2024-25 NBA Season | Page 15 | Syracusefan.com

2024-25 NBA Season

I love how all of a sudden people claim Luka is like Jabba the Hut. He def can be in better shape but the guy he’s behind for best player in the league in Jokic isn’t winning any Mr Universes anytime soon.

People were saying that he wasn’t in shape in the playoffs last year when he was dragging around a dead leg and bleeding through his tights and still averaging video game numbers before losing to a stacked Cs team.

Can’t wait to see how all those rotation guys for the Mavs look when Luka isn’t attracting all the attention so they’re not shooting wide open threes anymore.

Here’s what will happen in LA: he’ll continue to average like 28,8 and 8. He’ll make mid guys look amazing. LeBron will be able to manage his minutes better. And they’ll probably win a ton. Maybe he starts drinking wheatgrass shots and loving kombucha and eating overnight oats. I dunno. I don’t care either. This dude is a boss.
 
I wonder if Mavs fans are really going to bend over backward to support this plan, especially considering the owners are already treating the fans like garbage. I think most fans are at their limit with owner greed in professional sports.
Yeah, I know a lot of money will be lost if the Mavs move to Vegas but this is the 4th largest market in the country. Someone is going to start a new NBA franchise.
 
If Dallas was looking to tank the team wouldnt they trade for a ton of future picks? They're still going to be solid now
This guy gets it.
 
If Dallas was looking to tank the team wouldnt they trade for a ton of future picks? They're still going to be solid now

They want clean books down the line.

Kyrie has his PO next year year. AD has a PO in '27-'28. Klay is done after '26-'27. The AAC lease is up in '31. With the way the Texas Leg works, if the casino/gambling thing were to even have a long shot at passing, it would likely be in 2027 vs this year. And, that would coincide with the ability to up the threat to far greater levels.

See this r/NBA post:
As it stands now: the Mavs are currently in the play in game only because of when they started with Luka.

BTW, AD has an abdominal strain: How long is Anthony Davis out? Abdominal injury timeline, return date, latest updates on Lakers star | Sporting News

Grade 1? Grade 2? If it's Grade 2... hoo boy.

Combine his injury history with Kyrie's, the fact that Kyrie is the only player that can create on his own and I think you're looking at a play in team out of the west for the Mavs moving forward.
 
I see a lot of people rushing to judgment. The Mavs know something we don’t.

1. Doncic is damaged goods.
2. Doncic had no intention of signing the extension.
3. Doncic already planned on signing with the Lakers after next season.
4. All of the above.

Two days ago, AD was considered a top 10 player and an MVP candidate. Now he’s a bag of chips. OK.

Almost a year ago, Harrison was anointed a genius after all the deadline deals he made. Now he’s a moron. OK.

If Doncic wasn’t playing again this year and if he was going to be a lame duck next year, the Mavs put themselves in the best position to contend during that window. Maybe they should have received another FRP from the Lakers. Multiple picks seems like a stretch, because AD is worth a certain number of FRPs himself.

The Lakers get their replacement for LBJ a year and a half earlier. The difference is that now they can pick Doncic’s running mate, instead of it being AD. They’re also punting on this season, which is a little odd, considering LBJ’s age and where they are in the standings.

I would not assume this was a steal for the Lakers. There are a lot of ifs with Doncic and that organization.
5: None of the above. All of the analysis from a slew of connected individuals (Windhorst, Goldsberry, Simmons (and his crew), the entire Athletic writer staff, et sic porro) indicates your assumptions 1 through 3 are fatuous. Unless I'm missing something related to NBA contract dynnamics, assumption 2 seems particularly irredeemable: why not sign the $345M supermax, when the alternative appears to cost him ~$100M? NBA contracting SMEs: please course correct me if I've missed something here.

Per Doncic's friend and former teammate Chandler Parsons, Luka recently closed on a $15M house... in the Dallas area. Counters assumptions 2 and 3 - do you have anything to buttress either?

Given your track record of unleashing naught but snark and hate (especially in the wake of Doncic's fat ass clapping your Clippers back into irrelevance, and closing any title window that group may have had), I'm compelled to respond point by point here.
 
Then it must be true.
With roughly a dozen other reputable sources concurring, then yes - it most likely is true. Other than a snarky font change, do you have any facts, evidence, or compelling logic to support your take? Again: snark, hate... juxtaposed with a font change. No one should take you seriously... and yes, I'm going with ad hominem attacks: your position doesn't merit an objective response.
 
They want clean books down the line.

Kyrie has his PO next year year. AD has a PO in '27-'28. Klay is done after '26-'27. The AAC lease is up in '31. With the way the Texas Leg works, if the casino/gambling thing were to even have a long shot at passing, it would likely be in 2027 vs this year. And, that would coincide with the ability to up the threat to far greater levels.

See this r/NBA post:
As it stands now: the Mavs are currently in the play in game only because of when they started with Luka.

BTW, AD has an abdominal strain: How long is Anthony Davis out? Abdominal injury timeline, return date, latest updates on Lakers star | Sporting News

Grade 1? Grade 2? If it's Grade 2... hoo boy.

Combine his injury history with Kyrie's, the fact that Kyrie is the only player that can create on his own and I think you're looking at a play in team out of the west for the Mavs moving forward.

I dunno, I still think this is kind of far fetched. Couldn't they just get the expansion deal in Vegas? (Or alternatively, wouldn't the NBA like to have open bidding for a Vegas team?) I really think it would be hard to move a team from a city like Dallas. But I am just an idiot with a keyboard.

