I *think* if you threw in two rookie scale contracts from the 2021 draft, they might have just enough salary ballast to make it work. It'd be like: Wiggs, + Wiseman + Oubre S/T + Loon + the two players from the draft.
I'm sure I'm breaking like 374 CBA rules, tho. ;-P
You can take back 125% of salary. S&T Oubre at $15 M, add Wiseman $9.1, Wiggins $31.5, Looney $5.1 and you can take back $75.8M, even before the picks. George and Kawhi make $75.4.
Since we're obviously doing them a favor, switch out Looney for Smiley and Paschall, adjust Oubre's new deal to be a bit higher than $15 and you sir, have a deal.
I really thought Lillard and Blazers would pull the upset off. No doubt Dame and company played their hearts out. Methinks the coaching let them down; can't believe there was zero adjustment when they were up 14 in the 3rd and the momentum shifted; not even a timeout...
Have to be content with the Lollakers ousting...Broke my heart to see another LBJ mercenary team bite the dust; should have consulted with Gentry to find out how difficult/frustrating it was to keep a healthy Davis on the court all those years in New Orleans. Dang those HOMEGROWN-core Warriors led by ET Cury who robbed him of the 6-ring legacy he desperately sought...Looks like Nets-Bucks is going to be bigger than the East Conference Tittle Series, and, for all practical purposes, even bigger than the NBA Finals Series. Methinks only the Giannis-led team can stop the HARDEN/KD/IRVING Mercenary team from winning the title it was built for..
After Jamal Murray went down, along with Barton and Dozier, it was the Nuggets who pulled the (mild) upset, I think. I don’t think many expected them to play as well as they did with a backcourt rotation of Facundo Campazzo, Austin Rivers, and Monte Morris. They took every Blazer punch and kept on fighting.
Huge props to Dame’s amazingness — that Game 5 performance in particular was one of the two or three greatest playoff performances I’ve seen. As far as the team as a whole, though: while they may have “played their hearts out,” they were also by far the worst defensive team in the playoffs, and the worst team in the league at sharing the ball. Most of that falls on the genius of Terry Stotts, who will likely be getting the axe in 3-2-1...
I've thought that about Stotts for the past 2 years and yet no change is ever made. By the front office. Or by how he coaches. He's got a mostly healthy team now - but even during the regular season, he only has an 8-man rotation. I'll bet Rondae Hollis-Jefferson was shocked that he got off the bench the last 2 games. He's been glued there [along with the rest of the bench guys] the whole season. That is an old-old school coaching trait. You don't ever develop any new players that way.
On the other hand, Denver just plugs in another guard or forward and runs with it. I like Denver and I like their coach.
I have wondered that as well. I believe the team is owned by Paul Allen's sister since he passed. Not sure what all is going on there but maybe something will happen now that they've not been able to get out of the first round again.
Well, I hear you, but, Portland entered Game 6 with a 29% chance of winning the series; that is 10% better than what's happened historically. The reason for that, as you point out, was Denver's long list of injuries. Nonetheless, I agree, everyone knows Blazers are about run and gun, and rely on offense w/ poor defense. In spite of all that, yes, a bit of a surprise Denver kept up with them, reason why I hoped Blazers would pull off an upset as they were always underdogs...after all, they were up against the Joker MVP and media darling ever since LBJ bummed out on them...lol
Screw the franken-teams which home-grow little talent and import their mercenary stars to try to get a championship. Glad to see LAL go down in a /real/ playoffs and to have the Clippers on the brink of elimination. If Dallas can knock them out, we just need the Bucks to take down the Nets for order to be restored to the NBA universe.
Tonight just reinforced the feeling of total relief that I had ever since the Warriors lost both games in the play-in.
I do not feel this Warriors team had enough to beat the Jazz or the Suns in the first round, unless the Jazz or Suns got injury woes. Not how it was constructed, and not with the many injuries it’s players had.
