Around The NBA: 2019-20 Season

MrSparkle · Post #581 » by **MrSparkle** » Fri Aug 23, 2019 10:36 pm

If Kuzma makes an all-star jump, Davis becomes the best version of himself ever, while Lebron maintains superstar form at his age and doesn't tire from the 82 game grind, I can see them going to the finals. Those are 3 "reach"-ifs. Big reason why? I don't think Davis and Lebron will stay healthy for 82 games. That's it. I think they did their best filling out that roster after striking out with Kawhi, but you've got the same worries about durability with Danny Green, Rondo, McGee and Dudley.

So yeah, I'd keep options open on Davis. Don't think he'll want to leave Hollywood... but man, their cap-to-roster situation moving forward is a mess. I suppose Lebron always has some tricks up his sleeve. Maybe they negotiate a giant re-structuring of his salary, cause I don't see what they can do with 36yo+ Lebron making $40m, AD getting his vet max, and they'll have to extend Kuzma to a respectable $20m+ salary if he starts dropping 21+ ppg (which is totally reasonable seeing that he's now the clear cut 3rd option, and he was already at 18.7 last year).

You never know. Lebron might announce they're stretching next year's $40m into 4 years or something bonkers (assuming he's ready to give up the whopping $40m option). That would open the door to adding Mike Conley and Otto Porter or something, if everyone can be convinced of pay-cuts and wins in LA. You just never know with Lebron. He's manipulated cap and free agency every time the option's been there, so it's on him.

TheGOATRises007 · Post #582 » by **TheGOATRises007** » Sat Aug 24, 2019 2:17 am

I legit think there's a good chance the Lakers could seriously implode again and Davis bolts.

Post #583 » by **GimmeDat** » Sat Aug 24, 2019 2:35 am

USA playing Australia in 2.5 hours again. Think you guys are able to watch on twitch.

sco · Post #584 » by **sco** » Sat Aug 24, 2019 1:15 pm

Eddy_JukeZ wrote:I legit think there's a good chance the Lakers could seriously implode again and Davis bolts.

I'll be optimistic that Otto, Lauri, WCJ are playing so we'll that we aren't tempted to trade 2 of them for Davis.

AKfanatic · Post #585 » by **AKfanatic** » Sat Aug 24, 2019 7:29 pm

Eddy_JukeZ wrote:I legit think there's a good chance the Lakers could seriously implode again and Davis bolts.

That Lakers team, for all the superstar talent they have in LBJ and AD, just screams dysfunction. It’ll be interesting to see how things play out for them. Given their team make-up, I’d of thought Noah would’ve been the better fit for them. While he can be outspoken and a bit wild, it’s completely about competing and winning with him. Howard is a guy that has seemingly had the personality that really hurts a team over the years. If he can accept that he’s a role player and look to rebound and defend the paint, he could fit well. He could actually be a really really solid player if he embraces that role and could turn himself into a fan favorite in LA (how crazy is that).... him accepting that role player role with the bright lights on him has me quite doubtful.

That said, the non guaranteed deal the Lakers signed him to will make it easy to cut bait if/when Dwight becomes a headache.

Indomitable · Post #586 » by **Indomitable** » Sun Aug 25, 2019 8:08 am

Thank goodness we have all these Celtics on team USA. The Aussie played well and deserved the victory.

Post #587 » by **kulaz3000** » Sun Aug 25, 2019 11:35 pm

GimmeDat wrote:USA playing Australia in 2.5 hours again. Think you guys are able to watch on twitch.

Before my friend and I flew up, I got really nervous about the seating and the view, but they were very solid. Couldn't always make out exactly who each player was, but had a great full view of the court.

Game itself was a good as a friendly game could be. The game was close for the majority of the game, with the Aussies eeking it out at the end.

The most glaring issue that this rendetion of the USA team has is that they simply don't have enough ball handlers and playmakers. The Aussie were defending them full court for the majority of the game, but whenever, Walker was off, the USA team seemed to slow down a lot due to the defensive pressure and they ended up taking a difficult shot. This is going to be a tactic I think a lot of the other teams are going to have against the USA team, but handling the ball handlers every chance they get. They could have really benefited from having Fox or even Young on this team.

It's a different dynamic watching a game live than on the TV set, so what everyone else's opinion on this may differ, but at least live, Kemba was far and away the most dynmaic player on this team. He may not be traditional point guard, but he is far and away the best player on this team, where he can get to wherever he wants on the floor, and can basically get every shot he wants - he looks to be the only player who can consistently create his own shots. This isn't to discredit Kemba in any way, because he is a legitimate All-Star talent, but when he is the only one who can create his own shots, and to compound that by the fact that he isn't exactly a high level ball distributor, this is going to be a problem throughout the tournament.

