Around the NBA (2018-19 season)

[THE J0KER]

Read on Twitter

I know TJ Warren is the cheapest SF starter level player because of Suns SF priorities are Josh Jackson, Bridges and Oubre, and they are also the dumbest franchise. Missed opportunity

Read on Twitter

This may be interesting. If Clippers find 3rd seed in this deal which wants Barton and Plumlee more than Gallinari, I would except such a deal.

Read on Twitter

I have a couple of own ideas about that Pelicans #4 pick but now is too late.

[THE J0KER]

Another two lottery picks are traded!

Read on Twitter

[skywalker33]

Read on Twitter

I know TJ Warren is the cheapest SF starter level player because of Suns SF priorities are Josh Jackson, Bridges and Oubre, and they are also the dumbest franchise. Missed opportunity

Considering the Suns had to add the 32nd pick to make this happen, leads me to believe what I saw of him really was closer than what you see in this guy. IND is a much better opportunity for him but I hear he's looked as as a scorer off the bench, not a starter.

Read on Twitter

This may be interesting. If Clippers find 3rd team in this deal which wants Barton and Plumlee more than Gallinari, I would except such a deal.

Agree with what could be our interest, especially if even just Barton goes out in a deal.

[TunaFish]

Rumors are flying about Gallo leaving LA but I would think this has more to do with the hope that Leonard is going to the Clips. Both are considered small forwards and both have or will have substantial contracts. Smells like it might be a salary dump as well. I could see him headed back to Denver and Barton traded.

[THE J0KER]

Eventual bad news for Nuggets around NBA West:

- Kawhi to Clippers (or Lakers)
- Lakers get a 3rd star-player
- Butler to Houston
- Dallas or Sacramento take 2 max players (Mavs already take one in Porzingins)
- GSW re-sign Klay

[NuggetsWY]

Eventual bad news for Nuggets around NBA West:

- Kawhi to Clippers (or Lakers)
- Lakers get a 3rd star-player
- Butler to Houston
- Dallas or Sacramento take 2 max players (Mavs already take one in Porzingins)
- GSW re-sign Klay

Lakers still don't frighten me - they just won't have much depth and will be one relatively minor injury from losing bundles of games.

Houston seems ready to implode and I do not see Harden & Butler getting along - especially because I don't think they can jettison Paul.

Sacramento is climbing but I still think Denver beats them and Dallas seems a year or two away from the Kings.

The Warriors seem unlikely to have a good regular season (but certainly not terrible); but I'm betting they'll be tough by the time the playoffs come.

[THE J0KER]

Eventual bad news for Nuggets around NBA West:

- Kawhi to Clippers (or Lakers)
- Lakers get a 3rd star-player
- Butler to Houston
- Dallas or Sacramento take 2 max players (Mavs already take one in Porzingins)
- GSW re-sign Klay

Lakers still don't frighten me - they just won't have much depth and will be one relatively minor injury from losing bundles of games.

Houston seems ready to implode and I do not see Harden & Butler getting along - especially because I don't think they can jettison Paul.

Sacramento is climbing but I still think Denver beats them and Dallas seems a year or two away from the Kings.

The Warriors seem unlikely to have a good regular season (but certainly not terrible); but I'm betting they'll be tough by the time the playoffs come.

LBJ-Wade-Bosh or LBJ-Irving-Love are not so impressive during their regular seasons, but in playoff, they are another level teams. I expect the same with LBJ-Davis-?????.

Butler would be a great compliment to Rockets game improving their defense without losing anything in the offense.

In Dallas case, we don't know how good is KP after ACL comeback, and how fast will Doncic improve in sophomore year. If they will play all-star level (or very close), the addition of FA like Kemba or Horford will create legit West TOP5 seed contender.

Warriors with Klay will be a serious 2020-21 contender.