I honestly felt that the LAL/GSW game featured a poisoned chalice for a prize (that chalice being a low seed playoff berth). Both teams were hurt and less than 100%. I felt that the risk of significant injury to their key players was higher than their chances to win a title. And so it proved, with AD getting hurt to the point that he couldn’t give more than 5 ineffective minutes in an win-or-go-home game on his team’s own floor.
I would have felt sick to my soul if what happened to AD had happened to Steph or Dray. And the risk was even higher and for greater injury to Steph, because he was ALREADY playing while significantly injured with a fractured tailbone. A severe injury to Steph or Dray on a (what I feel was) a doomed short playoff run would have closed the title window for this core. I wanted no part of risking that window, and the chance at two top-5 picks in this loaded draft, just to have a playoff run as ultimately pointless as I felt that run would have been if we’d beaten LAL or MEM to face PHX or UTAH.
But then again, the Warriors were not meant to compete this year after Klay got hurt. That injury meant this was a “house money” year for the Warriors, regardless of how badly Steph or Dray want to deny it. The Lakers, on the other hand, don’t have the luxury of this year being forfeit. They have little in the way of young talent or assets. Their core is Lebron, AD, maybe Schroeder, and little else. They had NO CHOICE but to risk everything this year and next. They truly have no tomorrow.
Anyway, happy to see Phoenix win. If only to shut ESPN up on their Lebron obsession for a few weeks...
Even when he retires, ESPN will keep on spouting crap about him. In their post-game write-up, Booker and the Suns get mentioned in a couple of paragraphs. The rest is hair-pulling over the Lakers and the whiney bastard. And their were already 2-articles about what the Lakers had to do in this offseason to get right again this morning.
Or wiseman dray for Lebron? Functionally similar in the sense that they’re point forwards... question being whether the extra offense offsets the defense...
LeBron is better overall than Draymond, if that’s your question.
I was kidding on the LeBron trade idea, tho. Dream basketball fit with Steph and Klay, obviously, but it’d feel gross. Plus I’m just hella tired of watching LeBron. Everything about his game and his antics is incredibly boring and predictable to me. Give me the newness of Wiseman, Poole, and Scottie Barnes...
Hahaha I know I kind of gag thinking about it (although it would kind of mean the public or Lebron have finally acknowledged that Steph owns Bron...), or the reports of Lebron recruiting Steph. Yuck.
I don’t think so. We had no defensive answer for Devin Booker if Wiggins has to defend CP3. And if he doesn’t, CP3 dices our defense into shreds. Especially if we don’t injure him like Lebron tried to earlier in the series.
Anyone on CP3. C’mon. We’re talking a 36 y.o., 5-10 smurf who has lost like three steps and had a broken wing that had him bricking wide open threes. Steph would have absolutely destroyed him on both ends.
The Ws also have a zillion guys who are well suited to guarding Booker: Wiggs, Bazemore, JTA, Lee, Poole, GP2, Oubre if healthy.
Suns are a very good team, but the premise that the Warriors with their top five defense had nothing for Booker and old broken-down CP3 is ridiculous.
That Smurf managed to turn the tide against LA in the 4th with a bum shoulder, just with the way he got everyone on the floor organized and the way he probed the defense. And I doubt he'd be guarding Steph if we played them in a series. Also, Lakers were a top 3 defense and still got smoked by Phoenix, injuries not withstanding.
Paul annoys me on the court as much as anyone, but he definitely is a huge part of the reason they're a two seed that just beat the defending champs. Give him a little credit.
He's great, obviously, and yeah, a huge part of that team, but he's also not some unguardable offensive dynamo that Steph could not possibly handle, which was the premise of the post I was replying to ("CP3 dices our defense into shreds," lol.)
His silly MVP candidacy was also exposed in that series, imo. Forget best player in the league; he's not close to the best player on his team (Booker), in terms of traditional stats or advanced stats that measure on-court impact. It'd basically be like giving the 2015 or 2016 League MVP to Iguodala. He's that kind of player for the Suns at age 36.
