The Official 2018-19 NBA Season Thread

[bhlloy]

Sounds like his camp is going to come out and trash any team that isn’t the Lakers. I’d love the Pelicans to let him stew and then deal him to a terrible team at the draft so he can’t play with a still elite level LeBron, but they are probably resigned to getting a sub-optimal deal from LA at this point.

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by stevew

Dirk and Wade added to the AS game. Good move.

Agreed.

[spleen1015]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

Sounds like his camp is going to come out and trash any team that isn’t the Lakers. I’d love the Pelicans to let him stew and then deal him to a terrible team at the draft so he can’t play with a still elite level LeBron, but they are probably resigned to getting a sub-optimal deal from LA at this point.

His dad came out and said he doesn't want him to go to Boston because of what they did to Isiah Thomas. They don't have any loyalty to their players.

Where is The Brow's loyalty to the Pelicans?

[stevew]

I'd much rather have my superstar force a trade and get something for him rather than get nothing. At least the shit we got for Kyrie was semi usable

[bhlloy]

Or he could go to management quietly, let them shop him and get what a top 5 player in the league should get in terms of a return and then sign where he wants in free agency. Rather than essentially making it known that he’s only worth acquiring by one team and completely tanking the package they are going to get back.

I get why he’s doing it and the timing behind it, but I can’t imagine the bad taste it would leave if I was a Pelicans fan.

[molson]

Originally Posted by spleen1015

His dad came out and said he doesn't want him to go to Boston because of what they did to Isiah Thomas. They don't have any loyalty to their players.

Where is The Brow's loyalty to the Pelicans?

Apparently it's immoral now to trade any NBA player unless they demand it.

[Sweed]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

Or he could go to management quietly, let them shop him and get what a top 5 player in the league should get in terms of a return and then sign where he wants in free agency. Rather than essentially making it known that he’s only worth acquiring by one team and completely tanking the package they are going to get back.

I get why he’s doing it and the timing behind it, but I can’t imagine the bad taste it would leave if I was a Pelicans fan.

Aren't all of the teams that would be in the market better off knowing ahead of time he is only going to be a rental? I assume they're allowed to talk to him before a trade is done to ask and when he tells them he won't resign there, behind closed doors, we're right back where we are now? At least the way it is now teams aren't wasting their time calling NO when, in the end, there's no way they'll want to take him on as a rental.

Of he could be part of NO's plan to screw whoever they can get to bite on a trade by keeping his mouth shut? If I'm a Boston or NYK fan and find after making the deal he never had any intention of resigning with anyone other than LA I'm pissed. And as a GM I'm never dealing with NO again.

[Sublime 2]

Something tells me the deal has already been agreed to, and all of the leaks and reports is just posturing to sell the deal to the fanbases.

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

Or he could go to management quietly, let them shop him and get what a top 5 player in the league should get in terms of a return and then sign where he wants in free agency. Rather than essentially making it known that he’s only worth acquiring by one team and completely tanking the package they are going to get back.

I get why he’s doing it and the timing behind it, but I can’t imagine the bad taste it would leave if I was a Pelicans fan.

Is this even possible in 2019? If he goes to management quietly, who leaks the request to Woj or Shams first, his current team, or the teams being shopped to. I mean we heard about Porzingis going to management to ask about his future a few hours before his trade. The other part is that teams are allowed to ask the player if he plans to re-sign with them long term before the trade is completed. No team is giving fair value (whatever that means) without at least a soft yes. Right or wrong, NBA teams generally do not do rentals in the same way MLB teams do.

Going back to the Knicks/Mavs trade, did anyone see the Mavs going from a future led by Harrison Barnes and Dennis Smith Jr. before the 2018 draft to one with Luca and Kristaps eight months later? Great work by Donn Nelson.

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by miami_fan

Is this even possible in 2019? If he goes to management quietly, who leaks the request to Woj or Shams first, his current team, or the teams being shopped to. I mean we heard about Porzingis going to management to ask about his future a few hours before his trade. The other part is that teams are allowed to ask the player if he plans to re-sign with them long term before the trade is completed. No team is giving fair value (whatever that means) without at least a soft yes. Right or wrong, NBA teams generally do not do rentals in the same way MLB teams do.

