The new NBA Season officially kicks off Sunday June, 30th at 6 PM. This is when Free Agency officially opens and all those NBA Draft Weekend trades become official. I figure it’s time for a new thread to commemorate the occasion.
Here’s what are probably the biggest story lines going into the new season:
[ul]
[li]KD’s Blown Achilles[/li][li]Klay’s Blown ACL[/li][li]Where does KD land next year?[/li][li]Does Kawhi re-sign with the Raps? [/li][li]AD goes to the Lakers for a TON of picks [/li][li]Zion goes to the Pelicans along with a TON of picks [/li][li]Kyrie destroys the Celtics, who’s the next victim?[/li][li]Can the Warriors compete with just Curry? [/li][li]Are the Celtics toast in 2020? [/li][li]Did the Rockets championship window just close? [/li][li]What’s happening with Jimmy and the 76ers?[/li][li]Worst contract going forward, Chris Paul, Andrew Wiggins or John Wall? [/li][/ul]
I expect there to be a fair bit of news and rumors over the weekend. Let’s discuss.
I haven’t had a ton to discuss these last couple years with the Bulls being in full-on tank mode, but there’s a little bit of optimism going around these days. We got absolutely gutted by the new NBA lottery system not that the old system was any better for us in '17 and '18. But, we like the guys we got and we like the upside for this team.
The Bulls won the Bulter trade in decisive fashion, LaVine’s living up to him contract extension. Markkanen and Wendell should both be coming back healthy and ready to make a leap. Coby White seems like a really pleasant kid who fills a big need for us, hopefully he can make Kris Dunn expendable. Otto Porter seems like more of an asset than a salary burden at this point. There’s a bunch of likable role players on the bench who won’t be part of the long term plan. We only have one really bad contract in Felicio and we’ve got quite a bit of cash to spend this offseason. Most of the fans want Patrick Beverly to be the big acquisition this offseason and I think I’m on board with that plan, but he’ll be a hot commodity for those contenders with a not-quite-enough cap to land a max guy.
My Pacers will probably still be without Victor Oladipo for part of the 2019-20 season, but I don’t mind, as long as he’s close to 100% when he returns.
It seems to me Kawhi Leonard’s decision is clearly the single biggest improvement to one’s Bayesian analysis of the season that there could possibly be. If he remains in Toronto they are a favourite. If he leaves, they not only won’t be a favourite but might ave to significantly retool the team.
If Leonard goes to the Clippers, that might well make them the best team in the West.
Porter is a silly good 3 and D guy when healthy, with an almost as silly contract. Near 56 million over the next two years. Nevertheless, I’d have liked to have seen him on the Rockets, and indeed on their semi-official fan message board, there was an ‘Otto Porter Jr. Movement’ to proselytize for bringing him aboard. Good fun.
Wall’s is the worst contract, given the Achilles issue, and the attitude. Not that Paul’s contract isn’t awful. ‘Supposedly’ some of his issues at the beginning of last year were that he had some nutrition and workout issues, which resulted in him being overweight and lacking condition, which led to getting injured. Supposedly, those issues will be addressed for the 2019 season. I hope. That said, point guards fall off a cliff at age 34, and I don’t see a return to the days of .270 WS/48. Though he should be better than the .170 WS/48 he was last year.
Whole lot of ESPN smoke about Jimmy Butler maybe/maybe not going to the Rockets. I don’t see it, but I see why the Rockets would be interested. I’m almost positive a third team would need to get involved for Butler and BYC issues. So which of the potential third teams needs a young big like Clint Capela?
This tweet though succinctly expresses some of the concerns I’d have if the Heavens opened and blessed the Rockets with Jimmy Butler. The replies to the tweet with different Jimmy Butler gifs, are the icing on the cake.
The West might finally be wide open and the Nuggets, who challenged GS pretty hard for the best regular season record, appear to be watching from the sidelines. I guess it’s not NY or LA, so they don’t even bother trying to mix it up with big name free agents. They’ve got an option to extend Paul Millsap, which they would be insane to do at $30M. Assuming they’re not going to land one of the really big name FA’s, I wouldn’t mind seeing them go after Bojan Bogdanovic.
As critical as I was of The Process, I admit it worked, and the Wizards need it now, badly. John Wall is a write-off. Beal is a good player but is wasting his talents here. The cupboard is completely bare. Time to sign the 8 cheapest guys they can find and lose a record number of games and hope the ping-pong balls bounce their way a half dozen times or so. It’s their only real hope.
Agree 100%, as you may have guessed from my alias. This is the perfect time to deal Beal, with a number of teams suddenly seeing themselves as legitimate contenders in the wake of the GSW injuries. Wait and see who still has a need after the FA dust settles and then see which buyer is most desperate.
Thankfully we’ve got a GM in place who has job security and will have no reason to do anything other than act in the best long-term interests of the team
Gonna be tricky to get much discussion going with the Dope’s hamsters on life support, so that sucks, but it’s been wild listening to all the rumors these last couple days.
Pretty much the only news out of Chicago so far. I like Young but I’m not exactly sure what this indicates for the roster. We needed help at PG and maybe at C or SG, SF and PF we’re kinda stacked up. Don’t think this leaves us with enough room to sign Beverly.
