2014-15 NBA Off-Season Thread

[capable_keL]

I know about 99% of everyone disagrees with me, but I have KG comfortably ahead of Kobe.

absolutely

[Tweak Da Leak]

LOL i hate kobe as much as the next guy but c'mon, he's easily top 10, kG is closer to dirk career wise than Kobe

[Jayou Ayen]

I would buy this if it were #10.




39

[peanut butter]

Why the fuck does it need so many hands? Like there's mad accessories, but twice as many fuckin kung fu grips. I dont know shit about shit when it comes to models or whatever, so maybe thats standard. But to me it just seems excessive. Like how you only gonna have only two hair colors, but five varieties of taped fingers?


PEACE

[Jayou Ayen]

Why the fuck does it need so many hands? Like there's mad accessories, but twice as many fuckin kung fu grips. I dont know shit about shit when it comes to models or whatever, so maybe thats standard. But to me it just seems excessive. Like how you only gonna have only two hair colors, but five varieties of taped fingers?

Well, the shit is damn near $300 (I was joking about buying it), so I guess they had to accessorize the fuck out of it.
My local comic shop has the Jordan version of this, but I've never seen it up close, as there are usually 50 Asian dudes observing it like a shrine.



39

[capable_keL]

do you know you could get 150 pair of Starbury kicks for 300.00? he's making a killing in china. in fact, he is even playing himself on stage in his life story.... oh, and he won the china basketball championship

everyone in china is wearing Starbury gear

[peanut butter]

So proud of him. He deserves it. He was too beautiful for this fucked up nation. Happy to know there's a people out there able and willing to embrace his unique brand of talent


PEACE

[stupidregister]

Wow that figure is amazing. The detail is fantastic.

And where can I get me some Starburys?

[capable_keL]

http://starbury.com/


toothbrush & everything

[peanut butter]

Holy shit, Wolves


PEACE

[capable_keL]

this will be the greatest weekend of my life, yall


#faith

[Blockhead]

Are the 76ers just gunning to be the worst team in NBA history? I don't keep up with financial aspect of sports but what's their game plan here? just be awful for a few years and then hope all the young talent they acquire pans out? Will they have a shit ton of money in upcoming years to sign big free agents? Someone who pays attention to this kinda stuff, please enlighten me.

[peanut butter]

what's their game plan here?

just be awful for a few years and then hope all the young talent they acquire pans out

PEACE

[Blockhead]

Kinda shocked there isn't more action for Eric Bledsoe right now. I'd figure some team would jump on him , even if it meant for one year.
Any of these teams would be greatly improved with acquiring him (if the could afford it).
nets
pacers
bucks
heat
knicks
Magic
Kings

[capable_keL]

Updated: August 22, 2014, 4:17 PM ET

By Brian Windhorst and Ramona Shelburne | ESPN.com
With just hours to go before a planned megadeal the would send Kevin Love to Cleveland, the Phoenix Suns reached out to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Thursday to ask once more about the possibility of acquiring Love in a sign-and-trade for guard Eric Bledsoe, sources told ESPN.com.
The Suns have reached out to the Timberwolves about acquiring Kevin Love in a sign-and-trade for Eric Bledsoe, according to sources.

The Cavaliers and Wolves have had an agreement in place on Love for weeks and it remains intact, sources said. That trade, which morphed into a three-way deal with the Philadelphia 76ers that will send Thaddeus Young to Minnesota, is expected to be completed on Saturday.

Talks between the Suns and Bledsoe, who is a restricted free agent, have been fractured for weeks and the team is now vetting all options. That includes other sign-and-trade talks with other teams besides the Wolves.

Bledsoe has made it clear he is seeking a five-year, $85 million maximum contract from the Suns. He would only consider a max deal in a sign-and-trade, which would be four years and $64 million, with any other team, sources said.

If Bledsoe, who has remained firm in his salary position all summer, does not get a max deal this summer, he intends to sign the Suns' one-year qualifying offer for $3.7 million and become an unrestricted free agent next year.

