2016 NBA Offseason

[nik-]

Yeah, he's 27 and he signs a huge multi year deal and now he's 32/33 and he's pulling an Iginla desperately chasing a ring.

There's no guarantees, and he's taking his best route.

[Drake]

Tim Duncan 'leaning strongly' toward retiring.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/sources...ail&soc_trk=ma

[Hockey_Ninja]

Soooooo who's going to be taking the most shots between KD and Curry?

[Da_Chief]

Originally Posted by Trojan97

While I'm disappointed that the NBA has gone the way of the "big 3" (and now "big 4"), I don't hold this against Durant. He doesn't owe OKC anything. Not from the area and wasn't even drafted to the team while they were located in that city. NBA titles are faaaaar from a sure thing regardless of how good a team is.

Also, this is hilarious....

Totally disagree. The best teams almost always wins the championship. If you're a pretender you know you're not going to win, like the Raps.

Cavs stack their roster, they got a championship.
Warriors have a wicked roster, finals and championship.
Heat, the big 3, finals and championships.
Spurs, finals and championships.
Lakers, Kobe teams multiple titles.
Celtics, the big 3, title.
Bulls, best player, titles.

It's almost guaranteed if you stack your roster you will win.

[GirlySports]

warriors-cavs again in the final to break the tie.

[Drake]

Warriors finazling a deal to send Andrew Bogout to the Mavs.

Pau Gasol finalizing a 2-yr, $30mil deal with the Spurs.

[SuperMatt18]

It will be interesting - if Lebron can beat this Warriors team in the finals it will probably help him build a case as the best ever.

[octothorp]

I'm not sure that they even improved their roster that much. They already had a slight weakness in terms of matching up against strong bigs like Kanter and Adams, and in losing Bogut and probably Ezeli, they've probably compounded that problem a bit. Granted, they've significantly improved their offence on paper, but their offense was already clicking at a high rate. Taking shots away from guys who are already converting at a high rate and giving them to another guy who converts at a high rate, you get to a point of diminishing returns. Their bench, at this point, is literally Livingston and Looney, plus two late draft picks. Perhaps they can attract some decent ring-chasers, but I believe all they've got to use is the mid-level exception ($2.9 million, 2 years), plus minimum contracts. In a year where regular role-players are getting $10 million a year guaranteed contracts, that's a lot of money for even the most championship-focused veteran to give up.

[Regorium]

Originally Posted by octothorp

I'm not sure that they even improved their roster that much. They already had a slight weakness in terms of matching up against strong bigs like Kanter and Adams, and in losing Bogut and probably Ezeli, they've probably compounded that problem a bit. Granted, they've significantly improved their offence on paper, but their offense was already clicking at a high rate. Taking shots away from guys who are already converting at a high rate and giving them to another guy who converts at a high rate, you get to a point of diminishing returns. Their bench, at this point, is literally Livingston and Looney, plus two late draft picks. Perhaps they can attract some decent ring-chasers, but I believe all they've got to use is the mid-level exception ($2.9 million, 2 years), plus minimum contracts. In a year where regular role-players are getting $10 million a year guaranteed contracts, that's a lot of money for even the most championship-focused veteran to give up.

100% agree. They should've went for someone like Whiteside if they were willing to throw around another max contract.

[Senator Clay Davis]

The NBA could have already avoided this if they had a hard salary cap and no individual caps on salary. At the same time having a villainous team like the Warriors now are is what brought the NBA back to 90s levels of TV viewership and intrigue when the Heat did it. So while it's awful from a competitive standpoint, does the NBA care when it helps the bottom line? Not at all. The TWolves really are the only team in the league that has the talent level close to the Warriors, but obviously they're still a few years away. The curious thing now is what do the Thunder do? Obviously you try and sign Westbrook tomorrow to a max deal, but if he doesn't they pretty much have to trade him as he's almost certainly gone after next year.

Also fully agree with octothorp in that sure it helps them offensively, but the lineup they intend to field without Bogut and possibly Ezeli could be one of the worst defensive lineups in the league. Sure they might make 25 threes a game, but they also might allow 30 offensive rebounds a game. They'll be the most exciting team ever from the standpoint of most of their games will be 120-115. Will it be enough in the playoffs when everything gets tighter? We'll see.

As to Durant himself, of course he's a hypocrite for ripping on the Heat and then doing the same. At the same time, we judge too harshly a guy who does what many of us expect athletes to do: take less money. He's leaving $50 million on the table here. Yet the vanity of winning a ring is significantly diminished by the fact he join an already existing great team. Say what you will about the Heat, but they weren't going anywhere before Bosh and LeBron joined up. The Warriors were already the betting favorites going into next year. So this is a much bigger shortcut for Durant than what LeBron did. At the same time he's shown less mental strength than LeBron in his career, so if the Warriors choke next year (and yes, anything less than a ring next year is a choke), he's going to take even more heat than LeBron ever did. I'm not sure he can handle it like LeBron did.

