Going Commando Posted August 9, 2014 Share Posted August 9, 2014 I like Memphis this year. They're probably still on the outside looking in versus San Antonio and OKC, but they have beaten those two teams in the playoffs before... I think Memphis was a lot better than their record last season, and I think they got a little better this offseason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drowland Posted August 9, 2014 Share Posted August 9, 2014 What's this roster flexibility Cleveland has? I've seen that repeated a couple of times and I'm wondering where that idea is coming from. They're over the cap once Love's deal arrives (not sure how they're getting him for just Bennett and Wiggins, there must be at least another contract in there as ballast) and way over the cap next summer when Irving's extension kicks in and they make a max offer to Kevin Love. Irving will be a Rose Rule max too if he starts for the AS team. Â The Haywood contact gives them flexibility. Â They're paying him $2mil guaranteed this year, but his contact goes to $10.5mil non-guaranteed next year. Â That's a $10.5 mil trade chip. Â Any team looking to clear cap space next summer will be calling the Cavs. Â They're going to have bargaining power. Â Plus I believe they get a $5mil boost on it, so they can take on $15mil in player contacts from another team. Â Â It's similar to how the Raptors got Louis Williams and Lucas Nogueira from Atlanta. Â Atlanta was trying to clear cap space for FA. Â The Raptors sent John Salmons to Atlanta and his non-guaranteed for two prospects. Â Atlanta waives Salmons and clears $7mil. Â Â So basically the Cavs are going to be able to trade a washed up, backup center for 1 or 2 legit players/prospects to go with what they already have. Â Don't think Lebron didn't know what the Cavs were doing when they made the trade with the Bobcats to get Haywood. Â They're putting themselves in position to continue to build out that roster Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Going Commando Posted August 9, 2014 Share Posted August 9, 2014 Rumors that Colangelo and Coach K are going to keep Mason Plumlee over DeMarcus Cousins. Durant out, Rudy Gay in. This team is going to be a ****ing joke. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sticksboi05 Posted August 9, 2014 Share Posted August 9, 2014 Rumors that Colangelo and Coach K are going to keep Mason Plumlee over DeMarcus Cousins. Durant out, Rudy Gay in. This team is going to be a ****ing joke.  I know you love basketball, but it's the FIBA World Cup, who cares, lol. The only relevant World Cup already took place this summer. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warhead36 Posted August 9, 2014 Share Posted August 9, 2014 How are the Knicks spending 89 million on that roster this season? That's crazy. I was just perusing the Knicks board on RealGM and was astonished by how many fans thought their team would finish top 5 in the East. The most they seem willing to begrudge is that it will be a tough fight with the Raptors and Nets to win the division but they should do it. They're 10th seed bound. Knicks fans are like Cowboys fans or England soccer fans. Incredibly dellusional. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Going Commando Posted August 9, 2014 Share Posted August 9, 2014 I know you love basketball, but it's the FIBA World Cup, who cares, lol. The only relevant World Cup already took place this summer. Yeah, my interest in USA basketball is plummeting. It's a sideshow at best and Colangelo sucks. It's a shame, because a FIFA style world cup for basketball could be awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bubble Screen Posted August 9, 2014 Share Posted August 9, 2014 Rumors that Colangelo and Coach K are going to keep Mason Plumlee over DeMarcus Cousins. Durant out, Rudy Gay in. This team is going to be a ****ing joke. Chill dude, damn.I think Coach K knows what he's doing. I'm a big fan of Cousins'. I think he's the best C in the NBA. But maybe he just isn't cut out for the World game? Maybe he's being lazy in practice? You aren't there. You have no idea what is going on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sticksboi05 Posted August 9, 2014 Share Posted August 9, 2014 (edited) Yeah, my interest in USA basketball is plummeting. It's a sideshow at best and Colangelo sucks. It's a shame, because a FIFA style world cup for basketball could be awesome.  I don't think it'd be the same because the U.S. should win every year. The gap between our talent pool and everyone else's is too big for me to be proud of anything we win. It's not like soccer or Olympic hockey where we are catching up to someone else as an underdog. 2008 was nice because of the 2004 debacle but now that we're back on top, is it really that cool if we win Gold in 2016, to me not really. Edited August 9, 2014 by Sticksboi05 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Sinister Posted August 9, 2014 Share Posted August 9, 2014 Me neither. We should win it every year. Honestly, I'd want guys to get their offseason rest, and not push themselves around this time of year. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Going Commando Posted August 9, 2014 Share Posted August 9, 2014 Yugoslavia has won more World Championships than we have. This is not an event that we dominate. And if they put an age limit on the competition, that will become even more true. We just don't take this event very seriously. And it shows in our underachieving results. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sticksboi05 Posted August 9, 2014 Share Posted August 9, 2014 Yugoslavia has won more World Championships than we have. This is not an event that we dominate. And if they put an age limit on the competition, that will become even more true. We just don't take this event very seriously. And it shows in our underachieving results.  