2019-2020 NBA thread

[lansdale]

Looks like KD signing with Nets, as predicted -- w/Kyrie and Deandre Jordan -- to kick off FA season. Heavy rumors of Kawhi to Lakers -- seems doubtful given limited cap space -- depressing if true.

[HHE10]

Originally Posted by lansdale

Heavy rumors of Kawhi to Lakers -- seems doubtful given limited cap space -- depressing if true.

Hope he stays in Toronto

[Robert Fischer]

Would love to see King take AD under his wing.


Anthony Davis has been successful with his biggest challenge from College - Pro, in that he's added muscle mass.

He has the physical attributes with his length, to do some things that few others in the NBA are able to do. He has a little bit of a different appearance, and his confidence and focus and attitude are at times, less than that of a dominant warrior and a winner.


Alternatively, LeBron has shouldered/embraced this load, and LeBron has the ability to get Anthony Davis to a higher level of mental and physical performance.

If King takes AD under his wing, the Lakers will win the 2019-2020 NBA Championship.

[cj]

George and Leonard to LAC, OKC with a big haul of draft picks and a very good young player (along with Gallinari---yawn).

I guess the upside is it stops the Lakers from creating a super super team. Screw LeBron. He started all of this.

I'm good with OKC doing the deal. After three first round exits, they weren't going anywhere. The west has only gotten better. It is probably a year too late but George signing forced them to try to hang in the race a little longer.

I am losing my love for the NBA. Too much players running the show. It has become basically players forming their own pick up teams. As I said, LeBron started it and has gotten beaten at his own game in recent years first by KD and now by Kawhi.

[ronsmac]

Originally Posted by cj

George and Leonard to LAC, OKC with a big haul of draft picks and a very good young player (along with Gallinari---yawn).

I guess the upside is it stops the Lakers from creating a super super team. Screw LeBron. He started all of this.

I'm good with OKC doing the deal. After three first round exits, they weren't going anywhere. The west has only gotten better. It is probably a year too late but George signing forced them to try to hang in the race a little longer.

I am losing my love for the NBA. Too much players running the show. It has become basically players forming their own pick up teams. As I said, LeBron started it and has gotten beaten at his own game in recent years first by KD and now by Kawhi.

I thought the 76ers started this way way back in the day?

[cj]

Originally Posted by ronsmac

I thought the 76ers started this way way back in the day?

I look at it differently today when the players are doing all the teaming up and then forcing management to facilitate it. I don't recall players having that kind of power (or at least using it) until more recent times. I guess Kareem did it a long time ago but it wasn't the norm.

[lansdale]

Originally Posted by cj

George and Leonard to LAC, OKC with a big haul of draft picks and a very good young player (along with Gallinari---yawn).

I guess the upside is it stops the Lakers from creating a super super team. Screw LeBron. He started all of this.

I'm good with OKC doing the deal. After three first round exits, they weren't going anywhere. The west has only gotten better. It is probably a year too late but George signing forced them to try to hang in the race a little longer.

I am losing my love for the NBA. Too much players running the show. It has become basically players forming their own pick up teams. As I said, LeBron started it and has gotten beaten at his own game in recent years first by KD and now by Kawhi.

Amazing move by Kawhi -- he out Lebronned Lebron -- gutting the Raps and OKC in the process. This has made the Clips 3-1 favorites (rightly, imho) to win the title. Gotta say I feel the pain of OKC fans -- many now apparently calling for Presti to be fired, although he obviously had no choice, and didn't get a bad deal -- still think the team will struggle to reach .500 with this line-up. Still wish Westbrook had taken my advice and signed with Celts a couple years back, but he never has listened to me!

With Danny Green now moving to Lakers, they also get better, but still seem very much an underlay at 4-1. With departure of Butler/arrival of Horford, Sixers drop a peg-- don't think they now have a shot, and with the decline of Raps, Bucks look like a much stronger favorite to win the east.

I don't think you can say player-created teams are becoming the norm -- there are now only three -- Lakers, Clips, and Nets -- out of 30 teams. But with a sport which, by its very nature, is dominated by a handful of the best players, this is an inevitable by-product. It also gives teams which have never won before, or haven't won in awhile, like Cleveland, GSW, and maybe now the Clips, a chance to win, so I don't have a problem with it. In any case, with the city of LA now having 4 of the 10 best players in the world, it now becomes NBA central.

[lansdale]

Good summary of the shake-up in the NBA caused by today's moves, from Nate Silver's 538 site.



https://fivethirtyeight.com/features...-stun-the-nba/

[Robert Fischer]

Rondo resigns, Demarcus Cousins to Lakers

[cj]

Originally Posted by lansdale

Amazing move by Kawhi -- he out Lebronned Lebron -- gutting the Raps and OKC in the process,,.

