2017 NBA Offseason Thread

[sooner333]

Even if Kanter and Anthony are equals, which I disagree with, the Thunder are better with Anthony than Kanter for one simple reason: they can now play their best five players at the same time. They could not play Kanter and Adams at the same time.

[Groundhog]

They way Kanter played defense, the Thunder struggled to play him with anyone.

[CrescentMoonie]

And Anthony is worse defensively. He'll score more from the outside, but he can't defend anyone at the 3 and now he's being asked to defend the 4. I'll take 15-20 minutes of 25 year old Kanter off the bench over 30 minutes of 33 year old Carmelo starting.

[Groundhog]

Hmmm we'll see, but I'm not convinced Melo is worse than Kanter on D. Kanter has consistently been one of the worst pick and roll defenders I've seen since he entered the league, but then again I can't claim to have watched a lot of Knicks games the last couple of seasons.

[jbergey22]

Whether it will make Okie City better is to be determined but it certainly gives them a more diverse team with more options. Its much easier to replace a Kanter than it is a motivated Carmelo. Id speculate Carmelo is going to play with an extra chip on his shoulder which should translate to better defense. In any case its not like Okie City gave up the farm to get him. The risk/reward balance was certainly there IMO.

[CrescentMoonie]

Originally Posted by Groundhog

Hmmm we'll see, but I'm not convinced Melo is worse than Kanter on D. Kanter has consistently been one of the worst pick and roll defenders I've seen since he entered the league, but then again I can't claim to have watched a lot of Knicks games the last couple of seasons.

Nobody has watched Knicks games in recent years, that's why they have to mention the Olympics when claiming Melo is still good. Melo was a distant second to Porzingis, even last season, and will be arguably the 4th best player in the OKC lineup.

[Neon_Chaos]

Anyone interested in a FOFC fantasy yahoo basketball league?

[stevew]

Love Wade as long as it's for 24 mins a game and no more than 55 regular season games. They should use him to rest LeBron cause he can do a lot of the LeBron type things. His 3% sucks but his corner 3 rate is about 40% so that's workable.

Also lottery changed. Effective for 2019 lottery.

From espn-The three teams with the worst records will share a 14 percent chance of getting the No. 1 overall pick, a change from the descending percentages of 25, 19.9, and 15.6 in the current system. Four teams -- increased from three -- will become part of the lottery draw, which means the No. 1 lottery seed could drop no further than fifth, No. 2 could drop no further than sixth, No. 3 no further than seventh, and No. 4 no further than eighth.

[stevew]

Originally Posted by Neon_Chaos

Anyone interested in a FOFC fantasy yahoo basketball league?

How simple will it be?

[korme]

Money or no?

[Neon_Chaos]

I was thinking just standard 9-cat, non-money league for fun.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Silver says he expects players to follow rule & stand for national anthem.
Says they'll deal with violations if/when they occur.

Start the countdown clock for a showdown on that. (And on the league folding in the end)

[Neon_Chaos]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Silver says he expects players to follow rule & stand for national anthem.
Says they'll deal with violations if/when they occur.

Start the countdown clock for a showdown on that. (And on the league folding in the end)

The NBA has handled this before.

They actually have league rules that involve the US anthem in the rule-book.

Besides, like Lebron said, NBA players don't need to kneel to get their message out. They are so closely followed by the media that if they wanted to send a message, they could easily do it via the microphone.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Neon_Chaos

Besides, like Lebron said, NBA players don't need to kneel to get their message out. They are so closely followed by the media that if they wanted to send a message, they could easily do it via the microphone.

Yes, the media is indeed a willing accomplice for them.

[jbergey22]

The original flag protester Mahmoud Abdul Rauf lasted about another 3 years after his stance. NBA wont do anything if Lebron is with the protest. If the media would ignore it, it would just die like it did for 18 years.

[CrescentMoonie]

Westbrook signs the 5 year supermax in OKC (on Kevin Durant's birthday).

