2020 nba offseason draft free agency etc

also good to not have it be a story this whole season

otm

It's not like the Bucks had any choice in this. The supermax is like the neutron bomb of contracts. It leaves the star player intact and kills the rest of the team.

the clippers are badly overpaying PG and partly as a result of this seem destined to pay enormous sums of luxury tax, but you're correct that Giannis is easily more valuable than PG

this is far and away the best outcome for literally everyone who cares about the nba in every possible way except, like, Knicks lost-causers and pat riley; god bless giannis

Like it’s great that some teams only have to pay a guy 30m a year because it’s the first extension, but 45 mil for a reigning 2 time mvp is a bargain

congrats MKE!

I feel like even if you don't win a championship you have to just enjoy it, like in MN we were so disappointed when KG left and obviously it never quite worked out and it felt like a failure at the time but boy do I miss it, just someone who was always worth watching, someone who made it fun

otm

absolutely

before Giannis I feel like Milwaukee was the worst type of team to follow, they usually weren't terrible but they were never good enough to win a playoff series and always seemed to give contracts to the wrong guys, like every single year it was "holy shit we're still paying THAT guy?" when they did get lucky enough to snag the #1 pick they used it on Andrew Bogut. for years we were waiting for the guy that was going to elevate us. thought it might be Brandon Jennings, hell when he put up 55 it felt like the first time anybody talked about the Bucks since Ray Allen, little did we know that was gonna be the peak of his career. thought maybe it would be Jabari but injuries + terrible defense got him off the team in the hurry. obviously we all kinda knew Giannis would be special from the first games he played but man...nobody expected this

btw I don't want to imply that it was just bad luck, they had a legitimately terrible front office who made moves that even I knew made no sense. they'd do this thing where they would find one player they liked and then try to get as many copies of that guy as they could. when Jennings was starting to look like a breakout star they signed Monta Ellis, both of whom just endlessly chucked us out of ballgames, then they got J.J. Redick on top of that, losing Tobias Harris in the process (who's been a solid starter ever since). when John Salmons gave us a spark they wound up signing him plus 3 other 30+-year old forwards that offseason (all of whom got pretty generous deals if I remember correctly). that team was such a goddamn mess. they also loved to have multiple big white guys who couldn't run or shoot. it was like they were trying to grab that "most consecutive 1st round exits" record they so obviously deserved.

I am 9 mins into the first preseason game and I am already tired of seeing Embiid shooting from outside.

But ILH.

James Soften pic.twitter.com/X3xFkS0Jaf

— Steve McPherson (@steventurous) December 16, 2020

How it started: How it’s going: pic.twitter.com/QBV4k9m5FJ

— Tᴏɴʏ! Tᴏɴɪ! Tᴏɴᴇ́! 𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚔 (R.I.P.) 🕙 (@StarkTTT) December 16, 2020

lol holy shit

gonna need to know a lil more about the parties harden was attending a couple weeks ago

fwiw seems like mostly thats just a weird picture, i mean he looks a lil heavy

James Harden's first points back as a Rocket come on a step-back 3-pointer.pic.twitter.com/DEga2zze8p

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) December 16, 2020

He does this every season lol

This was yesterday, looks normal

Beard back in H-Town 👀

(via @HoustonRockets)pic.twitter.com/yMM6nreloy

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) December 14, 2020

Jeff Teague was def a who he play for candidate, had no idea he was a Celtic

he's literally brad stevens' favorite player

He seems like a good backup

prob have a good year guys like him usually do w brad

https://www.nbcsports.com/boston/celtics/new-celtics-guard-jeff-teague-explains-how-brad-stevens-changed-my-life

brad recruited teague when he was at butler and got teague in trouble with his dad by saying he had bad grades and needed to do better in school

lol narc

that is serious grugde-worthy stuff imo

Jordan Poole and D’aron Fox haircuts look good

if tnt tonight is any indication we're in for some tough sledding with the national broadcast teams working remotely

::buddy hield walks off the court gingerly and in some pain::

chris webber: "buddy hield didn't pout when he had to come off the bench last year" etc. etc. etc. actually he pouted like a giant baby and no mention that he just hurt himself

Yah xp the voices sounded weird whole thing seemed off.

they keep on stepping on each other. gotta be some kind of delay situation.

