NBA (and Raptors) 2023 Offseason

[transplant99]

Bronny James, the eldest son of Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James, suffered cardiac arrest Monday and is in stable condition.

"Yesterday while practicing Bronny James suffered a cardiac arrest," a James family spokesperson said in a statement. "Medical staff was able to treat Bronny and take him to the hospital. He is now in stable condition and no longer in ICU. We ask for respect and privacy for the James family and we will update media when there is more information.

Yikes.


https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...cardiac-arrest

[Paulie Walnuts]

Scary situation but the worst part about the world now is no one cares about the person they just use this to push anti vaxx propoganda and it started right away. Even Lebron himself has done it when KAJ clapped back at him.

[devo22]

yeah, like clockwork. As if there weren't rare cases of young athletes having heart issues before ... that anti vaxx BS is so tiresome.

scary stuff. Glad he got swift medical attention.

[Paulie Walnuts]

I guess no one saw the Brown richest deal in nba history 5 years 306 million. Seems like he has his head on straight.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1684363349671432192

[devo22]

James Harden doing James Harden things

https://twitter.com/user/status/1691039343186456576

[Strange Brew]

Looks like he will be breaking out the fat suit again for training camp.

[bluejays]

Again? I thought he resigned there recently? The guy is something else. Who will take him?

[Paulie Walnuts]

They told him to opt in to his contract and they would trade him he wants to go to LA the only way he could make it to LA would be a trade.

[bluejays]

Originally Posted by Paulie Walnuts

They told him to opt in to his contract and they would trade him he wants to go to LA the only way he could make it to LA would be a trade.

Oh that changes things then. If they promised and aren't adhering, that's an interesting one, especially if one of the LA teams don't want to have anything to do with giving up assets.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Well here's the schedule for the In-Season Tournament no one asked for. These games count as both regular season games and towards the group standings.

[redmile04]

The tournament seems silly but if it makes the regular season less boring, why not give it a shot, never know...

[Strange Brew]

I kind of like the idea. Kind of odd that the quarter and semi final games will count in the season standings. They will be scheduling a bunch of games on short notice for the teams that don’t make it to keep things balanced. And then I guess there will be a consolation draw for the knockout round to keep the number of games balanced.

[octothorp]

I get the idea of making the season less boring... but I don't get why you'd have the in November and December when engagement is relatively high because more teams are in the mix, fans are excited about the season, Christmas games are still coming up, etc. Want to fix the boring parts of this season, put it between Christmas and the all-star break.

[bluejays]

I read a Raptors mailbag segment on the Toronto Star by Doug Smith who I find is a closeted management cheerleader almost never critiquing them. Anyway, Doug as a writer is credible at one time leading the NBA writers association (and maybe still does), and he says that rebuilding is and never will be in this brasses cards. Given his connection to the team I guess as fan's we're likely going to see some type of add or trade but not a dump and build through the draft. This really gets me angry as a fan as that seems to be the only way. But if he's to be believed, then it is what it is, and I'd guess a few seasons of mediocrity.

[Paulie Walnuts]

Not sure if it was posted but Siakam will be eligible for the Supermax if makes the All-NBA team next season when he turns 30.

The Supermax is going to be $307 million over 5 years. If he is eligible and gets it could end up being one of the worst contracts ever.

[bluejays]

Siakam is a perfect 3rd option on a championship roster. You can't expect him to carry you, and that's more or less a fact at this point. After Masai brought the team to the championship I had all the faith in them, but my faith has taken a major hit the last season or so as they're just meandering without doing something substantial. I maintain you need stars on the team to win. Not at all agreeing with the approach since the championship.

[octothorp]

I'm not too bothered by Siakam's contract status (provided that Masai hasn't burned any bridges here)... I think the most likely contract between him and the Raptors is one that starts at 30% of the cap (standard max), and has incentives (both all-nba and playoff performance) that bring him up to supermax. His current contract is structured similarly, starting at 25% but with incentives he can hit that bring him up to 30%. Given that the new CBA has softened the penalties on going slightly into the tax but staying under the new second apron, that's going to be a contract that still has solid value around the league.

Plus with the likely 10% increases to the cap each year compared against maximum 8% raises to the salary, any longterm contract is going to drop as a percentage of cap hit over its duration. That means that long-term max or supermax contracts actually drop in value as percentage of the cap.

I *think* such a contract can even be negotiated this offseason; his last contract was done that way where it was negotiated with two structures in it: the incentive structure if he made all-nba in the year before the extension kicked in, and the flat rate if he failed to hit all-nba that year.

[octothorp]

Bizarre story with the Knicks suing the Raptors over an video scouting hire accessing propriety Knicks info and sharing allegedly sharing it with Raptors coaches. It seems like the most likely thing here is this one guy being a total idiot and taking proprietary stuff with him, but of course the Knicks are alleging that he was instructed to do so and that Raptors coaches knowingly accessed Knicks proprietary info. An unfortunate distraction for the Raptors, at the least. Worst-case scenario is that this is something that could cost them draft picks down the line.

https://www.tsn.ca/new-york-knicks-s...ation-19.63120

edit:

This article has a section talking to league personnel in similar positions, and definitely leans toward the nothingburger side... not really any competitive advantage gained, kinda commonplace in effect even if there was some carelessness here.

https://www.sportingnews.com/ca/nba/...i38m7qfwk9ov2r

[transplant99]

Girlfriend of Rockets' Kevin Porter has fractured vertebra

Brutal stuff here

Houston Rockets guard Kevin Porter Jr.'s alleged attack on his girlfriend at a New York City hotel left the woman with a fractured neck vertebra and a cut above her right eye, prosecutors revealed at his arraignment Tuesday.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/...ured-vertebrae

[octothorp]

Yeah, domestic violence has become a real problem for the NBA. This sounds particularly brutal. The Miles Bridges incident was also serious, and he received only a 30 game suspension, and will resume with barely a blip in his career this year. If the NBA wants to be serious about this, these sorts of charges need to be, if not career-ending, at least the sort that take years of a clean record and a person trying to make amends before they can re-enter the NBA. Like Meyers Leonard losing a couple years of his career over an antisemitic slur, and working damn hard on righting his wrong too with involvement with the Jewish community, that's the sort of threshold there should be for re-admission to the league; that you have to go out of your way to prove that you've addressed your flaws over a long period of time.