This one came down yesterday.
The Knicks are telling people that they were unwilling to offer KD the full max. My thoughts:
[ol]
[li]They are lying. This is an after-the-fact smokescreen to deflect the fact that KD basically wouldn’t give them the time of day. [/li][li]If true, the Knicks are the dumbest franchise to ever walk the planet. They KNEW that 2 or 3 teams were willing to give the max including the Warriors. Did they seriously think they’d get some kind of discount? If they didn’t want to offer the max they shouldn’t have wasted anyone’s time here. [/li][li]If there’s any truth to this, what are the chances that KD when into the offseason basically certain he was Knicks and suddenly flipped and went to the Nets as a contingency? [/li][li]Kyrie hated being second fiddle to LeBron and KD isn’t exactly a warm and fuzzy guy, do we think this pairing is going to work for the long haul?[/li][/ol]
Kawhi Leonard crickets
Sources: Heat finalizing sign-and-trade for Butler
Huge shake up in the power structure in the East. Not sure what the Heat really have to send back and balance that trade, but I think this will probably be a pretty nice landing spot for Jimmy. He’ll be the alpha there and I wouldn’t be surprised if it helps the Heat recruit more help down the road.
It certainly makes life more interesting in the East. I need to figure out exactly who is on Dallas at this point.
The Sixers, Celtics, Bucks, Heat, Pacers and Nets all totally retooled. Toronto if Kawhi comes back will be in the mix too. Not sure if the East is decidedly better than the West if Kawhi stays, but it’ll be interesting.
I’m glad the Knicks missed out on KD, Irving, and Zion. It seemed to me that Knicks fans were feeling entitled to getting all three of them, as if they should have gone to New York just because they’re the Knicks and of course they should get all the best players. Couldn’t have happened to a more entitled bunch of fans.
Sources: Russell joining GSW, Iguodala to Grizz
This one is a little crazy to me. The Warriors are committing a max deal to Russell to fill in for KD but they already have Curry and most people expect Klay to be back too. Do they need 3 guards? Does this signal a change that sends Klay to the Lakers? Can Curry and Russell share the ball? Weird. Though I do get the win-now urgency the Warriors are demonstrating.
Iggy also gets shipped out to retire to Memphis. Not much thanks there. Haven’t seen what the Nets are getting back on that deal unless this somehow connects to the KD deal.
Rumor is that it’s a Milwaukee 1st?
I got back into the NBA a bit through the Nets last year - I’m less than thrilled with the developments. Russell was easy to root for; Kyrie seems the exact opposite. Yeah, he’s clearly better than Russell; but Kyrie’s not getting any better and Russell’s got room to grow.
As great as KD is, that injury really scares me.
And I’m not sure why they needed Deandre Jordan when they’ve got Jarrett Allen…
I get that the point was to use all their cap space to sign two stars to max contracts. I just wish it wasn’t those two, especially at the cost of Russell. But I don’t know that there was a better option - there’s no way Kahwi was coming to Brooklyn.
But hey, at least I can enjoy the Knicks fan’s misery!
The Knicks have sucked for almost 20 years, and haven’t won a championship since 1973. It’s a fanbase that is seriously aching for their team to be relevant, and supports the team far more than the team has deserved.
You’re going to knock them for hoping they could attract the same free agents that the Nets just acquired?
Maybe I’ve gotten the wrong impression, but I didn’t get the vibe that Knicks fans were merely hoping they could attract some top free agents. I got the vibe that they felt the Knicks were entitled to get those free agents as well as to getting Zion Williamson. That’s what I’m knocking them for.
Wizards are nicely building a 70-loss team. It’s gonna be a bloodbath!
I mean, we don’t call them fans for being rational. FYI, the Bulls’ young core is going to the ECF at LEAST, this year.
SI.com says there are rumors that after completing the sign-and-trade with the Nets to bring D’Angelo Russell, that the Warriors are going to trade him. Trade him to where, they didn’t say.
Could be trolling, but there are several tweets from “insiders” (and the comedian Michael Rapoport, of all things) that Kawhi Leonard’s going to the Lakers.
Joy.
Adam Silver must be thrilled. Lakers vs the East all over again. Almost makes me want to pick up a coke habit.
They just resigned Looney to 15 over 3, which they don’t have salary room to do, being hard capped from signing and trading Russell. So something’s got to give. Playing Russell and Curry at the same time seemed really silly anyway. Wonder who needs a point guard, and has something the Warriors want?
Oh, and thanks Omni, for all of the posts you’ve put up the last few days. Not your fault no one wanted to discuss the NBA here. I appreciated them, at least.
Seconded.
These sign and trades are confusing. I’m no capologist, but at some point I’m going to need to figure out what the actual terms were and try and piece it together. I think the Russell and Durant deals were both sign-and-trades balancing each other out, but I haven’t seen them reported as part of the same transaction anywhere.
I read that because it was a sign and trade (or a max deal, not sure which is the key factor) Russell cannot be traded again until December at the earliest. I suppose when Klay comes back they’ll probably want to invest a bit less in the backcourt so we’ll see what shakes out, but if that reporting is accurate they can’t flip him right away.
Supposedly Jordan and Durant are buddies and they were something of a package deal. It’s kind of absurd if true since Jordan sucks and that deal is going to make it tough for the Nets to really be a dominant team with bad contracts like that holding them back. Not terribly different than the rumors about the Lakers signing KCP as some kind of sweetener to land LeBron last year.
Some shady AAU-style shit going on in the NBA these days.
I don’t think that was the point, but I do think they would have done just about anything to prevent either of these guys going to the Knicks.