2012 NBA Offseason Speculatin' and Spectatin'

What is up, friends, I used capital letters.

LOL! What a lark!

talk about cba year 2

talk about the untimely demise or untimely continuation of teams based on old people

talk about deron williams going to dallas

just dont remind me that the thunder have this entire team signed up through next year, too

yeah lets talk abt them shits

Grizz getting bought by young billionaire:
http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/8038389/sources-billionaire-robert-pera-agrees-purchase-memphis-grizzlies

someone tell me how good anthony davis will be

http://i.imgur.com/fdFVi.jpg

this good

Sources told ESPN.com that Pera was spotted at a Grizzlies game in March touring the team's facilities and operations and Heisley acknowledged to the Memphis Commercial Appeal in March that there was another unnamed bidder for the team along with California billionaire Larry Ellison. Heisley was quoted as saying that he halted negotiations with Ellison because the deep-pocketed Oracle founder wanted to relocate the franchise.

"We're not even considering Ellison," Heisley told the newspaper. "This team cannot be moved."

The Chicago-based Heisley bought the Grizzlies in 2000 when they were located in Vancouver and moved the franchise to Memphis starting with the 2001-02 season.

ha

prediction: the grizzlies will be moved

they're in Memphis till at least 2021; massive penalties for moving out of Fed Ex Forum before then.

hey you know who can deal w/massive penalties: billionaires

plus you can prob recoupe most of that money being more profitable somewhere else

I wish Ellison had bought the Warriors.

wow bison used capitals

http://www.gq.com/sports/profiles/201207/dream-team-20th-anniversary-1992-olympics-usa-basketball

Malone: I'm from the country. Our etiquette is pretty much, "Pass me the beans," and we pass it down. No disrespect to the prince—it took me a while to understand the rules. This glass was on this side, and this fork was for this... You know what? Let me eat. You're talking about a fish out of water—that's how I felt. I had a nice suit on, I guess.

The Chicago-based Heisley bought the Grizzlies in 2000 when they were located in Vancouver and moved the franchise to Memphis starting with the 2001-02 season.

ha

― lag∞n, Monday, June 11, 2012 10:41 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The clamor for the NBA to return to Vancouver is deafening.

as it will be when they leave memphis!

Heisley selling is way lame, he was a fun owner.

spent a lot of money, told the GM to make both horrible and brilliant moves.

it's funny how in not that long marc will be better than pau

what cities really want teams right now? Seattle and Vegas?

Kansas City

cities near larry ellison's compound

Toledo

San Juan, PR
San Juan Osos

read some rumor that golden state was trying to get josh smith for the 7th pick and other stuff. golden state is definitely the type of place i'd like for him to end up. my biggest fear is him going somewhere like the spurs or celtics with a good coach/culture and turning into a beast instead of the frustratingly talented dipshit he is now.

god I hope the hawks are dumb enough to give us josh smith for like Dejuan Blair and some DVDs of Gregg popovich's best coaching tips vol. 2

https://mobile.twitter.com/rickyrubio9/status/212373764544020480?photo=1

too cute

DVDs of Gregg popovich's best coaching tips vol. 2

would watch

lol just came here to post that rubio pic ^____________^

I like the parallel universe where the Cavs pick Josh Smith instead of Luke Jackson and Lebron and Josh destroy the league for a decade.

lol at the wishful-thinking reports of Mike Miller retiring.

so that GQ Dream Team thing is pretty cool - but stern is lying through his teeth

Rome: "...was the fix in for the lottery?"

Stern: "No, and a statement: shame on you for asking."

Rome: "I understand why you would say that to me. I think it's my job to ask because I think people wonder."

Stern: "No, it's ridiculous. But that's OK."

Rome: "I know you think it's ridiculous, but I don't think the question's ridiculous, because I know people who think that. I'm not saying that I do, but I think it's my job to ask you that."

Stern: "Have you stopped beating your wife yet?"

WOWZA

jim rome doesn't beat his wife btw, it's a weird rhetorical thing that stern has used a few times before... like asking someone if they've stopped doing something that they've never done

anyway, stern is an idiot. i have no idea why he'd get so annoyed by the lottery conspiracy of all things.

Such a bad saying.

uh stern owned rome there

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZrxaGKvo7o

The behind the backboard angle of this dunk was a work of art. Im sure that shot will be used for years to come.

fwiw, the "have you stopped [doing some horrible thing]" trope is the standard rhetorical example of a loaded question, iow a question which contains an unflattering assumption that must be accepted as true to answer the question on its own terms. Answering either yes or no establishes that you were [doing some horrible thing] at some point in the past.