Oklahoma City Thunder star Russell Westbrook agrees to 5-year, $205M extension

[Groundhog]

My local team Sydney Kings played the Utah Jazz today, which is pretty historic for our league. We are looking like a middle-of-the-pack team this year, and with our lack of height I thought we'd get embarrassed, but outside of a bad 1st Q and a bit of a slip in the 4th when we played our bench I was pleasantly surprised... we didn't look awful.

I also watched the Lakers play, and I'm still finding it difficult to picture Ball becoming a star. His entire motion on the court looks like some of the wacky animation combinations you see on random created guys in NBA 2K. He's got great court vision, reasonable athleticism, and good height for his position, but I'm still a skeptic. Ingram too - for his body type, he really lacks any kind of explosiveness, and doesn't get nearly enough lift on his shots when going to the basket to take advantage of that length.

[Groundhog]

Simmons with a 6-7-9 line tonight with 1 turnover in 21 mins. Didn't shoot the ball well around the hoop, but had some real nice passes - 7 assists in the first half. Fultz also struggled from the floor, I think it's going to be a bit of an adjustment for him playing off the ball... He had some nice moves going to the basket though.

[jbergey22]

Embid with a 148 million extension despite playing 31 career NBA games. Potential got him paid.

[Groundhog]

I hope he stays healthy. But I doubt it.

Melbourne United go down by 1 point to OKC yesterday. Had 2 chances to win it in the last 10 seconds but both shot attempts were swatted away - the 1st looked like a goaltend to me, but I haven't seen the replay.

[Eaglesfan27]

At least the deal reportedly has salary cap relief if he is hurt, but that is a lot of money for someone who has his injury history.

[mckerney]

[BishopMVP]

Massive sample size/preseason grains of salt, especially since both Philly & Charlotte were missing good players, but good results from the Celtics.

Kyrie has looked great offensively, been a willing passer and avoided playing iso ball, highlighted by his 10 assist 0 TO half vs Charlotte. We'll see just how much the numbers will improve, but I think he'll definitely be a more efficient player in our system vs Cleveland's. A little surprisingly Gordon Hayward has looked less comfortable on offense, but I'm not worried about him & he's still been very good at other parts of the game. I don't think the shot improvement is all real (but I also think he's been fine catch & shoot for a while now, just should rarely shoot off the dribble - imo his low %'s are a result of poor shot selection), but svelte contract year Marcus Smart also looks much better. Same with my binky Terry Rozier, but we'll see if he can start being more consistent in real games. Aron Baynes looks like he'll fill his role very well.

Looks like we're also hoping for the defensive leap from Jaylen Brown, and were matching him up vs Kemba Walker a lot to get him more reps vs a quick perimeter guy. The sequence where he stayed with Kemba & blocked his shot on the perimeter, then blocked Marvin Williams while being posted up on back to back possessions show the potential. Jayson Tatum has had a few mental defensive lapses, so he'll get his minutes yanked around in real games, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him start (at least until Marcus Morris works his way back into game shape.) Tatum's been more athletic defensively and a better rebounder than I gave him credit for in college.

End of the bench has some interesting people too. Yabu does not look ready at all offensively, but you can see the athletic potential on D. Same with Semi Ojeleye. Abdel Nader shoots the ball every time he touches it and I hate it. They can have fun dominating the D-League again this year. For somebody who really wasn't even a starter in Europe Daniel Theis has been surprisingly good. Still a bit slight for my tastes as that next big, but plays with an edge, produces, rim protects/rebounds better than expected and his penchant for fouling (which sounds like a big part of the reason he didn't get more minutes in Europe) is fine for a guy who might be asked to play 10-15 minutes in a real game. I'm not a fan of cutting into Rozier's minutes at all, but Shane Larkin also looks like he will be a good 2nd unit guy when needed.

