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Official NBA 2011-12 Season Thread
- Thread starter -RatCheesy
- Start date
Not even close. Had superstar potential coming out of college and I think he still has it now. Whether he reaches that potential remains to be seen. I think he won't but nonetheless he'll be a very good player.
top 6? Dirk alone makes the team top 7 in the west.
This. Mavs are 4th at worst, probably 3rd after Thunder and Lakers.
Yeah, for a team that really botched the off-season initially they picked themselves up really quick. The Clippers might edge them out for third, they've picked up a lot of guys during the off-season.
Like Grant Hill apparently. I was sure Hill was going to the Lakers, but guess not.
Kris Humphries re-signed with Brooklyn.
And supposedly the Lakers and Courtney Lee are in talks.
Remember Mavericks actually surged for a pretty good while despite not having a single good defensive big last year. Nowitzki has less energy, but we added a lot of pieces and really only need a FEW of them to work out. I wish we could get something more long term in place, I really dislike where the current NBA is headed as a fan of team cores staying together...dropping Luis Scola to TRY at Dwight Howard while another team gets to add him for $3 million a year? Dropping Elton Brand for Nick Young?????????????? while another team gets to add him for $2 million a year? I love it as far as comedy goes though.
Yeah, which is why I really hope we get him.
Lakers and Magic back in talks for Dwight again. Man, I hope we get him. Bynum is good, but Dwight is the guy you want if you want to win this year. Which the Laker's front office seem to be trying to do.
I thought I said at least top 6. Anyway, I'm skeptical giving them 4 or 5 because of Clippers being led by Paul, Grizzlies Z-Bo 100% healthy. I'm also thinking about the possibility of the Wolves breaking through this year.
These are the best words which describes this amnesty thing.
I know, but I think Chris Kaman, Elton Brand, Darren Collison, Shawn Marion, OJ Mayo, etc. are worth more than one seed.
I'll give you the Clippers, they are making a good team there in LA, but Memphis? They are solid but nothing spectacular. Dirk >>>>> Zach Randolph. They haven't added anyone noteworthy (or have they?) and they've lost their 6th man.
At least one up in the standings is a great feat in the West. Also, Zach+Marc>Dirk+Kaman... uhhh wait, okay, as for now, I see Mavs at 5th.
Just based on the current roster, West is as follows:
1. Thunder
2. Lakers
3. Spurs
4. Clippers
5. Mavs
6. Wolves
7. Grizz
8. Suns/Jazz/filler
Good offseason by the Mavs after missing out on Deron. Even if the team doesn't work out all the one year deals are going to clear a ton of cap space next year.
By the way, MSG lost $49 million in stocks by not matching Lin. :D
http://blogs.marketwatch.com/thetel...et-cap-drop-would-have-paid-for-lin-contract/
By the way, MSG lost $49 million in stocks by not matching Lin. :D
http://blogs.marketwatch.com/thetel...et-cap-drop-would-have-paid-for-lin-contract/
I don't see how the Lakers could possibly get Howard at this point. A Howard for Bynum straight up trade makes no sense for the Magic, Bynum has said he won't resign with Orlando and is a free agent at the end of the season. It's a lateral move. The Lakers also no longer have any picks to trade thanks to the Steve Nash trade. At this point, honestly, the most likely scenario is that he'll go to the Nets in January when Lopez is up for trade (Nets trade all of their expirings + Lopez + Brooks + Humphries and 3 future 1sts for all of the Magic's garbage contracts + Dwight, money lines up perfectly).
Also, sounds like you guys are really high on the Mavericks. Kaman is not a solution at Center, Terry is gone, Delonte sounds like he's gone, Kidd is gone, Dirk is older, Marion is older... OJ Mayo and Collison aren't going to put this team over the top. They're definitely not better than 5th in the West and IMO will more likely fall between 6-8 behind both LA teams, OKC, the Spurs, and one of the Nuggets or Grizzlies (IMO the Nugs). Warriors, Wolves, Suns and Jazz are all complete wild cards. The West is going to be weird this year.
RE Lin, I think the Knicks should have matched, they don't gain any flexibility by letting him walk and he would have more than made up for the atrocious tax bill in his 3rd year by being crazy popular, but from what I hear Dolan is basically mad at how negotiations went down. It doesn't have anything to do with the money. In related news, the Knicks are terrible and are going to be laughably horrendous in a couple of years (so will the Nets!)
