Official NBA Thread

[brucebanner]

Apparently Kyrie is an option for LA.

I'd rather see them sign quality depth to round out the roster, instead of a big 3 and nothing else. Time will tell.

I'm not really up to date with who's a FA other than the big names on the market.

[sexualbanana]

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Pretty crazy. Lakers still need a PG.

Raps will still be a fav if kawhi stays.

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Apparently Kyrie is an option for LA.

I'd rather see them sign quality depth to round out the roster, instead of a big 3 and nothing else. Time will tell.

I'm not really up to date with who's a FA other than the big names on the market.

The rumors are that they're also looking at Kemba Walker and Kawhi. Apparently, Pelinka doesn't know what a salary cap is, or Jeannie Buss is okay with paying a couple hundred million in luxury tax.

[brucebanner]

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The rumors are that they're also looking at Kemba Walker and Kawhi. Apparently, Pelinka doesn't know what a salary cap is, or Jeannie Buss is okay with paying a couple hundred million in luxury tax.

Lakers bring in tons of money, even the repeater tax to them isn't that big of a deal haha.

They can create up to just under 33mil for one more star (pending on how they work the AD trade) and then have like 5mil or so of the mid level plus minimum deals for whatever vets go ring chasing.

That 33mil would be enough for guys like:
Kemba - I think he stays and gets paid in Charlotte

Kawhi - resigns in TO on a 1+1 deal so he can sign a bigger deal next off season

Butler - I don't think he's the right fit

Irving - Regardless of injuries, best long term option for AD

Harris - not really a good fit

Klay - not leaving the warriors since he got hurt

DLO - Lakers aren't signing him after gifting him away in a trade


Those are the big names that I can think of top of my head that are real options money wise.

I think Irving goes and they sign vets that want a good shot at a title.

[sexualbanana]

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Lakers bring in tons of money, even the repeater tax to them isn't that big of a deal haha.

They can create up to just under 33mil for one more star (pending on how they work the AD trade) and then have like 5mil or so of the mid level plus minimum deals for whatever vets go ring chasing.

That 33mil would be enough for guys like:
Kemba - I think he stays and gets paid in Charlotte

Kawhi - resigns in TO on a 1+1 deal so he can sign a bigger deal next off season

Butler - I don't think he's the right fit

Irving - Regardless of injuries, best long term option for AD

Harris - not really a good fit

Klay - not leaving the warriors since he got hurt

DLO - Lakers aren't signing him after gifting him away in a trade


Those are the big names that I can think of top of my head that are real options money wise.

I think Irving goes and they sign vets that want a good shot at a title.

Signing another max puts like 98% of their cap in 3 players - one of whom is starting to get old-man injuries like groin strains, and another who's never played a full season. AND it only leaves them with like 6 signed players. On top of that, signing a max player puts them $12M into the luxury tax, so that one player's $30M contract is actually going to cost the Lakers $49M for the year.

That's before the fill out the roster with 9 more guys! Even if you sign 9 guys at league minimum, they're paying $1.75 on top of every dollar they spend on those guys.

It's incredibly high risk for very little reward when you consider that the Trailblazers, Nuggets, even the Thunder and Jazz are still very good teams in the West where every loss could mean the difference between 4th- and 9th-place.

[brucebanner]

Im well aware of that and agree it's not wise.

We're talking about the Lakers though and if you judge the organization over the last 5 years, signing a 3rd star is exactly what they'll do if they can get one of those guys I mentioned above. It won't matter that it's wildly short sighted or a poor team building move, they'll do it.

They've given away everyone in the last few years just for a shot at 2 high level guys, they're drooling over getting a big 3.

[sexualbanana]

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Im well aware of that and agree it's not wise.

We're talking about the Lakers though and if you judge the organization over the last 5 years, signing a 3rd star is exactly what they'll do if they can get one of those guys I mentioned above. It won't matter that it's wildly short sighted or a poor team building move, they'll do it.

They've given away everyone in the last few years just for a shot at 2 high level guys, they're drooling over getting a big 3.

That's the problem with having a guy like Lebron on your roster - which some guys have alluded to. The pressure that he exerts (intentional or otherwise) forces teams to make very desperate, very short-sighted moves in order to placate to his desire to cement his legacy because, really, that's all he seems to give a shit about.

[brucebanner]

100% agree. I was reading last night, something like 42 trades on LeBron led teams, lots of movement.

It'll be interesting to see how it all plays out for sure.

[D'z Nutz]

Keepin' it classy, Toronto.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/report...pede-1.4470263

Reports of a shooting caused panic and a stampede at the Raptors celebration Monday, after fans packed into Toronto’s core attempted to flee the scene.

