2014-2015 Random NBA Thread

• sportswizuhrd

  Mulva;1740288 wrote:How the fuck did Garnett get $8 mil? Wolves below the salary floor or something?

  8/15 players are on rookie deals making up about 30M of their team salary. Rubio and Pekovic are making a combined 24.8M next year. They want him to mentor Towns and I guess the rest of their money needs to go somewhere...
• sportswizuhrd

  Spurs sign this scary looking dude.
  
  
  
  Likely 3rd string at the 5. 7-4/260 pounds. 7-8 wingspan, 9-7 standing reach. 1st team All-Euroleague Center. Another day, another great Spurs move(low risk/high reward)
• friendfromlowry

  The fuck is wrong with his ears?
• Fab1b

  

  Bat wings?
• friendfromlowry

  
  
  He should do this after every block
• BR1986FB

  friendfromlowry;1740332 wrote:
  
  He should do this after every block

  Would be even more epic if he waved his hand to the crowd, like Hulk Hogan used to do, to gain approval, before putting the hand to his ear.
• Mulva

  

  Embiid having another surgery and expected to miss the season.
  

  “I would say there’s a great possibility that Embiid won’t play next year,” the source said. “Just think how long they sat him when they thought he was healthy.”
  The Sixers are planning as if Embiid won’t play this season, sources say. Another source said the franchise is concerned that this setback could be career-threatening.
  
  http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/deep-sixer/Embiid-likely-to-miss-season-after-2d-surgery.html#0Id7DkBJU9rtirBE.99

• Azubuike24

  

  It's pretty shitty, especially considering both Noel and Embiid were significantly hurt when they were drafted. It's not like there was no way of knowing.
  
  They draft Noel, who's hurt and misses a year.
  They draft Embiid, who's hurt and misses 2 years.
  
  Shit, Okafor better be kept in a bubble or he's next.
• lhslep134

  

  OKC matches the $70M offer sheet for Kanter. Because they chose to dip into the tax for Kanter but traded away Harden to avoid it, I hope the FO in OKC never sees a championship. I hope Durant and Westbrook eventually get one, but not in OKC.
• DeyDurkie5

  

  lhslep134;1740545 wrote:OKC matches the $70M offer sheet for Kanter. Because they chose to dip into the tax for Kanter but traded away Harden to avoid it, I hope the FO in OKC never sees a championship. I hope Durant and Westbrook eventually get one, but not in OKC.

  Because they traded a guy you don't know personally? Seems like a bit of an overreaction
• superman

  DeyDurkie5;1740555 wrote:Because they traded a guy you don't know personally? Seems like a bit of an overreaction

  We'll you see, he's a lawyer. And anyone that knows lawyers, knows they are trained to overreact. It's not just a switch they can turn off. /lhs'd
• lhslep134

  

  DeyDurkie5;1740555 wrote:Because they traded a guy you don't know personally? Seems like a bit of an overreaction

  It's about Harden but not in the way you're implying. I don't want to see cheap, incompetent ownership rewarded with a title. It's hypocritcal considering I root for the Cavs and we just got rewarded for 4 years of incompetency with Lebron, and although DG is willing to spend so it's a little different, we still got rewarded despite our incompetence. But Clay Bennett may have cost OKC a title by being cheap, and I hope his star players decide their futures accordingly.
• j_crazy

  

  cheap is one thing. going into the luxury tax for james harden, who at the time of that decision was still a bit of an unknown, is another. Looking back i'm sure he regrets making that decision. But at the time I didn't think it was some majorly erroneous thing to do. Plus Kanter is a 7 footer and harden was a one dimensional wing player. It's not the same league anymore, you're going to have to go through DJ and Blake, LA and Duncan, Dwight and Josh, Draymond and Bogut, just to get out of west. you have to have someone to put pressure on down low, otherwise your banking on outshooting guys like harden, curry, cp3, leonard, etc.
• lhslep134

  

  j_crazy;1740569 wrote: It's not the same league anymore, you're going to have to go through DJ and Blake, LA and Duncan, Dwight and Josh, Draymond and Bogut, just to get out of west. .

  I'm definitely interested to see how Kanter and his sieve-like defense fits on a team where he won't be needed to score as much when KD and Ibaka are healthy. He looked great in flashes last year offensively but again, KD and Ibaka were out.
• SportsAndLady

  

  Was okc's reason for not retaining Harden the luxury tax or did they just not want to pay him?
  
  If they really didn't sign him to avoid the fucking luxury tax then they can fuck off. But if their true meaning behind not paying him was because they didn't see the deal worth it (can't blame them there. They already had two stars and it's not like harden was playing as well win okc as he is now in Houston) then I don't blame them for letting him walk.
  
