2015 NBA 'OFFS

prime dame https://twitter.com/bballbreakdown/status/592897661965053952

shaq has thoroughly redeemed himself by praising the god meyers leonard

j/k i will still murder shaq

haha TA with the first emphatic possession arrow of the night

dame defense vines are the new harden defense youtubes https://vine.co/v/eWxQO5HmU6P

he's so bad at that shit

o damn getting close up in here

I honestly don't think LMA leaves regardless of what happens but I guess I could be wrong

WOW

cj is such a chucker but i guess sometimes it goes in

damian is defending p&rs competetently what in the world

really feels like this is LA's last game in rip city. he's been giving basically the most alarming quotes possible.

you cannot hack a gasol tho what the heck

wow how does TA go under that screen

jesus damian

xps I've heard some of them and I sorta understand the argument but idk where he goes & thinks he's more likely to stay v competitive?

daaaaaame

spurs courting him as the duncan replacement is intriguing even tho he'd basically have to completely alter his game

also houston maybe

that's a goaltend

really feels like this is LA's last game in rip city. he's been giving basically the most alarming quotes possible.

― J0rdan S., Monday, April 27, 2015 9:53 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah i agree. tho in fairness he's never been a good talker and speaks ambivalently about everything

ah the quenching pride of not getting swept

spurs is certainly plausible although I don't think duncan is retiring just yet (he's playing better than most ppl 12 years younger why not give it one last go)

don't know why j0rdan thinks lamarcus won't be playing in game 6 tho

mavs would also be in play I imagine if they lose some cap space (which they prob will)

wow didn't realize dallas had 44m coming off the books this summer, but they'll have to resign chandler and idk how you play dirk and lamarcus together for 3 years

tru it would be a #toomanybigs sitch

dirk and lamarcus would set an unbreakable record for long 2's attempted in a season

I mean I'd be borderline shocked if he went to one of The Status Quo Big Destinations because ok let's say he wants a 5 year max...is LA gonna get a title by then? is NY? is miami? uhhh, lol. no.

ok actually I can't write off LA much as I want to, not in any full stop way, but the other two...yea sure. I would aggressively court if I'm any western contender with cap space tho.

well damnit now that the blazers won i am slightly emotionally invested in this series that they are def gonna win historically

i'm pretty sure that lamarcus wouldn't break portland's heart by leaving *and* going to the lakers, like that would be The Decision x 100, he would be the greatest villain in blazers history.

he's not gonna go to the lakers

he's from texas, the spurs need to set the franchise for the future, the rockets went all in for bosh last year, feel like the dots on this one are pretty easy to connect (if he leaves)

he seems like a perfect fit disposition wise for the spurs, wld be very interesting if a premiere free agent finally picked them right at their moment of need, dont think anyone wld have any doubt that they cld figure out how to fill out the roster around a aldridge/kawhi core

feel like this lowe fragment is relevant and basically otm to our ongoing discussion re green kawhi max contracts and so forth

WINNER: The Situational Superstar

We have one conception of a superstar max player — the guy who gets the ball, stops the offense, and gets you buckets. Michael Jordan, basically. Draymond Green is not that sort of player, and an astonishing number of fans seem to find him laughably unworthy of a max-level deal as a free agent this summer.

In the new NBA — the NBA of motion offenses and speeding defenses — Green is a max guy. There are still players who can produce baskets from nothing, and they are massively valuable. But rule changes have made one-on-one creation harder than it used to be, from the post and the perimeter.

Good offenses move the ball continuously, and to do that, you need as many players as possible who can shoot, dribble, and pass. Find one at the power forward spot, and you’ve really got something — a guy who can stretch the defense, suck one big-man defender away from the rim, and plug holes all over the court on defense. A guy who does everything at a B-plus level is relatively more valuable today, because the game requires everyone to do everything.

Paying anyone the max carries an opportunity cost; it might limit Golden State’s ability to snag another free agent down the road. You can scan the league and find guys who can replicate Green’s skill set at a fraction of the max salary: Patrick Patterson, Boris Diaw, Josh McRoberts, Markieff Morris, and others.

But they all lack something. None are near Green’s level as defenders or on the glass. Patterson is a better long-range shooter, but he can’t sniff Green’s passing, dribbling, or ability to push off a defensive rebound.

Green’s only major negative is an inability to hit contested jumpers, but that’s not a huge deal as long as he can hit open triples. Teams in the hothouse of the playoffs exploit every liability that goes unnoticed during the regular-season slog. If you can’t guard the post, teams will bully you. If you can’t hit open 3s, they’ll ignore you. If you can’t dribble or pass, they’ll run you off the arc, force you into the lane, and take the ball from you. Players without holes in their games become even more valuable in that environment.

You can’t run an offense through Draymond Green, but you also can’t exploit him in any way. He can keep the machine moving on offense, and he’s one of the half-dozen best defenders in the league. He’s a max player this summer, especially since any long-term max contract signed in July will only take up something like 15 percent of the cap once it leaps into the $100 million range in two years.

One thing Green can’t do: play center. The Warriors will always need a bigger guy next to him, and they’ll eventually have to pay Andrew Bogut’s successor. But their cap sheet is structured so that every time someone is due a raise, another big deal comes off the books. The Dubs can max out Green this summer, re-sign Stephen Curry to a $30 million mega-max deal in two years, and — if they play their cards right — still have enough money to nab a big free agent at some point during that process. It may cost them Harrison Barnes, but that’s a trade-off the Warriors will make if they have to.

