NBA Off-Season Thread

[MadDogRevival]

So has Golden State beaten the system?

That is, they have become the place where uber-rich guys can go to take a pay cut in exchange for winning a championship?
Durant was first.
Boogie is next.
Does Westbrook stop in when his contract expires?

 

[husky429]

My only hope is that boogie's awful attitude ruins the locker room for GSW.

What is the point of watching the NBA now? We all know who is winning already.

So frustrating as a Celtics fan. Top 2-3 coach in the league, good young talent drafted, bringing in some stars. Favorite in the east and STILL the finals is all but guaranteed to be a 4-0 blowout for GSW.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

My only hope is that boogie's awful attitude ruins the locker room for GSW.

And the thing is this isn't some moribund outfit like Sacramento where he's going to steamroll everyone he disagrees with. They've got the locker room to keep him in check. And if it doesn't work out they're only out $5M. Really a kick in the ___ for the rest of the league.

 

[the Q]

What is the solution? Hard cap? I am still going to watch random weekday league pass games but this can't be good for the league, right?

Joe Lacob is now light years ahead of the rest of the league. Sickening.

Going back to the old sign and trade rules instead of the laughably short sighted changed that were made is a step in the right direction.

This doesn’t happen with stuff like that available.

 

[auror]

@tomhaberstroh: The Warriors are literally an All-NBA starting lineup from 2015-16
PG: Stephen Curry (1st team)
SG: Klay Thompson (3rd)
SF: Kevin Durant (2nd)
PF: Draymond Green (2nd)
C: DeMarcus Cousins (2nd)
Shared via TweetCaster

 

[Rocktheworld]

5.3 million? lol like some aging vet chasing rings? Jesus... we'll see how the Achilles holds up though

 

[Purple Stein]

Perfect! The most easily hated dude in the league goes to the most easily hated team in the league.
If Khawi goes to the Lakers, the NBA is just getting stupid.
Not sure what to do about it, but what, exactly, is the incentive of fans of the teams outside of the top few to even go to games?
For people more tuned in to the NBA than me, isn't 5 mill severely underpaying this guy?

I'm really looking forward to watching the Nuggets this year -- they have a great young core and could have a really good team.

And by a really good team I mean the 8 seed in the West and the first sacrificial lamb for Boogie and company.

 

[JimHurley]

The Warriors would now beat the Eastern Coneference All-Stars.

 

[superjohn]

Tyreke Evans will probably also be a Warrior.

 

[Jaker]

Hopefully the Big Baller Brand gets run out of LA.

 

[uconnphil2016]

What is the solution? Hard cap? I am still going to watch random weekday league pass games but this can't be good for the league, right?

Joe Lacob is now light years ahead of the rest of the league. Sickening.

Awful for the league. I’m a Celtics fan and there’s still no point in watching...the eastern conference finals will basically be our championship. Silver has a huge problem on his hands. This year’s finals was already unwatchable and now next year’s will be even less competitive. What they should do is make it so that deals need to go thru the commissioners office and to be confirmed need to keep the league competitive....hasn’t this happened in the past?

 

[AdamaNation]

I hate Lonzo as much as anyone and he really has no shooting ability, but he’s not really a bad pick. He just happened to be in the same draft class as 4 guys who have exceeded expectations. He’s still the 4th or 5th best player in that draft class.

Lonzo is very bad in half court offense. He is a positive at pretty much every thing else (transition, defense, rebounding). But man, the dude is extremely bad at putting the ball into the hoop.

So was Jason Kidd sans issue daddy if I recall.

 

[AdamaNation]

Awful for the league. I’m a Celtics fan and there’s still no point in watching...the eastern conference finals will basically be our championship. Silver has a huge problem on his hands. This year’s finals was already unwatchable and now next year’s will be even less competitive. What they should do is make it so that deals need to go thru the commissioners office and to be confirmed need to keep the league competitive....hasn’t this happened in the past?