Multiple teams have done this recently. OKC with Paul George, Toronto with Kawhi, Boston with Kyrie was 2 full seasons instead of 1.5 but the same principle, and literally two days ago Dallas traded for Porzingis even when the reporting is that Porzingis would rather sign a QO instead of an extension this summer. (Which would be an insane move for him if he doesn't come back this season and he's offered close to the max.)

According to Woj (who admittedly seems to be pushing an anti-Lakers agenda), the Lakers offer right now is Kuzma, Ball, Rajon Rondo, Michael Beasley a 1st and not taking back Solomon Hill's $12m next year... that seems pretty beatable even if a team only thought they'd have 1-2 playoff runs with AD. And it doesn't even require the Pelicans and Mrs. Benson to be spiteful to laugh at that offer. Like has been pointed out elsewhere LeBron is 34... he isn't slowing down as much as a normal human, but he can't have too many elite seasons left, and if the Lakers aren't at least willing to put all their moderate assets on the table why not call AD's bluff and force him to wait until LeBron's age 36 season.

[MrBug708]

I'd rather keep Lonzo and trade Ingram and it might happen because Ingram just isn't going to be what we had hoped

[Danny]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

I'd rather keep Lonzo and trade Ingram and it might happen because Ingram just isn't going to be what we had hoped

I'd rather keep Ball also, he plays stellar defense and is a nice playmaker. He'd fit in well with Lebron and Davis.

I think Ingram can still be a really good player but not sure he will blossom with Lebron as he doesn't fit in very well.

Now, I'd personally trade Ingram, Ball, Kumza, zubac and two first round picks if that's what it takes. Not for this season but you'll be able to fill in the spots around LJ and ADto have a contending team in the offseason

[stevew]

Don't understand potentially trading both Stephenson and Rondo in this Davis package. Unless they're basically admitting that this season is over.

Also hoping Walton gets fired. I'd love him as the Cavs next HC.

[Groundhog]

Going to be LeBron-AD and the G-League All-Stars.

[Young Drachma]

You can't get a franchise player with 18 months of team control for nothing, so I totally get them wanting to give up the farm to get him, none of those players are even close to what AD offers you provided he's not hurt. Dump them, have some cap space and see where you land. It's a big risk, but Lebron shows up there

[bhlloy]

Yeah, I think you have to give up whatever to get him even if it's the entire roster. If it gets to the offseason, the price goes up and you are now bidding against the Celtics (even with all the noise that he doesn't want to play there) or the chance that a team with a better young player to build a package around hits the #1 pick.

This season is probably a wash even with AD, the Warriors haven't broken up yet and I don't think even two of the top 10 players in the league gets you past them. I think they are probably keeping an eye on limiting LeBron and gearing up for an all-in 2020, and in those circumstances who cares about Stephenson and Rondo.

[bhlloy]

DOLA - pretty funny to see his camp try to improve the public perception of him trying to force his destination by naming a couple of random teams that there is no way have the assets to deal for him. I'm sure he'd much rather play for the Bucks or Clippers than the Celtics, that makes perfect sense.

[stevew]

Is there some limit to how much salary you can pay on the stretch provision per year? Cause Cleveland should just trade for all the mahimnis/solomon hill's in the world and just devote 40% of their cap to non players since they arent going to win anyways. Just collect picks instead of having to use your cap space for marginal improvements.

[Brian Swartz]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

I think you have to give up whatever to get him even if it's the entire roster.

This. Tell LeBron the rest of the year will suck but he gets AD and maybe Kawhi or Kyrie to go with him plus whoever they can sign as rentals in the off-season to fill out the roster - I have to think he isn't going to say no. They've got to bring in more firepower to contend anyway.

[stevew]

Kyrie and LeBron reuniting is def a possibility.