[NuggetsWY]

LBJ-Wade-Bosh or LBJ-Irving-Love are not so impressive during their regular seasons, but in playoff, they are another level teams. I expect the same with LBJ-Davis-?????.

Butler would be a great compliment to Rockets game improving their defense without losing anything in the offense.

In Dallas case, we don't know how good is KP after ACL comeback, and how fast will Doncic improve in sophomore year. If they will play all-star level (or very close), the addition of FA like Kemba or Horford will create legit West TOP5 seed contender.

Warriors with Klay will be a serious 2020-21 contender.

The Lakers currently have James, Kuzma, Davis and I do believe that is all they have. With something around $30m available, how will they build a roster? They need 12 more players and a few of them will need to be starters & strong bench players. How many of those players are available at less than $5m per - which would leave only veteran minimum & such for 7 more players.

My numbers are not preciously correct but merely generalities. I remain unconvinced they will be dangerous. If they were to add a third "max" player. Their salary cap would be eaten up by three players.

[skywalker33]

Eventual bad news for Nuggets around NBA West:

- Kawhi to Clippers (or Lakers)
- Lakers get a 3rd star-player
- Butler to Houston
- Dallas or Sacramento take 2 max players (Mavs already take one in Porzingins)
- GSW re-sign Klay

NONE of these are NEWS they're rumors, nothing to be afraid of until something happens

[skywalker33]

Eventual bad news for Nuggets around NBA West:

- Kawhi to Clippers (or Lakers)
- Lakers get a 3rd star-player
- Butler to Houston
- Dallas or Sacramento take 2 max players (Mavs already take one in Porzingins)
- GSW re-sign Klay

Lakers still don't frighten me - they just won't have much depth and will be one relatively minor injury from losing bundles of games.

Houston seems ready to implode and I do not see Harden & Butler getting along - especially because I don't think they can jettison Paul.

Sacramento is climbing but I still think Denver beats them and Dallas seems a year or two away from the Kings.

The Warriors seem unlikely to have a good regular season (but certainly not terrible); but I'm betting they'll be tough by the time the playoffs come.

LBJ-Wade-Bosh or LBJ-Irving-Love are not so impressive during their regular seasons, but in playoff, they are another level teams. I expect the same with LBJ-Davis-?????.

Butler would be a great compliment to Rockets game improving their defense without losing anything in the offense.

In Dallas case, we don't know how good is KP after ACL comeback, and how fast will Doncic improve in sophomore year. If they will play all-star level (or very close), the addition of FA like Kemba or Horford will create legit West TOP5 seed contender.

Warriors with Klay will be a serious 2020-21 contender.

And do any of those teams know how good the Nuggets will be with a healthy MPJ, Vanderbilt and Bol ?? And how good will we be with a healthy GHarris ?? or a mature Murray ?? Does Barton return to form ??? It's all speculation at this point .....

[THE J0KER]

LBJ-Wade-Bosh or LBJ-Irving-Love are not so impressive during their regular seasons, but in playoff, they are another level teams. I expect the same with LBJ-Davis-?????.

Butler would be a great compliment to Rockets game improving their defense without losing anything in the offense.

In Dallas case, we don't know how good is KP after ACL comeback, and how fast will Doncic improve in sophomore year. If they will play all-star level (or very close), the addition of FA like Kemba or Horford will create legit West TOP5 seed contender.

Warriors with Klay will be a serious 2020-21 contender.

The Lakers currently have James, Kuzma, Davis and I do believe that is all they have. With something around $30m available, how will they build a roster? They need 12 more players and a few of them will need to be starters & strong bench players. How many of those players are available at less than $5m per - which would leave only veteran minimum & such for 7 more players.

My numbers are not preciously correct but merely generalities. I remain unconvinced they will be dangerous. If they were to add a third "max" player. Their salary cap would be eaten up by three players.