Oh and OJ Mayo has not improved in any measurable way since he entered the league. He was hyped largely based on his high school game and continues to be valued for skills that he has only shown flashes of in the NBA. I don't think he's ever going to be more than a 6th man at best, and his market value seems to back this up. In his last two years he's shooting 5% worse from the field than his second year in 2/3 the minutes with almost no statistical changes elsewhere. He is who he is and should not be valued based on non-existent "upside"
Edit: And the Rockets didn't amnesty Scola exclusively to go after Howard, the move allows them to now afford Asik's offer sheet, even with Lin iirc
Also, sounds like you guys are really high on the Mavericks. Kaman is not a solution at Center, Terry is gone, Delonte sounds like he's gone, Kidd is gone, Dirk is older, Marion is older... OJ Mayo and Collison aren't going to put this team over the top. They're definitely not better than 5th in the West and IMO will more likely fall between 6-8 behind both LA teams, OKC, the Spurs, and one of the Nuggets or Grizzlies (IMO the Nugs). Warriors, Wolves, Suns and Jazz are all complete wild cards. The West is going to be weird this year.
RE Lin, I think the Knicks should have matched, they don't gain any flexibility by letting him walk and he would have more than made up for the atrocious tax bill in his 3rd year by being crazy popular, but from what I hear Dolan is basically mad at how negotiations went down. It doesn't have anything to do with the money. In related news, the Knicks are terrible and are going to be laughably horrendous in a couple of years (so will the Nets!)
Oh and OJ Mayo has not improved in any measurable way since he entered the league. He was hyped largely based on his high school game and continues to be valued for skills that he has only shown flashes of in the NBA. I don't think he's ever going to be more than a 6th man at best, and his market value seems to back this up. In his last two years he's shooting 5% worse from the field than his second year in 2/3 the minutes with almost no statistical changes elsewhere. He is who he is and should not be valued based on non-existent "upside"
Edit: And the Rockets didn't amnesty Scola exclusively to go after Howard, the move allows them to now afford Asik's offer sheet, even with Lin iirc
lol I like the way how you underhyped everything down, but:
1) Lakers-Magic trade does still have a sense. Even if Bynum won't re-sign with Magic, they'll still clear cap space and make a room for another star. Also, I won't be surprised if the deal involves Gasol using a 3-team trade.
2) Mayo is a good player. As I've said, he just needs a good coach. I think Dallas is a perfect team for him.
Orlando is just sick of him and he's made it clear he doesn't want to start the season with them. At this point the Lakers are the best option for both Orlando and Howard. LA is willing to take Jason Richardson's contract as well, and they don't want that shitty Nets deal. If they didn't choose that exact deal a couple weeks ago they wont do it in January. ATL has no chance, Nets have no chance, Houston has no chance, I'm about 79% sure that LA will end up with Dwight. Rest assured, Orlando doesn't care anymore. Bynum is a better than nothing.
Lakers would be stupid to give up Gasol. Steve Nash makes him valuable again. Lakers don't have to give up Gasol, and don't want to anymore. Without the trade threat and with Nash getting the guy touches, he'll have a better season than last year.
I don't remember Perkins being the huge issue with our losses in the playoffs. I think LA's main were our point guards getting murdered (because please neither Blake or Sessions are anywhere near Westbrook's level) and a weak bench. At least two of those games the Thunder stole, they weren't completely dominant wins. Howard should do a great job on Durant, Westbrook (when he's playing well) is the main threat to LA IMO.
If it means Howard, why not. Magic needs more than Bynum. They'll look for lottery picks and such. Aside from Bynum, LA's remaining trade asset is Gasol and Metta's expiring contract (wait, is this right?).
This Knicks management is shit. They don't realize that a lot more money will be lost than they're paying in luxury tax by letting Lin go. They don't even remember how hard it was when they can't even get any players...
Also, I'm hearing hysterical Knicks fans right now.
Gabe, you don't know how much Perkins made Howard (and Bynum) his bitch when they meet.
Well, IIRC the deal that they're trying to get done is a trade where Houston sends over draft picks + players to Orlando, Houston gets Bynum, and the Lakers get Howard. Before you ask "Why wouldn't they just do it with Houston?", Houston backed off after Dwight made it known he wouldn't sign with them and Bynum said he'd play anywhere.
