

and we still got room for what? 2 more? Did McGee get paid in Sac? I thought I heard he signed w/ the Kings. and what happened to Clark and MacAdoo? did they get resigned anywhere?
Also I assume Zaza took a vet minimum again?

Zaza signed 1 year/3.5 million. Also I don't know how you can add more players. I have a hard time seeing how minutes get distributed with this roster. You might want to add another pure center down the line but early on in the season I kind of want to see how Looney improves. If he doesn't then you go looking for a center.

Also, Clark lost minutes to McCaw as the playoffs wore on. I think he might of hit his ceiling as an NBA player.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Clark had an expiring contract, and McCaw is signed for atleast 3 more years, so it makes sense to develop McCaw over Clark, especially when they were at worst, interchangeable as players w/ McCaw probably being the better and I think longer defender.

And yeah, Lonzo's shot is ugly AF, but he is usually a decent shooter w/ Steph Curry range, so if it works for him for this long, you might ruin his whole shooting game by trying to fix it now.

and Looney is turrible. If he actually develops some post game, maybe bulks a bit... I don't know, maybe he can be all right, but I think Bell & Jones will be getting playtime over him. I haven't watched any Summer League, but I'm hoping Bell and Jones bring some McGee like excitement factor when it comes to the Dubs "In The Paint" game. Bell looked like he had that kind of length, and I'm not really sure what to expect out of Jones, but both of them have got to be better a 4 or 5 than Looney.

Oh, but Barnes, McAdoo and Clark are all out?
have any of them resigned anywhere else yet?

[Soren]

LOL I forgot Jones was still with the team.