Around the NBA- 2020/2021 Edition

[LDNMagic90]

So it seems like the narrative that Zion wants out of NOLA is false (surprise, surprise). His step dad has said he'll return during the Play-in tournament.

It's funny that the national media create stories about players wanting out from smaller market teams, It's the reason why I have preferred independent reporters recently.

[pepe1991]

So it seems like the narrative that Zion wants out of NOLA is false (surprise, surprise). His step dad has said he'll return during the Play-in tournament.

It's funny that the national media create stories about players wanting out from smaller market teams, It's the reason why I have preferred independent reporters recently.

Zion is ready, McDonalds will serve double shift

Pelicans have nice roster, if they can get him healthy, they are very hard matchup. Him vs Morant in first round would be very good series. And lot of storylines.

[LDNMagic90]

So it seems like the narrative that Zion wants out of NOLA is false (surprise, surprise). His step dad has said he'll return during the Play-in tournament.

It's funny that the national media create stories about players wanting out from smaller market teams, It's the reason why I have preferred independent reporters recently.

Zion is ready, McDonalds will serve double shift

Pelicans have nice roster, if they can get him healthy, they are very hard matchup. Him vs Morant in first round would be very good series. And lot of storylines.

I really look forward to that match up, CJ has been good for them ever since the trade. I hope we get to see Zion play soon.

[LDNMagic90]

Also I'm curious to know where the Lakers go from here?

They don't have picks this year, I haven't checked their salary situation however I'd imagine it to be bad and they don't have attractive assets to pull a trade that will get them over the hump without trading Lebron or AD.

That LeBron tweet aged horribly as well, the one where he told everyone to keep the same energy when people were doubting them(or something similar) lol .

[cedric76]

Also I'm curious to know where the Lakers go from here?

They don't have picks this year, I haven't checked their salary situation however I'd imagine it to be bad and they don't have attractive assets to pull a trade that will get them over the hump without trading Lebron or AD.

That LeBron tweet aged horribly as well, the one where he told everyone to keep the same energy when people were doubting them(or something similar) lol .

So glad to see LeDouche not making the play in tournament. Do you guys remember his comments saying that the person that did the playing should be fired, guess what, the person doing the recruiting "aka LeCheat" should be fired

[pepe1991]

Also I'm curious to know where the Lakers go from here?

They don't have picks this year, I haven't checked their salary situation however I'd imagine it to be bad and they don't have attractive assets to pull a trade that will get them over the hump without trading Lebron or AD.

That LeBron tweet aged horribly as well, the one where he told everyone to keep the same energy when people were doubting them(or something similar) lol .

Nowhere?

I mean, their best assets are:
a) 38 years old Lebron who they can't trade because it would be PR nightmare
b) Anthony Davis. Who is superstar but they will also never get fair value in return
c) 2027 first round pick... not even kidding, they can't trade any picks until 2027.
d) Westbrook's expiring money



Even if they flip Westbrook into 2-3 average players as that team decides to take him for salary dump purpose, they are still first round exit team.
They mortaged future in 2019 for Davis to win a title. They won title 20 months ago. Now they have "pay" for mortaging future in process of winning title.

Davis & Lebron are being payed cumulative salary over $80M dollars in league with $112M of active salary. Add Westbrook and his $40M and they are over a cap with 3 players.


People like to write about them because Lebron & Lakers are ultimate clickbait for casual fans and easy money to get off comments& shares but there is nothing "broken" about Lakers. They won back to back titles in 2009 & 2010, and 10 yeras later won again, before that they won 3 titles in back to back to backs early in 2000s. So they won 6 titles in 22 years.
11 nba teams never won a title, among those 11 most of them didn't pass second round of playoffs in a decade. Hell if you go back and pay attention, Spurs, Heat, Lakers & Warriors split like 15 out of last 21 championships. 4 had Lebron, 3 had Curry, 2 had Leonard ( and probably multiple will have Giannis).

Once Lebron is gone, Davis traded or gone or Westbrook expires it will probably be dry few years for LAL, until next superstar gets tired of playing for next Pelicans, Kings, Wolves or whoever.
But until that, it will be media clownshow. Personally i don't know what i find more annoying , reading about them when they are good where every star of their own is " once in a lifetime player" or when they are bad, when every star is "worst star in history".

