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What do you think has changed?

I'll debate this one. Avery Bradley is one of the best defensive players in the league. Rondo is a good defender. They also kept McGhee, who is a rim protector.

They have more than enough depth. They recently re-signed KCP, who can score when asked to do so. He put up really good numbers in Detroit. If Bradley can stay healthy, they are set at the 2.

One more thing. People dismiss Boogie, but he was one of the best players in the league. He meshed very well w/AD until he tore his Achilles. He was slowed by that injury this past year and then suffered a quad injury. The dude can play.

I get that you don't like the Lakers, but they are the favorites to win it all. I'm not saying they will, but all of the doom and gloom talk is unwarranted.

The Lakers are loaded. And believe me when I tell you this............LeBron is going to play w/a purpose this year after all the talk of him not being the best player in the league this year. Just watch...

Agree with your points. I also believe that the players that are being signed can't wait to play with LBJ and AD and will all be playing with a purpose to win a title. They have to mesh but when they do the Lakers will be a serious contender to win it all.

If I’m betting $100 on the Finals winner today, I’m betting Philly.

Not until Simmons develops at least a small mid range jumper.

Most overrated player in the league.

I think Avery Bradley was a very good defender but injuries have taken their toll on him. He was pretty bad for the Clippers last year (https://www.clipsnation.com/2019/1/16/18...nsible-clippers).

Rondo used to be a good defender also, now he mostly hunts steals which leads to the defense being out of position. He's still very smart and is great as a help defender but he just can't stay in front of opposing point guards consistently.

Javale McGee is solid and I'd probably start him over Boogie at this point.

KCP is an average NBA player. He's fine in his role.

I like Boogie a lot, I just question if he can stay healthy and in shape concurrently. I would love to see the Lakers bring him off the bench and let him destroy opposing second units (kind of like the Pacers did with Sabonis last year).

I totally agree with LeBron. He was even a beast last year when he was healthy. He just tends to coast through games and still end up with 28/10/6. He is sooooooooooooo good. The problem is that I think he's going to get the "load management" treatment this year.

In the end the Lakers are definitely good enough to win the title, I just don't know who is going to be their role players in the playoffs. It'll be a fun season.

They have more than enough depth. They recently re-signed KCP, who can score when asked to do so. He put up really good numbers in Detroit. If Bradley can stay healthy, they are set at the 2.

One more thing. People dismiss Boogie, but he was one of the best players in the league. He meshed very well w/AD until he tore his Achilles. He was slowed by that injury this past year and then suffered a quad injury. The dude can play.

I get that you don't like the Lakers, but they are the favorites to win it all. I'm not saying they will, but all of the doom and gloom talk is unwarranted.

The Lakers are loaded. And believe me when I tell you this............LeBron is going to play w/a purpose this year after all the talk of him not being the best player in the league this year. Just watch... [/quote]

The formatting of your post is confusing, but I agree w/most of it.

The regular season is the regular season. It's all about how the teams mesh/perform in the playoffs. Next year's playoffs seemingly have quite a few teams that should be able to contend for the title.

Right now, I think the Lakers, Clippers, Jazz, Nuggets, 76ers, and Bucks look to be legitimate contenders. The Celtics and Rockets might come up big, but I think their stars are fading.

Should be a lot of fun.

Assuming Embiid is healthy, Philly doesn't need Simmons to be anything more than what he currently is, doing a little bit of everything (minus outside shooting). Embiid was hurt and sick throughout the Raptors series and Leonard's bouncing high arching game 7 shot from the corner was the only thing that beat them. They lost Butler and Redick but added Horford, whom I really like as a player. I'm sure they'll find a way to add another shooter sometime throughout the season if it's needed.

As for Simmons, 16.9/8.8/7.7/1.2/.8 on 56% shooting isn't bad. In fact, that's very good. He may not have a jumper, but he can work on that. Plus, he's only been in the league two seasons (well, three but he didn't play his rookie year). That production from a sophomore is probably why people are talking him up so much.

I'm not into advanced stats, but he was 40th in PER, 21st in WinShares, 23rd in BOx+/- and 16th in VORP this past season. Again, I'm no stat nerd and I don't know how those are calculated, but the names he's surrounded by on those lists are quite good. That can't be a coincidence. I'm not saying he's great, but I know he's not trash either (not saying you used the "trash" word, but you said "overrated", but that depends on where you think he's rated).

If I were an NBA GM, I'd want him. Plus, with Philly, he's not the primary scorer. Heck, he could be 4th (Embiid, Harris, Horford and then Simmons).

