* Offiical NBA Off-Season Thread: I'll give one of my damn kidney's for these Melo rumors to stop *

[noblekane]

lakers did great with their second round picks. i hope ebanks takes sasha's minutes

 

[nicedudewithnicedreams]

Originally Posted by h3at23

Jack Arent/NBAE/Getty ImagesDeMarcus Cousins was the center of attention at summer league.

3. DeMarcus Cousins, Kings
Summer-league stats: 14.5 ppg, 9.8 rpg, 1.2 bpg

In a league that values franchise centers so much, it's still hard to accept how Cousins fell to the fifth pick. We all know about his faults, but his hands, reach and feel will make him a dominant rebounder immediately, and his touch as a finisher is impressive. On top of that, his passing -- both out of the low block and in starting the fast break -- is what has me most excited about him.

Gift and a curse tho. At least I won't have to see Tyreke start the fast break and finish the fast break himself anymore...

 

[scott frost]

BUT his achilles heel is between his ears  Rick Barnes

 

[Deleted member 38182]

Antoine Wright to the Kings..... fantastic.

 

[h3at23]

NBAFanHouse
  
NBA fines David Kahn and the Timberwolves $50K each for Kahn's comments about Beasley's "smoking too much marijuana"

 

[nychiphophippo]

khan stays taking Ls (no pun intended)

 

[CP1708]

The Lakers are still very much interested in re-signing free-agent swingman Shannon Brown.

"Kupchak indicates he expects to re-sign Shannon Brown in coming weeks," Kevin Ding of the Orange County Register wrote on his Twitter page on Friday afternoon.

Read more: http://www.realgm.com/src...non_brown/#ixzz0uXKH8jKd
 
I can dig it. 

 

[bigmike23]

Wes is a full-service middleman now: players, coaches and general managers. He has long orchestrated deals for players and coaches, but through CAA he’s also in the GM business now. Worldwide Wes was responsible for Oklahoma City Thunder executive Rich Cho getting hired as the Portland Trail Blazers’ GM. Now, Portland is one more franchise under the impression that Wes can broker a trade for Paul.
these fools ant learned yet

 

[nicedudewithnicedreams]

Originally Posted by rck2sactown

Antoine Wright to the Kings..... fantastic.

late pass. nah jk!

I hope it was a one yr contract and cheap. Don't know much about Wright and haven't heard much about potential from him.

 

[i nasmatic i]

[h1]Paul bends to King James’ rule[/h1]

Spoiler

Spoiler

Spoiler [+]

Spoiler

Chris Paul had come into the NBA with so much of Kevin Durant’s pureness of purpose: humble, grateful, still the kid who worked summers pumping gas and changing tires at his grandfather’s gas station in North Carolina. He constructed himself a reputation of values and character, and separated himself in all the best ways.

He should stay on course to be his generation’s Tim Duncan, but that no longer appeals to Paul. He’s veered the wrong way, into the wrong clutches. Bad enough that LeBron James damaged his own standing in the sport this summer, he wants to take down Chris Paul with him too.

James, his business manager Maverick Carter and powerbroker William Wesley have far too much influence over Paul’s career, and they’re running it right out of the sunshine and into darkness. They’re using Paul as a commodity to elevate their clout, to show how they can take a player with no contractual leverage and muscle him out of New Orleans.

What they don’t care about – and maybe don’t understand – is that Paul built such a beautiful, unique relationship with the city of New Orleans. He’s been so truly invested there, a beacon and ambassador in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Yet, the James gang see these bonds as disposable and they’re convincing Paul of it, too.

In a Twitter pronouncement on Thursday, King James declared, “Best of luck to my brother [Chris Paul] … Do what’s best for You and your family.

 

[duba169]

you got world wide wes wes running around promising lebron to the bulls and CP to the tralblazers. You have Riley using wade as a mouth piece years in advance while nobody can do anything because they don't have a star free agent to do the same. Got his boy wade spying on other teams with no intention of going there. you have chris paul openly crying that he wants to be traded to the knicks....

but the people who get in trouble are mark cuban for mentioning lebron's name and Kahn for talking about weed.

what a garbage commissioner for a garbage league

 

[gangsta207therevolution]

Damn Chris aint his own man?

 

[hood17]

Originally Posted by h3at23

NBAFanHouse
  
NBA fines David Kahn and the Timberwolves $50K each for Kahn's comments about Beasley's "smoking too much marijuana"

 

[basketballsavant]

Stop whining and don't watch the "garbage league" if you feel that strongly.

 

[franchise3]

I don't think Woj has anything out for Lebron. We hear it all day, everyday, how the media slurps Lebron, but, Woj has never done that. And when you read his articles, it really is tough to counter-argue what he has to say. He's been on point for the most part.

 

[CP1708]

Damn, that article is nice, but with it being Woj, has to be taken with a grain of salt. 