Green just finished putting up 16 points, 13 rebounds, six assists, and 2.5 steals per game against New Orleans, with all-world defense and acceptable long-range shooting from a big-man position — a position that defines the spacing of the floor. Where do I sign the paperwork?

All of this applies to Jimmy Butler and Kawhi Leonard as well. As wing players, they fit the traditional image of a max-level star. They can take the ball and create their own shot. But that isn’t quite their bread-and-butter, and it doesn’t matter. Pay ’em.

tho while i agree that its a no brainer for the warriors to max green out i dont think it wld be true for most teams, its more situational to their team and salary set up, whereas any team shd max out kawhi

if green cld play center hed be a lot more valuable

yeah kawhi and butler can get buckets on their own

they can but theyre not l33t shot creators/defense benders

if green cld play center hed be a lot more valuable

― lag∞n, Tuesday, April 28, 2015 11:56 AM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

if every power forward could play center they'd be a lot more valuable

grantland had a lengthy piece on the Spurs that focuses on Green:

The 2016 Spurs could open up about $22 million in cap room, but to do it, they’d have to renounce every outgoing free agent other than Leonard — including Green. Green is perhaps the most divisive free agent of the summer in league circles. Lots of execs would scoff at giving him a deal in the $10 million range; the phrase “product of the Spurs system” is thrown around a lot. It’s an accidental bonus of San Antonio’s selfless motion offense: People have never seen some Spurs exist outside that paradise, and that knowledge gap might depress those players’ value in free agency. The freaking Spurs win both ways.

But Green is no longer just a system player who mooches wide-open 3s. He takes hard 3s, with defenders right in his jersey, and he takes them from all areas of the floor. He has mastered little pump-fake/sidestep combinations that come in handy when defenders rush out at him. Green can’t cover ground as fast as Leonard or Tony Allen, but he has built himself into an elite defender who can hound multiple positions. He’s always well balanced, he’s long, and he just gets the game — how opposing plays unfold, when and where to shift around the floor, and how to use his size to bother smaller players who can out-quick him. He happens to be one of the most fearsome transition defenders alive. Some “3-and-D” guys barely meet half of the 3-and-D equation. Green is legit.

It’s popular to suggest he can’t dribble, but that’s not really true. Green can do just enough to keep the offense moving when he catches it against a rotating defense. He just can’t do much more than that, and at 27, he’s unlikely to add off-the-bounce oomph. He’s not explosive enough to get to the rim, and he has to settle for awkward midrange shots that often miss badly. He’s not a great passer, and he can’t get deep enough inside defenses to open up the most productive passes; Green has dished just 2.5 assists per 36 minutes, the lowest figure among the seven Spurs players who have logged at least 1,400 minutes this season.

There might be some truth to the notion that Green is a “system” player. He’d be lost without teammates to create shots for him. He’s lucky that everyone on his team is a willing passer, and that with Leonard around, he never absolutely has to defend the best opposing perimeter player. But any functional system should produce good jumpers; Green could spot up for open 3s in Detroit around Reggie Jackson–Andre Drummond pick-and-rolls, or in Charlotte around Al Jefferson post-ups. If you pay Green $10 million per season to score 18 points per game and dribble a lot, you’ll be disappointed. If you value his skills properly, you’ll be content. I’d pay him $10 million per season now, especially with the cap set to jump into the $100 million–plus range in two years. Ten percent of the cap for Danny Green? Sign me up.

Everyone likes to say that you can find functional wing players anywhere, but you can’t find a lot of wings who play All-NBA-level defense, crack 40 percent from deep every year, and continue to do both in the hothouse of the playoffs — where guys with glaring holes in their games suddenly can’t even get on the floor. (Just ask the 2011-12 version of Danny Green.) It would be classic Spurs to replace Green now, just as they dealt away George Hill when Hill became expensive. Green should be done taking discounts for the cause. But there are nights — and this sounds crazy, but I swear it’s true — when the Green/Leonard combination feels almost like the foundation of the Spurs. Leonard is the star, as he was when the two combined for 44 points in the Spurs’ shellacking of Golden State earlier this month, but their singular powers combine into something greater — an NBA wing Voltron. All that shooting and defense at positions (especially in Green’s case) where talent is scarce — you don’t trifle with that.

“Danny and Kawhi have played well together,” Buford says, “and the results that they have been a part of speak for themselves.”

if every power forward could play center they'd be a lot more valuable

― J0rdan S., Tuesday, April 28, 2015 12:00 PM (11 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

many of them can!

Jason Lloyd ‏@JasonLloydABJ 3m3 minutes ago
#Cavs GM David Griffin says he doesn't believe Kevin Love will play again this postseason, surgery is an option

life comes at you fast

perfectly capping off loves nightmare season

offseason trade is prob the best course of action for both parties

im mad that this prevents my love prophecy -- that he would be run out of town as the scapegoat of a playoff loss -- from coming true

specifically because of bad defense

ya that had abt 99% chance of coming true before he got injured

http://i.imgur.com/e5UiAyj.png