Hard to prove a counter-factual, but I don't think they're any worse right now with a healthy 30 y.o. Ricky Rubio than with a banged up 36 y.o. CP3.
Going into a playoff series and the answer is GPII? Oof.
With a healthy Oubre and non-COVID DLee, I think they would've had a punchers chance, but to win they'd need waaaaay more than the .385 TS% they got from Draymond in the 2 play-in games.
Which was a shame because to end the season Draymond was looking a lot better at actually finishing at the rim, but I guess it all fell apart once the play-in games hit and teams could game plan for him.
In Lebron’s last drive of the game, he got denied at the rim and spent the first 10 secs of the shot clock arguing with the ref in the backcourt while Phoenix was bleeding clock in the front court. The only reason Phoenix didn’t score was because clock was more important than points at that point.
Lebron led by example at that point for sure. When he gave up, the Lakers gave up with him.
There’s a lot to this comment I think. FA’s should see that the West is wide open and that a few additions to the Dubs roster puts them right at the top of the conference. Just think if, for this past season, we’d had the likes of Batum, Gasol, Burks. Being able to add guys like that to the margins of the roster makes for a more reliable 2d unit and probably adds 5-7 wins to the season’s total. Suddenly we’re a 5-6 seed in a very weak West.
We just need a healthy Klay, so that FAs see the Dubs as viable.
Not gracious at all. Of course he’s happy to give Steph a hug when he beats him with a lucky shot, but he doesn’t hug or dap up a single Sun (not even CP3) after they kick his ass to the curb.
The point was for AD to carry him. Or at least do the lions share of the work until the finals. Kinda like how Kyrie and KLove were supposed to carry Lebron when he went back to Cleveland. But for various reasons, Lebron is having to do the carrying again.
He’s not getting any younger. He’s still one of the smartest players in the league, so he can still be an asset until he’s 50. But he’s not an automatic instant contender anymore.
If Mavericks put to bed Clippers tonight, can we have Jerry West back in the Bay? Maybe to lead our FO before the draft?
Nice idea. Kerr hinted at some coaching staff changes; maybe a FO tweak as well?
And maybe the Logo can bring Kawhi or PG with him?
Or both?
Death Lineup 3.0
Curry
Thompson
PG
Kawhi
Green
= 74-8, 16-0 playoffs.
And a unicorn, and a pony, and ....
Good luck with the salary cap on that one 😅
I *think* if you threw in two rookie scale contracts from the 2021 draft, they might have just enough salary ballast to make it work. It'd be like: Wiggs, + Wiseman + Oubre S/T + Loon + the two players from the draft.
I'm sure I'm breaking like 374 CBA rules, tho. ;-P
You can take back 125% of salary. S&T Oubre at $15 M, add Wiseman $9.1, Wiggins $31.5, Looney $5.1 and you can take back $75.8M, even before the picks. George and Kawhi make $75.4.
Since we're obviously doing them a favor, switch out Looney for Smiley and Paschall, adjust Oubre's new deal to be a bit higher than $15 and you sir, have a deal.
Ha, thanks for the detail. I’m in!
I don’t love the idea of creating another mercenary superteam, but crushing the souls of LeBron, Harden, KD, and Kyrie might be worth it...
I really thought Lillard and Blazers would pull the upset off. No doubt Dame and company played their hearts out. Methinks the coaching let them down; can't believe there was zero adjustment when they were up 14 in the 3rd and the momentum shifted; not even a timeout...
Have to be content with the Lollakers ousting...Broke my heart to see another LBJ mercenary team bite the dust; should have consulted with Gentry to find out how difficult/frustrating it was to keep a healthy Davis on the court all those years in New Orleans. Dang those HOMEGROWN-core Warriors led by ET Cury who robbed him of the 6-ring legacy he desperately sought...Looks like Nets-Bucks is going to be bigger than the East Conference Tittle Series, and, for all practical purposes, even bigger than the NBA Finals Series. Methinks only the Giannis-led team can stop the HARDEN/KD/IRVING Mercenary team from winning the title it was built for..