Agree

 

[AdamaNation]

All of a sudden the new lakers are looking like the old cavaliers. Maybe they can sign Deandre Jordan too and go for the full on defense team or pull a surprise and see KD demand a trade mid season or even Anthony Davis, the freak or Andre? Idk but can’t blame GST but this kind of takes all the excitement out of next year and if you ask me gives Boston a great shot at kawhi now.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Achilles injuries are no joke. I will withhold judgment on Cousins to the Warriors for now.

I don't get any of the Lakers' moves. McGee, Stephenson and Rondo are a sideshow, not the final pieces to a championship team. Did the Lakers really need to jump on these three? They couldn't have waited a couple of days? I actually liked the Laker team that finished the season more than what they have done to it excluding Lebron. At least they had enough sense to re-sign Caldwell-Pope. Randle and Lopez are a better front court than McGee and I am not even sure who else plays up front. Letting Randle go was one of the dumbest moves any team has made this offseason, and now they have to re-sign Lopez. If I am any team in the west with cap space I am calling Lopez's agent tonight just to block him from going back to the Lakers. I like Kuzma, but it looks like the plan is to bury him on the bench. Ignoring the Lavar Ball nonsense, Lonzo had a solid rookie season. I don't think he will ever be an all-star, but he is big and smart and could be effective playing with LeBron.

Just to pound on the Lakers some more, if they wanted Kawhi, it would have made senses to keep Randle and show that they think Kuzma has value. Instead, they dump Randle and bury Kuzma on the bench, undermining the value of their own asset. Kuzma and Randle could have been a reasonable starting point for a trade for Kawhi. I don't see a single player on the Lakers roster that is tradeable for Kawhi at this point.

Not surprisingly, I think the Pelicans won the day. Rondo is a short, 32 year old point guard that can't shoot and is not the greatest in the clubhouse. He is a half a step of quickness from being useless, so I don't see his departure as a big loss. Randle is a nice pickup.

Utah and Denver are running into cap problems. Utah had to re-sign Favors and Denver had to show a lot of love to Jokic, but those two teams are tapped and they have some rookie contracts expiring in the next couple of years.

Philadelphia is running out of time. The have gotten themselves stuck in the position of paying $12 million to a 34 year old 2 guard coming off of a career year. Letting Bellini and Ilyasova go was stupid given how much cap room they had. Who is left for them to pick up that could move the needle. I don't think they have enough trade bait for Kawhi. Do they sign Jabari Parker?

Edit: This guy agrees with me on the Lakers:

After landing LeBron James in free agency, what on Earth have the Lakers done with their roster?

 

[the Q]

He could have gotten a 1 yr max, I think, but teams are hesitant to add years. Now he hopes to show he is fully healthy and sign a long term max with some non Warrior team. He is probably sacrificing 20 million over 1 year to play with the Warriors

I don’t think that’s true.

This was a bad market to be a center in. And wih the mags choosing Jordan over him and NO randle, it left him without an obvious home.

The injury played a huge factor in his market as well. Just another time the stars have lined up for the warriors

 

[the Q]

Awful for the league. I’m a Celtics fan and there’s still no point in watching...the eastern conference finals will basically be our championship. Silver has a huge problem on his hands. This year’s finals was already unwatchable and now next year’s will be even less competitive. What they should do is make it so that deals need to go thru the commissioners office and to be confirmed need to keep the league competitive....hasn’t this happened in the past?

I can’t even begin to describe what an awful idea this is. If it’s within the Cap rules, there’s no reason to not allow it.

The league never should’ve even allowed the hornets to trade Chris Paul after the veto, this would be doing that all the time.

 

[Walker11]

I don’t think that’s true.

This was a bad market to be a center in. And wih the mags choosing Jordan over him and NO randle, it left him without an obvious home.

The injury played a huge factor in his market as well. Just another time the stars have lined up for the warriors

You are right. The speculation prior to FA was that he would get a 1 or 2 year max and that is what I assumed. Apparently the teams with money didn't want him in their locker room and know one offered more than the full MLE.

