NBA Season 2012-13. Draft and off-season 2013.

DSGamer wrote:

So Orlando won the trade in the end, right?

Somehow Orlando won out with Denver finishing second.

Vector wrote:
DSGamer wrote:

So Orlando won the trade in the end, right?

Somehow Orlando won out with Denver finishing second.

If Philly bottoms out completely and gets lucky with Andrew Wiggins next year, they're in the conversation. Just not for the reasons they intended.

But yeah, it's a hilarious deal. I love the NBA.

Also, I am excited to watch the Warriors this year.

I'm just happy the Lakers/Kobe didn't get what they want. Its nice to see a franchise with such history and sway over players not able to control their fate as they are used to.

Problem is Howard staying and sucking would of probably been the worst thing for them so maybe they lucked out in the long term.

Lebron 2014 better not happen or ill be all kinds of angry.

I got the summer league subscription again. Looking back, a lot of the guys I was impressed by last year actually did really well (Chris Copeland, Andre Drummond) in the regular season so I figure this has more value than most people think.

Kelly Olynyk impressed offensively with 25 points on 12 FGAs. Two threes in there as well. He needs to add some bulk/strength in a bad way though, the Magic's big men had no problem at all backing him down in the post. He seemed like a better defender than advertised though, moving his feet well to stay in front of drivers and not jumping at fakes.

Now to see how Trey Burke plays...

Rudy Gobert is huge o.o

Nothing inspiring from Burke. 1-12 shooting, 5 assists. Just a bad game, I guess.

I spent some time watching Summer League games this afternoon, as well. Man, the season's only been over for a few weeks and I already miss basketball enough to watch glorified scrimmages from Orlando's practice gym.

Olynyk was definitely impressive in what I saw, as was Oladipo. It definitely appears that the Magic are interested in making him into a point guard. Regardless of where he plays, he puts up stats: 18 points, 6 rebounds, 7 assists, and 5 steals.

Yeah, I saw where you'd get the "poor man's Wade" comparisons with Oladipo.

I'm glad you bought access. Makes me feel slightly less crazy.

Blind_Evil wrote:

Yeah, I saw where you'd get the "poor man's Wade" comparisons with Oladipo.

I'm glad you bought access. Makes me feel slightly less crazy.

Actually, I was watching on NBA TV.

Bah!

I got kind of spoiled watching BOS/ORL and PHI/HOU. Good games! These last three have been ugly

Edit: the realization just crept up on me: I've been watching basketball for the last 10 hours aside from an hour-long break for lunch D:

Drummond is such a beast on D.

Yeah, Drummond was a man among boys there. But 2 for 9 from the line? Yikes.

It was also amazing to see Jason Kidd get hit with a technical by a Summer League ref during his first game as coach.

That's it for Orlando Summer League for me, however. I'm off to the beach for the week. Of course, I'll be back in time for the Vegas Summer League to start next weekend. I'm looking forward to the new tournament format. Should be fun.

Between Trey Burke's 1-12 and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope's 1-10, I'm irrationally feeling a little better about Minnesota's draft

B Dog wrote:

Yeah, Drummond was a man among boys there. But 2 for 9 from the line? Yikes.

Watching him shoot those, I can't help but wonder... how does a player reach that level of ball without someone making them put backspin on their shots? Has nobody said anything? Does he refuse to change his form? Did he try, and that mess things up worse? Next time I have the ear of a coachy-type I'll have to ask.

Players like that end up in the AAU / {insert athletic company sponsored} summer circuit early on. Unless they really want to learn they're often uncoachable. The US system is why Pop and the Spurs mostly look at international players these days.

DSGamer wrote:

Players like that end up in the AAU / {insert athletic company sponsored} summer circuit early on. Unless they really want to learn they're often uncoachable. The US system is why Pop and the Spurs mostly look at international players these days.

Actually not true, but okay.

carrotpanic wrote:
DSGamer wrote:

Players like that end up in the AAU / {insert athletic company sponsored} summer circuit early on. Unless they really want to learn they're often uncoachable. The US system is why Pop and the Spurs mostly look at international players these days.

Actually not true, but okay.

Which part isn't true? That AAU is ruining US players or that the Spurs look internationally?

I have a hard time swallowing the sweeping generalization of the AAU situation, personally.

But they drafted Kahwi Leonard, George Hill, Cory Joseph, Dejuan Blair, and James Anderson to name a few US players.

Where do you guys get your NBA news? I despite ESPN, and am very happy to have recently found dimemag.com. Great coverage, multiple stories each day, they seem pretty up on what's going on and share enough interesting things.

Hmm. Kirilenko opts out of his 1 year, $10m deal with the Wolves to sign 2 year, $3.5m deal with the Nets. Either he's really convinced they're winning a ring and wants one, or Prokhorov is putting a pile of money into his Russian bank account under the table.

Blind_Evil wrote:

Hmm. Kirilenko opts out of his 1 year, $10m deal with the Wolves to sign 2 year, $3.5m deal with the Nets. Either he's really convinced they're winning a ring and wants one, or Prokhorov is putting a pile of money into his Russian bank account under the table.

Or C: He's in deep with a Russian mob. Kind of serious about that one.

When you add payroll and luxury tax together, the Nets are paying $186 million for their roster next season.

A lot of money to go out in the 2nd round.

ZING!

LeapingGnome wrote:

A lot of money to go out in the 2nd round.

That's what New York teams do.

Blind_Evil wrote:
LeapingGnome wrote:

A lot of money to go out in the 2nd round.

That's what New York teams do.

I wish I had a witty retort to that, but it's so true.

ESPN3 is carrying replays of the Vegas Summer League. CJ McCollum is really nice so far.

Reports have Brandon Jennings going to the Pistons in a sign & trade that will return Brandon Knight, Khris Middleton, and Viacheslav Kravtsov to the Bucks. The "sign" part of it would be a 3-year deal worth $24 million. It looked for the better part of the month that Jennings would be forced to sign the Buck's one-year, $4.5 million qualifying offer and become an unrestricted free agent next summer. This locks him up for the Pistons, but it's nowhere near the money he thought he would get.

Meanwhile, the Pistons are becoming a very intriguing team in the East. Josh Smith, Brandon Jennings, Greg Monroe, Andre Drummond, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. As I said, intriguing. They should be fun to watch.

EDIT: Looks like this is happening. And the Jennings contract is 3-years, $24 million.

As a Pistons fan this both intrigues and horrifies me. No one can shoot a jump shot, let alone a three pointer. I don't think Mo Cheeks can change the ways of Josh Smith or Brandon Jennings. At least the team will be an interesting mess.

Yay! Peyton Siva... FROM LOUISVILLE... signed with the Detroit Pistons today! Nice work for the 56th pick to play his way onto the team during summer ball.

Stele wrote:

Yay! Peyton Siva... FROM LOUISVILLE... signed with the Detroit Pistons today! Nice work for the 56th pick to play his way onto the team during summer ball. :cool:

He's a great story. Good for him. Probably didn't hurt that the Pistons started stockpiling low posts and wings and traded away PGs.

I wish the best for him Hopefully he's not Mateen Cleaves 2.0!

So, the last major free agent storyline of the summer has come to an end: Wolves sign Pekovic to 5-year, $60 million deal.

C'mon preseason!

So... Dirk doing a commercial for Mavs season tickets: