2019 NBA Summer season

[Wings]

I'll take a stab at it, pending a possible Westbrook trade:

 

East

1. Philadelphia 

2. Milwaukee 

3. Indiana 

4. Boston

5. Brooklyn

6. Toronto 

7. Miami 

8. Orlando 

 

West

1. Denver

2. L.A. Clippers

3. Utah

4. Houston

5. L.A. Lakers

6. Golden State 

7. Portland

8. San Antonio 

[Digby]

It didn't really register for me that Miami is where Jimmy Butler landed. Now I really want those Westbrook rumors to Miami to come true. Imagine those two in the same locker room; this might be the only thing that could possibly age Erik Spoelstra.

[JG36]

14 hours ago, Wings said:

I'll take a stab at it, pending a possible Westbrook trade:

 

East

1. Philadelphia 

2. Milwaukee 

3. Indiana 

4. Boston

5. Brooklyn

6. Toronto 

7. Miami 

8. Orlando 

 

West

1. Denver

2. L.A. Clippers

3. Utah

4. Houston

5. L.A. Lakers

6. Golden State 

7. Portland

8. San Antonio 

Now do I necessarily agree with these picks? No, not really. Would I mind if this is what the outcome was? Nope, definitely not. Lakers in 5th? Cue tears of joy. I will say it is becoming more and more clear to me that the Lakers don’t look like true contenders just yet. 

[dont care]

1 hour ago, JG36 said:

Now do I necessarily agree with these picks? No, not really. Would I mind if this is what the outcome was? Nope, definitely not. Lakers in 5th? Cue tears of joy. I will say it is becoming more and more clear to me that the Lakers don’t look like true contenders just yet. 

Let’s be real, being outside the top 3 in your conference doesn’t make you a contender, it makes you an also ran.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

I think the Clippers will be hard pressed to be the 2 seed if they start the season (and they will) without PG for a month. Load-managed Kawhi and LAC without SGA and DG means they'll need their bench to win 1 out of 3 games without their star players. Not impossible, but also not likely.

 

I think what will happen is Denver, Utah and Portland start strong because those guys all know each other.

 

Lakers will do the LeBron thing of starting out 15-10 and everyone asking if the whole off-season was a mistake, before they end up with 48-52 wins and a 4 seed.

 

I think the Clippers have the talent and ability to be a top 3 seed in the west, but I also think thwy won't be playing their guys as much as Houston, Denver and Utah, and that will make a difference in the standings.

 

So, to guess at the west (not making any guesses on the east until Westbrook is sorted):

 

1. Denver

2. Utah

3. Clippers

4. Lakers

5. Houston

6. Portland

7. Golden State

8. San Antonio/Dallas/New Orleans figure this out the last game of the season

 

Ultimately, the league wants to see LA/LA in the WCF, so hopefully the brackets make that a possibility.

[dfwabel]

Daryl Morey, team chemistry be dammed.

 

 

[FiddySicks]

I just... Why the hell would either team do that? Does that actually improve the Rockets at all? Does that save the Thunder a single dime? 

 

I get it more for OKC, but still, why? It it feels like they made a trade just for the hell of making the trade. 

[dfwabel]

1 minute ago, Bucfan56 said:

I just... Why the hell would either team do that? Does that actually improve the Rockets at all? Does that save the Thunder a single dime? 

Paul makes less and has one fewer year remaining than Westbrook. 

[DG_ThenNowForever]

OKC wants them picks. And also they prefer to trade within the conference, apparently. If they can't win, neither can any of their opponents.

 

It's a shame they couldn't have three-team traded Westbrook. Paul won't be on OKC at the end of the 19-20 season (and maybe even not the beginning). I think CP3 would have been better served in a place like Detroit.

 

Morey's whole deal is to put good talent together and let them figure it out, but Westbrook and Harden are the two highest-usage guys, right? What the hell is going to happen there?

[BBTV]

how do pick swaps work?  Is it literally "your pick is better than ours so let's swap"? 

[DG_ThenNowForever]

Yeah.

 

LOL at OKC's mayor on Jun 30. Whoops!

