NBA Offseason

[lucafen4]

I can't see the players voting in favor of this.

[bondon]

There's nothing wrong with the league. The GSW have just made the best rebuild/turnaround in North American sports history.

They drafted Curry, Klay, and Drammond all below 6th overall (7, 11, 35), they lost good players in the offseason when they got better contracts elsewhere, they play an unselfish fun style that Durant wanted to play in, they all sacrificed a little dollar to play together, and now with Cousins other NBA players can't be mad at the league when only the GSW offered him a contract this offseason.

Lebron could have taken a 4 yr deal making way less than he did to allow LAL to go get Cousins, or another FA but he didn't. Lowry/Derozan could have taken a little below their value to allow the Raptors to get that other player, but they didn't. We can't be mad at players willing to sacrifice money for their team.

I think you're maybe missing the point a little bit here. You make a good argument that GSW doesn't deserve any disrespect because they did a really solid job of asset management.

Regardless, the league is a complete joke . I've been a little too far removed from the league (stopped watching after the Kobe/Nash/Dirk/Duncan era), Has any analysis been done into how they could possibly fix the parity in the league at this point? For example, what if they were to implement a hard salary cap instead of a soft cap + luxury tax? Would smaller market teams crumble if that happened?

I'm not suggesting a veto of signings or trades because that's more of a patchwork solution (and arguably makes the situation worse). I'm talking about a systemic fix.

[2014olympicgold]

I can't see the players voting in favor of this.

The east players would be against it, pretty much all of them, and then some west (top teams) would likely be against it based on travel. From 2017-18 this would be the playoff picture:
Round 1:
Rockets (1) vs Bucks (16)

Raptors (2) vs Heat (15)
GSW (3) vs Nuggets (14)
Celtics (4) vs Timberwolves (13)
76ers (5) vs Spurs (12)
Cavs (6) vs Pacers (11)
Blazers (7) vs Pelicans (10)
Thunder (8) vs Jazz (9)

Notes of differences:
Wizards would not be in the playoffs
Nuggets would be in the playoffs
3 East vs West series would happen
With a typical bracket, Cavs would be against the GSW in the 2^nd round.
76ers vs Celtics would be in the 2^nd round again
Raptors (if they beat the Heat) would play the winner of Blazers vs Pelicans (then winner of GSW vs Cavs)

[Axeman33]

I dont have an issue with Cousins going to GSW. He clearly took a big loss in money for a chance to win a championship, and a very good chance at that. He should win his championship next season and then sign another big money contract somewhere else. It's somewhat refreshing to see someone willing to choose winning over lining their bank account. Not that the $5.3M contract he signed is anything to sneeze at, but in todays NBA, that's a bargain.

[2014olympicgold]

I think you're maybe missing the point a little bit here. You make a good argument that GSW doesn't deserve any disrespect because they did a really solid job of asset management.

Regardless, the league is a complete joke . I've been a little too far removed from the league (stopped watching after the Kobe/Nash/Dirk/Duncan era), Has any analysis been done into how they could possibly fix the parity in the league at this point? For example, what if they were to implement a hard salary cap instead of a soft cap + luxury tax? Would smaller market teams crumble if that happened?

I'm not suggesting a veto of signings or trades because that's more of a patchwork solution (and arguably makes the situation worse). I'm talking about a systemic fix.

The system isn't broken though. Curry, Durant, Green, Klay, and Cousins (well reports are he had 1 offer and kinda had to take it) took discounts to play on a winning team. You put a hard salary cap (100mill?) these guys would all just take discounts again to stay together. Its these specific guys who are taking discounts, not a system that promotes this thing to happen.

If anything remove the cap, let these guys have no excuse to take discounts, and let the owner be the one who finally steps in and says "I'm not spending that". But small market teams wouldn't be able to keep up, it would be like the NHL pre-lockout.

Once Durant and Curry start to decline, it will fix itself really. PG13, Lebron, Paul, Melo, and Jordan all went for money over winning. The majority of the league looks at FA as still "Let me cash in", but the select few (Durant, Curry, Klay, Green) said, "lets keep this thing going, I wanna win on this team. Let's all take a paycut".

Well Curry didn't even take a pay cut when this started, he was just always hurt and the management team got him on a great contract to start this "Team first" winning juggernaut.

[2014olympicgold]

I dont have an issue with Cousins going to GSW. He clearly took a big loss in money for a chance to win a championship, and a very good chance at that. He should win his championship next season and then sign another big money contract somewhere else. It's somewhat refreshing to see someone willing to choose winning over lining their bank account. Not that the $5.3M contract he signed is anything to sneeze at, but in todays NBA, that's a bargain.

