NBA General Discussion Thread 2017

[Billy Dat]

I think it's wild that on opening night the Celtics lose Gordon Hayward to a gruesome ankle injury and, the next night, Jeremy Lin of the Nets is done for the season with a gruesome knee injury...and Lin is one of the key players for a Nets team that the Celtics are counting on being better than expected so they were willing to trade that Nets 2019 Lottery Pick to Cleveland. Danny Ainge better stay home for a few days lest a safe fall on him.

[flyingdutchdevil]

I think it's wild that on opening night the Celtics lose Gordon Hayward to a gruesome ankle injury and, the next night, Jeremy Lin of the Nets is done for the season with a gruesome knee injury...and Lin is one of the key players for a Nets team that the Celtics are counting on being better than expected so they were willing to trade that Nets 2019 Lottery Pick to Cleveland. Danny Ainge better stay home for a few days lest a safe fall on him.

Yeah- Cleveland is getting the best of the Celtics this season. Gotta pray that Brown and Tatum develop quickly...

[pfrduke]

Meanwhile, the Giannis 2018 MVP campaign started last night. My goodness he was impressive. That guy has almost no ceiling as a player.

[Kedsy]

Meanwhile, the Giannis 2018 MVP campaign started last night. My goodness he was impressive. That guy has almost no ceiling as a player.

Does he have a roof?

[BD80]

Does he have a roof?

He would if he had gone to unc.

But at least he would know how to speak Swahili. supposing of course that he knew how to speak Swahili before heading to chapel hell.

[JasonEvans]

Meanwhile, the Giannis 2018 MVP campaign started last night. My goodness he was impressive. That guy has almost no ceiling as a player.

Kevin Durant says the Freak will someday be the greatest player ever. Does that mean he has no ceiling?

Oh, he is only 22... how scary will he be when he reaches his athletic peak in a few years. Yikes!!

-Jason "he needs to lead his team to at least a conference finals though as being great means making your team into a big time winner" Evans

[luburch]

Stumbled upon this article from 538 when reading about the new tanking rules that just passed. The article contains some really unique ideas on how to prevent teams from tanking. Worth a read!

[moonpie23]

hahahaha...throwing the mouthpiece and giving the "ring finger" got steph and kd thrown out of the game...


ever notice how chippy they get when they're losing?

[LasVegas]

hahahaha...throwing the mouthpiece and giving the "ring finger" got steph and kd thrown out of the game...


ever notice how chippy they get when they're losing?

Yeah, super immature and a bad look for Curry. My daughter throws less tantrums and she is 18 months. At least he owned up to it.

[Bluedog]

hahahaha...throwing the mouthpiece and giving the "ring finger" got steph and kd thrown out of the game...


ever notice how chippy they get when they're losing?

Yeah, super immature and a bad look for Curry. My daughter throws less tantrums and she is 18 months. At least he owned up to it.

Our own Kyrie also just got fined $25k for yelling "Suck my d__" to a 76ers fan. Not a great look for him either unfortunately.

[pfrduke]

Meanwhile, Giannis continues to be ridiculous. His first three games:

37 points, 13 boards, 3 assists, 3 steals
34, 8, 8, 3, and a block
44, 8, 4, 2, and 2 (including a steal leading to a go ahead dunk followed by a game sealing block in the last minute)

He’s 45-67 from the floor so far this season. I’m 100% in on the Giannis for MVP campaign. He’s also 23. Milwaukee needs to throw all the money at him to make sure he stays - he hasn’t even hit his peak and he’s already putting together a credible case for being the best player in the league.

[darthur]

Our own Kyrie also just got fined $25k for yelling "Suck my d__" to a 76ers fan. Not a great look for him either unfortunately.

No, although I personally have a lot of sympathy for the players in these situations. Imagine you're out on the court putting everything you have on the line, and you have someone constantly sitting there courtside harassing you. Sooner or later they're going to strike a nerve or you're just going to get fed up, and you'll take the bait. Doesn't make it right, but an incident here or there doesn't really change my opinion about these guys.

Of course we as Duke fans know a little something about harassing players, but (a) certain NBA fans go well beyond any Cameron Crazies chant in what they say, and (b) I do specifically remember K saying in my years that the fans should focus on cheering the Duke players rather than harassing the opponents.

Btw, I never did figure out why KD got ejected from watching that game. I think the ring finger thing was after. He must have said something I guess. It's funny -- even though I thought the Warriors had been hit some with questionable calls/no-calls over the game and 4th quarter, I couldn't see what Curry was complaining about on that final play. Seems more like general frustration directed or misdirected at the ref. Hopefully it'll wake them up for future games.

[Bluedog]

No, although I personally have a lot of sympathy for the players in these situations. Imagine you're out on the court putting everything you have on the line, and you have someone constantly sitting there courtside harassing you. Sooner or later they're going to strike a nerve or you're just going to get fed up, and you'll take the bait. Doesn't make it right, but an incident here or there doesn't really change my opinion about these guys.

Of course we as Duke fans know a little something about harassing players, but (a) certain NBA fans go well beyond any Cameron Crazies chant in what they say, and (b) I do specifically remember K saying in my years that the fans should focus on cheering the Duke players rather than harassing the opponents.

I agree with your premise, but let's just say I am certain the harassment Grayson Allen has taken is among the worst of anybody in the professional ranks, and he's an unpaid amateur and hasn't responded (and if he did, he'd been eviscerated for it). These guys are professionals, so should know how to deal with it, but I realize everybody is human and reacts at a certain point. I don't know if I'd agree NBA fans are more crass/vocal than college students/fans, drunk college students can basically talk with no filter. I would absolutely argue that the Cameron Crazies are VERY mild in trying to strike nerves of opposing players by saying personal things compared to the fanbases of other schools. What I heard from Louisville fans was otherworldy...Never heard anything like it in Cameron.