I can't wait to see the reaction next summer if the Heat aren't the ones havin a parade.  The media and haters will friggin destroy that guy.  But if they win, all will be forgotten and the media will all go back to slurping him Xta style. 

 

[bigmike23]

Originally Posted by franchise3

I don't think Woj has anything out for Lebron. We hear it all day, everyday, how the media slurps Lebron, but, Woj has never done that. And when you read his articles, it really is tough to counter-argue what he has to say. He's been on point for the most part.

THIS

and if i was the Twolves i would make Kahn pay the full 100K, god damn clown

 

[div1lbc]

Damn, NBA is turning too much into the WWE. Too many damn story lines and fake drama.

 

[live boy d]

RIP NBA

 

[duba169]

i agree with you that the timberwolves should have fined him. But stern has more pressing issues. that should be an organizational decision.

at least lebron fulfilled his contract. Nobody wants to see millionaires cry and moan because they aren't champsionhip contenders like CP

 

[Johnny_Cakes]

Kahn should focus more on improving his team than airing out his player's past on another team.

We've had an excellent off-season, if we can just bring Shannon back into the fold we're set for next season.

 

[CP1708]

that shows how players' efficiency changes with more or fewer touches), we can now estimate what might happen.
Looking at their skill curves for the past three seasons, we'd expect James' efficiency to increase by 1.19 points per 100 possessions, Wade's by 0.70, and Bosh's by 0.29.

Of course, they could also redistribute the possessions to optimize their efficiency. In that case, instead of reducing all three players by 5 percent, the correct strategy would be to diminish Bosh's touches severely, diminish James' touches slightly, and actually increase the touches by Wade -- up to a usage rate of about 40, he shows virtually no loss of effectiveness.

Because this scenario stretches the bounds of feasibility -- it's nearly inconceivable that Wade would have more touches than he did when he was basically playing 1-on-5 last season -- I won't dwell on it in this projection.

Besides, they're fearsome enough without such a severe adjustment. Pumping those changes into last season's numbers, one gets Bosh with a PER of 24.16, Wade with a PER of 27.39 and James at a robust 31.04. Basically, they wouldn't lose a thing.

Of course, they won't be playing with last season's Bosh-Wade-James tandem, but next season's version. This is an important distinction -- their numbers would have been likely to diminish slightly even if they had stayed on their own teams, simply because there isn't much room left for them to go up. My projection tool had James at a PER of 29.12, Wade at 26.31 and Bosh at 23.88 if each had stayed put.

Throwing in the skill-curve adjustment from above, we end up with James at 28.97, Wade at 25.60 and Bosh at 22.93. As noted above, my back-of-the-envelope estimate from three weeks ago had James at 29, Wade at 26 and Bosh at 23. Score one for the envelope.

Now there's still the matter of plugging in the rest of the roster. I ran all of them through my projection system and estimated minutes for the rest of the crew -- 2,000 each for Miller and Haslem, with Chalmers and Arroyo splitting the point duties and about 500 minutes left over for a "no-point" offense, and spot duty for the others. After two other slight adjustments -- putting my finger on the scale to improve what I felt was an unusually pessimistic projection for Miller, and replacing Jones (who rated far south of replacement level) with a randomly selected civilian, the answer it spat out was ...

68 wins.

 

overriding conclusion is the same: Miami is now the favorite to win it all

John Hollinger. 

 

[hood17]

Originally Posted by CP1708

The Lakers are still very much interested in re-signing free-agent swingman Shannon Brown.

"Kupchak indicates he expects to re-sign Shannon Brown in coming weeks," Kevin Ding of the Orange County Register wrote on his Twitter page on Friday afternoon.

Read more: http://www.realgm.com/src...non_brown/#ixzz0uXKH8jKd

 
I can dig it. 
So does that mean goodbye Sasha or just REALLY less minutes for him now. Can Phil please play Josh Powell more?

 

[CP1708]

Originally Posted by HOOD17

Originally Posted by CP1708

The Lakers are still very much interested in re-signing free-agent swingman Shannon Brown.

"Kupchak indicates he expects to re-sign Shannon Brown in coming weeks," Kevin Ding of the Orange County Register wrote on his Twitter page on Friday afternoon.

Read more: http://www.realgm.com/src...non_brown/#ixzz0uXKH8jKd

 
I can dig it. 

So does that mean goodbye Sasha or just REALLY less minutes for him now. Can Phil please play Josh Powell more?





Powell went to the Hawks (or is in process of doing so)

It means Phil will go back and forth between Brown and Sasha in a given matchup.  Sasha being the better defender and late game free throw/ 3 pt shooter, Shannon more of the energy crowd type guy. 

Brown needs to learn the damn triangle though, he is terrible at it these past two years, if he learns it, and works on it, he could be nice, and Sasha would lose minutes greatly. 

Either way, 10-11-12 type guys we're talkin here, they take the Mbenga/Powell/Morrison roles. 

 

[you big dummy]

D.Wade on Jimmy Kimmel Live