2018-19 NBA Thread

[33anda3rd]

Pelton reporting there wasn't much market for Boogie.

Let's start by answering the question of how this happened. As I explained last week, the tight market for free agents and particularly centers made bargains possible. Given those constraints, Cousins' market was squeezed in a hurry.

The Dallas Mavericks, the team with cap space most motivated to sign a center, quickly agreed to terms with DeAndre Jordan. The Los Angeles Lakers evidently prioritized perimeter players for the one-year contracts they were offering, signing former Golden State center JaVale McGee for the veteran's minimum. And Cousins' own team, the New Orleans Pelicans, got a cheaper, younger replacement in Julius Randle after the Lakers renounced his rights.

With the remaining teams with cap space either rebuilding (Atlanta and Chicago), in no need of a center (Philadelphia) or uninterested in a reunion (Sacramento), those moves left a sign-and-trade deal Cousins' only real hope of getting more than the $8.6 million non-taxpayer midlevel exception.

So, unless there's a suitor we don't know about, odds are Cousins actually didn't sacrifice much money to take the Warriors' smaller taxpayer midlevel. At that point, the chance to join the defending champs was probably worth taking slightly less money for one year. Cousins will return to free agency in a year hoping for a better market, as more teams will have cap space and he'll be a year further removed from the ruptured Achilles tendon that ended his 2017-18 season before the All-Star break.

[BottenFieldofDreams]

If you guys find the NBA unfun, stop watching I guess.

But I defy anyone to tell me the season that just finished, in which we knew the Dubs were gonna win and did, was not fun.

It's more fun with hope. The league at large is meaningless without it, from my perspective.

These guys use hope to wipe their asses. It's too bad they aren't interested in proving anything on a competitive level. But they still call it winning.

So I'll watch the Blazers, as I always do, I guess.

I know it's not right, because I have to let Kevin Durant make his choices, and if you look at it correctly zero teams have ever had a chance, and something something Clyde Drexler; but it makes me upset. It's pretty ishty for me, to tell you the truth. But feelings just get in the way of pure objectivity, so I'm not sure you can empathize as objectivity personified. I'm surprised fun is even allowed, doesn't seem very sane and sober.

What I'm saying is this: let people be mad. Even though Clyde Drexler, let them be mad. It's a dirty habit of the unfancy/unanalytical doddering fool, but it is human; frustration and anger.

There are reasons and parameters and facts and contstraints, but when a team improves it's chances from certainty to certainty with a bonus kick to your balls, you who appreciate hope, it's a pretty ishty day for NBA fans who feel feelings (and therefore lose all internet arguments).

[Socnorb11]

If Waino was in his prime, and took a discount to play for a team that was already odds on favorite to win a championship (which will never happen, because "odds on favorite" doesn't exist like it does in basketball), then it would be comparable.

Waino stayed home. Michael Jordan stayed home. That's what I wish some of these current NBA guys would do.

Go find yourself a contender = fraud

Get your team to get talent for you = a-ok

I don't think they're frauds, necessarily. I think it's much more meaningful (for fans and for players, probably) if the superstars stay home and try to bring a championship. Lebron's most memorable feat....... BY FAR......... is winning a championship with Cleveland.

[33anda3rd]

It's more fun with hope. The league at large is meaningless without it, from my perspective.

These guys use hope to wipe their asses. It's too bad they aren't interested in proving anything on a competitive level. But they still call it winning.

These guys play for money, they can't put hope in the bank or throw it in the air in a Dallas strip club. They can't buy a house or take care of their grand-X4-kids with hope. Hope is what they have on a playground when they're seven. Money is what they play for as pros. Hope is the provenance of the fan who can't enjoy the sport if his team isn't winning.

Meaningless? Do you have a couple hours to discuss the NBA as the only league that is cool with players having their own personality and speaking out about the world? Or the NBA's global reach? Do you want to tell a Philly fan who got that great run this year, probably a year early, and the joy of Embiid, that the season was meaningless? Or tell a Boston fan who watched both their new stars go down and still saw their team in the EC Finals that the season didn't matter anyway? Or a Cleveland fan who got one last year of joy from LeBron? Wanna tell a Jazz fan last year sucked and their enjoyment of Donovan Mitchell was fake and even though the team was better without Hayward it was dumb and they shouldn't have enjoyed it anyway because it's all just no fun? Want to tell a Rockets fan that last year was dumb and they should just pitch it in for this year, break the whole thing apart, and stop lying to themselves that they enjoyed the season? I can list these all day. Last year was plenty fun and plenty meaningful.

