NBA Season 2013-2014

NateRich

The Cavs are already "favorites" to win it all next year, adding Love would keep that status. That still wouldn't make them the best team in the NBA. I don't see the Cavs beating whoever comes out of the West next year. Love is elite but he hasn't really improved the past few years and the prospect of Lebron grooming Wiggins rather than playing with Love is much more enticing.

Or maybe the pipe dream of the Cavaliers getting Love without giving up Wiggins happens and the rest of the East(and most of the West) start planning for 2024.

Urouge

When I say favorites, I'm talking about a team that's downright expected to win the title and anything less than that is a major disappointment and failure. Like the position the Heat put themselves in the past 4 seasons.

So no, the Cavs are most certainly not favorites as they're currently constructed. They do have a legit chance at making it out of the East, but you'd be really really hard pressed to find anyone who thinks that their current roster could topple the West. According to Vegas, the Spurs are the favorites to win it all next season. The Cavs are second, and the favorites in the East, but a large chunk of that is speculation surrounding Kevin Love. The other chunk is just Lebron hype and Vegas having to adjust numbers based on perception rather than reality, as they get flooded with bets. If the Cavs manage to win a championship this year with their current roster, they'll receive all the accolades in the world. But if they do it after acquiring Love, then they'll simply be meeting everyone's expectations, or more likely they'll fail spectacularly in true Cleveland fashion. I'm far more interested in path A, even if it takes several years. So hopefully that pipe dream gets smashed this week and the Wolves get a trade worked out with the Warriors. Also, the Lebron/Wiggins dynamic looks like it could give us a lot of high flying entertainment in the future, so I'm all on board for that one.

Right now the East is considered a complete crapshoot that any of like 4-6 teams could win, including the Cavs. This is even more true now that the Pacers lost Lance. But the West is still far better.

NateRich

The Cavaliers are now willing to trade a package around Wiggins for Love. Wiggins is more essential for long-term dominance but I understand if Cavs brass is impatient and load for the shorter term. It's not exactly short-term since Love is still 25 but he may have hit his ceiling already. Another important detail is that the Cavs would have to trade Varejao to make salaries match up. Varejao may not be an All-Star or anything, but he isn't a scrub by any means. On the other hand, he's pretty injury prone. He's only played about 2 seasons worth of basketball in the past 4.

There's a great argument for the Cavs to make and not make this trade but let's see if the Twolves are able to make like bandits

Urouge

Say what? It would be a massive headline if the Cavs caved on giving up Wiggins and I literally haven't heard that anywhere.

Ok, I see it now. You get your info pretty fast. Ugh. Very lame if that goes through.

Edit:
I realize now that it's all very likely a sham. Minnesota is just reporting that everyone is offering them everything they want in hopes that one team actually panics and does. And like always the gullible and pathetic Chris Broussard is being used, among others, as someone's pawn to anonymously release false reports. They really blew any sort of poker face they may have had by claiming that the Warriors were now offering up Thompson, and having both teams come out and say that all of these reports are BS. It made more sense to do it with just Wiggins in hopes that the Warriors would panic over it, but maybe when that didn't happen the ones to panic were the Wolves.

I feel like this is going to end badly for Minnesota. They actually got good value back when they lost Garnett, but this Love situation will be difficult to leverage with them shooting themselves in the foot on a regular basis. I'm thinking they'll actually try to make a playoff run with him and will be panicking like crazy in January. Whatever "bad deals" teams are offering them now are 2-3 times as good as the offers they'll be sifting through if they let it get to that point. "Equal or more" value for Love is the biggest trading block joke I've ever heard.

NateRich

The Sterling saga is all but over. We just need to sale to actually fall through this time

Urouge

I sure hope you mean "go through" lol.

Green_vs_Red

So is the Lakers head coach search.

NateRich

Lol that's news to me, never thought those were completely opposite meanings :blink:

Yup, lets hope the sale fails for good this time

Green_vs_Red

I guess Nate won't be getting his wish:ninja:.

http://sports.yahoo.com/photos/judge-approves-sale-of-clippers-scenes-from-the-courthouse-1406644083-slideshow/

NateRich

Well, damn

Green_vs_Red

@NateRich:

Well, damn

Well shit guess I'll just put in an excerpt and another link.

