NBA Draft/Offseason Thread

alpha · Post by **alpha** » Fri Aug 10, 2012 2:02 am

I've gotten over how retarded how this trade is. but what does the LA bench look like? and how bad is there luxury tax going to be. If LA wins the title next june at least Nash will finally get one. thats the only positive I can take. otherwise I want to puke.

stupidregister · Post by **stupidregister** » Fri Aug 10, 2012 7:13 am

I'm just here to cosign the "this is a terrible move for the Magic/Lakers get a steal" sentiment. I mean who in their right mind would green-light this deal? It's a good thing Orlando has no fans or else a riot could start.

Lakers get Howard and all they give up is Bynum and some 1st round pick in the later 20s? They didn't have shit to trade and somehow they end up with Nash and Howard in the offseason, they pulled off some Houdini shit this year. Meanwhile everyone makes out in the deal except the principal Magic who literally get nothing. They got nothing. I guarantee I could have swung a better deal than this. You're holding the main piece of the puzzle you fucking idiot and this is the best you can do??

Fucking Lakers/Heat Finals?? FUCK!!

EDIT: Apparently the last Nets offer was Lopez, Humphries, Brooks and FOUR unprotected 1st rounders for Howard, Richardson and Duhon. Awesome way to start your tenure as GM. Very impressive.

naturalborn103 · Post by **naturalborn103** » Fri Aug 10, 2012 9:06 am

D12 deal a head-scratcher for Magic
John Hollinger [ARCHIVE]
ESPN.com
August 10, 2012

That's it?

Wait, let me rephrase that.

THAT'S IT????!?!?!?!?!?!?

John McEnroe-like wonder fills me at the reported Dwight Howard trade to the Lakers. You cannot be serious! I keep hoping in vain for David Stern to intervene and void the trade for basketball reasons. Or any other reason.

This deal makes a mockery of the new collective bargaining agreement's alleged fairness to small markets; Orlando is selling one of the best players in the NBA for pennies on the dollar, while the rich only get richer. (But the tax-paying Lakers can't sign-and-trade Matt Barnes -- that'll show 'em!)

Mark my words: When we have our next lockout in 2016, this trade will be one of the flash points. The Lakers have a $99 million payroll, and will go over the century mark if and when Devin Ebanks and Barnes re-sign. For the small-market owners, all they can do is count the luxury tax dollars from L.A. and golf clap over their 53-win glass ceiling. That's better than losing money, but they're still hermetically sealed off from a taste of the championship unless they're either incredibly lucky or incredibly brilliant. (Schedule alert: The Lakers don't visit the House That Dwight Built And Promptly Vacated until March 12.)

To review the known details for each team in this complex deal, which is pending a Friday morning trade call:

- The Lakers give up Andrew Bynum and a protected 2017 first-round pick, and receive Howard.

- The Nuggets give up Arron Afflalo, Al Harrington and a protected first-round pick, and receive Andre Iguodala.

- The Sixers give up Iguodala, Nikola Vucevic, Moe Harkless and a protected first-round pick that can be no earlier than 2015, and receive Bynum and Jason Richardson.

- The Magic give up Howard and Richardson, and receive Afflalo, Harrington, Vucevic, Harkless and the three protected first-round picks mentioned above.

Basically, I like this deal for the other three teams ... and hate it for Orlando. Let's break it down for each one:

Orlando Magic

I don't feel totally comfortable ripping them because I don't know what competing offers they had, but I have a hard time believing they couldn't do better than this. Suddenly, overpaying Brook Lopez doesn't sound so bad.

The Magic didn't generate that much salary-cap savings, but they didn't really need to. They'll have max cap room heading into the 2013 offseason, and they'll be even further under the cap if they cut partially guaranteed deals belonging to Harrington and Hedo Turkoglu.

But let's put it this way: The two players they received as salary ballast wouldn't have been my first two choices from the three other rosters in this deal.

Afflalo is a halfway decent scorer who decided he was "The Man" last season and stopped playing defense. He's a hard-working, quality player, but he's also owed $31 million over the next four years and he'll be 27 years old by the start of this coming season.

