NBA Off-Season Thread

[nelsonmuntz]

I am not sure what question Javalle McGee and Lance Stevenson are the answer for, but the Lakers apparently asked it. Lakers are up to about 11 players under contract, and it looks like they are backfiling for a roster dump, which might occur if they have to trade for Kawhi.

Losing Ariza is not a big loss for Houston. He wasn't much of a scorer, and Houston's bench can probably fill in most of the holes Ariza left. Houston must re-sign Chris Paul.

Warriors are still the front runners in the west.

Denver did the right thing with Jokic.

I like the Spurs moves so far, but solving the Kawhi issue is the whole show for the Spurs.

Philadelphia lost two key reserves, and doesn't have much to offer the Spurs for Kawhi. They have a ton of cap space, but if they don't move soon, they will end up overpaying for a bunch of mediocre talent just to fill out the roster.

The best move for the Celtics may be to do nothing.

Bucks had a good day bringing back Ilyasova, who I have always liked a lot. Jabari Parker appears to be finished in Milwaukee.

Orlando wins the award for panic signing of the day, paying Aaron Gordon $84 million over the next 4 to be an average, bad-team 4.

 

[ihatepants]

Must be kind of special for LeBron since his mom went to the West too.

 

[Scoe]

Hand them the trophy now.

GS and HOU are still the top 2 teams in the West as of now.

 

[Scoe]

Must be kind of special for LeBron since his mom went to the West too.

Or did the West go to her we all knew it went inside of her.

 

[superjohn]

I am not sure what question Javalle McGee and Lance Stevenson are the answer for, but the Lakers apparently asked it. Lakers are up to about 11 players under contract, and it looks like they are backfiling for a roster dump, which might occur if they have to trade for Kawhi.

Losing Ariza is not a big loss for Houston. He wasn't much of a scorer, and Houston's bench can probably fill in most of the holes Ariza left. Houston must re-sign Chris Paul.

Warriors are still the front runners in the west.

Denver did the right thing with Jokic.

I like the Spurs moves so far, but solving the Kawhi issue is the whole show for the Spurs.

Philadelphia lost two key reserves, and doesn't have much to offer the Spurs for Kawhi. They have a ton of cap space, but if they don't move soon, they will end up overpaying for a bunch of mediocre talent just to fill out the roster.

The best move for the Celtics may be to do nothing.

Bucks had a good day bringing back Ilyasova, who I have always liked a lot. Jabari Parker appears to be finished in Milwaukee.

Orlando wins the award for panic signing of the day, paying Aaron Gordon $84 million over the next 4 to be an average, bad-team 4.

Day late and a dollar short, Houston already signed Paul to a 4 year max contract.

 

[superjohn]

Celtics are right there, everyone else totally stinks in the East though.

My bad, Philly doesn't totally stink but they aren't contenders. The rest of the East really stinks though.

 

[superjohn]

Must be kind of special for LeBron since his mom went to the West too.

Haha, well done.

 

[Stainmaster]

Well LeBron has his Big 3 now.

 

[navery12]

I am not sure what question Javalle McGee and Lance Stevenson are the answer for, but the Lakers apparently asked it. Lakers are up to about 11 players under contract, and it looks like they are backfiling for a roster dump, which might occur if they have to trade for Kawhi.

Losing Ariza is not a big loss for Houston. He wasn't much of a scorer, and Houston's bench can probably fill in most of the holes Ariza left. Houston must re-sign Chris Paul.

Warriors are still the front runners in the west.

Denver did the right thing with Jokic.

I like the Spurs moves so far, but solving the Kawhi issue is the whole show for the Spurs.

Philadelphia lost two key reserves, and doesn't have much to offer the Spurs for Kawhi. They have a ton of cap space, but if they don't move soon, they will end up overpaying for a bunch of mediocre talent just to fill out the roster.

The best move for the Celtics may be to do nothing.

Bucks had a good day bringing back Ilyasova, who I have always liked a lot. Jabari Parker appears to be finished in Milwaukee.

Orlando wins the award for panic signing of the day, paying Aaron Gordon $84 million over the next 4 to be an average, bad-team 4.

Aaron Gordon at $84M was the best signing of the day, that's a steal

 

[Lefty2one]

Stephen A. saying GM's around the league are saying if Spurs don't get a deal done to ship Kawhi to the Lakers Leonard could sit out all of next year.

Just negotiation/scare tactics. If he's healthy and volunteers sitting out then he doesn't get paid. That ain't happening. Also just read that if he sits out an entire year that he will not be a FA next summer, according to the CBA, since he didn't fulfil his contract's obligations.

Boston fans must be thrilled with the LeBron news. Unless Philly gets Kawhi they aren't a real threat in the East IMO. They'll put up a good fight but Boston is still a matchup nightmare for them. I'm curious to see what the Bucks can do with a competent coach. They'll probably be a bigger threat to Boston than Philly will.

LeBron to LA is all about non-basketball life. Surprised he's waving the white flag at age 33/34 but maybe the Lakers will be able to pull off some crazy stuff after all. I'll be disappointed if Pop/Buford give in and trade Kawhi to the Lakers.

 

[MadDogRevival]

Just negotiation/scare tactics. If he's healthy and volunteers sitting out then he doesn't get paid.

You don't think he has a doctor who says he can't play, if need be?
And injuries pop up all the time, you know.
And Kawhi is famous for being his own man and very frugal. One of the reasons the Spurs liked him so much is because the guy was still driving the same SUV when he was interviewed originally, and when asked why, he said something to the effect of, "It runs fine - no sense spending money on a new one."
Kawhi believes he has been wronged by the Spurs. It's not impossible that he could tell them to fudge off for a year.

