2019 NBA Catch-All - It’s Fantastic

Nobody is safe on the Raptors now. (Well, Siakam and VanVleet, perhaps)

Well, I saved $120 by not buying a jersey yet, so #ThanksKawhi

Masai is still Masai.

Buy low on Westbrook? Anything is possible.

As has been discussed before, the most amazingly unique thing about this is that, as opposed to any other player in this situation, Kawhi is almost guaranteed to get the most spectacular ovation you've ever heard when the Clippers play in Toronto.

When in the season does LeBron quit on the Lakers this year?

It's a high probability. Even Kawhi looked at that team and said, Me LeBron AD... When do you load management? Where's the other guys.

KD + Irving also now looks kinda whatever.

Bunch of plot twists to come still. I guess the next rumor until it happens is Westbrook. Who even has any assets left for him or even wants him.

jowner wrote:

When in the season does LeBron quit on the Lakers this year?

It's a high probability. Even Kawhi looked at that team and said, Me LeBron AD... When do you load management? Where's the other guys.

KD + Irving also now looks kinda whatever.

Bunch of plot twists to come still. I guess the next rumor until it happens is Westbrook. Who even has any assets left for him or even wants him.

Right. It’s wide open right now, but eventually this will settle and we’ll figure out which teams have chemistry and which don’t. What teams work and what teams don’t. It should be interesting.

This has all been the best advertising NBA 2K could ever ask for.

jowner wrote:

When in the season does LeBron quit on the Lakers this year?

It's a high probability. Even Kawhi looked at that team and said, Me LeBron AD... When do you load management? Where's the other guys.

KD + Irving also now looks kinda whatever.

Bunch of plot twists to come still. I guess the next rumor until it happens is Westbrook. Who even has any assets left for him or even wants him.

Could be the Knicks. They need a draw, but they might be too cautious now. Their young players aren’t great trade assets but neither is Russ.

Not sure I shared this, but just in case I didn’t. I laughed out loud at this. Especially when he posterized AD.

Blind_Evil wrote:
jowner wrote:

When in the season does LeBron quit on the Lakers this year?

It's a high probability. Even Kawhi looked at that team and said, Me LeBron AD... When do you load management? Where's the other guys.

KD + Irving also now looks kinda whatever.

Bunch of plot twists to come still. I guess the next rumor until it happens is Westbrook. Who even has any assets left for him or even wants him.

Could be the Knicks. They need a draw, but they might be too cautious now. Their young players aren’t great trade assets but neither is Russ.

The Knicks should not trade for Russ, which means they probably will.

Yet this was only the second largest seismic shift in Southern California last night that I missed because I was Netflixing.

Boogie signed with the Lakers. There’s talk of Rondo signing as well. So the Lakers and Pelicans almost switched rosters.

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D-xaUDoVUAAV57S?format=jpg&name=large)

Funny part is Westbrook could probably fit on the Lakers besides him being Westbrook.

But the Lakers cleaned house getting AD.

The Westbrook + George rumors to the Raptors are funny partly because it included Westbrook.

I wonder if Masai balked at the cost or because Westbrook was lumped in making it even less plausible.

jowner wrote:

Funny part is Westbrook could probably fit on the Lakers besides him being Westbrook.

But the Lakers cleaned house getting AD.

The Westbrook + George rumors to the Raptors are funny partly because it included Westbrook.

I wonder if Masai balked at the cost or because Westbrook was lumped in making it even less plausible.

Bruce Arthur reported OKC asked Raptors for Van Vleet, Siakam, and 4 unprotected 1sts and the Raptors believed they were just being used for leverage.

The Western conference next year is going to be a lot of fun.

Roke wrote:
jowner wrote:

Funny part is Westbrook could probably fit on the Lakers besides him being Westbrook.

But the Lakers cleaned house getting AD.

The Westbrook + George rumors to the Raptors are funny partly because it included Westbrook.

I wonder if Masai balked at the cost or because Westbrook was lumped in making it even less plausible.

Bruce Arthur reported OKC asked Raptors for Van Vleet, Siakam, and 4 unprotected 1sts and the Raptors believed they were just being used for leverage.

The Western conference next year is going to be a lot of fun.

That package makes it even seem more like they were being used to bid up the price.

Obvious counter would be keep Westbrook we just want George... I think by then Clippers made their bid and that's where they wanted to go anyways.

ScooterMagruder's NBA vids are always so good.

They need to put in a rule that you can’t trade picks further out than the contract you are trading for to protect owners from themselves and stupid trades like this one.

LeapingGnome wrote:

They need to put in a rule that you can’t trade picks further out than the contract you are trading for to protect owners from themselves and stupid trades like this one.

