Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

NBA 2019/20: Return of the Big 3?

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    NBA 2019/20: Return of the Big 3?

    Seeing "2017/18" in the other thread was giving me a headache, so a new thread for the new season. Everyone always says that the NBA is the American sports league that commands attention year-round, and that's proving to be the case again.

    The Lakers trading all of the young core (minus Kyle Kuzma) plus the #4 picks and future first round picks to get Anthony Davis. It's a lot to give up, but sad to say, we have no idea what Ingram's health will be like, Lonzo Ball I think could become an elite passer and defender, but not much else, and if the trade makes the team as good as they will hope it does, those future first round picks aren't going to be worth much anyway. A team trading for a superstar NBA player in the prime of his career hasn't "lost" a trade yet.

    Now the focus is on who the Lakers can land with the remaining cap room they have, which should be enough for a max contract. A Kyrie/LeBron reunion? Jimmy Butler? Kemba Walker? The Lakers FO has been a dumpster fire, but adding AD to one of the top 2 players of all time pretty much serves as its own pitch to free agents.

    There's still also the small matter of if Durant and Kawhi will stay with their teams or look to move on. Its basketball's version of the transfer window in football, except this usually provides a lot of drama.

    #2
    Who are the Big 3? The Celtics, Bulls and Pistons? <grabs coat and runs out of bar chuckling>
    Last edited by Rogin the Armchair fan; 16-06-2019, 15:23.

    Comment


      #3
      This is the 21st Century, Rogin

      The NBA is now about stars not clubs. Free agents are deciding to play together in attractive markets, thereby creating *superteams".

      The original Big Three were LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami.

      Inca is suggesting that his Lakers may add a third Megastar free.agent to James and Anthony Davis.

      Comment


        #4
        Ah, right. So like Real Madrid are going to do with Hazard and Pogba.

        Comment


          #5
          Correct

          It will be interesting to see if the concept takes off in football, especially given the strong affinity the latest generation of stars has with the NBA. The absence of any kind of salary cap and the prevalence of relatively short contracts make it significantly easier to construct such teams in football.

          Comment


            #6
            Maybe it does happen and I just am not aware of it, but I'm surprised that we don't see players recruiting each other to join their club, like is common in the NBA.

            Comment


              #7
              Coutinho to Barcelona had significant elements of that, but I expect that we will start to see more of it.

              Comment


                #8
                It happens via national team squads in Football. To give an example of a move that didn't actually happen, when Jamie Vardy was close to signing for Arsenal, the Arsenal players in the England squad were helping the club make the pitch to him.
                The NBA is rather less opaque in it's dealings than the Premier League, as evidenced by the recent article from a US perspective on the quote embargoes and the like. But of course it runs deeper and wider than just players inane chatter about the game they have just played, lots of things that happen in squads go unreported as the journalists who find out about them won't have the route in to discover anything else ever again if they report them!

                Comment


                  #9
                  It is all much more choreographed and reported on here (sometimes after the fact).

                  When free agency first came to baseball after Curt Flood won his court case in the late 70s, it soon became common for high profile free agents to be wooed by all expenses paid visits to potential suitors that would include visits to potential places to live, "attractions" of all sorts, schools if they had kids, etc. As time went on, clubs got more elaborate in their presentations, with pitchbooks, videos and celebrity endorsements. Players already on the club then got involved.

                  That all still happens, but what the NBA has done is to instutionalise things on the player side of the equation, often with the help of agents who structure the deal (the Lakers were always the favourite for Davis, as he and LeBron share an agent). That kind of structuring is even more needed than it is in football, because of the Byzantine nature of North American salary caps and the variety of state and local tax regimes.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    And because a single player makes a much bigger difference in basketball than in any other team sport.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Originally posted by Janik View Post
                      It happens via national team squads in Football. To give an example of a move that didn't actually happen, when Jamie Vardy was close to signing for Arsenal, the Arsenal players in the England squad were helping the club make the pitch to him.
                      The NBA is rather less opaque in it's dealings than the Premier League, as evidenced by the recent article from a US perspective on the quote embargoes and the like. But of course it runs deeper and wider than just players inane chatter about the game they have just played, lots of things that happen in squads go unreported as the journalists who find out about them won't have the route in to discover anything else ever again if they report them!
                      Pretty sure that more than one transfer request to Manchester United has come in after a player has been off on England international duty. I think a player admitted that Ferguson sent him off to training with specific instructions to get a player.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
                        It is all much more choreographed and reported on here (sometimes after the fact).

                        When free agency first came to baseball after Curt Flood won his court case in the late 70s, it soon became common for high profile free agents to be wooed by all expenses paid visits to potential suitors that would include visits to potential places to live, "attractions" of all sorts, schools if they had kids, etc. As time went on, clubs got more elaborate in their presentations, with pitchbooks, videos and celebrity endorsements. Players already on the club then got involved.

                        That all still happens, but what the NBA has done is to instutionalise things on the player side of the equation, often with the help of agents who structure the deal (the Lakers were always the favourite for Davis, as he and LeBron share an agent). That kind of structuring is even more needed than it is in football, because of the Byzantine nature of North American salary caps and the variety of state and local tax regimes.
                        What the NBA has is more obvious tampering and things happening years down the road. When did you first hear of LeBron going to LA? 2015?

                        Comment


                          #13
                          I have nothing to add except my thanks to Inca for trying to sort out the thread titling clusterfuck. You didn't imagine it, by the way, you did actually start a 2018/19 one...