Sounds like LeBron will likely sit game 1, but it should still be an electric atmosphere Tuesday night with all the shade Kyrie is throwing at Cleveland. One game doesn't mean much in the long run with so many top teams so shaken up, but excited to see some real(er) games.

[stevew]

Teodosic was dropping major dimes all preseason. Def will have a bunch of highlight reel stuff.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Hawks apparently going to effectively pay about $800k ($3.8m in waived salaries, minus $3m cash from Cavs) to get a pair of 2nd round picks in '19 and '20.

They also sent the rights to a couple of stashed nobodies to the Cavs in the deal.

My question, honestly, is why do the Hawks pay $800k for a pair of 2nd rounders they're unlikely to ever do anything other than stash & deal and give the Cavs cap relief in the process? This is more like doing the Cavs a favor than anything that provides a tangible benefit to ATL.

[Shkspr]

Hey, everybody who ever won the lottery had to get a ticket somehow, and 2 lottery picks could easily run $3 million as straight cash deals. Besides, if IT regresses and LeBron walks, those two picks might be about 10 picks higher than we expect them to be. For their $800,000, Atlanta has about a 1 in 4 shot at picking up a guy with a career spanning at least 3 years. It isn't that bad a gamble if you're looking at the upside being a cheap 10-15 minute a game spare part.

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Hawks apparently going to effectively pay about $800k ($3.8m in waived salaries, minus $3m cash from Cavs) to get a pair of 2nd round picks in '19 and '20.

They also sent the rights to a couple of stashed nobodies to the Cavs in the deal.

My question, honestly, is why do the Hawks pay $800k for a pair of 2nd rounders they're unlikely to ever do anything other than stash & deal and give the Cavs cap relief in the process? This is more like doing the Cavs a favor than anything that provides a tangible benefit to ATL.

There are plenty of decent 2nd round picks, but even if you're looking at it as a straight cash play 400k is much lower than the going rate for a 2nd round pick on draft night, even a late one. How Cash-Trading Rules May Impact Teams' Draft Plans | Hoops Rumors

[Shkspr]

A fun note I hadn't picked up on: on Draft Night 2016, the Cavs traded $2.5 million to the Hawks for the rights to...Kay Felder.

[stevew]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Hawks apparently going to effectively pay about $800k ($3.8m in waived salaries, minus $3m cash from Cavs) to get a pair of 2nd round picks in '19 and '20.

They also sent the rights to a couple of stashed nobodies to the Cavs in the deal.

My question, honestly, is why do the Hawks pay $800k for a pair of 2nd rounders they're unlikely to ever do anything other than stash & deal and give the Cavs cap relief in the process? This is more like doing the Cavs a favor than anything that provides a tangible benefit to ATL.

The 2 guys combined for about 3M in guarantees so the Hawks were essentially cash neutral on this trade. The 2nd pick in the trade is protected 31-55 so the Hawks won't even get that. I guess the Hawks get the worst of the Lakers or Wolves 2019 pick for basically free. And the Cabs have gotta save a staggering amount. Something like 12.8M in tax

[stevew]

Plus the NBA is all about doing other teams favors.

[Neon_Chaos]

Portis just punched Mirotic and broke two of Nikola's face bones. This Bulls team is goijg to be a sisaster

[jbergey22]

Ouch Gordon Hayward broke his ankle. Looked just awful.

[Butter]

Yeah, his foot was turned completely the wrong way. Yowch.

[Calis]

The fricking sound of that was awful also.

Ouch, what a start to season.

[Groundhog]

Hopefully its the leg and not the ankle... Hard to tell, mainly because I didn't want to watch the replay.

[Neon_Chaos]

Originally Posted by Groundhog

Hopefully its the leg and not the ankle... Hard to tell, mainly because I didn't want to watch the replay.

It's the ankle. The replays and stills clearly show the point of the break.

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by Neon_Chaos

Portis just punched Mirotic and broke two of Nikola's face bones. This Bulls team is goijg to be a sisaster

Smart move. Mirotic is competing with Portis for PT at PF.