NBA thread

CantonKid said:
Who has the better team the L.A. Lakers or the L.A. Clippers?
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The Lakers have a better collection of individual talent. If the Lakers can find a way to get the lineup of Lebron, Danny Green, Kuzma, AD, and Cousins all on the same page, they could be very lethal.

However, I think the Clippers are going to gel better from day 1, and ultimately have a better regular season. They return a healthy core from last season's play-off team: Beverly, Harrell, Lou Williams, Shamet and Zubac, and add two team-oriented superstars in Kawhi and Paul George.
 
Clips will be a much better regular season team, agreed. I could see the Lakers struggling to win about 48-50 games and get the 6 seed, but if they’re healthy no way I’d want to see them in the playoffs
 
CantonKid said:
Who has the better team the L.A. Lakers or the L.A. Clippers?
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Clippers in a landslide. Now you have to remember this is 2019 LeBron. He can't play defense anymore, and his offensive game has diminished.

Kuzma and Green are the only shooters, and they can be sporadic. It will be interesting to see how Davis fits with LeBron. Davis obviously is a better all around player than say Kevin Love in his prime, but certainly comparable. Good player on a bad team. Well, Love morphed into a stand still wing shooter with LeBron in Cleveland. Is AD going to be ok with molding his game around LeBron??

Meanwhile, Kawhi can fit with just about any group of players, and the Clippers was a good team before he and Paul George arrived. I think the Clippers are 10-15 games better than the Lakers.

Also, how patient are they going to be in Lakerland? What if the same thing happens like last year, or even two years ago in Cleveland? Plan A doesn't work, so it's blown up at Christmas time and you start over again?
 
14Red said:
Clippers in a landslide. Now you have to remember this is 2019 LeBron. He can't play defense anymore, and his offensive game has diminished.

Kuzma and Green are the only shooters, and they can be sporadic. It will be interesting to see how Davis fits with LeBron. Davis obviously is a better all around player than say Kevin Love in his prime, but certainly comparable. Good player on a bad team. Well, Love morphed into a stand still wing shooter with LeBron in Cleveland. Is AD going to be ok with molding his game around LeBron??

Meanwhile, Kawhi can fit with just about any group of players, and the Clippers was a good team before he and Paul George arrived. I think the Clippers are 10-15 games better than the Lakers.

Also, how patient are they going to be in Lakerland? What if the same thing happens like last year, or even two years ago in Cleveland? Plan A doesn't work, so it's blown up at Christmas time and you start over again?
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"Kuzma and Green are the only shooters"

What about Pope,Caruso,and even Dudley and Cook.

That makes...……………………………………………………………………….

Kuzma
Green
Pope
Caruuso
Dudley
Cook

That is good enough with there front court of Cousins,Davis,and Lebron.

With Kuzma and McGee as back-ups.
 
I think the Clippers will definitely be a better regular season team, and from day one they will gel much better due to having a few elite level defenders. It will take the Lakers longer to figure out to make the pieces work together, plus I think they'll be impacted more due to LeBron "load managing" by sitting out 15 or so games and the not playing any defense.

The Clippers will be a top-2 seed in the west. The Lakers could be as good as anyone come playoff time, but I see them seeding behind the Clippers, Portland, Denver, Utah and possibly also Houston and Golden State.

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Also, I think it's going to take a huge chunk of the year for the Lakers to figure out how to play all of their best players together (LeBron, AD, Boogie and Kuzma) and space offensively. With their announcement of LeBron being the "official" (instead of de facto) PG, it's obvious IMO that's what they plan on doing with all of those wing players as the 5th starter and rotation guys.

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The Lakers might start Lebron James at PG

C-Cousins,McGee
PF-Davis,Dudley,Williams
SF-Kuzma,Pope,Tucker
SG-Green,Troy Daniels,Caruso
PG-Lebron,Rhondo,Cook
 
Didn’t expect Houston to pay that much for Westbrook. He’s an upgrade over a quickly aging Chris Paul, but Harden and Westbrook are both so ball dominate I’m not sure what to think of the Rockets for this year.

Will be interesting to see what Cavs do now with JR. Pending something crazy (which isn’t really out of the question in the NBA), I’d expect to hold Love til the trade deadline and ransom him to a contender. Could get a big price, just gotta keep him healthy.
 
Arrogate said:
Thought he was Cleveland bound?!?!
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No way Cavs were giving up the kind of picks Rockets did. I like Westbrook but I really didn’t think the Rockets would be willing to trade that much for him when they already had Chris Paul.

Maybe JR Smith will still end up being traded to OKC for some picks. Paul’s contract is ugly
 
OKC rebuild is utterly amazing. Wonder what else they can get for Paul? I wouldnt think much considering the contract but again I didnt thinf they would get this haul for RW
Turning into UK west...
 
Woj vaguely speculated about Miami being possibility for CP3. That might make sense because I think he’s still got enough left in tank that he’d win some games wherever he would end up. Thinking about it more, not sure Cavs would take on his contract because they want to stay in Top 10 of draft this year to avoid protection on their first.

Really not sure where JR contract ends up. Would hate to see that go to waste since it was rumored they’d could’ve got first for it in this years draft. Still time...
 
Cavs are in a good position to be a third party trade facilitator for an OKC-MIA trade with JR's contract. He's due the full amount on the 15th, but for another fee they can stretch his full guarantee again until August 1st, with roughly 2/3rds being non-guaranteed before that date.