                          Same thing always seems to happen with NHL as well. Someone starts a thread, then all of a sudden that 'Hot Ice' one from 2015/16 pops back up. Causes havoc for, well, people like me who like to count threads and posts and stuff in the Sport forum.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Originally posted by Kevin S View Post
                            I have nothing to add except my thanks to Inca for trying to sort out the thread titling clusterfuck. You didn't imagine it, by the way, you did actually start a 2018/19 one...
                            Well I'll be...

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Do we need an annual mundane thread to help your problems, Kev?

                              Comment


                                #16
                                No.

                                Comment


                                  #17
                                  Originally posted by Incandenza View Post
                                  Maybe it does happen and I just am not aware of it, but I'm surprised that we don't see players recruiting each other to join their club, like is common in the NBA.
                                  Not sure how true it is, but at TFC it is widely believed that off-season conversations with Bradley are the reason both Altidore and now Gonzalez decided to come here.

                                  Comment


                                    #19
                                    It's Woj Twitter notifications szn

                                    In the opinion of a lot of people, yesterday was the wildest free agency day in NBA history. I thought things would take a few days before they got going, but yeesh.

                                    The Durant/Kyrie pairing could work out very well, but it could also become a complete disaster, which I haven't really heard many people say. Durant could never be the same player he was, Irving could again become a disruptive player behind the scenes. If they aren't good moves, those are two very big contracts to be saddled with.

                                    The Warriors somehow still come away with something from losing Durant by getting the Nets to agree to a sign-and-trade, and will receive D'Angelo Russell...not often you lost a superstar player in free agency but get an all-star player as part of the deal. Though once Thompson is healthy again, will they try to play Curry, Thompson, and DAR all at the same time? Or will they just try to trade DAR away? And with that move, they had to dump Iguodala on Memphis to clear salary off their books, so the Warriors lost both of their Finals MVP winners on the same day.

                                    Comment


                                      #20
                                      I have some partners who are suddenly very unhappy that they gave up their Nets tickets.

                                      Comment


                                        #21
                                        Clearly didn't do it for basketball reasons since the Nets were a pretty exciting team last year, though they were under the radar.

                                        Durant has basically come out and said (through his people) that a reason for leaving the Warriors was that he never felt love from the fans.


                                        The love for Curry in the Bay Area certainly was understandable as he was a homegrown draft pick in 2009 and the face of the franchise. But perhaps it would have helped the Warriors’ cause if their fans showed more love and appreciation for Durant’s elite achievements. Instead, there was a perception that the world’s most talented basketball player just jumped onto the championship bandwagon.

                                        Curry regularly received MVP chants from the Warriors crowd when he shot free throws, while that didn’t become commonplace for Durant until this past postseason. And while Curry and Durant always had strong respect for each other, some fans were unhappy a deserving Durant won Finals MVP twice over the more popular Curry.

                                        Fuel was added to that fire when Warriors general manager Bob Myers made a poor joke about Durant’s pending free agency situation at the 2018 NBA championship parade ceremony:

                                        “Last year, you told Steph he could have whatever contract he wants, too,” Warriors play-by-play announcer Bob Fitzgerald said to Myers.

                                        “That was different,” Myers replied. “[Curry’s] been here since the way before days. … He earned it.”

                                        Durant let out an awkward laugh.
                                        The presumed story of Durant to the Knicks didn't make complete sense to me because he clearly pays attention to what is being said about him, and I couldn't imagine him enjoying the spotlight of being the first superstar playing for the Knicks since basically the 90s. The media attention would have been something else.

                                        I wonder if playing for the Nets, however, will be different since they're the unloved team in the city. And the fans will probably be completely loyal to him.

                                        Comment


                                          #22
                                          It's odd - KD goes to the Nets and it is a huge screw up by the Knicks... yet had the Knicks offered full contract to a guy with a potentially career-changing industry all you would hear is how the Knicks screwed up.

                                          Comment


                                            #23
                                            I really don't think that would have been the case.

                                            After the Zion pick fell through, the only flotsam that the Knicks faithful had to hold onto was that they had the money to sign Durant and Irving. Irving wasn't interested because they have completely toxic ownership and a very poor supporting cast. I happen to think that KD's decision was at least conditioned by those factors (and Kyrie's absence) as it was by money.

                                            It is now blindingly obvious to everyone that the Knicks the basketball equivalent of a Superfund site. The best the fan base can manage now is begging Adam Silver to force Dolan to sell the team, which ain't gonna happen.

                                            What we are seeing is equivalent to the period in the 40s and 50s when the Dodgers transformed themselves from the constant butt of jokes to the best team in the National League, blowing by the once regal Giants in the process.

                                            But this won't end with both clubs moving abroad in search of more money.

                                            Comment


                                              #24
                                              [URL]https://twitter.com/WarriorsPR/status/1145782145538904064[/URL]

                                              This is so weird. It's like they're trying to apologize/cover themselves from any bad PR that they might get about Durant leaving, but it's such a strange decision that it makes the team look more Mickey Mouse in the process.

                                              Comment


                                                #25
                                                I mean, I found it quite touching. Look at how many numbers the Celtics retired. Winning 2 titles for a place probably should get your number retired. It also may be a bat-signaled dog-whistle to any other high-profile free agents that may be looking for a legacy.

                                                Can't remember tag teams ever switching members, like the Rock and Roll Express teaming up with the Midnight Express or Demolition teaming up with the Road Warriors...so credit the NBA with a mind-blowing tag team switch of Irving-LeBreezy to Irving-KD.

                                                I just hope Durant heals enough so he can commit Arson on Thine Rucker again.

                                                Comment

                                                Working...
                                                X