stashing assets for the 2023 nba offseason

harden had no agent after rob pelinka took the lakers job until earlier this year when he hired representation. the current agent was an ex adidas exec whose main qualification for the job, from what i can tell, is being friends with james harden

it’s hard to say how badly harden screwed up bcuz we don’t really know what his priorities are — if his main objective was making $35m this year than he made the right choice opting in. but it seems like he & the new agent repping his first client made a strategic error bcuz no trade market developed and he’s really at morey’s mercy now. if he tries to sabotage his way out of philly it could kill his career. i also do wonder if morey had made the wink wink extension promise with a very prominent agent instead of harden directly whether he’d still feel able to renege on it

Harden's comments to KHOU after the China video seemed to imply that Harden is mad because of Morey hadn't traded him and cancelled talks with the Clippers, rather than a failure to follow through on the promise of an extension. That could be Harden being cagey, but Harden doesn't seem that subtle.

Also, Harden's desire to play somewhere other than Philly was cropping up in stories in the Spring even before the playoffs. It seems like Harden thought he could get a max deal from anyone and never really intended to come back to Philly, even if they offered him the max.

i’m not convinced he never intended to come back to philly. but i do think at this point it’s obvious that he thought he was going to have a max offer from houston and a big offer from philly and he’d have a choice between where he wanted to go. instead he ended up with neither. whoops

Harden's comments to KHOU after the China video seemed to imply that Harden is mad because of Morey hadn't traded him and cancelled talks with the Clippers, rather than a failure to follow through on the promise of an extension. That could be Harden being cagey, but Harden doesn't seem that subtle.

― il lavoro mi rovina la giornata (PBKR), Saturday, August 19, 2023 12:35 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

he kind of has to say it's the trade talks because saying it was an implied extension is the thing that would get everyone in lots of trouble. hopefully whoever is advising him at least got him to understand that.

i also do wonder if morey had made the wink wink extension promise with a very prominent agent instead of harden directly whether he’d still feel able to renege on it

― J0rdan S., Saturday, August 19, 2023 12:28 PM (fifty-six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

good point, seems like morey out maneuvered harden, right into a ditch, classic morey

harden trying to keep everyone out of deep shit. tho if this was actually the source of his anger it would be funny

https://x.com/shamscharania/status/1693656664082096449?s=46&t=delhXlmZBYazm252j4iaFA

timing does match up in that he did it soon after philly said they werent trading him

That's what I was saying last week - Harden's post-China comments make it sound like the China/liar comments were fallout from Morey failing to trade him and now he's stuck in Philly, not because Harden wanted an extension and to remain in Philly. As you said, Harden could be lying to keep everyone out of trouble, but he seems like an emotional guy.

seems like harden is folding like a little punk

For the league’s purposes on the fine, Harden’s comments that he would never be part of an organization that included Morey played a bigger part in the fine, sources said. It touched on the league’s rules concerning public trade demands. https://t.co/AZxe6kKpNv

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) August 22, 2023

damn 100k

Lol, I thought they were going to fine the Sixers.

ladies and gentlemen the dallas mavericks

Giant fail on three-year deal inked last summer; signed to be starting center and made it to Nov. 4.

$11.7M left on deal; looks like cap hit will be $2,348,324 for next five years. https://t.co/qvqKHmubBS

— John Hollinger (@johnhollinger) August 22, 2023

that deal made zero sense the second it was signed and less sense w/ each subsequent minute passed but at least they're cutting bait on it early

Can't be too many names on the list of players who have been "stretch-and-waived"

luka can't walk until 2027

he can refuse to associate with mark cuban at any time tho

bars

Anthony Edwards admits he wasn’t cool with Steve Kerr trying to bring him off the bench

“He said Dwyane Wade came off the bench when Kobe played. I was like, ‘all right, we don’t have a Kobe.’”

