They appear to be preparing for life after Lebron. They seem convinced LeBron is not going to come back to them so they are loading up on draft picks, dumping salary, and trading old vets for younger players. A starting lineup of LeBron, George Hill, Rodney Hood, Jeff Green, and Tristan Thompson is better than the starting five they had this morning, but is it good enough to beat Golden State? I’m extremely skeptical; I’m not sure it’s even good enough to beat the Raptors, let alone Boston or the Warriors.
The Blazers traded Noah Vonleh for some money and the rights to a 32-year-old guy who will likely never play in the NBA. This isn’t really a loss for the Blazers, as Vonleh has never really measured up to the task, despite starting some games. This puts the team under the luxury tax, although I admit to having no idea what that means. At least Ed Davis is safe.
As crazy as the LA Lakers have been and as crazy as Isaiah Thomas’ season has been, this trade might actually work for both parties – at least for now. The Lakers need another talent on the team who can play with passion (nobody can seriously question IT’s intensity or desire to win) AND who’s willing to play second fiddle to Lonzo Ball. IT just might be willing to do that considering how badly he’s been humbled this year. I don’t think this helps Luke Walton - I don’t think anything can other than moving to a team that doesn’t care about stupid sideshows. Magic Johnson is definitely not going to take Walton over his star-studded lineup and he’s probably already made up his mind that the star players stay and the boring technocratic coach is out (there’s a reason I never thought Magic would be a good NBA exec if he had any kind of influence over hiring/firing decisions).
But the Cavs are definitely a better team just by subtracting IT. No offense to IT - he’s a good offensive player. But he’s shit on defense and probably always will be unless he accepts being psychologically dominated by a guy like Greg Popovich for a good year or two in hopes of at least helping him be a moderately good defender at the expense of his offensive stats. The Cavs will be better…good enough to start being competitive? Hard to say.
Not a good start on that front:
Isaiah Thomas‘ agent, in an all-caps text message, made it clear that his client has no intention whatsoever of coming off the bench for the Los Angeles Lakers, where Lonzo Ball remains the starting point guard.
Not only that, but if his new team asked IT to be a reserve, he’d demand a buyout.
In addition to recovering from his hip injury, Thomas also has to try and get over the crushing mental blow of going from knocking on the door to a huge max contract, to playing for $6 million, potentially coming off the bench, and almost certainly never getting that big payday - all because you put the team before yourself and repeatedly tried to play through an injury. If Thomas spins out into irrational behavior and is out of the league in a couple years (which I’d put 50/50 odds on), it won’t be hard to understand why.
IT was a decent second-unit guard till Brad Stevens got ahold of him, and built an offense that maximized Thomas’ strengths and minimized his weaknesses. He’s a textbook example of a system player; he was great in an system that just ran a million ball screens for him, asked him to only shoot at the rim and behind the arc, spaced the floor, and hid him on defense. Cleveland couldn’t or wouldn’t do any of that, plus they started playing IT when he was clearly still hobbled by injury, which brought him nothing but humiliation. He was absolutely the wrong guy to trade for, without even getting into why Cleveland made the trade in the first place, instead of riding it out like the Spurs did with Aldridge, who reportedly demanded a trade last year.
Speaking of the Celtics crushing it, they signed Greg Monroe off of waivers. Not a shabby pickup at all, and it costs them nothing but cash. I watched his debut last night vs. the Wizards, Monroe had zero chemistry with the other guys (they hadn’t practiced with him yet), but he adds a new dimension to the team’s attack - post-ups. He also allows Horford to play at the 4. All in all, a great tool to have in Stevens’ toolbox.
Greg Monroe was wavied for nothing? Was his contract that bad? He’s a more than adequate big man, averaging 10 and 7. And he had some really nice years in Detroit.
Yep. He went from Milwaukee to Phoenix as part of the Bledsoe trade, so maybe Phoenix saw him as nothing but a throw-in, or maybe they decided they didn’t like the fit. Post-up guys with poor defense are perceived to be close to worthless in today’s game, just look at poor Jahlil Okafor, a man born 20 years too late and traded for nothing. Brook Lopez can’t get on the floor in LA, Dwight Howard is a joke…it’s just sad.
Monroe was in the last year of his contract, making $17,884,176. Boston signed him for $5 million. I do think he’ll be a nice piece for Boston, and for very little money or risk. They’re reportedly eying Joe Johnson as well, should he be waived.
I must admit, I don’t pay nearly as much attention to the NBA as I did even a few years ago. Suffering from GSW fatigue, like most others. It’s not just that my team (Denver) isn’t a championship contender, it’s that there is *such *a small number of teams who have a legit shot. The gap from 1st to 2nd tier NBA teams is such that no team can “get hot” in the playoffs and overtake the Warriors or Cavs.
