Yumcha

Bulls got used when LeBron had his travelling road show before he signed with the LeHeat.

Kinda funny he got a taste of his own medicine if what Kawhi allegedly did to screw the Lakers is true. Hoping the Clippers win the Title next year...I've become quite the Kawhi fan after watching his playoff run this year.

DriverOne

Sure, but the reality is LeBron didn't get a taste of any medicine. He's still semi-controlling the entire league. He went to the Lakers, basically kicked everyone off their roster, made them give up half a decade of their draft to acquire Davis, and then seemingly almost got Leonard. And he's "screwed" because they're only the second-favorite odds to win the championship. Meanwhile, he's going to leave there in two years anyways, which would ordinarily screw Davis. Except now, players can leave any team any time they want by just demanding a trade, thanks to Leonard's example of just sitting out a year and being paid guaranteed money by just claiming a mysterious injury.

The NBA is now only a league that people follow for individual players. Rooting for a team is completely meaningless because your team could completely change rosters in one year. It could go from nobody to contender to nobody in two years. Look at the Raptors. Poor old Demar Derozen was their most recognizable player and he actually liked the franchise and he got shipped off. Kyle Lowry was their second most recognizable player and now he's stuck on a team that will be in lottery contention for the forseeable future. Most likely he'll end up being traded. Even the actual championship doesn't matter any more. I know everyone loves debating whether the Warriors were better than the '90s Bulls, but does anyone actually care? You can basically buy a championship now, which is unlike any other sport. Every year, one of the two NBA conferences has a clear "pencil in" candidate for the Finals. Last year, it was the West with the Warriors. So the only question was who they would face from the East. And in the East, it was really only up for grabs between three teams. So if you had a four-team NBA and maybe a 16 game regular season, you would have had as much drama and excitement.

The actual on-court product is so boring that the only thing people ever talk about with regards to the NBA are "player beefs" or what they write on their Twitter accounts or the NBA draft. That's pathetic.

oo7spy

You know who else really screwed up the game of basketball?

Chamberlain.

Rick_TL-S

When all is said and done, it's going to be an exciting season for LA fans. No more reason to jump ship or have fake fans when both sides of Staple Center have legitimate title contenders.

oonowindoo

meh..as said before.. LA has and always will be a Lakers city... Even if Clippers won a title next year, it is not going to change that....

Clippers should move to Vegas.. or San Diego if they want to have their own fan base....

With that being said.. we never know what is going to happen... injuries will happen and season ending injury seems happen quite often to both old and young players... you never know...The past year was a perfect example...

oonowindoo

I personally think the Kawhi should have stayed in Toronto and build his own legacy.... even if he needed to bring PG there too..... The whole country was already standing behind him... vs. Clippers that most of the people in LA dont give a shit about...
While i hoped Kawhi would have joined the Lakers, but i also didn't think it was fun to watch anymore.... So part of me glad he didnt come to the Lakers... But Clippers???? He will always be looking at the 16 banners in the Staple Center that Clippers don't have.

MSZ

According to the reports, he did ask Masai to pull a trade to bring PG to Toronto. Masai simply didn't want to give up so many assets to OKC.

Doom878

That sounds legit because Clips mortgaged their future big time. What was it, most picks ever in a trade? NBA offseason is crack.

Rick_TL-S

Except Leonard didn't want to play with LeBron but still wanted to go back home. That had been reported for months that the Clippers were a legitimate destination for him.

I doubt Leonard cares about those banners anyway. All of them were won before he even got in the league. Nothing he can do about that....

oonowindoo

I also read reports that Clippers were out a week or so prior to the decision... i mean if he didnt wanna play with LeBron, which i absolutely understand... then just say It was between Clips or Raptors...

we will see how this thing turns out this time next year...

Rick_TL-S

It was being said since late last year. This is from Broussard.
Shams Charani was another last year reporting Kawhi's preference of LAC over LAL as well because of LeBron.