Harrington had a nice 2011-12, too, but Denver was wise to sell high. He is a Fluke Rule player (i.e., his stats can be expected to regress sharply next season), has a bad knee and is 32 years old. Just what you need to rebuild.

Together, Afflalo and Harrington make nearly as much as Howard, and I'd argue that their two contracts have negative value going forward (although the Magic could cut Harrington after the season and save half the money since his deal is only 50 percent guaranteed).

Oh, the Magic got some other things out of it, but it's all flotsam. They received three first-round picks, but they won't get much immediate help from those -- Philly's pick won't arrive until 2015 at the earliest, and the pick from the Lakers won't be available until 2017.

The Magic also get two recent draft picks in the deal, Harkless and Vucevic, so they'll argue that they got five first-round picks for Howard. But they'll likely end up being five low-value firsts at the back end of the draft. In fact, they're guaranteed to be bad, since our Marc Stein reports that all three future ones are lottery protected. Of the other two, Vucevic is a solid backup center but nothing special, and I thought Harkless was a reach as a first-rounder.

Instead, the only lottery pick Orlando gets out of this is its own, after what figures to be a 19-win season in 2012-13 leaves the Magic with a top-five pick.

The amazing part, however, is what Orlando didn't get out of this: No Bynum. No Pau Gasol. Not even an Iguodala. I have a hard time believing Orlando couldn't stick the Lakers with Harrington and Magic forward Glen Davis in return for Gasol, given that the Lakers had no other realistic means of acquiring Howard.

It appears Orlando wants to rip its roster down to the studs and emulate the Oklahoma City model -- after all, new general manager Rob Hennigan came from the Thunder -- and perhaps the Magic can pull it off. Now all they have to do is select an all-time great and two other All-Stars in the next three drafts, and they'll be all set to emulate the Thunder.

Los Angeles Lakers

This is going to be so funny next summer when Howard spurns the Lakers to sign with the Hawks.

(Wakes up.)

Holy hell, it's good to be the Lakers. After somehow parlaying a pile of backyard trash into Steve Nash, they now have converted the very good Andrew Bynum into the absolutely dominant Dwight Howard. As reported, they somehow didn't have to give up Gasol or even take back any bad contracts. But I'm sure they're crying a river over the 2017 first-round pick they had to give up. You'll excuse the Spurs and Thunder for feeling like they're playing a game that's rigged against them.

It leaves the Lakers with a bit of a Miami in 2010-11 scenario, in which the pieces don't quite fit and they have to figure out how to make them mesh. As it was with Miami, having pieces such as these means it probably doesn't matter.

Process this: Pau Gasol is the fourth option. The Lakers are running the pick-and-roll with Nash and Howard, Gasol lifting for the midrange J, and Kobe lurking on the weak side? Good luck defending that.

There is some risk that Howard will leave after the season, but it was equally present with Bynum. The new CBA gives players incentive to test free agency, so flight risk is part of the equation going forward. But again, when you're the Lakers, flight risk is much less of a problem than it is for, oh, say, Orlando.

Philadelphia 76ers

I've been harsh on Philly's front office, but this is a heck of a deal for the 76ers. Players such as Bynum aren't going to just show up in Philadelphia, but between having his Bird rights and his growing up in nearby central Jersey, he's about as minimal a flight risk as they could hope to get.

Suddenly, the Sixers have a building block in the middle, and it didn't even cost them that much. Iguodala is a heck of a player and will be missed, but the other assets they relinquished were fungible. And even though Richardson is on a bad contract, he isn't exactly dead weight -- especially with a big man to draw double-teams.

Of course, this makes the preceding events of the summer only look more foolish. Elton Brand would have been great next to Bynum, there's no need for Kwame Brown to play a minute on this roster (not that there was before), and Nick Young and Dorell Wright are redundant next to Richardson. Philly still has some work to do to get its roster shipshape for opening day. (Also, Philly: Any time you want to sign a backup point guard, go right ahead. Really.)