Toronto Police tweeted that one woman was reportedly shot and there are people running from the area.

Police and EMS are on scene.

[95EagleAWD]

People get shot almost every day in this city. It sucks it happened but it’s hardly unheard of.

Huge fuckin’ crowd though. Really fucked my commute home up haha. Ended up walking almost halfway home from the airport.

[sexualbanana]

I also want to add that what really gets me is that somehow the Lakers are favourites to win the title. It's not like a Raptors situation where they topped out at the Eastern Conference Finals or the Eastern Semi's. The Lakers missed the playoffs by 11 (ELEVEN!) games last year. Anthony Davis isn't going to net out to 11 wins by himself, and neither will the aggregate of whatever max player they try to get (when you factor in the fact they'll have 10 league-minimum guys just to field a team).

[gqmw]

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People get shot almost every day in this city. It sucks it happened but it’s hardly unheard of.

Huge fuckin’ crowd though. Really fucked my commute home up haha. Ended up walking almost halfway home from the airport.

Must have been nuts - I was leaving my condo to catch the UP at like 6am and there were huge groups walking around downtown / coming out of union.

[95EagleAWD]

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Must have been nuts - I was leaving my condo to catch the UP at like 6am and there were huge groups walking around downtown / coming out of union.

I got on the 501 streetcar on Queen to go to Yonge/Queen subway and it got turned back at Church street. At 6:15 am lol. I walked from Union to Leslieville today before a bus or streetcar that wasn't packed finally went by.

Shoulda driven this morning, fuck.

[brucebanner]

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I also want to add that what really gets me is that somehow the Lakers are favourites to win the title. It's not like a Raptors situation where they topped out at the Eastern Conference Finals or the Eastern Semi's. The Lakers missed the playoffs by 11 (ELEVEN!) games last year. Anthony Davis isn't going to net out to 11 wins by himself, and neither will the aggregate of whatever max player they try to get (when you factor in the fact they'll have 10 league-minimum guys just to field a team).

Totally agree, they need to round out the team AND stay healthy.

I'm totally a LeBron fan though and I want the Lakers to do well because of that but I want all teams to do well, just want the raptors to do better than everyone else haha.

LeBron is this generations MJ, no doubt about it.

Basketball fan through and through, and raptors are my team. I really enjoy following the league.

Looking forward to the draft and FA kicking off.

[colinxx235]

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I also want to add that what really gets me is that somehow the Lakers are favourites to win the title. It's not like a Raptors situation where they topped out at the Eastern Conference Finals or the Eastern Semi's. The Lakers missed the playoffs by 11 (ELEVEN!) games last year. Anthony Davis isn't going to net out to 11 wins by himself, and neither will the aggregate of whatever max player they try to get (when you factor in the fact they'll have 10 league-minimum guys just to field a team).

As much as I dislike Lebron your evaluation is pretty short sighted here.
1) He only played 55 games this year because of his first major injury, had he not been injured Lakers would have made playoff or were definitely on pace sitting in 3rd spot
2) Anthony Davis is without a doubt a top 10 player in the league, most have him just sitting outside the top 5.
3) I'm sure they will nab some good Vet shooting talent to add up depth now that they got AD
4) The Warriors are probably going to give up 15+ wins next year, I suspect before end of summer Rockets will be a weaker team also. If no one major goes to Clippers I would expect them to come back down to earth also.
5) the only team I really see improving heavily on this years win total would be the Mavs if Porzingis stays. Otherwise the TWolves/Suns/Grizz are a joke. TBD on how good Walton is with the Kings as well

[sexualbanana]

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As much as I dislike Lebron your evaluation is pretty short sighted here.
1) He only played 55 games this year because of his first major injury, had he not been injured Lakers would have made playoff or were definitely on pace sitting in 3rd spot
2) Anthony Davis is without a doubt a top 10 player in the league, most have him just sitting outside the top 5.
3) I'm sure they will nab some good Vet shooting talent to add up depth now that they got AD
4) The Warriors are probably going to give up 15+ wins next year, I suspect before end of summer Rockets will be a weaker team also. If no one major goes to Clippers I would expect them to come back down to earth also.
5) the only team I really see improving heavily on this years win total would be the Mavs if Porzingis stays. Otherwise the TWolves/Suns/Grizz are a joke. TBD on how good Walton is with the Kings as well

