who do you think

2013-14 - 16,291 per game, 94.1% (28-54) 2014-15 - 16,586 per game, 95.8% (29-53) 2015-16 - 17,256 per game, 99.7% (33-49) 2016-17 - 17,608 per game, 100.6% (32-50) 2017-18 - 17,555 per game, 100.3% (27-55) 2018-19 - 17,096 per game, 97.7% (39-43) 2019-20 - 16,795 per game, 95.5% (31-41) > The Kings need to move to heckin Seattle already because... THEY JUST DO, OKAY?

*has 2005 Indiana flashbacks*

Oh THERE are the 2021 Celtics. I knew they were hanging around somewhere.

mildlyexasperatedsigh.gif

I'd hem Katie Nolan's pants, if you know what I mean

I thought the Warriors-are-heckin-bad narrative expired in 2019 after Durant left.

Will the Coyotes defense force ever run out of excuses?

> Lakers get greedy even greedier then crap themselves so badly that they can only 33 win games > Clippers paying a fortune in future draft picks for their two superteamers to sit on the bench all year and miss the playoffs > Nets get high and mighty and arrogant, then get swept out of the first round This has been a great season for the NBA and basketball as a whole. Not being sarcastic. Can't wait for the next sloppy superteam this glob of idiot socialites comes up with.

Who cares? The Celtics almost made the Finals when they gave all his minutes to Terry Rozier (generic scoring guard who wasn't a total embarrassment on defense), then crapped themselves the very next season with Kyrie in the lineup. Any and all 'Kyrie is special and irreplaceable' narratives should have died right then and there, but they didn't because people think NBA 2K = real life.

Boy this is gonna suck for the 33 games a year teams aren't forced by Nike to wear their cherry blossom pride meme jerseys or whatever.

Time to feed another innocent man through the wood chipper that is Charlotte Hornets basketball.

That's nice. The sport is on the decline either way and neither one of these franchises has a viable place to play currently, and no viable market to retreat to. If such a place existed, they'd be gone already. If Bud Selig and the owners were bold enough to threaten contraction in 2001 to get rid of the Expos, I don't see why Rob "Piece of Metal" Manfred and today's decidedly less sentimental owners would be so aghast at the idea. It's not like anyone would miss either franchise outside of whatever meager Thrashers-tier following they currently have. Muh footprint. Always a classic. The Kings have a place to play (and just built a new arena) and reported consistently full buildings in the mid-2010s up until COVID hit, despite the on-court product being absolutely putrid. Attendance previously sagged around 2010 when the Maloofs were sandbagging the team and relocation rumors were in full swing, reminiscent of the original Winnipeg Jets. The Jaguars have a place to play that they're currently looking at renovating, and absolutely nowhere better to go unless you still believe in the London meme or think they can take on the Cowboys in central Texas. Both aforementioned franchises also benefit from being the only big-four games in town. The A's and Rays, on the other hand, are buried in their current markets and will be buried in whatever NBA/NHL roll call city people want to move them to. The inflated baseball schedule (twice the home dates, twice the seats to fill per date) means baseball can't troll for the Oklahoma Citys and Memphises of the world as the NBA would do.

Forget Quebec City... moving 1/5 of the home slate from Gila River to Saskatoon's 15,000 seater was a completely unacceptable idea because muh optix, but this is okay.

Nowhere. I already said that. Which is why I think both teams will ultimately be scrapped for parts. Both franchises have to cut all their players loose once faced with the prospect of paying any of them more than peanuts and have had to do so for the last 20+ years now, relegating them to little more than cannon fodder on the major league schedule when there's no lightning in the bottle, but yeah, everything's fine.

no no no, and already failed once please do NBA city roll call next, that's always fun

The hell is this? On-field performance means nothing when business performance is crap. I agree that it's really heckin wholesome how these broke meme operations keep on finding good enough players to win their annual 86 games or so, but the most important thing is that neither franchise is viable in its current market. And since there are no viable North American markets available for them to relocate to, well...

Meanwhile the Rays are clocking in at a below-average-even-for-them 12,000 per game after 7 home dates. Granted that's against AAAA teams, and I'm sure the influx of visiting M:censored:s and New Yorkers will help bring it back up to the more standard 15,000 average when all is said and done, so no need to worry. I bet all the loose change in my gym bag that both teams get whacked by 2030. Anyone who thinks Montreal or Vegas is the answer for either of these franchises is nuttier than genderx dot com. They are not viable where they are and have nowhere to go.

