NBA 2017: Fleecing the East and Kyrie to Boston

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

14 minutes ago, briantw said:

Well, my point is that he shouldn't get credit for owning up to it after he was caught.  Getting caught and then being forced into a public apology isn't something to commend.  We all know he would have kept doing this had he not busted himself.  

Of course he would have, and I get your point. I just think what he did is better than saying he got hacked or something. But otherwise I agree, point and laugh and then let it go.

[Manhole Eunuchsbane]

On 9/20/2017 at 2:03 PM, Relic said:

And? So? 

This is just another example of the Haterade. Much the same way I harp on the minor failings of a player I already don't like. (Like say, LeBron)

[briantw]

4 minutes ago, Manhole Eunuchsbane said:

This is just another example of the Haterade. Much the same way I harp on the minor failings of a player I already don't like. (Like say, LeBron)

Eh...if LeBron had gotten caught doing what Durant did we'd never hear the end of it on ESPN.  It'd be the top story for like a year.

[Manhole Eunuchsbane]

3 minutes ago, briantw said:

Eh...if LeBron had gotten caught doing what Durant did we'd never hear the end of it on ESPN.  It'd be the top story for like a year.

It would've caught a bit more heat sure, but I don't think as much as you're making it out to be. It's a little weird that he would bother to do this, but that's about as far as it goes. 

[briantw]

5 minutes ago, Manhole Eunuchsbane said:

It would've caught a bit more heat sure, but I don't think as much as you're making it out to be. It's a little weird that he would bother to do this, but that's about as far as it goes. 

Personally, I find it hilarious that anyone, especially a millionaire professional athlete who just won a title, would waste his time with shit like this.  I don't really think he did anything morally wrong, but it was a total bitch move to throw his old teammates under the bus like that, and to try to do it anonymously is even worse.

[Red Tiger]

OKC's offense will put asses in seats.

And their defense will keep trophy cases empty.

I can't wait to see the epic fingerpointing.

[Manhole Eunuchsbane]

5 minutes ago, Red Tiger said:

OKC's offense will put asses in seats.

And their defense will keep trophy cases empty.

I can't wait to see the epic fingerpointing.

Yeah, Carmelo is such a footnote at this point. It's kind of funny that the Trump Twitter bullshit is a bigger NBA story than this trade is.

[DireWolfSpirit]

If Westbrook couldnt win a title with Durant and Harden, imagine the odds he faces with George and a past prime Melo?

[Calibandar]

It's going to be great fun to see this play out on the court.

Very interesting team mix. Makes me wonder what the OKC line-up looks a year from now.

All 3 of these guys could still be in OKC a year from now depending on how the season goes, and all 3 of them could be gone.

I expect Westbrook will not sign the extension before the Oct. 16th deadline, he will wait and see how it goes and leave it to OKC management to consider for many hours whether to trade him for something, or not.

Another stunning move by Sam Presti. We can be sure of one thing, nobody saw this coming.

[KingintheNorth4]

Dwayne Wade reached a buyout agreement with the Bulls, giving back 8 million of his 23 million dollar salary. 

Personally, I would've never made that type of deal for a past prime Wade. It would've made more sense for the Bulls to build around Butler when he was still with the team, or go through the rebuilding process earlier. 

[briantw]

20 minutes ago, KingintheNorth4 said:

Dwayne Wade reached a buyout agreement with the Bulls, giving back 8 million of his 23 million dollar salary. 

Personally, I would've never made that type of deal for a past prime Wade. It would've made more sense for the Bulls to build around Butler when he was still with the team, or go through the rebuilding process earlier. 

I think that the Bulls probably thought they could be a top Eastern team with Wade and Butler.  It just didn't work out how they thought it would and forced them to start the rebuild early.

I think the also drastically overestimated what type of player Wade is now.  He's still good, but you can't expect him to anchor a team or play a lot of minutes.  Better to use him as depth on a good team where he can play less time and have a greater overall impact.

[sperry]

On 9/23/2017 at 4:23 PM, Red Tiger said:

OKC's offense will put asses in seats.

And their defense will keep trophy cases empty.