  Edit: to add, Harden was the worst defender I've ever seen in OKC. He had obviously really improved there since being in Houston but my god he was lousy with the Thunder. I'll never blame teams for refusing to sign defensive liabilities.
• lhslep134

  

  SportsAndLady;1740572 wrote:Was okc's reason for not retaining Harden the luxury tax or did they just not want to pay him?
  
  If they really didn't sign him to avoid the fucking luxury tax then they can fuck off. But if their true meaning behind not paying him was because they didn't see the deal worth it (can't blame them there. They already had two stars and it's not like harden was playing as well win okc as he is now in Houston) then I don't blame them for letting him walk.

  1) It was because they didn't want to pay the tax. The sides were off by ~$4 million. That's not much over 4 years.
  
  2) Harden was playing a lot better than you said he was. He was 6th in the whole league in Win Shares. Defensive liability for sure, but he was really good, even then. http://bkref.com/tiny/Je6EY
  
  Ownership was just too cheap to keep that core together.
• SportsAndLady

  

  lhslep134;1740576 wrote:1) It was because they didn't want to pay the tax. The sides were off by ~$4 million. That's not much over 4 years.
  
  2) Harden was playing a lot better than you said he was. He was 6th in the whole league in Win Shares. Defensive liability for sure, but he was really good, even then. http://bkref.com/tiny/Je6EY
  
  Ownership was just too cheap to keep that core together.

  I didn't say he was bad or anything just that he wasn't "elite" in OKC and you can argue is a top player in Houston. There was no way to tell he would be this good. It's not like they let a top 10 NBA player walk for nothing because of the tax.
• Mulva

  

  Will the Thunder be above the tax line beyond this season?
  How long would they have paid tax with Harden?
  
  I don't think its an apples to apples comparison unless those are equal, plus OKC is in "keep KD" mode. The landscape has changed for the league and the franchise.
• lhslep134

  

  SportsAndLady;1740577 wrote:I didn't say he was bad or anything just that he wasn't "elite" in OKC and you can argue is a top player in Houston. There was no way to tell he would be this good. It's not like they let a top 10 NBA player walk for nothing because of the tax.

  We're turning this into a Harden conversation but it's not meant to be that. Even if you think he was the 30th best player in the league, you don't let a player like that go over $4 M over 4 years just to avoid the tax and then dip into the tax to max out Enes freaking Kanter
  

  Mulva;1740579 wrote:Will the Thunder be above the tax line beyond this season?
  How long would they have paid tax with Harden?
  
  I don't think its an apples to apples comparison unless those are equal, plus OKC is in "keep KD" mode. The landscape has changed for the league and the franchise.

  The Thunder would have been under the tax in 2014-15 due to the leap before the 2014 season, so they would not have been repeaters. So you can compare them deciding to max out Enes Kanter and go over the tax line and deciding not to max out James Harden to stay under.
• SportsAndLady

  

  lhslep134;1740582 wrote:We're turning this into a Harden conversation but it's not meant to be that. Even if you think he was the 30th best player in the league, you don't let a player like that go over $4 M over 4 years just to avoid the tax and then dip into the tax to max out Enes freaking Kanter
  
  
  
  The Thunder would have been under the tax in 2014-15 due to the leap before the 2014 season, so they would not have been repeaters. So you can compare them deciding to max out Enes Kanter and go over the tax line and deciding not to max out James Harden to stay under.

  Again, I'm not "bashing" harden. I already said I agree you don't let him walk to stay under the luxury tax limit.
  
  My only point was to say Harden was not the Harden he is today (a top NBA player) while in OKC.
• Laley23

  

  Keep in mind also, at the time, OKC was still top dog even without Harden. Kings were looking up. Now, not so much, so desperate ownership will make desperate moves.
• Commander of Awesome

  

  superman;1740560 wrote:We'll you see, he's a lawyer. And anyone that knows lawyers, knows they are trained to overreact. It's not just a switch they can turn off. /lhs'd

  Lol'd
• sleeper

  

  SportsAndLady;1740585 wrote:Again, I'm not "bashing" harden. I already said I agree you don't let him walk to stay under the luxury tax limit.
  
  My only point was to say Harden was not the Harden he is today (a top NBA player) while in OKC.

  He was a 6th man off the bench for a team that wanted to keep the core of Ibaka, KD, and RW together.
  
  Also can we stop the nonsense about bashing owners for not wanting to pay the luxury tax? Just because you spent a ton of money doesn't mean you are going to win championships(see Spurs, spend no money vs. Nets spend way too much money).
• lhslep134

  

  Laley23;1740586 wrote:Keep in mind also, at the time, OKC was still top dog even without Harden.

  Yeah and it's also a fair point that some of Harden's skills were redundant with RW and KD
• Azubuike24

  

  Kanter and Ibaka are a very complimentary combo but both are pretty overpaid at this point.
  
  Westbrook 26, Durant 26, Ibaka 26 and Kanter 23. They just need to be healthy, otherwise it's all a moot point.