After Jamal Murray went down, along with Barton and Dozier, it was the Nuggets who pulled the (mild) upset, I think. I don’t think many expected them to play as well as they did with a backcourt rotation of Facundo Campazzo, Austin Rivers, and Monte Morris. They took every Blazer punch and kept on fighting.
Huge props to Dame’s amazingness — that Game 5 performance in particular was one of the two or three greatest playoff performances I’ve seen. As far as the team as a whole, though: while they may have “played their hearts out,” they were also by far the worst defensive team in the playoffs, and the worst team in the league at sharing the ball. Most of that falls on the genius of Terry Stotts, who will likely be getting the axe in 3-2-1...
I've thought that about Stotts for the past 2 years and yet no change is ever made. By the front office. Or by how he coaches. He's got a mostly healthy team now - but even during the regular season, he only has an 8-man rotation. I'll bet Rondae Hollis-Jefferson was shocked that he got off the bench the last 2 games. He's been glued there [along with the rest of the bench guys] the whole season. That is an old-old school coaching trait. You don't ever develop any new players that way.
On the other hand, Denver just plugs in another guard or forward and runs with it. I like Denver and I like their coach.
Is it just Stotts, or is there an FO problem in Portland, I wonder.
I have wondered that as well. I believe the team is owned by Paul Allen's sister since he passed. Not sure what all is going on there but maybe something will happen now that they've not been able to get out of the first round again.
Well, I hear you, but, Portland entered Game 6 with a 29% chance of winning the series; that is 10% better than what's happened historically. The reason for that, as you point out, was Denver's long list of injuries. Nonetheless, I agree, everyone knows Blazers are about run and gun, and rely on offense w/ poor defense. In spite of all that, yes, a bit of a surprise Denver kept up with them, reason why I hoped Blazers would pull off an upset as they were always underdogs...after all, they were up against the Joker MVP and media darling ever since LBJ bummed out on them...lol
Devin Booker definitely showed me something tonight, I had written him off not playoff-tough earlier in the series.
tbf that lakers team was going nowhere. they weren't even playing like a playoff team
Yep, thoroughly agree...he is the real deal...he, and Dame are the best Curry imitators...
Dame sure, but Booker is a completely different type of player. Still, point taken. He's legit.
I hate that AD couldn't go, but not enough to pass up the chance to celebrate the Lakers going down or Lebron going down.
Screw the franken-teams which home-grow little talent and import their mercenary stars to try to get a championship. Glad to see LAL go down in a /real/ playoffs and to have the Clippers on the brink of elimination. If Dallas can knock them out, we just need the Bucks to take down the Nets for order to be restored to the NBA universe.
Tonight just reinforced the feeling of total relief that I had ever since the Warriors lost both games in the play-in.
I do not feel this Warriors team had enough to beat the Jazz or the Suns in the first round, unless the Jazz or Suns got injury woes. Not how it was constructed, and not with the many injuries it’s players had.
I honestly felt that the LAL/GSW game featured a poisoned chalice for a prize (that chalice being a low seed playoff berth). Both teams were hurt and less than 100%. I felt that the risk of significant injury to their key players was higher than their chances to win a title. And so it proved, with AD getting hurt to the point that he couldn’t give more than 5 ineffective minutes in an win-or-go-home game on his team’s own floor.
I would have felt sick to my soul if what happened to AD had happened to Steph or Dray. And the risk was even higher and for greater injury to Steph, because he was ALREADY playing while significantly injured with a fractured tailbone. A severe injury to Steph or Dray on a (what I feel was) a doomed short playoff run would have closed the title window for this core. I wanted no part of risking that window, and the chance at two top-5 picks in this loaded draft, just to have a playoff run as ultimately pointless as I felt that run would have been if we’d beaten LAL or MEM to face PHX or UTAH.