Everyone else was streaking, and their defensive effort was mediocre at best. Kuzma didn't play in the game, and I thought he could have been an additional boost on the offensive end, but again, he isn't exactly going to help on the ball handling department but he may have enough of an offensive outburst to have ultimately assisted with winning the game. Mitchell underwhelmed a little for me, you can tell he is explosive, but he is so damn small (duh, he is only 6'3), but it showed because he looks overmatched on the defensive end a lot of the time, and when intertional player involves so much zoning, he doesn't really have the space to work like he would in the NBA.

I'm confident that this team isn't going to get Gold in the World Cup, they will medal, but I've got my money on Serbia winning the tournament.

Post #588 » by **kulaz3000** » Sun Aug 25, 2019 11:41 pm

Indomitable wrote:Thank goodness we have all these Celtics on team USA. The Aussie played well and deserved the victory.

The Aussies did play well, but Mills made some extremely difficult shots down the stretch that I'm not sure he will be able to do consistently through the tournament.

He had a horrid first half, where he took some boneheaded shots and made some sloppy turnovers, he looked drunk out there. But the second half, though he made some bad shots, they went down, and he really carried the Aussies offense.

Bogut played really well, but basically running the Australian offense, and making some really nifty passes. And Baynes, man, he is such a beast - he is absolutely huge, and he isn't afraid to throw his body around there. I would have liked for him to have posted up a lot more than he actually did during the game though, because the USA team aren't exactly full of big men depth.

Considering that the Aussies have never beaten the USA team whether it be tournament games or friendlies, it was definitely a great outcome for the Aussie fans and the crowd was definitely into it.

Post #589 » by **kulaz3000** » Sun Aug 25, 2019 11:44 pm

Bogut definitely deserves to be on an NBA roster, even as a third centre. Hell, the Bulls should sign him!

Yes, he is injury prone, but even short spurts he is still very effective on both ends. Didn't realise he was as good of a passer than he showed, that surprised me. He reminded me of Noah at times.

AKfanatic · Post #590 » by **AKfanatic** » Mon Aug 26, 2019 5:45 am

kulaz3000 wrote:Bogut definitely deserves to be on an NBA roster, even as a third centre. Hell, the Bulls should sign him!

Yes, he is injury prone, but even short spurts he is still very effective on both ends. Didn't realise he was as good of a passer than he showed, that surprised me. He reminded me of Noah at times.

Bogut would be a really really solid 3rd center for a team. Wouldn’t surprise me at all to see him picked up as the season progresses, if not before then. The Lakers or Celtics are teams that come to mind for him. Andrew has always been an excellent passer from both the high post and inside the paint. Just a really solid pro.

Axolotl · Post #591 » by **Axolotl** » Mon Aug 26, 2019 9:15 am

Read on Twitter

Size 22. That's 16 inches (Just over 40 cm), so Tacko's foot is actually 1,33 feet...

MrSparkle · Post #592 » by **MrSparkle** » Mon Aug 26, 2019 5:01 pm

So I imagine Curry, Kyrie, Paul all backed out... I know Lillard, Lowry and Fox backed out.. did Trae?

But yeah, the USA team is gonna have a playmaking problem. They don’t have one solid traditional point with a 3P/pass game to relieve Kemba.

How about Dinwiddie, Brogdon, S. Livingston, FVV? Kinda feel these guys would’ve helped a little more than Marcus Smart.

On the other hand, Pop knows what he’s doing, and the roster would still be a +.500 NBA team by all means. Certainly more to work with than his Spurs team.

dumbell78 · Post #593 » by **dumbell78** » Mon Aug 26, 2019 9:53 pm

kulaz3000 wrote:Bogut definitely deserves to be on an NBA roster, even as a third centre. Hell, the Bulls should sign him!

Yes, he is injury prone, but even short spurts he is still very effective on both ends. Didn't realise he was as good of a passer than he showed, that surprised me. He reminded me of Noah at times.

Bogut has always been an excellent passer. Green gives Bogut a lot of credit for learning early on from him, he has cited passing from the C spot as one of those things.

kyrv · Post #594 » by **kyrv** » Mon Aug 26, 2019 10:40 pm

dumbell78 wrote:
kulaz3000 wrote:Bogut definitely deserves to be on an NBA roster, even as a third centre. Hell, the Bulls should sign him!

Yes, he is injury prone, but even short spurts he is still very effective on both ends. Didn't realise he was as good of a passer than he showed, that surprised me. He reminded me of Noah at times.

