re: Crabbe deal. It's possible that I overrate him, but he's a legitimately great shooter with gravity and probably a passable defender. I just see him as a tier below starting SGs, but a reasonable rotation player. So he's worth like 10-12m a year, he fits well, he's not a lockerroom headache, he's got no injury issues, etc.

It's also possible that they could have had better things to do with their capspace (like take on more bad money), but their FA money is worth SO little, getting a 17m guy for 11m is not unreasonable if you're trying to rack up Ws and improve your situation.

The Nets 1-3.5 of DAR, Lin, Crabbe, Levert, RHJ is pretty passable. I wouldn't even be THAT surprised if they made the playoffs next year.

Is it healthy for the long term? I'm not sure, you'd like to dip in 2018-19 and be bad in theory, but they've been losing for SO long, it's possible their route to the playoffs is just keep making good moves on the margins and hope to bink a mid first rounder or have DAR become an All NBA level guy.

How can you possibly say this? He retained 2 max slots for next season when he could have given longer term money to JJ Redick, KCP, or anyone else-- this is probably the most swing for the fences move possible.

re: Fultz: Uh, yea, okay, I guess... but a ****ton of people think they won that trade (because Fultz was the only 'shooter' among available PGs, they need a spacer, and future PG classes are supposed to be weak) so idk

I guess you are right but I am used to Hinkie adding assets every offseason. Just seems like a wasted offseason -- but, I guess it makes sense to retain maximum flexibility for next offseason.

I am just not a fan of 1 year deals for teams who aren't ready to compete. I just don't see the upside.

Being on the Bird/Magic tier still makes him >Kobe.

Oh i agree hes obviously better than Kobe but he might be remembered/judged by the majority as worse than Kobe.

Which is hilarious and pleases me greatly.


Most people have bird/magic>>kobe i guess. So they might have lebron behind that tier honestly.

People acting as if Fultz is a bust because Tatum beat up some scrubs in a few games is a weird connection to make

Sadly ATL might be here too, although they are probably way more live for a Top 5 pick

actually kinda sucksright now that coach bud is so good

Lowe wrote a great piece on Brooklyn today. Already thought really highly of Marks/Atkinson but I'm definitely rooting for them going forward. They're a breath of fresh air compared to what else is going on in NY.

How do you not see the upside? JJ Redick is the quintessential fit in Philly. He's a hard working veteran team guy who is still good and whose style of play won't hinder the young guys progress at all. Sure the Sixers aren't ready to contend yet, but you want to compete, this years squad put itself in basically the best position possible to free its young guys while having a chance to compete and then still having max cap room in the offseason. It's not like they have a 1 year deal to Jamal Crawford. It was the perfect signing.

I think part/all of you is bitter that Hinkies plan is comin to fruition, yet Colangelo is the one who is going to reap the benefit/credit.

Anyone that comes from poverty/no father and grows up to be successful is remarkable imo. Not saying players like Steph and Klay didn't have to work their asses off to get to and then make it in the NBA, but they had a very significant advantage in a lot of ways over guys like Lebron or Wade- who pretty much had the deck stacked against them. Not saying Steph or Klay or anyone else needs to feel bad in any way about their "privilege", but a little acknowledgement of it/the discrepancy between them and other guys seems in order.

Lebron was the youngest basketball superstar in history. His high school games were on ESPN ffs. He has waded through the unprecedented pressure/spotlight/scrutiny and he has become a consensus top 2 player in NBA history. He also is a pretty amazing father by all accounts and he has given back to his community more so than any NBA player before him...

Lebron has also been extremely immature periodically throughout his career. PR blunders that went viral each and every time. While undeniably cringe-worthy at times, his behavior has always seemed extremely reasonable to me, given his background and the spotlight that has been on him since he was 16 years old. I give him a pass for it...

Relatively speaking to MJ or Kobe, Lebron has been a golden child off the court. People pretty much let Kobe's rape thing go when he put up 81, and most won't even begin to ponder if MJ playing baseball was just some elaborate spin job over a suspension- or how it came to be that his dad got murdered. I'm not judging Kobe or MJ, just comparing them to Lebron (as everyone else is).

On the court Lebron has had a few moments of immaturity in his career- and a few moments of tentativeness. He also complains/flops a lot (standard for any star in the NBA tho). Aside from that, he has been an indestructible warrior (no pun intended- too lazy to think of a better word) and arguably the best team player of all time. He has carried terrible teams to the playoffs (and the finals) and he was the force behind the most amazing feat in NBA history (the 3-1 comeback in the finals over the GOAT team obv). His numbers (aside from the ridiculous metric of "rings baby") are undeniable.

