NBA 2015-16

[IVplay]

Tons of crazy trades and pick ups going down. I like our signings of carrol and biyombo. Spurs look real nice with LA in their starting line up. Early bets for next seasons champs?

If I were a betting man, I would still say the cavs.

[digitaldeath]

You fuvking fool


Pay up you welch bitch

[54-46]

Cavs and Spurs favored now, but Spurs' depth will be tested...I'm still handing out this year's championship swag to other Dubs' fans, so I'm not worried about next year at this time...

[54-46]

Empty post - just like Clippers

[IVplay]

Signed Cojo 4yrs/$40MM. I like the little moves masai is doing, now we just need to land KD next year

[I've seen black diamonds!]

Not much has changed except the Spurs got better and the Clippers and Blazers much worse. It'll be the Spurs, Warriors, Cavs and maybe OKC at the end next year, barring injury. Maybe a healthy Atlanta team or a surprise breakout (Wizards? Bucks?) will make the Cavs sweat a bit.

[Platinum Pete]

I still love the Blazers, but this coming season is going to be tough.
The Milwaukee Bucks are going to get a lot of my attention next year - I'm stoked on the line up, the youth, the heart, and their continued improvement. They will have a new arena soon and the Milwaukee fans are ready to embrace a competitive team.
I refuse to get on the Warriors bandwagon out of respect for the true fans that have stuck with that team since the "We Believe" days. It's lame that the awesome Oakland fans who make the Oracle roar are going to have to contend with douchey new fans that suddenly discovered they like basketball now that their team is really good and the new arena down by the Giant's ballpark.
The Spurs are going to be nasty. I can't love them for winning away LaMarcus, but they and maybe the Thunder & Rockets are really the only ones who can challenge the Warriors for the West. The T-Wolves and Jazz should make strides this coming year, but will not be big time; the Blazers, Clippers, and Suns will been in that middling area as well but on the decline for the near term. Lakers and Kings will continue to stink it up and spend too much doing so.
I'm hopeful for the East to be more competitive, particularly the Hawks, Bulls, and Bucks on the come up. The Raptors and Heat just don't have what it takes to go far in the play offs, but look for both teams to keep chasing the next piece to help them get better. The rest of the East will continue to excel at tanking.

[AKbruin]

I feel sorry for the Blazers. They were a good team who seemed to be on the cusp of being very good. They just needed one more trade. Instead, that got killed this off-season. Why did LMA want to get away so badly? I thought he wanted to be a Blazer for life a year ago. Still, the Blazers have shown a great ability to regenerate decent teams, so who knows.

The Bucks are fun. But they have almost no outside shooting. That's gonna hurt in today's NBA.

As a W's fan since Run TMC, I don't care about bandwagon fans. The more the merrier. The Warriors were likeable, fun to watch, and very good. Anyhow, being proud of being a hardcore fan is stupid. That said, I hope we don't start attracting the Laker bro kind of fans some other teams do.



The Clippers will be probably be good but not scary. This team has a lot of potential for complete implosion. I'm rooting for a CP3 v. Lance Stephenson blow up.

The Spurs will be good but I have no idea how good. They're hard to predict. Ginobli is pretty much window dressing these days, Parker has declined severely in the last two seasons, and Duncan is eventually going age. But Pop, Leonard, and LMA make for a good team, and if Parker and Duncan play well they will be very, very tough. And I'm sure David West will do something Spursy and clutch in the playoffs after playing limited minutes all season long.

I think the Thunder will be very good because Durant and Westbrook are so good. I wish they had picked up Alvin Gentry over Billy Donovan though. The latter sounds like a good coach, but why chance a rookie coach with such a team?

Speaking of Gentry, I can't see how NO is not a better team next year.

In the East, I think Miami is interesting. It would take a ton of luck, but they have Wade, Bosh, Dragic, Whiteside, that Duke rookie, and a very good coach. If those guys were healthy and played close to their abilities, they could be one of the best teams in the East.

I reckon the Cavs will be good. They never really figured it last year, but they probably will this year and have a ton a talent. The Lebron-Blatt dynamic is weird though.

