kawhi to the clippers
clippers trading SGA, galo and a ton of picks for paul george

holy shit. this league. amazing

shams beat woj by a few seconds on the news

lakers reddit is MELTING DOWN

the nba is the best. and its not even close.

SGA, galo, 5 first round picks (1 protected, 4 unprotected) and 2 pick swamps. mindblowing.

goodnight.

Fucking hell. What a coup by the Clippers. They're my favs to win the chip now.

Kawhi/PG >>> Bron/AD

The western conference playoffs are going to be the most unpredictable in a long time

Wow, just wow.

Spare a thought for OKC...

Wow, just woke up to this news. It's shaping up to be a fun season next year.

Going to interesting seeing how Doc and PG interact with each other:

Crazy!

Happy he got what he wanted. Would’ve preferred it was in Toronto but we couldn’t give him an all star at PG’s level, as well as the chance to play at home.

Excited for next season.

Time to Boogie.

predictably, the rumors are starting up (from woj) that westbrook might ask to be traded. i cant imagine any sane GM would trade for him. so i expect the knicks to explore this possibility

mdgoonah41 wrote:

predictably, the rumors are starting up (from woj) that westbrook might ask to be traded. i cant imagine any sane GM would trade for him. so i expect the knicks to explore this possibility

Miami: We'll give our...uhh....the 2023 and the 2025 unprotected first round picks since you guys have our 2021 pick already!!!

it just has to be repeated that westbrook's contract is insane

$38.5 (age 30)
$41.3 (age 31)
$44.2 (age 32)
$47.1 (age 33, player option)

just....wow.

the heat are currently at $146m, which means they are over the apron already. i dont think there is any way they could trade for westbrook. anderson, dragic and james johnson would have to be involved, and why would OKC want any of those guys?

send the thunder back to seattle, please

Haha! No way. We’ve got draft picks, and SGA could be a fine point guard if his game develops under Billy Donovan (assuming we keep him). We’ll be fine in a few years but definitely no longer playoff contenders.

Looks like another team is about to throw their hat into the Russell Westbrook sweepstakes.

Rex wrote:

Player power has made the NBA supporter a supporter of a shirt. The dominance of a single player makes basketball special, and it makes the job of front offices pretty damn impossible. At least when you look at planning for the future. The cycle of any given team is pretty much one or two years now, which is pretty crazy. Warriors was pretty much an anomaly in the sense that everything coincided to make it possible for them to add KD, but a dynasty like that looks unlikely to happen any time soon again.

i think its too early to assume this is just how things will be now. players definitely have all the power, but the cap will still keep things competitive, unless there is another crazy 1 year spike. a few years ago, the nets were a laughingstock, now they attracted durant and kyrie. the knicks are one of the biggest brands in the NBA and they cant attract anyone. the warriors had the best team in 20 years and that wasnt enough to keep KD. the pelicans won the zion sweepstakes and it wasnt enough to convince AD to stay. paul george signed a huge deal to stay in OKC last summer, and this summer he requested a trade. its just impossible to know what is going to happen a year from now or 2 years from now or 5 years from now.

i do think the biggest certainty is that elite players are going to avoid dysfunctional organizations and try to get themselves into the best position possible. if you own an NBA team and the perception is that you are incompetent, you probably need to make changes. the suns can have all the cap space they want, and they have 2 elite players they drafted, but good luck convincing a marquee free agent to sign there right now. same goes for about 10 other teams. the jazz, on the other hand, are not in a big media market at all, but they have competent management, a solid core, and they were able to acquire a bunch of top notch talent this summer.

infrastructure matters in the NBA

Yeah, it's hard to predict what will happen in the future as MD says. I think the 2020 Olympics will be where we might see potential future partnerships take shape like Kyrie, KD, and DAJ.

I think another aspect that's become an issue is that max contract. It has impaired teams' ability to improve their team to compete. We already see teams in the near future that are likely to go nowhere thanks to massive deals (Washington, OKC, etc.). Ironically enough, the players that were championed as being small market successes (Kawhi and PG) are now in LA.

