2016 Official NBA Off-Season Thread: Former Greatness

[statis22]

I've been saying for a few years now that 2 things that hurt today's NBA is restricted free agency & the lottery forcing teams to build on an accelerated clock in case a teams lucks into a franchise changing guy. Only effective way to build a real team thru the draft is to tank.

How so?

A team is almost guaranteed to have that guy for 7 years, nobody turns down that first deal.

Well just in case you haven't been paying attention the past 15 years or so almost every small market or perennially bad team has lost their franchise guy by the time they were done with their 2nd contract. All of those teams were forced to start spending to do right by their guy and while some of the teams became title contenders almost all of them never built anything lasting and became immediately mediocre. While you're right that no guy turns down RFA it's also forcing guys to stay with bad franchises and the cycle continues until the franchise guy leaves in UFA or forces his way out thru trade.

I've said this plenty of times, a lot of these teams are on the clock with their guys.

OKC is probably gonna lose Westbrook
Washington will probably lose John Wall
Sacramento will probably be forced to move Boogie unless he leaves in a few years.
New Orleans will lose Anthony Davis
Indiana at some point will probably have to move Paul George


It's going to keep happening.

 

[brandon3000]

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wild...

 

[slick vitale]

 

[JD617]

Not even gonna say anything.

 

[IATT]

Durant really needs to man up.. this is getting ridiculous

“The two days after I didn’t leave my bed because if I walk outside somebody might try to hit me with their car,” Durant said. “I just stayed in and tried to process it all. I wanted to be around family and positive support. It felt different, obviously."

“I had been somewhere for so long and made a change no one saw coming and didn’t think I would do. Of course I didn’t know how it would be received afterward. But at some point I said, ‘Life goes on, and I can’t hide forever,’ so I had to face it.”

http://basketball.realgm.com/wireta...Leave-His-Bed-For-Two-Days-After-His-Decision

 

[rck3sactown]

KD needs to cut the act

 

[brandon3000]

soon as Durant leaves the house

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[big j 33]

My sympathy for Durant lasted about 4 seconds.

I thought "It must be hard to make this kind of decision, knowing you're going to disappoint all of your fans in OKC.. despite being a pro athlete, I don't envy making this call"

Then he announced he was going to the Warriors. A dominant team, the favorites to win the title, joining a free flowing offense with the reigning MVP, and a system that fits him perfectly and takes off a ton of pressure as a player, surrounded by other stars who desperately wanted you to join and recruited you.

And then my sympathy ran out.

Man up, buttercup. Some people will always dislike you because of this. Some will get over it eventually. Some are indifferent, then just don't want to hear you whine about staying in bed for 2 days.

 

[stillin729]

 

[mgrand15]

Well just in case you haven't been paying attention the past 15 years or so almost every small market or perennially bad team has lost their franchise guy by the time they were done with their 2nd contract. All of those teams were forced to start spending to do right by their guy and while some of the teams became title contenders almost all of them never built anything lasting and became immediately mediocre. While you're right that no guy turns down RFA it's also forcing guys to stay with bad franchises and the cycle continues until the franchise guy leaves in UFA or forces his way out thru trade.

I've said this plenty of times, a lot of these teams are on the clock with their guys.

OKC is probably gonna lose Westbrook
Washington will probably lose John Wall
Sacramento will probably be forced to move Boogie unless he leaves in a few years.
New Orleans will lose Anthony Davis
Indiana at some point will probably have to move Paul George


It's going to keep happening.

They're not forced to do anything. Impatient teams like Cleveland and the Pelicans rush and overpay. Smart teams surround stars with other good young players that can grow together.

Either way, the "clock" is a MINIMUM of 7 years. That's an eternity in the NBA. The usual case is 9 years. I see no problem. You should have freedom to leave or stay by then. Don't see why teams should be able to lock players in for life.

 

[mgrand15]

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wild...

We still have 20 million in cap space this time though

 

[Cashflow]

KD is such a beta

 

[aepps20]

Durant isn't built to be a villian.