 

[the Q]

You are right. The speculation prior to FA was that he would get a 1 or 2 year max and that is what I assumed. Apparently the teams with money didn't want him in their locker room and know one offered more than the full MLE.

The teams with the room to make a competitive offer were like sacto (yeah right), Chicago (but they have portis and just took carter), Indiana (already has Myles turner, Sabonis and leaf as young bigs who need time), the lakers (did....something), and Philly (embiid)

Not a great in the lot.

 

[the Q]

Again, the inability make sign and trades anymore and having the draft ass-backwards with it occurring before fa hurt the fa market.

One of the few things the nfl does right is fa before the draft

 

[superjohn]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/nypost...d-set-a-kyrie-irving-superteam-in-motion/amp/

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Philadelphia helps Denver out with a salary dump of Wilson Chandler. Underwhelming pickup and a generally underwhelming offseason for a Philadelphia team that probably opens next season as the #2 team in the East.

Wizards jumping on the Dwight Howard hand grenade. I think Howard will continue to be the selfish player that is a locker room cancer and plays intermittent defense, but between this and signing Jeff Green, I will give the Wizards credit for trying. They have one of the best backcourts in the NBA with Wall and Beal, and the window to turn that into something is closing.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Again, the inability make sign and trades anymore and having the draft ass-backwards with it occurring before fa hurt the fa market.

One of the few things the nfl does right is fa before the draft

The free agent signing period should be after the draft. Rosters would be a mess otherwise.

Let's not assume that we know something about Cousins that no other NBA team knows, because everyone passed on him.

 

[the Q]

The free agent signing period should be after the draft. Rosters would be a mess otherwise.

Let's not assume that we know something about Cousins that no other NBA team knows, because everyone passed on him.

How so? The nfl does it and proves that statement is entirely false.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

How so? The nfl does it and proves that statement is entirely false.

"The NFL does it" is a compelling argument for why you definitively know better than the NBA.

 

[the Q]

"The NFL does it" is a compelling argument for why you definitively know better than the NBA.

You said it wouldn’t work. I provided an easy model for how it does.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

76ers sign Bjelica from the Timberwolves to $4.4 million for one year. He averaged 6.8 ppg in 20 mpg last year, which is the best year of his NBA career, and he is 30 years old. This guy is no better than an NBA minimum caliber talent. This makes the second player (Reddick is the other) that the 76ers signed for above market money coming off a career year in their 30's. Wilson Chandler seems to be in a rapid decline, is also in his 30's, and throw in Amir Johnson who is a shell of his former self, and the 76ers pissed away almost $30 million of cap space on over the hill free agents that, other than maybe Reddick, won't help them at all.

How did the 76ers not jump all over Cousins?

 

[CardiacAndre7]

76ers sign Bjelica from the Timberwolves to $4.4 million for one year. He averaged 6.8 ppg in 20 mpg last year, which is the best year of his NBA career, and he is 30 years old. This guy is no better than an NBA minimum caliber talent. This makes the second player (Reddick is the other) that the 76ers signed for above market money coming off a career year in their 30's. Wilson Chandler seems to be in a rapid decline, is also in his 30's, and throw in Amir Johnson who is a shell of his former self, and the 76ers pissed away almost $30 million of cap space on over the hill free agents that, other than maybe Reddick, won't help them at all.

How did the 76ers not jump all over Cousins?

Uh...Embiid is there

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Uh...Embiid is there

Anthony Davis was on the Pelicans. Is having more good players better or worse for a team?

If the 76ers passed on paying Cousins $5.3 million because they honestly don't think he will play next season, then they made a smart move. If they just didn't think it through or bother to call him, then they are idiots.

 

[CardiacAndre7]

Anthony Davis was on the Pelicans. Is having more good players better or worse for a team?

If the 76ers passed on paying Cousins $5.3 million because they honestly don't think he will play next season, then they made a smart move. If they just didn't think it through or bother to call him, then they are idiots.

Anthony Davis is incredibly versatile, Cousins and Embiid are also don’t get me wrong, but they would clog up the paint and don’t have the perimeter defense to play them as a 4/5 IMO