We'll see how the big max money contracts given out after the elite superstars were signed (Tobias Harris, Khris Middleton, etc.) age, but I think that these deals will make it difficult for both the Sixers and the Bucks to improve as they will spend more max money in the future to try to retain their superstars.

I think the simpler certainty is that elite players will avoid losing teams. Players want to join a team with upside and with a chance to compete for the Championship.

im not really worried about the tobias harris contract. hes at a great age, hes entering his prime, and he should be fine. a few years ago when mike conley signed his huge deal, he was the highest paid player in the NBA. hes now like the 33rd or 34th highest paid. the cap is going to continue to increase 5-10% a year for the foreseeable future, and when the next CBA is up, im sure there will be another fairly big jump.

the sixers are in a real weird spot, cap wise. simmons is going to sign his extension, but it will take effect next summer. we are going to be right near the apron with our core guys. the key, like the warriors proved, is to find vets willing to sign on the cheap. then if they have a big year, you have to nod your head and move on do it again. they did not backload horford's contract, so his contract will be movable if they need to. the hope is that zhaire, thybulle and shake can develop into good 6-7-8 men.

the next big domino is probably going to be giannis, but that is 2 years from now, and half the league will move/be traded by then. the NBA really is incredible

That’s what I mean, what you say in your last sentence. You project that in two years, only TWO YEARS, half the league will be traded by then. And you are most likely right. Which makes long term planning, hell even medium term planning, for any organization pretty much impossible.

Rex wrote:

That’s what I mean, what you say in your last sentence. You project that in two years, only TWO YEARS, half the league will be traded by then. And you are most likely right. Which makes long term planning, hell even medium term planning, for any organization pretty much impossible.

I agree with you. And which puts a lot of power in players’ hands as you said. Because the teams have caps and players have max salaries, and there are only so many good players to go around; the players recognize the value of manipulating trades to send 2-3 massive players to a single team for a few years. Miami set the tone a few years ago and people recognized the potential. If you read how Leonard worked the phones and instructed absolute secrecy, you can see which side power lay. He worked the teams until he found a winning situation for himself.

It puts a real onus on teams to have incredibly smart GMs who are in favor with the mega agents that matter. Because this structure means that only a few teams can be competitive in an given period as manipulated by these agents

Would like to see Westbrook team up with Butler in Miami. It will either be a match made in heaven or an epic disaster, no in between.

Jed wrote:

Would like to see Westbrook team up with Butler in Miami. It will either be a match made in heaven or an epic disaster, no in between.

epic disaster, imo

woj wrote the article today that presti is looking for deals for him, miami has interest, and he has interest in miami. please let it happen. please

mdgoonah41 wrote:

Jed wrote:

Would like to see Westbrook team up with Butler in Miami. It will either be a match made in heaven or an epic disaster, no in between.

epic disaster, imo

woj wrote the article today that presti is looking for deals for him, miami has interest, and he has interest in miami. please let it happen. please

They might break out into fist fights on the court if they’re not careful - both players definitely a bit hot headed, and Westbrook can be bone headed to boot

Oh

Couldn't have happened to a nicer team!

holy fuck WESTBROOK to the rockets

For Chris Paul, 2 first round picks and 2 pick swaps.

Wow.

oh boy. harden and westbrook together will be great to watch at times, but i doubt they'll go deep in the playoffs

awww jeez i don't even know what to think about this. russ has turned himself into a horribly inefficient player. maybe he'll get better playing with a great player again (he wasn't this bad with durant). chris paul was a shell of his former self last season and then add 3 more years of that kind of play. bullet dodged, we weren't going anywhere with him. russ won't make us worse in that regard.

arsedoc md wrote:

Wait how will this work? They'll have to go through each other for the ball on each play

[font=Source Sans Pro]Lol. But imagine it works out and they manage to coexist in harmony. Oh boy. It's over for everybody.[/font]