Arena The NBA Thread

I don't think the Spurs would be interested in Smart; Kyrie is more likely.

Former Laker, Byron Scott, thinks Kawhi to the Lakers is a done deal, or at least wants to think that. He imagines that getting Kawhi would attract LeBron and CP3. And if there would be the case, it would be interesting to see Kawhi and CP3 opt out of potential supermax deals, which was put in the CBA to help prevent players moving to other teams. Personally, I like it when a player leaves a team for something other than money.

 

I'd rather have Tatum and Smart than just Kyrie. Tatum is younger, healthier, cheaper, and has a longer contract. Kyrie can and almost certainly will opt out after this upcoming season.

I do think SA would like Smart; he's a dogged defender who is not scared of crunch time. That's exactly what SA is looking for; defenders and killers. They just need Tatum on top of Smart.

The Lakers don't have as much to offer as other teams, imo. Ball/Ingram/Kuzma aren't the best prospects out there, and they pick 25th this year. Any future 1st rounders won't be that high if Kawhi and Lebron/PG are in LA. I don't see them winning the Kawhi sweepstakes.

 

FYI, I'm in CA, just north of LA. Everything is in LebronWatch 2018 mode...

 

There's been billboards in LA for months.

 

No, no... I'm talking about listening to random people on the street, near the beach, etc. There aren't any billboards here in Santa Barbara / Goleta that I am aware of...

 

The Spurs won't/can't send him to a place he doesn't want to go. That would kill any future leverage they'd have with a superstar, and ruin their chances at building another dynasty. It's just team suicide. So, if he lists one team (LA), they'll work the trade out and get what they can, with minimal leverage. Which means they probably get something like Kuzma, Ingram, and Deng, plus whatever draft pick assets the Lakers can muster up to trade. If he lists out a few teams (if he wants out, and doesn't just want to go somewhere in particular), then they get a little more leverage. Say he says Philly, Boston, LA, Houston, and Washington are okay. Then, San Antonio can work the phones and get a decent return.

And, If LeBron wants to stay and wants to convince Kawhi to come to Cleveland with him, McCollum to San Antonio and Love to Portland basically works with very little else needed, and makes some sense for all three teams. But I'm pretty sure those three are going to LA. I'm just not sure you can build a good enough team around them to win this year or next, and at some point, LeBron won't be able to keep doing the LeBron things we see now.

And, @KnightWriter - believe it or not, I think if you want to see players stop teaming up to make super teams, the best way to have the NBA combat it is to take a page from the MLS playbook, and introduce a "designated player" mechanism. One player counts as a max salary, but you can pay them whatever you want. You think KD is going to leave that much money on the table? If the Warriors could have offered him $25 Million, but another team could have offered him $50-60 million? You think the Warriors would waste their one DP slot on bringing in Durant when they had the reigning MVP on a cheap deal and wouldn't be able to give him DP money in a year? That would have destroyed that locker room to do that. Of course, that mechanism would have blown up OKC for sure, because there is no way in hell KD is staying if you give it to Russ and vice versa.

 

why is that automatically more respectable? seems kind of arbitrary to me. david robinson getting hurt, leading to the spurs being able to create a dynasty by drafting an all-time great wasn't some skillful front office master stroke. it was more of a fluke than anything. there are also those who would argue that teams tanking for years so they can "build through the draft" is more of a problem for the league than free agents getting to decide their own fate. your analysis also ignores that pretty much all of the la lakers great teams were established by adding an already great player (wilt helped jerry west get his one title, kareem in the 80's, shaq...). anyway, the league is as popular as it's ever been, ratings just hit a four year high, so i doubt silver is scrambling for ways to "fix" it.

 

June 17th, 2008:


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June 17th, 2010:



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@New_York_Jedi Happy Anniversary!

 

Incredible. I can't recall another basketball player going from "he's going to be the centerpiece on championship teams" to "journey man you can trade for cost savings" quite so dramatically.

 

Derrick Rose says whaddup

I can make this joke b/c of my own knee

 

Fair. Though at least with Rose, you can point to an injury that completely changed the course of his career.

 

i think howard was similar. he's never looked like the same player since he hurt his back.

 

I think it's a bit of a gamble trade for Hornets and a somewhat good move for the Nets in terms of clearing salary cap space.

