Bubble Screen Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 My guess: if LeBron doesn't stay in Miami, he ends up with the Clippers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Destino Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 My guess: if LeBron doesn't stay in Miami, he ends up with the Clippers. What do you think the Nets owner is thinking? Had he waited one season before spending like a crazy man he'd have had a shot at both Lebron and Melo. Melo could have stayed in his beloved New York too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRAVEONTHEWARPATH93 Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 Read somewhere that the Russian owner was looking into selling soon. He turned that franchise into a marketing juggernaut. Makes sense Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
@DCGoldPants Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 I hate the idea of every few years the Superstars just getting together to create an all-star team in another city. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCranon21 Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 My guess: if LeBron doesn't stay in Miami, he ends up with the Clippers. Who are the Clippers trading in order to get Lebron? Riley said he's not doing a sign and trade. They are well over the cap. To be honest, I see him staying in Miami. We will see Wade and Bosh opt out, but Wade would be a fool to do that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Going Commando Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 I hate the idea of every few years the Superstars just getting together to create an all-star team in another city. Yeah, it's really mercenary. But I honestly don't see it happening like it did in 2010 ever again. S&Ts got neutered in the last CBA and the repeater tax makes it very hard to build a decent team from 3 max contract constructions. I think we're already seeing a shift towards two max contract constructions and that third big deal is much lower--the 10-12 million range rather than the 16-18 million range. Or even 20+ million if the max contract is for a player with 10+ years of veterancy. Think LA Clippers versus Miami/Boston. That 6-8 million dollars difference in salary amounts to a very high quality rotation player. Or two quality rotation players. Miami needed to make two S&Ts to build their big three in 2010. That option got shut down in the 2011 CBA. So long as S&Ts are no longer a way for teams to work in signings that put them above the cap while only giving back token returns like late future draft picks and useless contracts, then there won't be any more Miamis. Also, those S&Ts were the way for players to have their cake and eat it too by leaving town without walking away from money. Now they actually have to walk away from real money to leave. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeWolf990 Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 My guess: if LeBron doesn't stay in Miami, he ends up with the Clippers.there is no chance this happens as long as Donald Sterling is around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRAVEONTHEWARPATH93 Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 ****, we seemed to have all forgot about that. Great point Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Going Commando Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 This is a COMPLETE game-changer. I'm actually going to be tuning in to the draft to see what Sacramento does. I disagree with Vivek Ranadive's statement that all you need is to be able to read the data and see patterns without understanding the "why" behind them. If all you rely upon is metric data to make teambuilding decisions without understanding the "why" behind them, you will still end up with ****ty results that are all over the place. The sample sizes they use come from the college careers of those players, which are like 30 something or 60 something games usually. A couple months in the basketball life of a player. That alone creates a great deal of unreliability. Nevermind the large variety of systems, teammates, coaching, levels of competition, etc. that contextualize those numbers. It's not standardized within one small league with a constant level of competition like the NBA is. Player evaluation is about contextualizing all of your available data (including data about a player's intangible qualities & personality) that you collect during the scouting process, and then putting it all together to get the most accurate picture of reality in your head. It's very complicated. It's hard to know which perspectives are the right ones when you're working to find all this data at a microscopic level. A mistake occurs when a loss of proper perspective occurs and one element gets distorted in value. Think about it like painting a giant frescoe on a wall. You have to get up close to paint the elements of the whole picture, you lose the perspective of the whole when you work on that micro level: you're painting the head of some figure, you can't see the whole picture yet. If you can't keep that bigger picture final perspective in your mind while you do it, you could end up with a picture riddled with