But then again, the Warriors were not meant to compete this year after Klay got hurt. That injury meant this was a “house money” year for the Warriors, regardless of how badly Steph or Dray want to deny it. The Lakers, on the other hand, don’t have the luxury of this year being forfeit. They have little in the way of young talent or assets. Their core is Lebron, AD, maybe Schroeder, and little else. They had NO CHOICE but to risk everything this year and next. They truly have no tomorrow.
Anyway, happy to see Phoenix win. If only to shut ESPN up on their Lebron obsession for a few weeks...
Even when he retires, ESPN will keep on spouting crap about him. In their post-game write-up, Booker and the Suns get mentioned in a couple of paragraphs. The rest is hair-pulling over the Lakers and the whiney bastard. And their were already 2-articles about what the Lakers had to do in this offseason to get right again this morning.
I think with a whealthy Oubre we stole 7th place, to loose 4 - 2 against CP3, and to have 20th pick instead of a lottery pick.
Sounds about right. At the #20 pick, we’d also have been a close win or two away from picking #36.
Lebron should retire
C'mon man, he's still a huge positive on the court.
Wiseman, Wiggins, and the picks for LeBron. Who says no?
/ducks flying tomatoes/
Or wiseman dray for Lebron? Functionally similar in the sense that they’re point forwards... question being whether the extra offense offsets the defense...
LeBron is better overall than Draymond, if that’s your question.
I was kidding on the LeBron trade idea, tho. Dream basketball fit with Steph and Klay, obviously, but it’d feel gross. Plus I’m just hella tired of watching LeBron. Everything about his game and his antics is incredibly boring and predictable to me. Give me the newness of Wiseman, Poole, and Scottie Barnes...
Im pullin for a Moody+Kispert combo if we get the minny pick
Hahaha I know I kind of gag thinking about it (although it would kind of mean the public or Lebron have finally acknowledged that Steph owns Bron...), or the reports of Lebron recruiting Steph. Yuck.
So...next step is a Clippers loss...followed by a Nets loss...followed by a Warriors #1 pick...then a Warriors #4 pick...etc...
#4 pick will be announced first.
I don’t want to get greedy/vindictive and otherwise like the young suns, but Chris Paul is still annoying...
I like your thinking. I sense we are on the same page.
So satisfying, so , fuck you Lebron as usual
The Suns weren't cowards by avoiding teams in the 1st round and they were rewarded by the basketball gods.
Pretty amusing the Clippers hand-picked Dallas to avoid the Lakers.
It'll be more amusing if Dallas can put the final nail in the Clippers' coffin.
More like Lel-kers, amirite? Seriously, though, we would have totally beaten Phoenix.
I don’t think so. We had no defensive answer for Devin Booker if Wiggins has to defend CP3. And if he doesn’t, CP3 dices our defense into shreds. Especially if we don’t injure him like Lebron tried to earlier in the series.
GP II on CP3.
The bigger issue was the issue all year: The Ws had no reliable 2nd option if teams could find a way to take away Steph.
Anyone on CP3. C’mon. We’re talking a 36 y.o., 5-10 smurf who has lost like three steps and had a broken wing that had him bricking wide open threes. Steph would have absolutely destroyed him on both ends.
The Ws also have a zillion guys who are well suited to guarding Booker: Wiggs, Bazemore, JTA, Lee, Poole, GP2, Oubre if healthy.
Suns are a very good team, but the premise that the Warriors with their top five defense had nothing for Booker and old broken-down CP3 is ridiculous.
(Offense beyond Steph would have been a bigger issue).
That Smurf managed to turn the tide against LA in the 4th with a bum shoulder, just with the way he got everyone on the floor organized and the way he probed the defense. And I doubt he'd be guarding Steph if we played them in a series. Also, Lakers were a top 3 defense and still got smoked by Phoenix, injuries not withstanding.