Again, I guess it depends on where you think others rate him and then where you think he should be rated.

Philly is really talented and I think they are in the mix to be one of the favorites for the Chip next year.

However, they do have a couple of concerns.

I think Simmons has a good handle, can drive it w/the best of them, passes okay, rebounds well, and plays w/a swag. However, him not even attempting outside shots--never mind making them--is a real problem in the playoffs because the defensive intensity and rotations are much better than they are in the regular season.

Hopefully, Embid learned his lesson after Kawhi broke the 76ers back in the playoffs. Dude needs to take better care of himself and take the game a bit more seriously. He needs to get his butt in the post more. He needs to understand the playoffs are a different animal.

They need another shooter to replace Redick. I heard they are interested in Korver. He'd be a good fit.

Right, Simmons is a fantastic player expect for his unwillingness to shoot the ball from the outside (which as you said, magnifies under playoff intensity). Rishuz said he's the most overrated player in the NBA, but that doesn't really mean much to me because I don't know if he's saying Simmons is still very good, but not great.

I think most teams would line up to have Simmons on their current roster. Sure, maybe that list drops a bit if we're talking max money, but he's a name and fills up the stat sheet. He has a weakness, but who doesn't? Plus, he's going into his 3rd year. Isn't that a bit early to be passing final judgement onto a player?

I'm not saying he's great or should be in discussion for an MVP, I think he's very good (4 out of 5 type player). If that's overrating him, and it would be the worst overrating in the NBA, that would imply he's really a 2 out of 5, or even a 1. I just don't see that.

He's a very good player, but he really has to work on his shot this off-season. I'm not saying he has to become a good outside shooter, but he needs to have enough confidence to take the damn shot.

Not sure why this is, what it's significance is, or what the implications are but:

Kevin Porter Jr. will only receive 80% of the Rookie Scale in the first year of his contract.

This is extremely rare, and it's possible that Porter and his agent spoke with the Cavs before Cleveland selected him with the 30th, and final, pick of the first round back in June. Porter Jr. is currently dealing with a hip flexor and is not expected to suit up during Summer League action.

SOURCE: Jeff Siegel on Twitter
Jul 9, 2019, 11:55 AM ET

https://www.rotoworld.com

Maybe it's more impressive that he can score almost 17 a night when everyone knows he's going to the rim. Meaning, he has one move and yet that one move is "unstoppable". If there was a bit more threat of an outside shot, he could maybe average 20 a night.

Yeah Jester, I have no idea what's going on with him. He hasn't been playing but it's odd to dock his salary too.

Pretty much this.

There might be a few teams sniffing around Kevin for his services (or this is an article just proposing trades).

LINK

I wouldn't want to send him to Boston, even if it's a perfect fit for their roster, screw them. Portland makes sense. They can't win it all as is and Kevin would help them (he wouldn't put them over the top, but he'd help cut the distance to Denver, Utah, Houston and the LAL's).

His contract isn't cheap, but it's not a max either. I wonder if he'll get moved this year. I kind of like him, assuming he's healthy and playing.

Love would seem like a good fit for the Celtics. He would be a good replacement for Horford.

He's better than Horford. That would really help the Celtics.

I think he used to be better than Horford on offense but he hasn’t been healthy in awhile. I don’t know if we know how good Kevin Love is anymore but he is still worth trading for if you don’t have to give up much.

So Westbrook for CP3 and a bunch of picks. What a weird trade.

I don't know what OKC does with CP3 now. Buy him out? His contract is probably the second worst in the league behind John Wall.

Wow! I hadn't heard that.

I gotta think about that.

I know that Westy and Hardin played together in OKC, but this is a different Hardin, especially in DiAntonio's offense.

How the hell can they co-exist?

I'll lose it if CP3 somehow ends up on the Lakers.

Adrian Wojnarowski
✔
@wojespn
The Oklahoma City Thunder have agreed to trade Russell Westbrook to the Houston Rockets for Chris Paul, first-round picks in 2024 and 2026, pick swaps in 2021 and 2025, league sources tell ESPN.

79.2K
8:26 PM - Jul 11, 2019

https://sports.yahoo.com/report-thunder-...-002838344.html

Such a weird, weird trade.

How do you buy that contract out though? It's a huge contract! Just a weird trade for OKC. Maybe they look to flip CP3 for more assets later, and go for a complete reboot.

sounds like Paul could end up getting traded to Miami... and OKC will have all the draft picks

Trading Paul would basically be a salary dump. They shouldn’t expect to get any assets back for him. I said the same thing about Westbrook but I didn’t think a CP3 trade was on the table.