The Suns have offered Bledsoe a four-year, $48 million deal that is similar to the contract point guard Kyle Lowry signed with the Toronto Raptors this summer. Bledsoe rejected that offer and the sides haven't made any progress in talks for weeks.

Bledsoe averaged 17.7 points and 5.5 assists in 43 games, 40 of them starts, for the Suns last season. He missed 39 games because of a knee injury that required surgery

Suns make a last minute desperation plea for Love

[alpha]

If you're gonna make a last min offer, at least make it worthwhile.

[binary]

Does anyone like James Harden anymore? Hate watching him on Team USA. What a dumb human fart.

[peanut butter]

Does anyone like James Harden anymore? Hate watching him on Team USA. What a dumb human fart.

Love him and his game. Unique player and gifted scorer. The defense thing is whatever to me. It'd be great to see what a capable coach could do with him in terms of commitment. But Harden knows his game and doesn't apologize for it. I fux with that.


PEACE

[binary]

Does anyone like James Harden anymore? Hate watching him on Team USA. What a dumb human fart.

Love him and his game. Unique player and gifted scorer. The defense thing is whatever to me. It'd be great to see what a capable coach could do with him in terms of commitment. But Harden knows his game and doesn't apologize for it. I fux with that.


PEACE

I hate his game, he stops the ball and dominates it. I don't think the international refs are going to give him love for barging into people either.

[peanut butter]

I hate his game, he stops the ball and dominates it. I don't think the international refs are going to give him love for barging into people either.

He's a necessary component of this US squad. Without KD, there isn't a pure perimeter scorer who can also get to the rim. Steph, Klay, Kyrie and D Rose all have some limitations in terms of being able to score consistently from anywhere. Harden doesn't. If this team is gonna take gold, Harden will be key.


PEACE

[binary]

I hate his game, he stops the ball and dominates it. I don't think the international refs are going to give him love for barging into people either.

He's a necessary component of this US squad. Without KD, there isn't a pure perimeter scorer who can also get to the rim. Steph, Klay, Kyrie and D Rose all have some limitations in terms of being able to score consistently from anywhere. Harden doesn't. If this team is gonna take gold, Harden will be key.


PEACE

Oh I totally agree with that - he's definitely a gifted scorer who gives them something need. However, I don't like his style of play at all, and I hate his mentality on the court. I don't get a sense of "team basketball" from the guy at all. IMO, he plays dumb. Talented, but dumb.

[Reason]

Harden's Defense, a shittily, hastily written non-anecdotally-evidenced perspective, by

his overall defense is fair/okay/decent because of lack of effort/concentration. WITH OFF-THE-BALL DEFENSE/HELP DEFENSE he is extremely lazy or forgetful or lax and it is part unconscious (staring at the ball and losing track of his man who then cuts right past him for a lay-up) and part conscious (conserving energy because he literally handled the ball and initiated or WAS the offense for seven possessions in a row so he is reasonably tired so instead of shuffling and backpedaling to stay with his man on the dribble he tries to reach around from behind (nh) to poke the ball away). however you can't ignore the times he gets into passing lanes - all people think is "oh he gambles off his man and then boom his man cuts for a lay-up while he overhelped to reach on someone else" but those moments are neutralized by the myriad plays in which he times his reach/gamble/drifting into double team perfectly and forces many turnovers. still, yes i admit his lack of concentration overall makes him poor on off-the-ball/help defense

however with ON-THE-BALL MAN-TO-MAN DEFENSE (i.e. he is guarding someone 1 on 1 and that someone has the ball in his hands) he is an EXCELLENT defender. the only times he fails are the rare times he either miscommunicates with his post defenders or simply over-relies on them and allows his guy to go buy him so he can get a shot at poking the ball from behind, but again, those times are rarer than people think. a LOT of guards (cp3 for example with deandre jordan, oh man i could show you a lot of times he got lax around a pick and roll cuz he knew jordan would clean up anything around the rim) would try that reach or funnel their man into the middle if they had dwight howard (and omer asik for that matter) protecting the rim. but marinate on this: any player who has a shammgod knows how to guard a shammy. any player who has a stepback can guard a stepback. any player who has a stepback-pump fake combo can guard that combo. etc.