But guess what? They will exactly do that! A few days ago they have 28M cap space, but lately, they trade 3 young players to Washington only to create extra 4M space, so they now have $32M space which can be year one salary of a max contract. They are the Los Angeles Lakers, and they can buy for example Kawhi Leonard from FA market, which is the world TOP5 player, and his real value is 50+ million for a year. What better you can do with $32M if not to buy player which real price is $50M? We in Denver in the best case can buy Tobias Harris for $30M which real value is 20M-25M, but even that is much better than spending $60M on Barton+Plumlee+Millsap which all three on-court value now is 20M-25M. With Hart-Kawhi-Kuzma-James-Davis lineup, the only thing you need is a bench with one-dimensional defensive specialists, 3pt specialists, veteran centers, and PG's which know to handle the ball. Veteran minimum guys or players ready to sacrifice one year to restart career I see which can join Lakers are Carmelo Anthony, Trey Lyles, Kenneth Faried, Emmanuel Mudiay, JaVale McGee, JR Smith, Pau Gasol, Tyson Chandler, Vince Carter, Joakim Noah, Nik Stauskas, Jose Calderon, Nerlens Noel, Greg Monroe, Richaun Holmes, Seth Curry, Jeremy Lin, Sam Dekker, Jeff Green... take 7 of this, and at least 2 of them will be useful for sure, enough for ring if BIG3 stays healthy.

And do any of those teams know how good the Nuggets will be with a healthy MPJ, Vanderbilt and Bol ?? And how good will we be with a healthy GHarris ?? or a mature Murray ?? Does Barton return to form ??? It's all speculation at this point .....

Doncic is already rookie of the year last season with the historic rookie 20-5-5 achievement which only 5 rookies ever achieved, and I remind you that Porzingis was already selected for the all-star game in 2018 but was injured just a week before his ASG debut. So, it is speculations, but not comparable with MPJ and Bol Bol cases which still didn't play a single minute in NBA or JV which was invisible in rookie season with less than 5 minutes per game.

[THE J0KER]

Few words about "small market team" narrative.

Yes, such a thing exist in the NBA, it is not secret, but it is related mostly to 'big star' type of players. Also, the small-market team with the great core is often more attractive than the toxic big market team, so we know long episodes in Knicks or Clippers history when most of the notable players don't want to join as free agents. And after all, except with draft and FA market, you can try to improve your roster and team competitiveness via trades where all franchises are in almost equal position!

Two years ago Denver SF starter Danilo Gallinari leaves Nuggets and there no excuse why our SF starter was Willson Chandler in 2017-18 and Will Barton in 2018-19, a detail which two seasons in the row sabotaged our great Murray-Harris-////-Millsap-Jokic core, and still counts, except in case Porter Jr become bold contributor since his very first season, which would be historically very rare case for small forwards. There is a very simple explanation of why we didn't fix that obvious weakness in the roster - we didn't try!

Now I will give you a better example of how it works for small market teams, and the difference between trying and not trying to change anything. Let's talk about our divisional rival Utah. 2017 seems like the start of the tough times for this franchise when they lost their co-best player Hayward. But right from nowhere their #13 pick rookie Donovan Mitchell becomes a star, Ingles had a breakthrough year, and during the 2nd half of the season, they have TOP5 record in the league and reached 2nd round of playoff in the postseason. Their Front Office was so happy during 2018 off-season almost as Tim Connelly every off-season that they just enjoy the moment with only overpaying couple own local guys Barton and Plumlee Exum and Favors. In 2018-19 only young Mitchell improved (as expected), several WC teams improved, and also the fact is that Utah (and Boston) shocked the league in 2017-18 with their defensive schemes (Jazz DEFRTG in the 2nd half of 2017-18 was 100, but 105 in 2018-19), but very next season despite their defense around Gobert was still remains among the very best in the league, rest of the league better answered on that challenge and adopt offense vs Utah. So, the overall Jazz season was about the same compared to the previous, with a disappointing playoff.

