NBA 2024-2025 General Discussion Thread

Imagine how angry you are if you're a Dallas fan right now. This is almost "Silver steps in to block the trade" levels of bad.
Despite my profile name, moved to Dallas 8 years ago and became a big Mavs fan which only grew stronger with Kai and Lively. Luka is the draw that requires daily viewing and paying for the Mavs streaming service. Angry is an understatement. I might be one of the only people that would rather have 82 games of must-watch, fun basketball than a theoretical “defense wins championships” team.

And trading him for AD, who I’ve thoroughly disliked since his days at UK and then when he petulantly quit on the Pels, is even worse.
 
Not sure what the Mavs are thinking. Lakers absolutely fleeced them. Traded away a top 5 player entering his prime who doesn’t miss a ton of time for an oft injured big man whose known for bring upset that he has to play center.

Luka and LeBron are gonna compliment each other really well.


I now wonder if Kyrie goes back to where Kyrie after it seemed he finally found his place these last couple of years.
 
Despite my profile name, moved to Dallas 8 years ago and became a big Mavs fan which only grew stronger with Kai and Lively. Luka is the draw that requires daily viewing and paying for the Mavs streaming service. Angry is an understatement. I might be one of the only people that would rather have 82 games of must-watch, fun basketball than a theoretical “defense wins championships” team.

And trading him for AD, who I’ve thoroughly disliked since his days at UK and then when he petulantly quit on the Pels, is even worse.
Yeah, this is crimes against Dallas fandom level bad. I expect a chorus of boos at the next game at home.
 
A colleague just asked me why the Celtics are down from last year. I don't follow the NBA that closely. I said that Porzingis has been out and they don't have a ton of depth so brief absences hurt a lot. Plus everything just seemed to gel last year while this year they are reverting to the mean of being really good but not great. Plus other teams have gotten better. That was my not-expert opinion.

I am enjoying the fine play of my Knicks. Doing really well. Fun team to watch. Not a ton of depth so fingers crossed. Hosting Denver tomorrow then the Lakers Saturday.
I think your quick analysis is fairly spot-on. If you wanted to go into greater depth you could add the fact that Jaylen Brown’s play has dropped from last year. He is less consistent on the offensive end overall, and he has reverted back to his formerly very shaky ball-handling. He improved a bit in that regard last year, but it appears to have been an anomaly. Also, Derrick White has regressed on offense. Last year was a career year for him. He no longer is consistently playing at that level.

I should also add that Boston had the best defense in the league last season and they just aren’t at that level now. Yes, they are still ranked as the #3 defense, but you can see a clear decline if you actually watch them play night to night. Their opponents are able to drive to the basket easier than last year.

Now then, many teams that win a championship lose some of the fire and determination that pushed them to win it all. There can be a natural drop off the following season. And sone of those teams
It's a no brainer for the Lakers. The current version of AD/LeBron makes for a solid team, but clearly not championship caliber.

The single most important and difficult piece to obtain in trying to position a franchise for title runs is a superstar. The Lakers now have that for the next 5-10 years, which is something only a handful of teams can usually say.
Damn Lakers. My curse on them has clearly worn off.

Where is Nagini when I need him??
 
It is confusing. The Lakers traded their big to a team with a fun 2 headed tandem at center, and neither of those guys were thrown in?

I used to interact with the Adelsons every so often when they came to the Bay Area for Sheldon's treatment at the Stanford hospitals. He was respectful, but his wife and daughter were unbelievably toxic. I am kind of not surprised that they are remotely involved in such a bad decision.
Windhorst says that Luka is no longer eligible for the supermax so the Lakers could be getting their next star relatively cheaply. That assumes that being in Lebron's orbit convinces Luka to get and stay in shape. We know Lebron has at most next year left. They have time to add pieces. The Lakers regress a lot defensively with this trade, so maybe they're calling it on this season and betting on the future. 🤷🏾‍♂️
 
That feels like an excuse—to wildly speculate, my money's on Dallas needing that supermax money to facilitate a move to Vegas or build a new stadium. There's no other explanation to me that would make sense.
The NBA and owners aren't going allow the Mavs to move to Vegas. Vegas is penciled in for an expansion team. That means a multi-billion dollar expansion fee that is split between all teams. It's free money. They don't get that with a move. Plus the NBA isn't going to leave a hole in a media market like Dallas.

This seems to be a cost cutting measure by Adelson. The video game NBA 2K probably would let you make this trade because it's so unbalanced. They must not want to pay Luka the supermax for whatever reasons and they've weakened they team without getting future capital. They have probably weakened the Lakers on defensive but I think the Lakers show the chance to get a potential MVP caliber play for the post Lebron era (assuming he resigns with them).

I can't image a team out there wouldn't have given them 4 first rounders.
 
Oops, I inadvertently ran two posts together (#287), including one I hadn’t finished in regard to the Celtics. I wish I could delete that portion, but I only just now noticed it and it’s too late.

