2024 NBA OFFS AND INS

bron looking pretty old, which makes sense since hes the oldest guy

the pelicans were doing good but now the lakers are doing good well you know what i always say basketball is a game of one team doing good then the other team doing good

it is a game like that

"life's like this"
--avril lavigne in her hit song about hoops "complicated"

avril knows what up

lil behind here incredible slowmo shot of lebron winking, sports emmy worthy

ok im caught up now

lakers are getting open shots too easy pelicans are over helping

bron gotta get out of the way

ingram real bad last two games since he came back

nuggets will win the NBA playoffs

that happened already

this game is not good sorry no offense

we are a people who thirst for novelty sorry k3v

zion showed up but the rest of the pelicans are on bourbon street celebrating mardi gras

lebron james

the oldest man in the world

Prob shoulda rolled with the team without Ingram and eased him back in

yeah

zion trying to win this game tho

i wish i could talk to someone at tnt to tell them how much i hate reggie millers commentary even if it wouldnt change anything it would be nice to let them know how i feel

a sternly worded letter about how Reggie Miller sucks

It’s sad that he brings down the goat harlen

breaking out my future predictions notebook just to make a note about zion. a decent dog candidate

the pelicans are in the game baby

ok this is getting interesting

Zion taking the Bron assignment is encouraging

plaicans figured out to not play ingram or cj

weirdest team in ages as far as awesome role players paired with unreliable stars

They have flexibility which is nice

ZION

bron waiting for the double instead of just going against alvarado

Joseeeee

being a pels fan is fun I should do this more

alverado thumbs up from me what a guy

very cool guy for sure

Our special boy is really doing it this is what we dreamed of

oh no

damn what’s up this is bad

Oh no!!!!!

he didnt look injured

he threw the towel really hard must be something

its ok jose can just get guys dunks every time

i was just going to post that the thing about zion is i don't think he can do this in every game or even the majority of games but it's pretty spectacular when he does

lakers lucky af, i can't wait for the nuggets to run them in 5 games

yeah having to play the nugs isnt much reward

hoo ok cj

they should have waited til Zion was better before they started playing again

otm

ad fouled with .6 on the 24 pels cant catch a break

yeah just something he needs time to work on

he improved greatly in that area this year as compared to last

cant imagine he wont fill in the blanks in the the next few seasons.

just a question of what level he can get to as a playmaker, hes def a willing passer you saw him trying to make the right plays this offs with varying success, seems like he has some level of passing instinct but obvs isnt a natural savant passer who just comes into the league dropping dimes, all that considered seems pretty likely hell get to at least good enough passer for the type of game he has, being better than good enough would be great tho

its just really rare that someone makes that leap to being a properly good passer. and its going to be particularly hard when you are already attracting the attention of a first option

i wouldnt bet on it if i were the wolves gm

tatum did it, no ones gonna confuse him for luka but hes good he makes the reads delivers accurate and on time and even manipulates the defense, pretty similar sitch to ant where that was the last big hole in his game, i think ant could get to tatum level he seems like a little more natural passer even, tho i dont think he needs to get to that level to be effective, he just needs to make the simple reads get the the ball there, but good passing will really supercharge his game so it would be great if he got really good, idk if he reaches the foretold mvp level if hes just a passable passer, and its prob a lil more important for his game than tatums cause hes a guard and tatums a forward

conversely youve got someone like kd, kd in fact, who never quite got there with his passing and it really hurt him in big spots, wonder if he tried enough, kd is weird

I would like to talk about everything that went right for the Wolves this year, it was the most fun I've ever had watching basketball! they were a real team with an identity that played with real effort and heart. they led the West most of the season. The Wolves led the West! the Minnesota Timberwolves!

they did figure out how to make the two bigs lineup work after everyone said they were nuts. we had imo one of the most compelling young players in years coming into his own and making an enormous leap! we had NAZ REID! the city was absolutely crazy for this team and it was so fun to see the city come together around hoops like that. I had so many fun nights out watching with friends.

we beat Denver! no one would have thought that at the beginning of the season! we were on the Final Four, another thing any of the basketball smart guys would have never thought could happen. so we kinda laid an egg with Dallas, it happens, bad matchup or we just got really cold and Luka went nuclear, it doesn't cancel out what a ride this was.

