Around the NBA - July 2017 Edition

Gee, there's a surprise. He lost his job to T.J. McConnell. He's just not an NBA talent. Never has been, never will be.

BNM

 

Guys on ESPN First Take say Lakers will be the next super team. Says that LeBron and PG-13 will join Lonzo in LA when they are both free agents.

 

So that would be two stars and Lonzo. Binary-star teams are a dime a dozen these days!

 

Maybe that's why Portland tries to deal for Melo, It would put them in the binary-star and black-hole category. Normally this would be a problem - but Nurkic's mass is so dominant - it could swallow the black-hole.

 

LeBron James dazed and confused (or, maybe, concerned and frustrated) over Cavs' offseason.

Would you trade Harkless for James, or would you need to dump one of Crabbe or Turner before you'd consider it?

 

This is probably a leverage move to try to push them to add Anthony.

 

Push them to offer garbage? Pretty sure Cleveland would like to add Anthony, they just don't have anything to offer.

 

Obviously, you give the same offer for James that you did for PG.

 

Three 2017 first round picks and any player that isn't Lillard, McCollum or Nurkic?

 

Yes.

 

I wonder if Cleveland is reluctant to include Love, and James is pushing them to do so.

 

Might be difficult.

 

I have two trains of thought on this:

1. Unlikely, because does Anthony in place of Love actually make Cleveland better? I'd argue it makes them worse, because Love is a better floor-stretcher and might even be a better defender (I think Love is below average on defense, but Anthony might be worse) but even if it doesn't actually make them worse, it's not a needle-mover to swap one for the other. James seems to want to add, not replace.

2. That does have some plausibility. Cleveland could be reluctant to give up a player they have under contract for another three seasons for a guy who could leave after one--but James wouldn't care about that, since he himself might leave after one season, if Cleveland gets waxed by Golden State again.

 

I thought I had read somewhere that LeBron hasn't been getting along with Love for a while, or that he's disappoint with him. I don't really follow the Cavs much.

 

There was some typical BronBron passive aggressive subtweeting last year (by which I mean, 2015-16) which people interpreted as not considering Love one of "his guys." Beyond that, I dunno.

 

I don't think you can ignore that shit, because LeBron left Wiggins and Bennett off his "coming home" letter when he rejoined the Cavs.

 

In before @BigGameDamian ...

Portland only wants to develop young players.

BNM

 

Yeah, but that was before they won a title together. Titles forge an unbreakable bond of brotherhood, don't they?