NBA 2016 Playoffs & Beyond

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NBA 2016 Playoffs & Beyond

It's actually worse because the Thunder have never won anything, whereas Hawthorn just had in 2013. KD took a franchise right on the brink of championship contention and blew it up.

I think of it as analogous to Ablett dumping the Suns to play for Hawthorn because he was tired of losing. There's a if-you-can't-beat-em-join-em thinking behind it that's turning a lot of people off. After all, Karl Malone didn't plead to sign to the Bulls after failing multiple times to beat them (though his move to the Lakers had a similar kind of logic to it).

I get what KD's doing and can't blame him for trying to bolster his legacy, but it is disappointing. I don't want to make things tougher for the Bulls but it would have been cool if the Celtics had gotten him, just to give the Cavs some competition.
 
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After all, Karl Malone didn't plead to sign to the Bulls after failing multiple times to beat them (though his move to the Lakers had a similar kind of logic to it).

Most Jazz fans didn't begrudge Malone for trying to get a ring with the Lakers at the end of his career. He had given it everything he had for 18 seasons in Utah. Stockton had retired and the Jazz were trending downward having not gotten out the first round the two seasons prior. It was obvious the Jazz were going to have to rebuild anyway.
 
NBA 2016 Playoffs & Beyond

Most Jazz fans didn't begrudge Malone for trying to get a ring with the Lakers at the end of his career. He had given it everything he had for 18 seasons in Utah. Stockton had retired and the Jazz were trending downward having not gotten out the first round the two seasons prior. It was obvious the Jazz were going to have to rebuild anyway.


Yeah, I agree that's different. 18 years is more than long enough, he paid his dues. One of the most loyal NBA players of my lifetime.

KD was in the Sonics/Thunder franchise for 9 years and stuck around for their move, which is admirable. I don't blame him for leaving, it's just disappointing that the rich are getting richer.
 
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I'm not sure why this comes as a shock though, aren't American sports engineered this way? Not quite to a soccer extent, but you don't really have the cyclical nature that the AFL has. Big money talks.
 
NBA 2016 Playoffs & Beyond

Depends on the sport and the adjacent salary cap. It's very, very difficult to stockpile quality players after a championship in the NFL and NHL. Going to a championship and falling short is a known "curse" in the NFL, though really a dip there is just common sense.

NBA and MLB (which has no salary cap, though there is a luxury tax to consider) allows a bit more room to create "dream teams" contingent on market size and the aggression of its ownership in free agency.

I feel like the AFL is a bit more hands on with adjusting competitive balance than the American leagues though, definitely. Maybe not NFL; I would say there are parallels between the two.
 
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I'm not sure why this comes as a shock though, aren't American sports engineered this way? Not quite to a soccer extent, but you don't really have the cyclical nature that the AFL has. Big money talks.


Basketball has tried to fight it. Football and hockey are not set up like that at all.

And even baseball, with no salary cap, allows for teams to remain competitive through long periods of arbitration.

The NBA's cap is just really easy to circumvent. It's a product of small roster sizes, if you ask me.
 
Yes, I was thinking about this last week. The NHL has a hard cap of $72 million this season, but that has to be spread across 23 players. Meanwhile, the NBA has a soft cap of $94 million for 15 players. So therein lies one of big issues we are seeing this summer.

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What is a "soft cap"? And are there restrictions imposed on third-party deals? Or can a club get a player over the line with a gigantic sponsorship deal?
 
NBA 2016 Playoffs & Beyond

I would really hate a hard cap for the NBA. It's really just a way of getting money from players to the owners. At some point, you just have to live with the consequences of superteams. Let players choose their employers like any of us do.

Cobbler: there are more details involved, but basically you can go over the cap to sign your own players, but not other teams'. This is a good thing for teams that wish to retain the talent they developed, but can be used creatively by smart teams to increase payroll.
 
Until a team offers them an obscene amount and they leave?