[JasonEvans]

I’m 100% in on the Giannis for MVP campaign. He’s also 23. Milwaukee needs to throw all the money at him to make sure he stays - he hasn’t even hit his peak and he’s already putting together a credible case for being the best player in the league.

They already signed him for a near-max deal a year ago and the deal just kicked in this season. He's signed for 4 years at $100 mil ($22.4 mil this season going up to $27.5 mil in 2020-21). The interesting thing is that they signed him for less than the max for a player of his experience and they signed him for 4 years not 5. Teams are allowed to sign one player to what is called a designated max contract, which goes 5 years at the max salary. Because teams can only do that with 1 player, it can create a problem if there are multiple players who want or deserve that. When Milwaukee convinced Freak not to take the designated max a year ago, it was assumed they would be able to instead use it on Jabari Parker. But then Jabari got hurt and Giannis blew up in a big big way and suddenly it looks like Freak is the one you want for 5 years, not Jabari.

Anyway, the bottom line is that Freak is signed until 2021 and Milwaukee has a lot of time to make him happy. Even at an average of $25 mil per season, he is terribly underpaid right now, but he took that contract deal because he wanted the team to have more flexibility to be able to make moves to surround him with the best players. He seems really committed to Milwaukee (even though they have a dysfunctional 3-owner structure where the owners are constantly fighting with each other). I think the Bucks are alongside the Celtics as the likely teams to rule the East in a couple years once Lebron is no longer able to bend the conference to his will all by himself.

-Jason "Freak is tons of fun to watch, that's for sure!" Evans

[JasonEvans]

Even at an average of $25 mil per season, he is terribly underpaid right now

Giannis is the 32nd highest paid player in the NBA this season (tied with Stephen Adams, who has an identical 4 year, $100 mil contract with the same annual salaries and escalations). The list of the highest paid players in the league contains some truly mind-boggling contract mistakes.

Did you know that Jrue Holiday is the 14th highest paid player in the NBA this season? Wow, what was New Orleans thinking with that one? They are on the hook with him for 5 seasons (last year of the deal is a player option at $27 mil, I'm betting the 31 year old Holiday will take that $27 mil option). He's a mediocre shooter and a poor defender... how is this guy making $25+ mil a year?!?!

Paul Millsap is a really nice power forward and a good NBA player... but he's the 3rd highest paid player in the league this season. He's never even made a 3rd team All-NBA team but only Lebron and Steph make more than him. That's messed up.

Andre Drummond is owed close to $110 mil over the next 4 seasons... for a guy who can't even hit 40% of his free throws (which makes him unplayable in the 4th quarter of close games).

-Jason "There are other contracts that are head scratchers (Miles Plumlee!!!). Looking at NBA mistakes is always amusing" Evans

[Truth&Justise]

Did you know that Jrue Holiday is the 14th highest paid player in the NBA this season? Wow, what was New Orleans thinking with that one? They are on the hook with him for 5 seasons (last year of the deal is a player option at $27 mil, I'm betting the 31 year old Holiday will take that $27 mil option). He's a mediocre shooter and a poor defender... how is this guy making $25+ mil a year?!?!

The Pelicans overpaid Holiday as a way of going all-in on the Cousins-Davis frontcourt. After trading all their wing-depth for Cousins, and having to pay Cousins and Davis max-contracts, the Pelicans didn't have much cap space. Their only choices were: (1) sign second and third-tier perimeter players for the league-minimum, or (2) go over the cap to re-sign Holiday. If they lost Holiday their already perilously-thin perimeter would crater. Holiday knew this and had all the leverage in the negotiation.

So the answer is: Jrue Holiday was the best bad option New Orleans had and he took advantage of it to sign a massive deal.

[JasonEvans]

So the answer is: Jrue Holiday was the best bad option New Orleans had and he took advantage of it to sign a massive deal.

I'm not enough of a cap expert to know if this would work, but what they should have done is found a way to sign-and-trade Holiday to Phoenix for Eric Bledsoe. Now Holiday makes too much to make that deal work.

-Jason "Bledsoe is going to be moved, that much is clear" Evans

[Furniture]

Seth is in good company.

[pfrduke]

Meanwhile, Giannis continues to be ridiculous. His first three games:

37 points, 13 boards, 3 assists, 3 steals
34, 8, 8, 3, and a block
44, 8, 4, 2, and 2 (including a steal leading to a go ahead dunk followed by a game sealing block in the last minute)

He’s 45-67 from the floor so far this season. I’m 100% in on the Giannis for MVP campaign. He’s also 23. Milwaukee needs to throw all the money at him to make sure he stays - he hasn’t even hit his peak and he’s already putting together a credible case for being the best player in the league.

Game 4 Giannis had “only” 32 (plus 14 boards and 6 assists) on 13-21 from the field. He has 147 points on 88 shots from the field.

[darthur]

Meanwhile, the Chicago Bulls - an organization that prides itself on "interdepartmental communication" and "culture" - are putting themselves in the running for most dysfunctional franchise in the league.

On the plus side, they managed to unload this scrub rookie in exchange for a little cash:

https://streamable.com/rvev1

It's still very early but he does seem like a pretty decent energy guy and is fun to watch... at least as long as he's not playing against Duke. His PER is higher than Kevin Durant's!
It's pretty crazy that the Warriors somehow have managed 2 years in a row to get serviceable players in the draft just for cash.