Donald Sterling got slam dunked Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court, when a judge ruled in favor of the embattled Clippers owner's wife, Shelly, and paved the way for the sale of the franchise to billionaire Steve Ballmer.
Sterling — who was banned for life by NBA commissioner Adam Silver earlier this year after racist comments made by Sterling were taped by his girlfriend and made public — had tried to block the sale of the team, filing a civil suit against his wife, the league and Silver. In court papers, he called the sale of the Clippers “fraudulent” and “unlawful.”
But Judge Michael Levanas rejected almost all of Donald Sterling's arguments Monday, and ruled that Shelly Sterling acted in accordance with terms of the family trust when she agreed to sell the team to Ballmer after doctors determined that her husband was mentally incapacitated.
Although the 80-year-old Donald Sterling can appeal, Levanas' ruling had an unusual provision that grants Shelly Sterling an order that allows the sales transaction of the Clippers to be completed, regardless of what transpires in appellate court.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/judge-rules-donald-sterling-approves-2b-sale-clippers-article-1.1883264

Urouge

You have to be thrilled if you're a part of the Clippers at all. Ballmer has to be a huge upgrade over Sterling in like every possible way. Not that I think all that highly of Ballmer, but Sterling really has been a pill his entire life. Just getting rid of him is addition by subtraction.

In other news, I'm going to hop on the Pelicans bandwagon this summer while it's nice and empty. I really like that team, and if they're healthy I think they'll be the third best team in the West this year. I'm all in on the Cavs out east, and still hoping that Love goes somewhere else to avoid all that superteam stuff. But I have a sinking feeling about that.

NateRich

3rd best in the West? I think 3rd worst is way more likely. Anthony Davis is good and all but there are bunch of quality teams in the West- 9 to be exact. Maybe 10 if the Nuggets can get back on track.

The Pelicans won't even be 3rd in their division and will stick to being the whipping birds for the next couple years at least. The Spurs, Rockets, Grizzlies, and Mavs are far better. Well the Grizzlies are always a Gasol/Randolph injury away from falling apart but they're healthier than the Pelicans at least

Urouge

Hmm, how do I put this. I'm well aware that their expectations are far below that. I believe that Davis in particular will elevate his game to the level where he'll move past everyone not named Durant and Lebron in the MVP voting. And a guy doesn't put together an MVP type season and see his team not make the playoffs, even in the stacked west.

The supporting cast isn't totally there yet, but it's not all that far off. Jrue Holiday is a worthy number 2 guy, and they have some solid contributors on that team as well. Though they do lack wing shooting right now outside of Eric Gordon, especially after losing Morrow. But I still feel like they're good enough, when healthy, to allow Davis to be that difference maker.

But there in lies the problem with the current iteration of the Pelicans. Health. They were shockingly good LAST year when everyone was healthy. That was just… a worryingly rare occurrence. That starting 5 scored over 120 points per 100 possessions last year when they actually got to play together, which is just stupid good. Once their entire roster got hurt, they couldn't get that ball rolling often enough to become playoff bound.

Anyway, you can't really use health against me on this one since I used it as a qualifier to begin with.

NateRich

I didn't use it against you, I just mentioned that the Grizzlies health would make them the most vulnerable standings-wise.

In a vacuum, the other 4 teams in the division are much better

Urouge

Jrue Holiday played 34 games last year after breaking his leg (previous seasons of 78, 65, 82, and 73 games played so normally fairly durable). That was a team crippling injury for them last year in the brutal west. They also lost Ryan Anderson for the majority of the season to a herniated disk, but that's a survivable injury. It just gets magnified when the all star point guard is gone too. Combine that with the fact that it was a completely rebuilt and extremely young roster that was just learning to play with each other.

The Sonics/Thunder went through two straight 20 win seasons with Durant and Westbrook before they exploded for 50. There was no in between. Though admittedly that was only good for an 8th seed and a first round playoff loss, and it was the following year that they made the conference finals. The Pelicans may very well have to go through something like that on the road to success as well (assuming there is a road to success for them at all). But they were also a significantly better team than the 20 win Thunder, and did so without Holiday.

Finally, the addition of Omer Asik does a lot for their versatility by allowing Davis to switch between the 4 and 5 as necessary and either be the best small ball center in the world or a mutant version of Ibaka. Don't sleep on the Pelicans. And I say this as a Cavs fan.

The Spurs will probably be better than the Pelicans, even though they should suffer the inevitable letdown. How many championships do they have in the last 15-20 years? How many of them came in consecutive seasons? History repeats itself yet again. The Rockets will probably actually get worse, as they foolishly signed Ariza following a contract year to replace Parsons, Lin, and Asik lol. The Mavs and Grizzlies are both legitimately dangerous teams that are both also kinda old and I don't really know what to expect from. The big problem with the Grizzlies is that they face the Gasol problem. The same problem Minnesota faces with Love, and the same problem the Grizzlies faced with Pau. Unless they trade him for prospects, they could potentially lose him for nothing. And pushing for a championship or bust mentality with that roster just doesn't make sense.

loneassassin

http://deadspin.com/paul-george-breaks-his-leg-horrifically-in-team-usa-scr-1614935035

Paul George horrifically broke his leg in Team USA scrimmage today

WARNING DO NOT SCROLL DOWN ON THE LINK IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO SEE.

