NBA thread

thavoice said:
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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I didn't realize it had been this long, but the league went to 16 teams way back in 1984. I'm not necessarily criticizing the effort, I think these guys are uber-competitive and that generally gets the effort level pretty high. My complaint is sitting guys, who are perfectly healthy, and just giving guys days off. Many of these guys, if they were not NBA basketball players, play basketball everyday anyway. Most have played basketball 350 of 365 days of the year growing up. They need to "rest"??? Sadly, many who follow these sports, the media included, are fine with this practice. They actually criticize teams and players for not taking days off.
 
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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Lebron can't play defense anymore? Lol. Watch him play 20 minutes a game and say that.He could play defense with the best of them! Then watch him play 30 minutes a game in the play-offs and say that.He can still play defense at a very high level.You just need to limit his minutes.
 
He "CAN" play defense. At times, especially in the regular season, he doesn't make much of an effort, but that can be said about a great percentage of NBA players. He'll be guarding 3's and 4's in that lineup, which he should be readily able to do.
 
LeBron is the ultimate regular season "load management" player at this point, and has been for a few years. There's plenty that I'm sure he "can" do, he just willfully chooses not to.

The NBA has a horde of player metrics for speed, distance, etc. per game. If you limit it to players who played 50+ games to eliminate the outliers, LeBron was 3rd worst in average defensive speed and 7th worst in total average speed last year. The only star who plays slower is Harden. He walks up and down the court and stands around when he doesn't have the ball on offense.
 
nwwarrior09 said:
LeBron is the ultimate regular season "load management" player at this point, and has been for a few years. There's plenty that I'm sure he "can" do, he just willfully chooses not to.

The NBA has a horde of player metrics for speed, distance, etc. per game. If you limit it to players who played 50+ games to eliminate the outliers, LeBron was 3rd worst in average defensive speed and 7th worst in total average speed last year. The only star who plays slower is Harden. He walks up and down the court and stands around when he doesn't have the ball on offense.
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What? The best player on the planet?? LeBron's best days are way behind him. The only way LA wins a title with LeBron is if he starts to take a back seat to other players. And that's not LeBron's way. It still probably bothers him that Kyrie hit the big shot for his only title in Cleveland.
 
Red14 said:
What? The best player on the planet?? LeBron's best days are way behind him. The only way LA wins a title with LeBron is if he starts to take a back seat to other players. And that's not LeBron's way. It still probably bothers him that Kyrie hit the big shot for his only title in Cleveland.
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Maybe he still has greatness he could unleash come playoff time, but I have some doubts. I have to agree that his best days are way behind him. At his age with his milage the three years since the Cavs beat the Warriors is an eternity, and he's one injury away from falling off a cliff like Kobe did. There's 5-7 other players on or above his level now.
 
To me this is big year for LBJ .... there will be no excuses for him ... my bet, he comes back strong and shows he is still one of the best ... but the Lakers lose in the Western Conference finals ... despite LBJ playing well.
 
joesports said:
To me this is big year for LBJ .... there will be no excuses for him ... my bet, he comes back strong and shows he is still one of the best ... but the Lakers lose in the Western Conference finals ... despite LBJ playing well.
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I hope he and the Lakers go down,Clippers eatem up...BAM!
 
Add David Griffin to the list of people that have been miserable working with LeBron.

Griffin told SI that he wouldn't have returned to the Cavs for "any amount of money" after winning the title due to a myriad of stressful reasons related to having a "super team" in win at all costs mode with LeBron on de facto one year contracts and receiving credit for everything and blame for nothing.
 
nwwarrior09 said:
Add David Griffin to the list of people that have been miserable working with LeBron.

Griffin told SI that he wouldn't have returned to the Cavs for "any amount of money" after winning the title due to a myriad of stressful reasons related to having a "super team" in win at all costs mode with LeBron on de facto one year contracts and receiving credit for everything and blame for nothing.
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This surprises no one. We've known this for years with LeBron. Let's face it, Miami was ok seeing him go back to Cleveland. They had things set in Miami for a long run, but Pat Riley/ Spolstra was fine with him moving on.
 
