Arena The NBA Thread

Woj Pre-bomb on Twitter, with Rockets and Knicks nearing a 3- or 4- team trade to bring Melo to Houston.

 

I like it.

 

NBA board of governors OKs rule decreasing timeouts from 18 to 14 in effort to speed up game

 

I can dig that, less time muting loud commercials after 2 secs of play.

Bummed Melo isn't getting bought out, guessing he would've picked Cavs in that scenario. But they don't really have assets for a deal, and they don't even have an official GM.

Plus "bummed you didn't add a Hall-of-Famer to a team that went 12-1 on route to the Finals and has LeBron James" should probably be put in perspective lol

 

I always wanted to ask or look up the "20 second time out". Obviously it was longer than 20 seconds. Teams can still foul as much as they want at the end of a game, but honestly in the NBA they don't do that too often. I understand the strategy, but I hate when that happens.

 

Just keep the Hack-a-(whoever) legal. Free throws are called FREE throws for a reason. If you can't make them, then you belong on the bench, or better yet, the D League.

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he probably should get that checked out

 

As Simmons put it: Hard to learn much from summer league but at the very least we know Lonzo is going to be an unbelievable garbage time player.

 

we also know he is the savior of the lakers and represents everything good about basketball.

 

PRENN, we're talking about Lonzo, not Lebron.

 

I'm trying to mentally prepare myself for the possibility of LeBron joining the Lakers, because as a purple & gold die hard, there'd be many reasons to love it, though there's compelling reasons for him to remain & retire with the Cavs.

 

It would be interesting if LeBron bolts Cleveland to join the Lakers, and I don't think there will be the same type of backlash as when he left for Miami as he did deliver a championship to his hometown. The question will be, how much will be left in the tank should James land in La La Land and who his teammates will be. I would think the Lakers would have a championship caliber team for James to leave the Cavaliers.

 

he'll turn 34 in december next year, he could lose in the western conference without getting to the Finals, and personally i just can't see him as a Laker.

 

i think it's like a 50/50 probability at this point. the cavs seem to be trying to do everything they can to get him to leave.

 

With Anthony probably going to the Rockets, will there be ANY talent left in the East if LeBron joins the Lakers?

 

LeBron's going to Houston to join Paul, Melo, and Harden. Vet's minimum. AKA the Beat Golden State at all costs contract.

 

Well, the Celtics are looking towards being the beast in the East for years to come.

 

obviously the balance is way off, but the wizards, raptors and bucks all have multiple all-star type players as well.

 

If the East continues to suck for the foreseeable future, I wonder if the NBA will serious consider realignment or even just reserving the playoffs for the teams with the best overall records and seed accordingly. Theoretically, like the NFL and MBL, the NBA could have two conferences, the American and National and then breakup each conference into three divisions of West, Central and East with each of the 6 divisions having 5 teams. If realignment happens, I think it would be natural for the Clippers and Lakers to be in different conferences as well as New York and Brooklyn.

 

i don't hate this idea, just want to point out that this year the playoff teams would have remained the same under this scenario though the seeds would have been different. last year the rockets, a western conference team, would have been the only one to get bumped and the bulls would have gotten in. as for your realignment idea, i really don't like it. as someone who has followed the league for almost 40 years i would hate to see the traditional divisional rivalries broken up. also it would create a crazy travel schedule if teams continued to play teams in their own conference four times, and it seems like a permanent solution to a (most likely) temporary problem.

 

Well, for realignment, I really can't say there are historical or compelling divisional rivalries, like in baseball or football. I mean, the NBA really doesn't have the "Yankees vs. Redsox" or "Cowboys vs. Redskins" or "Raiders vs. everyone in their division" popular divisional rivalries. Especially in this day and age of free agency/"super teams," which might not be a temporary problem. I mean, it seems like to be more of a status quo situation that started when KG and Ray Allen went to the Celtics, followed up by the James and Bosch going to South Beach, and recently KD going to the Warriors and resigning there. And because of free agency, you have players like CP3 and Paul George forcing unbalanced trades. In short, I don't think realignment will hurt "divisional rivalries" because there really aren't really any, other than is easy to hate the Lakers and Celtics, the traditional/historical powers in the NBA. In the new age of free agency and super teams, rivalries are created as such; power teams vs. power teams.

Plus, like the NFL, you can smartly realign to keep in tack "divisional rivalries" like having American West Conference including the Warriors, Kings, Lakers, Trailblazers and Suns; with the National West Conference being made up of Clippers, Jazz, Nuggets, Spurs and Rockets; keep the Celtics, Knicks, 76ers in the same division. And scheduling and traveling won't be that hard to figure out, as it would pretty much be the same, as they really don't need to play teams in the other divisions twice a season. Just make an unbalance schedule that focuses more games within the division, which makes better for divisional rivalries.

 

yeah but why? is it solely because the conferences are so unbalanced talent-wise right now? that's constantly in flux and could easily change within a few years. do you realign the entire league every time it happens?

 

No, of course not. However, all the other major sports leagues have aligned for the betterment of their respective leagues, and the unbalance schedules naturally creates divisional rivalries, it cut down on travel and perhaps back-to-back outside the division games.

 

that's exactly the reason the conferences are already aligned the way they are and why the teams play their own conference more (unbalanced schedule) so i guess i'm confused.