Around The NBA VI

[Kilroy]

Ha ha ha... Cleveland

[crazyeights]

[crazyeights]

Posted this in the trade thread:

[tweet]https://twitter.com/WindhorstESPN/status/513060569151447041[/tweet]

I wonder who Minny would offer Phoenix....

If they somehow keep Bledsoe/LaVine/Wiggins...man what an athletic group that would be.

[crazyeights]

This trade could have big implications on the future of our division and also our playoff chances....

I'm hoping Minny doesn't give too much here. But if Phoenix hits a homerun, then we can kiss that Dragic dream goodbye.

Essentially this has been a pretty awful off-season in terms of our potential to grab another star. Love/Irving/Bledsoe/Dragic etc. Not to say any of those outside of Love were likely to happen, but it doesn't help.

[Kilroy]

Irving>Love>>>Bledsoe>>>>Dragic in terms of impact for the future...

Irving is a borderline top tier Talent in the NBA, Love is at best, somewhere at the top of the second tier, Bledsoe is over rated and probably a lower 2nd tier talent, Dragic is even more over rated and probably at best a 6th man on a contender...

They would all improve the quality of the team, but there's no reason to get negative about our future because of missing out on those guys... Irving wasn't even possible, and Love wants to be 3rd fiddle in Cleveland...

I don't want Bledsoe at anywhere near the Max... He smacks of 'Consolation Signing'...
And Dragic's market is ridiculously bloated right now...

We just have to be patient... OKC is at a cross-road... San Antonio is ridding off into the sun-set... Minni is a complete unknown... GSW is at that point when they either come together and get serious about contending, or fall apart... Phoenix is still not a contender... Houston took a step or two back... Dallas is still on the outside looking in...
The Clippers need to prove they have another gear for the playoffs...

This season is all about OKC... If they can't win a championship this season, they need to make some major changes. And that could play right into our hands.

If OKC moves either Durant or Westbrook, I think it'll spark a trade frenzy in the West... I think we're in the perfect position right now. I don't want to go all in for middling top tier talent and ruin flexibility for the next 2 seasons.

[Kilroy]

Also, I think the Max offer for Bledsoe is a negotiation tactic aimed at Rubio...

[Dr Aki]

bledsoe for thad young and rubio?

[crazyeights]

Kilroy, Dragic scored 20.3ppg/5.9apg/3.2rpg/1.4spg while shooting over 50% and 40.8% from the 3 and in general is a gamer.

I'd say he's absolutely good enough to be a top 3 player on a great team. Maybe even the 2nd.

At point-guard he had a 26.5 PER and a +11.1 net PER. The dude is a beast.

I get the spirit of your post though, sure we're not going to win or lose a championship based on this one trade, however having the Suns lock up Goran while presumably getting helpful pieces from the Wolves means to me that our playoff odds take a hit. We'd be relying on 2 teams from last year taking a dive and that's not exactly likely.

Also, after the trend of losing out on targeted players lately, I am squeamish at the thought of our return to relevance hanging on essentially only Durant and Westbrook. Odds are unless someone forces their way here,
we don't get them. So while I hope Russell is our man, I'm skeptical it'll workout that way.

[Kilroy]

Kilroy, Dragic scored 20.3ppg/5.9apg/3.2rpg/1.4spg while shooting over 50% and 40.8% from the 3 and in general is a gamer.

I'd say he's absolutely good enough to be a top 3 player on a great team. Maybe even the 2nd.

At point-guard he had a 26.5 PER and a +11.1 net PER. The dude is a beast.

I get the spirit of your post though, sure we're not going to win or lose a championship based on this one trade, however having the Suns lock up Goran while presumably getting helpful pieces from the Wolves means to me that our playoff odds take a hit. We'd be relying on 2 teams from last year taking a dive and that's not exactly likely.

Also, after the trend of losing out on targeted players lately, I am squeamish at the thought of our return to relevance hanging on essentially only Durant and Westbrook. Odds are unless someone forces their way here,
we don't get them. So while I hope Russell is our man, I'm skeptical it'll workout that way.