I will say if Kyrie is gone after this season then I'll be open to changing my mind. I expect they're going to sign him though. And they'll probably sign AD as well.
 
I dunno, I still think this is kind of far fetched. Couldn't they just get the expansion deal in Vegas? (Or alternatively, wouldn't the NBA like to have open bidding for a Vegas team?) I really think it would be hard to move a team from a city like Dallas. But I am just an idiot with a keyboard.

I will say if Kyrie is gone after this season then I'll be open to changing my mind. I expect they're going to sign him though. And they'll probably sign AD as well.

Oh, it’s most likely Nico being a nuclear-grade idiot and blinded by an allegiance to AD.

He’s already pushed out all the people that were supportive of Luka. He owns this now.
 
Oh, it’s most likely Nico being a nuclear-grade idiot and blinded by an allegiance to AD.

He’s already pushed out all the people that were supportive of Luka. He owns this now.
Buddies with Pelinka too. Remember when the CP3 trade to LA was vetoed? This was by far worse.
 
Oh, it’s most likely Nico being a nuclear-grade idiot and blinded by an allegiance to AD.

He’s already pushed out all the people that were supportive of Luka. He owns this now.
I don't buy that Kidd was unaware. I think he wanted Luka gone too.
 
that non travel call in the knicks game last night was one of the worst calls ever.
 
If Dallas was looking to tank the team wouldnt they trade for a ton of future picks? They're still going to be solid now
Yeah I simply do not buy the casino angle at all personally. Occam's razor applies here...Dallas has flat out told us they made the trade because they were scared of giving Luka the supermax and think Davis improves the team. I think it's really as simple as that even if it feels misguided.
 
If the report that Knecht was originally part of the deal and then the Lakers talked them out of it is true...that is front office ineptness at its best. Knecht should be the happiest guy in the league, he is going to get a ton of open looks.
 
For the life of me I cannot fathom why Nico would make this trade. There is a smoking gun out there somewhere, whether it has something to do with Luka, the owners of the Mavs, the NBA, something. We may never know but maybe sometime down the road it may become apparent. I am sure Luka can be frustrating to deal with at times but he's still a top 3-4 player in the NBA.

Nico was viewed as a really solid sharp GM until Saturday night
 
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Aside from his constant whining to the refs, Luka is generally one of my favorite players to watch in the league. And he's obviously had a lot of huge playoff performances. Having said that, I have often thought to myself, "can you really win a title playing this way?" He's better than Harden, but he does tend to play a very similar style of basketball where every possession is either him standing still not being a factor whatsoever, or it's him with the ball and 4 guys standing around waiting for him to do something. I am generally pretty skeptical that you can actually win a title doing that.

Maybe that's just how Dallas chose to build around him, similar to how Houston chose to build around Harden. But idk, I do kinda think as magical a player he is, I'd tend to bet he never wins a title. In some ways, I do think a Kyrie/Davis pairing offers more avenues to build a contender.

Entirely possible I'm way off the reservation though and I think Dallas fans are absolutely in their right to be freaking out right now. The fact that they couldn't get more picks, Knecht, etc. from the Lakers remains incredibly shocking.
 
Aside from his constant whining to the refs, Luka is generally one of my favorite players to watch in the league. And he's obviously had a lot of huge playoff performances. Having said that, I have often thought to myself, "can you really win a title playing this way?" He's better than Harden, but he does tend to play a very similar style of basketball where every possession is either him standing still not being a factor whatsoever, or it's him with the ball and 4 guys standing around waiting for him to do something. I am generally pretty skeptical that you can actually win a title doing that.

Maybe that's just how Dallas chose to build around him, similar to how Houston chose to build around Harden. But idk, I do kinda think as magical a player he is, I'd tend to bet he never wins a title. In some ways, I do think a Kyrie/Davis pairing offers more avenues to build a contender.

Entirely possible I'm way off the reservation though and I think Dallas fans are absolutely in their right to be freaking out right now. The fact that they couldn't get more picks, Knecht, etc. from the Lakers remains incredibly shocking.

Is he really that much more heliocentric than Lebron was? Or Jordan?

Kyrie and Ant have both only won titles as the sidekick, not sure you can get there with the two of them trying to lead.
 
Is he really that much more heliocentric than Lebron was? Or Jordan?

Kyrie and Ant have both only won titles as the sidekick, not sure you can get there with the two of them trying to lead.
I would say unequivocally yes. His usage rate in the playoffs has eclipsed 40% in two of his four playoff runs. Jordan's title runs he was at 35%. Lebron's has hovered around 32-33% in the playoffs since he began winning titles and has generally been around 30% when he has actually won the title.

More importantly though, it's also just the way that he's used compared to those guys. They were both used in a lot of different ways to create offense; posting up, pick and roll, off-ball screens, off-ball cuts, etc. Dallas essentially just had Luka stand off to the side completely disengaged in the offense or gave him the ball at the top of the 3 point line and asked him to go create something. Similar in a lot of ways to Giannis' initial struggles getting Milwaukee over the hump where the offense generally just resulted in him having the ball at the top of the 3 point line and running downhill against a set defense.

Again, I don't feel super strongly that I'm correct on this; more just a thought that I've had sometimes as I watch him. And again, just because that's how he's played in the past doesn't necessarily mean it's how he wants to play moving forwards.
 

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