NBA 2016-17 Season

Everything else
1

Well the 15-16 season is now in the books with the Warriors choking it away to the Cavs amazingly enough, a team that took forever and a day to finally gel versus a team of destiny that had the best regular season ever in the history of the NBA, then had its own nearly-improbable serious comeback against the Thunder.

Now as we approach the 2016 draft and free agency shenanigans, pieces are already in movement. Derrick Rose is off to the Knicks, who are now (publicly and privately in various guises) talking about getting into the Kevin Durant sweepstakes along with every other team. The Warriors are making Durant Plan A, with Nowitzki apparently Plan B, but despite the fact he’s testing the free agency waters again, I don’t see Dirk moving on. Local Warriors broadcasters saying that Dirk would be “great off the bench” sound like they’ve been ingesting too many edibles. Speaking of which, I don’t know what Harden is smoking either thinking Durant would ever go to the Rockets.

Meanwhile, the 76ers are yet again stacking #1 picks in a vein attempt to have the most high-end first round picks ever and still not play any of them, though hopefully Simmons won’t get injured.

Predictions? I don’t see Golden State going anywhere, or the Cavs for that matter. Miami will continue to get competitive I feel. The Spurs need to figure out where it’s going. My Mavericks are still frustrating and it seems like in many ways the team retrograded from the previous year. Apparently Chandler Parsons may now bolt as well. Meanwhile Mark Cuban is attempting to become Vice President. Sigh.

— Alan

2

Well, that sucks. They traded Oladipo and the #11 pick for one year of Serge Ibaka.

I was getting nervous about Oladipo, especially since he wants to get paid, but I would’ve liked to watch him another year. Kind of heartbreaking.

3

Durant is not going anywhere. He will sign a 2 year deal with OKC, the second year being a player option. Nothing else makes sense. OKC will be a top 4 team next year and contend for the title. They should have beaten the Warriors and they would have fared well against the Cavs.

Free agency will be very interesting. Tons of team money out there but not a lot of great free agents. The shitty teams will overpay for mediocre players, the good teams will wait it out until next year, when the cap goes up yet again, and there will be even more good free agents.

4

While I don’t follow basketball, really, I was listening to the news on the way to work. They started talking about the Bulls pick briefly, apparently some kid who had a similar knee surgery to Rose. Great, they traded a player with injury issues in order to draft one with injury issues.

But I loved the quote by the bulls GM on the draft pick. 'They say [kids name] will play hurt. Well I talked to his coaches and they said ‘hurt? He’ll play dead’ ’
I can’t help but laugh at the not so subtle dig at Rose in that.

5

Thon Maker.

Thon Maker.

Ok, Giannis is likely to be an all star in the next year or so. This will work out right?

Right?

Isn’t he like 35?

6

I’m just hoping Serge Ibaka isn’t 40 years old. Sigh…

7

From the outside it sure seems like OKC got a good deal. As long as they give Adams a super-effective groin cup for the season (esp when playing the Dubs).

8

It’s definitely a good deal for OKC. Orlando is stuck. They haven’t drafted a star and there’s pressure to make the playoffs after 4 years, so they need to pay top dollar for veterans. They’ve been struggling to find a power forward for years. One draft pick short of Porzingis, and Millsap turned them down after Atlanta’s fluke 60 win season. They STILL don’t have a go-to scorer, and I’m not sure who (aside from Durant, obviously) is available for that.

9

I think the OKC-Orlando trade was stunningly one sided. The Thunder give up a dude who has been getting worse, and on the record as wanting to leave when he becomes a free agent in 2017. The get a 2 that is way better than any 2 on their roster last season as well as the #11 pick this year who just happens to be the son of a guy that was a good player ahead of his time. I think they will dump the other guy they got for cap reasons.

The West is going to be brutal again next year. Golden State is going to be on mission. The Spurs should be at least as good as they were this year. No reason to think the Clippers will be worse, and OKC who took GS to 7 games got better.

The NBA really needs to change their post season to a seeded tourney. The East is a joke, the Cavs are going to coast into the Finals again.

10

I don’t that is necessarily true anymore. If you look at playoff teams, the East had better records across the board last year. The West is top heavy, if you look at the top 5 teams, they have 4 out of 5, but overall, in the East, it was harder to get into the playoffs than the west.

I would expect the east to start catching up to Cavs sooner rather than later. The Celtics are going to be tougher next year, the Knicks might make a play next year. As free-agents head to Eastern conference teams, things should start to even out. The Heat hopefully will figure things out. I am a homer, but I think the Bucks are going to have a more coherent year next year, and get better.

11

Thon Maker article

(Pre-draft)

Really interesting read. Love the take-away. He could be a hall of famer, or never play an NBA game in his life. So much unknown.

12

Well top heavy is what matters in the post-season.

The Cavs had a cake walk into the Finals, did anyone seriously think they weren’t going to make the Finals?

