Going Commando Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 (edited) 76ers, Bulls, Rockets, Lakers, Spurs, Pistons, Celtics, Heat, Mavericks. The past 35 years, those nine teams have won all of the NBA championships. Pretty confident it'll be someone else this year, as the Bulls, Rockets, and Spurs are the only ones from that list with any real shot. And they are each no better than third in their conference. Hell has frozen over. The Warriors and Clippers are the heavyweights of a loaded Western conference and the Atlanta Hawks and Cleveland Cavaliers are the cream of the East. Edited April 20, 2015 by stevemcqueen1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Going Commando Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 When Blake Griffin plays like he did in that game, the Clippers are scary. He's improved his touch around the basket so much. The post game is a true weapon for him now. Can't guard him with a shorter player like Diaw because Griffin can back him down and Diaw doesn't have the length to bother him. But you also can't guard him with a much taller player Duncan or Baynes because he can draw you out to the perimeter and then use his quick first step to blow by the defender. And then they have CP3 as the other punch in the combination... Plus Reddick getting those kickouts and Deandre Jordan protecting the rim and cleaning the glass... This team is legitimately dangerous. If they beat the Spurs, I think they are going to the WCF and they would give Golden State a hell of a series. That would be the true NBA Final IMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaGoonie55 Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 Clippers looked very good. If they hadnt missed easy buckets, it would have been ugly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Going Commando Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 (edited) The last time the NBA had parity was the merger era in the 70's. The influx of a bunch of new teams opened the league up and we got a diversity of champions during the decade. No new teams have been added since Charlotte in 2004 (who is a nonfactor in postseason discussion). So why does it seem like parity has started to return and that the league has opened up again? I think it's primarily the 2011 CBA. Owners took back a lot of control from the players, but the biggest story to me is the spending controls put in place giving teams more power to keep their stars and prevent short term super teams from forming. Building through the draft became a lot more viable and innovative coaching has come to matter a lot more during the regular season. Edited April 20, 2015 by stevemcqueen1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattFancy Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 If these are the Clips new unis, then wow. They're awful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
No Excuses Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 I kind of like them... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gamebreaker Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 From what I read the "smoothing" the owners wanted didn't keep any money from the players. The remaining money would be given to the players and evenly distributed. They just wanted to control the cap increases so that a bunch of horrible contracts didn't happen in just one offseason. Lebron James however has planned his entire contract around that big increase, so you know he wasn't about to let that happen. But here's the deal with that: the market determines what players are worth. If the owners didn't want bad contracts written, tell their own GMs to not overpay for players. But with a raising of the cap, they can't measure these players based off what they were willing to pay in 2014. Lowering the cap, or "smoothing" it, whatever word they wanted to call it, would've still been unfair for the 2016 free agents. Regardless if it meant even more available money for the 2018-2020 free agents. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Going Commando Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 But here's the deal with that: the market determines what players are worth. If the owners didn't want bad contracts written, tell their own GMs to not overpay for players. But with a raising of the cap, they can't measure these players based off what they were willing to pay in 2014. Lowering the cap, or "smoothing" it, whatever word they wanted to call it, would've still been unfair for the 2016 free agents. Regardless if it meant even more available money for the 2018-2020 free agents. No the extra revenue money would have been divided equally among all players in payouts completely independent of their contracts. Deciding against smoothing is actually unfair for everyone except the '16 and '17 free agents because those are the only players that will benefit from the huge boost in TV revenue. It's a rich getting richer outcome for the players and I don't think it's a coincidence that the players union said no to smoothing and LeBron James and Kevin Durant are '16 free agents. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Destino Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 Exactly. Without smoothing, two years of free agents benefit exclusively and it screws up the contract situation league wide. Probably creates some more super teams too (which is a bad thing). Let's not forget that we'll also likely enjoy a lockout because players have already signaled they'll demand everything and offer nothing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lombardi's_kid_brother Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 The entire NBA salary system is completely and totally unfair on its face. So, arguing about inequalities within it seems odd. Why do the players have to sacrifice in order to prevent GMs from being stupid? