2019 nba OFFSEASON news, rumors, drama, and recriminations

Nerlens Noel is agreed on a deal with OKC -- again, league source tells ESPN. https://t.co/SJXATURUAa

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 1, 2019

Timberwolves Twitter is in various stages of grief

rumors of the team being able to pull off the insanely difficult task of offloading Wiggins while getting Russell were taken as fate

charlie brown football shit

sports is a safe space for delusion lol

Golden State is moving Shabazz Napier, Treveon Graham and cash onto Minnesota, league sources tell ESPN. Napier and Graham are part of the D'Angelo Russell sign-and-trade.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 1, 2019

ladies and gentlemen.....the Wolves are BACK #unitedwerun

the heat are known to be good at maneuvering within the cap *and* they had a good player to give up in a sign and trade, but it’s probably worth noting when we consider which teams can sign which free agents that the league essentially collectively engineered a 4 team trade bcuz jimmy butler wanted to sign a max deal with a team that had no cap space

kanter on the celtics is not the news i wanted to come home to.

i literally just dislike him. i have never heard a role player get more time in the media for his own bullshit. like that text about getting pressured by portland—dude wtf are you talking about?

Wolves sign Jordan Bell

Dubs re-sign Looney :)

I was wrong, Warriors were able to get it done with Looney. They were able to get him for a projected starting salary of $4.6m. If they spend absolute minimum to get to 14 guys and trade Livingston, should have just over $1m to work with. Won't be easy to manage the roster.

— Nate Duncan (@NateDuncanNBA) July 2, 2019

this is fucking crazy.

there is a sickness

The Sixers are signing Kyle O'Quinn, I'm told.

— Kyle Neubeck (@KyleNeubeck) July 2, 2019

man i would have taken him on the c's for the vet minimum in a second

some basketball tonight, lil look at one of the youtube whites

Herro ball. pic.twitter.com/uDMcOkTtIe

— Michael Gallagher (@MikeSGallagher) July 2, 2019

watched the spurs sl team play the cavs. tall luka is gonna be a good player once he gets stronger. 6'11" guy who can put the ball on the floor and slash. guards wings and bigs. lonnie is gonna be a real player this year coming off the bench.

Surely somebody was willing to give looney at least double what GS did. Gotta get that bag young fella!

lol if somebody was going to give him 10 i think he would have taken it?

i like him but he's a pretty limited player at a devalued position.

just got back to cell reception after a few days camping in the ca mountains... what did i miss?

jk once i came down the mountain all the woj/shams text alerts started flooding in, i think i had like 200+ text messages but my wife did me a solid and read them all too me in order, true love etc. had to pull over at the dangelo russell thing to read it for myself. so proud of the warriors getting anything in return for durant. deal with the details later really but they now have a trade piece and someone to fill in the klay void until he comes back. yall doubting the warriors already? they just cruised to the finals without durant and couldve won without some bad fortune + had themselves a chance even with the injuries. as long as curry and dray are available and healthy that team will be a force. however... losing kd, iggy and klay for 2/3 the season will really hurt their defense. going to be lots of pressure on dray in a contract year. should be interesting. pretty sad about iggy tho. love that dude. he will be waived and then sign with the lakers (palinka was his agent) i can feel it.

locking up the kd/kyrie + dj volatile bro triangle for 4 years is hilarious. deandre hasnt been engaged in playing hoops for like three seasons now. i think they all just want to play together so they can hang, i respect it. kd got little fulfillment from winning chips with the dubs and kyrie didnt like having to be a leader. theres going to be so much weird energy but im more interested to see what it looks like down the road when the honeymoon phase wears off.

Gotta think whatever LA team doesn't get KL goes for Cousins. Either that or the sixers.

cousins is gonna make like 4 mill for one season. really sad for the guy

An incredible week!

If you’re complaining about signing Kanter (especially for the reported terms), you’re probably in a good position next season! Celtics are (depending on Toronto) a top three or four team in the Eastern Conference.

