[quote]randman wrote:
I’ve read more about Toronto Raptor trade scenarios than I ever cared to in my entire life. Who the heck cares about Toronto anyways?!? :)[/quote]
lol Watch it, Rand!
[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:
Kinda sucks for Toronto man. If Bosh leaves [and it’s pretty clear that he will] they might wind up relocating, just like the Grizz. Players are scared of signing with TO 'cause they hear about Canadian taxes and think their money’s gonna get cut in half. Read an interview with Bosh where he addressed this and said that’s not how it works and players need to educate themselves, but it doesn’t look like that’s gonna happen. Guess we’ll see how this plays out over the next few years.[/quote]
Financially the Raps are actually doing quite well compared to most teams in the league, actually. We’re historically one of the few teams that actually stays below the salary cap [almost every team goes over], and only went above it in recent years [and not by much]. So I think we stand a good chance of staying here for a while. But yeah, it still sucks because every 5 years we’re in rebuilding mode, with little to show for it. This time we actually have a really good GM, too. Not his fault no one wants to come here.
Anyway, thanks for giving me a shoulder to cry on. I always knew you were classier than Rand :D.
Details:
Forbes List Directory [TO]
Forbes List Directory [All Teams]
[quote]LarryDavid wrote:
[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:
Kinda sucks for Toronto man. If Bosh leaves [and it’s pretty clear that he will] they might wind up relocating, just like the Grizz. Players are scared of signing with TO 'cause they hear about Canadian taxes and think their money’s gonna get cut in half. Read an interview with Bosh where he addressed this and said that’s not how it works and players need to educate themselves, but it doesn’t look like that’s gonna happen. Guess we’ll see how this plays out over the next few years.[/quote]
Financially the Raps are actually doing quite well compared to most teams in the league, actually. We’re historically one of the few teams that actually stays below the salary cap [almost every team goes over], and only went above it in recent years [and not by much]. So I think we stand a good chance of staying here for a while. But yeah, it still sucks because every 5 years we’re in rebuilding mode, with little to show for it. This time we actually have a really good GM, too. Not his fault no one wants to come here.
Anyway, thanks for giving me a shoulder to cry on. I always knew you were classier than Rand :D.
Details:
Forbes List Directory [TO]
Forbes List Directory [All Teams][/quote]
I wasn’t referring to the teams financial state [though I am glad they’re doing well], I was talking about waning fan interest. People really only want to pay for tickets to see 2 things: Superstars and winners. And chances are if you don’t have a superstar you’re not winning. If they can’t get or hold on to a marquee player then things could take a turn for the worse for them. I’m just not sure pro basketball is ready to have a stable home north of our border.
[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:
[quote]LarryDavid wrote:
[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:
Kinda sucks for Toronto man. If Bosh leaves [and it’s pretty clear that he will] they might wind up relocating, just like the Grizz. Players are scared of signing with TO 'cause they hear about Canadian taxes and think their money’s gonna get cut in half. Read an interview with Bosh where he addressed this and said that’s not how it works and players need to educate themselves, but it doesn’t look like that’s gonna happen. Guess we’ll see how this plays out over the next few years.[/quote]
Financially the Raps are actually doing quite well compared to most teams in the league, actually. We’re historically one of the few teams that actually stays below the salary cap [almost every team goes over], and only went above it in recent years [and not by much]. So I think we stand a good chance of staying here for a while. But yeah, it still sucks because every 5 years we’re in rebuilding mode, with little to show for it. This time we actually have a really good GM, too. Not his fault no one wants to come here.
Anyway, thanks for giving me a shoulder to cry on. I always knew you were classier than Rand :D.
Details:
Forbes List Directory [TO]
Forbes List Directory [All Teams][/quote]
I wasn’t referring to the teams financial state [though I am glad they’re doing well], I was talking about waning fan interest. People really only want to pay for tickets to see 2 things: Superstars and winners. And chances are if you don’t have a superstar you’re not winning. If they can’t get or hold on to a marquee player then things could take a turn for the worse for them. I’m just not sure pro basketball is ready to have a stable home north of our border.[/quote]
Oh, I misunderstood. People here are pretty patient, but I can definitely see your point. Even when VC left, we had Bosh to step it up. Last time we didn’t have a marquis player on our team was a long time ago.
what does everyone think of the Draft last night? Wall went number one. No one saw that coming… 
.greg.
