Here’s my topical one - Toronto will be worse with Leonard then they were with DeRozan. The Spurs will make DeRozan even better. Here is my faulty logic. Leonard played for a coach that could hide Leonard’s weaknesses, both off and on the court. The flip side is, Pop will figure out what DeRozan wants to do and is good at, and will play to his strengths.
As to yours: I think both teams will be better; a lot better. I think Leonard has few weaknesses and will be eager to prove he isn't broken. And DeRozan is going to get stuck in the anger stage of grief and kick ass. As to my maybe unpopular opinions... I think Golden State is beatable. I think Houston was on the right track until they lost both Ariza and Mbah a Moute; now I don't know. Let's take a further unpopular idea (which 100% won't materialize so lay off! in advance) and put LaMarcus in our starting lineup. Everything the same, but with LaMarcus, and I would actually believe we stand a chance to beat anyone in a series including GS. Obviously this is theoretical, but I say it just to illustrate that the divide is bridgeable. No players on our roster can "pop" enough to reach that level, and thus the collective irritation in Rip City at Olshey (because it'll take a trade of some sort); we know how far we are from knocking those guys off, but also how close!
Memphis and Utah will be better than the Lakers. OKC will be MUCH better this year. Porzingis will never be the same.
Despite everyone proclaiming Kyle Kuzma one of the steals of the draft, he will never have a better season than his rookie year.
Does LeBron suddenly retire this year? I don’t see the National Bullshit Association letting that happen.
LeBron and Magic should copy "the process". Sit LeBron for the entire season with an "injury", win the lottery, add free agents, win titles. Because that would be so great for the league.
Only a dufus fails to understand that paying $42M+ in 2018-19 for Turner, Leonard, Harkless, and the ghost of Crabbe's contract took an absolute master GM to pull off. That same dufus fails to understand how genius it is to gain a huge TPE in a trade and the GM should be praised. He should be praised even more when he lets it expire.
I just don't see OKC as a top tier team, they are with the rest of the wc 2-8. Houston takes a step back. I actually think PTown takes a step forward and win 51 games and gets to round two.
Yet they were 1 game away from the Finals without their 2 best players and they have young, improving talent. Definitely an unpopular opinion.
OKC only dropped 8 games after KD left. But GSW dropped 6 games once they got him. And then dropped another 9 games in his second year, for a total of 15 games lost. Conclusion: KD is overrated as fuck.
Why would he do that? According to KS, we are already a Super Team! --- disclaimer --- We are a Super Team if you mean we are marginally better than average.
Changing out Kyrie for Frazier and Hayward for Brown doesn't make Boston much better if at all. They were 1 game away from Finals in weak conference. Toronto would've swept them. Toronto just had major mental hangup over Cavs.