[33anda3rd]

If Waino was in his prime, and took a discount to play for a team that was already odds on favorite to win a championship (which will never happen, because "odds on favorite" doesn't exist like it does in basketball), then it would be comparable.

Waino stayed home. Michael Jordan stayed home. That's what I wish some of these current NBA guys would do.

Go find yourself a contender = fraud

Get your team to get talent for you = a-ok

I don't think they're frauds, necessarily. I think it's much more meaningful (for fans and for players, probably) if the superstars stay home and try to bring a championship. Lebron's most memorable feat....... BY FAR......... is winning a championship with Cleveland.

You mean the team he came back to only when they had Kyrie and he had manipulated a trade for Love? Are all bets off as far as bemoaning player movement when a past injustice is corrected?

[MAGA]

People are concerned about their grand grand grand grand kids being rich? Is this what athletes mean when they reference "taking care of their families"? I always wondered. Because taking care of one's family is equally easy with 80 or 100 million dollars.

And Mitchell was probably a great experience but everyone knew they had ZERO chance. Only the Rockets had a chance, and it was slim. The sport is about winning championships and competition. At least 25 teams will never have a real chance of winning it. The lack of competitive teams is a joke.

[thrill]

[haltz]

I often wonder whether players share the feelings of Dave Chappelle, who explained his choice to quit Chappelle’s Show and leave millions of dollars on the table like this: “The only difference between having $10 million and $50 million is an astounding $40 million.” Chappelle’s point was that the difference in lifestyle once your income reaches eight figures is minimal. So even with a hard cap, players might take pay cuts to go play somewhere that makes them happy.

https://www.theringer.com/nba/2018/7/3/ ... salary-cap

[Socnorb11]

If Waino was in his prime, and took a discount to play for a team that was already odds on favorite to win a championship (which will never happen, because "odds on favorite" doesn't exist like it does in basketball), then it would be comparable.

Waino stayed home. Michael Jordan stayed home. That's what I wish some of these current NBA guys would do.

Go find yourself a contender = fraud

Get your team to get talent for you = a-ok

I don't think they're frauds, necessarily. I think it's much more meaningful (for fans and for players, probably) if the superstars stay home and try to bring a championship. Lebron's most memorable feat....... BY FAR......... is winning a championship with Cleveland.

You mean the team he came back to only when they had Kyrie and he had manipulated a trade for Love? Are all bets off as far as bemoaning player movement when a past injustice is corrected?

Aside from all of your static here, would you agree, or not, that Lebron's most memorable achievement as a player was winning a championship in Cleveland?

[MrCrowesGarden]

Pelton reporting there wasn't much market for Boogie.

Let's start by answering the question of how this happened. As I explained last week, the tight market for free agents and particularly centers made bargains possible. Given those constraints, Cousins' market was squeezed in a hurry.

The Dallas Mavericks, the team with cap space most motivated to sign a center, quickly agreed to terms with DeAndre Jordan. The Los Angeles Lakers evidently prioritized perimeter players for the one-year contracts they were offering, signing former Golden State center JaVale McGee for the veteran's minimum. And Cousins' own team, the New Orleans Pelicans, got a cheaper, younger replacement in Julius Randle after the Lakers renounced his rights.

With the remaining teams with cap space either rebuilding (Atlanta and Chicago), in no need of a center (Philadelphia) or uninterested in a reunion (Sacramento), those moves left a sign-and-trade deal Cousins' only real hope of getting more than the $8.6 million non-taxpayer midlevel exception.

So, unless there's a suitor we don't know about, odds are Cousins actually didn't sacrifice much money to take the Warriors' smaller taxpayer midlevel. At that point, the chance to join the defending champs was probably worth taking slightly less money for one year. Cousins will return to free agency in a year hoping for a better market, as more teams will have cap space and he'll be a year further removed from the ruptured Achilles tendon that ended his 2017-18 season before the All-Star break.

It does seem like he was pretty pointed in his social media posts to thank the city and fans of New Orleans (but not the Pelicans.) I do know that the Pelicans offered him a contract between the Blazers and Warriors series, and pretty clearly it wasn't to his liking. Talks probably broke off then and he turned his attention elsewhere. Once it became obvious he wasn't interested in New Orleans, Davis pushed to get Randle.