From Jay-Z expected to be among first to visit LeBron :
Re Bulls: Maybe James thinks he can be greater than Jordan? They’re definitely in position to be a very good team though.
Re Heat: Don’t see him sharing with Wade. Miami is probably not too globally marketable either.
Re Nets: Is it worth 2 years of “anonymity” in NJ? But the pull of Jay-Z and that Russian owner is probably quite strong.
One thing I’m wondering: I have no idea who’s a tough coach and who’s a soft coach. But would James avoid a tough coach, so that he can again be in a situation where he’s boss?
[quote]gregron wrote:
what does everyone think of the Draft last night? Wall went number one. No one saw that coming…
.greg.[/quote]
Yeah would have never guessed Wall going #1. Unbelievable (sarcasm). Disappointed we didn’t get to see the dance though.
As for the draft, lotta trades (lot more than I would have liked). Three things that struck me:
-
My Thunder were very aggressive last night, making good trades and getting good guys. Presti is a great GM for us.
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Miami ‘cleared the decks’ which means they only have D-Wade, Chalmers and Beasley under contract and nobody else officially with the team, which means the Heat can sign three max contract guys.
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Paul Allen firing POR GM Kevin Pritchard an hour before the draft, but telling him to run the draft then he’s done, is absolutely disrespectful. I think Pritchard is one of the best GM’s in the game, but I know him and Allen didn’t see eye to eye on a lot of stuff. Unfortunate.
[quote]lavi wrote:
One thing I’m wondering: I have no idea who’s a tough coach and who’s a soft coach. But would James avoid a tough coach, so that he can again be in a situation where he’s boss?[/quote]
Good point. I think he can play for a tough coach in a good situation. He played for Coach K with the US Olympic Team, so he may be able to make it work.
Someone brought it up earlier in this thread (gregron I think) but rumor has it that Pat Riley told D-Wade to tell LBJ if he comes to MIA, he’ll coach the team. Stuart Scott also mentioned this at the draft last night. Riley is a good coach and pretty tough (grueling five-hour practices and runs guys into the ground) but nonetheless he’s a proven winner.
But I think there’s a huge difference between tough coach, soft coach, and respected coach. Tough coach would be Larry Brown. Soft coach would be Mike Brown. Respected coach would be Phil Jackson.
To make a plug for my Thunder, coach of the year Scott Brooks is a respected coach. His demeanor is really low-key, and even during timeouts he doesn’t yell at the guys, even in the worst situations. Always very encouraging. After his first season in 2008-2009, when he told the team he would be returning for 2009-2010, he received a standing ovation from his team in the locker room. That’s respect.
[quote]tmoney1 wrote:
- Paul Allen firing POR GM Kevin Pritchard an hour before the draft, but telling him to run the draft then he’s done, is absolutely disrespectful. I think Pritchard is one of the best GM’s in the game, but I know him and Allen didn’t see eye to eye on a lot of stuff. Unfortunate.[/quote]
yah, he’s done a great job. Even without Oden working out for them they’re a sold playoff team. On the other hand you guys must be happy you got Durant instead :D.
[quote]LarryDavid wrote:
[quote]tmoney1 wrote:
- Paul Allen firing POR GM Kevin Pritchard an hour before the draft, but telling him to run the draft then he’s done, is absolutely disrespectful. I think Pritchard is one of the best GM’s in the game, but I know him and Allen didn’t see eye to eye on a lot of stuff. Unfortunate.[/quote]
yah, he’s done a great job. Even without Oden working out for them they’re a sold playoff team. On the other hand you guys must be happy you got Durant instead :D.[/quote]
Oh man, that was a blessing in disguise. Could be one of the greatest #2 picks ever
Don’t know all the details, but Pritchard getting canned the way he did seemed really shady. Pretty sure he’s won a GM of the year award. He’s made some amazing trades [Roy for Foye?] and has pretty consistently made great draft picks. The Roy trade was a bit of good luck, and Oden staying injured thus far is bad luck, but everything else seemed to work in their favor.