Adrian Woj. reported way back in Sept. as well that LAC was the frontrunner, but didn't mention LeBron.

oonowindoo

I also read that Kawhi went to Clips was because Magic leaked the info from their negotiation meetings when his manager specifically told everyone to keep it confidential...

We probably will never know why he decided on the Clippers. But it is his decision... Just dont understand why such players at this stage of his career would want to be in the shadow of Lakers even if he does win a ring for the Clippers..
Whatever.. let the game talks..

Yumcha

At least the Title isn't pre-ordained next season. Should make for a more interesting season. Warriors still have Curry, Green, and Russell. So, they aren't too shabby.

oo7spy

The Clippers have no Conference Titles. You don’t even have to talk about The Finals.

If Kawhi can win a title for them after taking Toronto all the way in one year... it doesn’t matter who you root for in LA. That would be legendary.

Doom878

At least for this season it looks like no team will have more than 2 "super" stars since Klay is out for the year.

Yumcha

Thank goodness. TBH, sick and tired of these mega-teams.

Yumcha

Albeit, you COULD argue that the 6ers have a 3-headed monster in Harris, Embiid, and Simmons...?

oonowindoo

I thought they were gonna sign and trade Russell...

oonowindoo

Dont think any one of them is in the same Superstar category as Lebron, AD, KD, Kawhi or arguably Curry.

oonowindoo

Imagine if that trade actually goes through .... Westbrook and Harden fighting for the ball...

Doom878

No. Embiid is probably the best but Simmons is too young and has shooting issues. Harris is good not superstar good.

Yumcha

K...after posting that about the 6ers, I think it was a reach to consider Harris, Embiid, and Simmons as the "big 3". Milwaukee is deep but they don't have an uber-star either past the Greek Freak.

The East will be the wild, wild west then since Jersey isn't going to have Kraft Dinner around next season. Maybe the Bulls have a chance.



Not.

Yumcha

Would've been wayyyy better if Butler went there.






...for comedic/Jerry-Springer purposes.

DriverOne

The NBA is boring and has been for a while. I'm speaking from the point of view of a very casual fan, as in I might watch some highlights here and there. So maybe I won't have the same context as you guys, who seem to be more hardcore. But in the recent past, all it's been are "superteams." And I know the argument that in the past there have been dynasties and everyone celebrates them or there have been teams with lots of Hall of Famers on them, like Celtics and Lakers and Bulls. I'm just casual, so I can't tell you the difference, but all I know is that there is a difference. Maybe it's because these teams aren't really constructed. They're just like "aaaaayyyy, me an' so and so got to talking over the summer and decided we feel like playing together, so make it happen." Or maybe it's that you have a very good team that then happens to add on the best or second best player in the league. Even now, everyone suddenly is celebrating how "wide open" the league is, but it's really not. It's just that instead of one team having really good odds, it's, what, four? Maybe five?

In a similar vein, the other storylines -- since nobody actually cared about the regular seasons -- revolved around "historic stats," like Harden's offensive power or Westbrook's two seasons worth of triple-doubles. But speaking as a casual fan, Harden's only an "unstoppable offensive force" because he gets everyone to foul him with ticky-tack drawn fouls or will travel by just strolling around the court. He's not even fun to watch, he's just a ball-stopper. And Westbrook's stats were amazing, but then you watch him and you're thinking "uh ...hey, he's not actually that good a shooter, which is weird because he's supposed to be one of the best basketball players in generations." Basically, doesn't he just run out-of-control at the basket and then nobody plays defense and then he dunks the ball in a herky-jerky way?

And then now we have players under contract who can just demand trades. Which is ridiculous in a league with 100% guaranteed contracts. OK, if you're going to talk about the NFL and how they can just cut you one year into a 5 year contract, we can have a discussion about it. But in a league where they were paying relative no-names like Allen Houston (?) in New York for what seemed like 10 years after he retired or contracts are so bad that people literally will trade for someone just to take on their $30 million contract so it will expire, that should be illegal.