(Via @joevardon ) pic.twitter.com/zp7vUlUx5E

— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) August 24, 2023

He said Dwyane Wade came off the bench when Kobe played
He said Dwyane Wade came off the bench when Kobe played
(continues, in the style of Eminem)

Kerr wanted Edwards to play behind Cam Johnson? Come on Steve

Kerr will always find a way to get too cute with it

i wouldn't read a ton into it... it's an ad hoc team of guys who've never played together that went w/ one line up for like... a single scrimmage? and then switched it up to get ant in there. kinda think that's just how these things go sometimes...

oh yeah its def nothing and wouldnt even be mentioned if it wasnt the duldrums of the offseason

speaking of... i need hoops and we're still two months away.

i watched soccer the other day, sad

Kerr will always find a way to get too cute with it

― nobody respects the chair (Spottie), Thursday, August 24, 2023 12:48 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

basically hes a hater, a lot of coaches are like that they cant stand contemporary basketball but they have no choice but to but to submit to its powers

FIBA World Cup starts tomorrow!

edwards is clearly the best player on the roster, kerr is tripping

that team is pretty rough lol, all the euros consider the world cup more important than the olympics but americans like the olympics

so giannis did a whole interview & photoshoot in the NYT to announce that he’s not signing an extension and won’t until he feels comfortable with the direction of the organization, or something?

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/24/sports/basketball/giannis-antetokounmpo-milwaukee-bucks-contract.html

something is off here. they just gave huge contracts to middleton and lopez essentially in order to prevent this exact thing from happening. but he went ahead and did a whole calculated roll out about how he might wanna leave anyway

yeah pretty obviously setting the stage for a soft exit, much smarter than whatever lillard has been doing

the team is just aging out having old middleton and lopez isnt gonna be enough in couple years

yeah, i don't think anything is off, the bucks are controlling what they can control but it likely won't be enough to keep him around because those guys are old

well what’s off is he decided to do a whole PR rollout w/ an explanation that doesn’t make sense. they traded most of their assets for jrue and gave big deals to two vital older players. they just paid the third highest luxury tax bill in the league. i don’t think their front office is amazing by any stretch but it would be hard to say that they haven’t poured all their resources into winning now. so what does he really mean

and also that he saw their obvious attempts to please him and instead was like, actually let me cause the most drama possible

he means that he knows the team is too old and he's going to leave soon

if he wants to join a franchise that is consistently committed to winning i do have an idea

and also that he saw their obvious attempts to please him and instead was like, actually let me cause the most drama possible

― J0rdan S., Thursday, August 24, 2023 10:01 PM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

it is the nba

like i don't think it's an anomaly that the bucks got smoked in the playoffs, it's not that good of a roster anymore

the "consistently committed to winning" framing is bs of course but the nba isn't designed to let the bucks stay competitive so he's going to leave

lmao

“From 2020 to 2023, people think I’ve taken a large jump on the basketball court, but I think I’ve taken 10X jump off the court,” he said.

It started in the spring of 2020 when the world shut down because of the coronavirus pandemic. It wasn’t clear what would happen to players’ salaries or endorsement deals with the season in flux. He began to think of ways to diversify his sources of income.

“We were sitting in the house. OK, now what?” Antetokounmpo said. “Basketball is taken away, what do I have?” He downloaded a stock trading app and started investing on his own for the first time. He began to reach out to successful people from other industries for advice and mentorship.

does fiba deserve a thread

yes

2023 fiba world cup: its not the olympics but

Edwards clarifies:

“Y’all losers, beat it, man. Y’all are taking that little comment too far. I didn’t say that to Steve Kerr,” Edwards said, as covered by Larry Brown Sports.

“I was thinking that when he said I was coming off the bench. Y’all doing too much. Y’all going too far. That’s my dog, man. Steve Kerr locked in. We talk everyday. I hate y’all. Y’all always doing that. Just interview a n—a and go about your business, bruh.”

haha

over/under on how long ant can keep it real like that before the nba media machine turns him into a jaded kd or some such

sorry that was a lame ass post. withdrawn. ant rules

that NYT article reads like a children’s story