Half-hearted predictions: WEST PHX over [whoever]: maybe a Clippers berth and a surprise return by Kawhi could make this interesting MEM over MIN: not sure either team is "ready for prime time" but the Grizzlies had the decisively better regular season record... celebrationgate indicates that the Wolves are just happy to be here GS over DEN: Denver hasn't been impressive and they're way too dependent on Jokic, I think GS can win this even if Curry misses the entire series DAL over UTA: Dallas went 20-7 after ditching Porzingis, Utah is a flawed team that missed their window last year... gonna go out on a limb and predict a round one Jazz meltdown followed by a lot of trade and coaching change rumors - DAL over PHX: Chris Paul is guilty until proven innocent GS over MEM: Grizzlies' breakout season comes to an end against the more experienced team gunning for one more ring - GS over DAL: Dallas could win this, but I won't bet against a healthy Golden State EAST MIA over [whoever]: neither the Cavs or the Hawks look like obvious upset candidates BOS over BRK: Boston looked good enough without Williams although I still don't fully trust them since they spent over half the season being a bad team, on the other hand Brooklyn's roster is not impressive after Durant and Kyrie... I predict a shaggy dog story akin to last year's Suns-Lakers series MIL over CHI: Bulls have been fading for a while now and outperformed their expected W-L by 6 games, can't see them pulling an upset here TOR over PHI: Raptors play well together and are peaking at the right time (and also have the vax mandate boogeyman on their side), Philly joins Utah and the Lakers as main characters of the offseason rumor mill - MIA over TOR: people seem to be in a real hurry to write off Miami this year MIL over BOS: I have an unofficial "defending champs are innocent until proven guilty through at least 2 rounds unless something looks seriously wrong" policy - MIA over MIL: The Heat embarrassed the Bucks in 2020, the Bucks embarrassed them last year, the Heat have home court this time, the Bucks already have their ring and had an underwhelming season even by typical championship hangover standards... leaning toward Miami here FINALS GS over MIA: The Warriors get (probably) their last ring, Bill Simmons goes nuts with Stephen Curry pyramid podcasts

> Ja Morant is going to sign with the Lakers because of their COVID summer league ring from 2020 555comeonnow

Rivers had the Boston media licking the hair off his nuts. They always went to bat for him in their writing, although fan discontent was pretty high by his second year. I don't know what his secret was. Keep in mind that when he first got hired the team consisted of Pierce, a not-there-yet Perkins, and 12 Walgreens cashiers, so it wasn't exactly a hot-seat win-now type of situation. Had they choked in 2008 he probably would have gotten appropriately skewered and possibly fired. The KG injury cut the dynasty short. 2009 was obviously a write-off without him, but even when he came back he was noticeably less tough down low and on the boards. Ainge f***ed up by not having any rebounding depth on the 2010 roster (should have signed Ben Wallace instead of Sheed), that's what cost us against the Lakers. After that the team was past its sell-by date.

If the Mavs were going to overhaul I feel like they would have done it by now. I think that they think their current logo and colors will stand the test of time. I can't shake the feeling that the Spurs are gonna do something stupid now that their playoff dynasty is solidly over and they're just another franchise. Like bringing back the fiesta colors and actually incorporating them into their primary jerseys. I highly doubt the Warriors do a total rebrand for quite some time, their recent success has probably legitimized the franchise and that blue/gold bay bridge look in much the same way the Jordan era did for the Bulls. Keep in mind that the annual 2-3 Nike clownsuits means that there will still be plenty of novelty crap they can still sell without having to depart from their "main" identity. Can't see Charlotte doing a significant rebrand after all the history gore that was made to get them back in teal and purple as the Hornets. The Pelicans have a really solid look as is, no reason to mess with it and I'm not sure anyone in the organization with clout even cares enough to mess with it. As for the Grizzlies, see the Mavs. I think they have looked horrendous ever since they rolled out that faded double-blue brand, but they've kept it for this long while other teams have gone through 2-3 other major changes since, so they're probably committed to it.

"Load management" was around way before the play-in tournament was implemented. As for how to fix it... well, regular season games have to mean more. Nobody will sit their stars in a game that they can't afford to lose and risk losing without all hands on deck. One possible roundabout solution is to get rid of lottery odds and give the (now) 10 non-playoff teams an equal chance at one of the top 3 picks. If bad teams playing out the string no longer have incentive to tank for more lottery balls, they'll provide more spirited competition against teams that still have something to play for.

LeBron is a barely-literate frontrunner who needs to get the hell off of Instagram. No wonder Laker fans love him so much, the guy is LA incarnate. Really interested to see how far Cleveland goes and how good their young guys look in the process. If they're able to get into the second round, hoo boy I think I smell a trade demand coming.

When the brain of every GM you hire seems to melt out through his ears and nose the instant he steps into his new office, there might be a greater problem within the organization.