 

 

(yes, stolen from Deadspin)

[The Six]

1 hour ago, DG_Now said:

I think CP3 would have been better served in a place like Detroit.

 

[Crabcake]

8 minutes ago, DG_Now said:

 

[dfwabel]

11 minutes ago, BringBackTheVet said:

how do pick swaps work?  Is it literally "your pick is better than ours so let's swap"? 

From Forbes (April 30, 2019
 

Quote

Going back even further, the NBA instituted “The Stepien Rule” in 1981 when newly arrived Cleveland Cavaliers owner, Ted Stepien, decided to trade away five first-round picks in a span of five months, with the mindset of getting into the playoffs. The league took action and now prevents teams from trading consecutive first-round draft picks, thus safeguarding teams from completely eating the bullet draft-wise. Although, teams have – almost impressively – found ways to remain incompetent in that area.

 

While a team is not allowed to trade picks in consecutive years, nothing prevents them from doing a pick-swap, where they hand over the right to swap picks with a team, often resulting in the trading team sacrificing two high picks in the first round for an incoming low one. The infamous 2013 trade between the Nets and Celtics is a prime example. Ignoring the players included in the deal, the Nets ultimately gave up the 17th pick in 2014, the 3rd pick in 2016, the 1st pick in 2017, and the 8th pick in 2018 for the 27th pick in 2017. Yes, the Celtics exercised the right to swap picks in 2017, swapping out their modest selection at 27th for the 1st overall pick. This happened.

 

Furthermore, teams can actually trade consecutive draft picks, as long as they make one of those draft selections before completing the trade as the rule only touches on future selections. The New Orleans Pelicans traded their 2018 first-round pick (later to become Chandler Hutchison) last year to the Chicago Bulls in a deal that fetched them Nikola Mirotic. As such, one might believe they are not allowed to trade their 2019 first-round pick. But if they make the selection themselves, and flip that player just minutes later, that would be entirely legal.

 

 

[Dynasty]

Is this the first time the Oklahoma City Thunder are irrelevant? It feels like they've always been in the mix of things since they relocated from Seattle. This will be a first for their fans.

[BBTV]

Does the pick swap make sense if the team you're going to presumably swap with is likely going to have a better record than you?  Why would OKC want to 'pick swap' with Houston?

[Digby]

30 minutes ago, Dolphins Dynasty said:

Is this the first time the Oklahoma City Thunder are irrelevant? It feels like they've always been in the mix of things since they relocated from Seattle. This will be a first for their fans.

Well, their fans can root for at least 2/3rds of the first glory days in Houston.

[FiddySicks]

Man, I really wish Miami had found a way to get Westbrook. Him and Butler together would’ve been dysfunctional as all hell, but at least it would’ve been a fun dysfunctional. This move seems like it’s going to be JUST dysfunctional. 

 

Also, while I do like the all the picks OKC got, the Thunder are basically the Kings from here on out unless they get crazy fortunate with those picks. They were absolutely gifted with a tremendous situation getting the team from Seattle with the stars they had, and, well gifts over now. Now we probably get to see how that fan base reacts to the “lean years”. I think they’ll be fine, because they had a tremendous head start, but I have a feeling it’s gonna be a bumpy ride for them over the next decade. 

[Digby]

30 minutes ago, BringBackTheVet said:

Does the pick swap make sense if the team you're going to presumably swap with is likely going to have a better record than you?  Why would OKC want to 'pick swap' with Houston?

 

I believe there are rules such that you can only get so many consecutive picks from X team, so even if it won’t make sense in theory, the swap option is the best you can get as the receiving teams in some years (and hey, you never know what’ll go wrong in this modern NBA).

[Digby]

1 hour ago, DG_Now said:

Yeah.

 

LOL at OKC's mayor on Jun 30. Whoops!

 

 

(yes, stolen from Deadspin)

 

I’m sure I’d like to have a beer with this guy IRL but he’s gotta chill on the tweeter. Just be like every other mayor and say “we are so proud of our thunder! Go team!” where appropriate.