Doom878

Filthy casual! I will def agree that the NBA is the easiest to predict once the playoffs start of the major leagues. Their seeding is typically on point so the sample size of the regular season holds consistency. DriverOne, can you tell me which team you felt was just constructed per your example? I have noticed though that it is really hard to acquire more stars without stars. Once LeBron left Miami, it was hard for the Heat to acquire any top talent. Butler is probably the first and we are all locally wondering how and why we landed him for less money and winning chance vs Philly. Point is, many times a team has to overpay for a star to attract talent. Kawhi doesn't go to LA without PG, AD doesn't go to LA without LBJ, etc. This league in the 30 something years I've watched it has almost always won with stars except for the 2000's Pistons. 5 players on the court, 2 or 3 better be top notch.

Flipster23

iTrader: (15)

RW will go to the east if he gets traded... the west is too stacked!

DriverOne

Well, like I said, I freely acknowledge that there have been teams with multiple stars on them. I'm not sure how things are different, but they are to me. If I was more than a casual fan, I'd probably be able to put it into words. But today it's sort of like there are maybe 10 or 15 really good players and then they all choose up which 4 teams they want to be on and then that's that. And they really destroy their own teams, too. More than any time in the past, I think, the stars will get super-max contracts that eat up most of the cap space on the team and then everyone else is just randoms. Which has happened in the past, too, but then one season in all of the stars will vacate and then your team is completely a shell. Then they just go to 4 other teams with some of the other same 10 or 15 guys and start it all over again. I think it's really ruining the league, but that's just me. Maybe the new generation of fans doesn't care.

Flipster23

iTrader: (15)

Well I was wrong.

Westbrook trade to Houston for CP3...

Yumcha

Houston trades Paul to OKC for Westbrook: https://www.tsn.ca/report-oklahoma-c...paul-1.1336245

DriverOne

See, this is a trade that makes no sense. The contracts are probably relatively equal, in that both were on giant, bloated contracts. And it might make sense for Houston to kick out Paul, but why would OKC want an aging point guard who hates playing on rebuilding teams and is coming off injury? And then initially it's exciting to see Harden and Westbrook together as a "super team," but then once the excitement dies down, it makes zero sense. They're both ball hogs and ball stoppers. You could argue that Westbrook can make assists, as he did when he was triple-doubling, but he was just doing that for the stats. He's only actually good with the ball in his hands.

Oh, I see OKC got a bunch of picks, so they'll just ride out Paul's contract. Meanwhile, Houston is in "win now" mode and they won't win and then they'll be left with no picks to rebuild.

Aman

I actually don't hate that. Both contracts will age poorly, but Westbrook buys you a few more years of contention IMO.

oonowindoo

OKC is in the rebuild mode.. so they need the picks... CP3 is just a channel. Lakers will gladly trade Rondo for CP3 + picks that we dont have.

Some teams have no time to wait..

oonowindoo

i just remembered ... damn...

Yumcha

Can you have a technical foul against your own team member?

oonowindoo

um... we will find out when those 2 start fighting for the ball... literally...

Doom878

Damn would've been nice for Miami but I'm kind of glad we didn't pull the trigger given they wanted a legit asset in Bam Adebayo, Justise Winslow or our first rounder this year Tyler Herro. But now we might trade for CP to get decent draft picks back

https://www.miamiherald.com/sports/s...32576437.html?

Quote:

And now, the Heat is a possibility to acquire Paul, according to ESPN. But for Miami to consider acquiring a player due $124 million over the next three seasons, OKC would need to give the Heat heavy incentive, such as giving the Heat draft picks - potentially the unprotected 2021 Heat pick and/or the 2023 Heat pick that OKC now owns. OKC also would need to take back contracts that the Heat wouldn’t want.

Yumcha

FWIW, what I read about Westbrook is that he's actually a really good guy and kinda perpetuates the jerk on the court.

Flipster23

iTrader: (15)

You guys remember when the NBA was like no you can’t trade Chris Paul to the Lakers. Lakers go fuck off.. yea, now look at the NBA.

Yumcha

Looks like the Heat are in on Paul as OKC is going to unload him...full rebuild mode for the Thunder.

oonowindoo

^ 3 years, $120M... i would unload him too...