You know why we don't take it seriously, because it's irrelevant. Like the hockey world championships...for basketball and hockey it's about the Olympics, for soccer it's the World Cup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Sinister Posted August 9, 2014 Share Posted August 9, 2014 I don't think anyone doubts that Yugoslavia would be beaten if we actually gave a damn. USA is the best at basketball, that is unquestionable. We don't need to prove that to anyone. Yugoslavia can have their FIBA WC championships Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Going Commando Posted August 9, 2014 Share Posted August 9, 2014 I don't think anyone doubts that Yugoslavia would be beaten if we actually gave a damn. USA is the best at basketball, that is unquestionable. We don't need to prove that to anyone. Yugoslavia can have their FIBA WC championships The United States as a country produces the best talent and is home to the best league. Team USA is not that great. It's only been within the last 6 years that the team has really made strides to achieve at the level they're supposed to. And looks like they are going to backslide already this summer. I agree with you and Sticks that we are supposed to dominate these types of events but we don't. It should be a point of pride for us to have a great Team USA program worthy of our stature in the sport but we haven't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sticksboi05 Posted August 9, 2014 Share Posted August 9, 2014 The United States as a country produces the best talent and is home to the best league. Team USA is not that great. It's only been within the last 6 years that the team has really made strides to achieve at the level they're supposed to. And looks like they are going to backslide already this summer. I agree with you and Sticks that we are supposed to dominate these types of events but we don't. It should be a point of pride for us to have a great Team USA program worthy of our stature in the sport but we haven't.  We won the Gold Medal in 1992, 1996, 2000, 2008 and 2012, what more do you want? That's more dominant than Canada is at hockey.  The U.S. making the round of 16 in the World Cup was much more exciting than winning the Gold Medal in 2012. The U.S. taking Canada to OT in the 2010 Winter Olympics was much more exciting also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Going Commando Posted August 9, 2014 Share Posted August 9, 2014 We won the Gold Medal in 1992, 1996, 2000, 2008 and 2012, what more do you want? That's more dominant than Canada is at hockey.  The U.S. making the round of 16 in the World Cup was much more exciting than winning the Gold Medal in 2012. The U.S. taking Canada to OT in the 2010 Winter Olympics was much more exciting also. Most of the world puts more prestige in the WC than the Olympics. The U.S. only really cares about Olympic basketball so much because of 1992. The WC format is actually better, much more like the FIFA world cup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Destino Posted August 10, 2014 Share Posted August 10, 2014 Most of the world puts more prestige in the WC than the Olympics. The U.S. only really cares about Olympic basketball so much because of 1992. The WC format is actually better, much more like the FIFA world cup.We're likely to see the star power of Olympic basketball teams diminish because they want the World Cup to be the big basketball event. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Going Commando Posted August 10, 2014 Share Posted August 10, 2014 Bill Simmons wrote a column about Kevin Love, trying to make sense of him. http://grantland.com/features/kevin-love-lebron-james-trade-minnesota-timberwolves/ He concludes Kevin Love is underrated. How the basketball world rates players is a less interesting proposition than the direct questions, how good are they and what kind of player are they? Simmons doesn't make a coherent argument. He couches his praise for Love by saying things like "he's not as good as X" but it's kind of a throwaway disclaimer so he can go on to compare Love to that player point by point and give the impression that his situation/performance is the same. He mentions Love's intangible flaws and says he's got a bad rep around the league. He talks about Love's defense and how he'll hang teammates out to dry to chase rebound numbers. Then he pretty much forgets about that without really teasing out just what the impact that has on his teams is. Most of Simmons's arguments for Love's quality are based on his crazy counting stat per game averages. The per game counting stats carry too much weight in his final evaluation. Simmons doesn't truly accept that accumulating a counting stat does not = making the correct basketball play. That's the biggest trouble with evaluating Love. Eventually you finally get to a brief part where Simmons goes over each of Love's skills: He's a pretty good, not great post scorer that can draw the occasional double team inside. He's a terrific passer, especially outlet passes to trigger the break (although Simmons seems to think Love is the only one whose good at this in the NBA, and that he alone possesses the arcane knowledge of Wes Unseld). He's a shade below elite three point shooter. And he's one of the best rebounders in the league. I'd add that Love's a pretty good screener, he's got an elite feel for the game on offense leading to a ton of opportunistic junk scores, and he's got a fantastic below the rim inside finishing game which helps him compensate for his lack of length and leaping ability. And he's a terrific FT shooter for a PF. And he's got a strong body with a lower center of gravity and the ability to uproot guys in the paint and hold his own against posting