2021-22 NBA "REGULAR" SEASON THREAD

lamelo and jaylen both having pretty ridiculous seasons, middleton harden not so much

yah i hate the harden pick

someone else will get in from the east bcuz of KD

yeah kd and draymond not playing at the very least

lamelo should get in for entertainment purposes

yeah the league needs to start pumping him up

lowry butler and bam playing in their first game together tonight since thanksgiving

lamelo robbed imo

nets on a roll

ESPN story on the possibility of Brooklyn Nets guard Joe Harris needing a second procedure on his left ankle: https://t.co/0h4KO6z4XK

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) February 4, 2022

multiple ankle surgeries seems like bad news

Rough

Feel bad for Joe Harris, feel great for the Nets.

pretty cool

The four undrafted All-Stars 🔥:

• John Starks
• Brad Miller
• Ben Wallace
• FRED VANVLEET

Congrats to the Raptors point guard on his first All-Star selection 💯 pic.twitter.com/U7XNCIRtcQ

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) February 4, 2022

love fred, so awesome for him

lamelo and jaylen both having pretty ridiculous seasons, middleton harden not so much

― lag∞n, Thursday, February 3, 2022 8:01 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

jaylen…brown?

FVV’s deep three range is insane, dude has basically turned into damian lillard on offense

the bar in the east is insanely low lmao

the west reserves are better but i don’t think anyone who was left off the west team would get in over anyone on the east reserve list

ugh trae with the dagger

gallo picking booker’s pocket at half court, a single tear falls from my eye

celtics raptors and hawks are going on runs now, the east is legitimately competitive 10 teams deep

hard to believe the east in no longer the conference of doormats

LaMelo seems like the exactly the player the NBA wants in the All-Star game

out of nowhere incredible final minutes in the lakers-clippers game

i think if you combined both these teams you’d definitely hehe the 7th best team in the west

remember when russ and harden were teammates recently
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9D93WiYp6KM

you know its bad when melo is calling you out for defense

Westbrook is so over being a Laker. Or an NBA player for that matter. He just wants to chill out and spend all day enhancing his wardrobe. He needs to retire and do just that. It would make him happy and his teammates, too.

TRADES

The Clippers are trading Eric Bledsoe, Justise Winslow, Keon Johnson and future second-round pick to the Trail Blazers for Norman Powell and Robert Covington, sources tell ESPN.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) February 4, 2022

just a pure salary dump for the blazers huh

either covington didn't have that much value in the end or they really wanted to get off that powell contract, which seems prudent

clippers just picking up rotation players for free

The trade will put Portland under the luxury tax.

The Clippers tax bill increases from $93.9M to $112.9M (+$19M). https://t.co/ZpEJfML8XM

— Bobby Marks (@BobbyMarks42) February 4, 2022

Balmer can afford it

my guess is they know pg and kawhi are coming back this season and want to make a push

that's the type of trade you can only do with a guy like ballmer signing the checks

ty lue actually said last night they’re not expecting kawhi back but both norm & covington do fit into their small ball switch everything style

Ty Lue said when asked about his stars being out, “We know Kawhi's probably not gonna come back.” Asked to clarify later, Lue said he hopes every day Kawhi will return and then reiterated his phrase tonight that was used about PG’s MRI: “Hope is stronger than fear.”

— Ohm Youngmisuk (@NotoriousOHM) February 4, 2022

yeah, this seems more like getting your christmas shopping done early. they could re-sign convington for a lower number i bet. both those guys are good fits.

hm ok xp

Jackson/Powell/Coffey/Covington/Zubac is a fun league pass team

the clippers are pretty fun in the same way that the raptors are pretty fun, tho they're less fun than the raptors. the win ceiling on a team like that still seems pretty low -- you need elite players and you need at least some sort of big man -- but it does make for fun basketball

raps have an all star at least, and siakim mighta been one too if hed been healthy to start the season.

I feel like the blazers didn’t get enough salary relief here, but they did get a guy who was picked 21st and maybe they really like him

bcuz bledsoe has another year left the salary relief isn’t immediate tho per bobby marks it does get them under the tax this year. but longterm in shedding powell’s contract they’re getting off $60 million in the final three years which feels fairly significant

also i bet they feel like they can move bledsoe again in the offseason

Yeah I guess it’s good enough.

signing norm powell to a five year deal then salary dumping him the same year even tho hes playing well ok

guess they did have gm turnover since then but still silly stuff

yeah. old GM desperately trying to save his job, new GM undoing the moves made in desperation

feels pretty painless for portland tho. they got a recent first round pick & the second in the deal is from detroit, and all they had to give up was covington. i can't tell if the clippers are being the desperate ones or if powell is perceived to have value. from my POV it feels like the blazers paid a pretty small price to move off a negative contract