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Going Commando Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 Cap goes up 45 million in the next two years. James Harden becomes the MVP runner up. OKC's decision to trade him to pinch pennies and avoid paying a little luxury tax becomes one of the worst trades ever IMO. If I was a fan, I would be beyond pissed. Kevin Durant and James Harden is enough to compete for a ring in '13 and having all three means they probably win in '14. Russell Westbrook and Harden is enough to compete for a ring this year. And they would have been way under the salary cap in '16 and '17 and there would be no doubt about Durant's willingness to spend the rest of his career in OKC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Going Commando Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 (edited) The entire NBA salary system is completely and totally unfair on its face. So, arguing about inequalities within it seems odd. Why do the players have to sacrifice in order to prevent GMs from being stupid? It's not about GMs being stupid. The market is the market and it's an inhuman, mindless thing. You will get fired and your team will fall apart if you refuse to pay market value to keep your good players. It's a bubble and it happens in every sport until the spending reaches artificial controls. The other alternative is market collapse and that would obviously be bad for everyone. Edited April 20, 2015 by stevemcqueen1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lombardi's_kid_brother Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 It's not about GMs being stupid. The market is the market and it's an inhuman, mindless thing. You will get fired and your team will fall apart if you refuse to pay market value to keep your good players. It's a bubble and it happens in every sport until the spending reaches artificial controls. The other alternative is market collapse and that would obviously be bad for everyone. NBA owners lied so blatantly during the last CBA negotiation that it's rather staggering in retrospect. So, while I agree that salary caps are generally positive for the sport overall, I don't see how the owners can credibly argue for any sacrifices on the players side. They slashed the players shares last time while screaming poverty....and it turns out all the franchises are worth a billion dollars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Destino Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 So the absurdly inflated sale price of clippers, which set the market, means that every team is flush with cash and insanely profitable? I don't think that's the case. The owners negotiation is going to be done based on the poorest franchises needs, not the top. Maybe not the one worst franchise but certainly a lower group. Doing otherwise would be planning to ruin it's own franchises (and league). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gamebreaker Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 Exactly. Without smoothing, two years of free agents benefit exclusively and it screws up the contract situation league wide. Probably creates some more super teams too (which is a bad thing). Let's not forget that we'll also likely enjoy a lockout because players have already signaled they'll demand everything and offer nothing. That would never work because the owners can outlast the players in a strike/lockout. The owners, regardless of league, have proven they can just wait until the players would be expecting a paycheck and once the homes start going into foreclosure, the players start folding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TradeTheBeal! Posted April 21, 2015 Share Posted April 21, 2015 Things are getting a little salty in the Bulls Bucks series. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRAVEONTHEWARPATH93 Posted April 21, 2015 Share Posted April 21, 2015 Things are getting a little salty in the Bulls Bucks series. Oh, I thought this was a WNBA game lol This is literally settling basketball back 50 years. And bad Derrick is back lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Do Itch Big Posted April 21, 2015 Share Posted April 21, 2015 I'm rooting for Bulls just because of Rose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRAVEONTHEWARPATH93 Posted April 21, 2015 Share Posted April 21, 2015 I honestly think the Bucks would have beaten TOR in a 7 game series Dead serious Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EvilMonkeyBoy Posted April 21, 2015 Share Posted April 21, 2015 https://twitter.com/MarkAgee/status/590328199965376512?s=09 I enjoyed the hell out of that tweet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Sinister Posted April 21, 2015 Share Posted April 21, 2015 Butler is on fire Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRAVEONTHEWARPATH93 Posted April 21, 2015 Share Posted April 21, 2015 Jimmy was so awful last year offensively. I appreciate him for giving his soul to the Illuminati for offensive talent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Sinister Posted April 21, 2015 Share Posted April 21, 2015 Jimmy was so awful last year offensively. I appreciate him for giving his soul to the Illuminati for offensive talent He did something like that... Got abducted by aliens or some **** Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaGoonie55 Posted April 21, 2015 Share Posted April 21, 2015 (edited) D Rose looked like hot garbage until the 2nd half. Butler lit it up. So many stupid ticky tack fouls by the Bucks. Cheap elbow? Headbutting when you're on the hardwood? Grow up. Glad to see punks lose. Come back out next game, act like a man, and maybe you win when the Bulls can't shoot to save their lives. Grow up. Add: I can't wait to see this next game. Fire works. Edited April 21, 2015 by DaGoonie55 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
No Excuses Posted April 21, 2015 Share Posted April 21, 2015 The Wizards left him wide open every game on purpose last year because he was so bad on offense. Crazy transformation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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