But this offseason they decided to abandon happiness of just being a playoff team in strong Western Conference and decided to go for what they need. Actually, if they didn't change anything once again, Jazz is in the risk of not reaching playoff at all after going to lose starting PG Ricky Rubio. Salt Lake is a small market and unpopular place for most of the pro athletes, team cap situation was not great, but Jazz FO find the way to improve the roster this summer with proven 20-5 PG Mike Conley, and according to reports they are surprising frontrunners to get one of the most improved players last season FA Bojan Bogdanovic. A month ago we didn't even know will Utah still be a playoff team, but now if they stay healthy and play the upcoming season with Conley-Mitchell-Bogdanovic-Ingles-Gobert starting lineup, their chances to finish West in TOP3 are not any worse than ours! A small market team without free cap space, but which decided and tried to make some changes.

[THE J0KER]

I was pissed that we will boycott FA Market (except in re-signing our own players) for the 2nd year in the row despite even small roster improvement would be big when the team was already this good and talented.

But after opening the first two hours of Free Agency, when most of the notable deals are done, I'm very happy in which directions things went so far.

- Chriss Middleton and Tobias Harris both stay on the East and sign 5-year max deals with their old teams, which means we would not get them anyway.

- Kevin Durant going on the East (it is related more to next season actually)

- Butler, Irving, Kemba, Brogdon, JJ Reddick, DeAndre Jordan changed teams but all stay on the East, while together with T.Harris and Middleton - Vucevic, Brook Lopez and Marc Gasol stay loyal to their teams on the East.

- Western teams which have big cap space and a talented young core fail to improve to playoff level: New Orleans, Phoenix, and Memphis. Kings, Wolves, and Spurs even if reached the playoff are limited on the 1st round early exit.

- GSW saved big-3 but due to Thompson injury and lack of other new good players they will not fight for the title next season


BAD NEWS:
- Lakers created superteam (old news)
- Jazz improved significantly with Mike Conley and Bojan Bogdanovic

WHAT TO WATCH:
- Clippers news
- Lakers 3rd star enigma
- Houston changes
- Will Mavs get a 3rd star
- Kawhi Leonard case

[skywalker33]

As usual, free agency frenzy going on, crazy money being spent

POR and Rodney Hood at 2/$16M looks like the best deal I’ve seen

[Manolito]

Hezonja signed with Portland in a minimum deal.

Who is.going to play.PF and C? They lost Aminu. They have Collins, Leonard, Hezonja, the rookie and injured Nurkic. They even traded Turner who played PF at that 7th PO Game.

IMHO they are worse than last season

Sent from my Aquaris M5 using RealGM mobile app

[U hova]

New Orleans got a crazy discount on Favors... really wish we made that move.

[The Rebel]

Conley and Bogdonavic improve the Jazz offense considerably, but I think they are going to lose something on the defensive end. FAvors always seemed to give us more trouble on that end than anybody, and while they were not good on offense Crowder and Rubio were considerably better on defense than their replacements.

Butler going to Miami was a bit of a surprise, but it was no surprise that he left the 76ers. He was their best player in several games in the playoffs, but it was obvious he did not fit with Harris and Simmons.

Speaking of the 76ers, I do not like the Horford addition, he is a very underrated player but I do not see the great fit that everybody else does. He likes the ball in many of the same spots as Embiid does, and while their defense will be improved I think they needed at better shooter at PF.

I cannot believe that the Nets were willing to give Durant a max deal, I understand the Warriors feeling obligated to give him one but the Nets screwed up. I do not care what the media or other fans say, an Achilles is a career killer, and Durant is not going to be close to a max player when he gets back.

The Pelicans are going to be in contention for the playoffs next year, and are a better team now than they were a year ago even after losing Davis. I still think the Lakers players they got were overrated, but adding Reddick and Favors with their rookies will make them at least a competitive team.

I am interested to see what Portland does next season, they have almost completely changed out their forwards and brought in a Center to cover for Nurkic, but I am not sure they really got better.