[TahoeJ]

I think the West is going to come down to the Warriors and Spurs and to say one is favored over the other right now is a huge overreaction IMO. Aldridge is a huge signing for sure, but it also ignores a few things:

- Duncan, the ageless wonder, will still be a year older. Granted, he won't have to play as many minutes now.
- Ginobili ain't no spring chicken either. He'll be turning 38.
- Tony Parker has been in serious decline. And that's a major problem.

There's a chance the Warriors come back even better than last year. Last season they came back with a pretty similar roster with only a few different bench guys and made a huge leap. Having locked down Draymond and picked up options on Mo Buckets and Barbosa, now they'll have even more continuity as a team. They had the most total wins by any team without MJ on it and yet they still have obvious areas where they could improve.

OKC is a huge question mark. Three foot surgeries for KD now and feet are, umm, kind of important in basketball. Can he stay healthy?

New Orleans could get a lot better this season with AD only getting better and a huge upgrade at coach with Alvin Gentry.

The West is going to be *brutal* but I think the playoff teams will be the same, except swapping OKC for Portland. I feel for you Blazer's fans - there were so many good pieces and it never quite came together the way it should have due to injuries and some other things.

[digitaldeath]

guys, the lakers taking the title


deal with it

[TahoeJ]

Another fun story line will be how far into the luxury cap will the Cavs go? Dan Gilbert is afraid to piss off LeBron and they might end up spending damn near twice as much as any other team when all is said and done. Then when they go in again the following year and get taxed more for a repeater it's going to get *really* interesting.

[digitaldeath]

bury this thread

OP is lebron bootlicker

[AKbruin]

Another fun story line will be how far into the luxury cap will the Cavs go? Dan Gilbert is afraid to piss off LeBron and they might end up spending damn near twice as much as any other team when all is said and done. Then when they go in again the following year and get taxed more for a repeater it's going to get *really* interesting.

I don't totally understand the cap and tax implications, but my understanding is that in a truly free market, Lebron would command $50+ million a year. Yet he currently makes about $21 million a year under the current system. And, I'm sure he's added millions to Gilbert's coffers, who went from owning a team that no cared about and couldn't even make the playoffs in the dismal East to owning a near-championship team. So I wouldn't be to parsimonious if I were Gilbert, who, under the current structure, it getting Lebron for less than half he's worth. (Recall Gilbert was one of the two owners whose pissing and moaning about player salaries prolonged the last lockout.)

[digitaldeath]

lerbon never respects

[The SnowShow]

Will Denver ever be good again?

[TahoeJ]

I don't totally understand the cap and tax implications, but my understanding is that in a truly free market, Lebron would command $50+ million a year. Yet he currently makes about $21 million a year under the current system. And, I'm sure he's added millions to Gilbert's coffers, who went from owning a team that no cared about and couldn't even make the playoffs in the dismal East to owning a near-championship team. So I wouldn't be to parsimonious if I were Gilbert, who, under the current structure, it getting Lebron for less than half he's worth. (Recall Gilbert was one of the two owners whose pissing and moaning about player salaries prolonged the last lockout.)

The NBA salary cap with max deals, mid level exceptions, etc. is really complicated and confusing. And it's based on a 50/50 split based on revenues, so what a max deal is will change from year to year (it's about to go way up). A team can go above the salary cap but then they have to pay a luxury tax for every million they go over (with that amount being divided up amongst the other franchises), and every year the amount increases dramatically to prevent teams from repeatedly going above. After 4 straight years - I forget the multiplier - it gets really crazy to the point that even the super rich owners won't do it because it's insane.

While it's true that the stars like LeBron, Curry, etc. would command way more money on the open market and are essentially sacrificing dollars to the lower guys... I don't think it's a big deal because if they are winners, they make so much money from endorsement deals it doesn't matter. I also think it's good for the league's player chemistry otherwise it could become a major situation of the haves and have nots.

[IVplay]

Sacramento blows my mind-- instead of trading picks and their future away for cap space, they could have used the stretch provision and have shed 2/3 of that money.

The way I see it, there's only one 1st tier playoff team in the east, being the cavs. I would put the spurs, warriors, and okc in that slot in the west, with the rockets, clippers and grizzlies in the next tier. West will be a bloodshow-- the winning team wil have to best at least 2/3 of those teams above.

