The Basketball Thread
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@arkandel
While yes the tax based concerned are valid, I am not sure Market size matters when it comes to someone the stature of LeBron, after all he has been in movies and TV etc already and not sure him moving to LA odds more to the endorsement pull.
Now it definitely did for Durant when he moved out of OKC but Durant was not yet a made man like LeBron is currently.
I am not sure where he will end up going but I have to think he stays in the East for the easy path to the finals. -
@arkandel said in The Basketball Thread:
That's why I think there's a decent chance he stays in Cleveland. There's no great fit for him in terms of his age, goals and salary cap space out there.
The King is literally the King of the Cleveland area.
He could still move, but I doubt it. He wants those rings. And he knows that, if he's in Cleveland, everyone will credit him for it.
I would not be surprised if he took a lower price to stay in Cleveland on a year-by-year basis.
“It is better to live doing the things that you like. It is foolish to live within this dream of a world seeing unpleasantness and doing only things that you do not like.” -- Yamamoto Tsunetomo.
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https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/04/16/how-far-can-becky-hammon-go-in-the-nba
"Popovich and his general manager, R. C. Buford, insist that they had no intention of making a political statement. “It has nothing to do with her being a woman. She happens to be a woman,” Popovich said."
- He who takes offense when not intended is a fool. He who takes offense when intended is a greater fool.
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[Jessop] This my favorite LeBron story. During the Finals in 2014, the Heat locker room was filled to the brim with everyone huddled around his locker. A camera man literally moved me out of the way. LeBron saw. He looked at the guy and said, “apologize to her.” It was EPIC.
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I really hate that I have to cheer for the Rockets as the only real chance to avoid Cav-Warriors round 4.
Though on the plus said that round four would free up some evenings normally reserved for watching the NBA finals. -
Hot take: Lebron could take an Eastern Conference team consisted of myself, the guy who drove my bus this morning, the cashier at the Tim Horton's around the corner and my cat to the NBA Finals.
- He who takes offense when not intended is a fool. He who takes offense when intended is a greater fool.
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@arkandel said in The Basketball Thread:
Hot take: Lebron could take an Eastern Conference team consisted of myself, the guy who drove my bus this morning, the cashier at the Tim Horton's around the corner and my cat to the NBA Finals.
Addendum: In the Eastern Conference.
The Eastern Conference is like 7th Grade B-Team Basketball vs. Varsity of the West.
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@bobgoblin The addendum was already in there!
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@arkandel Tom Brady can relate.
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These days, Tom Brady needs Pete Carroll or Kyle Shanahan to win a Super Bowl. Or not have a Manning or Raven involved.
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@arkandel said in The Basketball Thread:
Hot take: Lebron could take an Eastern Conference team consisted of myself, the guy who drove my bus this morning, the cashier at the Tim Horton's around the corner and my cat to the NBA Finals.
The real accomplishment will be taking more than one game from whomever wins game 7 tonight.
As much as I dislike Harden I will have to cheer for Houston tonight. I have been dreading Warriors -Cavs for for the last 6 months. -
@ganymede Yeah, them stars have trouble being consistent in the top game. But they can win their conferences consistently with just about anyone on their team. I don't like it, but they've earned the respect. From me anyway.
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@thatguythere said in The Basketball Thread:
As much as I dislike Harden I will have to cheer for Houston tonight. I have been dreading Warriors -Cavs for for the last 6 months.
Yeah, as much as I like Steph as a person I despise the Warriors. What KD did was the most bitch move ever by a top player. I'd love the Dubs to go out, but even though the game's playing as we speak I seriously doubt it - they just have too much talent stacked up.
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It's really tough to win 5 vs 8 in basketball. Playing against that many players on the court at the same time is next to impossible.
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@arkandel Being from California I was a big fan of the Warriors. But I was really bothered by KD's addition. And the Warriors' pursuit of him. I can't really blame them... if KD's out in free agency, their responsibility is to build the best team possible... but I thought the Warriors were a more pure team without him. And their accomplishments meant more. They built themselves from the ground up in the age of free agency domination, but they lost to the Cavs in the finals and just followed everyone to the free agency well.
So I still root for them. And I want them to win tonight (thankfully, the Rockets are just losing - slight difference, same result), but their wins don't excite me anymore and that sucks as a fan.
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I think also this is where the league is falling into trouble. Too many of the teams are built through free agency 'super teams' doing low bidding (or going so far over the salary cap that it's ridiculous). I historically hate Boston, but what excited me about them was that they've been built through trades and draft. That's building, not just taking massive pay cuts to stack more and more 'players'.
The fact that the the two teams with the highest salaries are going to meet for the 3rd consecutive year should be a massive tell that the NBA has become 'buy your championship' which really hurts mid-market teams. This is in a league with a supposed 'Cap', but if you don't enforce it, it's meaningless.
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@warma-sheen said in The Basketball Thread:
Yeah, them stars have trouble being consistent in the top game. But they can win their conferences consistently with just about anyone on their team. I don't like it, but they've earned the respect. From me anyway.
I don't want this to become the Football Thread, but I team of deaf chimps could win the AFC East in the absence of the Patriots.
@bobgoblin said in The Basketball Thread:
I think also this is where the league is falling into trouble. Too many of the teams are built through free agency 'super teams' doing low bidding (or going so far over the salary cap that it's ridiculous). I historically hate Boston, but what excited me about them was that they've been built through trades and draft. That's building, not just taking massive pay cuts to stack more and more 'players'.
Boston and Golden State were mostly built. You should be rooting for them.
“It is better to live doing the things that you like. It is foolish to live within this dream of a world seeing unpleasantness and doing only things that you do not like.” -- Yamamoto Tsunetomo.
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Boston Yes
Golden State PRE KD - Yes, and I did.
Since they paid for their championship last year? No.
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@bobgoblin said in The Basketball Thread:
Since they paid for their championship last year? No.
They had to brutalize their way through the Cavaliers to do it, and the Rockets are exposing their liabilities.
Frankly, LeBron looks like a man on a mission. Good luck stopping him this year. He looks pissed off every damn game.
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LeBron just went 7 games deep against a rookie (Tatum), a second year player (Brown) and role players who wouldn't start on most teams in the West. It doesn't matter how much mission he's on. Individual play and HGH can only carry someone so far.
Also, can the statements of the Cav's being 'trash' stop? If they are trash, then why do their players combined have the highest salary in the league? If those players are really that bad, then the GM needs to be fired immediately and sent to a Gulag in Serbia.