james harden has an incredible combination of one of the most efficiently consistent AND multifarious offensive arsenals today and thus he knows how to guard motherfuckers who have the ball in a man on man, one on one situation against him with uncanny ease...for example, did you know the rockets rarely double when harden is switched to guard a post player in the post? his coaches/teammates know of his on-the-ball/man-to-man defense b/c the motherfucker SHUTS DOWN big guys by his damn self. he takes plays off, but rarer than you think, and the plays he doesn't take off, he still has mental lapses off-the-ball, and even sometimes on-the-ball when he over-relies on help defense, and the number of these caveats is the reason i don't rate him overall as more than a decent defender and call him an overall fair defender, but he is ELITE one-on-one on-the-ball when he tries, and that is a fact i don't just gloss over when i assess him defensively, it's the reason i don't think he's overly detrimental on defense or incapable of being really good at defense, he needs the proper guidance and need to be held to a certain standard. in other words, i firmly believe if tom thibodeau were the coach he would be more effortful more often and suddenly a lot of the youtube videos would show some defensive highlights



note for following video: plz ignore the uploader/creator of this video's penchant for including a bunch of gamble steals which are exactly the same thing as showing all of his gamble fails in the viral videos that make everyone think james harden is the worst defender since kelly tripucka, and yes that was my 2nd kelly tripucka reference this week, instead, focus on harden's ability to close out on 3 point shooters and guard bigger players in the post, especially with THE best 'strip low' swipe of any small guy in the nba




and now a couple of non-nba game videos that can't be taken as seriously as the ones i just posted but are no jokes, durant and george are obviously "trying their hardest" in these clips. basically the only times durant/george ever score on harden are purely because they are several inches taller than he is. harden even pin-smacks a durant lay-up off the glass.






if you youtube-search 'james harden defense' you get the definition of troll. i admit he looks extra bad sometimes, in fact, he might look worse than anyone in terms of just admittedly/obviously being lazy or daydreaming on certain plays, but those plays have taken hold of too many people's imaginations and now way too many people just categorically think harden is a shitty defender

[capable_keL]

awesome breakdown





6.3 M trade exception?

Brian Windhorst ‏@WindhorstESPN · 12s
Cavs, Wolves, 76ers have completed Kevin Love trade officially. As part of deal Wolves will receive 6.3M trade exception.

[Hayzoos]

Damn RIP Andrew Wiggins

[peanut butter]

awesome breakdown

Real talk


PEACE

[Reason]

thanks broskis

[unbelievable dickhead]

are people really excited about thaddeus young? should i be?

[stupidregister]

are people really excited about thaddeus young? should i be?

Was coming in here to post the same thing. I don't understand why they had such a hard-on about dealing for the guy.

[Reason]

i would say thaddeus is overrated but does anyone really rate him like that? i guess i haven't paid attention to the most recent news on the trade b/c we all knew this trade was coming weeks ago so i haven't read a single article about it that came out now that it's official

obvious positives:
very solid overall defender
pretty durable
assist rate increased considerably to match his even more increased usage rate last year

obvious negatives:
turnover rate also increased considerably, in fact even moreso
totally unreliable from perimeter/3pt line
streaky from the free throw line but overall a little below average from the charity stripe
not tall or wide/long/big/strong enough to get enough leverage/create enough leverage to box out for more rebounds or block/alter that many shots

of course he played with bums last year but he has also been on a decent team or two and he has never shown that his potential is anything beyond what we've already seen

[jazzmatazz23]

Good break down on Harden's defense. Im ready to see how he plays next year on defense. He definitely has the tools to be a good defender.