And the Spurs will have massive pressure to trade him now that he's made it clear he won't play for them again. They have an asset that they could trade for a bunch of assets in return. Any sane businessperson would trade that asset in a heartbeat rather than have it languish for a year and then disappear, with no value received in return.
And what other organization would trade for Kawhi now that he's poisoned the well? You'd risk giving up assets and having Kawhi show up with an irritated patella, missing the whole year, and then he goes UFR on your @22 and the only difference between that and the Spurs is who ends up with the hot potato when the music stops.

And the Spurs are going to get less than he's worth, because the Lakers know they only have one choice.

Sucks for the Spurs, but maybe they should have been a bit more proactive handling a guy who has been huge for them, never needed much in the way of coddling, and is easily a top 5 player in the league.

 

[superjohn]

I don't think Kawhi is going anywhere.

 

[uconnphil2016]

If the Lakers don’t trade Lonzo Ball ASAP they’re idiots. LeBron and LaVar Ball together in LA sounds like a recipe for a disastrous locker room

 

[superjohn]

If the Lakers don’t trade Lonzo Ball ASAP they’re idiots. LeBron and LaVar Ball together in LA sounds like a recipe for a disastrous locker room

It's also hard to see how they play together.

 

[uconnbaseball]

If LeBron wanted to guarantee himself a championship over the next 4 years, he would have signed with Houston, Philly, Denver, or (egad) Utah. Sadly, a team like the Jazz just isn't good enough to hold his gigantic ego.

 

[auror]

The 3+1 contract gives the Lakers the flexibility to wait this out. Build the team slow, let BI/Kuzma/Lonzo develop. Not sell the farm for Kawhi (but still obviously add him if possible, whether in trade or otherwise).

LeBron Jr. is starting his first (of 4 obviously) years in high school in LA this year.

Makes a lot of sense.

 

[Lefty2one]

You don't think he has a doctor who says he can't play, if need be?

To that level? No. One year of that stuff, for his injury, was a stretch. You're not milking that for another 12 months.

 

[Lefty2one]

If LeBron wanted to guarantee himself a championship over the next 4 years, he would have signed with Houston, Philly, Denver, or (egad) Utah. Sadly, a team like the Jazz just isn't good enough to hold his gigantic ego.

I've seen Denver mentioned a couple times in the last 72 hours and I don't understand why. That team isn't even close to sniffing a title with LeBron.

 

[Lefty2one]

The 3+1 contract gives the Lakers the flexibility to wait this out. Build the team slow, let BI/Kuzma/Lonzo develop. Not sell the farm for Kawhi (but still obviously add him if possible, whether in trade or otherwise).

The only issue is that GSW likely isn't breaking up over the next four years. Maybe they'll lose Draymond. But I think LeBron is fine with it; winning clearly isn't a top priority anymore and that's fine.

 

[husky429]

The 3+1 contract gives the Lakers the flexibility to wait this out. Build the team slow, let BI/Kuzma/Lonzo develop. Not sell the farm for Kawhi (but still obviously add him if possible, whether in trade or otherwise).

LeBron Jr. is starting his first (of 4 obviously) years in high school in LA this year.

Makes a lot of sense.

Bronny Jr. Is going into 8th grade

 

[uconnbaseball]

I've seen Denver mentioned a couple times in the last 72 hours and I don't understand why. That team isn't even close to sniffing a title with LeBron.

Murray + Jokic + Harris + Barton is much, much better than the Lakers young core. Denver could easily compete for a championship with LeBron. That team won 46 games last year despite their injuries and Jokic is a match-up nightmare for GS.

The Lakers cannot without another star, although they will probably get one. They should have looked at Capela...

 

[uconnbaseball]

My bad, Philly doesn't totally stink but they aren't contenders. The rest of the East really stinks though.

The Jazz could miss the playoffs in the West and would be the 3 seed in the East.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Aaron Gordon at $84M was the best signing of the day, that's a steal

You can like Aaron Gordon and think that $21 million a year was a bad deal for Orlando. He is a 17 ppg swing forward on a bad team and all his shooting percentage numbers and deep stats are just OK. He will probably get better, but he has been in the NBA for 4 years, so there is a lot of data to work with on him. He also had injury issues.

$64 million for 4 years would have been reasonable. $84 is in the ballpark of a player like the Greek Freak, which is ridiculous, especially in a year like this one where almost no one has cap space. Orlando cut a bad deal.

 

[ihatepants]

Sucks for the Spurs, but maybe they should have been a bit more proactive handling a guy who has been huge for them, never needed much in the way of coddling, and is easily a top 5 player in the league.

Can you really blame the Spurs or Spurs fans, though? Kawhi ghosted the Spurs all year to form a super team in his hometown with LeBron. The team needed him to step up and help them and he didn’t. Instead, he decided to doctor shop for someone willing to say that his injury was bad enough to be able to play a “will he or won’t he” game with the team for an entire season. He eventually found his man in the Sixers’ former chief medical officer who assisted in the procedure that kept Ben Simmons out for a year on an injury that was only supposed to take 8-10 weeks to recover.

It’s entirely in Kawhi’s and his handlers’ best interest to make the Spurs look as bad as possible. I mean the worst and most dramatic thing they could come up with as a rationale for not being able to forgive the organization was Tony Parker comparing his injury to Kawhi’s. His decision doesn’t seem to be solely driven by his view of the Spurs or how they handled things, because otherwise he wouldn’t be telling every team that he’s going to go to the Lakers anyway during free agency next year.

 

[MadDogRevival]

I don't think Kawhi is going anywhere.

Noted.