NBA Thread

[Krylian]

At this point, all the other teams should just play their worst players against the warriors. Let them fall into really bad habits. Plus, I bet their fan attendance and viewership would drop with no competition.

 

That would actually be an interesting experiment. Every team should just play their D-League team against the Warriors and give them zero competition. Let them go 82-0 then see if they can actually turn it on after a season of essentially nothing but practice.

[connorp]

meh... high likelihood that Cousins is damaged goods anyways

 

Idk. Not like he’s 36. That’s a nice steal.

[burlingtonbandit]

What a joke. NBA is actually a fantastic product on/off the court but this is just ridiculous.

[Krylian]

NBA with the diving and massive egos is essentially soccer.

[connorp]

What a joke. NBA is actually a fantastic product on/off the court but this is just ridiculous.

 

With HOU losing Ariza and possibly even Capela, I wonder if GS will be the biggest favorite of all-time in the major sports. Odds wise I mean

[Jonn]

The NBA Finals will be Boston vs Golden State... Warriors will win in 4 or 5 games. Absolute garbage league.

[connorp]

I could see Philly nabbing someone at the deadline and giving BOS a run for their money. Depends if Simmons can evolve his game.

 

Come the Finals though, it's over

[Jonn]

I could see Philly nabbing someone at the deadline and giving BOS a run for their money. Depends if Simmons can evolve his game.

 

Come the Finals though, it's over

 

Its pretty depressing if the best story line anyone can come up with is what team will win the honour of getting demolished by Golden State in the Finals.

[connorp]

Its pretty depressing if the best story line anyone can come up with is what team will win the honour of getting demolished by Golden State in the Finals.

 

Obviously it's not ideal but the other teams played by the same set of rules and it's not like GS had some unfair advantage like being in NYC and no salary cap.

 

They made some good picks on Curry, Klay, and Draymond.. #7, #11, and #35. Hardly sure things. They had Curry and such on a very reasonable contract and that allowed them to nab a great FA (Durant). In pretty much any sport once you got a title team, you'll have vets willing to play for you for less.

 

Nothing NBA is doing wrong. You cant go with a small hard cap and force players to switch teams all the time and prevent forming dynasties and rivalries. I mean you can but I dont think it makes for a better product.

[Boxcar]

Obviously it's not ideal but the other teams played by the same set of rules and it's not like GS had some unfair advantage like being in NYC and no salary cap.

 

They made some good picks on Curry, Klay, and Draymond.. #7, #11, and #35. Hardly sure things. They had Curry and such on a very reasonable contract and that allowed them to nab a great FA (Durant). In pretty much any sport once you got a title team, you'll have vets willing to play for you for less.

 

Nothing NBA is doing wrong. You cant go with a small hard cap and force players to switch teams all the time and prevent forming dynasties and rivalries. I mean you can but I dont think it makes for a better product.

 

I think it's more a fundamental flaw to the sport itself that one great player can have such a drastic effect on team performance.

[John_Havok]

I think it's more a fundamental flaw to the sport itself that one great player can have such a drastic effect on team performance.

 

That's the key thing. No other team sport has a game where 1 guy can take a s*** team to playoff team, or a playoff team to a champ like the NBA.

 

That being the case, the NBA should definitely look into ways to change their roster rules to try and spread out the star players more. Otherwise this will just keep going on, 1 dynasty team after another with all but 3 or 4 teams having even the slightest chance of a championship.

 

It's bad for the league.

[dineke]

That's the key thing. No other team sport has a game where 1 guy can take a s*** team to playoff team, or a playoff team to a champ like the NBA.

 

That being the case, the NBA should definitely look into ways to change their roster rules to try and spread out the star players more. Otherwise this will just keep going on, 1 dynasty team after another with all but 3 or 4 teams having even the slightest chance of a championship.

 

It's bad for the league.

 

Don't see how it's bad. The 90s bulls and the 80s celtics/lakers were great for the league in terms of popularity.

 

I hate that there are no dynasties in the mlb/nhl anymore. Just a bunch of different teams taking their turns winning championships every year. No truly dominant teams that span over multiple years.

[John_Havok]

Don't see how it's bad. The 90s bulls and the 80s celtics/lakers were great for the league in terms of popularity.

 

I hate that there are no dynasties in the mlb/nhl anymore. Just a bunch of different teams taking their turns winning championships every year. No truly dominant teams that span over multiple years.

