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NBA 2017/2018 Season


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I love the end of season trade the Lakers made. The offloaded Clarkson + Nance to the Cavs for Thomas, Frye and a their first round pick. For one, this gives us enough cap space in the summer for 2 max contracts, which is huge. It is unlikely we will get 2 all star caliber players and frankly speaking with Cousins out for 10-11 months with an ACL, Lebron unlikely to move over, the only other guy really worth going for is George, but i think he could end up staying in OKC if they do well in the playoffs. Either way, this still gives us extra options for 2019 when there will be a bigger free agent market. Worse case scenario, Thomas will start playing better, we could resign him to a one year max deal (which i doubt he will get elsewhere based on this years performance), so we will get a guy capable of getting 20+ per night on average (something we do not have now). Frye will give us some shooting this year at least and with the extra cash, we can pay Randle a big 1 year deal to keep him with us if we cannot get anyone good in FA.That means that next year our team will be better, we also have a 1st round draft pick (we do not have now) for 2018, so we will get one good talent added in the summer.

 

The ideal scenario would be, we get George signed this year, resign Randle on a one year deal, resign Thomas on a one year max deal and use our pick to get more young depth. That will mean we have for 2018/19:

 

PG: Ball / Thomas / Caruso

SG: George / Hart

SF: Ingram

PF: Kuzma

C: Randle / Bryant / Zubac

 

We also have that rookie first rounder. I think a team like that is young and can be at least playoff contenders.

 

For 2019 if we can land someone like Klay Thompson (i heard he wants to come to LA, he is from LA), then we can do it, in fact we probably have enough space to possible land 2 max or near max deals because we are allowed to resign Randle and go over the Luxury tax.

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I'm thinking LeBron and George are going to the Lakers next year. Isiah Thomas probably wont be returning there and definitely wont be on an one year deal. George and James have a good 2-3 years left, I think the Lakers would be contenders if they went there for the first couple years of the deal, but will fall short of the Warriors until the salary cap tears that team down.

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I'm thinking LeBron and George are going to the Lakers next year. Isiah Thomas probably wont be returning there and definitely wont be on an one year deal. George and James have a good 2-3 years left, I think the Lakers would be contenders if they went there for the first couple years of the deal, but will fall short of the Warriors until the salary cap tears that team down.

 

A lot of people have been betting on Lebron and George going to LA, but i doubt that will happen. For one, is that realistically the best option for Lebron? I mean he can move to any team in the East and will be virtually a lock for the East finals. In fact, i would say something like the Bucks or 76ers would give him the biggest chance of beating the Warriors. A team with Parker, Giannis, Bledsoe, Brandon and Lebron should be able to go at them, they will need to add some shooters on the perimeter though because they will have too many paint cloggers. I think it could do Giannis some good playing with Lebron for a couple of years.

 

If he goes to the Lakers with George, he will be lucky to make it to the West finals, lets alone get past the Warriors. The Lakers young kids are not bad, but nowhere near the potential those other 2 teams have.

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A lot of people have been betting on Lebron and George going to LA, but i doubt that will happen. For one, is that realistically the best option for Lebron? I mean he can move to any team in the East and will be virtually a lock for the East finals. In fact, i would say something like the Bucks or 76ers would give him the biggest chance of beating the Warriors. A team with Parker, Giannis, Bledsoe, Brandon and Lebron should be able to go at them, they will need to add some shooters on the perimeter though because they will have too many paint cloggers. I think it could do Giannis some good playing with Lebron for a couple of years.

 

If he goes to the Lakers with George, he will be lucky to make it to the West finals, lets alone get past the Warriors. The Lakers young kids are not bad, but nowhere near the potential those other 2 teams have.

LeBron to the lakers rumors have to be the most annoying rumors all year. Simply because theres no basis for the rumors. To me theres no way he goes there unless he has given up on trying to win titles. Like you said the road just to the west finals would be tough.

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LeBron to the lakers rumors have to be the most annoying rumors all year. Simply because theres no basis for the rumors. To me theres no way he goes there unless he has given up on trying to win titles. Like you said the road just to the west finals would be tough.

There's no basis for any rumor about where he goes other then speculation based on who has cap space, no reason to get annoyed by it. Lakers offer a max salary, increased sponsor money and a decent core. The Western teams that are very good now are going to get broken up by the cap in the next couple of years.

 

If he leaves Cleveland, it's easily the most likely landing spot.