mistakes in perspective: body parts of the figure all distorted in size. That's where I think a lot of GMs fail. The bigger picture is your vision for the team as a whole at the end of your rebuilding process (which, admittedly, is a never ending process because natural player attrition through age, decline, injury, and changing pay scale value means you're always going to be retooling to some extent). You can use mathematics and analytic methodology as a tool to help you paint a very large picture. Paint by numbers or create a grid to break the whole thing down into more manageable chunks. That's what data should be used for in team building and player evaluation. But you still have to be able to paint, and you still have to be able to envision the picture as a whole to understand the context of every chunk within the whole. IMO Sacramento's problem is they have no idea what their whole finished picture should look like. They lack vision. What they've been doing the past five or six years is just collecting talent. They haven't really built a team, and so they've essentially just shuffled their talent without making progress. Just like a painted scene, a team has to be about something and there are crucial elements within it that define it. Good teams are always built around crucial players or crucial personalities that define them. Usually those defining elements are superstar players because they're usually assertive personalities that can lead by the example of their play. But it doesn't have to be superstar players. The Spurs are built around and defined by the personalities of Duncan and Poppovich. Sacramento isn't building around anything. Or worse, they're building around a bad foundation. And from the way Mike Malone talked about Rudy Gay and DeMarcus Cousins in that video, it sounds like he thinks those are the foundation pieces of his team. And pretty much every NBA fan can tell you that's a bad foundation. Before Sacramento can do anything else, they need a holistic vision of the team they want to build and that means they need to find/identify those core elements to build around. Maybe someone on their team emerges unexpectedly to be that kind of element. I highly doubt it. I think they should start from scratch and take advantage of the assets they've got to get through the build as quickly as possible. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Going Commando Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 If I was the Sacramento GM, first thing I would do is go to management to communicate my vision for the finished product of the team and set their expectations properly on how long I think it'll take to get there. If they commit to me, then I'd start rebuilding by finding a way to move up for Marcus Smart and keep a high lotto pick for one other asset in this draft. Smart is my franchise type personality I want to build around and I'm getting his sidekick foundation piece in this draft too. Look at all the trade assets Sacramento has: 1.) DeMarcus Cousins is a high value asset 2.) Isiah Thomas S&T or signing him and trading him before the deadline is a high value asset 3.) #8 is a good value asset 4.) Rudy Gay's massive expiring is a good value asset That's four legitimately valuable team building assets. At worst, you should get four pieces from them. Anyway, I can probably get Smart by moving up at #3, #5, or #6 depending on the way the top of the draft breaks. I'm willing to deal DeMarcus Cousins to make it happen. My next move is use that #8 pick to either move up or maybe even stay put for Marcus Smart's sidekick. With that spot I'm going either big man or scoring forward. If Embiid slides, he's an option. Vonleh is my other big man option. My scoring forward options are great too, and I think I actually favor them because I can move up only a spot or two or even stay at 8: Aaron Gordon, Doug McDermott, and Julius Randle. I like a Smart/McDermott foundation in particular. So that's my foundation--what my picture is going to be about. Once I get that, I'm looking to build the roster piecemeal through trades for high character vets that can teach my team how to be pros and make sure I don't end up running a daycare. I want to be winning close two 40 games by Smart's second year and be in 40+ win territory by his third year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Going Commando Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 I keep McLemore as my eventual starting SG because he's a wing shooter and off ball player that showed a little something last year. I need shooters to play with Smart, who is going to be a slightly unconventional PG. At SF I'm looking for a Trevor Ariza-esque 3 & D player. Possibly Trevor Ariza himself in a deal with Washington after the Wizards extend him. I'm rotating McDermott at SF and PF depending on the situation and I'm planning on him starting by his second year. He might even start at PF as a rookie depending on Carl Landry's health. I like him as a pure scorer and shooter, but I'll have to hide him defensively between that 3 & D wing and the center. I'll probably keep Jason Thompson around as my first big off the bench unless I need to move him as part of a deal. And I'm looking