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.

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

Couldn't have happened to a nicer team! 😆

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

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

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]

The Westbrook trade is easily the biggest shocker of them all for me. Wow.

Jens wrote:

The Westbrook trade is easily the biggest shocker of them all for me. Wow.

Meatwad wrote:

mr. steal your rebound's effective field goal percentage is 44. damn that's awful. now paul george is the man.

Yo Nipsey, you gon root for mr steal your rebounds now or what?

4 days later

More creative...he'll flop while traveling.

Gotta say - I’m intrigued by this ‘it will look like a travel but isn’t’ move. 🙂

7 days later
17 days later

These guys can't catch a break, man.

8 days later

Harden now trying to incorporate a one leg step back three.

:-/

16 days later

https://outline.com/YLT8rm

KD gives an extensive interview with the WSJ. Details his anger towards OKC:

”Such a venomous toxic feeling when I walked into that arena. And just the organization, the trainers and equipment managers, those dudes is pissed off at me? Ain't talking to me? I'm like, Yo, this is where we going with this? Because I left a team and went to play with another team?

His mother recalls one particularly appalling piece of video: a Thunder fan firing bullets into a No. 35 jersey. Bullets—after she and Durant and half his extended family relocated to Oklahoma, after they embraced the community, after Durant gave a million dollars to tornado victims.

”I'll never be attached to that city again because of that. I eventually wanted to come back to that city and be part of that community and organization, but I don't trust nobody there. That s--t must have been fake, what they was doing. The organization, the GM, I ain't talked to none of those people, even had a nice exchange with those people, since I left."

Not NBA, but Team USA has been knocked out of the basketball World Cup by France.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/sep/11/fiba-world-cup-france-usa-basketball

The USA usually fields a significantly weakened team but has still managed to win 58 games in a row at the Olympics and World Cups.

Semi finals will be France v Argentina and Australia v Spain. The Aussies had a narrow win over France in the group games, but Spain will be tough.

18 days later

This has been the hot discussion on social media recently:

What do you guys think? Seems the author ranked them heavily based on analytics.

From the "honourable omissions" list, you can tell that there is nothing conclusive and there will always be arguments about value so I just scrolled to the bottom and as soon as I saw MJ at number one, I felt no need to read the rest.

Bryant wrote:

https://outline.com/YLT8rm

KD gives an extensive interview with the WSJ. Details his anger towards OKC:

”Such a venomous toxic feeling when I walked into that arena. And just the organization, the trainers and equipment managers, those dudes is pissed off at me? Ain't talking to me? I'm like, Yo, this is where we going with this? Because I left a team and went to play with another team?

His mother recalls one particularly appalling piece of video: a Thunder fan firing bullets into a No. 35 jersey. Bullets—after she and Durant and half his extended family relocated to Oklahoma, after they embraced the community, after Durant gave a million dollars to tornado victims.

”I'll never be attached to that city again because of that. I eventually wanted to come back to that city and be part of that community and organization, but I don't trust nobody there. That s--t must have been fake, what they was doing. The organization, the GM, I ain't talked to none of those people, even had a nice exchange with those people, since I left."

these athletes really are sheltered and clueless socially. you actually think those people who wouldn't want you in their neighborhood if you didn't play ball love you like that? to be so detached from reality. they love what you can do for their team, not you.