Agree on your first point, but I’d throw the Spurs, Rockets, and Celtics into the mix. Wizards too, if they can ever put it together from night to night. I’m curious to see what this new Cavs team will do. I suspect not much.
But yeah, it feels a lot less wide open than, say, the NFL or even MLB.
But hasn’t it always been that way? There’s never been anything close to parity in NBA. Before Golden State it was the Lakers, Spurs, and Mavs. In the 90s it was the Bulls, Jazz, and Rockets. In the 80s it was the Lakers, Celtics, and Pistons. There has never been a time in the NBA when more than 5-6 teams, tops, had a realistic chance at being one of the last four teams playing, and it’s extremely likely that even a casual fan could accurately name the final four teams on the very first day of any given season.
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I think there were more contenders in the 90’s. There were teams who never won the championship that you at least felt like they might have a shot. The Hawks, Knicks, Magic, Sonics, Pistons, even the Heat with Tim Hardaway and Alonzo Mourning were almost championship caliber at one time or another in the 90’s.
There’s talk about Vince Carter maybe going back to the Raptors. Much to my chagrin, the vast majority of the 893 comments in TimandSid’s instagram piece on this development is in favour of the move. Brutal. Nothing worse than nostalgia blinding one to the fact that the 41 year-old is an absolute husk of what he once was - I can’t see him contributing one whit to the team. Putting aside his moping his way out of TO back in today, he’s barely getting :eek:five:eek: points per game, and been years since he’s gone successfully for threes. Nagging injuries are also a consideration, especially at that age.
Experience during the playoffs? He’s gone past the second round only once in his 18 year career, so he won’t be able to readily impart that kinda wisdom, meanwhile Lowry and Derozan should provide enough veteran leadership. It would be ok if he came to TO just to talk to the bench (sorta like Jowan Howard doing nothing but high-fives from the bench in Miami), but Carter wants floor time, and the more time he’s given with the Raps, the more of a setback he’ll be for the team.
Nah, Vince is still a sometimes useful player. I thought he was washed up 3 years ago when he shot < 30% from deep. He’s been about league average in that category since and has some remarkable explosiveness for his age. I think these rumors are talk; he’s likely going to remain in Sacramento as it’s where he chose to go. If he is waived and the Raptors are interested, I don’t think it’s something to get worked up over too much one way or the other. Rationally speaking that is. They (Raptors) are as deep as any team with what they already have currently, granted several of those players are fairly inexperienced.
I hope you’re right these rumours turn out to be just talk, because if this player didn’t have Carter’s name, there’s no question that TO wouldn’t have even thought of him.
I am struggling to understand why the Raptors would need him. They are the deepest team in the NBA and Carter is certainly not a star who’s going to push aside a starter.
Sure, he’s experienced. That’s because he’s old. Do you want to give up much for guy who might get 6 minutes a night?
Also - even on a team as crummy as the Kings, Carter was barely getting any time; on the Raps, he deserves next to nothing.
Ujiuri will have hopefully come to his senses on this - ha - slam dunk.
Wonder if there’s gonna be any more of that “ok yeah see ya out in the hall afterwards” chirpiness from about three weeks ago. (Houston, was it? Also Lowry almost took up such an invitation with I think a Timberwolf)
The new-look Cavaliers went into OKC last night and emerged with an impressive win, their fourth in a row. Lebron was outstanding, putting up 37-8-8 on 70% shooting. But, it was the new Cavs that impressed me: Larry Nance Jr going toe-to-toe with Steven Adams, Rodney Hood making 4 of 8 threes, Jordan Clarkson shooting 6 of 10. They hustled, got back on defense, and surrounded Lebron with great shooting. That right there is a recipe for a long playoff run.
I felt the Cavs’ trades would make them better, but I didn’t expect the moves to apparently reinvigorate LeBron so much. Just look at the comparison to the last time they played OKC. The Cavs let them score 148 points a few weeks ago.
I’ve heard nothing suggesting this madness is in any way Ujiri’s idea. He’s a very, very smart man.
The difference is incredible. Watching the game where OKC scored 148, and then Houston dropping 132 and obliterating the Cavs - in Cleveland - while the fans lustily booed their team, the dominant theme was how few of the Cavs seemed to give a shit. Their roster had waaaaaay too many guys who either didn’t want to be there (Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder), didn’t want to play basketball for a living anymore (Derrick Rose), or couldn’t accept the reduced role that their eroding skills demanded (Dwyane Wade). I have to imagine that such a toxic atmosphere affects everyone involved.
Now, the Cavs are full of young, hungry guys, and will probably win the East again, and then get swept by Golden State.
Agreed. If Toronto lands Carter, it’ll be for a song, and he’ll hit a couple huge 3s in a playoff game. Ujiri knows what he’s doing; he’s probably second only to Danny Ainge as a wheeler & dealer.
I’m still in shock over last night’s win by the Blazers over the Warriors. They led the entire game and actually closed the deal in the 4th. Astounding.