People seem to forget that Oden was the consensus #1 pick, and people were more worried about Durant’s lack of strength and athleticism than they were Odens ability to stay healthy. He traded for a guy who I think can be a future All-Star [Jerryd Bayless] and was well respected around the league.
I don’t even understand how you can work to better a team when they’ve already handed you your walking papers… He’ll wind up somewhere else.
It hasn’t gotten a lot of discussion [a few mentions] in this thread but what does everyone think of the whole deal with this ‘World Wide Wes’ guy? And the whole deal with a lot of the marquis agents [including LBJ, Bosh, and Wade] being represented by the same agency, CAA. The GQ article linked in this thread is a very good read on WWW.
I think it’s worth mentioning. Agencies are big players in these things, and if two marquis players do go to the same team of course a big part of that will be the agents. If you follow that, apparently Chicago are the favourites to land Bronbron, with the Heat and Nets also in close contention [as lavi mentioned].
WWW has reportedly said Lebron and Bosh are headed to Chicago, and given Chicago just unloaded Hinrich it seems to make sense. I remember on TV they mentioned how Tom Thibodeau had previously said he’d never get an agent, suddenly joined with CAA, then during the Finals, while he was assistant coaching the Celtics he suddenly signs on to be the Bulls’ next head coach.
And I’ve read that Doc Rivers lets Thibodeau pretty much take charge on defensive coaching, so it’s not like he wasn’t important. The GQ article is full of similar stories involving CAA and World Wide Wes.
I still have a hard time seeing LBJ on the Bulls, because as another poster mentioned, he’ll always be their second best player ever. As far as business goes, it makes COMPLETE sense for LBJ to go there, as short of NY and LA there’s no better market. Plus at least initially the prospect of a Second Coming would be great, too.
But long run that’ll sting unless he gets 7 rings [I can already see him getting more MVP’s than MJ]. Maybe he feels like he will end up better than MJ, though.
If you read the GQ article, you’ll read about the Knicks picking shitty players in the draft that were cool with Wes/CAA, in the hopes that they could sign LeBron, but then LeBron signed a 3 year deal with Cleveland. So it could be that all of these teams just did all of this for nothing [and by nothing I mean they can still get other guys with the money].
Larry, I like to think I know ball pretty well and I’d never heard of www until around the end of the regular season. I’m guessing his ties to certain players are greatly overstated. But, who knows? The article could very well be onto something, but to me it sounds like connecting imaginary dots.
I just don’t see James or any of the first tier free agents signing with the Bulls. There’s just too much pressure for today’s soft skinned superstar. Then again they could grab who they’re after and I could be proven completely wrong. Gues we’ll see here pretty soon.
[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:
Larry, I like to think I know ball pretty well and I’d never heard of www until around the end of the regular season. I’m guessing his ties to certain players are greatly overstated. But, who knows? The article could very well be onto something, but to me it sounds like connecting imaginary dots.
I just don’t see James or any of the first tier free agents signing with the Bulls. There’s just too much pressure for today’s soft skinned superstar. Then again they could grab who they’re after and I could be proven completely wrong. Gues we’ll see here pretty soon.[/quote]
It is weird that this guy never got any coverage until now, but then again there’s never been a free agency period like this summer’s.
[quote]tmoney1 wrote:
[quote]lavi wrote:
One thing I’m wondering: I have no idea who’s a tough coach and who’s a soft coach. But would James avoid a tough coach, so that he can again be in a situation where he’s boss?[/quote]
Good point. I think he can play for a tough coach in a good situation. He played for Coach K with the US Olympic Team, so he may be able to make it work.
[/quote]
I’m also wondering what LeBron will do if he lands a good team with a good coach–which is basically going to happen unless he stays in Cleveland. Especially given a good point guard, since LeBron’s style of play involves him holding the ball A LOT. That’ll have to change.