They already have the Stepien Rule and the Seven Year Rule, but I don't think this or the Davis trade are particularly awful.

(They should abolish the draft though).

No draft, relegation, and no salary cap. It'd be fun!

Roke wrote:
LeapingGnome wrote:

They need to put in a rule that you can’t trade picks further out than the contract you are trading for to protect owners from themselves and stupid trades like this one.

They already have the Stepien Rule and the Seven Year Rule, but I don't think this or the Davis trade are particularly awful.

(They should abolish the draft though).

They should abolish the draft. Or at least replace it with a system where instead of drafting the exclusive rights to players, teams get the right to pay them more.

Basically allow free player movement, but give a slight advantage to teams that have the “picks” to choose rookies where they can give these players more lucrative contracts.

Either way, if players keeping forcing their way out with 1 or 2 years left on their contracts we may eventually find ourselves in a lockout with major restructuring.

The draft is likely the only thing keeping small market teams like OKC and NOLA from revolting and agitating for a lockout. They’re receiving insane compensation for players treating contracts like toilet paper.

To be clear, I’m all for player movement, but there’s obviously a tension right now and draft picks are ameliorating some of the pain.

The thing is, this may be the most balanced, and uncertain, the NBA has been in a loooooong time.

Yeah I bet the league is actually pretty thrilled by the events of the last 7 days. Teams trading for stars are obviously happy. Small market teams losing their get renewed hope to sell to their bases (except my Hornets -.-)

I can’t see the need for reform right now. We’re coming off a thrilling Finals where the rock-solid expectation was turned on its head, and it feels like the public is in even more a clamor for NBA content.

What other major sport can say that? People don’t man Twitter 24/7 for the baseball winter meetings, at least not from what I can tell. The biggest stories from last off-season were how the best players were unsigned into Spring Training and some recent all-stars were unsigned after the regular season started (and remain so). THAT is a sport in need of reform.

Football feels “off” for too long to matter in the public consciousness like the NBA does. Once the Super Bowl ends, I am done thinking or reading about the NFL until September, except maybe draft night. Draft night is also bereft of the same level of drama because of how unrealistic it is for one rookie to alter a franchise.

The NBA, in comparison, is only really off in August and September.

Ya not sure if much reform really is necessary.

I think the player power stuff is overblown also. Closest thing we had to a player refusing to play + forcing himself out was the Kawhi Spurs stuff and it's hard to say how much that was injury and how much that was him being on strike. I'll give the benefit of the doubt to him.

Draft isn't going anywhere soon. I'm pretty happy with them growing out the D League + going back to HS age.

Counter to the 2 mega trades this year. Nets loaded up on Durant and Kyrie with just having space. To the Nets the team everyone thought was forever broken from bad previous moves.

I think the most interesting thing actually going on is Clippers + Nets out witting the Lakers and Knicks. They are both essentially small market teams in big cities.

Also Golden State was a pretty laughable team until recently. I think the cool major shift that is going on and it maybe started with Cuban and Dallas ages ago was be a better franchise. Beyond the contract you can offer actually build something that players want to be part of.

I'm 0 worried for Toronto in this sense if they keep Masai around long term. Don't trust MLSE as owners much but they are just about the $$$ so if Masai runs the team effectively I'm sure they will be aboard.

I don’t personally think reform is needed. My point was simply that without those draft picks (and the draft) there’s very little coming back to small market teams in these situations and *they* may agitate for reform.

I've seen people worry that, if you got rid of the draft, star prospects would only want to play for the best teams, which...

...I mean, there's a limited number of minutes and only one ball.

Also, the rumor today is Brodie to Houston, which I hope happens because it'd be such an unmitigated disaster

Prederick wrote:

I've seen people worry that, if you got rid of the draft, star prospects would only want to play for the best teams, which...

...I mean, there's a limited number of minutes and only one ball.

Also, the rumor today is Brodie to Houston, which I hope happens because it'd be such an unmitigated disaster

That’s funny. I went on the NBA trade machine last night and tried to make that one work. It was the only team I could think of that would want Westbrook that was in a position to compete.

Paul for Westbrook works straight across. But why would Paul agree to go to OKC and why would OKC want him?

Basically I couldn’t find a trade that made sense.

Harden and Westbrook would kill each other over who gets the ball. Please let it happen.

I guess we have a lot of draft picks now?

I went camping for a few days on my drive to Portland and now this.

boogle wrote:

I guess we have a lot of draft picks now?

I went camping for a few days on my drive to Portland and now this.

On the upside, soon you can root for Dame.

You misspelled Enes the Penes