But as for this trade? There's no way Philly couldn't do this deal. When you're one of the Other 25 in the league, you have to take chances on elite players when they come. The Sixers are taking a calculated gamble, and it should pay off. Their worst-case scenario is they get one year of Bynum and drop Iguodala's contract, which isn't necessarily a bad thing on its own.

Denver Nuggets

I love this deal for the Nuggets. Loveitloveitloveit. Iguodala is a hellacious wing stopper, the perfect complement for Danilo Gallinari, and his transition play will only be more terrifying surrounded by all that speed in Denver. The Nuggets are selling high on two players (Afflalo and Harrington) who might have peaked last season (especially Harrington) and move themselves a bit closer to making their no-stars model a viable one for getting beyond the first round of the playoffs.

The only little fly in the ointment is that they helped the Lakers get Howard. Um, that's gonna be a problem. But Denver got better, too, and did so while actually improving its cap position, since Iguodala has only two years left on his deal. The Nuggets wriggle out of about $23 million in future money, or $16 million if you subtract the nonguaranteed part of Harrington's deal, and put themselves in position to be a cap team in 2014 if this doesn't work.

As an aside, it also appears the Nuggets have become masters of what we'll call the "delayed sign-and-trade." After mild overpays of both Nene and Afflalo last summer, done to keep each from departing without compensation, Denver quickly moved them along before the deals came back to bite it. The race between Wilson Chandler and JaVale McGee to be the next one should be entertaining.

In the meantime, a Denver club that was 19th in defensive efficiency likely will make a sharp jump with Iggy in tow. And as a side benefit, the Nuggets create some space on a roster that was getting dangerously overcrowded.

Roy Johnson · Post by **Roy Johnson** » Fri Aug 10, 2012 10:31 am

Why does everything gotta be a complete and utter embarrassment down in Orlando?

Don't they know that at least 1/3 of the players in the NBA are homosexuals? How are they ever gonna sign any free agents?

The Owner of the Orlando Magic vs. the LGBT

If you thought the Orlando Magic had a problem with Dwight Howard, thatגs nothing compared to the one shaping up between the DeVos family (which owns the franchise) and the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender). George Diaz wrote a column about it in the Orlando Sentinel:

The DeVos family, which owns the Magic, are staunch traditionalists. The Douglas and Maria DeVos Foundation donated $500,000 to the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) in 2009. NOM is on the front lines of the anti-gay marriage movement, leading initiatives on same-sex marriage bans in eight states.

It became a public issue this week when Fred Karger, president of the LGBT advocacy group, Rights Equal Rights foundation, cited the DeVos Foundation contribution in calling for a boycott of Amway and its affiliates, which includes your Orlando Magic. The team is owned by Rich DeVos, who is an Amway co-founder.

Dwight Howard, youגve been placed on the franchise backburner. This is a fire the Magic need to put out sooner rather than later.

http://www.thebiglead.com/index.php/201 ... -the-lgbt/

naturalborn103 · Post by **naturalborn103** » Fri Aug 10, 2012 11:47 am

HOU offered ORL $12M in space (instead of Afflalo), recent 1st picks, future lottery and unprotected picks. Would've taken bad deals and no need to take on Harrington contract.

naturalborn103 · Post by **naturalborn103** » Fri Aug 10, 2012 11:48 am

mySynergySports ‏@mySynergySports

Howard ranked 6th in the NBA in points created (via shot and pass) in the post last season at 14.9 per-game... among TEAMS.

Crazy.

peanut butter · Post by **peanut butter** » Fri Aug 10, 2012 12:30 pm

I just dont understand how the Magic give up the best player and get the least return in this trade. Its a coup for Philly to get big Drew. Love that move for them. And Iggy is going to be a fantastic fit in Denver. I can't say they came out second overall, but they got back a ton of value for what they put in. And Karl is going to do wonders with the versatility/depth/talent on roster. Thats to say nothing of how well it worked out for LA, in terms of landing Dwight and managing to keep Pau. They are clearly the favorites in the west right now. I cannot fucking WAIT for the season to start.

