The 2018-2019 Around the NBA thread

[Finito]

Jabari Parker, anyone?

From rotoworld.com:

Jabari Parker will no longer be a part of the Bulls' regular rotation, according to Malika Andrews of ESPN.com.
Wow. Parker is going to play tonight because Chandler Hutchison is ill, but this is big news after Parker signed a two-year, $40 million deal this past summer. This likely means there's no chance the Bulls would pick up the team option for next season, and that Hutchison may be ahead of him upon his return. Plus, he is also eligible to be traded, so that could be something to watch. Parker is a drop in most leagues. Dec 13 - 9:00 PM

God no

 

[Russ Smith]

Great comeback by the Warriors. First off, Sacramento is legit, very good young team. Really hope Bagley is ok, he had a weird fall and came up holding his left knee, left the game never returned.

I can't recall the last time I've seen one ref change a game as drastically as this. Warriors up 13, in the next 3 minutes one ref, a rookie, calls 5 offensive fouls on the Warriors. 4 of them were moving screens, the other was Jerebko pivoting with the ball, the defender flopped and they called an offensive foul. Kings go on a run and take the lead, the same ref called a pivot foul on McKinney where he didn't even really pivot the defender basically ran into him and fell. Kerr went nuts, during the timeout the entire Warrior team was in the rookie's ear. Even the veteran refs were pulling him aside I think it was pretty obvious they were telling him to knock it off.

And then all of a sudden the Warriors drew foul after foul, got into the bonus, came back and won. So in the end the rookie ref got the Kings the lead and then the other 2 refs made up for it. Fun game to watch but the refs really ruined the 4th quarter.

Really like Bogdanovic on the Kings.

 

[GatorAZ]

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[Mainstreet]

Brandon Knight is starting to get some playing time for the Rockets. Apparently D'Antoni has some big plans for him.

Good luck with that.

https://basketball.realgm.com/wiret...-You-Could-Play-James-Harden-At-Power-Forward

http://www.espn.com/nba/player/_/id/6448


However, this is not what caught my attention. The Rockets and some other teams are going with a center in the middle and essentially small forwards at the power forward position.

The Suns are well equipped to play this style of play as the NBA goes this direction.

Add a point guard and voila, the Suns may be better equipped than many.

 

[Hoop Head]

However, this is not what caught my attention. The Rockets and some other teams are going with a center in the middle and essentially small forwards at the power forward position.

The Suns are well equipped to play this style of play as the NBA goes this direction.

Add a point guard and voila, the Suns may be better equipped than many.

That's been happening for well over a year. That is one of the reasons many people were fine with the Ariza signing. There just aren't a lot of true PF's in the NBA right now. Most teams play 3 wings with a PG and C now. I thought you were well aware of that. The Celtics are a prime example with Kyrie, Hayward, Tatum, Brown, and Horford. The Rockets had been doing the same with Chris Paul, Harden, Tucker, Eric Gordon, and Capela. Last year they used Ariza and Mbah a Moute with Tucker and Harden for most of the game, giving them some size and defense.

 

[Mainstreet]

That's been happening for well over a year. That is one of the reasons many people were fine with the Ariza signing. There just aren't a lot of true PF's in the NBA right now. Most teams play 3 wings with a PG and C now. I thought you were well aware of that. The Celtics are a prime example with Kyrie, Hayward, Tatum, Brown, and Horford. The Rockets had been doing the same with Chris Paul, Harden, Tucker, Eric Gordon, and Capela. Last year they used Ariza and Mbah a Moute with Tucker and Harden for most of the game, giving them some size and defense.

It's hard not to be not aware of it.

I do think D'Antoni playing Harden at power forward is another step in the progression.

My comments were aimed towards the Suns have the right players to make it work effectively for them.

The Suns were not getting much production from the wings playing this traditional position. Adding Oubre was another step in this direction.

 

[Mainstreet]

Owners are not happy about Lebron recruiting Anthony.

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[Mainstreet]

From the above story:


League executives contend that the NBA needs to start holding players responsible for public comments the way they generally do owners and management.