From a narrative perspective, I want the Lakers sign Kawhi since roster construction would be a nightmare since they’d need to sign eight or nine guys on minimum contracts. I actually don’t think is entirely dire since Europe and G League have plenty of undervalued guys that’d likely sign minimums to get playing time.

i want kawhi to clippers so that there's 8 west teams that could conceivably be in the wcf

kawhi shd stay in toronto

he should but his uncle dennis doesnt want to be there

if only his uncle could stand to be away from him for more than 5 seconds

uncle dennis go home

yall doubting the warriors already? they just cruised to the finals without durant and couldve won without some bad fortune + had themselves a chance even with the injuries.

― big city slam (Spottie), Tuesday, July 2, 2019 2:34 AM (nine hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

naw they were getting their asses kicked all along

flipping dangelo for role players is the best possible plan, the team as now constructed even with a healthy klay isnt up to much

tho it is possible depending on how things shake out that there wont be any real good teams next season

yall doubting the warriors already? they just cruised to the finals without durant and couldve won without some bad fortune + had themselves a chance even with the injuries.

― big city slam (Spottie), Tuesday, July 2, 2019 2:34 AM (nine hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

that was with klay and iggy (and others who are gone) tho. plus the urgency to win in the playoffs is obvious, but putting that kinda energy out there to win in okc in december? after 5 straight years of playing 100 games a year? idk. the warriors might struggle to win 45 games this year. and this assumes steph stays healthy all year! he's missed 44 games the last two years.

yeah the dubs did some impressive gritting in the finals but w/o kd they were just overmatched

steph, dray, d-lo, looney + scrubs should still make the playoffs if they stay healthy (big if, yes)

pretty low bar for a team coming off 5 straight finals

for anyone who didnt watch much nets dangelo is not a great fit for the dubs motion offense, he dribbles a lot and takes many sus shots

there will for sure be some growing pains there

he's an excellent and willing passer, though

the situation in NJ was much better for his playstyle and even then he was not consistent despite some great moments .

lets explore the west:

1. gs (57 Ws) -- hella worse
2. den (54 Ws) -- better bc experience maybe?
3. por (53 Ws) -- unknown bc i never know how to judge this weirdly constructed team. the nurk-less whiteside-ful change is the biggest variable.
4. hou (53 Ws) -- either worse bc bad vibes and older cp3 or better bc healthy and no gs threat
5. ut (50 Ws) -- better bc conley
6. okc (49 Ws) -- same?
7. sas (48 Ws) -- better bc healthy and more experience for the youths
8. lac (48 Ws) -- same, or extremely better depending on kawhi
9. sac (39 Ws) -- better bc more experience and better role players
10. lal (37 Ws) -- better bc healthy bron and AD. west favs if they get kawhi.
11. min (36 Ws) -- probably worse bc no derrick rose? shit thats depressing.
12. mem (33 Ws) -- short term worse with no conley and first full season without m gasol.
13. nop (33 Ws) -- better bc deep at every position and ZION.
14. dal (33 Ws) -- probably better with zingis.
15. pho (19 Ws) -- better but still bad with rubio.

the only teams i feel comfortable saying wont make the playoffs are phoenix, minny, and memphis. clippers depend on kawhi. mavs are eh but theres some talent there. no, sac, and lal are all 3 lottery teams that could jump in the top 8 this year. sa, gs, okc i think are all vulnerable to miss the playoffs.

the east otoh looks like its gonna be the same teams in the playoffs except miami will probably bump off det or orl

how is nop better

zion, jrue, lakers young'ns, and proven role players is better than half a season of AD plus jrue plus nobody

pelicans have had a sneaky good offseason, which im not sure is the right approach but w/e

they shd be fun just running up and down like maniacs, no shooting tho lol

if gs is vulnerable to miss then the lakers are too imo

theyll win some games just by teams not wanting to bother with their pace, plus i think zion will be good right away

if the lakers dont get kawhi their floor is very low

lebron + AD is good enough to make the playoffs unless one or both gets hurt. which seems likely.