for a defensive specialist/paint protector/rebounder to start at C. A dirty work big. I'm thinking Omer Asik specifically, but a deal with Milwaukee for Larry Sanders is another option. Milwaukee would probably love a chance to get out of Sanders's deal with the Rudy Gay expiring. I prefer Asik though, so if Houston can deal with me, I take it. I need a solid back up PG that's a veteran that can help mentor Smart. I'm thinking extend Isiah Thomas then move him to a team with that kind of PG. I really like Patty Mills, I'd look for someone like him. I'm looking for a wing shooter to start at SG until McLemore is ready to start. This guy does not have to be expensive at all. And then I'm probably looking for one more shooter and one more defense/rebounding big for the bench and then I've got my ten man group to build rotations from. I'll keep Quincy Acy and Ray McCallum stashed on the bench just in case they turn into something useful for the rotation. JET, Reggie Evans, Travis Outlaw, and Derrick Williams are all expirings for the next summer, I can move them for rotation players. Or use their savings to spend in free agency. I figure out a way to dump Landry and then that's my team. Should be built in two offseasons, and all I do from their is maintain the core group and wait for Smart/McDermott/McLemore to grow up together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chew Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 cool little video on Sim Bhullar, 7'5" center hoping to get picked late in the draft. Seems like a nice, humble kid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DM72 Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 If LeBron is apart of yet another "super team", his legacy will be forever tarnished. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRAVEONAWARPATH Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 (edited) http://m.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dc-sports-bog/wp/2014/06/25/kevin-durant-defends-lebron-james-talks-about-his-own-free-agency/ Kevin Durant defends LeBron James, talks about his own free agency If James needed support, enter Kevin Durant. The NBA’s reigning NBA — in Washington on Wednesday afternoon to unveil his new Nike sneaker — said he didn’t understand the furor. “I don’t know what the big deal is,” Durant said, shortly after his “KD7″ was revealed. “You know, as a player, I think that’s the best way to go about it. You can have all your options. It’s better for you as a player to opt-out, because you can get a market deal, you can get more years. You never know what will happen if you pass up on that. So I didn’t know what the big deal was. I’m sure it was a decision he made — something he was thinking about — for him and his family.” Edited June 25, 2014 by BRAVEONAWARPATH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DM72 Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 I don't think that many people have a problem with him opting out. It's the talk of him teaming up with yet another superstar to create another super team. We keep hearing that he and Melo wants to play together. Seriously? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRAVEONTHEWARPATH93 Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 (edited) @WojYahooNBA: Knicks-Mavs "close" on Tyson Chandler/Raymond Felton to Dallas for Calderon/Dalembert, sources say. Wayne Ellington possibly involved too. @WojYahooNBA: Point guard Shane Larkin would be a part of the package to the Knicks too, sources said. Ooohhhh... Lot of possibilities there. Perhaps making room for a Boozer sign and trade for Melo? Lol Edited June 25, 2014 by BRAVEONTHEWARPATH93 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCSaints_fan Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 My guess: if LeBron doesn't stay in Miami, he ends up with the Clippers. Where are they going to find the cap space? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Predicto Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 I don't think that many people have a problem with him opting out. It's the talk of him teaming up with yet another superstar to create another super team. We keep hearing that he and Melo wants to play together. Seriously? Is Lebron saying any of those things? Or just the rumor mill? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DM72 Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 Is Lebron saying any of those things? Or just the rumor mill? Not publicly, but multiple sources have stated that he and Melo would like to play together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterMP Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 (edited) I thought SI covered the decision pretty well the other day: "Yes, to many James’ impending free agency is little more than a formality, a strategic move from a cerebral player who has little desire to switch jerseys. Of course James was going to opt out. Opting out gives him options. It puts pressure on Miami to submit a plan to retool a flawed team for another few years. No more financially based moves (hello, Mike Miller), James will say to Heat owner Micky Arison. No more salary dumps that come between James and the chase for