NBA Chatter Thread

Texas Ace

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Well he did have people offering him 20 million per year.

Honestly that's a good deal for 2 or 3 years.
Let me clarify.

He got close to what he was asking for, but not from the types of teams he thought would give it to him.

I'm guessing Milwaukee and Denver weren't on his list of desired destinations.

No title contender came even close to giving him what he wanted.
 

Simpleton

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This is one of the oddest offseasons I can ever remember the Bulls having. Rose and Noah both to the somewhat rival Knicks, Butler nearly traded for basically nothing in Dunn and Lavine and then signing two longtime Bulls antagonists in Rondo and Wade.

Wade was one of my favorite players before the whole Lebron teamup thing, can't say I'm a fan of his anymore but I still have a small soft spot for him. Can't figure out why he wants to join the Bulls unless he just wants to play out his last years at home but who knows.

He did make it to within a game of the ECF on a very depleted team with nothing but Dragic/Deng/Winslow/Joe Johnson around him by the end of that Toronto series. Considering how bad the East is if he's healthy I wouldn't be surprised if Wade+Butler is enough to make it to the ECF for a swift 4-0 ass-whipping from Cleveland. The spacing will be terrible between him and Rondo but we'll see what happens. I'd honestly have preferred to see them not sign Rondo and roll with a PG-less lineup with Wade and Butler trading off ballhandling duties but I guess they wouldn't have known that they'd end up with Wade when they signed Rondo.

Rondo/Wade/Butler/Gibson/Lopez with Valentine/McDermott/Mirotic/Portis off the bench is very flawed but in the shit East it could definitely be enough to make the ECF. I mean, Lowry/DeRozan/Carroll/Patterson/Valanciunas with Ross/Poetl/Joseph is really no better.

Still loathe the Bulls front office/management though.
 

Jiggyfly

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Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical not only knows everything; he knows it long before anyone else does. With most NBA reporters, you have to take things like this with a grain of salt. But when Woj speaks, you listen. So when he said on The Vertical podcast Wednesday that Russell Westbrook may have had some qualms about Kevin Durant’s buddy-buddy relationship with a certain high-profile competitor, there’s probably something to that. Here’s a transcript of that part of his discussion with guest Jeff Van Gundy:

“And there’s no question, I know Russell [Westbrook] was bothered by — and some other teammates were too — of, like, there was some knowledge there that Draymond [Green] was in contact with Kevin [Durant] all season long and they’re in a playoff series and I know there was some conversation around the Thunder team of ‘hey man, this guy kicked Steven Adams in the nuts twice in this series and what are you doing hanging out with this guy? What’s the relationship? We’re trying to beat these guys.’”
Since Durant’s bombshell announcement, the NBA world has been trying to piece together to just how this transpired, and rumors of a widening rift between the Thunder’s star duo have unsurprisingly come to the forefront. While Durant’s time in Oklahoma City has ended, the ripple effects are just beginning, which now appears will include Westbrook’s own departure from OKC, whether that happens via trade prior to the February deadline or in free agency next summer.
 

Simpleton

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That's not surprising and it'd piss me off too if I were a player/coach/fan of the Thunder.

As an aside, read a few quotes on Durant's decision from Barkley recently:

"I was disappointed. I was disappointed like I was disappointed when LeBron went to Miami," Barkley said on ESPN Radio's Mike & Mike on Wednesday. "Kevin is a terrific player. He's a good kid. But just disappointed with the fact that he weakened another team and he's gonna kind of gravy train on a terrific Warriors team. Just disappointed from a competitive standpoint. Because just like it meant more to LeBron to win one in Cleveland, it would mean more to Kevin to win one in Oklahoma than it would be in Golden State."
"We develop this thing where you keep telling these guys, 'Hey man, if you don't win a championship, you're a bum.' I don't feel like a bum," he said. "I'm pretty sure Patrick Ewing, Karl Malone and John Stockton -- we think we're pretty damn good. We could have played with some of those other guys and kind of cheated our way to a championship. But there is this thing that started with this new generation where these guys feel so much pressure. Everybody wants to win."
"I'm a big Chris Paul fan. I'm sure Chris Paul wants to win a championship. And he could, when his contract is up, go join one of these superteams and get a championship. But it won't be the same as leading your team where you're the bus driver instead of the bus rider."
And on the league in general:

"We're gonna have guys on bad teams making $25 million a year. And we're going to have three or four competitive teams," Barkley said. "That's the negative of LeBron going to Miami, KD going to Golden State. First of all, the fans love their teams, they love sports. But they're not going to go see Sacramento, Indiana, Miami, these bad teams where guys are making 10, 20, 30 million dollars a year and they don't have a chance to compete. I mean, that's where we're going. We're going to kill the golden goose. Everybody's going to be making a lot of money, but other than five teams we're going to be putting a shabby product out there. That's what's going to kill the NBA in the next few years in my opinion."
Sounds pretty familiar.
 