I know a lot of you root for franchises where this is taken for granted or even expected but this is the best Wolves team I've ever watched and it was a real pleasure.

sorry they lost and are therefor losers haha jk yeah man great season for sure good stuff whoop it up by all means but as being a serious nba fan for better or for worse requires general manager cosplay we are going to need to do a wolves teardown

fwiw i dont think anyone just expects to make it to the conf finals every year, i know the celtics have but thats highly unusual and the wheels could come off at any time, the key to the celtics conf finals streak is the first three were flukey

the first yeah there were supposed to be rebuilding but they got isaiah thomas for nothing then went on a playoff run that included kelly o dominating a second round game seven lol

+ the east is weak

great post ums, it was a great season and their future is bright with ant, should be a thrill to root for him for years come

Yah ums having a team you love be competitive is really the best. Especially after long droughts. Went through it for ~15 years with the warriors until the we believe team and that team meant a ton to the fanbase and only had one playoff series win.

wolves are in a crazy spot, very rare for a team to break through like that but also feel so unsettled. rudy gobert is extension eligible this summer!

“ being a serious nba fan for better or for worse requires general manager cosplay”

This has been the worst change for the nba. More homers please

the problem with homers is theyre always wrong, have no idea what theyre talking about

i think the wolves learned a lot about their strengths and weaknesses in this playoff run my question is to what degree they are willing to or can make some alterations based on info they gleaned about themselves from the mavs series. bcuz i think they have to conclude that "build a team to beat denver" is not the same thing as "build a team that wins the western conference" and i don't blame them for making that mistake, but their master plan had one huge flaw which is that there are other great teams in the conference built in ways that can exploit the current construction of their team

and i mean the vast majority of nba fans are still homers anyway, sports radio is all homer centric, but there is like some hardcore nba expert conversation out there now

xpost I agree with that, honestly though you have to pick a direction and they did, I've seen this team flounder around with no clue as to what they were building for decades, so one of the things I liked about the Gobert trade (in addition to all the things not to like) was that - for me - it signaled that they were going in on a certain plan, going on on defense, going big when conventional wisdom said the league was going small, it was something and it almost worked, and worked way better than most people thought it would. it's hard to win a championship and it probably won't ever happen but at least they took a swing

i think there's a lot of factors in sports culture in general (fantasy football etc) that have fueled the gm cosplay aspect of fandom but in the NBA it's especially pronounced bcuz the league rules around player movement have become so complicated that you really do need a level of CBA rule knowledge to even answer a basic question like "how can my favorite team get better this offsesaon?"

other pro sports are far less complicated. in the NFL there is a draft and then 4 years later players hit free agency. there is the franchise tag. the concept of guaranteed money. that's kinda about it. in baseball the trades are still very simple, there are very little rules around who can or can't be traded. you couldn't even trade draft picks in baseball until like five years ago or something.

NBA is the only league w/ salary matching rules that make every trade a math equation, the only league w/ pick protections, reverse pick protections, stepien rules etc blame the owners

its good imo like just how trades are such a big deal in the nba is a more interesting system of player movement than other sports, the cba lawyer part is hard to argue for but blockbuster trades cmon thats good stuff, the new apron situation is tilting towards the lawyer aspect via being more complicated and its going to prevent a lot of trades too, nba kinda shooting itself in the foot there, tho tbf shifting the league toward parity is good, tho forcing teardowns of contenders is prob gonna be ugly

I agree that homers should criticize the management when they are not putting a good product on the floor. It also helps in small markets to understand that you are always an underdog in that respect

I honestly don’t even remember who I’m supposed to be mad at for the Luka fiasco. Trae’s a fun player though so I’m just gonna hope he improves or they figure out how to build around him

its good imo like just how trades are such a big deal in the nba is a more interesting system of player movement than other sports, the cba lawyer part is hard to argue for but blockbuster trades cmon thats good stuff, the new apron situation is tilting towards the lawyer aspect via being more complicated and its going to prevent a lot of trades too, nba kinda shooting itself in the foot there, tho tbf shifting the league toward parity is good, tho forcing teardowns of contenders is prob gonna be ugly