LIterally same thing happend to them in 2004 and 2013. Bunch of over a hill veterans with recognizable names on same team without ability to sustain energy& health through a season. Hell, 2013 costed Kobe's career. 2004 costed Phil coaching career ( up until 5 years later).

[Skybox]

Also I'm curious to know where the Lakers go from here?

They don't have picks this year, I haven't checked their salary situation however I'd imagine it to be bad and they don't have attractive assets to pull a trade that will get them over the hump without trading Lebron or AD.

That LeBron tweet aged horribly as well, the one where he told everyone to keep the same energy when people were doubting them(or something similar) lol .

Nowhere?

I mean, their best assets are:
a) 38 years old Lebron who they can't trade because it would be PR nightmare
b) Anthony Davis. Who is superstar but they will also never get fair value in return
c) 2027 first round pick... not even kidding, they can't trade any picks until 2027.
d) Westbrook's expiring money



Even if they flip Westbrook into 2-3 average players as that team decides to take him for salary dump purpose, they are still first round exit team.
They mortaged future in 2019 for Davis to win a title. They won title 20 months ago. Now they have "pay" for mortaging future in process of winning title.

Davis & Lebron are being payed cumulative salary over $80M dollars in league with $112M of active salary. Add Westbrook and his $40M and they are over a cap with 3 players.


People like to write about them because Lebron & Lakers are ultimate clickbait for casual fans and easy money to get off comments& shares but there is nothing "broken" about Lakers. They won back to back titles in 2009 & 2010, and 10 yeras later won again, before that they won 3 titles in back to back to backs early in 2000s. So they won 6 titles in 22 years.
11 nba teams never won a title, among those 11 most of them didn't pass second round of playoffs in a decade. Hell if you go back and pay attention, Spurs, Heat, Lakers & Warriors split like 15 out of last 21 championships. 4 had Lebron, 3 had Curry, 2 had Leonard ( and probably multiple will have Giannis).

Once Lebron is gone, Davis traded or gone or Westbrook expires it will probably be dry few years for LAL, until next superstar gets tired of playing for next Pelicans, Kings, Wolves or whoever.
But until that, it will be media clownshow. Personally i don't know what i find more annoying , reading about them when they are good where every star of their own is " once in a lifetime player" or when they are bad, when every star is "worst star in history".

LIterally same thing happend to them in 2004 and 2013. Bunch of over a hill veterans with recognizable names on same team without ability to sustain energy& health through a season. Hell, 2013 costed Kobe's career. 2004 costed Phil coaching career ( up until 5 years later).

Yep. Simply put...look what the Lakers paid to get AD and consider what they'd get for him today. Same with Westbrook - he was somewhat negative value coming in, but now he's John Wall. They're screwed.

[LDNMagic90]

Also I'm curious to know where the Lakers go from here?

They don't have picks this year, I haven't checked their salary situation however I'd imagine it to be bad and they don't have attractive assets to pull a trade that will get them over the hump without trading Lebron or AD.

That LeBron tweet aged horribly as well, the one where he told everyone to keep the same energy when people were doubting them(or something similar) lol .

Nowhere?

I mean, their best assets are:
a) 38 years old Lebron who they can't trade because it would be PR nightmare
b) Anthony Davis. Who is superstar but they will also never get fair value in return
c) 2027 first round pick... not even kidding, they can't trade any picks until 2027.
d) Westbrook's expiring money



Even if they flip Westbrook into 2-3 average players as that team decides to take him for salary dump purpose, they are still first round exit team.
They mortaged future in 2019 for Davis to win a title. They won title 20 months ago. Now they have "pay" for mortaging future in process of winning title.

Davis & Lebron are being payed cumulative salary over $80M dollars in league with $112M of active salary. Add Westbrook and his $40M and they are over a cap with 3 players.


People like to write about them because Lebron & Lakers are ultimate clickbait for casual fans and easy money to get off comments& shares but there is nothing "broken" about Lakers. They won back to back titles in 2009 & 2010, and 10 yeras later won again, before that they won 3 titles in back to back to backs early in 2000s. So they won 6 titles in 22 years.
11 nba teams never won a title, among those 11 most of them didn't pass second round of playoffs in a decade. Hell if you go back and pay attention, Spurs, Heat, Lakers & Warriors split like 15 out of last 21 championships. 4 had Lebron, 3 had Curry, 2 had Leonard ( and probably multiple will have Giannis).