"If these are the rules, enforce them," one Western Conference GM told ESPN. "If you want to push Anthony Davis in LA, if you allow LeBron to interfere with teams, then just do it. Change the rules, and say "It's the wild, wild west and anything goes.

"But give us a list of the rules that you're enforcing, and give us a list of the rules that you're going to ignore."


http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/25587459/small-market-gms-upset-lebron-james-pitch-anthony-davis

 

[95pro]

Owners are not happy about Lebron recruiting Anthony.

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When you say "Anthony" I think Carmelo. LeBron is one of the only guys I know that's widely known by his first name.

 

[Mainstreet]

When you say "Anthony" I think Carmelo. LeBron is one of the only guys I know that's widely known by his first name.

The tweet tends to clarify it. Honestly I don't think a lot about Carmelo Anthony these days.

 

[JCSunsfan]

Owners are not happy about Lebron recruiting Anthony.

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Its always the Lakers. I would love for the penalty for tampering to be that the player can never ever sign for that team.

 

[Hoop Head]

I was just reading this about a potential deal for Anthony Davis also. The thing is that the Lakers have a serious leg up right now because the Celtics can not trade for Davis this year, which essentially gives the Lakers all year to try to work out some sort of deal. It has to do with the "Rose Rule" that allows rookies to sign for higher max extensions coming off of their rookie deals, like Booker's, but in the Rose Rule allows those players to earn 30% instead of 25% and both Kyrie and AD signed for those escalated extensions off of their rookie contracts because they met the criteria for the larger extension, which involves All-NBA teams, All-Star appearances, MVP voting, etc. A team CANNOT have 2 players on those deals though, even if they didn't sign either to them, so the Celtics could only trade for AD right now if they were to include Kyrie, or send Kyrie elsewhere, which makes a trade pretty much out of the picture at this time. They can do it in the offseason because Kyrie can opt out and resign for a new deal and they'll be fine to trade for AD then.

Here's a link for that info...

https://www.ibtimes.com/anthony-dav...possible-unless-kyrie-irving-included-2735623

I found that interesting because I read this earlier, about how if the Celtics included Jayson Tatum in a trade for Anthony Davis then they could trump any offer that the Lakers could put together unless the Lakers were ok with trading all of their young pieces together for AD, even then the Celtics could put together a great package that would beat it. Tatum, Marcus Morris, and Smart for AD would be one way they could do it, which is better than Ball, Kuzma, Ingram, and probably KCP to make salaries work. The Celtics also own picks, which would also help them in a trade but they can't do anything this year unless they sent Kyrie out.

https://www.ibtimes.com/anthony-dav...-offer-would-trump-any-lakers-package-2744708

 

[Hoop Head]

I'm a little surprised Dan Gilbert didn't try to bring Lebron down when he knew he was bailing on Cleveland again. If Lebron didn't win that title there then maybe he would have. Gilbert knew first hand how involved Lebron was and the whole "Klutch Sports" agency. Lebron got Tristan Thompson and JR Smith huge paydays in Cleveland, deals they couldn't have gotten elsewhere. JR Smith didn't sign his deal until training camp, IIRC. He didn't negotiate with anyone else and basically held up Cleveland. Had they told him to walk and get a better deal though he couldn't have because every team had their capspace spent by then. That also would have created problems with Lebron and the Cavs. If the NBA does something I expect Gilbert to help the league try to take down Lebron. I don't think Silver will though. The NBA is more popular than ever and he's probably got Stern tellling him how much better it will be if he can get Lebron help in LA to create a new Lakers/Celtics rivalry for the remainder of Lebron's career. Lakers vs Celtics is enough of a draw but add Kyrie vs Lebron to that and it gets much better.

 

[Mainstreet]

Its always the Lakers. I would love for the penalty for tampering to be that the player can never ever sign for that team.

Please make it true. No Anthony Davis for the Lakers.

 

[AzStevenCal]

Please make it true. No Anthony Davis for the Lakers.