In most cases, the team that owns the rights to the player can offer more money than other teams. In any case, the NBA has max salaries, and superstars like Durant are underpaid relative to the rest of the league. Money is a moot point, everyone is offering similar amounts. A guy like Durant or Lebron doesn't leave because of money, he leaves because he prefers another team's situation (be it playing with his friends, going to a title contender, moving from Oklahoma City to the Bay Area). Lebron actually left some money on the table to go to Miami.
 
What is a "soft cap"? And are there restrictions imposed on third-party deals? Or can a club get a player over the line with a gigantic sponsorship deal?
The most fundamental aspect of the soft cap is that you are allowed to go over the salary cap to re-sign a player already on your roster. There are also a number of "exceptions" that give teams flexibility to continue to operate even as they run up to the cap.
 
Does anybody else think the draft should be held AFTER free agency starts? I think back to the Miami Heat, who drafted Shabazz Napier to appease LeBron, only to see him go back to Cleveland two years ago. If they had known he was leaving, they likely would have handled the draft differently. Perhaps this might help some of the smaller market clubs, like OKC, who could better prepare for the sudden departure of their star players.
 
Drafting first and having free agency second guarantees you know exactly what you need out of FA. I think the LeBron case is a little special.
 
Yeah, I mean, the flipside of that coin is what the Eagles did, locking up Sam Bradford and Chase Daniel before they knew they'd have the opportunity to move up to 2 to take Carson Wentz. There are issues with either way of doing things.
 
The Knicks signed a Lithuanian guy called Mindaugas Kuzminskas, who was playing in a team called Darussafaka Dogu in Turkey. Sorry, folks, they've won the name offseason.

Now they need to find an Estonian center and form the Baltics Big Three.
 
I think they should just rip off the band aid, split the league in 2 and go full on European soccer model complete with promotion and relegation, and the elimination of the draft and our sham grassroots and college systems.

But I'm just a caveman.

I don't know the NBA rules like I do NFL, but do the Thunder receive any kind of compensation for losing KD? Like how the NFL does compensation picks?

Not saying that would solve everything but wondering if the NBA could at least learn a couple of things from the NFL.

But then again, the team that just won the Super Bowl was primarily built through Free Agency when you look at many of the key pieces. But at least generally, building thru the draft is usually the way to go in the NFL when it comes to establishing long term success.

Back to the NBA, as a spectator, Super Teams are fun. But when you're a fan of a team like the Bucks, and you know that the chances of ever having someone like KD consider signing with your team is slim to none, it's a bit demoralizing.
 
I don't know the NBA rules like I do NFL, but do the Thunder receive any kind of compensation for losing KD? Like how the NFL does compensation picks?

Not saying that would solve everything but wondering if the NBA could at least learn a couple of things from the NFL.

But then again, the team that just won the Super Bowl was primarily built through Free Agency when you look at many of the key pieces. But at least generally, building thru the draft is usually the way to go in the NFL when it comes to establishing long term success.

Back to the NBA, as a spectator, Super Teams are fun. But when you're a fan of a team like the Bucks, and you know that the chances of ever having someone like KD consider signing with your team is slim to none, it's a bit demoralizing.
They get a dick in the eye


It's why teams often try and work out a sign and trade deal once they know a player is gone... just to try and get something of value in return. Doesn't look like that will happen in this case.
 
They get a dick in the eye


It's why teams often try and work out a sign and trade deal once they know a player is gone... just to try and get something of value in return. Doesn't look like that will happen in this case.

Yikes! Even a franchise tag could really benefit the teams in this situation.
 
NBA 2016 Playoffs & Beyond

What the hell are the Bulls doing? Signing Wade looks like a pretty bad move for that team.
 
I mean at the very least, a playoff appearance helps attract free agents.

Fuckin' Wade. I get why he did it and all, but still. Him taking a discount historically is his own doing. I side with management on this one... his departure is a cap blessing in disguise. He can go tarnish his own legacy, whatever.
 
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