Around the NBA (2020-21 season)

[THE J0KER]

So Toronto is facing the same situation as Denver, losing a key power forward. I see now why Denver moved so quickly to pick up Green.

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We should offer Ibaka the contract between former Plumlee and projected future Grant contract, something about 45/3, which is significantly higher than Clippers or Toronto offer. Grant is better to guard SF guys like Kawhi, but Ibaka, a 3-times member of the all-NBA defensive first team, is arguably better against bigger forwards like Davis or Giannis. Another Ibaka advantage would be the ability to play (together with the PF-starter role) on the center spot when Jokic is on the bench, so he would replace Grant and Plumlee both!

But we not tried

[The Rebel]

So Toronto is facing the same situation as Denver, losing a key power forward. I see now why Denver moved so quickly to pick up Green.

Read on Twitter

We should offer Ibaka the contract between former Plumlee and projected future Grant contract, something about 45/3, which is significantly higher than Clippers or Toronto offer. Grant is better to guard SF guys like Kawhi, but Ibaka, a 3-times member of the all-NBA defensive first team, is arguably better against bigger forwards like Davis or Giannis. Another Ibaka advantage would be the ability to play (together with the PF-starter role) on the center spot when Jokic is on the bench, so he would replace Grant and Plumlee both!

But we not tried

We do not have the cap space to offer him $15 million a year, in fact with signing Green we cannot offer him more that a minimum deal.

[eathb_au]

The biggest loss with Grant is that had he stayed, we would've had him in addition to the MLE to use to bolster the roster. So we could have had a severe talent/bench upgrade in this offseason.

[skywalker33]

The biggest loss with Grant is that had he stayed, we would've had him in addition to the MLE to use to bolster the roster. So we could have had a severe talent/bench upgrade in this offseason.

True but we would’ve definitely been well into the luxury tax

[THE J0KER]

NBA preseason schedule is released today and Denver will play as all others teams 3 games. All 3 are against strong Western Conference opponents, Golden State (Dec 12) and Portland twice (Dec 16 and Dec 18).

[THE J0KER]

Christmas Games Schedule is announced, look at the last game!

[The Rebel]

Am I the only one that thinks that the Clippers and Lakers did not have near the great offseason that so many are claiming?

[Richard Miller]

Am I the only one that thinks that the Clippers and Lakers did not have near the great offseason that so many are claiming?

Yeah, it seems pretty underwhelming, especially the Clippers, they still don't have a decent pg and getting Ibaka to backup Zubac is meh at best. Lakers probably did alright, as long as they have healthy LBJ and AD (though it's not a small if) it won't matter that much.

[psimanic1]

I think that LAC wont get better until rhey get true PG, Rondo was a must for them IMO. Kawhi will do his part of the job, but he is not someone who will help others, and thats where Rondo like player wouls help.
Lakers.. Well, you will get 15-20min of good defense from Marc, but game is played for 48min and we know how Harrell did on that part of the floor against us. Schroder is good for regular season but with POs and Lebron getting the ball for 90% of his minutes, how good will he be?

[THE J0KER]

Am I the only one that thinks that the Clippers and Lakers did not have near the great offseason that so many are claiming?

Lakers are clearly better than last season where they won the title, but LeBron is a year older, and Davis must prove the ability to play continuously for months with playoff peak. He was lucky in 2020 because of corona pause.

The Clippers case is the opposite, they are individually worse now than in 2019-20, but I expecting this time finally full season from Kawhi, and no way Balmer will not find a good point guard starter before the trade deadline.

I think both LA teams are still better than any other team from the East, and that is the big 2021 challenge for Nuggets.

[NuggetsWY]

Am I the only one that thinks that the Clippers and Lakers did not have near the great offseason that so many are claiming?

National media loves their changes - I'm not so certain they've even held their own. The worst aspect of the Lakers' off season was losing Green - my opinion. I think they'll miss his defense. Adding Schroeder & Matthews & Harrel doesn't replace Green, but they are going to be welcome changes. Replacing one player with three doesn't work, but it will improve their depth. I do think Gasol is a slight upgrade over Howard, but not enough to make a big difference. I'd say the Lakers improved, but I'm not convinced any of their moves will make a huge difference.

In my opinion, the Clippers needed to do more to even begin to be considered an off-season winner. They should have been looking for a PG. Losing Harrel and adding Ibaka is a positive move.

[The Rebel]

Am I the only one that thinks that the Clippers and Lakers did not have near the great offseason that so many are claiming?

Lakers are clearly better than last season where they won the title, but LeBron is a year older, and Davis must prove the ability to play continuously for months with playoff peak. He was lucky in 2020 because of corona pause.

The Clippers case is the opposite, they are individually worse now than in 2019-20, but I expecting this time finally full season from Kawhi, and no way Balmer will not find a good point guard starter before the trade deadline.

I think both LA teams are still better than any other team from the East, and that is the big 2021 challenge for Nuggets.

Weren't you the one telling me I was crazy when I said that the Clippers were not going to be a better team than the Nuggets last year? The Clippers have nothing to trade for a PG and lost more talent than they brought in. Spending all their money on Ibaka was a stupid move that grabbed the headlines but ignored their 2 biggest issues, they still cannot stop Jokic and they still have no way of getting a starting PG.

