VanVleet deserves the extra coin. But since he was my favourite Raptor, it’s a shame the team couldn’t hold on to him. He won’t be so easy to replace since so many parts of his game were really strong.
I guess Amen Thompson is not gonna start.
The Pacers and Tyrese Haliburton are agreed on a five-year max deal. He’s definitely going to be our franchise cornerstone going forward.
Wow! Damian Lillard has asked to be traded from the Blazers! I don’t blame him at all, after years of team mismanagement and missed opportunities, his frustration must be really high. Looks like Miami is drooling over the possibility of acquiring him. It’s a smart move for him if he ever wants to win a ring, as he likely doesn’t have that many years left. Nurkic must be crying himself to sleep at night, as Lillard is his best buddy and mentor.
I don’t blame him for wanting a trade, but forcing the trade to Miami completely hamstrings the team and prevents them from getting anything close to his value in return.
T-Wolves triple down, giving Anthony Edwards a max contract. Apparently they’re still convinced Edwards, Towns, and Gobert will take them to the promised land, despite the fact that this is more or less the same roster that squeaked their way into the playoffs last season at 42-40 and got dumped in the first round. Granted, they lost to eventual champion Denver, and the games were quite close, but still, they lost that series 4-1. They seem to be setting themselves up for a decade of guaranteed mediocrity. I’ve watched the Wizards do exactly this same thing for basically my entire life. It’s not going to work.
Is this NBA summer league thing new? Who plays in it? Just new players?
Nah, summer league has been going on for years. It usually involves just rookies and second-year players, and undrafted free agents.
But what is new this year is that we’ll have an in-season NBA Cup tournament.
I’m trying to read about that right now. What is it? I thought they played for the championship at the end of the season. What is this cup thing? Another…championship within the season??
Also, most every game is televised this year. I don’t remember that happening in past years, although that might have been the case.
Last year’s Hawks had one of the oddest streaks in NBA history, spending 72 consecutive days within one game of .500. They hit every iteration of .500 from the time they were 24-24 up until 39-39. Then they won two games in a row and lost two games in a row to finish at 41-41.
The 76ers have given up trying to trade James Harden for the time being.
At the FIBA World Cup, the South Sudan national basketball team has clinched its first Olympic berth in any sport by winning Africa’s slot. The country has existed since 2011.
Houston Rockets guard Kevin Porter Jr. allegedly assaulted his girlfriend in a Manhattan hotel, leaving her with a fractured vertebra and a cut above her eye.
He pleaded not guilty to felony assault and strangulation charges.
Porter was released on $75,000 bond and told to stay away from her. Incidentally, his girlfriend is a former WNBA player.
Last year, Porter averaged 19.2 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 5.7 assists per game, earning him a four-year extension with the Rockets that he’s almost certainly going to lose as a result of being a fucking asshole.
Whatever that was it is not loading.
Damian Lillard traded to the Bucks for “Jrue Holiday, Deandre Ayton, Toumani Camara, Milwaukee’s 2029 unprotected 1st round draft pick, and unprotected Milwaukee swap rights in 2028 and 2030,” and also the Suns get Jusuf Nurkic, Grayson Allen, Nassir Little and Keon Johnson, for cap reasons I presume.
I’m not familiar enough with the Bucks to speak intelligently on how this affects their chances to return to The Finals, but of what I do know about them Lillard appears to be an upgrade over Holiday. Their numbers are otherwise more or less even, but Lillard is clearly the more gifted scorer.
I’d call them the favorites in the East at this point, Dame+Giannis is a VERY good pairing.
Agreed. They’re gonna pick-and-roll the opposition to death. Also, Lillard is still averaging over 30 points per game. It will be different for him not being the team captain and leader. I see from the above that Nurkic is also bailing now that his best buddy is leaving.
Portland trades Holiday to Celtics, continues to stockpile back end assets. Robert Williams III, Malcolm Brogdon, a 2024 first-round pick via the Golden State Warriors and a 2029 unprotected first-round pick from Boston. Expected to flip Brogdon to someone else for even more.