The Official NBA Season Thread: NBA Cup Night

[DripNick]

 

[spiderjericho]

Commentary. Is it wild Nia Long missed Usher serenading her? Or wild that Kiki (sp) ignored her man to get the serenading? Which warrants a Chelsea Boot?

 

[had pants]

 

[tomdiginson]

 

[pmatic]

Breen's "Hu-Ho!" always gets me.

 

[getback]

 

[Coupé It]

Miami won’t stop *****ing about this

 

[pmatic]

Cap Geekery: The Bertāns rewrite
In a small piece of cap news that will undoubtedly still please the nerdiest readers here, the Oklahoma City Thunder made an adjustment to the guarantee terms on Dāvis Bertāns’ contract for 2024-25.

Bertāns, who was set to make $16 million that season, had only $5 million of that amount guaranteed; however, he would trigger a full guarantee if he plays at least 61 of the Thunder’s 82 games this season. That term created an obvious incentive for the Thunder to keep his games played below 61; in what is possibly a related story, Bertāns was the only Oklahoma City player not to leave the bench in a 36-point blowout of San Antonio on Nov. 14.

Well, according to HoopsHype’s Michael Scotto, the Thunder bought themselves out of that predicament for the low sum of $250,000, upping Bertāns’ guarantee to $5.25 million for 2024-25 but removing the possibility of a full guarantee. That, in turn, frees Oklahoma City coach Mark Daigneault to use Bertāns as he sees fit — such as his 15-points-in-11-minutes outburst against Dallas on Saturday that ended up being crucial in a narrow Thunder win — without worrying about triggering the 61 games threshold.

As a reminder, teams are allowed to renegotiate guarantee terms in a contract regardless of the team’s cap position. This is more commonly done with March contract buyouts, where player and team agree to reduce the guarantee amount and then the player is waived, or in July when teams and players sometimes agree to push back guarantee trigger dates to accommodate other roster moves. This maneuver was more unusual, altering the guarantee terms in a future season to reduce uncertainty on both sides.

If you’re wondering whether Bertāns would have played the 61 games in an alternate universe with a different contract, it’s certainly possible. Bertāns has some value on a Thunder roster that is thin on frontcourt depth, especially with prospects Aleksej Pokuševski and Ousmane Dieng still appearing unready, so it’s not out of the question that he could command a back-end rotation spot the rest of the season. While his contract also makes him obvious trade bait as an outgoing salary match, the salary adjustment also makes it seem a bit more likely such a move would happen after the season than while it’s in progress.

datznasty

 

[B Sox]

 

[pmatic]

The league telegraphing Celtics vs Lakers for the IST chip in Vegas.

 

[getback]

The league telegraphing Celtics vs Lakers for the IST chip in Vegas.

I was lowkey thinking the same thing. Would only be right.

 

[king j]

Bron been bussin Ime *** for years

 

[pmatic]

 

[addict4sneakers]

He turned down being the face of the mamba line

 

[B Sox]

Sucks that Zingus is out, but the team probably knows how to play better without him than if they’re missing any of the other pieces.

Papa Al slides in (who everyone is used to playing with) and you just hope you can get like 15 non-terrible minutes from Kornet/Queta off the bench.

 

[HIM]

Papa Al slides in

Is this a real nickname or did you must make it up?

 

[getback]

Papi Al

 

[WASHED KING]

Who could’ve guessed there would be some weirdo takes about Bron to come out of this

Glad other people not named me are pointing it out. Cause if it was me saying it there would've been an issue.

 

[dacomeup]

The laugh

 

[lovehateself]

The laugh

 

[MVP]

Free Russ

 

[pmatic]

 

[pmatic]

 

[Maximus Meridius]

Bron been bussin Ime *** for years

Ime definitely on his

 

[rolaholic]