― lag∞n, Saturday, June 1, 2024 1:55 PM (nineteen minutes ago)

idk i kinda hate this era of constant fake trade proposals as a result of high level free agency ceasing to exist. i liked the early 2010s era more, there were still blockbuster trades but there weren't *only* blockbuster trades. having summers where the biggest players changing teams in FA are like kyle lowry and fred van vleet isn't very fun imo

we also haven't even really hit any of the ramifications of like 3 teams hoarding a huge percentage of league's future trade assets, this stuff shouldn't be happening, you shouldn't need an ombudsman public GM like bobby marks around to explain the byzantine protections on every OKC pick, that shit is stupid. the league needs to get back to a place where teams largely own their own picks and are trading players for each other w/ a heavy dose of free agency

the heat trading lamar odom, caron butler and 1 first round pick for shaq is much cooler imo and much more digestible for the average fan than the kinda superstar trades we see nowadays like gobert and KD that require teams to completely gut their futures and are also going to take like 10 years to fully play out

i like trades much more than free agency its more fair, a good team just adding another good player without giving anything up feels like a swindle and their old team is sad, plus trades are more surprising free agency youre more likely to know whats up

counterpoint trade demands, knowing that a player is signing a big deal while planning a future trade demand, are a bummer

i do agree that the whole thing has gotten a lil out of whack tho, nba in its baroque era

might get a big free agent move this summer tho paul george to philly possible

to tie it altogether the wolves are in a tough spot looking at a big luxury tax bill while in the middle of an ownership dispute which i think we can all agree represents the bad side of the current nba laws

seems like arod is gonna win which is good, first time thats ever been said lol

Doesn't Arod want to gut the roster?

i mean who knows really maybe both parties want to get under the tax

saw windhorst say that next year the team is slated to play more in luxury tax than in the entire history of the franchise combined. the team is good enough to justify paying it, but still

pay*

they gotta at least roll with it for another year, we know taylor has money he just sold part of the team for hundreds of millions of dollars, cant see the new ownership group dismantling a contender year one, unless they just dont have the money in which case why are they buying an nba team, guess the more likely danger is dumping salary around the edges that weakens the team a little

also bcuz of salary matching rules you can’t really just “dump salary” and clear out $20 million in one offseason. you can do that to duck the tax when you’re a few million over or whatever but in a sense the wolves payroll for next season is kinda baked in regardless of whether they’re able to make trades to shed salary 2-3 years down the road. so in that case there’s a strong specimens for just sticking w/ this team and seeing if you can win it next year unless some amazing offer comes along

yeah true kinda weird sitch the league has set up feel like its maybe not that good idk guess well see

every time there’s another round of these changes the consequences end up being pretty unexpected, fully expect the same this time around

Yep, always unintended consequences.

I agree that homers should criticize the management when they are not putting a good product on the floor.

I would like to talk about everything that went right for the Wolves this year, it was the most fun I've ever had watching basketball! they were a real team with an identity that played with real effort and heart. they led the West most of the season. The Wolves led the West! the Minnesota Timberwolves!

they did figure out how to make the two bigs lineup work after everyone said they were nuts. we had imo one of the most compelling young players in years coming into his own and making an enormous leap! we had NAZ REID! the city was absolutely crazy for this team and it was so fun to see the city come together around hoops like that. I had so many fun nights out watching with friends.

we beat Denver! no one would have thought that at the beginning of the season! we were on the Final Four, another thing any of the basketball smart guys would have never thought could happen. so we kinda laid an egg with Dallas, it happens, bad matchup or we just got really cold and Luka went nuclear, it doesn't cancel out what a ride this was.

I know a lot of you root for franchises where this is taken for granted or even expected but this is the best Wolves team I've ever watched and it was a real pleasure.

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Saturday, June 1, 2024 10:41 AM (eight hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

totally man. they’re a fun team and I’m super happy for you and their fans. I feel similarly — just grateful to see a title because I really didn’t expect it to happen ever. the way the year ended wasn’t great but I’m just lucky to be a fan of the team when jokic is there

wrt Glen Taylor he comes off as a hayseed farmer old man but he's ultra rich, obv it's Internet estimations so grain of salt but his estimated net worth is more than Joe Lacob