Green_vs_Red

Damn that is pretty fucked up.

Urouge

I actually randomly happened to see that live out of boredom. Really freak play where he was just hustling and going for a block. Total downer for a great young player. Hopefully his recovery time isn't too long.

NateRich

Oh no…I'll look at it in the morning I guess. Is it Kevin Ware level?

GuetaMinute

That was pretty gruesome :S

loneassassin

@NateRich:

Oh no…I'll look at it in the morning I guess. Is it Kevin Ware level?

It's Shaun Livingston levels of fucked up.

Urouge

Fortunately there's good news in that neither his knee or ankle took any damage during the injury so he'll recover to full strength. But a break of that level will require around 9 months to heal, and the likelihood that they'd want to rush it into a playoff atmosphere seems unlikely, as the risk of reinjury would be at its highest. Paul George's best bet at this point is to miss a year and come into the 2015-2016 season at full strength. The collateral damage of his injury is that the Central division took an unfortunate dip for this upcoming season as the Pacers are now toast. It's looking like it'll only be a two dog race for the next season between the Cavs and Bulls.

NateRich

I really hate when injuries are caused because of problems on the sidelines, major or minor. This wouldn't have happened on an NBA court since the basket(and padding) is placed further away. But at least some light has finally been shown on how cameramen/other useless people are so close to the sidelines. It's terrible that it takes an injury devastating like this to grab some attention on this issue but I hope that the court becomes much safer because of this.

Teams wanting to pull their stars out of these competitions can only further help bring the problem to the forefront. The basket will likely be pushed back at the FIBA level, but hopefully more becomes of this and the area around the basket becomes devoid of media at all levels

NateRich

I feel terrible for cracking up at this, but Harden's face is priceless

Urouge

Lol, I'm not sure Harden even touched him but that face is perfect.

RDarren

@NateRich:

[qimg]https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/10561680_506849832792446_405323751125768979_n.jpg?oh=be38ec976f9acfda80d15f9696f0bc71&oe=544B7C12&gda=1414115283_cb93af22a64658d3ebdbc2fd60947a9a[/qimg]

I feel terrible for cracking up at this, but Harden's face is priceless

I felt the same way when I saw this one. Geez.

NateRich

This is really great for his career. Incredible PR move

RDarren

It seems that the Love trade to Cavs is gonna happen soon. It includes Wiggins, Bennett and a 2015 first round pick as per Yahoo's Wojnarowski.

Source: http://t.co/r2KmO5owwY

Thoughts?

I just wish for a healthy Derrick Rose for that ECF to happen. And damn, Minny might be really fun to watch next season.

loneassassin

Looks like Minnesota flinched considering they also wanted Waiters and another first round pick but realized that wasn't going to happen.

RDarren

Yeah, they should have gained more but hey, they got two No. 1 picks for someone who'd more or less won't re-sign with them next season anyways.

loneassassin

@RDarren:

Yeah, they should have gained more but hey, they got two No. 1 picks for someone who'd more or less won't re-sign with them next season anyways.

Wiggins and Bennett are signed to rookie contracts so they are stuck there for three and two years respectively. So yeah great deal plus things could always go to hell and Love doesn't resign with the Cavs.

RDarren

@loneassassin:

Wiggins and Bennett are signed to rookie contracts so they are stuck there for three and two years respectively.

Nah, I'm saying the Wolves got two #1 picks in exchange for someone (Love) who'll most probably leave them next season for nothing but cap space. Much win for both sides.

EDIT: nvm, you edited your post.
Re: about Love possibly not re-signing with Cavs next season, based on the source I posted, the deal also includes a long-term agreement which will make him sign an extension with them so yeah…

NateRich

This is as complete a deal can be 2 weeks in advance from the looks of it.

They're even establishing what his contract is going to look like after this season

Urouge

@RDarren:

It seems that the Love trade to Cavs is gonna happen soon. It includes Wiggins, Bennett and a 2015 first round pick as per Yahoo's Wojnarowski.

Source: http://t.co/r2KmO5owwY

Thoughts?

I just wish for a healthy Derrick Rose for that ECF to happen. And damn, Minny might be really fun to watch next season.