I can't wait to see the epic fingerpointing.

Thunder will be an excellent defensive team. They just traded arguably the two worst defenders in the entire league, Kanter and McDermott. The starting lineup of Russ, Andre Roberson, Paul George, Carmelo and Adams is very good defensively.

[Red Tiger]

2 hours ago, sperry said:

Thunder will be an excellent defensive team. They just traded arguably the two worst defenders in the entire league, Kanter and McDermott. The starting lineup of Russ, Andre Roberson, Paul George, Carmelo and Adams is very good defensively.

Sure thing, dude.

[Relic]

1 hour ago, Red Tiger said:

Sure thing, dude.

They have three quality defends,  a madman, and Melo in that starting 5. Not sure what there is to disagree on here. They will be an avg or slightly above avg defensive team. 

[Red Tiger]

1 hour ago, Relic said:

They have three quality defends,  a madman, and Melo in that starting 5. Not sure what there is to disagree on here. They will be an avg or slightly above avg defensive team. 

I can get behind that, but a couple of things.

1. He said excellent and very good, not average or slightly above average like you did, there's a difference.

2. Im not sure how "a madman" automatically translates to "good defender". Westbrook is a magnificent player, but im not counting on him being much of a difference-maker on defense.

3. Melo wasn't worth a bucket of piss on defense, even when he was in his prime.

4. Making up for a terrible defender is not always easy, the 2011 Bulls (who overall had a much better defense than OKC) often gave up quite a bit of points with Rose playing. Now they were playing in the East, where you can get away with that, but OKC is playing in the Wild, Wild, West.

5. My point was their defense will stop them from winning big, I stand by that.

[sperry]

The Thunder were a good defensive team last year. They got better defensively, even with the Melo trade (They got rid of McDermmott and Kanter, who are even worse defenders than Melo and combined would paly about the same minutes as Melo will this year). They added two strong defenders, in PG and Patrick Patterson. They already had two of the league's best defenders at their positions in Andre Roberson and Steven Adams. This team should be good defensively, and the question is really how does their offense gel.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

I think this is going to work out really well for the Thunder. Their starting 5 has a really nice balance to it, and there are rumors that Wade might pick OKC over Miami and Cleveland. I think one could argue that the Thunder are now at worst the fourth best team in the NBA and at best possibly the second best.

[briantw]

On 9/25/2017 at 3:47 PM, Tywin et al. said:

I think this is going to work out really well for the Thunder. Their starting 5 has a really nice balance to it, and there are rumors that Wade might pick OKC over Miami and Cleveland. I think one could argue that the Thunder are now at worst the fourth best team in the NBA and at best possibly the second best.

Everything I've heard since even before the buyout is that Wade to the Cavs is a done deal.  The Thunder were the only other team he'd even consider apparently, but I think he got bought out specifically to go play with LeBron, and that he and LeBron had conversations during their summer workouts about it being important for him to be with the Cavs for training camp, which is why he took the pay cut to get bought out so early.

My guess is he heard the pitches from other teams and leaked that he was considering the Thunder as well so that there were no accusations of collusion.  After all, the Cavs wouldn't want to get a light slap on the wrist like the Lakers got for doing that.  

[briantw]

https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/912790082343587840

Inevitable. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

1 hour ago, briantw said:

Everything I've heard since even before the buyout is that Wade to the Cavs is a done deal.  The Thunder were the only other team he'd even consider apparently, but I think he got bought out specifically to go play with LeBron, and that he and LeBron had conversations during their summer workouts about it being important for him to be with the Cavs for training camp, which is why he took the pay cut to get bought out so early.

My guess is he heard the pitches from other teams and leaked that he was considering the Thunder as well so that there were no accusations of collusion.  After all, the Cavs wouldn't want to get a light slap on the wrist like the Lakers got for doing that.  

Yeah I'm seeing that now too. I guess a lot can change in a day. I think this also means that Wade won't be going back to Miami other then to sign a 1 day contract to retire as a member of the Heat.

That aside, what do you think a mostly washed Wade adds to the Cavs? I know SG is a position of need, but IDK what Wade gives the team, especially without IT.