LMFAO- NOT ONLY KAWHI, BUT PAUL GEORGE TO CLIPPERS FOR BASICALLY PICKS LOL LEBRON...

The NBA really is boring. College basketball is infinitely more entertaining.

OKC is a scab franchise - there is no way for them to sink from relevance fast enough

Thinduh wrote:

LMFAO wrote:

When I said picks, I didn't mean they fleeced OKC. I meant that they didn't have time give up any of there core and depth. They made the playoffs last year without a superstar and gave the warriors some trouble. That same team is intact for 2020 with the addition of Kawhi and Paul George, 2 superstars. They are the favorites to win, and I'm excited to see Kawhi introduce George to load management after he broke his shoulder carrying OKC :)

I'd assume Westbrook will leave soon as well. No way he sticks around through rebuilding. Think of who okc at at one time:

Ibaka, Durant, Westbrook, Harden, etc...

Completely agree! Also let'a start enforcing palming/carrying the ball on the dribble which will bring skill back to the art of dribbling. . Most of these guys with "great moves" are just carrying the ball. Would not have been allowed back in the 50s, 6th or even the 70s.

That's a good point. What would it take for the players to push this dynamic too far and for the league to fall apart? Whatever it is I want to hope for it.

supersonics wrote:

OKC is a scab franchise - there is no way for them to sink from relevance fast enough

Thinduh wrote:

I'd assume Westbrook will leave soon as well. No way he sticks around through rebuilding. Think of who okc at at one time:

Ibaka, Durant, Westbrook, Harden, etc...

Baseball Ain't a Sport wrote:

Who cares? NBA is boring as F. They need to raise the rim to 12 feet and double the size of the court.

I wouldn't go that far, but reducing the number of games would be a good start. It would make the games matter more and the quality of the play (which is already the best in the world) would go up. Of course, you could say that contraction of a few teams would make the quality of play go up, as well.

Also, there is NO REASON (other than TV revenue) to have every playoff series be 7 games...this goes for the NHL, as well.

The NBA is fake, guys that big can't compete hard day after day so we get jogging and alley oops. But more seats filled.

A few less games in the regular season by reducing the number of east v west games, get rid of the lottery and let players work where they want. Let teams sign players of any age Add in a round robin tournament vs the Euro League to start the season with the top 4 from each league

MeHereYouWhere?! wrote:

Baseball Ain't a Sport wrote:

Who cares? NBA is boring as F. They need to raise the rim to 12 feet and double the size of the court.

I wouldn't go that far, but reducing the number of games would be a good start. It would make the games matter more and the quality of the play (which is already the best in the world) would go up. Of course, you could say that contraction of a few teams would make the quality of play go up, as well.

Also, there is NO REASON (other than TV revenue) to have every playoff series be 7 games...this goes for the NHL, as well.

Move works out great for the league because if Kawhi goes to LAL then parity is minimal with only a handful of teams having a shot at the title. Now, close to a dozen teams can dream of a championship this season. Some may require another free agent or trade deadline deal to get in championship contention. Off the top of my head, the east has: bucks, nets, Sixers, raptors, celtics. The west now has: warriors, nuggets, lakers, clippers, rockets, jazz. That's 11 teams right there who are in the mix or a player away from contending for the chip. Injuries could happen, such as what happened to GState this year. I even wonder if the league told Kawhi not to go to the Lakers. It would have a significant impact and decrease league wide revenue. But the league is booming right now, despite this player control, which could be discouraging to some. If it becomes discouraging to many fans and small markets get tired of losing and players avoiding them, the league will go in recession. That time may come, but probably not in the near future. Nba is peaking at the moment.

EFFTheNBA wrote:

BronBron is a turd and has shafted every team he joined. Look at every team he left and the condition he left them in. He comes in, it's a whirlwind of good times, then it becomes tedious as he holds the franchise hostage for marginal veteran shooters on big contracts, and then poof, he's gone. In every case he's left his teams with bare cupboards and bad feelings. He's just a selfish diickhead. I cannot WAIT for the real world to bittch slap him ASAP. Suckk on it BronBron.

Many pro teams walk in the wasteland of mediocrity for many years without sniffing a championship, yet LeBron brought 2 to Miami and 1 to Cleveland (a better feat than his stint in Miami). Do you really think either team regrets their time with him?

How exactly do you think the “real world” will “bittch slap” him? Are you aware of his business dealings in the “real world” that are setting him (and his family) up for long term growing wealth?

Garbage post. Ask any Miami or Cleveland fan how they feel about LeBoner stripping their teams and leaving them as carcasses on his way out the door. Few fans in those cities have good things to say about the guy. The real world biitch slaps everyone at some point. As fas as I can tell, sycophants have been sniffing his jock and throwing money at him since he was a little kid. You don't tattoo "chosen one" and "the king" on yourself as a teenager unless you are filled with hubris and not-a-lot of real world humility. That's not a human being worth cheering on. Defend him all you want. He's a dickk and probably wouldn't lower himself to say hello to you if he passed you on the street.