Bogut has always been an excellent passer. Green gives Bogut a lot of credit for learning early on from him, he has cited passing from the C spot as one of those things.

Didn't realize that Bogut was still out there. I hope playoff mode doesn't get him.

sco · Post #595 » by **sco** » Tue Aug 27, 2019 12:26 pm

Bummed that BKN was able to extend Levert for so cheap. That dude is the next Dipo. Maybe in more ways than one. I imagine the kid was concerned about his injury history.

erlim · Post #596 » by **erlim** » Tue Aug 27, 2019 8:42 pm

Jeremy Lin signing to a backwards garbage crooked joke “basketball” league in a horrid authoritarian “society” is really a shame. Should have 100% tried to play in Spain.

samwana · Post #597 » by **samwana** » Wed Aug 28, 2019 9:55 am

erlim wrote:Jeremy Lin signing to a backwards garbage crooked joke “basketball” league in a horrid authoritarian “society” is really a shame. Should have 100% tried to play in Spain.

His bank account doesn't agree with you. He will earn crazy money in China

Sent from my POT-LX1 using RealGM mobile app

Post #598 » by **dougthonus** » Wed Aug 28, 2019 11:58 am

sco wrote:Bummed that BKN was able to extend Levert for so cheap. That dude is the next Dipo. Maybe in more ways than one. I imagine the kid was concerned about his injury history.

I don't know, sub 15 PER in his 3rd season (best season as well), not particularly good shooting metrics or efficiency (below league average in efficiency and only moderate volume). He's also 25 already, so one wouldn't expect a lot of improvement left in the bank here.

I think it was a good deal for both sides. I don't think LeVert has a whole lot of upside to his current ability and 17m is probably a tad on the high side for that, while the Nets only had to go three years so didn't take a particularly big risk on him if things didn't pan out and didn't let him test the waters in 2020 when there are no good FAs.

kyrv · Post #599 » by **kyrv** » Wed Aug 28, 2019 11:12 pm

MrSparkle wrote:If Kuzma makes an all-star jump, Davis becomes the best version of himself ever, while Lebron maintains superstar form at his age and doesn't tire from the 82 game grind, I can see them going to the finals. Those are 3 "reach"-ifs. Big reason why? I don't think Davis and Lebron will stay healthy for 82 games. That's it. I think they did their best filling out that roster after striking out with Kawhi, but you've got the same worries about durability with Danny Green, Rondo, M

cGee and Dudley.

So yeah, I'd keep options open on Davis. Don't think he'll want to leave Hollywood... but man, their cap-to-roster situation moving forward is a mess. I suppose Lebron always has some tricks up his sleeve. Maybe they negotiate a giant re-structuring of his salary, cause I don't see what they can do with 36yo+ Lebron making $40m, AD getting his vet max, and they'll have to extend Kuzma to a respectable $20m+ salary if he starts dropping 21+ ppg (which is totally reasonable seeing that he's now the clear cut 3rd option, and he was already at 18.7 last year).

You never know. Lebron might announce they're stretching next year's $40m into 4 years or something bonkers (assuming he's ready to give up the whopping $40m option). That would open the door to adding Mike Conley and Otto Porter or something, if everyone can be convinced of pay-cuts and wins in LA. You just never know with Lebron. He's manipulated cap and free agency every time the option's been there, so it's on him.

Being able to keep Kuzma in the AD trade, sadly, was a great get. And also sadly he should thrive playing with AD and PlayoffMode.

Hopefully AD won't like playing on the Lakers. He will certainly get more local media scrutiny than he was used to. AD has also had trouble staying healthy.

I agree with you on AD and I would assume many teams are monitoring that situation. If Kuzma plays well that helps the Lakers but as you pointed out, that comes with a huge ask in salary. Kuzma has two years left with next season being a team option. So that does give the Lakers time to figure out who fits where.

Also agree Lebron may take a pretty huge pay cut to try to make them a winner. His window is open but he's closer to the end than the beginning of the tunnel.

johnnyvann840 · Post #600 » by **johnnyvann840** » Thu Aug 29, 2019 8:22 am

Eddy_JukeZ wrote:I legit think there's a good chance the Lakers could seriously implode again and Davis bolts.

There's also a chance it all comes together for them and they get to the WCF's, maybe even Finals and win it all. That roster is interesting. Lebron, AD and Kuzma with Danny Green and KCP, Rondo and Avery Bradley, if he's really healthy like he says, he played really good in Memphis until the groin injury. Javale McGee was also really good last season in 22 MPG. It's an interesting roster and Lebron might have enough left in the tank. Health and chemistry is going to be everything for them.

But, I agree, it could go either way there. Nothing would surprise me.