[stevew]

Saw some Melo Ball highlights the other day. Dude had a massive growth spurt. No idea if he can even be eligible for the NCAA next year, but he’s easily 6-6 or 6-7 now

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by stevew

Saw some Melo Ball highlights the other day. Dude had a massive growth spurt. No idea if he can even be eligible for the NCAA next year, but he’s easily 6-6 or 6-7 now

It’s a shame what that father did to that kid. He likely could have gone to any school for a year before going pro. His attention whore dad really cheated him out of that experience.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by stevew

Don't understand potentially trading both Stephenson and Rondo in this Davis package. Unless they're basically admitting that this season is over.

Also hoping Walton gets fired. I'd love him as the Cavs next HC.

Are you really going to be a GM who lets a deal fall through for a generational talent because of those two guys?

[stevew]

No...i didn't really look at the Lakers cap situation that closely. I figured they had some other guys to trade, but they really dont have enough salary to go out if they aren't tossing both of their decent vets in.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by stevew

No...i didn't really look at the Lakers cap situation that closely. I figured they had some other guys to trade, but they really dont have enough salary to go out if they aren't tossing both of their decent vets in.

I played with the trade machine on espn a little the other day just to see how tough the dollars were on this.

Rondo, Ingram, Stephenson, Beasley works
Ball, Ingram, Stephenson, Beasley works


Pretty sure you have to have two of the three larger salaries (Rondo, Ball, Ingram+Stephenson) to get it to fly

[Danny]

I'm not really sure why the media is so gung ho on New Orleans waiting so they can deal Davis to Boston. They're much more likely to get the best of Magic than Ainge. You can pretty safely assume any trade the Celtics agree to will end up resulting in them winning the trade, probably by a wide margin.

[Groundhog]

Tobias Harris to Philly is pretty big. That's one hell of a starting 5. Like, not Warriors level, but should be enough to get them out of the East if Butler doesn't start challenging the starters to pick up games alongside the rookies.

[stevew]

At least boban got freed.

Don’t blame the Clips for selling very high on Harris. Not sure I’d wanna go 25m/year on someone like that

[nilodor]

Originally Posted by Groundhog

Tobias Harris to Philly is pretty big. That's one hell of a starting 5. Like, not Warriors level, but should be enough to get them out of the East if Butler doesn't start challenging the starters to pick up games alongside the rookies.

It's kind of a weird mix of relatively high usage guys who, outside of Redick, don't really work well off ball. I think it makes them more interesting because they stagger their guys pretty well, but I thought they needed depth more than another big gun.

[albionmoonlight]

I will say that I am impressed by the Pelicans strategy here. The Lakers need a pre-deadline deal much more than the Pels do. If the Pels don't make a deal, then they still get to deal him in the offseason after a bidding war. If the Lakers don't make a deal, then they might lose out on him.

And it sounds like the Pels understand that they have that leverage and are forcing LA to keep coming to the table with bigger and bigger Godfather offers.

It is still one of the worst-run franchises in sports, so I can see it all still going sideways. But good on them for now.

(Of course, if they had shown this level of competence when building around AD, then he wouldn't be demanding to leave now, but that's all water under the bridge, I suppose.)

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by miami_fan

Speaking of debates, is it possible that the John Wall contract is worse than the Chris Paul contract? The Rockets had to know that they were probably going to get two good years max out of Paul, last year and this one. Wall possibly being done before he even entered the extension? Hoo boy.

Originally Posted by Atocep

The Wall contract is the worst in the NBA IMO. It's quite possible the Wizards got better today with Wall being ruled out for the rest of the season. The guy gives zero fucks on the court right now and is in desperate need of a change of scenery.

Debate is over.

[stevew]

Is Wall’s deal even insured? I know the insurance company can rule out a certain amount of contracts per year. Like Amare wasn’t getting insurance.

[miami_fan]

I am all in for player power and players playing a part on where they play but...

MARQUESE CHRISS, YOU CAN'T BE THE ONE MAKING TRADE REQUESTS!

[rjolley]

Originally Posted by miami_fan

I am all in for player power and players playing a part on where they play but...

MARQUESE CHRISS, YOU CAN'T BE THE ONE MAKING TRADE REQUESTS!

He probably figures the Bulls have some openings and they'll trade for anything...