I'm kind of depressed by this as an Ohio guy, though I'll have no trouble getting over it. I just didn't want to see them start their journey at the top. Love's a great fit for Lebron and that team with his perimeter offense and rebounding, and his addition will make them title favorites probably, but they're also going to be left with defensive issues that will be difficult to fix this season.

Irving and Waiters make for a pretty dire defensive backcourt situation, despite having unlimited offensive potential. Then in the frontcourt the Cavs will trot out Love and… Varejao/Thompson I guess. Varejao is probably the only player on the entire team who can defend the rim with any effectiveness, but can only do it for about 40-50 games per year at this point. That leaves Lebron to defend pretty much everyone. But hey, at least Love can get the rebounds, and that means that Cleveland can at least have faith that he wont totally Bosh it up. I really liked the defensive potential that Wiggins and Bennett brought to the team, but I guess that was deemed easier to replace than the first 26 and 12 guy since Shaq. And he even does it with the 3 ball now, much to Lebron's strength.

There are some rays of light defensively. Irving and Waiters have both looked better than expected in USAB defensively this summer while playing fewer minutes. Also, Dellavedova is one of the unknown better perimeter defenders in the league coming off the bench. And Love will probably be able to devote a bit more effort to that end when his offensive load is a bit lighter. But that's just playing good positionally mostly, and they still don't really have any answer to defend the rim. I know they've been offering up future draft picks this summer (and they have a few to choose from, including the Heat's and the Grizzlies') to try to get someone to fill that role, but no team has been willing to deal. Unfortunately the only guys out there that they could land are the ones that they couldn't afford (Josh Smith, Larry Sanders, etc). It actually drives me nuts that they didn't make a serious run at Ed Davis while he was still available.

If they're willing to just give up on rim protection all together, they can play ultra efficient small lineups with Love at the 5 and Lebron at the 4, with like Irving, Waiters, and Mike Miller as well. But that would have to be sort of a rare thing to keep Lebron from wearing out having to defend opposing 4's, or they'd need someone like Battier on Miami who played the 3 on offense and the 4 on defense. Bennett was shaping up to be that guy, but he's gone now it looks like. Typically Love is more geared to just play the 4 himself, though.

NateRich

Wow I forgot how big rookie contracts are nowadays. I thought the Cavs would have to give up Varejao as well to make salaries match. Well other than Love, they have 2 competent, effective big men in Thompson and Varejao. That's more than what James had in Miami.

Urouge

That depends on what you mean by competent. Thompson is like the 2nd worst post defender in the entire league, statistically, while Love is 3rd. But Thompson maintains that dismal ranking in blocked shots as well, while Love manages to climb out of the absolute cellar at least, if not by much. And Varejao will be lucky to get 50 games in.

Their best post defender is probably Brandon Haywood at this point, and his best asset is that his contract is a massive $10 mil unguaranteed for the 2015-2016 season which makes him ideal trade fodder to match salaries. Every GM is thrilled at the prospect of trading for him next offseason for the right to cut him without penalty. He's a great asset for the Cavs, though. They'll be able to theoretically trade him for anyone worth up to 10 mil (giving up draft picks in the process most likely) as long as they're willing to go over the cap and pay the luxury tax. But Dan Gilbert would be willing to do that. And for this season he might wind up being the only guy who can actually play some critical rim defense.

Word is they're now the front runners to get Marion on a minimum salary deal which would actually help them a lot (Battier role). Still no rim protection, though.

'ko

I would have loved to see the Irving-Wiggins-Lebron-Bennett (he had some impressive dunks during Summer League) flying circus at least until the Febraury trade deadline, and the narrative of Lebron grooming Wiggins to be his heir would have been really fun. But they are in win now mode, so I get why they pulled the trigger on the deal.
By the way, the Wolves will swap Bennett with Thaddeus Young of the 76ers, which is a good move I think

Urouge

For the Sixers. Minnesota getting the last two number 1 overall picks, both from CANADA, is a brilliant return on a really tough situation. A number of NBA execs thought they'd be lucky to get Wiggins straight up considering their lack of leverage. Why they'd toss one away for Thaddeus Young of all people for some weird "win now" wrinkle to the rebuilding strategy is something that nobody outside of the Wolves front office will ever understand. It's completely unnecessary, so it could go down as one of the all time stupidest moves and the 76ers will laugh about it all season regardless of how Bennett and Young actually perform.