[nik-]

And again, the Thunder already had their "big 3" when he tweeted that. The circumstances changed, drastically.

[Senator Clay Davis]

But trading Harden was the right move, they just didn't get the return needed. Harden was walking after 2013 anyway, because the Thunder couldn't afford him and he didn't want to be a 6th man anymore. So sure I guess they could have taken one more run at it, but then we would have ripped the Thunder for losing Harden for nothing if they didn't win it all. Pretty much a no win situation.

Also lets not forget it was Durant's awful end to game 6 against the Warriors that pretty much blew the series for them. He was basically 5 minutes of quality play away from toppling a historic team, and even had they lost to the Cavs, winning that series would enhance his legacy. Now he's just another hanger on.

[corporatejay]

Originally Posted by Jason14h

When Stars don't get paid accordingly you end up with super teams . NBA did this to themselves

Yup. If Durant knows that there's a ceiling on how much he can make, why wouldn't he go to the best place to get a championship.

If someone offered him 75 million a year, he'd probably go there, but if he's going to make 27 million, better off with a team who's guaranteed at least the conference finals.

[Hockey Fan #751]

It's interesting how in the NBA it seems almost every summer there's a massive free agent (or two or three) on the market but in the NHL, the stars almost always get locked up before going to free agency. Stamkos is as close as any superstar has gotten to becoming a free agent in a long, long time (maybe Hossa 2009 or Chara 2006 being in the only two recent examples).

[Senator Clay Davis]

Because in the NBA one guy can make that much of a difference. Stamkos just can't. Stamkos on the Leafs makes them maybe a playoff team, but not much more than that, at least not for a few years. If Durant went to Boston or DC, they'd immediately become the biggest threat out East to Cleveland; if he went to the Raptors, they'd become the best team in the East. Without him the Celtics and Wizards are both first round fodder. NBA is just the least team oriented game there is. You basically need superstars to win, not a truly great team.

[octothorp]

Originally Posted by Hockey Fan #751

It's interesting how in the NBA it seems almost every summer there's a massive free agent (or two or three) on the market but in the NHL, the stars almost always get locked up before going to free agency. Stamkos is as close as any superstar has gotten to becoming a free agent in a long, long time (maybe Hossa 2009 or Chara 2006 being in the only two recent examples).

It's also affected by the fact that in the NBA with salaries going up for several years in a row, star players are opting for shorter contracts: two years plus a player option is a really popular contract for good players, so that they can get back onto the market again and earn another big raise, (because raises are very limited within contracts). Contracts are also capped at 5 years max for bird-rights free agents, and 4 years for everyone else, so that alone means even guys who value long-term security are still going to be coming onto the market every few years.

I also believe that concussions play a role: in the NHL, there's more of a long-term security need than in basketball, where career-ending injuries are somewhat more predictable... it's rare that a guy without a notable and escalating injury history (say, to his knees) ever suffers a career-ending injury.

[Simanium]

Originally Posted by Hockey Fan #751

It's interesting how in the NBA it seems almost every summer there's a massive free agent (or two or three) on the market but in the NHL, the stars almost always get locked up before going to free agency. Stamkos is as close as any superstar has gotten to becoming a free agent in a long, long time (maybe Hossa 2009 or Chara 2006 being in the only two recent examples).

Next year Curry, Russell Westbrook, Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, likely Durant and LeBron will all be free agents again. I think next year will be different and players will be looking for long term deals instead of these 1 year contracts, because the following year there is a very good chance of a lockout and players will want some long-term security.

[Simanium]

Originally Posted by howard_the_duck

Disgusting mentality in the NBA. Where is the competitive jam from these players? You just lost in 7 to the Warriors, in a series you had a strangle hold, and instead of focusing all of your energy on going back to beat them next season with the team that drafted you, you leave to go play with them when the first opportunity presents itself?

Disgusting. There are only 2 teams that can legitimately win an NBA title now.

Today's NBA is broken

Agree completely with this, the competitive fire is being lost. Can you imagine Michael Jordan leaving the Bulls to sign with the Pistons because they kept eliminating the Bulls in his early years?

[nik-]

https://twitter.com/CloudN9neSyrup/s...36870696808448

haha

[Frequitude]

Lower the player cap in the NHL to around $5M and we'd probably see super teams as well.