Once Lebron is gone, Davis traded or gone or Westbrook expires it will probably be dry few years for LAL, until next superstar gets tired of playing for next Pelicans, Kings, Wolves or whoever.
But until that, it will be media clownshow. Personally i don't know what i find more annoying , reading about them when they are good where every star of their own is " once in a lifetime player" or when they are bad, when every star is "worst star in history".

LIterally same thing happend to them in 2004 and 2013. Bunch of over a hill veterans with recognizable names on same team without ability to sustain energy& health through a season. Hell, 2013 costed Kobe's career. 2004 costed Phil coaching career ( up until 5 years later).

I agree with everything you said.

I really hate NBA media these days, because it's just centered around what LeBron is doing/Lakers or whatever team he may be on. A player for a smaller market that is doing better than them will barely get a mention or get one in passing and they'll go full circle to LeBron again.

[pepe1991]

Also I'm curious to know where the Lakers go from here?

They don't have picks this year, I haven't checked their salary situation however I'd imagine it to be bad and they don't have attractive assets to pull a trade that will get them over the hump without trading Lebron or AD.

That LeBron tweet aged horribly as well, the one where he told everyone to keep the same energy when people were doubting them(or something similar) lol .

Nowhere?

I mean, their best assets are:
a) 38 years old Lebron who they can't trade because it would be PR nightmare
b) Anthony Davis. Who is superstar but they will also never get fair value in return
c) 2027 first round pick... not even kidding, they can't trade any picks until 2027.
d) Westbrook's expiring money



Even if they flip Westbrook into 2-3 average players as that team decides to take him for salary dump purpose, they are still first round exit team.
They mortaged future in 2019 for Davis to win a title. They won title 20 months ago. Now they have "pay" for mortaging future in process of winning title.

Davis & Lebron are being payed cumulative salary over $80M dollars in league with $112M of active salary. Add Westbrook and his $40M and they are over a cap with 3 players.


People like to write about them because Lebron & Lakers are ultimate clickbait for casual fans and easy money to get off comments& shares but there is nothing "broken" about Lakers. They won back to back titles in 2009 & 2010, and 10 yeras later won again, before that they won 3 titles in back to back to backs early in 2000s. So they won 6 titles in 22 years.
11 nba teams never won a title, among those 11 most of them didn't pass second round of playoffs in a decade. Hell if you go back and pay attention, Spurs, Heat, Lakers & Warriors split like 15 out of last 21 championships. 4 had Lebron, 3 had Curry, 2 had Leonard ( and probably multiple will have Giannis).

Once Lebron is gone, Davis traded or gone or Westbrook expires it will probably be dry few years for LAL, until next superstar gets tired of playing for next Pelicans, Kings, Wolves or whoever.
But until that, it will be media clownshow. Personally i don't know what i find more annoying , reading about them when they are good where every star of their own is " once in a lifetime player" or when they are bad, when every star is "worst star in history".

LIterally same thing happend to them in 2004 and 2013. Bunch of over a hill veterans with recognizable names on same team without ability to sustain energy& health through a season. Hell, 2013 costed Kobe's career. 2004 costed Phil coaching career ( up until 5 years later).

Yep. Simply put...look what the Lakers paid to get AD and consider what they'd get for him today. Same with Westbrook - he was somewhat negative value coming in, but now he's John Wall. They're screwed.

Lonzo Ball
Brandon Ingram
Josh Hart
4th overall 2019 pick
unprotected 2022 pick ( 2021 had top 8 protection )
unprotected pick swap in 2023
unprotected pick in 2024 or 2025

So yea..There is no "next " for Lakers without trading both Lebron & AD. And since that won't happen, they will continue to be interesting trainwrack that won title and crushed in first wall right after.

Problem is...we all knew this was going to happen, right? At least some outsider knowledgable fans & people who are not braindead Steven A Smith & Skip Bayless listeners did. But for mainstream media there were hot takes like

1) 60-22 season ahead of them
2) Lebron will win MVP
3) Davis will be DPOY
4) ESPN predicted the standings for next season and has the Lakers finishing with a record of 53-29
5) “The Los Angeles Lakers could scratch the surface of a 70-win season”: Kendrick Perkins explains why he wouldn’t be surprised if LeBron James and co. manage to win 70 games this season
6) 2022 NBA championship odds: Lakers, Nets co-favorites to win it all next season; Bucks have fourth-best odds

7)

Read on Twitter

When you play basketball game in 2022 and your starting PG is career didn't reach league's average 3% ever in his life ( 30,5% for career), your starting PF/C also never shot for 3% around league average in his career, and your best player basically is inhanced version of starting PG, but ALSO is rather average outside shooter and on top of that you are creaming together : Howard, Deandre Jordan, Stanley Johnson ofc your offense will suck.