Paul annoys me on the court as much as anyone, but he definitely is a huge part of the reason they're a two seed that just beat the defending champs. Give him a little credit.
SMURF!
He's great, obviously, and yeah, a huge part of that team, but he's also not some unguardable offensive dynamo that Steph could not possibly handle, which was the premise of the post I was replying to ("CP3 dices our defense into shreds," lol.)
His silly MVP candidacy was also exposed in that series, imo. Forget best player in the league; he's not close to the best player on his team (Booker), in terms of traditional stats or advanced stats that measure on-court impact. It'd basically be like giving the 2015 or 2016 League MVP to Iguodala. He's that kind of player for the Suns at age 36.
Hard to prove a counter-factual, but I don't think they're any worse right now with a healthy 30 y.o. Ricky Rubio than with a banged up 36 y.o. CP3.
Going into a playoff series and the answer is GPII? Oof.
With a healthy Oubre and non-COVID DLee, I think they would've had a punchers chance, but to win they'd need waaaaay more than the .385 TS% they got from Draymond in the 2 play-in games.
Which was a shame because to end the season Draymond was looking a lot better at actually finishing at the rim, but I guess it all fell apart once the play-in games hit and teams could game plan for him.
Nobody really took away Steph down the stretch. We just didn’t have enough scoring other than him.
Hence the comment about Klay.
They didn't like that Booker dunk with like 40 seconds left. Guess they should play D, then. That's how you stop those.
Don't expect LeBron to stop him - he's still in the backcourt.
In Lebron’s last drive of the game, he got denied at the rim and spent the first 10 secs of the shot clock arguing with the ref in the backcourt while Phoenix was bleeding clock in the front court. The only reason Phoenix didn’t score was because clock was more important than points at that point.
Lebron led by example at that point for sure. When he gave up, the Lakers gave up with him.
Yep, was watching that. Hounding the ref the whole way up the court. Anyone else gets a T, but LBJ is spoiled trash.
Lebron watching Crowder shoot that 3 from the paint says it all lol
Sorry Marc Gasol, you went to the wrong team in California.
There’s a lot to this comment I think. FA’s should see that the West is wide open and that a few additions to the Dubs roster puts them right at the top of the conference. Just think if, for this past season, we’d had the likes of Batum, Gasol, Burks. Being able to add guys like that to the margins of the roster makes for a more reliable 2d unit and probably adds 5-7 wins to the season’s total. Suddenly we’re a 5-6 seed in a very weak West.
We just need a healthy Klay, so that FAs see the Dubs as viable.
That was a lose-lose. He got what he deserved, but he screwed the Ws as well.
Time to see how gracious LeBron is. Guessing he'll just disappear or maybe appear later with a huge medical appliance around his legs or arms.
Not gracious at all. Of course he’s happy to give Steph a hug when he beats him with a lucky shot, but he doesn’t hug or dap up a single Sun (not even CP3) after they kick his ass to the curb.
A spoiled whiny baby till the end.
The definition of a sore loser
Could this be the end of Lebron? Cuz I wouldn't mind one bit lol
It's definitely end of Lebron as "The guy". He's pretty much 2013 D Wade at this point
Lebron after the game: My ankle was owie, remember when I said that. Yeah that's why we lost.
His carrying days are over. If he wins another title it'll be him that will get carried.
The point was for AD to carry him. Or at least do the lions share of the work until the finals. Kinda like how Kyrie and KLove were supposed to carry Lebron when he went back to Cleveland. But for various reasons, Lebron is having to do the carrying again.
He’s not getting any younger. He’s still one of the smartest players in the league, so he can still be an asset until he’s 50. But he’s not an automatic instant contender anymore.
Lol at Schroder saying something about his hair after the Lakers repeat. That'll teach you chumps to be cocky
and the Lakers are done