Genghis Khan

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I agree with Charles. It's not that Durant went to a rival, it's not that he's teaming up with superstars.

The problem I see is that Durant is an elite player who went to a team that easily could win without him.

You couldn't say that about Barkley's Rockets or LeBron's Heat or anyone else you could bring up.

That makes it different, and honestly a little weak.

Like Charles said, it's basically riding a gravy train.
 

Simpleton

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I agree with Charles. It's not that Durant went to a rival, it's not that he's teaming up with superstars.

The problem I see is that Durant is an elite player who went to a team that easily could win without him.

You couldn't say that about Barkley's Rockets or LeBron's Heat or anyone else you could bring up.

That makes it different, and honestly a little weak.

Like Charles said, it's basically riding a gravy train.
Not just a team that could very easily win without him, a team that has already won without him, is coming off 73 wins and was literally a minute away from going back to back.

While Barkley was an All-Star joining a team only a year removed from going back to back, they were all about to enter their mid-30's and their careers were winding down. That was much more similar to Payton/Malone joining the Lakers while on their last legs than a prime Durant joining his arch rival whose core players are all in their prime. Instead of competing and trying to overcome a team like that while at the top of their games he just ran off to join his top competition when he was already close to beating them in OKC as it was.
 

Genghis Khan

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And all apologies to jiggy, but those Rocket teams prior to Barkley never would have won at all if Jordan was still playing.
 

Texas Ace

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And all apologies to jiggy, but those Rocket teams prior to Barkley never would have won at all if Jordan was still playing.
Everyone outside of Houston knows this to be true.

But Houston people will tell you that Vernon Maxwell used to give Jordan a hard time. :lol

Yea, I'm so sure in the NBA Finals MJ would've been completely incapable of solving the riddle that is Vernon Maxwell.
 

Jiggyfly

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And all apologies to jiggy, but those Rocket teams prior to Barkley never would have won at all if Jordan was still playing.
I don't know about that but would have liked too have seen it happen.

Those were not Jordans best teams and he never played against another Superstar like Hakeem.
 

Simpleton

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Olajuwon was better than Malone but Stockton was better than anybody else on those Rocket teams.
 
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Deuce

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I love how the term "arch rival" keeps getting thrown around. Nobody gave a shit about Golden State prior to 3 years ago. They were nobodies rival. They met OKC two years in a row in the WCF, that automatically makes a rivalry?
 

Carp

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I love how the term "arch rival" keeps getting thrown around. Nobody gave a shit about Golden State prior to 3 years ago. They were nobodies rival. They met OKC two years in a row in the WCF, that automatically makes a rivalry?
Yep. The Grizzlies and Spurs were their real rivals.
 

Simpleton

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I love how the term "arch rival" keeps getting thrown around. Nobody gave a shit about Golden State prior to 3 years ago. They were nobodies rival. They met OKC two years in a row in the WCF, that automatically makes a rivalry?
Who in the hell else would be OKC's rival in the West for the next 3 or so years?

Curry, Klay and Green are all in their primes, so are Durant and Westbrook, they just went through an epic 7 game series where either team could've won. There is nobody else in the West that would've been a threat to these two over the next 3 years except for the Spurs, and they're old as shit and ready to fall off at any time.

If Durant/Westbrook had stayed in OKC Golden State would've been to them as Detroit was to Jordan's Bulls.
 

Simpleton

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This true but I think the rest of that roster was better and more versatile.
Maybe although I think those Utah teams were more or less as good as the Houston teams, if Jordan hadn't existed Utah likely goes back to back just like Houston.
 

Kbrown

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Always nice to have to defend reality against a hypothetical scenario everyone takes as the truth.
 
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