The only thing that will stop it from happening is Davis himself. The league still doesn't consider comments from players like the recent one's from Giannis and Lebron to be tampering. Fortunately Davis still seems committed to New Orleans.

 

[Mainstreet]

The only thing that will stop it from happening is Davis himself. The league still doesn't consider comments from players like the recent one's from Giannis and Lebron to be tampering. Fortunately Davis still seems committed to New Orleans.

I hope AD stays in New Orleans.

I'd like to see the league suspend players for a game or two without pay for making such remarks. It will probably never happen but it might get their attention.

 

[SirStefan32]

Yeah, I really hope AD stays in New Orleans.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

Yeah, I really hope AD stays in New Orleans.

Or comes to PHOENIX for book’s super team.

 

[SirStefan32]

Or comes to PHOENIX for book’s super team.

Haha, yes, I am OK with Super teams if one happens to form in Phoenix.

 

[AzStevenCal]

I hope AD stays in New Orleans.

I'd like to see the league suspend players for a game or two without pay for making such remarks. It will probably never happen but it might get their attention.

It would get the attention of the Players Association, that's for sure given that the league ruled it permissible several years ago. Hopefully they'll do something about the situation but it's a real problem.

In today's NBA these guys are all friends, peers, and you can't stop them from talking to each other. And it would be impossible to police their private conversations. While it would really be nothing more than lip service, the league could perhaps draw the line at public comments but I'm not sure they can put the genie back in the bottle.

 

[Mainstreet]

It would get the attention of the Players Association, that's for sure given that the league ruled it permissible several years ago. Hopefully they'll do something about the situation but it's a real problem.

In today's NBA these guys are all friends, peers, and you can't stop them from talking to each other. And it would be impossible to police their private conversations. While it would really be nothing more than lip service, the league could perhaps draw the line at public comments but I'm not sure they can put the genie back in the bottle.

The Players Association and players run the NBA to a large extent so it's a difficult situation for smaller market teams.

Perhaps only a strong commissioner can do something although there seems to be a reluctance.

I'm not sure what happened to vetoing trades for the good of the NBA. It seems TV money rules.

 

[Hoop Head]

The way the league could handle it is by banning Rich Paul. They need to hit the agents because ultimately it's the agents who work through everything. Anthony Davis firing his longtime agent and hiring Lebron's childhood friend was clear there was something in the works last offseason. Davis can't be a free agent until the summer of 2020 so it's not like he really needed to replace his agent right away either. He hasn't signed any new contract with Klutch other than to be represented by Klutch.

 

[AzStevenCal]

The way the league could handle it is by banning Rich Paul. They need to hit the agents because ultimately it's the agents who work through everything. Anthony Davis firing his longtime agent and hiring Lebron's childhood friend was clear there was something in the works last offseason. Davis can't be a free agent until the summer of 2020 so it's not like he really needed to replace his agent right away either. He hasn't signed any new contract with Klutch other than to be represented by Klutch.

The last time the league tried to limit the power and influence of an agent (and agents in general) it had to go through a lockout to make it happen. I'm not sure the league is interested in going there again at least not during this TV contract.

 

[Hoop Head]

The last time the league tried to limit the power and influence of an agent (and agents in general) it had to go through a lockout to make it happen. I'm not sure the league is interested in going there again at least not during this TV contract.

If it was anyone other than Lebron's agent I think they would try. There is definitely something to it and I think it would be easy to prove. I hope it doesn't take a trade like Davis to LA to make them investigate and then lay out a plan to solve things down the line. I think that's my biggest concern, and I don't believe I'm alone in that. If they let something happen and let it stand with promises to keep it from happening again then it will have already been too much done and the league having done too little. We'll see, I suppose.

 

[swagron]

Haha, yes, I am OK with Super teams if one happens to form in Phoenix.

Or comes to PHOENIX for book’s super team.

Small market team mentality. Don’ t get mad and complain. Just get better. Everyone want everything handed on a silver platter but when a large market does it everyone calls foul.