[The Rebel]

Am I the only one that thinks that the Clippers and Lakers did not have near the great offseason that so many are claiming?

National media loves their changes - I'm not so certain they've even held their own. The worst aspect of the Lakers' off season was losing Green - my opinion. I think they'll miss his defense. Adding Schroeder & Matthews & Harrel doesn't replace Green, but they are going to be welcome changes. Replacing one player with three doesn't work, but it will improve their depth. I do think Gasol is a slight upgrade over Howard, but not enough to make a big difference. I'd say the Lakers improved, but I'm not convinced any of their moves will make a huge difference.

In my opinion, the Clippers needed to do more to even begin to be considered an off-season winner. They should have been looking for a PG. Losing Harrel and adding Ibaka is a positive move.

I actually think Mathews for Green is a pretty even move on court production wise.

I think Gasol is a downgrade. He looked bad most of the time for the Raptors last year and is declining pretty quickly, I don't see him as an upgrade on Howard anywhere but in shooting the 3 point shot.

I also think replacing Rondo with Schroder in the regular season is an upgrade, but playoff Rondo is a beast and that is likely a downgrade when it matters most. I said going into our series he was the 1 guy who scared me in our series, and he and Howard were the biggest issues we had. I also think Schroder is going to struggle learning to play off the ball, he has always been ball dominate, and it is not an easy transition to now become a guy off the ball 90% of the time.

Like Joker and others I also think the Lakers and their health benefit more than anybody by the time off from the Lockdown.

As for exchanging Ibaka for Harrel, I think that is a pretty lateral move against anybody but the Nuggets where Ibaka is better against Jokic but still not very good.


I also think green was a bigger loss than anybody will admit too. Without Harkless Green was the only good defender they had in the front court off the bench.

I do think Kennard is an underrated fit but he is pretty injury prone, and their best distributer is Ky Bowman, which tells me they are still going to have trouble in the playoffs when teams can scheme against them.

[The Rebel]

Wall and a 1st for Westbrook, that is too bad that deal happened. There were rumors that Beal was the one feeding rumors to the press trying to get rid of Wall. I figured if the relationship was that bad maybe they would decide to trade Beal and embrace the tank for a year or two.

[skywalker33]

Wall and a 1st for Westbrook, that is too bad that deal happened. There were rumors that Beal was the one feeding rumors to the press trying to get rid of Wall. I figured if the relationship was that bad maybe they would decide to trade Beal and embrace the tank for a year or two.

It tells my what kinda person Beal is, perhaps there’s more I don’t know but....

[The Rebel]

Wall and a 1st for Westbrook, that is too bad that deal happened. There were rumors that Beal was the one feeding rumors to the press trying to get rid of Wall. I figured if the relationship was that bad maybe they would decide to trade Beal and embrace the tank for a year or two.

It tells my what kinda person Beal is, perhaps there’s more I don’t know but....

They have reportedly never liked each other, and it was reported that Wall was pissed when the Wizards said they were building around Beal. The rumor that Wall wanted out a couple of days after the GM said their franchise player was Beal, and then the rumors that Wall was pissed about the team being built around Beal came out a day later. There are also rumors that the Wizards leaked out the Beal stuff to cover for themselves and that they really were pissed off that Wall was flashing gang signs again during pickup games and team functions. Who knows who was leaking what, but considering the situation I am more than willing to give Beal the benefit of the doubt if we can get him while keeping Jokic, Murray, and MPJ.

[The Rebel]

Sounds like the real trigger was that Westbrook didn't show up for camp today, which is pretty shocking considering his reputation. He must have really hated playing with Harden.

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[skywalker33]

It will be interesting to see if either new backcourt survives or thrive, a lot of selfishness and egos combine with all that talent. Doesn’t surprise me the Harden/Westbrook dynamic didnt work again but how will Westbrook/Beal and Harden/Wall work, which ignite, which implode ??

[THE J0KER]

I doubt there is some soap opera thing behind this move from Wizards because they are the clear winner of this deal, Westbrook is a better player than Wall was ever, and especially after such a big injury.

I can't believe that the Knicks, Cavs, or any other hopeless lottery team without any star player and with an empty cap didn't try to get Westbrook using the obvious opportunity. Washington was just a year ago in a terrible situation, but they decide to hold Beal and be patient. Just a year later they are again a playoff team with an NBA TOP3 backcourt duo and 3 very interesting young prospects. Well done!

For Nuggets are more interesting Houston case, of course, and with upcoming Porter improvement, and with post-injury Wall being an obvious downgrade compared to CP3 or Westbrook, and with no more useful frontcourt players like Capela or Covington, I can't see the same Denver-Houston WC rivalry as we have since 2018 even if Harden stays. Houston and San Antonio are gone, the only Texas threat for Nuggets now is Dallas, especially if they find that "3rd star" before the trade deadline.

[FilNugsFan]

Feels like Houston and Washington simply agreed to trade just so they could get rid of Westbrook and Wall respectively.