The Hornets take on Timofey Mozgov with two years remains on his $32.7 million contract and two second round picks. It would appear that the Hornets are hoping to build a team through the draft rather than free agency.

The Nets take on the remaining year of Howard's $23.8 million contract, which will allow them to have a to create two max-salary slots for 2019 free agency and will save nearly $17 million on the trade in the 2019-20 season. Which seems to be the trend, as teams are looking to form a "super team" via free agency.

 

Sounds similar to the problems he had in LA.

Should Howard not show any quality minutes or production in Brooklyn, I would expect the Nets to buyout his contract and move on. It would then be interesting to see who might pick him up if that happens.

I'm still watching the headlines for any solid news on Kawhi and LeBron as we get closer to draft day. Again, I don't think the Spurs will be in any hurry to trade Kawhi and will still try to have a sit down with him in hopes of keeping him in San Antonio. I saw that the Lakers would need to unload Luol Deng contract in order to make a bid for Kawhi.

 

^ Probably all the more reason the Nets might just buy him out of his contract.

I met Howard once at SDCC when he was still with Orlando. He was signing autographs surrounded by fans and security. I happened to walk by in wearing my Stormshadow costume and he pointed me out and waved me over to take a picture with him. At first security wasn't going to let me through because they didn't see Dwight invite me over, but the Dwight said it was cool and I took a photo with him.

 

how have you never told this story before

 

I totally forgot about it.

I do recall that my friend who was with me, a huge Lakers fan, said to Dwight, "You should come a play for the Lakers." I thought the Lakers would be a nice fit for Howard, as we would be a great 1- 2- punch with Kobe.

 

yeah. who hasn't totally forgotten about being summoned to a photo op by an NBA player who was performing at an All-Star level?

 

Saw this coming the moment they traded for Willy Ho. Sucks that they had to take back Mozgov, though.

As far as the type of player Dwight is...I kinda feel like he was never as good as people thought he was. His offensive skills have always been non-existent. To this day, he still has no idea how to post up, and he has absolutely zero post moves. He's still just a rim runner and a power player around the basket. He basically hasn't gained any skill in his 14 years in the NBA, which is really incredible.

Seriously. No post moves. No drop step (how the **** do you go 14 years without learning the drop step?!), no counter spin, no up and under, obviously no face up game whatsoever, and his hook shot is more like a shot put. His footwork is terrible, he doesn't know how to establish position, he's constantly getting pushed around by much smaller guys. He has that one "move" where he just walks into the paint without creating space first (drop step would help here) and launches a hook shot at 110 MPH with a dude body to body with him the whole way. Everyone knows it's the one thing he does, everyone knows it's coming, yet he doesn't even have a counter move for it. It just kills me to watch him in the post.

Shaq was a dominant power player, too, but he had a great drop step and an absolutely killer spin move. I would say Dwight should ask Shaq for help (maybe he has already?), but I know he's worked a lot with Hakeem and learned absolutely nothing, so I don't think anyone can help Dwight or teach him anything.

He's the same guy he's always been, his body just can't do it as consistently anymore. Still strong enough to be one of the best rebounders in the game, on nights where he feels good he can still get up and protect the rim, and he's still big enough, strong enough and athletic enough to finish at a very high percentage once he gets the ball at the basket. Can't do anything else, though.

Tbf Dwight had a really good year last year. Really good. Best year in a while. He looked...actually interested, and it was the first time I saw anything new out of him. It was raw and absolutely terrible, as if he spent 15 minutes working on it, but new.

 

Ainge isn’t trading Tatum for Kawhi lol, that kid is special.

 

My previous post might be a reason teammates hate Dwight. Most of the guys in the NBA spend every summer trying to get better, trying to "evolve", and it's a big point of pride to come back with new skills, new shots, new footwork, new moves and new tricks to their game. It's expected of NBA players, it's part of the competitive world they live in. We see it all the time, from everyone. Dwight has had All-World physical ability his whole life, and hasn't shown any improvement in basically any area. Players probably resent that and see him as lazy and lacking character. We know Kobe did, but Kobe is ultra competitive.

 

Freezing Cold Takes on Twitter is running through some absolute gems of terrible NBA Draft takes. Here are some of my favorites: