Arena The NBA Thread

Steve Nash on the Lakers

 

I don't think guys way past their primes count. No one thought Ewing going to the Sonics was going to be anything. I don't think of McGrady to the Rockets as a dud at all. Or Barkley to the Rockets. Is it a dud just because they didn't win a championship?

Past their primes, but KG and PP to Brooklyn. They had other guys on that team.

Larry Johnson to the Knicks, but he was badly hurt.

Kemp to the Cavs. Weight gain.

AI to the Pistons. Dantley to the Pistons.

Stephon Marbury to anywhere, but not really, as I always found him an entertaining losing player.

Stoudemire to the Knicks due to injury.

The ten million free agents Portland was signing back in the day. Also, Arvydas Sabonis because he was past his prime and not the star he was in Europe. He got hype for years but it just took too long for him to come to the NBA.

Mitch Richmond to the Kings and the Wizards, just because they were always bad. Webber to the Bullets because they weren't good.

Rodman to the Spurs?

 

i know he was a distraction, but he led the league in rebounding both his years there and they made a conference finals.

 

Michael Jordan on the Wizards

 

LeBron on the Neo-Sonics when they draft his son in 2024

 

I wonder if Weaver thought Luuka Garza was like a Star Wars clone of Luka Doncic.

 

i don't really agree with this one. first, he definitely falls into the "well past his prime" category. he joined a bad team with no real expectations. and yet he was still kind of incredible, in his last year playing all 82 games, many of them after turning 40, tossing in 20 a game on an average of 37 minutes, which if it had been this past season would have been 2nd in the league behind only julius randle. so yeah it wasn't prime jordan, but it still might have been the best comeback of its kind.

 

Has the definitive story of Jordan's Wizards era even been properly told yet? It's kind of remarkable how totally we as a society have sort of tacitly, collectively agreed to memory hole it. Not only was The Last Dance basically premised on the idea that it never happened, we were all perfectly willing to accept this premise. Hell, MJ's time on the Birmingham Barons gets more attention than his Wizards stint.

It's all well and good for Michael himself to play along and deflect about it, since it was by no means "disastrous" or anything even approaching it, but still, a glorified hero's farewell tour is still just a glorified hero's farewell tour. Did MJ sincerely believe he could maybe lead the Wizards to a chip, or was he just scratching an itch?

 

it was definitely scratching an itch. he had been in their front office for two years and a minority owner, and was around the team all the time. he had to feel like he was better than anyone on that squad (and he truthfully was), and they had the number 1 pick going into the 2001-02 season, so he must have thought they could at least reach the playoffs. of course the pick didn't work out so well.

 

I can see it both ways. Anything less than Jordan being the best player in the NBA was going to feel like a letdown, we were so used to seeing him dominate.

But he had his moments. After scoring just 6 points in a game and being taken out early in a blowout loss, breaking a record streak of 866 consecutive games in double digits, he asked Doug Collins if he still believed in him. Collins said yes. Jordan scored 51 points the next game, and when Collins asked him what happened, he said his opponent made a big mistake by admitting that his back was hurting. The next game he scored 46. Seems like he did it to prove a point to Collins. Collins benched Jordan, and Jordan took that personally. Classic Jordan.

 

What I'll personally never forget was the pregame scene at ARCO Arena at the Wizards-Kings game in 2002. Usually an hour before the game only a smattering of people have arrived, but in this case, the lower bowl was almost half full of people watching MJ shoot around, and they were even playing this sort of elegant-hotel-lobby music over the PA system. I imagine the scene was the same at every arena in the league.

(I got banned on my Darth Nabb name)

 

Game banned?

 

No, real banned, for criticizing TPM.

 

I watched Space Jam: A New Legacy. I know I'm a 90's kid, but I like the new one a lot better. Just like I like LeBron better than Jordan. It was an especially fun watch after a few weeks break from basketball after the season ending. I love watching basketball, but I also needed a break. By October I will really be ready to watch basketball again. Don't want to go into detail in case some of you are still planning to go see it, but I will say I wish it felt safer to go to theaters. This is how I watched Space Jam a new legacy. Watched 5 minutes, because it takes me about 10 minutes to turn on my TV, find the HBO App and then find the movie (okay maybe not 10 minutes, but it takes a few minutes). So as soon as the movie got going I had to run to the basement and put the bed sheets in the dryer. Then I watched 45 more minutes. Back down to the basement to add a few more minutes to the dryer and I ate some lunch. Back down to the dryer, made kids beds, put more blankets in dryer. Back to Space Jam for 40 minutes, back down to check the dryer, unload dishwasher pour my kid some milk, back up to finish movie. I can never sit and watch a movie in my house, this one was one hour 55 minutes. Yet I still really enjoyed the movie.

 

Negotiations open at 6 ET today. Though deals cannot be signed officially until Friday, expect agreements to be announced tonight.

 

i wonder if andre might come back to the warriors. it would have to be for their mid-level exception or a league minimum salary, but i could see it happening.

 

GS is really his first, best destiny. It's where he belongs.

Steph just got that 4/215 extension. Luka got 5/202.

The rumors around the Pistons have me cringing, but I'm going to try to sit back and just accept whatever happens.

 

i wonder how much Andre really has left

 

i can't see him playing more than a year or two, but he's in shape and still capable of doing the little things on both sides of the ball that help a team win, which is basically all he's been asked to do for the last 7 seasons or so.

 

Conley staying in Utah; Lonzo heading to Chicago

Allen staying in Cleveland for 5 / 100

 

Cameron Payne cashed in, 3/19, which isn't at all unreasonable for Phoenix.

Conley staying in Utah.

Cavs signing Jarrett Allen to 5/100...which I wouldn't do. They just drafted Mobley.

 

heat get lowry.. chris paul staying in phoenix until he's 40 apparently.