The 2017 NBA Playoffs: This Is A Recording

[EvilChameleon]

Clearly the Cavaliers need to hire Nick Saban as their next head coach then. Cavs in 4 over the Warriors next season if that happens. Write it down.

[truepg]

23 hours ago, CLEstones said:

Guys like @truepg just can't see things objectively.  They have a constant homer bias but then blame other people for having a bias against Cleveland, even if they are just speaking objectively.

 

You are really obsessed with me. You just can't let it go, can you?

You're making this so hard, smh.

Just for the record, I'm not a Clevelander.

[CLEstones]

57 minutes ago, truepg said:

 

You are really obsessed with me. You just can't let it go, can you?

You're making this so hard, smh.

 

You are more dense and pompous than I think we all have given you credit for.

 

I know its hard to admit you are wrong.  Don't worry, the internet doesn't forget.

[IceCap]

5 hours ago, truepg said:

 

You are really obsessed with me. You just can't let it go, can you?

You're making this so hard, smh.

Just for the record, I'm not a Clevelander.

You don't need to be from a place to be a homer for the team. 

As strange as that sounds.

[truepg]

 

8 hours ago, CLEstones said:

 

You are more dense and pompous than I think we all have given you credit for.

 

I know its hard to admit you are wrong.  Don't worry, the internet doesn't forget.

 

Lol, wrong about what? You're so insecure.

 

Mods, you might want to look into this guy, his level of obsession has reached to personal insults.

 

Dude even tagged me in that post to make sure that I'll see it, even though it wasn't addressed to me. This is ridiculous.

 

[HedleyLamarr]

CLEVE'JACKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Speaking of "Cleveland" and "jack-off's", His Majesty chimed in after their loss to the Warriors, saying that he's never played for a superteam.  I guess Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh were just Average Joes, dime-a-dozen NBA players.

 

How tone deaf is that mo-fo?

[CLEstones]

6 minutes ago, HedleyLamarr said:

CLEVE'JACKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Speaking of "Cleveland" and "jack-off's", His Majesty chimed in after their loss to the Warriors, saying that he's never played for a superteam.  I guess Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh were just Average Joes, dime-a-dozen NBA players.

 

How tone deaf is that mo-fo?

 

I laughed when I saw that too.  The guy who originated the SuperTeam says he never played for one, any less 2.  I've noticed LeBron has also been using a new crutch... "I dont believe in that."  He has said it a few different times now.

 

P.S. Cleve'jacked is a bit unfounded, since the thread is NBA Playoffs, the Finals just ended, and much of the Playoff narrative was Golden State v. Cleveland, Part 3.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

LeBron definitely played on a super team, but they were far from the first. The Celtics of the 50s/60s qualify, as do the Lakers and Celtics of the 80s. The 2004 Lakers were a super team, though with guys at the end of their careers so it's different. 

 

The 2008-10 Celtics were the Big Three super team that kicked LeBron's ass for three years and made him realize he needed to get out of Cleveland for a chance to win.

[Wings]

 

 

THE NBA.......IT'S CAKE-TASTIC!!!!!!!

[BBTV]

"Superteams" were the norm when I was a kid.  It's just that they were assembled more organically, since there wasn't free agency, salary caps, "Bird exceptions" and other garbage that nobody should have to care about.

 

Bird-McHale-Parrish could be considered a superteam, no?

Malone-Erving-Cheeks?

K A-J, Magic, Worthy?

 

Hell, even recently, Shaq and Kobe should count - even just the two of them.

 

Get over the "super team" stuff.  The only reason anyone cares is because they chose to form the team, rather than it just happen through drafting or trades.  A star player is an idiot if he would rather play with bad players than good ones.  You're an idiot if you want to work with dummies rather than smart people.

[The_Admiral]

Yeah that's great but there's a 30-team league to run whether you like it or not and the situation should not be as dire as it is, where there's no point in supporting at least two-thirds of the teams. If you can consolidate all the top talent into three or four teams, maybe there just aren't enough people who are really good at basketball.

[The_Admiral]

And another thing, if we're going to deploy Sports Is Not Your Office Job when some schmuck says "these NBA players, just because I sprained my finger I still have to make Microsoft Excel documents," then we also have to deploy Sports Is Not Your Office Job when addressing how the whole closed economic system of a sports league necessarily bears no resemblance to real life and that there's an implicit agreement between producer and consumer that talent will be distributed at least somewhat equitably such that all member franchises can be agreed to belong in a league together.

[The Six]

The only way for the NBA to be competitive is to contract at least 10 teams. With basketball being a global sport and talent coming from all around the world, it's strange there aren't more great players. I don't care about parity, because the notion of parity being all that is noble and good about sports leagues is a lie, but it would be nice to have a basketball league where it isn't a forgone conclusion the same 2 teams will be in the Finals every year.

[CLEstones]

16 hours ago, DG_Now said:

LeBron definitely played on a super team, but they were far from the first. The Celtics of the 50s/60s qualify, as do the Lakers and Celtics of the 80s. The 2004 Lakers were a super team, though with guys at the end of their careers so it's different. 

 

The 2008-10 Celtics were the Big Three super team that kicked LeBron's ass for three years and made him realize he needed to get out of Cleveland for a chance to win.

 

 

I guess I differentiate Super Teams.  Its one thing for Oklahoma City, or pre-Durant-Golden State, who built everything through great drafting, player development, and minor free agent deals (Livingston, Iguodala).  I even differentiate the Pierce-Garnett-Allen Celtic, because those were made through trades where the other teams actually got value.