This is one of the major rifts with the NBA. It's truly a players league now. Yes, every year you'll have a champion and a handful of fan bases who are happy, but overall, allowing the players to buddy up is bad for the league. This will eventually eat itself up. Much like AAU teams do, many will get frustrated and just move from team to team every year.
This is nothing we didn't already know about LeBron. It's interesting to see Griffin go public with this. He either got tired of the rhetoric or just decided that LeBron is no longer a threat to his career.
 
It's already happening. It's becoming somewhat debatable if there's really much value in running a good "organization" (front office, coaches, ownership, etc.). Sure you have teams like the Spurs, but the most important thing anymore seems to be being in a desirable market and having the cap space and assets to allow for 2-3 key guys to team up for your franchise.

The LeBron PR squad jumped on this ASAP and seems to have managed to strong arm Griffin into "clarifying" his comments on the matter.
 
nwwarrior09 said:
It's already happening. It's becoming somewhat debatable if there's really much value in running a good "organization" (front office, coaches, ownership, etc.). Sure you have teams like the Spurs, but the most important thing anymore seems to be being in a desirable market and having the cap space and assets to allow for 2-3 key guys to team up for your franchise.

The LeBron PR squad jumped on this ASAP and seems to have managed to strong arm Griffin into "clarifying" his comments on the matter.
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IMO Griffin has nothing to clarify. We all watched LeBron in action. Miami only made it work because Pat Riley told LeBron to stand down and DeWayne Wade still controlled that team and locker room. By the time he's done, we'll actually wonder how many titles LeBron could have won if he just played basketball and not tried to be coach and GM.
 
nwwarrior09 said:
It's already happening. It's becoming somewhat debatable if there's really much value in running a good "organization" (front office, coaches, ownership, etc.). Sure you have teams like the Spurs, but the most important thing anymore seems to be being in a desirable market and having the cap space and assets to allow for 2-3 key guys to team up for your franchise.

The LeBron PR squad jumped on this ASAP and seems to have managed to strong arm Griffin into "clarifying" his comments on the matter.
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www.samfordcrimson.com

LeBron James didn't cause me to be miserable in Cleveland, says David Griffin | NBA News |

New Orleans Pelicans executive vice president David Griffin has clarified comments he made regarding his tenure with LeBron James at the Cleveland Cavaliers. Griffin was
www.samfordcrimson.com

As you can see from the link, Griffin made clear that his remarks had nothing to do with his relationship with Lebron at all.

But, since you and 14Red (the resident LeBron hater -- for years) obviously disagree; how about showing some facts that back up your story that Griffin has been "strong armed"?
 
LeBron definitely got big mad about the original story. The knee jerk tweet mentioning "ether" was a pop culture reference to a popular rap "diss track" from when he was in high school, i.e. he was going to go at Griffin if he didn't walk back and clarify his comments to make it abundantly clear he didn't have a problem with LeBron personally.
 
Kawhi Leonard's sister, along with an accomplice, robbed and murdered an 84 year old woman in a casino bathroom in California.
 
The Dennis Rodman 30 for 30 last night on ESPN was really good. I'd forgot how much crap he was into. Such a sad story, but it also explains why he is the way he is. And I'm sure some of his teammates, agent tried to reach out to him for help and to keep him grounded and safe. He certainly is a guy who has some severe mental problems and just never addressed them. I'm surprised none of his sisters tried to help him. He seemed fairly close to them growing up. I honestly thought he'd be dead at this point in his life.
 
CantonKid said:
Is Boogie Cousins still on the Lakers roster?
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yes, it appears he's still with the Lakers, although he's expected to be out for the entire season due to the ACL injury he had in the playoffs. Not really sure why the Lakers would sign him.
 
Going to certainly be refreshing to not have to hear any more political opinions from NBA players moving forward. They had a great chance to stand up for something and they sat on their hands and collected a check in China. This would be a fantastic topic for LeBron's Barbershop podcast... hypocrites....
 
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