1) Yes. It's his first major injury of his career, but the man has A LOT of mileage on his body. He can spend $1M on his body every year, but it's ultimately going to break down at some point. The combination of the mileage (100+ games a year for 8 straight years), his high usage rate (3rd among active players), and his age (34), paints a scary picture for anyone investing over a 1/4 of their salary space on.
2) I agree. He's a top 10 player, when he's healthy. But he's never played a full season in his entire career, and if he were to miss 8-10 games, you have to rely on a not very deep bench (addressed in #3) to hopefully go .500 in those games.
3) Veteran shooting talent isn't going to be cheap, and if they get another max player, they have LITERALLY no space to sign anyone worth signing without going into the luxury tax. For perspective, Matthew Delleaedova is the 137th highest paid player in the league for the 2018-19 season - making $9.6M. Signing any free agent at around that level is going to cost them an additional $1.50 on top of every dollar they already pay in salary. In this example (Delly doesn't become a free agent this year), Dellavedova's $10M contract is, in reality, somewhere closer to a $30M contract.
4) Portland is only getting better. They pushed teams pretty hard and they were missing Nurkic and had a one-armed Kanter. Denver went 3-3 against the Warriors and the Rockets. With the injuries to the Warriors and an impending implosion by Houston, Denver could potentially go 5-1 in those games.
5) Denver and Portland are both really good teams and stand to benefit from the Warriors injuries. Utah is looking to go after Conley, which would give them a really solid backcourt to go with Crowder and Gobert.

[colinxx235]

So I want to clarify that I don't think the Lakers as is deserve to be the title favorites. I do however think they will finish in the top 5 West standings. I think chasing a third max player without any depth (especially after the trade for AD) is stupid. They need to hunt down guys like Lopez that they let walk for cheap, search for the David West types who are willing to eat a chunk for hopes at a ring, even though I don't want Lebron to win another title ever and hope guys don't.

AD did play 75/75 back to back seasons with the odd rest day because he gets banged up hard in the post. Last season I don't know how many games were legit injury versus drama with the pelicans.

Lakers should push themselves into luxury threshold but only if it makes sense for the right players.

Im a big fan of the portland players, love D-Lil and would be pumped if they win a title. With all this rockets drama unfolding right now and the cap issues they have I would expect them to drop out of top 4. Next season I would imagine it might go 1) Nuggets 2) Blazers 3/4/5) Jazz, Lakers, OKC 6-8) Warriors Rockets Spurs. This is as of right now with the Jazz just trading for Conley and assuming no one jumps onto the Warriors/Clippers that is a big player.

Crowder was a big part of that trade, see how it works out.

It sucks KD and Klay got hurt because this offseason is bonkers, and the moves have already changed so much cause of KD mainly but Klay had he left could have shifted a ton of landscape in the NBA also.



Side note, what do guys think about Knicks rumors on wanting to pass by RJ? Pelicans probably just got thrown off, I could see that impacting the trade value of that #4 pick huge if Knicks truly did skip him.

[Manhattan]

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I also want to add that what really gets me is that somehow the Lakers are favourites to win the title. It's not like a Raptors situation where they topped out at the Eastern Conference Finals or the Eastern Semi's. The Lakers missed the playoffs by 11 (ELEVEN!) games last year. Anthony Davis isn't going to net out to 11 wins by himself, and neither will the aggregate of whatever max player they try to get (when you factor in the fact they'll have 10 league-minimum guys just to field a team).

As someone else mentioned the Lakers were in 3rd or 4th spot in the West before LBJ went down and their roster last year was filled with nutcases and scrubs. This was the first playoffs that LBJ has rested since his rookie year so he will be back well rested for the first time in a long time. I think LA will be fine if they either go the 3rd max player route or fill it out with quality role players. There's always vets willing to sign for the minimum for a shot at a ring and a chance to play with a player like LBJ that makes the game easy. I don't know about Vogel but most coaches play with a pretty short rotation of 6 or 7 key guys especially in playoffs anyway. GSW came out of the west last year with 3 max stars and some awfully bad role players (Looney, Mcknnie, Bogut, etc).

Hoping Kawhi stays for at least one more year in TO and we get a Lakers vs Raptors final. That would be amazing.

[Disoblige]

Trump considering inviting Raptors to White House lol.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toron...isit-1.5183133

I really hope they get invited so the Raptors can straight out tell orange man HELL NO. It would be hilarious.

Then they should get some good commentary from someone like Lowry or Leonard saying "Why? Did we do something wrong to deserve that?"

[brucebanner]

Buuuuuummmmmmp

Not making a new thread but trade deadline is less than a week away and lots of rumors floating around what the raptors should do.

To blow up the NBA world again though, Kyrie Irving requests a trade today before the trade deadline on the 9th.

[max_boost]

Kyrie to the Lakers right? For Russ and how many 1st rounders? lol