I feel like a stupid dummy. 😔
 
Plenty of sports owners are. Plenty of sports owners also lobby their state governments for the money to do this sort of thing even when they could spend it out-of-pocket.
Well how do you think they are billionaires? Socialize cost, privatize profits. Rinse and repeat every 20-30 years. SoFi, Met Life and Gillette I believe are the only venues built without direct tax payer money.
 
Thinking about the Mav’s side of this trade, there are 2 related questions. First, should they have even considered trading Luka? I’m willing to accept that there’s some publicly unknown factor that makes getting rid of one of the NBA’s top-5 talents at 25 years old make sense. The second question is did you maximize his trade value? The answer to this question is clearly no—like not even close. Paul George and James Harden went for 4+ picks/. A single 1st round and a 31 year old Anthony Davis isn’t close to fair market value for Luka. Criminally bad trade by the Mavs.
 
Mavs fans I know, who are a fairly savvy bunch, think the likeliest explanation is that this is to tank fan loyalty so they can relocate to Vegas.

Vegas is getting an expansion team. I doubt the league would sign off on a relocation under these conditions. The Adelsons might be thinking that because they're malign idiots, but it ain't happening.

We know Lebron has at most next year left.
Do we? The stats are down, but he's LeBron so that means he's "only" averaging 24 points and 9 assists. I could see him having a few ++old man Kareem style seasons in him if he wants it, especially with Luka to carry the load. This trade might have bought us a couple more years of LeBron.
 
Thinking about the Mav’s side of this trade, there are 2 related questions. First, should they have even considered trading Luka? I’m willing to accept that there’s some publicly unknown factor that makes getting rid of one of the NBA’s top-5 talents at 25 years old make sense. The second question is did you maximize his trade value? The answer to this question is clearly no—like not even close. Paul George and James Harden went for 4+ picks/. A single 1st round and a 31 year old Anthony Davis isn’t close to fair market value for Luka. Criminally bad trade by the Mavs.
Yes, in terms of the value received by the Mavs, it sort of reminds me of when the Wizards traded a young Chris Webber to Sacramento for Mitch Richmond and Otis Thorpe, two old players. Obviously, Luka is better than Webber and Davis is better than Richmond and Thorpe, but still . . .
 
Vegas is getting an expansion team. I doubt the league would sign off on a relocation under these conditions. The Adelsons might be thinking that because they're malign idiots, but it ain't happening.


Do we? The stats are down, but he's LeBron so that means he's "only" averaging 24 points and 9 assists. I could see him having a few ++old man Kareem style seasons in him if he wants it, especially with Luka to carry the load. This trade might have bought us a couple more years of LeBron.
LeBron has pretty dramatically shifted the goal posts for when a top tier athlete can be expected to decline and/or retire. Much like Tom Brady, his conditioning and health are quite remarkable and suggest a completely different timetable for the next generation of superstar athletes.
 
How much money does this move cost Luka?
The difference between the supermax contract and the max the Lakers can offer him next offseason is $116M (345M vs. 229M). In addition, he's going from a no income tax state (Texas) to a high tax state (California). Note: taxes are based on where you play the games, so even being in Dallas, half your salary is from other states. California's top tax rate is 14.4%, let's take that on half the income, and that's an additional $16M+ in taxes + $116M contracts difference = $132M+ in difference for Luka. Maybe when you get to that level of income you don't care that much as it's not like you could possibly spend that much, but you still DO care. It's a staggering difference for Luka. Maybe he can make some of it up in endorsements by being in a higher profile city/team.
 
LeBron has pretty dramatically shifted the goal posts for when a top tier athlete can be expected to decline and/or retire. Much like Tom Brady, his conditioning and health are quite remarkable and suggest a completely different timetable for the next generation of superstar athletes.
clearly the Laker brass would like some of that LeBron health ethic to rub off on Luka
 
clearly the Laker brass would like some of that LeBron health ethic to rub off on Luka
While undoubedtly LeBron's work ethic/discipline is part of it, his longevitiy at such a high level is still really really unusual for top players. Even Kobe (known for his insane work ethic) had a noticeable drop in athleticism and performance at the end of his career. And MJ. I don't think most elite athletes can replicate what LeBron is doing at his age ... some of it is perhaps simply genetics.
 
Windhorst says that Luka is no longer eligible for the supermax so the Lakers could be getting their next star relatively cheaply. That assumes that being in Lebron's orbit convinces Luka to get and stay in shape. We know Lebron has at most next year left. They have time to add pieces. The Lakers regress a lot defensively with this trade, so maybe they're calling it on this season and betting on the future. 🤷🏾‍♂️
Hard to imagine there not being another deal coming for the lakers. If not, they are going to be terrible defensively. Reeves, Doncic, LeBron, Hachimura and Finney-Smith. Elite 3 point shooting like JJ wants but no defense and no rim protection. Gotta think they’re gonna make a deadline deal for a rim protector. I just think they should’ve struck while the iron was hot and included Finney-Smith or even Reeves in the deal to get Gafford or Lively.
 
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