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The basis for those rumors is bc he owns a house there and has made comments on IG or Twitter about that being home. Also some of his crew has already started to move out west to LA which they also did this when he left Miami for Cleveland his crew was packing up and leaving before he decided to make that move. So people are just reading the same signs from the last time he left a place. Also he has post basketball plans that are going to take place out in LA.

 

Now im still not sure how that team can attract him because I just don’t think they’re that good. In my opinion he stays in Cleveland or pulls a CP3 and opts in and forced a trade to the Rockets. I think that would be his first choice playing with his best friend in the league and The Godfather to one of his kids in chris Paul. Or he goes to the 76ers. Ben is part of his agency and trains with him in the off-season. Embiid is a flat out stud. Covington is one of the better 3 and D role players in the league. Saric is a solid rotational piece similar to a Larry nance. They’d keep JJ and have about 40 mil in cap space

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There's no basis for any rumor about where he goes other then speculation based on who has cap space, no reason to get annoyed by it. Lakers offer a max salary, increased sponsor money and a decent core. The Western teams that are very good now are going to get broken up by the cap in the next couple of years.

 

If he leaves Cleveland, it's easily the most likely landing spot.

 

But those reasons don't really matter if they can't win for the last years of his prime. I don't see him going to a team regardless of money, sponsors, where his partners are, etc. if he has no chance of winning. The lakers have a decent core but it will be a while before they develop to real title contenders, if they ever develop to title contenders. If he leave its more likely he goes to Houston where even if they have no bench they still have a better chance than lebron in LA. Plus if you want to talk money there's no income tax in Texas where Cali has some of the highest in the country.

 

His most likely options imo are

1. Cleveland (if they can compete with GSW I don't see him leaving)

2. Rockets/Spurs

3. 76ers (unlike Lakers they have a real championship core despite the injuries)

 

and honestly I give the Lakers no real chance to land him. Before the Porzingis injury the Knicks had a better shot than L.A did.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

His most likely options imo are

1. Cleveland (if they can compete with GSW I don't see him leaving)

2. Rockets/Spurs

3. 76ers (unlike Lakers they have a real championship core despite the injuries)

 

and honestly I give the Lakers no real chance to land him.

 

That is what i think, Cleveland is probably the most likely option unless they do not make it to the finals, then i would say the Rockets because a team with him Paul and Harden is a real threat. Spurs has a chance but with Leonard being injured i think the chances are getting smaller. I also think the 76ers are much more likely due to them being in the East and their core is way better. If i was him and i wanted to leave Cleveland i would consider the 76ers as the best option.

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I think i have watched the least amount of NBA for the past 6-7 years, not sure what it is, i have personally been playing less since last year (mostly due to age and injuries), but it also could be due to the lack of real competition, maybe the fact that my Lakers were never likely to make the playoffs again, either way, i barely watched anything since November, maybe just 2-3 games per month since then. Anyone else going through a similar phase with the NBA?

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I think i have watched the least amount of NBA for the past 6-7 years, not sure what it is, i have personally been playing less since last year (mostly due to age and injuries), but it also could be due to the lack of real competition, maybe the fact that my Lakers were never likely to make the playoffs again, either way, i barely watched anything since November, maybe just 2-3 games per month since then. Anyone else going through a similar phase with the NBA?

 

I didn't get into Basketball until 2008 but since then I watched tons of games every season but this season I have been out of it. I think for me it's like 60 percent that my suns are trash 40 percent is that life is really busy rn. My Suns have been bad for a few years now but I always had hope in the young guys we drafted but rn they're soooooo bad (outside of Booker of course) it's really hard to watch.

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Damn my sixers are the #4 seed right now and 8 of our last 11 games are against sub .500 teams. I really would love to see us finish in those top 4 seeds. I thought we'd have a legit chance at doing that this year but I can't say that I thought we'd do it without Fultz contributing jack shit

 

It is like you got 2 top players in Simmons and Embiid though. What is shocking me the most is that Fultz went for the #1 spot and Lonzo for #2 and both of them have terrible shooting mechanics. Considering that this is a league orientated towards shooting, how these 2 guys went for the top 2 spots is beyond me. I mean look at how both of them stroke the ball, it even looks weird. Fultz is not a physical specimen and Lonzo is not particularly athletic (although he is big for a PG). I am just somewhat surprised how the so called experts ranked both these 2 guys so high. This does not mean they will not become good players, just at this point in time both are extremely crude.