 

MLB is hard to have dynasties given the massive diffrence in how 1 player can affect a team vs the NBA. Same with the NHL, though of the last 10 cups 8 of them have been won by 3 teams total. Different games.

 

It's just hard to be excited to watch the NBA when you know how it's gonna turn out. Msy as well watch the Globetrotters and Nationals these days

[connorp]

That's the key thing. No other team sport has a game where 1 guy can take a s*** team to playoff team, or a playoff team to a champ like the NBA.

 

That being the case, the NBA should definitely look into ways to change their roster rules to try and spread out the star players more. Otherwise this will just keep going on, 1 dynasty team after another with all but 3 or 4 teams having even the slightest chance of a championship.

 

It's bad for the league.

 

I’m just really at a loss how you would “prevent” another GS from happening. They drafted 3 of their stars like I mentioned with fairly late lottery picks (in Green’s case 2nd round). The dynasty was also started with another such draft pick (Barnes). That’s how they went to Finals back-to-back. Before that no FA was lining up to come to GS. They had their guys on reasonable contracts and that let them have space to sign one max player (Durant), even though it meant letting one of their drafted guys walk somewhere else on a max deal (Barnes).

 

How many other teams have had the same opportunity with lottery picks every year? Often times with higher pics than GS too. Teams like the NYK have high draft picks all the time and live in basketball cities where FA are looking for a reason to come.

 

“Teaming up” goes back further than LeBron and as dineke pointed out, there were super teams way back when too when it wasn’t a level playing field like it is today.

 

GS should enjoy their fruits of a well-run orgianizion and it’s up to the others to knock them off. Almost happened last year vs Houston. Boston also could’ve been a legit threat to knock them off had they not caught a bad break with injuries (that maybe GS has to deal with one year).

 

If Philly didn’t miss on the Fultz pick, that would’ve been an exciting org to watch. Especially this off-season with space for a max player.

[connorp]

So many teams are guilty of handing out bad contracts and trading away or making bad draft picks. The system is just fine.

 

OKC is an example of team that had their shot and can’t develop players right. They had Durant, Harden, and Westbrook and let thet slip through the fingers. Actually they even just traded away Oladipo for a max deal player that’s not really much better; especially considering salary cap implications.

[John_Havok]

I’m just really at a loss how you would “prevent” another GS from happening. They drafted 3 of their stars like I mentioned with fairly late lottery picks (in Green’s case 2nd round). The dynasty was also started with another such draft pick (Barnes). That’s how they went to Finals back-to-back. Before that no FA was lining up to come to GS. They had their guys on reasonable contracts and that let them have space to sign one max player (Durant), even though it meant letting one of their drafted guys walk somewhere else on a max deal (Barnes).

 

How many other teams have had the same opportunity with lottery picks every year? Often times with higher pics than GS too. Teams like the NYK have high draft picks all the time and live in basketball cities where FA are looking for a reason to come.

 

“Teaming up” goes back further than LeBron and as dineke pointed out, there were super teams way back when too when it wasn’t a level playing field like it is today.

 

GS should enjoy their fruits of a well-run orgianizion and it’s up to the others to knock them off. Almost happened last year vs Houston. Boston also could’ve been a legit threat to knock them off had they not caught a bad break with injuries (that maybe GS has to deal with one year).

 

If Philly didn’t miss on the Fultz pick, that would’ve been an exciting org to watch. Especially this off-season with space for a max player.

 

I'm not knocking Golden State at all. Golden State has done everything right, got lucky along the way as well (you have to get lucky to some degree), but the more important thing they've done right is change the way the game is played and made the game itself more exciting. PLaying up-tempo, layup/3's early in the clock with unselfish ball movement and making the league change to combat what they do is the real triumph.

 

Having multiple HOF players on your team is the real issue. No league should want nearly all of their marquee talent in 2 or 3 cities. Yeah, it happens from time to time when teams take advantage of rules, get lucky in drafting, when players take massive discounts to play for a certain team when they could easily get more elsewhere - can't really control what players decide.... but nearly everytime this happens, it exposes a flaw in the system that needs to be corrected. You see similar things in MLB with the luxury tax, when they eliminated type A/B compensation picks, when they added competitive balance picks to smaller revenue teams... those were necessary changes to keep teams on the same-ish level playing field with the richest teams. If those rules were not in place, there'd probably be 3 or more less teams in MLB within the next few years and that cannot happen in any league. Contraction can be a killer.