 

Its a completely different scenario when 3 top 15 players collude and join Miami up to make a super team.  It's another thing with a the best player (LBJ back to CLE) and second best player (KD to GSW) in the league decide to leave their current teams for teams with better/younger/healthier cores, leaving their previous team with nothing.

[CLEstones]

7 hours ago, The Six said:

The only way for the NBA to be competitive is to contract at least 10 teams. With basketball being a global sport and talent coming from all around the world, it's strange there aren't more great players. I don't care about parity, because the notion of parity being all that is noble and good about sports leagues is a lie, but it would be nice to have a basketball league where it isn't a forgone conclusion the same 2 teams will be in the Finals every year.

 

I think there are other options, while still expanding the league:

 

1. You ALWAYS have rights to your draft picks.  It counts against the salary cap but shouldn't count against luxury tax.  You shouldn't be penalized for drafting and developing your own talent.  In Oklahoma City's case, they should have been able to resign Westbrook, Durant, Harden, Ibaka, etc. without paying tax penalties on it.  That would benefit the smaller markets.
2.  I think they need some sort of Franchise Tag, a la the NFL.  It is based on a percentage of the salary cap.  In order to benefit smaller markets, the first year tag would be luxury tax exempt.  Year 2 would be 40% of the luxury tax, and year 3 would be full percentage.

[The_Admiral]

9 hours ago, The Six said:

With basketball being a global sport and talent coming from all around the world, it's strange there aren't more great players.

 

Yeah, this is what gets me about the NBA more than anything. I don't think there's a sport that's more down on its incoming talent than basketball; seemingly every incoming class is promoted as worse than the last. So teams tank, fine, they always will, but then when they end up drafting sixth, vanity of vanities, all is lost, because wouldn't you know it, this draft class that takes the best of the best from a sport played around the world only happened to have five good players in it. As usual, I blame Sam Hinkie for a lot of this.

 

The end result of this mindset is these perpetual-mediocrity machines like the Milwaukee Bucks, that demand new taxpayer-funded arenas, cannot and/or will not compete, but will see no repercussions for being unable or unwilling to compete because there's enough central TV money and now Chinese money to keep the gears turning. There's no reason to be a fan. Way more than ever, we're all just going to admire the NBA from afar like it's the Premier League or something, which is weird for a domestic league.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

And this is part of the reason people were/are so down on the Durant move. LeBron is a generational talent and always wins the East, as evidenced by 2011 through 2017.

 

But in the West, Durant nuked the power balance completely. He went from a team that was a game away from the Finals to knocking that same team to jobber status. Couple that with poorly-timed Spurs injuries, and the West got as locked up as the east.

 

The NBA has always been top heavy, because single players have outsized influence more than any other sport. But due to a confluence of factors, it's worse now more than ever and will remain so until the Warriors break and/or LeBron breaks down.

 

There's the off chance Giannis takes the leap, the Celtics 2004 Pistonize themselves or the Sixers hit all the breaks...but I won't hold my breath for any of that.

 

I love this league but agree it's not great right now. Short of Silver breaking up the Warriors, I don't know what can be done.

[dfwabel]

In the 1980's, five teams made the Finals all decade (BOS, LAL, HOU, PHL, DET).  FIVE.

 

The forgetful 70's had ten teams make it in a smaller league. Nobody still around believes that the 70's, cocaine and all, was better.

[Sport]

25 minutes ago, dfwabel said:

In the 1980's, five teams made the Finals all decade (BOS, LAL, HOU, PHL, DET).  FIVE.

 

The forgetful 70's had ten teams make it in a smaller league. Nobody still around believes that the 70's, cocaine and all, was better.

 

I watched the Lakers-Celtics 30 For 30 (which could've been shorter by at least half) and I kept thinking how boring that must've been to see the same teams in the finals every single year. You don't want too much parity because then randomness takes over and that's no good, but you don't want the entire league to be a pointless exercise just so the same two teams can play each other every year. 

[Lee Noire]

4 hours ago, CLEstones said:

 

 

I guess I differentiate Super Teams.  Its one thing for Oklahoma City, or pre-Durant-Golden State, who built everything through great drafting, player development, and minor free agent deals (Livingston, Iguodala).  I even differentiate the Pierce-Garnett-Allen Celtic, because those were made through trades where the other teams actually got value.

 

Its a completely different scenario when 3 top 15 players collude and join Miami up to make a super team.  It's another thing with a the best player (LBJ back to CLE) and second best player (KD to GSW) in the league decide to leave their current teams for teams with better/younger/healthier cores, leaving their previous team with nothing.

I've never been a fan of this argument. If the suits do it then it's ok, but if the players decide then it's a problem. That's some slave owner mentality stuff. Not saying you think like that, but it's scary how many do. Free agency is as valid as a draft or a trade, but something about that word free(dom) just drives people mad.

 

I have no issue with guys looking at the lay of the land and going for an opportunity to get rings. Especially now that, in the court of Twitter, the only way your career means jack is if you win minimum 5 of them. Or if you are player people like (read: Dirk) and you finally get one. If he doesn't get one no one is looking at Melo saying "but at least he didn't join so and so." That might have got him points in the 80s-90s but not now.

 

Having said that I do prefer what LeBron did in Miami over KD in GS. LeBron went to a place willing to spend real money and built his own thing to get over the Boston hump. He didn't join Boston. KD joined Boston figuratively speaking.