No one offered him a better contract apparently. Or sorry, "a realistic" contract is how it's worded. Pelicans offered him a 2yr 40mill contract when the injury happened (he declined it because he wanted more term at the time), but that was it.

[Axeman33]

No one offered him a better contract apparently. Or sorry, "a realistic" contract is how it's worded. Pelicans offered him a 2yr 40mill contract when the injury happened (he declined it because he wanted more term at the time), but that was it.

I find that hard to believe but we don't have much of a choice I suppose. It will get spun in the media however they want to spin it. Either way, I have no issues. All the power to them for building a culture that people want to play in and are willing to take less then fair-market-value to do so.

Tavares apparently took less money to go play in a place he wanted to play in and no one seems to think any less of him or the Leafs.

[2014olympicgold]

I find that hard to believe but we don't have much of a choice I suppose. It will get spun in the media however they want to spin it. Either way, I have no issues. All the power to them for building a culture that people want to play in and are willing to take less then fair-market-value to do so.

Tavares apparently took less money to go play in a place he wanted to play in and no one seems to think any less of him or the Leafs.

He did blow his achilles out in January and is reported to return "early in the season", could have gone to physicals and the teams were not comfortable with him, and his locker room presence? GSW are good enough where they don't even really need to have him back until January so he can slowly ramp up his conditioning.

[TheWhale]

Cousins was a top 15 player before the injury but might not come back anywhere close to that level. His injury is a significant one. He is projected to make his return sometime in December/January. Sprinkle in a little locker room issues and you scare off any team from making a commitment to Cousins.

[Pengwin7]

The NBA.... ugh.
When was the last time the league saw a team emerge that wasn't predicted to be great...
Feels like, um, well...

Hockey has the Knights as recently as last year.
The Braves, in baseball, are doing it this year.
And football seems to have a surprise team almost every year (not necessarily make Super Bowl, but get to _FC championship game every other year or so)

Basketball - yeah, it would be nice if the parity was fixed a bit.
I don't see how basketball fans deal with it... glad it's my least fave of five sports.

[2014olympicgold]

The NBA.... ugh.
When was the last time the league saw a team emerge that wasn't predicted to be great...
Feels like, um, well...

Hockey has the Knights as recently as last year.
The Braves, in baseball, are doing it this year.
And football seems to have a surprise team almost every year (not necessarily make Super Bowl, but get to _FC championship game every other year or so)

Basketball - yeah, it would be nice if the parity was fixed a bit.
I don't see how basketball fans deal with it... glad it's my least fave of five sports.

There's teams like the Bucks and 76ers, and Raps a few yrs ago that jump up, but don't ever threaten to be a super power it seems.

[Pengwin7]

There's teams like the Bucks and 76ers, and Raps a few yrs ago that jump up, but don't ever threaten to be a super power it seems.

Nah - somebody has to represent the 2nd best team in the East.
Even with a #1 record, everybody knew the Cavs were going to take down the Raptors.

Even Vegas never identified those teams as a serious threat... this being the point: everybody knows what teams have a real shot, and its always those teams that end up in the finals.

[ericdaoust]

Even Vegas never identified those teams as a serious threat... this being the point: everybody knows what teams have a real shot, and its always those teams that end up in the finals.

Conspiracy theory: How much control does Vegas have on the NBA?

[Pengwin7]

I don't get it.

[PenguinHunter]

The NBA.... ugh.
When was the last time the league saw a team emerge that wasn't predicted to be great...
Feels like, um, well...

Hockey has the Knights as recently as last year.
The Braves, in baseball, are doing it this year.
And football seems to have a surprise team almost every year (not necessarily make Super Bowl, but get to _FC championship game every other year or so)

Basketball - yeah, it would be nice if the parity was fixed a bit.
I don't see how basketball fans deal with it... glad it's my least fave of five sports.

You mean you didn't see the Braves coming??

I saw them coming but I did not see them coming this quick.

Signed,

A Braves fan!


As for the basketball, I think the better question was when was their a finals that we weren't confident that we knew the winner before Game 1 started. Sure there seems to be a little bit of unexpected occur up until the finals.. but it seems the finals are predictable. This never happens in other sports. Either team in the finals has a chance and I would say at most there is a 70-30 split in analysis and even then the 70 side is wrong sometimes.

I am pretty sure there was maybe 5% (that thought Cleveland stood a chance last year) and that was the city of Cleveland.