 

The NBA is different from the other sports in this regard because they only have what... 14 roster spaces. 7 or 8 of which actually matter? When you get 2-3 HOF talents in those 7 or 8 spots with multiple all stars around them... it's game over for everyone else. Point is, when 27+ teams fans know they have no chance, apathy sets in and that can be the beginning of the end. The NBA is flooded with cash right now which will support the current landscape, but I can guarantee the commissioners office is looking at ways to try and tweak the system.

[connorp]

Besides GS hitting on their draft picks (and I agree there’s some luck inlvoved there but still props for scouting), you conceded they play the right way. Some recent examples of teams trying to add multiple stars to their team:

 

NO- Has a Top 3 player (Davis), acquires pre-injury Top 10-15 player (Cousins), signs a very good PG as a FA and has a couple decent supporting pieces as we saw in the playoffs. Result- Fail

 

OKC- Has a MVP Top 5-10 player (Westbrook), pairs him with a perennial AS and likely HOF Paul George, has some good role players to boot and then adds an aging HOF but still 20+ point scorer in Anthony. Result- Fail

 

San Antonio 2 years ago- Has a Top 4 player (Leonard), signs top free agent Alridge with a good supporting cast albeit it aging. Result- fail

 

Min- Has an emerging superstar (Towns), quality recent #1 pick Wiggins, adds perennial AS and possible HOF Jimmy Butler, also signs quality free agent PG. Result- Fail

 

LA Clippers (over the years)- Lots of All-star talent and quality supporting pieces. Result- Fail

 

Houston- Teams Top 3 player (Harden) with Chris Paul to go with quality supporting cast. Result- very close to knocking GS our

[jays_fever]

Cousins is going to take a long time to heal from the jnjury.

 

It made sense that he picked a team that would go deep in the playoffs to give himself time to recover and play for his next big contract.

[connorp]

Speaking of OKC:

 

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/23992991/raymond-felton-returning-oklahoma-city-thunder-1-year-24-million-deal

 

With salary cap penalties they’re looking at a historic payroll over $300m for a roster essentially like Tor’s that will be a playoff team but nothing else. Trying to correct mistakes of the past I guess (Harden)

[connorp]

Cousins is going to take a long time to heal from the jnjury.

 

It made sense that he picked a team that would go deep in the playoffs to give himself time to recover and play for his next big contract.

 

Apparently (though who knows) LA had first crack and passed him up. Kinda surprised, as a LeBron fan I would’ve been happy with that

[jays_fever]

He's a giant douche but really fun to watch.

 

Would have loved the raptors to grab him. I don't think my heart can take another 2 yrs of butterfingers ibaka

[Krylian]

DeRozan is on a list of players the Lakers may try to acquire this off-season.

[connorp]

You guys can have Lonzo Ball!

[Jonn]

Speaking of OKC:

 

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/23992991/raymond-felton-returning-oklahoma-city-thunder-1-year-24-million-deal

 

With salary cap penalties they’re looking at a historic payroll over $300m for a roster essentially like Tor’s that will be a playoff team but nothing else. Trying to correct mistakes of the past I guess (Harden)

 

If they use the stretch provision on Melo's contract. They can save 94 million on there tax bill this season. Pretty safe to say Melo won't be playing for OKC next year.

[Krylian]

You guys can have Lonzo Ball!

 

no.

[Abomination]

no.

 

Yeah, no with extreme prejudice. No way do I want anything to do with that family circus.

[Krylian]

Apparently the Raps are the odds on favorite to land Kawhi Leonard. Not sure who they'd have to give up, and Leonard had said he wouldn't sign with an Eastern Conference team except maybe the 76ers so I'm not sure if this is the right move, but interesting nonetheless.

[jays_fever]

OG, Delon and a expiring, JV?

 

Giving up both OG and Siakim if Leonard walks would be pretty brutal.

[connorp]

DD wiped his IG clean I read. So maybe he knows something or he just read the rumor and is being be giant baby lol

[Krylian]

DD wiped his IG clean I read. So maybe he knows something or he just read the rumor and is being be giant baby lol

 

Lol. Well. It would certainly be an upgrade for the Raps. Wonder what else they'd have to throw in to make it work