PEACE

Pronay · Post by **Pronay** » Fri Aug 10, 2012 12:36 pm

well at least we'll get the first pick next draft...

peanut butter · Post by **peanut butter** » Fri Aug 10, 2012 12:54 pm

Yeah you can look forward to Anthony...oh wait shit....

PEACE

naturalborn103 · Post by **naturalborn103** » Fri Aug 10, 2012 2:04 pm

I usually hate sports reporters who try to be funny too much, but Noam Schiller is pretty funny.

This trade is like the Escher stairway. Denver upgraded Afflalo to Iggy. Philly upgraded Iggy to Bynum. Lakers upgraded Bynum to Dwight. Except instead of upgrading back from Dwight to Afflalo everybody dies.

naturalborn103 · Post by **naturalborn103** » Fri Aug 10, 2012 2:07 pm

Guess easy to be funny when with trades like this.

John Hollinger John Hollinger ‏@johnhollinger

As many noted, Denver got a better haul from Melo trade than Orlando did from Howard trade.

John Hollinger ‏@johnhollinger

But, can also argue Denver got a better haul from Howard trade than Orlando did from Howard trade.

Positive A · Post by **Positive A** » Fri Aug 10, 2012 2:17 pm

Damn Natty, your posts have been on some :bork:

'd out shit recently.

naturalborn103 · Post by **naturalborn103** » Fri Aug 10, 2012 2:22 pm

.. Sorry, my boss has been running in and out of my office all day. Nervous posting + posting on phone will do it you.

capable_keL · Post by **capable_keL** » Fri Aug 10, 2012 2:31 pm

siLLy KiD · Post by **siLLy KiD** » Fri Aug 10, 2012 2:36 pm

just came by to say FUCK everyone. LAKESHOW BITCH! One more goin up. PEACE I'm outta here.

Positive A · Post by **Positive A** » Fri Aug 10, 2012 2:50 pm

naturalborn103 wrote: .. Sorry, my boss has been running in and out of my office all day. Nervous posting + posting on phone will do it you.

S'all good. I still read post of you make.

eternalreflection · Post by **eternalreflection** » Fri Aug 10, 2012 3:33 pm

mindboggling trade

Lakers pretty clearly the best team in the league right now, might take an epic Kobe chuckfest for anyone to beat them, seriously how the fuck did Orlando not end up with Bynum?

if the league stopped the CP trade how do they not jump in(100x better for NO) and stop this one?

alpha · Post by **alpha** » Fri Aug 10, 2012 3:46 pm

David Stern was the NO owner at the time.

eternalreflection · Post by **eternalreflection** » Fri Aug 10, 2012 3:48 pm

yeah, but seriously this isn't legit in a $5 Fantasy league let alone the NBA

Kobe forces Shaq out of LA, gets gifted a top10 player for free wins 2 rings, they drop off again, get gifted the 3rd best player in the league at .70/$1

so gay

Positive A · Post by **Positive A** » Fri Aug 10, 2012 3:51 pm

eternalreflection wrote:mindboggling trade

Lakers pretty clearly the best team in the league right now, might take an epic Kobe chuckfest for anyone to beat them, seriously how the fuck did Orlando not end up with Bynum?

if the league stopped the CP trade how do they not jump in(100x better for NO) and stop this one?

Im beginning to think that Hennigan THOUGHT he WAS getting Bynum back. Its the only explanation. He was like "oh shit. Bynum is going to Philly? My bad, y'all."

I mean, any poster here in the bar, if ANY of us ran the Magic, we dont agree to this deal.

naturalborn103 · Post by **naturalborn103** » Fri Aug 10, 2012 3:58 pm

eternalreflection wrote:yeah, but seriously this isn't legit in a $5 Fantasy league let alone the NBA

Kobe forces Shaq out of LA, gets gifted a top10 player for free wins 2 rings, they drop off again, get gifted the 3rd best player in the league at .70/$1

so gay

Long as it isn't cheating or breaking any rules a owner can do whatever he wants. The NO thing was unique and nothing to do with this.