I want to see a little more consistency and diversity out of Dragic before a put a whole lot of weight behind those numbers...
Until then, no way I'm satisfied building a team around him as a top 2 or 3 player.

[Doormatt]

Irving>Love>>>Bledsoe>>>>Dragic in terms of impact for the future...

Irving is a borderline top tier Talent in the NBA, Love is at best, somewhere at the top of the second tier, Bledsoe is over rated and probably a lower 2nd tier talent, Dragic is even more over rated and probably at best a 6th man on a contender...

i dunno how you came to any of these conclusions. dragic could only be a 6th man on a contender??? what? as the best player he led the suns to a top 10 SRS finish last season with a bunch of scrubs/average players and bledsoe missing half the season. was easily a top 5 point guard last season, only Westbrook, Curry and CP3 were clearly better. all of his stats are elite, better numbers than guys like Lillard and Lowry who are hyped out of control.

Love is quite arguably a top 5 player, the best power forward in the league, and hes only 26. i dont know how that makes him second tier talent.

Bledsoe is quite overrated i agree, a lot of his hype is based on potential and hes never been healthy enough to fulfill it.

Kyrie is harder to project because hes not elite at anything like say Steph Curry is with threes or Love with rebounding, and he doesnt have the all around talent to dominate like a lebron/durant obviously. he also isnt hyper athletic like westbrook/rose. his offensive game is nice but its nothing spectacular and his defense is truly awful, so i just really dont know how you can project him to be a top tier talent. will he ever be better than westbrook? is westbrook a top tier talent? if you arent going to define Love as a top tier talent then i dont see kyrie ever being one either.

[Doormatt]

I want to see a little more consistency and diversity out of Dragic before a put a whole lot of weight behind those numbers...
Until then, no way I'm satisfied building a team around him as a top 2 or 3 player.

it wasnt just last year though. 2012/13 he had better RAPM numbers than guys like Kyrie, Cousins and Kawhi - just below Paul George. hes always been a really underrated point guard a lot like Lowry, he was just never given the starting job till he went back to Phoenix. people forgot but he was going to be the heir to Nash's throne, remember his playoff performances in 2010? he would come on and swing the momentum of the games. still dont understand why they traded him in the first place.

[Kilroy]

Irving>Love>>>Bledsoe>>>>Dragic in terms of impact for the future...

Irving is a borderline top tier Talent in the NBA, Love is at best, somewhere at the top of the second tier, Bledsoe is over rated and probably a lower 2nd tier talent, Dragic is even more over rated and probably at best a 6th man on a contender...

i dunno how you came to any of these conclusions. dragic could only be a 6th man on a contender??? what? as the best player he led the suns to a top 10 SRS finish last season with a bunch of scrubs/average players and bledsoe missing half the season. was easily a top 5 point guard last season, only Westbrook, Curry and CP3 were clearly better. all of his stats are elite, better numbers than guys like Lillard and Lowry who are hyped out of control.

Dragic is in a perfect situation for him, on a team with no expectations of greatness... I see it as a "Dragic-Madness" situation... Teams will adjust. He's not a complete enough player to sustain those numbers as a primary focus on a good team.

Love is quite arguably a top 5 player, the best power forward in the league, and hes only 26. i dont know how that makes him second tier talent.

I'm not sure he is a power forward... But I don't disagree that he's one of the best bigs in the league right now, but then again, it's a weak-ass era for bigs... I'm not sure I'd have him in my top 5 though.

I just don't think a top tier talent would settle for being maybe 3rd mouth at the table, no matter how many rings he'd potentially win.

Bledsoe is quite overrated i agree, a lot of his hype is based on potential and hes never been healthy enough to fulfill it.

Kyrie is harder to project because hes not elite at anything like say Steph Curry is with threes or Love with rebounding, and he doesnt have the all around talent to dominate like a lebron/durant obviously. he also isnt hyper athletic like westbrook/rose. his offensive game is nice but its nothing spectacular and his defense is truly awful, so i just really dont know how you can project him to be a top tier talent. will he ever be better than westbrook? is westbrook a top tier talent? if you arent going to define Love as a top tier talent then i dont see kyrie ever being one either.