What is it that the haters hate so much? Is it fear that he actually is better than their hero- MJ? Is it that he plays team ball ALWAYS/he doesn't have that mean chucker streak in him that Kobe and MJ had? Or is it something else.

I honestly would like to be enlightened.

Where do you see that? I think he's just kinda under the radar for a couple reasons- he got hurt, a few rookies played v well in SL, and LONZO.

I was still mad about Kobe raping people until the 60 point swan song.

Feel like perception of pundits and most response has been Boston won the trade cause of Tatum having some 20+ games in SL and Fultz is getting a weird unnecessary downgrade. Fultz's flashes in SL looked more impressive than what I saw in Tatum, which was largely the player I expected who can feast on the right matchups but becomes bad/inefficient versus real defenders.

Like Tatum could end up being great sure, but he could also be really damaging versus a lot of teams

haha, wp

I think Boston won the trade but moreso bc of the pick they're gonna get than Tatum v Fultz. I'd say anyone who thinks Tatum is a better prospect than Fultz goin forward is either biased or an idiot. I think Fultz and Lonzo are a decent step above the rest of the class.

Both suck.

Its what he represents. From the time he was little more than a child hes been a product. Hes not even really a human being at this point. Hes an idea. Hes if u created someone in a lab to be an nba superstar. He isnt a bad guy but he has so many detestable attributes.

Hes fake. Hes phony. Everything he does is calculated and crafted for PR and image. There is nothing genuine about him. Kobe and Michael had flaws. But their flaws made them real. They were real people. They werent passive aggressive. They werent sensitive. They didnt get apalled if a fan called them a pussy ass *****. They'd have laughed and scored 50. They didnt get caught fake reading a book version of The godfather on 3 separate occasions solely for how they thought it would make them look. They didnt act like teenage girls with teammates, coaches, and the media. They wouldn't have thrown passive aggressive shade on IG videos.

They didnt try to form super teams with their friends. I don't think they had friends. And that's a cool thing. We want to watch competition not everyone be friends. Kobe ran a top 3 player oat out of town ffs. They wanted to take the game winning shot miss or make. And they made a lot of them. Theyd never go 8 straight minutes of a finals 4th q without a fg attempt.

Its not that LeBron is a bad person in the sense that he harms others. Hes a pathetic person in that nothing he does has any substance. He tries so hard to be loved that it ends up having the opposite effect. I don't think you could spend time with him casually and see a real human being. There is nothing there. He has no soul. No heart.

Hes a disgrace.

post should go into the playa haters ball thread

RPM based win projections from Kevin Pelton


West

Rank	Team	Wins
1	GSW	62.1
2	HOU	55.0
3	SAS	52.6
4	MIN	50.1
5	OKC	49.5
6	LAC	48.9
7	DEN	47.2
8	UTA	44.7
9	NOP	44.2
10	POR	43.8
11	DAL	34.6
12	MEM	34.6
13	LOL	33
14	PHX	30.3
15	SAC	27.4

Least

Rank	Team	Wins
1	BOS	49.4
2	CLE	49.2
3	WAS	47.5
4	MIL	46.9
5	CHA	44.1
6	TOR	43.4
7	MIA	42.3
8	DET	35.1
9	PHI	33.2
10	ORL	32.2
11	IND	32
12	NYK	32
13	BKN	29.5
14	CHI	28.5
15	ATL	27.0

Some blurbs to go with the predictions in the article

Less projections, more Lebron posts

naaaah

MJ was way more of a manufactured product than LeBron.

Gatorade/Nike/Be Like Mike? Nah, I'd rather not be a ***** that's so scared of offending the rich lolWhites that own his soul that he says "Republicans buy sneakers, too."

44 wins seems like a lot as a mean outcome for New Orleans.

LA 48.9 seems high also, losing 2 of their best four players.

lac also got a bump for losing crawford who was 407th in rpm among all players. he played 26 mpg so addition by subtraction, etc. but i agree that their w-l total looks too high even ignoring injury history of blake/gallo. that said they do look like a somewhat deep team just not well constructed for the postseason

Jordan is going to be trash on offense without Paul.

At least they finally have a real-life bench big, with Harrell and then with Reed.

just fyi: no one smart could possibly judge that trade with what we know now. ainge is betting against fultz, the value from a chart POV probably points toward boston 'winning,' but a lot of ppl think fultz is a generational talent. some dont. ainge doesn't. SHRUG