I'm liking the bucks and timberwolves for league pass standout teams. I also like the raps little moves that improve the enough to hopefully win a first round series.

[54-46]

GO SONICS

Curse of Gus Williams...

[54-46]

hell no, it was drafting Swift, thug brought the whole organization down.

All I can say is that Seattle deserves a team...

[I've seen black diamonds!]

Will Denver ever be good again?

Again?

[IVplay]

This Deandre Jordan thing is getting crazy--looks loke he'll sign with the clippers afterall. Crazy series of back and forth emojis on Twitter that you old men are missing out on.

[AKbruin]

The DJ thing is nuts. He seems like a decent guy, but this only redoubles his reputation as being mentally soft. I feel for the Mavs. I reckon they would have gotten somebody else to replace Tyson Chandler (e.g., Omir Asik) had DJ committed to the Clips early. Now they're screwed.

I had also written off the Clippers as a real Western Conference contender. But with DJ, they're going to be very good. Blake, CP3, DJ, Reddick, Pierce, and Stevenson are enough to make up for the rest of the D-League flotsam on their bench, at least in the regular season.

I also kind of wonder if Utah might be an 8th seed challenger in the West. They were pretty good in the second half last season. I still feel like they need a super star anchor, but they're not a bad team by any stretch.

Wishing David Lee well with the Celtics. Good dude.

While it's true that the stars like LeBron, Curry, etc. would command way more money on the open market and are essentially sacrificing dollars to the lower guys... I don't think it's a big deal because if they are winners, they make so much money from endorsement deals it doesn't matter. I also think it's good for the league's player chemistry otherwise it could become a major situation of the haves and have nots.

The salary cap doesn't help the lower guys. In fact, it probably hurts them. I think it benefits the owners. The argument for it, of course, is that it allows more parity between poorer teams and rich teams. Otherwise, the Knicks would become the Yankees, etc. (BTW, I'm confident that the Knicks would still stink without the cap; it just wouldn't be as dire.) Anyhow, whether this is good or bad for basketball is debatable. That said, I'd be annoyed as a player to sacrifice millions for the benefit of the billionaire owners. I seriously doubt that owners like Dan Gilbert would ever allow the government or their respective industries to cap their income for the greater benefit.

[IVplay]

The salary cap doesn't help the lower guys. In fact, it probably hurts them. I think it benefits the owners. The argument for it, of course, is that it allows more parity between poorer teams and rich teams. Otherwise, the Knicks would become the Yankees, etc. (BTW, I'm confident that the Knicks would still stink without the cap; it just wouldn't be as dire.) Anyhow, whether this is good or bad for basketball is debatable. That said, I'd be annoyed as a player to sacrifice millions for the benefit of the billionaire owners. I seriously doubt that owners like Dan Gilbert would ever allow the government or their respective industries to cap their income for the greater benefit.

I completely agree with your last point-- and I find it funny that fans generally want players to sign for less than their worth. In any other medium, those same people are out headhunting the .001%. The owners can more than afford to dip into the luxury tax, as they not only make millions of their basketball teams, but also millions in active income from their roles as captains of industry.

[Ski to Be]

Completely weak sauce from DJ and the Clippers. Doing a sit in at his house to prevent him from talking to the Mavs was low rent. Rooting for the Spurs and Warriors to kick the Clippers ass for the near future.

[TahoeJ]

The salary cap doesn't help the lower guys. In fact, it probably hurts them.

Of course the overall cap doesn't help the lower guys. What does help them is the way the cap is structured with what a max deal can be (i.e. the cap within the cap). So LeBron makes only $23 million leaving a lot more cash left over for the guys below him than would be the case in an open market.

DJ - I can see why the Clippers were desperate to get him back, but... I mean... honestly, whoopdy doo! A big man on a max deal who still hasn't bothered to develop a post-up game. He's lazy and mentally soft, which we just saw demonstrated perfectly. That team still has no depth, and while they're all excited about Lance Stephenson it's almost as if they're pretending last year didn't happen. He was *horrible.* Like, really, really bad. I look forward to him chucking up awful three-point bricks and seeing CP3's head explode.