Here is what Woj has to say about it.

http://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=27172073

It still doesn't make much sense to me.

I think Houston got the better deal, assuming those picks are mid-to-late rounders (that's a long time before those shake out though). And this helps them in the west, since it's so wide open with the Warriors down next year.

I would have to think Paul and Gallinari are both on the block too. Paul would have to be.

Assuming those two go as well, does Sam Presti get good credit for all of this? He had Durant, Harden, Westbrook, Oladipo, Ibaka, George, Paul and Gallinari in assets and they've all been turned into a handful of future draft picks. There are 3-4 future HOFamers in that list and 3 of them were in OKC during their prime. In the end of this run, he got one Finals appearance out of it. I don't know what Thunder fans are saying, but Cleveland fans would be livid.

He also traded away Ray Allen in 2007, a current HOFamer.

The Harden trade is what did him and it seems like that came from the owner to avoid the luxury tax. If he had been re-signed instead of traded the entire course of NBA history probably changes.

Presti still deserves credit for drafting three future MVPs.

Harden and Westbrook, okay, even though they were taken 3rd and 4th respectfully. Durant was an easy choice after the Blazers took Oden.

Still, he let one HOFamer walk for nothing (Durant) and then traded three others (Allen, Harden & Westbrook).

Yeah, trading Harden doomed them. And it was over a few million dollars. They should have been a dynasty, but oh well.

Now we get to guess where Gallinari and Paul end up. I think Gallinari is traded mid-season. Paul should drop before the season, but the trade haul won’t be a lot. He’s old and expensive (3y/$121).

j/c:

Woah. Some of these filters are getting pretty nuts.

Cedi Osman.

I wonder where the disfunction came from? Dan Gilbert not running a tight ship? Lebron and his guys pushing for a "win at all costs" mentality? I'm curious. It seemed to be a big domino though. Once he left, Kyrie wanted out too.

I suppose that's viewed as a negative, a superstar not consumed with total victory at all costs, but he's been in the league a long time. He's won MVPs, Finals MVPs, three titles and one of those was in Cleveland (which I still think counts as "1.5 rings"). Outside of chasing down Kareem's points record, I understand hoping to play with his son and looking forward to buying an NBA team as priorities.

Heck, it has been discussed to death that he should have gone to Philly, Boston, Golden State or Houston if he had wanted to chase rings to tie or surpass MJ. However, he chose LA and we all saw the roster he went to last year. Most of those guys were trash. Sure, they got AD this year, but there was no guarantee that trade was going to happen. It might have been just as bad this year had AD not forced his way to the Lakers. And Lebron knew other stars wouldn't come to LA in free agency. So he knew his title chances were lower in LA, but he went there for other reasons. And I'm okay with that, so should everyone else.

He said as much a few years back. He's accomplished what he wanted. You can't demand much else. Sure, he doesn't have MJ's burning fire to compete, but I think that's exaggerated. Why did MJ play in Washington for two years? To win a title? Nope, that was for a piece of the Wizards franchise ($$$). They missed the playoffs both two years. If he were really trying to win, that was one of the last places he would have signed.

Lebron has solidified himself on the Mount Rushmore of NBA greats. If he's okay with that, I'm good too.

LeBron has had an amazing career, no doubt.

However, I can't possibly agree that winning a ring in Cleveland counts more than a 'normal' ring would.

I get that, other than the 2016 Cavs title, Cleveland sports history of the last 50+ years has not been very kind (possible understatement of the year award here.)

That said, LeBron hand-picked that team. It had gone through a multi-year tank/rebuild job that netted 3 first overall picks, 2 4th overall picks, a clean cap space, a war chest of other picks, and so on. Kyrie Irving was already here and LeBron had a big hand in bringing Love here as well. We chewed up cap space and burned draft picks in short-term moves to win a title at all costs while he was here.

You can actually turn it around and say that LeBron can't win a title without a super team.

edit: In fairness, the 2016 team did beat the 73 win Warriors in the Finals, from down 3 games to 1.

I can see this ... it was probably more of a relief to win than anything given the circumstances

j/c:

Sounds like sour grapes on Griffin's part. Dude, shut the hell up.

And I am tired of people slamming LeBron. Without him, the Cavs don't ever make the Finals, never mind win a title. And the talk of LeBron not caring anymore is absurd.

I can see how having LeBron dictate everything you're going to do as a GM would be miserable.