[stevew]

I think he technically has a no trade clause since his option was declined.

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by miami_fan

Debate is over.

9-7 since his injury. I can't believe they're not trading Beal and Porter to clean house. I don't see how you make that roster work again.


EDIT: And right after posting this I see Porter appears headed to the Bulls for Portis and Parker. Those 2 should fit magnificently with that team.

[stevew]

Chriss traded to the Cavs.

[Lathum]

Chriss made his money so it’s hard to be critical, but he is a classic example of someone who needed to stay in school. He couldn’t keep outnof foul trouble at UW. Hard to develop at the next level when you pick up 5 fouls in 8 minutes.

[Brian Swartz]

Really like what Dallas is doing. Now that they have Doncic and KP, clearing cap space to try and get a third star. It would be really cool to see Carlisle have a good roster to coach again next year and beyond.

[Arles]

Originally Posted by Brian Swartz

Really like what Dallas is doing. Now that they have Doncic and KP, clearing cap space to try and get a third star. It would be really cool to see Carlisle have a good roster to coach again next year and beyond.

There's also a 30% chance they can keep their pick if they fall to the 7th worst record. If I were them, I wouldn't rush Porzingas back and keep moving vets not in their plan. If they can somehow land a top 4 pick in the lottery + Doncic + Porzingas + some cap space, they will be in prime position.

[Lathum]

I read somewhere Cuban said KP won’t play this year.

[Atocep]

The Fultz era is over in Philly. Traded to the Magic for Simmons plus first and 2nd round picks.

[nilodor]

Like the Raptors picking up Gasol. The trade clarifies their rotation and if Gasol perks up a bit, it gives them excellent flexibility.

[Atocep]

I can only guess with the shots at Walton and Lebron recently that Lavar wants Lonzo out of LA.

[Brian Swartz]

Originally Posted by Lathum

I read somewhere Cuban said KP won’t play this year.

Yep, I've seen that reported as well, and it makes sense. There's no upside to pushing him back.

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by miami_fan

Debate is over.

Who was debating it? The Wizards played better with him hurt even when he was allegedly good.

The fun game is predicting the next one... Russell Westbrook is a sneaky candidate (and Bill Simmons having him at 19 in his trade value column proves both how out of touch he is, and how hard trade value is to define in today's NBA of shorter contracts and player options), but I have to assume someone will overpay a non-max player in free agency with all the cap space and big market teams who are promising big signings this summer. I like DMC well enough, but if he signs a max with say, the Knicks this summer... I anticipate half a good season and them desperately trying to dump him by January 2022.

Originally Posted by Lathum

Chriss made his money so it’s hard to be critical, but he is a classic example of someone who needed to stay in school. He couldn’t keep outnof foul trouble at UW. Hard to develop at the next level when you pick up 5 fouls in 8 minutes.

On the flipside, John Calipari would argue he's a poster child for why you need to leave if you're a 1st(/lottery pick). 9 mil isn't quite set for life money but it's pretty good, and there's the likely chance Chriss would've stagnated at UW too, only without a few million in the bank.

Originally Posted by Atocep

I can only guess with the shots at Walton and Lebron recently that Lavar wants Lonzo out of LA.

Or he wants LeBron out of LA.

I really do wonder if there was a tacit back channel implication when LeBron went to LA that if LaVar kept quiet LeBron's camp would push to keep Lonzo in LA when the next trade happened... and once it became apparent Lonzo was an option in talks Lavar Ball went back to being Lavar Ball.

On court wise, frustrating loss tonight, but when a team hits 3's like that what can you do? And if the Celtics had to lose off a random bounce, it was great that Rondo got the game winner.

[spleen1015]

I think 9 million would set me up for life. The interest alone would be more than enough for me every year.

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by spleen1015

I think 9 million would set me up for life. The interest alone would be more than enough for me every year.

Agreed. 9 million does set you up for life. If it doesn't, you're not doing money right.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

Agreed. 9 million does set you up for life. If it doesn't, you're not doing money right.

It's probably comfortable but it's not crazy money.

[stevew]

It's not like its 9mil take home either.