OFFICIAL AROUND THE NBA THREAD - August 2021

Not really impressed with any of them. But I guess we will know next year if Lowry stays healthy and helps them in the playoffs. Precious Achiuwa has huge potential. The Heat could very well regret including him in the trade. I just think Kyle is very average at this point in his career. That is a lot of money on a guy who will be 36 when the playoff begins.

 

I think a lot of the rating as the Lowry signing being the best is a CP3 reverb factor from the Suns. Seeing the major bump the Suns got from having a superior floor general vs an average one. Lowry runs an offense really well, has championship experience, and still manages to play some decent defense. The big risk of course is his age. But unlike Portland, Miami has management that will swing for the fences

 

Byproduct of the east being weak and the Raptors always being a good team. That's why I hate that the All-Star selections seem to hinge so much on how successful the team is. It's an individual achievement. Wins and losses shouldn't matter. It's a game with the brightest stars in the league. I have never understood why they give out honorary spots because a team is doing well. For example, Conley shouldn't have been an All-Star last year.

 

I think Lowry is Hall of Very Good. 6-time All Star is impressive, but has to be taken in the context of a significantly weaker, shallower-in-talent Eastern Conference for most/all of his Toronto career.

As a comparison between 6-time All Star Lowry and (in my opinion, a true Hall of Famer) 6-time All Star Lillard, Lowry made the All-NBA team once, in 2016, and on the third team. Lillard has made it 6 times...once on the first team, five times as second team and once as third team. I think Lillard's is a Hall of Fame resume.

 

You couldn’t hold me til Thanksgiving son.

 

The Nets will be on National TV for 38 games. Why not make it for every game?

 

Yep and for good reason. Miami can crash and burn and rebuild quickly. Portland can not.
When the best player in the world holds a press conference and says he will be taking his talents to Jantzen Beach and joining the Portland Trail Blazers, then they might feel comfortable gambling a bit more.

 

becUse green still gives us most of what we need at a lesser sticker price. Plus green can hit a three.

 

more excuses for Olshey inaction:



























some were smaller, but most were higher-risk, franchise altering trades. The kind of trade Olshey has avoided or at least not completed

 

You think those were high risk? The trades that were high risk were all complete freaking blunders by the Blazers. Kiki, Moses, Jermaine and Petro. Thanks for the reminder.

 

Milwaukee Bucks' Giannis Antetokounmpo purchases stake in Milwaukee Brewers

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id...-purchase-stake-milwaukee-brewers-sources-say

 

Blazers got a lot better by:

trading for Maurice Lucas

trading for Jerome Kersey

trading for Terry Porter

Trading for Buck Williams

trading for Kevin Duckworth

trading for Damon Stoudamire

trading for Scottie Pippen

trading for Arvydas Sabonis

trading for Lamarcus Aldridge

trading for Brandon Roy

trading for Damian Lillard

but sure, let's go with your template of Portland not taking risks because the Blazers fucked up by trading away Moses and Jermaine

 

Almost everyone on this list is someone we drafted...without giving up much. And only Mo was a high pick going #2 in the ABA merger draft. Yes, I realize we traded an often injured Petrie for him, but no one I knew thought that was a risky trade.

The often-injured Sam Bowie for the all-star Buck Williams? Again no one saw that as a risk.

Roy and LMA were high picks but again I guess we view high-risk moves a little differently.

 

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/32056930/brooklyn-nets-open-nba-highest-season-win-total

So this has us at 43.5 and other sports books have us at 44.5. Unfortunately I think that's about right when looking at the schedule if we keep the same roster. I also think the wins are going to be hard to come by at the beginning of the season due to who we're playing.

I also think only a fool would bet on our win total this season. We don't know if Dame is going to get frustrated before the trade deadline and demand a trade. We don't know what that trade would leave this team looking like. We don't know if there will be a trade made to try and get us closer to contention and keep Dame on board. There are far too many question marks to bet on this forecast but I would bet on one thing. If we only win 44 games, we'll be in the play-ins as one of the bottom two seeds. That won't sit well with this group and they'll likely fold and miss the playoffs. Then Dame will ask out for sure.

The Knicks are disrespected on this list. Some of their young talent should get better and they were way better than this last season and they added scoring in Fournier. They're basically what they were last year, just a year better and with Fournier's additional offense. I think they'll end up at least a few games above .500.

 

Why would they NOT be?

 

43 wins sounds about right? Interesting that they have the Lakers so high……I thought they were old.

 

You've got the wrong guy. I think it would be shocking if the Lakers and Nets are healthy for the playoffs and don't end up in the Finals.

 

Yep.
If those teams make the playoffs and stay healthy throughout them. They will be in the Finals.
Nets will win it is my thinking.

 

In hindsight, that Kiki move was terrible. I liked him, but that trade built a contending Nuggets team.

 

Calvin Natt went from playing with stiffs, to working on them after retirement.