It’ll be interesting to see how he responds to the prospect of letting the point guard run the offense on most possessions, be that Devin Harris, Derrick Rose, or even Dwyane Wade [long shot, I know]. His assists will go down, but the teams offense will be better than what he dealt with with the Cavs. LeBron’s always said he wanted to average a triple-double, that’ll be impossible on the Bulls, Nets, or Heat.
[quote]LarryDavid wrote:
[quote]tmoney1 wrote:
[quote]lavi wrote:
One thing I’m wondering: I have no idea who’s a tough coach and who’s a soft coach. But would James avoid a tough coach, so that he can again be in a situation where he’s boss?[/quote]
Good point. I think he can play for a tough coach in a good situation. He played for Coach K with the US Olympic Team, so he may be able to make it work.
[/quote]
I’m also wondering what LeBron will do if he lands a good team with a good coach–which is basically going to happen unless he stays in Cleveland. Especially given a good point guard, since LeBron’s style of play involves him holding the ball A LOT. That’ll have to change.
It’ll be interesting to see how he responds to the prospect of letting the point guard run the offense on most possessions, be that Devin Harris, Derrick Rose, or even Dwyane Wade [long shot, I know]. His assists will go down, but the teams offense will be better than what he dealt with with the Cavs. LeBron’s always said he wanted to average a triple-double, that’ll be impossible on the Bulls, Nets, or Heat.[/quote]
Couple of things here. 1: Playing for a demanding coach for a few weeks with several other superstars all playing for a common goal is completely different than playing for one where the burden falls solely on your shoulders for an entire season or more. 2:If James does wind up playing with a true pg all of his numbers [save maybe rebounding] will take a drastic hit. I thinking playing off the ball would frustrate the shit outta him and he’d resort to being the giant cry-baby he’s proven himself to be. I just don’t see him doing it, unless he already knows where he’s going and everyone else has agreed to let him run the offense. That could work in Jersey 'cause Devin Harris has proven capable playing off the ball, but that would completely fuck up Chicago’s system. Derrick Rose needs to be running the offense up there. Bringing in James would fuck his game up like no other.
[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:
Larry, I like to think I know ball pretty well and I’d never heard of www until around the end of the regular season. I’m guessing his ties to certain players are greatly overstated. But, who knows? The article could very well be onto something, but to me it sounds like connecting imaginary dots.
I just don’t see James or any of the first tier free agents signing with the Bulls. There’s just too much pressure for today’s soft skinned superstar. Then again they could grab who they’re after and I could be proven completely wrong. Gues we’ll see here pretty soon.[/quote]
world wide Wes is the real deal in the NBA dude. He’s like Scott Boras for baseball on steroids. He has a significant amount of influence in backdoor NBA dealings.
you need to do a google research on this guy
although I should elaborate that he’s not technically a player’s agent.
Looks like Joe Johnson is going to be a Knick.
[quote]WestCoast7 wrote:
Looks like Joe Johnson is going to be a Knick.[/quote]
Where’d you hear that from?
Johnson playing for D’Antoni again makes sense. Maybe they can snag Amare too, haha.
[quote]randman wrote:
[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:
Larry, I like to think I know ball pretty well and I’d never heard of www until around the end of the regular season. I’m guessing his ties to certain players are greatly overstated. But, who knows? The article could very well be onto something, but to me it sounds like connecting imaginary dots.
I just don’t see James or any of the first tier free agents signing with the Bulls. There’s just too much pressure for today’s soft skinned superstar. Then again they could grab who they’re after and I could be proven completely wrong. Gues we’ll see here pretty soon.[/quote]
world wide Wes is the real deal in the NBA dude. He’s like Scott Boras for baseball on steroids. He has a significant amount of influence in backdoor NBA dealings.
you need to do a google research on this guy
although I should elaborate that he’s not technically a player’s agent.[/quote]
Because an article in GQ says so? I’m not saying he has no pull, I’m saying it’s probably overstated. They’re making it sound like he’s the Tony Soprano of the NBA. I know he’s not an agent. I’ve seen 2 full interviews on the guy in the last month and all they’ll say is “he’s connected” and that he’s “a likeable guy” and players trust him. What the fuck does that mean? NO ONE HERE knows anything about this guy. Citing an article from a mens fashion magazine doesn’t make me a believer.