The offense is more potent with either Bynum or Howard with Gasol than with only Howard.
The stock for MSG dropped 49 million with just talks he'd be dropped. I heard that it wasn't about money though, apparently James Dolan was angry about how negotiations went down.
The Lakers have definitely improved with Steve Nash, but it's not going to matter. They still have no bench and can't guard point guards. As far as Howard goes, still not going to matter too much. So they'll go from having the 2nd best center in the league to having the best. I'm not sure that Howard is even an improvement offensively over Bynum. Dwight averaged 20.6 per game as the main option while Bynum averaged 18.7 as a secondary/tertiary option on their respective teams. Howard is easily the better rebounder, as Kevin Love is his only real competition in that category currently, but Bynum's 11 per game means he's no slouch either. They also both grabbed more than 3 offensive rebounds per game, so the disparity comes on the defensive glass. I don't feel like looking up these stats but I'm fairly confident in calling Pau Gasol a better defensive rebounder than Ryan Anderson, so it's not a stretch to say that the overall rebounding for LA would be about the same. Bynum is even a much better free throw shooter (69% vs 49%) although Dwight did attempt 234 more free throws this year and because of that actually ended up making more free throws than Bynum despite the difference in shooting touch from the stripe. But, when taking into account the free throw attempts we have to remember that teams don't have a hack-a-Bynum strategy because he can actually make them, but teams have no problem hacking Dwight all day. With Nash on the squad I'd expect Bynum/Howard to increase their field goal percentage, which isn't very different as is (Bynum shot 55.8%, Dwight 57.3%). So go ahead and send Dwight to LA, it's not gonna make much of a difference since the center position is not the area that LA needs to address. Making a strength marginally better is much less effective than improving a weakness (bench play/can't guard guards/the human vacuumKB24)
TL;DR Howard to LA makes them a little better but they'll still be ousted in round 2.
TL;DR Howard to LA makes them a little better but they'll still be ousted in round 2.
Brook Lopez has a stupid contract. The Magic will be stuck in the same cap hell if they trade for him. imo, the Nets are sunk. Joe Johnson is a good #2 guy, but Deron Williams is not a good enough #1 guy. Not only that, they are pretty much locked into the team they have right now.
I wanted Courtney Lee for the Mavs at that spot, but OJ Mayo is still a pretty good fit. I believe Elton Brand will be the Mavs' finishing guy at center. One of the reasons I'm excited about this Mavs team is that they have a bunch of young, talented guys on expiring contracts. They will be able to fish around at the trade deadline with those guys. Dallas is a dark horse in the Dwight sweepstakes IF he is still on the Magic by the trade deadline. They will be able to absorb contracts both from the Magic and from other teams.
The Knicks office is pretty bad, but not for the Lin situation. They gave too much money to guys like Kidd and Camby. If hadn't jumped the guns on those guys, maybe they would've had enough money for Lin.
I wanted Courtney Lee for the Mavs at that spot, but OJ Mayo is still a pretty good fit. I believe Elton Brand will be the Mavs' finishing guy at center. One of the reasons I'm excited about this Mavs team is that they have a bunch of young, talented guys on expiring contracts. They will be able to fish around at the trade deadline with those guys. Dallas is a dark horse in the Dwight sweepstakes IF he is still on the Magic by the trade deadline. They will be able to absorb contracts both from the Magic and from other teams.
The Knicks office is pretty bad, but not for the Lin situation. They gave too much money to guys like Kidd and Camby. If hadn't jumped the guns on those guys, maybe they would've had enough money for Lin.
The Lakers already got Antawn Jamison to improve their bench and they definitely aren't done making moves this offseason. The Lakers have already shown that they can be a decent defensive team without a defensive point guard and besides, the Lakers game is dominating offensively with their bigs, not locking down their opponent. Steve Nash isn't going to hurt the Lakers on defense any more than Ramon Sessions or Derek Fisher did and he'll be huge in improving their offense.
No, the real concern is the 3rd year in Lin's proposed contract which is about 10M. Kidd and Camby will be gone by then. This bullshit has nothing to do with these guys.
This is about stupidity. They don't even realized that MSG Inc. boomed by 600M+ since Linsanity!
http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id...g-new-york-knicks-james-dolan-blundered-again
This.
They gave Kidd a three-year deal, same with Camby I'm pretty sure.