The West had the Warriors, Spurs, Thunder and Clippers all fighting to get into the Finals. The Warriors were the favorites but the Thunder took them to 7 games. Clippers were a first round out because of injury.

13

NBA in the new forum!!!

OK, no I don’t think Durant is going to GS. High probability he stays in OKC, a distant 2nd the Clippers, Spurs cause of Pop, then GS is a 4th place also-ran.

Man the Knicks!

They actually did sign Joakim to a 4 year deal. Ugh. Now they’ve probably priced themselves out of Courtney Lee as they desperately need a 3 and D SG. If they end up w/ Eric Gordon it’s gonna resemble an ICU every night.

14

Hey, the Knicks managed to get Courtney Lee. Yay. No bench, but very interesting starting 5.

JPEG_20160702_210437.jpg750×750 190 KB

15

Hmm it looks like the new forums were synced from the old forums a few days ago. So I will repost my thesis from the old forum.

So many mediocre players getting paid! Ultimately I don’t think any of the signings thus far change the balance of power in the league. I think smart teams locked up their best guys previously and will mostly wait this year out. The Durant stuff is a sideshow. He is going to sign and 1+1 with OKC. The other teams that are courting him are setting the stage for next year when the cap goes up again, albeit by a smaller percentage, and there will be a much better free agent class.

The cap went from 70 to 94 mil this year. A massive jump. And because the salary floor is 90% of the cap, it means that teams with cap space today have to pay specific dudes or just pay whatever they are under the floor to their existing rosters. This incentivizes paying mediocre players big salaries which we have seen in spades. Guys are getting max contracts that will never make an all star team, let alone an all nba team.

Lots of people were saying Harrison Barnes would not get a max deal…fucking Chandler Parsons got a max deal! Barnes will get a max deal unless he settles for staying in GS.

I said this many times previously, but the market has changed. Franchises that have been historically great have no advantage in free agency today, unless they have an existing super star. No one is going to the Lakers or Celtics because they are the Lakers or Celtics. Players are going to choose destinations based on payment or the ability to win a title, or a combination of the two. And in a league with many bad teams with a lot of cap space, this results in the best players staying home where they can get the most money due to the extra contract year available or going to the handful of title contenders. Cavs, Warriors, Thunder, Spurs, Clippers. Everyone else will just go to the teams that will pay them the most money, but it won’t impact the five title contenders.

Witness the Lakers, who could not even get a meeting with Durant, paying a second string center who sat on the bench during the Cavs title run a 4 year 64 mil deal.

Horford is pretty much the only difference maker free agent left. Where will he go? If the Thunder can move people and land him, that would be an extreme coup and, IMO, make them the #1 team in the league next year after the trade rape with the Magic. Celtics have cap space and he might land there…but that won’t change the landscape, the Cavs are still coming out of the East next year regardless of who the Celtics sign.

edit: So Horford goes to the Celtics. This is a big move for the Celtics but I don’t think it changes the balance of power in the NBA at all. Signing Horford isn’t going to get Durant to the Celtics.

16

So despite my earlier errant convictions, it seems the Warriors are Durant’s last team in play aside from returning to OKC.

Durant seems like a good guy, and he’s a phenomenal player. Hopping on to the Warriors would be so much more of throwing in the towel than the LBJ decision to join Wade & Bosh in Miami. Just for the sake of keeping the season interesting, I’d hope he’d forego joining the Dubs. It’d be so utterly boring. I mean, yeah, we could marvel at how great they are w/ the two greatest shooters of all-time, one of the top 2-way players in league history, and an all-around stud like Draymond sharing the court.

OTOH competing against them w/ Russ makes for such great sporting drama. Guess we’ll find out on the Players Tribune tomorrow!

17

If he goes to GSW the best hope the rest of us have is that it takes them a year to figure it out with all those guys who need the ball (see: both Miami and Cleveland) and their glue guys get lured away by stupid contracts next year.

18

I still maintain that Durant going anywhere other than OKC on a 1+1 makes no fucking sense.

OKC was a quarter away from going to the Finals this year. And had they gone to the Finals they would have been favored to beat the Cavs.

19

Word is Durant is going to Golden State. His site is getting hammered but I saw a pic of his announcement.

See his site: My Next Chapter

The primary mandate I had for myself in making this decision was to have it based on the potential for my growth as a player — as that has always steered me in the right direction. But I am also at a point in my life where it is of equal importance to find an opportunity that encourages my evolution as a man: moving out of my comfort zone to a new city and community which offers the greatest potential for my contribution and personal growth. With this in mind, I have decided that I am going to join the Golden State Warriors.

20

I never thought LeBron would leave (or return to) Cleveland, and I didn’t think Durant would leave OKC. But now I’m 0 for 3 and pleased to report that in the NBA at least, the most narratively interesting thing happens pretty frequently.

In the regular season my favorite thing to watch is a team exploring their own talent and learning how to play together. Before yesterday I was thinking Minnesota will be fun to watch as they try and put it together. With Golden State we’re going to see that happen at the highest degree.