I called Irving a borderline top tier talent.... Westbrook is better today, but I think the gap is closing and the potential is in Irving's corner...

Westbrook is a top tier talent... But he'd be in the bottom of my tier... I think he's too streaky to lead a team by himself like Lebron or Durant, and his decision making is suspect...

Love is just missing something... Not sure what it is... Maybe passion, or drive, or something... I'd love to have him on the Lakers in a similar role to what he's playing in Cleveland... But I wouldn't settle for him as the future face of the franchise or something like that...

My point was that losing out on any of those guys does not have some greater meaning to the franchise because there's nothing overly special about their talent.

I just see this as a down time for the NBA talent-wise, and the talent gap between LeBron, Durant and the rest of the league is pretty large...

[aaron_gray]

Those guys are out there every summer. The Lakers have made a killing on Xavier Henry, Wesley Johnson, and now Ed Davis, and Davis in L.A. at the minimum means all 29 other teams made a mistake. Still, it’s unclear if any of those guys will become rotation players on good teams, and the Lakers have a built-in market advantage that trickles down to minimum-level free agents.

[Sofa King]

By letting Parsons out of his contract, the Rockets were simply honoring an agreement they made with his agent in 2013 when they signed Dwight Howard.

As I’ve been told, Howard’s agent Dan Fegan did not want Dwight in Houston, preferring instead to steer him to another team. Reportedly, that team was Dallas as the agent has a relationship and comfort level with Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. Dwight preferred Houston. To seal the deal for the premier free agent, Fegan provided the Rockets a list of needs/demands to bring him here and one of them was to let Chandler Parsons, who also was represented by Fegan, out of his contract this summer rather than wait until 2015.

(It should be noted that though I have no idea what other items would be on that list, there were two “interesting” things that happened around that time — the Rockets hired Howard’s former trainer with the Orlando Magic and they later added Dwight’s brother to the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, though it was largely believed that he wasn’t a good enough prospect to make that jump. See JR Smith-Chris Smith for how nepotism package deals can work.)

Parsons has since publicly denied that the decision by the Rockets had anything to do with Howard, but I’ve been told by multiple sources that it’s true.

- See more at: http://dimemag.com/2014/09/rumor-rocket ... PF5rx.dpuf

[Sofa King]

[instagram]http://instagram.com/p/tHG5jjxhxk/[/instagram]

[crazyeights]

Those guys are out there every summer. The Lakers have made a killing on Xavier Henry, Wesley Johnson, and now Ed Davis, and Davis in L.A. at the minimum means all 29 other teams made a mistake. Still, it’s unclear if any of those guys will become rotation players on good teams, and the Lakers have a built-in market advantage that trickles down to minimum-level free agents.

What's funny about this "built-in" advantage is I don't believe the Knicks minimum guys get this much play. And NY's the much bigger market...so to me it's not merely the market, it's the value of being historically and consistently great has allotted us.

Lowe, even when commending the Lakers, finds ways to be dismissive. What a guy!

[JohnVancouver]

Also, I think the Max offer for Bledsoe is a negotiation tactic aimed at Rubio...

Very well could be - I really question giving EB the max, with his history. Talented as he is, he's made of glass. A shame but there it is

[JohnVancouver]

I want to see a little more consistency and diversity out of Dragic before a put a whole lot of weight behind those numbers...
Until then, no way I'm satisfied building a team around him as a top 2 or 3 player.

it wasnt just last year though. 2012/13 he had better RAPM numbers than guys like Kyrie, Cousins and Kawhi - just below Paul George. hes always been a really underrated point guard a lot like Lowry, he was just never given the starting job till he went back to Phoenix. people forgot but he was going to be the heir to Nash's throne, remember his playoff performances in 2010? he would come on and swing the momentum of the games. still dont understand why they traded him in the first place.

The story that finally came out was that he had a bunch of friends living with him, partying pretty solid, finally he sliced his foot open on broken glass and missed a bunch of games and the team said, "if you're not serious about being taking over the team, so long."
So off to Houston and a Come-to Jesus moment. Glad he got his act together because he's great to watch

[Ckay]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/MettaWorldPeace/status/514179300119949313[/tweet]

[Kilroy]

This mother **** er...