[_Joker]

Achilles injuries aren't necessarily a career killer.

In our Aussie football league we have had players come back from Achilles injuries and continue to thrive. The AFL is a much more physical game than basketball too - though they only play 22 games in the H&A and a potential max of 4 in the finals. But all players will run upwards of 10km (minimum) and perform many physical acts, whether it be tackling, taking hits, contesting for marks, contesting at ground level, etc.

The thing going for Durant is that he's skinny and light weight, which will help with his recovery. Unfortunately for Boogie he was huge and it will always be harder for someone his size to get back to his best.

[The Rebel]

Achilles injuries aren't necessarily a career killer.

In our Aussie football league we have had players come back from Achilles injuries and continue to thrive. The AFL is a much more physical game than basketball too - though they only play 22 games in the H&A and a potential max of 4 in the finals. But all players will run upwards of 10km (minimum) and perform many physical acts, whether it be tackling, taking hits, contesting for marks, contesting at ground level, etc.

The thing going for Durant is that he's skinny and light weight, which will help with his recovery. Unfortunately for Boogie he was huge and it will always be harder for someone his size to get back to his best.

Australian rules football is a very different game, it is highly physical but not nearly as demanding on your lower legs, the NFL has several success stories of guys coming back off an achilles injury as well. However in the NBA 85% of all players who suffer an achilles injury are out of the league in 2 years. Dominique WIlkins is the only player that has tore his achilles and returned near the same level after the injury in the NBA over the last 40 years. Rudy Gay is the next closest to a success story and he went from a borderline all star to a borderline starter.

Fact is that your achilles affects how well you can jump, cut, take your 1st step, and move laterally. Losing any of it affects your game, losing on all of it has a long history of ending careers.

If anybody thinks that Durant is going to come back near what he was than they are delusional.

[_Joker]

Achilles injuries aren't necessarily a career killer.

In our Aussie football league we have had players come back from Achilles injuries and continue to thrive. The AFL is a much more physical game than basketball too - though they only play 22 games in the H&A and a potential max of 4 in the finals. But all players will run upwards of 10km (minimum) and perform many physical acts, whether it be tackling, taking hits, contesting for marks, contesting at ground level, etc.

The thing going for Durant is that he's skinny and light weight, which will help with his recovery. Unfortunately for Boogie he was huge and it will always be harder for someone his size to get back to his best.

Australian rules football is a very different game, it is highly physical but not nearly as demanding on your lower legs, the NFL has several success stories of guys coming back off an achilles injury as well. However in the NBA 85% of all players who suffer an achilles injury are out of the league in 2 years. Dominique WIlkins is the only player that has tore his achilles and returned near the same level after the injury in the NBA over the last 40 years. Rudy Gay is the next closest to a success story and he went from a borderline all star to a borderline starter.

Fact is that your achilles affects how well you can jump, cut, take your 1st step, and move laterally. Losing any of it affects your game, losing on all of it has a long history of ending careers.

If anybody thinks that Durant is going to come back near what he was than they are delusional.

All those things you've highlighted are critical to a football player, at least in equal measure.

The most an NBA player runs per game would be around 5/6km, which is a lot when extrapolated out over a full season. But that's the very upper end of the equation.

An AFL player runs 10-15km per game, whilst jumping just as much, getting physically tackled and trying to stand ground whilst doing so, doing some tackling themselves, moving laterally, jumping for the ball in a pack situation, running full pace and jumping for the ball, etc. - it's simply a more physical game in general.

Though you're obviously right in that it's a rare thing indeed to come back from it - I'm just trying to highlight that it can be done.

One AFL player, Jarryd Roughead (yes, that's his name and it's not an ironic one either), tore his Achilles several years ago but came back as an even better player. He somehow came back more agile and changed his game from more of a power player to a more fluid mover who was more versatile. He did trim down a bit which must have helped a lot.