Basically it would entail Paul going to Miami with Dragic and JR going to OKC. OKC cuts JR and saves huge cash. Cavs get OKC 1st rounder (Miami '21?) plus either James Johnson or Olynyk + cheap contract from Miami to balance salaries. That's probably the only framework that could orchestrate a quick CP3 flip to Miami. Cleveland's probably the only team that might be willing to eat a contract (Johnson/Olynyk) for two years to get an asset in exchange for providing OKC cap relief.

I think for Cleveland Olynyk + a low salary filler would be well worth taking on for a pick conveying in the next two years. Possibly could suck 1-2 2nd rounders as well. OKC would have huge motivation to pull this as they'd cut $38 million plus tax implications after this year.

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OKC's lineup of 1st round picks after the two trades:

2020: Own first (if it falls between 1-20), Nuggets top-10 protected first (via this week’s Jerami Grant deal)

2021: Own first, Rockets pick swap (option), Heat unprotected first

2022: Own first (if it falls in the lottery), Clippers unprotected first

2023: Own first, Clippers pick swap (option), Heat lottery-protected first

2024: Own first, Clippers unprotected first, Houston top-four protected first

2025: Own first, Clippers pick swap (option), Rockets pick swap (option)

2026: Own first, Clippers unprotected first, Rockets top-four protected first

I suspect they will trade Paul for more picks, but I am not what he'll bring with that contract and his diminishing game.
 
More likely IMO that they have to give up 1-2 picks to get rid of him with how bad his contact is. He might have the worst combination of years and remaining money of anyone that's remotely available.

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nwwarrior09 said:
More likely IMO that they have to give up 1-2 picks to get rid of him with how bad his contact is. He might have the worst combination of years and remaining money of anyone that's remotely available.

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Good call. If I was a GM, I'd have a tough time giving a small guy big money. Just too much potential for injury and their games are so much based on speed that every injury chips away at their ability and value.
 
clarkgriswold said:
Fixed that for you.

He may be done.
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Maybe... definitely a serious injury that is type some guys couldn’t come back from but point I was making is he’s only 28 vs CP3 who is 34. Durant is 30 with similar injury... based on age and wall’s build vs slender Durant id bet he has better chance of making complete recovery. I could definitely be wrong about that though.
 
OhioBobcatFan06 said:
Maybe... definitely a serious injury that is type some guys couldn’t come back from but point I was making is he’s only 28 vs CP3 who is 34. Durant is 30 with similar injury... based on age and wall’s build vs slender Durant id bet he has better chance of making complete recovery. I could definitely be wrong about that though.
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Agreed. Durant certainly has a better chance to return to form as his game isn't based as much on speed and maneuverability as Wall's. If all else fails, Durant can at least be a spot up shooter.
 
So what do you think of the NBA summer league??? To me, it's morphed into a showcase for B-level players. Many teams are now sitting their top draft choices due to the "possibility" of injury. Zion has a "bruised" knee and he sits??
Many guys are just roster fillers and it reminds me of the NFL preseason roster. You have 90 guys on the roster for pre season and most teams already know about 35 of their 45 man rosters. So it's just a safe way to keep 4 preseason games and showcase guys for scouts and coaches without injuring your main players.
 
14Red said:
So what do you think of the NBA summer league??? To me, it's morphed into a showcase for B-level players. Many teams are now sitting their top draft choices due to the "possibility" of injury. Zion has a "bruised" knee and he sits??
Many guys are just roster fillers and it reminds me of the NFL preseason roster. You have 90 guys on the roster for pre season and most teams already know about 35 of their 45 man rosters. So it's just a safe way to keep 4 preseason games and showcase guys for scouts and coaches without injuring your main players.
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Primarily G-League rehearsals.
 
EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- After Los Angeles Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka called Anthony Davis "the most dominant young basketball player in the world" at the forward/center's introductory news conference Saturday, Davis made a declaration echoing the same confidence in his new team.
"I would put our roster up against anybody," Davis said. "I feel like that in a seven-game series that we would come out victorious."
 
I personally enjoy summer league play. The quality mostly isn't great, but generally speaking everyone really busts because it's mostly 2nd round picks/undrafteds/G-Leaguers/Euros that are trying to get one of those last couple spots on a roster. It serves it's purpose.

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nwwarrior09 said:
I personally enjoy summer league play. The quality mostly isn't great, but generally speaking everyone really busts because it's mostly 2nd round picks/undrafteds/G-Leaguers/Euros that are trying to get one of those last couple spots on a roster. It serves it's purpose.

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More effort than most regular season NBA games.
 
clarkgriswold said:
More effort than most regular season NBA games.
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Without a doubt. The guys that are on the fringe go a lot harder for the week or two they play in front of empty crowds in Vegas than most stars do on the second night of a back-to-back in February.

Outside of the obvious big games and the home stretch where teams are really dialed in on playing for seeding, the regular season is incredibly difficult to watch.

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clarkgriswold said:
More effort than most regular season NBA games.
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When the NBA went to 8 teams per conference making the playoffs, they effort level began to suffer. You draw it back to 4 teams per conference making the playoffs, and I bet you see less "load management" rests, and a heck of a lot more effort during regular season games.
 
Red14 said:
When the NBA went to 8 teams per conference making the playoffs, they effort level began to suffer. You draw it back to 4 teams per conference making the playoffs, and I bet you see less "load management" rests, and a heck of a lot more effort during regular season games.
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When did they go to 8? but I agree, the effort in the regular season is horrendous.
We went to a game this year to watch Oladipo and man, the game just sucks and lacks energy that they have to play music while game is in play. I never really realized it until then!
 
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