This is why the Celtics need to consider Kawhi heavily. Even as a one year rental they'll probably push into the finals plus they have enough assets to make a reasonable deal and have reserves.
Kawhi is an interesting personality and stevens is known as a coach that connects with players well and get them to buy in. Much like pop but younger and more relatable.
If Kawhi struggles with the pressure of San Antonio he'll crumble in la.
When you let an excellent GM leave (Griffin) you'll struggle to get any decent deal done. But who am I kidding, Griffin left because he was tired of taking orders from James.
He wouldn't have been a centerpiece on the spurs either.
But Bosh's ws went up when he went to the heat. That's the issue that I make with the assumption be was only good on the raptors
Chris Bosh was a 9.6 Win Share with Toronto (which went up to a 10 win Share in Miami) and was good enough for 13th in the League (Wade was 6th) and James was first (with only a 15.6) Bosh took a massive salary decrease below what Toronto was offering to go play with James in Miami and bring an additional 10 wins to that team.
Then when things got rough in Miami (losing to Dallas) they went and brought in Ray Allen and his 7.2 WS to get them over that hump. The average salary for a 7.2 WS player in 2012 was around $6 mil more than Allen got paid (Which was just above league minimum).
I don't fault players for chasing championships since that is a metric of 'greatness', but the reality is players took pay cuts to stack teams to play with LeBron. (An important note here, has anyone ever heard a former teammate of LeBron ever praise him for being an excellent teammate?)
Also, the most recent Cavs brought in 12 WS Kevin Love from Minnesota in exchange for 0 WS Andrew Wiggins (Rookie) and a ham sandwich.
Yeah. The clear thing there is LeBron wanted HIS people to get paid (both JR and Tristan were, at the time, with LeBron's Agent who is also part of his circle). So the Cavs paid out to keep LeBron happy. Then they traded their best future asset (Kyrie) for a bag of potato chips. Kyrie I give credit to, he actually was vocal about what a lot of people who have played with LBJ have said privately. He may 'distribute' the ball but he's a selfish player.
Golden State in 5.
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.
Boston Yes
Golden State PRE KD - Yes, and I did.
Since they paid for their championship last year? No.
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.
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.
@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.
same game with less content at present. If you can get it at a discount it's a good buy. But I kind of regret paying full price.
There's like this TV show on Food Network called 'The Best Thing I've Ever Eaten' and it makes me feel glorious and fat watching it. But I thought about it from a gaming landscape so I wanted to pose the following to everyone.
The best ______ I've ever experienced was:
For the ________ let's do 4 topics.
Policy
Game System
Setting
Code
If you could, perhaps list game and description for whichever topic you talk about. But I'd be very interested (and I'd venture some of the developers out there would be too) about some of the best stuff people have experienced over the years.
My group is looking for something new and it's my turn in the GM seat.
I've been intrigued by Reign (Which uses the One Roll) I'm curious if anyone has experience with either Reign itself or at least One Roll that had thoughts or feedback in how it went.
Sci-Fi cancelled The Expanse.
This makes me sad because I enjoyed the Expanse.
This makes me happy because Sci-fi sucks and maybe someone else will pick it up.
I personally like big city girls. They know how to work their goods.
I believe the people who run Inheritance Gambit have done an amazing job with FATE.
@auspice said in Mutant Genesis (X-Men):
One part of the issue I've had lately is people "want" to RP, but they don't want to be responsible for any part of the generation process.
They don't want to come up with where, what, or the set.
They'll ask me if I want to RP.
"Okay."
"Where to?" or "What should we RP?"
...like you asked me. Why do I need to come up with it all now?When I approach someone to RP, I generally try to have something in mind to RP. A goal in mind.
This is why most of us hate BaRP. It's meandering, pointless.
It's why I personally generally don't reply to the call for 'anyone wanna RP?' in OOC Lounges because 9 times out of 10 when I do, it's followed by them wanting me to come up with the where and what.
Like hey, if I have a where/what in mind, I'll put up a call for RP. If I'm responding, the onus should be on you to have those things in mind, damnit! Hell, if you have a where/what, I'll generally even set!
I call shenanigans!