 

[lynchpin33]

It also didn't end well for Richard Jefferson with Coach Pop as well. Wasnt it something like they wanted him to work on the corner 3 (which is a staple of the Spurs offense) and catch and shoot a certain way? But he was catching and shooting the way he wanted to, not how they asked him to. And he was on thing smoking out of San Antonio after that.

 

[brandon3000]

 

[JD617]

Well if you remove his two worst games, he's at 37ppg on 53% shooting.

Exactly, there's a flip side to that coin. Plus those were the 4 Blazers wins in the series. So in their 4 wins, he averaged 37 & 12 on 53%. He definitely torched them.

 

[a-friend]

 

[brandon3000]

I for one am interested in seeing Blake and Russ on the same team.

I get the feeling Russ is outta there one way or another tho

 

[akajae]

Some folks said that if OKC had to lose a player between KD and Russ, that they would be better with Russ.
That KD was beta and Russ Alpha.
That Russ could take a Durant-less OKC further than KD could take a Russ-less OKC.
Those were the days.

 

[statis22]

Well just in case you haven't been paying attention the past 15 years or so almost every small market or perennially bad team has lost their franchise guy by the time they were done with their 2nd contract. All of those teams were forced to start spending to do right by their guy and while some of the teams became title contenders almost all of them never built anything lasting and became immediately mediocre. While you're right that no guy turns down RFA it's also forcing guys to stay with bad franchises and the cycle continues until the franchise guy leaves in UFA or forces his way out thru trade.

I've said this plenty of times, a lot of these teams are on the clock with their guys.

OKC is probably gonna lose Westbrook
Washington will probably lose John Wall
Sacramento will probably be forced to move Boogie unless he leaves in a few years.
New Orleans will lose Anthony Davis
Indiana at some point will probably have to move Paul George


It's going to keep happening.

They're not forced to do anything. Impatient teams like Cleveland and the Pelicans rush and overpay. Smart teams surround stars with other good young players that can grow together.

Either way, the "clock" is a MINIMUM of 7 years. That's an eternity in the NBA. The usual case is 9 years. I see no problem. You should have freedom to leave or stay by then. Don't see why teams should be able to lock players in for life.

Yea the point I was discussing was RESTRICTED free agency.

If you're ok with it then fine.

 

[Peep Game]

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wild...

Not even gonna say anything.

Just scroll back in this same thread as it was very well said damn near verbatim. It's too early in the morning for your keyboard to be catching on fire due to heightened sensitivity sir or ma'am.

Please quote the post that said the Lakers are saving cap to sign Westbrook, KD and Curry.

If not, then stop pulling shxt out your ***

Made a mistake, it was actually Paul George/Cousins and it was said by MambaMVP, now have some dignity and cross your legs, your pad is showing.

 

[a-friend]

 

Avy is near perfect.

Pure Perfection if Russ dips too.

 

[Arthur Shelby]

The AI x Thom Browne x Gucci = 76ers Legend

 

[Arthur Shelby]

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[bhzmafia14]

at that avy

I'm ready to rustle some jimmies today, so I found this article about Fizdale changing the Grizz offense and featuring Conley more...since people never understood why Conley never put up amazing numbers

Conley, one of the Grizzlies' best shooters and a top-notch defender, is best known as a game manager, a floor general, a point guard who sets the offense, makes plays and orchestrates the personnel. The Grizzlies' post-first offense meant Conley was often the initiator and last resort, with a lesser role within those parameters. Fizdale looks to change that.

"The style of play is going to change the way he looks offensively. We talked about giving him the first six seconds of every possession. In the past, which I'm not knocking because I have so much respect for those coaches and the success that that they had, but they played a different style where they posted their bigs first and then Mike had the ball at the end of the possession. I want to give Mike the opportunity early on to attack and make plays, and then we'll get that end of possession post-up for Zach or Marc out of movement where teams can't just load up on them."

Time for Conley to have a career year