2020 NBA Catch-All: Offseason

It’s incredible the way Philly has squandered “The Process”.

Agreed. Their two ‘wins’ are a point guard that can’t shoot and a big man that misses a third of their games. I never understood why people thought they would be contenders. Most of their Process draft picks were bad and the main reason they progressed in the playoffs was a trade signing that they then let walk (Butler).

If we're all loving the on court product due to more rest/fresher legs, why couldn't the NBA:

Have 3 games/week
For 5mo (25 Dec-May)
For a total of 12 games/mo

Since the product would be scarcer, it seems like there's no issue with a comparable ticket price increase of ~25%.

No more back to backs would be a good start.

I honestly think some of the improved play from certain players is due to the bubble and lack of distractions. No late night parties, drugs, women, etc. could certainly be helping some players' focus.

Eh, I’m not really on board with piling on Philly yet. This is what, their third season of winning? They’re young, there’s time to rejigger the roster and keep trying. It may never result in championships but y’know? Most good teams never win a championship. Like Zach Lowe always says, this is hard, and you need some luck on top of getting things right. The fact they got two All-Stars out of it makes the Process a success in my opinion. They were bad for 4 seasons and got two perennial All-Stars. The Kings, Wolves, Magic have been bad for way longer and have less to show for it. My darling Hornets will probably be bad for a decade and I’d be cool if two guys like them resulted.

OKC not getting more than one finals appearance with KD, Russ, Harden, and Ibaka? More of a missed opportunity to me. There was no scarcity of people saying they needed to amnesty Kendrick Perkins for almost that entire run. KD has said so since then.

My team moved up in the draft for the first time since I was 7! Woo go Hornets!

Kinda glad they got number 3 in a consensus 3-deep top tier draft.

How were the Knicks the 6th team (they are terrible) and managed to end up 8th?

The Knicks are not even good at being bad.

The Hornets and Bulls both jumped them in the lottery (sorry not sure if your question was rhetorical or not).

Raptors won a championship without a lottery pick on the roster.

The Knicks falling to 8 is hilarious!

I don't find the Timberwolves interesting but.... Maybe they finally deserved it.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features...

Funny to see the only team more unlucky than the Knicks. The Timberwolves.

Blind_Evil wrote:

The Hornets and Bulls both jumped them in the lottery (sorry not sure if your question was rhetorical or not).

Ya it was rhetorical. Just laughing at the Knicks. The team that won the lottery had 2 less wins than them. Obviously the big * is it is a lottery but I remember when the Knicks last year were cobbling together some strange team of power forwards wondering why? Some of them were decent players on ok contracts and I just kept wondering why spend all that cash to be somewhat competitive. Fast forward to now and they are probably wishing they had 2-3 less wins for the lottery.

the Knicks have gone 17 straight lotteries without a pick above their pre-lottery slot. During that span, their picks have moved down in seven lotteries (or 41 percent of the time), with an average pick change of -0.88 slots.

Someone needs to invent some clever curse. The curse of Ewing since winning that initial lottery.

Still have never really moved up. The bottom three teams all had the same odds at the first spot. The Wolves could just fall further than the other two.

They get to choose between a player with effort issues, a player with effort and fit issues, or a Ball. Whoopty-f*cking-do.

Conley back starting for Jazz today.

And when I turned the game off they were up 30 points. I think Denver is done, they haven’t looked good in any of these games.

Good grief. Philly up 2, then gives up a 10-0 run to lose the game.

Blind_Evil wrote:

Eh, I’m not really on board with piling on Philly yet. This is what, their third season of winning? They’re young, there’s time to rejigger the roster and keep trying. It may never result in championships but y’know? Most good teams never win a championship. Like Zach Lowe always says, this is hard, and you need some luck on top of getting things right. The fact they got two All-Stars out of it makes the Process a success in my opinion. They were bad for 4 seasons and got two perennial All-Stars. The Kings, Wolves, Magic have been bad for way longer and have less to show for it. My darling Hornets will probably be bad for a decade and I’d be cool if two guys like them resulted.

OKC not getting more than one finals appearance with KD, Russ, Harden, and Ibaka? More of a missed opportunity to me. There was no scarcity of people saying they needed to amnesty Kendrick Perkins for almost that entire run. KD has said so since then.

Thing is, Philly bailed on The Process when they decided to boot Hinkie in 2016 and bring it the disaster (PR and drafting/FA) that was Bryan Colangelo and now Elton Brand. They are currently a poorly constructed team of overlapping skills with poor shooting needed for the spacing their two best players require. They have way too much money invested in Tobias Harris (a fine player but not someone who is going to ever show up in any All-NBA "under consideration" list) and have a second albatros contract with Horford. They have limited cap space to correct mistakes that they created themselves.

There seems to be no rhyme or reason for their roster construction on the offensive end of the court the way you see with other contending teams. I don't know. They just don't make sense. When your whole team is at their best 17 feet and in, that makes it really tough to beat the contending teams the way needed when you have the goals they have.

Al those things are true and I still don’t think it’s the right time to give up on them. Albatross contracts get traded yearly, I have no doubt a bad team with cap space would take Al Horford to help them create culture, or a contender trade an underperforming and overpaid starter for Harris. Untradeable contracts just don’t exist in my opinion. See Rashard Lewis, Gilbert Arenas.. just read this list:

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/...

If you don’t feel like reading it’s a 2018 article about the most untradeable contracts, 30 or so. 15 have been traded since publication. Serge Ibaka and Dennis Schroeder are still with their teams and I bet the teams are damn glad they weren’t traded. Others are thriving in new situations like Meyers Leonard, Mike Conley, Tim Hardaway Jr.