So he’s not worth cheering on because of tattoos he got as a teenager. And how many Miami / Cleveland fans actually burned their championship gear when he left?

You know what's funny. No one says a god damn thing about these outrageous baseball contracts and what agents like Scott Boras do to the market. Trout got a 400mil dollar contract, and the Angels haven't even sniffed the playoffs. Wack pitchers getting 100 million dollar deals, etc.

Awhile back ARod got 300mil to play for the Rangers. They never went to the playoffs, and they were a terrible team.

Same thing with Bryce Harper. Dude is a batting 250, and he is an okay fielder. He will get maybe 30 plus homers, but that is it. Dude is not worth 300mil

At least players like Durant, Lebron and Kawhi are bringing in championships, or automatically making their team a contender.

But the NBA is predominantly black, and MLB is basically a league of latino and white players.....

Baseball is going to have a 500million dollar player in the next 5 years, and no one is going to say anything

Primo Numero Uno wrote:

Some of those picks are years down the road. George has a 2 yr deal. Leonard a 4. When those deals are up they may leave as the clippers may be a wasteland because they were star dependent with no picks and then they have no stars.

Those picks aren't going to do much in the next few years. But the clippers probably sacrificed the second half of the next decade.

If they win a championship probably worth it. I hate the Lakers but I think Lebron will be back with a vengeance this year.

Lebron is getting old. Happens to the best of them. He is no longer a top 5 player in the league. No longer even the best player on his own team.

It's going to be great to watch with extreme schadenfreude LeBoner's slide into decrepitude. He's built a team of him, a fragile unibrow and not much else. He's played more minutes than any player in the league for years and years now. He struggled to return from what was described as a minor groin. He's gigantic and cannot avoid the coming decline. How does the fragile "Chosen One" ego deal with the coming storm? Here's hoping he has wrought a legacy of destruction and massive disappointment with the Fakers.

P wrote:

Primo Numero Uno wrote:

Some of those picks are years down the road. George has a 2 yr deal. Leonard a 4. When those deals are up they may leave as the clippers may be a wasteland because they were star dependent with no picks and then they have no stars.

Those picks aren't going to do much in the next few years. But the clippers probably sacrificed the second half of the next decade.

If they win a championship probably worth it. I hate the Lakers but I think Lebron will be back with a vengeance this year.

Lebron is getting old. Happens to the best of them. He is no longer a top 5 player in the league. No longer even the best player on his own team.

No, no he is not. You glorify that sort of hubris? I refuse to glorify narcissism, entitlement and corruption that leads to a kid calling himself, without irony, the king. That's a thing to be derided and mocked, not cheered.

el hombre wrote:

So he’s not worth cheering on because of tattoos he got as a teenager. And how many Miami / Cleveland fans actually burned their championship gear when he left?

Primo Numero Uno wrote:

Some of those picks are years down the road. George has a 2 yr deal. Leonard a 4. When those deals are up they may leave as the clippers may be a wasteland because they were star dependent with no picks and then they have no stars.

Those picks aren't going to do much in the next few years. But the clippers probably sacrificed the second half of the next decade.

If they win a championship probably worth it.

Correct. The clippers are going all in to win now. And they very well may! But if they dont they're screwed for several years. OKC on the other hand is guaranteed to be terrible for a year or two, but if we're being honest they weren't getting out of the first round of the playoffs anyway, and this let's them build an insane foundation of young talent. It's a win-win as long as the clips win now.

The LeBron effect on franchise value is real and spectacular. The Cavs rose to 5th in franchise value while he was there the first time, then dropped to 19th by 2014. They were expected to rise by $100-150 million after he returned. Miami rose to 7th in franchise value while he was there. As for the NBA, the franchises are becoming as profitable as NFL teams. Well, not quite, but they are cash cows now and many have risen above the $1 billion mark since Steve Ballmer bought the Clips.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/prishe/2014/07/11/a-tale-of-two-franchise-values-how-lebrons-return-to-cleveland-impacts-cavaliers-heat/#4f1b6d725fdf

OKC did pretty well in this deal, 5 first round picks, only one of them lottery protected, plus two pick swaps, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who is very highly regarded and only 20, and Danilo Galinari, who might get them a young player or more draft picks. And apparently they're going to trade Russell Westbrook if they can. What about LA? He is also from L.A. He's got three straight years of averaging a triple double.

The “issue” is the collective bargaining agreement caps top salaries in favor of helping bulk of nba players. Which is perfectly reasonable and probably best.

But it creates a situation where the most surplus value is in two areas - rookies and true super stars who are worth way more then a max contract. The top players then go for other sources of value - play where they want, with who they want. The whole recruit phenomenon wouldn’t exist to near this degree if someone could pay (for example) Anthony Davis $50m per year. Lebron delivered tons and tons of surplus value since the day he joined the league. So he demanded all sorts of other things.