bigs. But I'd say that's close to the entirety of Love's skill set. And Simmons does not realize just how narrow that skill set really is. He's mistaken in thinking that it's more impactful than it actually is, because it is so strange and nifty. Love is essentially a super specialist designed to get rebounds and score in high volume as a big man with decent efficiency. That good three ball six times a game will get you scoring numbers. And then being able to clean up junk baskets and score on a couple post ups where they single guard you will get you the rest of the way to his terrific volume numbers. But you're not talking about the kind of scoring skills you can take advantage of at the beginning of any old possession. The offense has to create that three point attempt and the put backs and catches at the rim are situational. The only offense he creates for himself are those post ups and it's not a go to source of offense for the team. The outlet passing is nifty and aesthetically pleasing but again, that's like three or four possessions a game. What you don't have is any other sort of ability to trigger and shape good possessions. No other transition game than outlet passing. No sort of face up and create a shot off the bounce game. No PnR game. No size or quickness or elite footwork and ball fake-based game to go to the well to over and over again in the low post. Love can really only play one certain type of offensive basketball. That mutability to thrive game to game you need to have to win a variety of situations and lead a team to win 60-70% of the time isn't there. Also, the worst thing is that he has big net negative defensive impact. Can't guard other perimeter forwards and is one of the worst help defenders and rim protectors in the league. That damns a big man defensively. And it's hard to build a good defense when your star and leader is a bad defender. So much work to hide him. And the Cavs are probably going to play him at C 75% of the time... Simmons is excited about this! He doesn't really care about or consider defense! WTF kind of Celtics fan is he? People think about Love as a franchise cornerstone because of his numbers. Really he's an extremely high quality but extremely specialized support player if playing on a team that's actually a good, sound basketball unit. He brings a lot to the table. Takes a lot off the table. And he doesn't have the kind of natural leadership intangibles that a locker room can orbit around. But that kind of player shouldn't be necessary in Cleveland while LeBron remains LeBron. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skin'emAlive Posted August 10, 2014 Share Posted August 10, 2014 How did you write that much about an article Billl Simmons wrote about stats on a guy on a new team... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Sinister Posted August 10, 2014 Share Posted August 10, 2014 How did you write that much about an article Billl Simmons wrote about stats on a guy on a new team... Â We're talking about McQueen here, lol. That's like a paragraph for him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bubble Screen Posted August 10, 2014 Share Posted August 10, 2014 I was just about to comment on that lol And when the guy isn't writing novels, he's whining about the Wiz backcourt being cut. #coachkknows Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Sinister Posted August 10, 2014 Share Posted August 10, 2014 (edited) Lol, McQueen is cool and all, but that is just way too damn long to read at 4:08 am. Feel free to hook me up with a cliffnotes/tl;dr version though Edited August 10, 2014 by Mr. Sinister Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Destino Posted August 10, 2014 Share Posted August 10, 2014 (edited) How did you write that much about an article Billl Simmons wrote about stats on a guy on a new team...You sound like a highschool student whining about having to read a whole chapter this week. A few paragraphs is nothing, especially compared to yet another Bill Simmons rambling mess. Either he's suffering from some mental disorder or he's writing high as a kite. As for Love, we'll see. I think SteveM is suffering from some wishful thinking and while i disagree, I hope he's right. ****ing cavaliers! There is no justice if those aimless screw ups stumble into greatness. Edited August 10, 2014 by Destino Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveakl Posted August 10, 2014 Share Posted August 10, 2014 (edited) "He's a pretty good, not great post scorer that can draw the occasional double team inside. He's a terrific passer, especially outlet passes to trigger the break. He's a shade below elite three point shooter. And he's one of the best rebounders in the league. I'd add that Love's a pretty good screener, he's got an elite feel for the game on offense leading to a ton of opportunistic junk scores, and he's got a fantastic below the rim inside finishing game which helps him compensate for his lack of length and leaping ability. And he's a terrific FT shooter for a PF. And he's got a strong body with a lower center of gravity and the ability to uproot guys in the paint and hold his own against posting bigs." Sooooooooo, who would you compare him to then? Edited August 10, 2014 by daveakl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Going Commando Posted August 10, 2014 Share Posted August 10, 2014 Sooooooooo, who would you compare him to then? Al Horford with an excellent three ball, but much worse defense. Which to me begs the question, who is the better value: Love at 20 million annually, or Horford at 10-12 million annually? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bubble Screen Posted August 10, 2014 Share Posted August 10, 2014 Love is a much better player than Horford. C'mon. 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