2021-22 NBA "REGULAR" SEASON THREAD

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

yeah seems like a reasonable deal from a payroll perspective, but its an on court negative, which is prob not the best from the dame lillard mind state perspective

Hello, drama, it's me, Philly:

Sources: The Philadelphia 76ers are expected to pursue Brooklyn's James Harden ahead of NBA trade deadline Thursday – and the Nets are now open to discussing a deal.

Details on @TheAthletic: https://t.co/asdsGS0Sht

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) February 4, 2022

ah nice

NY media talking like the Nets are getting Simmons, Maxey, Thybulle and picks.

If Morey trades Maxey, I'd recommend he live in a non-fixed address for whatever time he's got left in Philly.

philly fan love maxey so much, the heart wants what it wants i guess

I'm not arguing it's rational, but I'm not putting Maxey in the deal.

Otoh the burned out husk of Danny Green matches the salaries perfectly.

maxey is a good young player and i agree they shd try not to trade him, the guy i do not understand being attached to is thybulle, hes an amazing defender but literally does nothing else

I wouldn't want to trade Thybulle with Simmons because someone on the team has to play D on the perimeter, but I would if I had to (unlike with Maxey).

one thing that would be good about getting harden is youd add rebounding which philly really needs

maxey strikes me as more of a sixth man personally, i wouldn't be scared to trade him. i would be scared to acquire james harden tho

maxeys putting up pretty sick numbers for someone his age can def see why a team would be weary to trade someone on his trajectory

i feel pretty confident penciling him in as a starting quality player at the least

gotta give up something to get something (decrepit james harden) (highly doubt morey would trade maxey)

this is going to happen isn’t it

https://i.imgur.com/jNxWM9N.png

i think maxey could be a sixth man of the year level player, highly valuable, tyler herro kinda vibe, no shots at him honestly. i just feel like his ultra scoring mentality may be better suited for the jamal crawford bench superstar role. i do wonder how sustainable it is to have a starting PG who averages 5 apg... tho some of this is mitigated by the overall awesomeness of embiid

Technically, Philadelphia *has to* put in extra money into a Simmons-Harden deal, about $2.1 million. Thybulle and Maxey each make just enough to do it, but also works with Korkmaz, or Reed + Joe, or lots of other combinations. https://t.co/RTr8suUEAY

— John Hollinger (@johnhollinger) February 4, 2022