And since there was no cap space left, they were adding people that were not playable for other teams ( Ariza 6 teams in 4 years, Stanley Johnson cut after training camp by Bulls, Bradley cut by Houston ) ofc team fell apart.

But it's all about narratives, it's all about selling illusion. Even when team is made out of bunch of over a hill veterans , media will still make a big thing out of them.

But again, it all comes down to Lebron. Good luck telling him in person that you don't think he equals sucess any more and that he can padd 30 points only by playing Carmelo Anthony- type defense so his points are nowhere near as valuable as they were 2,3 years ago. Also good luck telling him that Davis is more important for winning than he is. And good luck telling Westbrook anything.

[drsd]

Watch on YouTube

[drsd]

The 538 computers predicted the four horrible teams quite well. The bottom left is OKC, Detroit, Orlando, and Houston.
That is, an algorithm could predict that these four teams sucked before a game was played.






Here is the win- differential, revealing that Portland and Indian were the most disappointing teams, and that Cleveland and Golden St. were the biggest surprises.

POR -21
IND -19
NO -11
LAL -10
ATL -8
NY -7
BKN -6
MIL -6
UTA -5
SAC -4
LAC -4
ORL -2
WSH -2
PHI -2
DET -1
SA -1
DEN -1
HOU 1
BOS 1
DAL 3
OKC 5
MIN 7
TOR 7
CHI 8
CHA 9
MIA 10
PHX 11
MEM 12
GS 15
CLE 19

..

[sChOlaRlY_Magi]

So Frank the tank seemingly got shanked!

Anyone have any insight on why he was cut before playoffs?

I know about the knee injury, but seems like a d*ck move on the part of the front office...

[drsd]

So Frank the tank seemingly got shanked!

Anyone have any insight on why he was cut before playoffs?

I know about the knee injury, but seems like a d*ck move on the part of the front office...

Creating a roster slot so that a new player can be signed for the playoffs, probably.

..

[drsd]

WWhatt happens when one team is playing for a much needed win and the other is tanking for the loss?

PortlandTrail Blazers - 78
DallasMavericks - 128


The NBA needs to get inventive to keep this action from occurring late season. Seriously, fans pay to watch these farces.

The simplest solution is to have the top07 conference teams make the playoffs and have teams 8-15 play an Eight-team single elimination tourney for the final playoff slot: that is, let every non-playoff team in the play-ins.

..

[Skybox]

So Frank the tank seemingly got shanked!

Anyone have any insight on why he was cut before playoffs?

I know about the knee injury, but seems like a d*ck move on the part of the front office...

Creating a roster slot so that a new player can be signed for the playoffs, probably.

..

Of course and I have no problem with a team with aspirations for a ring not really factoring in Frank's feelings...I'm sure he gets it.

[Xatticus]

Fun night in the NBA. Paul Reed, Pat Williams, Immanuel Quickley, and Obi Toppin all went off.

[drsd]

Frank Vogel to be fired as Lakers head coach, expected to be told as soon as Monday

Shh. It's a secret.

[rcklsscognition]

Nice hearing who I assume was SVG calling the Nets/Cavs game last night. Cavs look pretty good last night and staged a nice comeback at the end that just didn't have enough gas. I think they win Friday and take 8th.

[RookieStar]

Wow.. anyone watching this SA vs NO? Before gettong Franz , B.I was the one player I hope we got to becpme our next star/max player

[tiderulz]

Wow.. anyone watching this SA vs NO? Before gettong Franz , B.I was the one player I hope we got to becpme our next star/max player

im watching Herb Jones make an impact on the game without needing the ball. the 2 players i was hoping we would use our 2nd round pick last year was Ayo or Herb (obviously im a Bama fan and watched him). Herb was SEC DPOY and SEC POY. can guard almost any position, was a 5 yr college player, so it wasnt like we would have brought in an immature 19 yr old.