2023-24 NBA Season

[IthacaBarrel]

Today I realized the Lakers are the St. Louis Cardinals of basketball. The overhyping of acquisitions, sitting pat when they obviously need to make a move, holding onto problematic players for way too long, spending less than they should/could…it’s all out of the John Mozeliak playbook. Both teams should be sold.

Sticking with D’Angelo Russell is 100% on brand.

Lakers waiting for the summer where they can trade another 2-3 first rounders to try and keep LeBron happy at age 40. Makes a lot of sense

 

[IthacaBarrel]

I mean what happened to Golden St and all the wheeling and dealing they were suppose to be doing

 

[STEVEHOLT]

Agree on Morey, what has he ever won while in a true leadership position

Do a deep dive on how he handled the deals made to appease harden. Every step of the way he made a bad situation worse.

Took Chris Paul and traded him to OKC for Westbrook but had to include assets and take on extra money / years because of how Paul was valued. Then compounded it when he traded Westbrook but again had to include assets to get out of the crappy contract…. Meanwhile okc trades Paul and RECEIVED assets for him.

So morey trades Paul as a NEGATIVE asset but then okc trades him as a positive. Not to mention the team got worse on the court.

 

[STEVEHOLT]

I mean what happened to Golden St and all the wheeling and dealing they were suppose to be doing

Nobody is falling for the Kuminga bs.

 

[Day2]

Lakers waiting for the summer where they can trade another 2-3 first rounders to try and keep LeBron happy at age 40. Makes a lot of sense

Sarcasm?

 

[Newhouser]

Lakers and Warriors had little to sell. An All-star back for Reaves? Anyone want Wiggins? Klay? Don't help the bullies of the league. Good for the other GMs.

 

[Knicks411]

Agree on Morey, what has he ever won while in a true leadership position

I think Morey is generally pretty sharp, but not perfect. (The stuff with Russ outlined here is really bad), but if the standard is just going to be what has he ever won, then I mean there arent exactly a lot of good GMs out there, are there?

Very happy with what the Knicks did

 

[Day2]

Lakers and Warriors had little to sell. An All-star back for Reaves? Anyone want Wiggins? Klay? Don't help the bullies of the league. Good for the other GMs.

It’s true the Lakers had little to trade. Even so, they’ve been saying all year they would be buyers at the deadline. They’re trying to change the narrative now and their fans shouldn’t let them get away with it. But they will, which is funny.

 

[IthacaBarrel]

Sarcasm?

Of course

 

[IthacaBarrel]

I think Morey is generally pretty sharp, but not perfect. (The stuff with Russ outlined here is really bad), but if the standard is just going to be what has he ever won, then I mean there arent exactly a lot of good GMs out there, are there?

Very happy with what the Knicks did

Yeah but there aren’t a lot that flap their gums as much as Morey either. I don’t hear Sam Presti and several others talking all the time

 

[IthacaBarrel]

I think Charlotte and the Knicks were probably the biggest winners obviously two franchises in completely different spots but felt they both made nice moves

 

[Cusefan0307]

The Lakers should’ve traded Lebron. Someone would have overpaid. No one wants Wiggins or Klay at this stage.

 

[Fireball Jr.]

Who’da thunk The Brow’d be the healthiest Laker this season next to Reaves. Sheeeeeeiiit.

 

[jncuse]

Was the trade deadline a dud? Historically speaking probably no … I think people enter them with too high expectations. With the cap and trade rules, completing “fair” deals are hard to begin with before we get into GM negotiations.

We had the Harden/Simmons blockbuster in 2022 but I think those are more the exception than the rule.

I think Toronto did a smart thing trading OG and Siakam in late December to Mid January … not sure if it would have been any better waiting up to the deadline when people are tight.

 

[jncuse]

Related to my point above, I think one easy thing a league can do to make trades easier at the deadline is allowing teams to retain salary on expiring contracts.

I’ll use the example of Gary Trent … he has a 19m contract. Part of the difficulty in trading him is that Raps want expiring in return and there is not much out there to make the deal match, especially that a contending team wants to get rid off.

Now let’s say the Twolves are interested … and the teams think that Leonard Miller (2m contract) and two second rounders make sense. That is a contract mismatch — but since Trent is expiring, the Raps keep 17m on their cap, and now you are trading 2m for 2m.

