It's because Riley is old and impatient.

He openly speaks about it and wants to retire constantly to his house in CA but he just can't bring himself to do it. **** all if he's down for a full bust and boom rebuild.

This team is legit popular in the area as well, nearly the top in local TV audience.

You're basically looking at a this-era approach offensively to a team that's down for being quasi-competitive with their core.

They're the new Memphis. It was the Jazz of DWill and Booz before that, Melo's Denver, etc. The team that is going to peak as a tough out for the champ, but we all know they're not titling.

Swaggy P is on the Warriors now.

So yes, the Lakers are finally swaggin.

The above also describes Detroit, but like some teams throughout history, they got lucky that they peaked during a league-wide lull.

NJ climbing to the the heights they did is indicative of that. Those teams, along with early SA, lose to peak Kings.

That was a good read ae. Nice writeup

I hereby nominate aejones for top poaster of the offseason thread.

GJGE

I literally can't tell what team you are referring to

fwiw a grade of a C+ does not mean that's the case (I'd say they'll be like 6% worse next season off the top of my head). it could just be that they did the best with what is available to them (a not great basically max contract in demar, the best player that's ever put on a raptors uniform and was previously criminally underpaid coming up as a FA)

they have a slew of quite interesting young guys, should any of them provide more value than anticipated they'll have a passable bench (delon, norm, poetl, bebe, siakam, even FVV).

dmc did nothing for them last year. it's basically patpat + tucker/dmc (counting dmc for first part of the year, tucker for post trade deadline) vs cj miles. that's an L but if just one of those 5 young guys is better than anticipated it could easily make up for it.

they'll also have an entire season of serge. hell, maybe bruno randomly plays a few minutes. idk, they're run like a competent franchise so they have a good 7-12 on the roster and a chance that some combination of them is decent.

(im not a huge fan of cojo. he's okay but i don't think he moves the needle and i think they'll be able to get his production out of a combination of FVV and delon)

oh and they also picked a guy i had ~10th on my board at 23. so yea. you get a C+ for keeping expensive guys to 3 year deals instead of 4 and running back a 50 win team when two of the best 5 players left the conference

i'd rather have willie reed. point being alan williams is just a random backup C energy guy who isnt' particularly young and has absolutely no chance at protecting the rim or stretching. guys like this are a dime a dozen. idc how good he is at rebounding or fantasy basketball.

yea he's okay. they paid too much for jodie meeks tho

Hey guys come give your opinions in the draft thread.


http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/46...draft-1681750/

As a long time TZ lurker, Geoff is fine with his LeBron love. He has the appropriate amount of respect for the King that any true basketball fan should have.

Tut's LeBron posting is among the most AIDS ridden garbage that has ever been published on the internet.

I'll hang up and listen

LeBron bashers have collectively pushed a narrative that has become so powerful it's legitimately impacted the way history will remember him. He'll literally not be considered the GOAT largely because of the passion of the people who correctly despise him for being one of the most pathetic and disgraceful human beings to ever live .

I'm proud to play a part in that. We're on the right side of history. He's not the GOAT ( tho hes closer to it than he'll ever get credit for bc **** him). He'll end up being considered in the Bird/Magic tier if he doesnt win any more titles and may legitimately be viewed as <Kobe. If Durant wins a few more titles he'll get remembered as >LeBron too.

People like Skip Bayless who have influenced the casual fan's (and thus histories) view of him on a wide scale and help make him hated instead of loved have done us all a massive public service.

you guys are really still letting Tut troll you in 2017 huh

I mean, it's hard to take someone too seriously when they refer to lebron as "the king" in a serious post.

Tut/pip/aj/cvig/beef are all the same person and that person is heels. I'm convinced.

Awesome grading from aejones and wanted to get to some of them as I have time in pieces as I think this is what makes great Offseason discussion.

Hawks getting that low of a grade seems like a leak. They crushed the Millsap/Gallo/pick deal by getting an expiring 1st for nothing. The Dwight deal is what the Dunc'd on guys are calling the new salary dump--taking on less bad money for what would be terrible for Atlanta considering they are trying to get to the bottom.

Dedmon is a weird get for them considering this would be a good time to get bad, however I think the teams who signed good players to great deals, in particular guys who look to fill out a good roster, are smart because those guys will be pretty movable once players start going down with injuries and teams know more about what they have this year.

I think even a C is too low. It seems to me like they are being penalized for mistakes of previous seasons.

More grades

Or even worse the "King".

The Sixers deserve worse than a B. Bryan Colangelo is the king of limited risk no upside signings. If job retention is his number one goal then he deserves an A. If trying to maximize championship equity is the number one goal he deserves a F.

There was so much opportunity to maneuver this offseason and to come away with nothing that will get us closer to a championship is devastating. The Fultz trade was fine value until you realize Boston desperately wanted to move down to exactly #3 to take Tatum. They were bidding against themselves. I guess he deserves credit for exceeding my very low expectations.

Very good writeup and I agree on the Cavs and the Spurs. I guess that's what happens when your GM is let go in the middle of the offseason. Dan Gilbert is the worst owner in professional sports.

You guys might be kind of correct about the Hawks, but it's tough to grade because the majority of deals were pretty defensible (not paying Millsap, not matching THJ though I think that deal isn't as bad as ppl think and it's reasonable to think if they'd have offered like 3/45 or something he'd have taken it and it could have been an okay deal). The Dwight trade was legitimately one of the worst 3ish trades in the last decade or so. Let's recap it:

The traded a demonstrably better AND healthier player for only a few million more per season (peanuts, and not really even relevant to the discussion) for a replacement level player who is making $12.5m per season for THREE more seasons (Dwight only had two left on his deal). Presumably by the summer of 2019 they should have some usefulness of their capspace, right? Even if it's to take on bad money? It's very important to note that Dwight is Dwight, at least in theory has some upside and/or playoff toughness, and Miles Plumlee has never, ever, ever in his NBA career shown that he can be a capable backup C for any length of time. Ever. A backup C. Ever. And he's making something just below average starter money. You cannot possibly find deader money in the NBA. At least Timofey Mozgov was once upon a time like an average starter or something.

In this trade, which we've already shown was obscene, they gave up a 10 spot move up in an area that typically matters: the first 5 picks of the second round are often seen as more valuable than firsts because of the versatility with contracts. I'm not sure how to precisely quantify that move, but it's "something" significant-ish and good teams win these trades on the margin ("throw in a second!" "okay fine, it's just a second!")

They received Marco Bellineli-- there's few worlds you can think of him as a positive asset, he's salary filler. If he plays unreal they can flip him for a ****ty second at the deadline, but probably not.