It was time for OKC. They had one of the highest payrolls in the league, had lost in the first round three years in a row, and not only that but lost to teams that weren't even contenders the last two years in Utah and Portland. I wouldn't say they were gutted. The actually did really well in this trade.

In the long run, they essentially flipped Serge Ibaka for the entire haul in the George trade. It just took a couple years to get there.

Serge was traded for Oladipo and Sabonis.
Those two were flipped for George.
George flipped for a very promising young player in Shai Galgeous-Alexander that you can build on, a really solid pro in Gallaneri, and a boatload of #1 picks.

Who knows how it will work out, but things were going nowhere and the team would have struggled to even make the playoffs this year. George is coming off a pretty serious surgery and will probably miss a month of the upcoming season. The Clippers can handle that, OKC would have really struggled.

Westbrook will be next. There is no point in staying in the luxury tax for this team as constructed. I'll miss the guy. He was far from the perfect player, but he played hard every night and wasn't looking to buddy up with his pals. He wasn't afraid to take on anyone and did some amazing things that I was lucky enough to witness in person.

[Robert Fischer]

it's an entertainment business

this year, LeBron and Roethlisberger's brands are fully matured.

If health cooperates, you have figure these guys will get a great trip, and be in position to win a ring.

gold rings gold uniforms gold for the owners...

[lansdale]

Originally Posted by cj

It was time for OKC. They had one of the highest payrolls in the league, had lost in the first round three years in a row, and not only that but lost to teams that weren't even contenders the last two years in Utah and Portland. I wouldn't say they were gutted. The actually did really well in this trade.

In the long run, they essentially flipped Serge Ibaka for the entire haul in the George trade. It just took a couple years to get there.

Serge was traded for Oladipo and Sabonis.
Those two were flipped for George.
George flipped for a very promising young player in Shai Galgeous-Alexander that you can build on, a really solid pro in Gallaneri, and a boatload of #1 picks.

Who knows how it will work out, but things were going nowhere and the team would have struggled to even make the playoffs this year. George is coming off a pretty serious surgery and will probably miss a month of the upcoming season. The Clippers can handle that, OKC would have really struggled.

Westbrook will be next. There is no point in staying in the luxury tax for this team as constructed. I'll miss the guy. He was far from the perfect player, but he played hard every night and wasn't looking to buddy up with his pals. He wasn't afraid to take on anyone and did some amazing things that I was lucky enough to witness in person.

Looks like things are changing by the hour now -- OKC has already moved Jerami Grant and per his request, looking to move Westbrook also. Detroit seeming like the most likely destination for him at this point, but the way this off-season is going, impossible to know. So now that they're going to blow it up and rebuild, impossible to say anything about OKC's future, except that it's good they've got those picks.

Take your point re Presti on the Paul deal, and the long-term Ibaka-for-George, which others have made. But if you look at the big picture, who really made out best from those deals? Ibaka -- who, after being shrewdly re-tooled as an offensive weapon in Toronto, now has a championship ring, and Paul, who is now on a leading contender --- not OKC, which is now in limbo.

Presti is probably the most polarizing GM in the league -- everybody has a strong opinion about him, but can't decide whether he's a genius or an idiot. To sum up, I would say he was great at drafting players (the HOF big three) and acquiring talent, generally, but bad at seeing how those pieces would fit together -- they often didn't -- and player training and development overall.

Where the team made its biggest and most crucial mistake -- and this may not be on Presti--was in not replacing Brooks, who allowed KD and WB to continue with the hero-ball which was never going to cut in late playoff rournds, with a different coach until it was too late. And when they did replace him, the choice of Billy Donovan just compounded this mistake.

But as you say, it's a great privilege to have been able to watch three of the greatest (two post-Harden) ever to play the game, on a regular basis, one available to fans in only a few NBA cities in its history.

Below, a link from Nate's 538 site, summing up the look for possible deals for Westbrook.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features...brook-fit-now/

[lansdale]

Don't know if this is a bigger nightmare for Harden, Paul, or cj, but Westbrook was apparently okay with this after the Miami deal broke down. This actually gives WB his best shot at the title in years. And with Paul, Gallinari, Adams, Roberson, Thunder should make the playoffs. NBA fans completely lost in twilight zone of weird deals.

[cj]

Originally Posted by lansdale

Don't know if this is a bigger nightmare for Harden, Paul, or cj, but Westbrook was apparently okay with this after the Miami deal broke down. This actually gives WB his best shot at the title in years. And with Paul, Gallinari, Adams, Roberson, Thunder should make the playoffs. NBA fans completely lost in twilight zone of weird deals.

Paul isn't going to stay. He'll be moved, maybe to Miami.

[ReplayRandall]

Originally Posted by cj

Paul isn't going to stay. He'll be moved, maybe to Miami.

OKC has a better shot than Miami, even without Westbrook....Miami as no shot.