This would make trading expiring contracts much easier. Would also stop buyouts.

Of course the complication then becomes bird rights. If you make it easy on acquiring teams to get expiring players that they want to resign . It makes it easier for the highest payroll teams to accumulate talent.

But the league could use the various aprons and other cap crap to restrict who can do this, or how many times they can do this.

Just some rambling as I am stuck in a waiting room at the hospital.

 

[Newhouser]

Going to be interesting to watch Thibs juggle the deep roster that the Knicks have at his disposal. Sharing minutes has not been his forte over the years.

 

[Knicks411]

Related to my point above, I think one easy thing a league can do to make trades easier at the deadline is allowing teams to retain salary on expiring contracts.

I’ll use the example of Gary Trent … he has a 19m contract. Part of the difficulty in trading him is that Raps want expiring in return and there is not much out there to make the deal match, especially that a contending team wants to get rid off.

Now let’s say the Twolves are interested … and the teams think that Leonard Miller (2m contract) and two second rounders make sense. That is a contract mismatch — but since Trent is expiring, the Raps keep 17m on their cap, and now you are trading 2m for 2m.

This would make trading expiring contracts much easier. Would also stop buyouts.

Of course the complication then becomes bird rights. If you make it easy on acquiring teams to get expiring players that they want to resign . It makes it easier for the highest payroll teams to accumulate talent.

But the league could use the various aprons and other cap crap to restrict who can do this, or how many times they can do this.

Just some rambling as I am stuck in a waiting room at the hospital.

Right I think the league probably sees this as a form of cap circumvention. (I think they do something like this in the NHL, but they also have a hard cap). You can be over the cap and yet do a trade where you effectively add a ton of salary. (though I guess you see stuff like this with trade exceptions)

Also the league wants to make it harder for the high salary teams to make moves, with the apron stuff and all that

 

[shandeezy7]

Going to be interesting to watch Thibs juggle the deep roster that the Knicks have at his disposal. Sharing minutes has not been his forte over the years.

Assuming they ever actually get fully healthy again. Dudes dropping like flies.

 

[shandeezy7]

One of the worst foul calls I’ve ever seen at the end of Knicks Rockets. SMH.

 

[NineOneSeven]

One of the worst foul calls I’ve ever seen at the end of Knicks Rockets. SMH.

Tuned in for the last few minutes and saw that. I've been pretty checked out in the nba this year. Following along with fantasy and sports betting sometimes but not watching much outside of some primetime games. Too many blowouts and games.

But yeah that foul call was stupid.

 

[Eric15]

You have to feel good for the Pistons. They won 4 out of their first 43 games, and then have won 4 out of their last 9. They clearly don’t want to be the answer to a trivia question.

 

[Newhouser]

You have to feel good for the Pistons. They won 4 out of their first 43 games, and then have won 4 out of their last 9. They clearly don’t want to be the answer to a trivia question.

Someone told Monty Williams to start playing certain guys, Killian Hayes not being one of them.

 

[STEVEHOLT]

One of the worst foul calls I’ve ever seen at the end of Knicks Rockets. SMH.

As a rockets fan I can assure you had the game gone to OT, the Rockets would have lost by at least 10. So you was robbed of a victory. The desperation on that Holliday shot shouldn’t have been rewarded with whistle.

 

[STEVEHOLT]

You have to feel good for the Pistons. They won 4 out of their first 43 games, and then have won 4 out of their last 9. They clearly don’t want to be the answer to a trivia question.

Jaden Ivey been much better and also used better

 

[STEVEHOLT]

Right I think the league probably sees this as a form of cap circumvention. (I think they do something like this in the NHL, but they also have a hard cap). You can be over the cap and yet do a trade where you effectively add a ton of salary. (though I guess you see stuff like this with trade exceptions)

Also the league wants to make it harder for the high salary teams to make moves, with the apron stuff and all that

NHL has a hard cap but you can get rid of some payroll by sending guys to the minor as well as throwing assets to get your trade partner to retain salary. But the hard cap (which will go up for the first team in years next year) has pretty much killed a lot of deadline dealing. It’s not good for the league. The cap is so low that more than half the teams can’t do anything of significance.