If Howard is 3rd best player, who is 2nd? And Peyton Manning doesn't count...

Gregg Popabitch · Post by **Gregg Popabitch** » Fri Aug 10, 2012 4:01 pm

I haven't read any posts about sports the whole day. I haven't read any blog posts. I haven't read any articles except the one about the trade.

Can someone give me a logical explanation as to why Orlando would do this?

Positive A · Post by **Positive A** » Fri Aug 10, 2012 4:02 pm

Gregg Popabitch wrote:I haven't read any posts about sports the whole day. I haven't read any blog posts. I haven't read any articles except the one about the trade.

Can someone give me a logical explanation as to why Orlando would do this?

A logical answer does not exist.

naturalborn103 · Post by **naturalborn103** » Fri Aug 10, 2012 4:03 pm

Gregg Popabitch wrote:I haven't read any posts about sports the whole day. I haven't read any blog posts. I haven't read any articles except the one about the trade.

Can someone give me a logical explanation as to why Orlando would do this?

They finally wanted to hand the keys to the city to... BIG BABY!!

Positive A · Post by **Positive A** » Fri Aug 10, 2012 4:04 pm

naturalborn103 wrote:
Gregg Popabitch wrote:I haven't read any posts about sports the whole day. I haven't read any blog posts. I haven't read any articles except the one about the trade.

Can someone give me a logical explanation as to why Orlando would do this?
They finally wanted to hand the keys to the city to... BIG BABY!!

Hennigan wanted to exhibit some real magic and make a whole fan base disappear.

eternalreflection · Post by **eternalreflection** » Fri Aug 10, 2012 4:06 pm

naturalborn103 wrote:
eternalreflection wrote:yeah, but seriously this isn't legit in a $5 Fantasy league let alone the NBA

Kobe forces Shaq out of LA, gets gifted a top10 player for free wins 2 rings, they drop off again, get gifted the 3rd best player in the league at .70/$1

so gay
Long as it isn't cheating or breaking any rules a owner can do whatever he wants. The NO thing was unique and nothing to do with this.

If Howard is 3rd best player, who is 2nd? And Peyton Manning doesn't count...

Durant

Its really close but if Dwight is healthy and gives a fuck, which he likely will, he should move back into the #2 spot

Gregg Popabitch · Post by **Gregg Popabitch** » Fri Aug 10, 2012 4:07 pm

btw, Masai Ujiri is one of the best GMs in the nba.

Top 5 easily by far.

He has dominated the GM game since he's been hired. I can't wait for him to rape the knicks like Darry Morey has.

I refuse to put Mitch Kupchak in the top 5 GM category when he gets gift wrapped awesome trades like this.

naturalborn103 · Post by **naturalborn103** » Fri Aug 10, 2012 4:08 pm

Positive A wrote:
naturalborn103 wrote:
Gregg Popabitch wrote:I haven't read any posts about sports the whole day. I haven't read any blog posts. I haven't read any articles except the one about the trade.

Can someone give me a logical explanation as to why Orlando would do this?
They finally wanted to hand the keys to the city to... BIG BABY!!
Hennigan wanted to exhibit some real magic and make a whole fan base disappear.

Magicians are tricky. It will look like they all disappeared.. but really, there was never any Magic fans in the first place!

Positive A · Post by **Positive A** » Fri Aug 10, 2012 4:10 pm

Gregg Popabitch wrote:btw, Masai Ujiri is one of the best GMs in the nba.

Top 5 easily by far.

Yup.

naturalborn103 · Post by **naturalborn103** » Fri Aug 10, 2012 4:11 pm

Positive A wrote:
Gregg Popabitch wrote:btw, Masai Ujiri is one of the best GMs in the nba.

Top 5 easily by far.
Yup.

Areed. Thought this was funny though.

Noam Schiller ‏@noamschiller

I really do like the Nuggets' strategy. Overpay all of our free agents, trade them to other teams, fill all 29 salary caps.