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Yeah both of those guys are about what I expected them to be in Simmons and Embiid. That team can be really frustrating to watch at times though because we lack that elite guard so we just falter down the stretch of certain games, because Simmons isn't a threat to shoot a jumper so you can just give him a lot of space or foul him when he attacks the rim because he's not the greatest free throw shooter at this point in his career. The fact you can give him so much space also makes entry passes to Embiid in the post tough in late game situations, and they also immediately double team him when we do get the entry pass in.....and due to his youth and the fact he has to carry us it leads to him turning the ball over a lot.

 

Fultz was supposed to be the guy who you could go to in the closing of games because he was supposed to be able to shoot off the dribble on all 3 levels which he did do in college. Then he tried to change his own shooting form because he wasn't a great free throw shooter in college and he fucked his form all up (shoulder injury contributed to that some too but he was tweaking his form on his own even before all that). Even in the short time he did play you can tell he can get to wherever he wants on the floor whenever he wants off the dribble. So I don't think he'll be a total bust but we really need him to be the guy who can shoot off the dribble on all 3 levels so we can go to him to close games and he can help us space the floor for JoJo in the event we do want to go to him in that situation.

 

 

I really think we're that 1 player away from being able to make some real noise. I dunno that we'd be able to compete with Golden State just yet because you can still see the youth in some of the silly errors we make and I dunno that 1 more start would allow us to overcome some of our youthful errors. But in 2 years or 3 years when Ben and JoJo have reached their peak versions of themselves we're gonna be a real problem. Especially because we compliment them right now w/ good role players. Covington is a defensive stud and dangerous off the catch and shoot. Reddick has been awesome for us. Dario Saric gets absolutely no love because of how special Simmons and Embiid are but if Saric was on another team he'd probably be looked at the way people have looked at Laurri Markannen this year. Because I honestly think he's a better version of Markannen, he's just asked to do less because of the talent around him. We don't score enough off the bench though, I was kinda hoping we'd snag Lou Will for the rest of this year to help with our two major problems, bench scoring and that guard who can close out a game but that didn't happen obviously

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Yeah, the guard position is a major thing for you guys, technically George could fill in a gap but he is more of a 2/3, Lebron can play the PG position in offense, but i am not sure he would be the player you need defensively considering he will be 34y next year, so having him defend quick guards will be a problem. I also think the Sixers are 1 Elite PG away from being a serious threat, it has to be someone that can shoot and play make, someone similar to Chris Paul (i think he will be available via FA this summer) and hopefully Fultz can start playing to the level people expect him.

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Yeah or a Damien Lillard type player. Maybe even someone like Kemba would be a good enough piece to help us close out games and space the floor enough for Joel. I'm also a huge fan of Robert Covington, he's one of the top wing defenders in the league and knocks down 3's.

 

Sitting Embiid would also preclude the Sixers from rolling out one of league's most lethal three-man combinations. They are outpacing opponents by 16.7 points per 100 possessions when he plays with Robert Covington and Ben Simmons—the best mark among 134 threesomes to log at least 750 minutes.

 

 

I often wonder if we had to make a trade for someone if he'd be involved in it though. I'd rather get someone via FA so we don't have to trade him or Saric. I'd be more okay with doing it if we're able to land Mikal Bridges from Nova in the draft this year though. Lakers seem to be trying to fuck that up for us

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I mean you're probably right that we won't get Lillard. I'd agree they are probably only 1 player away from being able to make some real noise as well, the difference is we have 35+ mil in cap space available at the end of the year and they're about 30 mil over the cap with no trade-able assets really besides Lillard and McCollum & they still haven't paid Nurkic yet. Now some of their contracts like Evan Turner are getting close to only having 1 year left on them which will make it a little easier for them to shed salary but even still they're gonna have to give up draft picks to do it probably.

 

I'd bet before Lillard's contract is up they end up breaking that team up, but it'll be McCollum who gets moved for picks and role-players because Lillard is the star and the ticket seller but that team has already reached it's ceiling IMO, they have no path to adding to what they have as of now, they're only hope is guys like Nurkic take huge steps in his growth.

 

That's the one other scary thing kinda about the 76ers. Guys like Simmons and Embiid and Fultz all are probably still going to get better. They're still in that first 5 years where even super-stars show significant growth by year 4 to 5. Personally if I had my way we'd wait until 2019 to go after free agents and land Klay or Kawhi

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kawhi seems like he might be done hell he been out all year with quad (not sure what happened though) -- i dont watch much b-ball but as of right now the rockets look to be for sure winners -- usually they get hit with injury bug but seems to be other teams this year

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