The 2020-21 Houston Rockets. pic.twitter.com/hid4vNIEMw

— Mike Prada. Dank Ferrik (@MikePradaNBA) December 16, 2020

Luka looks more out of shape than harden tbh

Luka has chub potential tbh

holy shit kyle guy. couldn't miss tonight and just won the game at the buzzer.

sort of figured luka would show up chiseled this year tbh

it’s not a real off season

well for bubble teams anyway

holy shit kyle guy. couldn't miss tonight and just won the game at the buzzer.

Re: frogbs

A lot of weird bad things happened to the bucks. Bogut took some time to figure things out and when he did he had some awful fluke injuries. Larry Sanders was an amazing discovery and then he got paid and lost his fucking mind. The Michael Redd injury....

You know a team which might be kinda cool? The Washington Wizards!

i will watch this
https://www.nba.com/watch/video/kemp-and-payton-on-getting-benched

folks who just keep up with your bookmarks and may miss other threads: we need at least one more member for our ILH fantasy league. post here and/or get in touch with Spottie

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/30528130/james-harden-houston-rockets-breaking-point

Unless they were on the front end of a back-to-back set, it was essentially a sure thing that the Rockets stayed overnight -- or even an extra day -- after games in Los Angeles, Phoenix and other road cities that rank among Harden's favorite stops.

If the Rockets had two or three days between games, it was a good bet Harden would call for an off day and charter a private jet to party in Las Vegas or another city. He always gets an excused absence from the first practice after the All-Star break for the same reason.

HOUSTON'S CASUAL CULTURE appalled Westbrook. In Oklahoma City, despite the fact that he enjoyed the same sort of superstar privileges as Harden has had in Houston, the Thunder operated with the discipline of a military unit under Westbrook's watch. The Rockets were a stark contrast, especially last season under D'Antoni, who was never known as a disciplinarian and who was a lame duck in the last year of his contract after extension negotiations infamously fizzled twice over the summer.

Westbrook didn't tolerate tardiness. With the Rockets, scheduled departure times were treated as mere suggestions by Harden and others.

"Nothing ever starts on time," a former Rockets staffer said. "The plane is always late. The bus is never on time. ... It's just an organized AAU team."

On one occasion in the Florida bubble, Harden waited to get his daily COVID-19 testing until just before the Rockets' film session was scheduled to start. When he wasn't on time, Westbrook barked, "Start the film! Start without him!" D'Antoni explained that they'd just have to start over when Harden arrived, which didn't do much to calm Westbrook.

Nothing shocking in here but a nice summary of the way he sets the culture. I already assume stars like him do whatever they want, but still a little surprising to see that the whole team's schedule might include staying in a city an extra day because he wanted to. Joining forces with Embiid on a team that cares about the parties between games as much as the games seems like destiny

James Harden on what he was doing in Atlanta in Vegas during training camp:

"I was just training."

For what?

"The start of the NBA season."

Why in Atlanta and Vegas instead of Houston?

"My personal trainers."

— Salman Ali (@SalmanAliNBA) December 16, 2020

Ok maybe the nuggets shouldn’t trade for Harden

lol

James Harden on if he has same trust in Rafael Stone as he did with Daryl Morey: We haven’t had a conversation

— Kelly Iko (@KellyIkoNBA) December 16, 2020

sad but lol

🚨 INJURY UPDATE 🚨

Gordon Hayward sustained an avulsion fracture of his fifth metacarpal on his right hand.

🔗: https://t.co/AZKzz9uYzf | @NovantHealth pic.twitter.com/d2x7EWyuqZ

— Charlotte Hornets (@hornets) December 16, 2020

welp

c’mon dawg.....