Yeah, the Sixers lack a cohesive offensive plan. They doubled down on the idea that they would have an amazing defense, and that the offense would work itself out. Turns out it didn’t and I’m sure that there will be a shakeup after this season.

But the original post I’m replying to is about them squandering the Process and it’s too early to say. The league changes so quickly. The Process was held to acquire stars and they got two. When those stars leave the team we can say with finality whether or not it was worth the 4-5 losing seasons. I’m

It took the Bulls 7 years to win a title with Jordan. More recently it took the Warriors 3 years with Steph to post a winning record, and 6 to win a title. It is Embiid’s fourth year and Simmons’ third. Could they have been more successful with Butler instead of Horford and whoever else in place of Harris? Maybe, probably. Still to early to judge the Process for me though.

The forces I’m talking about are on display in these very playoffs. 2018 the Clippers were full of big contracts and a unit that won games but never the biggest games. Two years later and they’re among the favorites for the title. The Lakers two years ago were in a full on rebuild. The Mavs were awful and had no direction. Boston was riding the Kyrie bad vibes into oblivion. Kawhi was opting out of playing for the Spurs.

The league changes so fast.

Blind_Evil wrote:

Al those things are true and I still don’t think it’s the right time to give up on them. Albatross contracts get traded yearly, I have no doubt a bad team with cap space would take Al Horford to help them create culture, or a contender trade an underperforming and overpaid starter for Harris. Untradeable contracts just don’t exist in my opinion. See Rashard Lewis, Gilbert Arenas.. just read this list:

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/...

If you don’t feel like reading it’s a 2018 article about the most untradeable contracts, 30 or so. 15 have been traded since publication. Serge Ibaka and Dennis Schroeder are still with their teams and I bet the teams are damn glad they weren’t traded. Others are thriving in new situations like Meyers Leonard, Mike Conley, Tim Hardaway Jr.

Yeah, the Sixers lack a cohesive offensive plan. They doubled down on the idea that they would have an amazing defense, and that the offense would work itself out. Turns out it didn’t and I’m sure that there will be a shakeup after this season.

But the original post I’m replying to is about them squandering the Process and it’s too early to say. The league changes so quickly. The Process was held to acquire stars and they got two. When those stars leave the team we can say with finality whether or not it was worth the 4-5 losing seasons.

It took the Bulls 7 years to win a title with Jordan. More recently it took the Warriors 3 years with Steph to post a winning record, and 6 to win a title. It is Embiid’s fourth year and Simmons’ third. Could they have been more successful with Butler instead of Horford and whoever else in place of Harris? Maybe, probably. Still to early to judge the Process for me though.

Very good points. There is already stupid talk that, at 25, Giannis has to win a title or he is a failure. How the current NBA financials shake out with Covid may alter this for a bit as well. My opinion, back to the original was that they already gave up on the process a few years ago by not allowing Hinkie to see out his plan. (Just to confirm we are talking about the same thing, I mean Hinkie's strategy of accumulating high lotto picks, not Embiid the player). That isn't to say they would be any better off now if they kept him, only that the deals were decidely not ones he would have made. Pulling the Fultz trade, going in on Butler and Harris trades and signing Harris along with Horford.

Well Philly can start working on that plan now. Swept. Season over.

Yeah, bummer for them. I’m a big fan of Zach Lowe, I’m sure you can tell, and he said it best. It’s hard to lose an All-NBA level player and perform up to expectations.

I’m stoked for my guy Kemba and the Celtics though. I’m looking forward to seeing how they do against Giannis next round.

Blind_Evil wrote:

Yeah, bummer for them. I’m a big fan of Zach Lowe, I’m sure you can tell, and he said it best. It’s hard to lose an All-NBA level player and perform up to expectations.

I’m stoked for my guy Kemba and the Celtics though. I’m looking forward to seeing how they do against Giannis next round.

It would be the ECF before they play Milwaukee. The Celtics are matched with Toronto/Brooklyn winner. I would have no issue with facing Boston once again, however!

Oh yeah for some reason I was thinking 1 plays 3 and 2 plays 4.

Fun stat from Twitter. Markelle Fultz made more three point shots in the playoffs than Tobias Harris and Al Horford combined.

Watching the Clippers Mavs game. I feel like the Clippers are having too much trouble with no Porzingis around to really be a title “favorite,” maybe. I wouldn’t be surprised if the champions this year are unexpected. I could see the Heat, Celtics, Raptors, or Bucks giving either LA team trouble. Definitely so for Houston too.

Doncic really is incredible. His game looks and feels like such a nuanced blend of old man tricks and modern playmaking and shooting. Sneaky athleticism too. Mavericks are going to be a force as he gets even better.

Skipping him is probably going to haunt the Kings for a few decades. Probably the Hawks and Suns if they’re being honest, too.

24 seconds left and tied. Mavericks have had a spot in my heart since they were a laughingstock during my childhood, so really pulling for them.

Overtime game is nuts.

Luka!

All for a no LA random winner playoffs.

Toronto re-peat just playing strong team ball with no mega star would be funny also.

Got another game 1 Mitchell-Murray shootout happening in game 4 tonight.

First playoff game ever with 2 players scoring 45+. And then Murray hits a 3 at the buzzer, so it's first time with 2 players scoring 50 or more. Wow.

Don joins Jordan and Iverson as the only players in history to have 2 50-point games in the same series.

Lowry our with an ankle sprain. For the Raptors to have a chance they need him healthy. The two-head angry mini-PG monster doesn’t work as well with only one head.

Haha keep chucking Houston.

Love watching Harden lose.

I'm torn watching IND/MIA.

My second and third favorite teams and love Nate McMillan.

But I really like this Heat team.

Pulling for the Heat myself. I don’t have a dog in the fight other than a love for Bam. I just think the Heat stand a better chance against the Bucks and I love chaos and underdogs.