The number 1 overall pick only last year, with a rough rookie season following shoulder surgery but already looking in far better shape, for THADDEUS YOUNG? Ridiculous.

loneassassin

@Urouge:

For the Sixers. Minnesota getting the last two number 1 overall picks, both from CANADA, is a brilliant return on a really tough situation. A number of NBA execs thought they'd be lucky to get Wiggins straight up considering their lack of leverage. Why they'd toss one away for Thaddeus Young of all people for some weird "win now" wrinkle to the rebuilding strategy is something that nobody outside of the Wolves front office will ever understand. It's completely unnecessary, so it could go down as one of the all time stupidest moves and the 76ers will laugh about it all season regardless of how Bennett and Young actually perform.

The number 1 overall pick only last year, with a rough rookie season following shoulder surgery but already looking in far better shape, for THADDEUS YOUNG? Ridiculous.

Because Philly is in that fucking horrible tank mode and You g is the last of their good players.

Seriously I cannot wait for the NBA to change the lottery system.

RDarren

Thad Young has been vocal of his urge to be traded to a more competitive team for a while now. I find it funny he was traded to a supposed rebuilding(?) Minnesota team.

And yes, I agree with Urouge that this is an unnecessary trade for the T'Wolves unless there's something more behind it like cap-space issue. But heck, it's Minnesota being Minnesota. They didn't even try to dump some of their bad contracts together with that Love trade.

Urouge

@loneassassin:

Because Philly is in that fucking horrible tank mode and You g is the last of their good players.

Seriously I cannot wait for the NBA to change the lottery system.

No offense to Thaddeus Young, but Minnesota's not going to be any better. Their best 3 players going forward will be Wiggins, Lavine, and Dieng. It'll be like 3 years before they can even compete for the playoffs in the West again. And by that time Bennett, with the higher ceiling, is very likely to be a better player than Young is. In the meantime, Young could maybe improve Minnesota from being a 13 seed to a 12 seed and get them a worse lottery position.

From Minnesota's perspective, it makes no sense.

killerbee1000

Hearing people like Coach K praising DRose is leaving me cautiously optimistic. Even with Love in Cleveland, I feel if the Bulls all stay healthy throughout the season, they're winning the East.

Urouge

I think people need to temper their expectations of Rose this season. I've heard numerous reports that his athleticism is back to 100%, but not a single report that he's anywhere close to knocking off two years worth of rust. Playing point guard at a world class level is nothing to sneeze at. Even in the little time he played last year it was obvious that he was rusty. I've seen a lot of Chicago fans who just seem to expect him to return straight to MVP form when that doesn't seem very realistic to me. The guy's going to need a healthy season to get his groove back, but I do think he'll get there and avoid becoming this generation's Danny Manning. Lower end All Star level production for this season would be optimistic yet reasonable, but I'd expect him to have a lot of rookie-esque moments this year.

Having said all that, Chicago could still be really good this year. To me a lot of that depends on whether McDermott and Mirotic are as good as advertised (one report says Mirotic is a top 5 talent while the next says that he's a revolving door on defense), but more than that it depends on if Thibs can utilize his bench properly and not overplay his starters to the point that he has a team of empty husks come playoff time again. I have to see it to believe it. But every team in the East has tough questions to overcome, including the Cavs and their lack of defense. Hornets, Wizards, Hawks (hard to believe but seems legit), and Raptors could all also contend for the Eastern crown this upcoming season.

Uncanny Cyke

@Urouge:

I think people need to temper their expectations of Rose this season. I've heard numerous reports that his athleticism is back to 100%, but not a single report that he's anywhere close to knocking off two years worth of rust. Playing point guard at a world class level is nothing to sneeze at. Even in the little time he played last year it was obvious that he was rusty. I've seen a lot of Chicago fans who just seem to expect him to return straight to MVP form when that doesn't seem very realistic to me. The guy's going to need a healthy season to get his groove back, but I do think he'll get there and avoid becoming this generation's Danny Manning. Lower end All Star level production for this season would be optimistic yet reasonable, but I'd expect him to have a lot of rookie-esque moments this year.

Having said all that, Chicago could still be really good this year. To me a lot of that depends on whether McDermott and Mirotic are as good as advertised (one report says Mirotic is a top 5 talent while the next says that he's a revolving door on defense), but more than that it depends on if Thibs can utilize his bench properly and not overplay his starters to the point that he has a team of empty husks come playoff time again. I have to see it to believe it. But every team in the East has tough questions to overcome, including the Cavs and their lack of defense. Hornets, Wizards, Hawks (hard to believe but seems legit), and Raptors could all also contend for the Eastern crown this upcoming season.

Pretty much this but I think Chicago fans know this already. After 2 Rose-less years, we're just hoping for him to stay on the court. We'd be extra ecstatic if he comes back in MVP form though.