2017-18 NBA REGULAR SEASON THREAD PART 1 ALL OF AMERICAS FAVORITE TEAMS ARE BACK

listened to most of the lowe-windhorst pod this morning, three takeaways

1) cavs are MESS-Y
2) lowe is bad at making fake trades
3) I really don’t see how the cavs turn this around, given the trade options apparently available

theoretically they have the pieces to improve the team a lot but it takes two minds to meet

also like bron being insanely mad about them not getting george/bledsoe in the offseason (reasonable imho) just makes it more likely hell leave and thus less likely the cavs will move any long term assets for short term help

who has value on that roster??? other than lebron and love

nets pick, cavs picks

2) lowe is bad at making fake trades

potential trades is probably my least favorite topic for all nba writers/contributors. just doesnt interest me at all.

it's insane how Isaiah has so successfully dwighthowarded himself this season.

who has value on that roster??? other than lebron and love

― k3vin k., Thursday, January 25, 2018 12:52 PM (thirty-four seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

IT, crowder, maybe even thompson a lil

korver has value for certain teams i'd guess. but all their best lineups include him so

the cavs really shd trade for dwight that wld be the best possible outcome lol

dwights kinda balling this year and it doesnt matter cos his team is worse as usual

https://i.imgur.com/DoDz10n.png
+ nets pick --> char

did i do this one before

it's insane how Isaiah has so successfully dwighthowarded himself this season.

― omar little, Thursday, January 25, 2018 12:53 PM (thirty-one minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

depressing

Spurs are on pace for 52 wins w/ these 5 players having played the most minutes pic.twitter.com/yEF6unPZ74

— sam esfandiari (@samesfandiari) January 24, 2018

the most insane thing i just discovered, the Spurs are in their 42nd NBA season and this will be the 38th season in which they've made the playoffs.

something in the water

tacos iirc

breakfast tacos specifically

chill vibes, no messy drama, doin it for the Alamo

a real system, respect

lmao

Kyrie Irving threatened to have knee surgery and sit out if the Cavs didn't trade him. Wow. pic.twitter.com/dYIfyKkf5P

— Cleveland Sports Talk (@CLEsportsTalk) January 25, 2018

http://www.cleveland.com/cavs/index.ssf/2018/01/cavaliers_felt_compelled_to_tr.html

the only possible way for them to beat this iteration of the warriors was to pull off something crazy like getting paul george, and if that set in motion them getting a top 10 pick for kyrie in a year when they were prob gonna get wiped out by the warriors regardless then it's prob not the worst outcome despite all this day-to-day drama

they cldve got paul george! but they didnt cause they were worried abt bron leaving cause they pissed him off by letting his fave gm walk

my understanding is that they wanted to trade kyrie to the suns for the 4 and bledsoe and then trade the 4 for PG but the first trade didn't happen so the second fell apart?

iirc there was another one of love for pg that they pulled out of over protection on a pick

lebron can only blame himself no?

not retaining griffin was a huge mistake imo

griffin was prob a good GM but might also not be that great. he did trade two first round picks for timofey mozgov which got swept under the rug of history bcuz lebron supernova'd steph into a brain freeze two finals ago

i'm not sure what GM exactly could solve the conundrum of bending to lebron's whims

the conundrum of being incentivized to mortgage your longterm future for veterans up until the exact point where lebron feels like the team is carrying dead weight in the form of old carcasses and now might actually want to go play for a different team with younger players

the heat front office is one of the most respected in the NBA and got made to look like bitter dumb fools for trying to figure this out, got pantsed publicly by bron essentially for releasing mike miller and having no draft picks, and then turned once again proved its acumen by building a playoff team essentially from scratch once the aftershocks of having to revolve your entire franchise around lebron went away

yeah but imo its still worth the risk to keep bron, it wldve set cleve back a few years if they ended up needing to rebuild which is not really that big a downside

yeah i agree you kind of have to swallow it. i just mean that i don't think navigating these waters is a huge referendum on the cavs' new GM either way. it's a unique and un-winnable situation.

yeah he was already in a tough spot

tho i do understand why the cavs having been like one of the worst teams in the NBA perpetually w/o lebron would be acutely concerned about their life after him compared to i.e. the heat who will prob kinda do ok regardless

idk "torpedo your franchise for 4 straight Finals appearances and 2 rings" seems like a good deal to me. I'd do it in a heartbeat

hell I'd do it for one ring tbh

SO IT'S ALL WORTH IT

yeah def. whatever happens man that one ring is for real worth it.

also the drama is ~~~~entertaining~~~~~

*weeps silently*

I hope next year's team is better than this one was

https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/CLE/2011.html

truly one of the worst rosters of all time.

you guys weren’t kidding. that pod really laid out how dire things are in cleveland.

i'm not sure what GM exactly could solve the conundrum of bending to lebron's whims

― J0rdan S., Thursday, January 25, 2018 4:12 PM (two hours ago)

windhorst made the point on lowe's pod that if you're the cavs, your #1 priority should probably just be to make lebron happy and make sure he stays, since he's a generational talent that you will never replace. if that means gutting the future, so be it. so in that sense it doesn't really matter if griffin is a good GM or not

btw windhorst is such a humorless, arrogant asshole, I find his whole vibe interesting. he and lowe have negative chemistry

Lol otm

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DUbPDDvV4AASjrq.jpg

lebron took kyrie. durant and westy on the same team

what if lebron goes to new orleans