a third (and fourth and fifth) championship. Why would James opt in? Think about it: If James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh all opted into their contracts, the Heat would have more than $60 million in salary committed to three players-- with a projected salary cap of $63.2 million. They could exceed the cap and cross the luxury tax line (projected to be $77 million) to sign some of their own players, but a) the retiring Shane Battier wouldn’t be among them and ) b that group just got creamed by San Antonio in the Finals. An opt-in party by James, Wade and Bosh wouldn't limit Miami’s ability to sign new talent. It would cripple it. Thus, James opts out. But it hardly indicates a desire to leave South Beach. In fact, according to a source familiar with James’ thinking, returning to Miami remains the strongest option." "Getting that help will depend largely on the decision of one player: Wade. Bosh will most likely opt out. At 30, and coming off his ninth All-Star season, Bosh will have options. He has publicly said he will take less money to come back to Miami. He likes his role as second/third option and would probably prefer to continue in it. But if things in Miami go a different direction, there will be a long line of teams lined up to make Bosh substantial offers. Wade is a different story. He’s 32 and coming off one of his most difficult seasons. He missed 28 games during the regular season. He didn’t play in many back-to-backs and his knees were monitored almost hourly. Wade still put up solid numbers (19.0 points on 54.5 percent shooting) but the days of Flash are long behind him. Wade is due $20 million next season. On the open market, it’s unlikely he would attract offers half of that. For Wade, it’s a crossroads. Miami needs him to opt out. It needs him to take a smaller annual salary, to sacrifice for the betterment of the team. It’s a lot to ask. Wade has made $121 million in his playing career and tens of millions more in endorsements. But asking anyone to give away that kind of money is difficult. " http://www.si.com/point-forward/2014/06/24/lebron-james-free-agent-opt-out-miami-heat-pat-riley-dwyane-wade-chris-bosh Now, if things don't break right in Miami, what should Lebron do? Join a team without very good players to show that he we can on bad teams? How does that make any sense? With respect to returning to Miami with a quality team, him opting out makes the most sense. It also happens to make the most sense in terms of him keeping his options open. From there, why shouldn't he make the best decisions for himself? Edited June 25, 2014 by PeterMP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RonArtest15 Posted June 26, 2014 Author Share Posted June 26, 2014 @WojYahooNBA: Knicks-Mavs "close" on Tyson Chandler/Raymond Felton to Dallas for Calderon/Dalembert, sources say. Wayne Ellington possibly involved too. @WojYahooNBA: Point guard Shane Larkin would be a part of the package to the Knicks too, sources said. Ooohhhh... Lot of possibilities there. Perhaps making room for a Boozer sign and trade for Melo? Lol What is this bizarro world where the Knicks actually make a decent trade? In all seriousness, Dallas was a potential destination for Gortat. I'd have to think that acquisition of Chandler probably nixes that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Going Commando Posted June 26, 2014 Share Posted June 26, 2014 That's a horrible trade for Dallas. Why would they make it? Why would anyone want to trade for Felton? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRAVEONTHEWARPATH93 Posted June 26, 2014 Share Posted June 26, 2014 (edited) Rockets ship Asik to NO and are trying to move Lin as well. Either Bron or Melo will be a Rocket. They have a lot to offer with Harden and Dwight. **** Edited June 26, 2014 by BRAVEONTHEWARPATH93 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Destino Posted June 26, 2014 Share Posted June 26, 2014 (edited) How does Lebron opting out help the Heat? I'm confused. Sure it frees them up to sign players but if they do that how do they sign Lebron to a huge deal? They'll still need to have room to pay James either way. What am I missing? Also if James leaves to form another super team his legacy is impacted negatively. How many stars in league history would have been unable to win say, 5 rings, if they spent 8 years on teams assembled specifically to have the most talent possible and jumping ship to do it again as soon as something went wrong? It doesn't make him a bad person but it adds a less flattering detail to how Lebron came about his success. Edited June 26, 2014 by Destino Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bubble Screen Posted June 26, 2014 Share Posted June 26, 2014 (edited) Where are they going to find the cap space? I read a story the other day that it would be from the contracts of Jordan, Barnes, and Granger. That somehow they could free up enough space to land LeBron. A couple guys on ESPN were also discussing the possibility the other day. However, one of the guys, might have been Legler, was saying how Paul and James weren't a good fit. Edited June 26, 2014 by Bubble Screen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now