Listening to the audio from that Rome segment is hilarious. Stern just crushes him.

stern is p thug

http://30fps.mocksession.com/2012/06/13/charles-barkleys-pre-game-pump-up-music-was-mariah-carey/

^_^

ATTN: m bison

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itnvwZ4Z1Hc

T.I.'s hat!

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/blog/eye-on-basketball/19352135/charlotte-looking-to-deal-no-2-pick

One source said that Oklahoma City's James Harden could be in play due to the Thunder's salary situation following next season. GM Sam Presti already has Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook on the books for more than $29 million next season -- and both Harden and Serge Ibaka will command huge contracts after the 2012-13 campaign.

okc mismanaged giving russbrook a max deal IMO

nah, he's awesome

also....dope hat, TI
let's go to taco cabana and talk about Willie anderson's impact on the team next season

him & KD will be good enough to compete for titles for a long time & presti is a good enough GM to replenish

russ is too good to be lowballed & someone would give him a max offer. i guess they could've tried to sign at him idk $65m or something but it probably wouldn't have worked (maybe they did). i think they'll be able to get ibaka in well under the max, and if that means harden has to go i'm not sure they have another option.

shit glass, according to Granny's gut.

i'm sure brooks probably thought it would be smart to play perkins all those minutes because he's a "true center" and you need a true center out there!! and it was also probably a smart idea in his head to give perkins the ball inside the first play of every half to "set the tone", even though the play almost always ended up being wasted. coaches do all sorts of dumb shit based on instinct and their gut

as for why didn't harden start? who knows man, it doesn't really make sense. the thunder were a better team with him on the court, so he probably should have played more minutes than he did

i watched them a bunch of times in the regular season btw ;)

Manu rarely starts in San Antonio. He must be shit.

Never said Harden is shit because he doens't start. I wanted some bullshit bad coach reasons for it, good lord

xp see like kev did there!

funnily enough, Harden's individual production was better without KD or Westbrook on the floor. That may have had something to do with it.

there's obvious counterarguments (he's playing against second units etc.)

harden himself was a much better player with one of those two on the bench, true, but that doesn't mean he couldn't have started and brooks couldn't have staggered their minutes differently. spoelstra learned how to do this pretty well

I dunno, seems like the easiest solution is just to make him the 6th man

he didn't play enough regardless

I'm a huge Manu fan...but I wouldn't give him a max deal either, even if he were 23

that's nuts

hey man i earned this $

that's nuts. again, NBA teams are signing guys like brook lopez, roy hibbert and eric gordon to max deals. harden's max makes total sense especially for any team that isn't the knicks/bulls/heat/lakers/nets

the system is nuts then. i'm operating under "joe johnson gets max deal lol" rules. a team can afford 3ish max deals?

2ish without horrible cap problems.

i'm not saying that the thunder should've signed to harden to the max... maybe they should have, idk. it's debatable definitely. but he's definitely a max-level player.

i agree that the maxes from this offseason don't make sense either but that's the market

Joe Johnson got a super robusto old-CBA 3rd-contract max deal. Which is a different beast.

I guess Harden could be one of a good team's 2 best players. But OKC already has 2 players better than him, plus gave near max to Ibaka right?

I'm a huge Manu fan...but I wouldn't give him a max deal either, even if he were 23

― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Monday, October 29, 2012 3:33 PM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Flag Post

i'm not a computer whiz but don't think it works like that

feel like you're resigning yourself to never winning titles if you give a max deal to someone other than perennial all star. i get why teams would give them to the brook lopez's, roy hibbert's, and james harden's of the world, but it's kinda depressing.

they give them to them because if they don't someone else will. and i shouldn't have to say this, but harden is a much better player than either of those guys

I know and that's depressing

You're basically saying "there will only be 1 other player on our team as good as or better than *gulp* this guy here"

Shortly before the draft, Harden sent Presti an e-mail explaining why he thought he belonged in Oklahoma City. "He made it clear that he understood the ethos of the organization," Presti says. "He understood the dynamic of our team, that it wasn't going to be a typical situation for someone drafted that high. Instead of being worried about it, he was motivated by it."2

Yes, Harden wanted to win. Yes, he wanted the chance to play alongside Durant and Westbrook, both of whom he had met and grown friendly with on the AAU circuit. And yes, he liked the culture of the franchise. But as much as anything, he wanted validation of his ability.

"The bottom line in that situation is that he's 19 years old and he's about to be a lottery pick," Pera says, "and he wants to go as high as he can go. He was happy to go no. 3, but if he could have gone no. 2 or no. 1 — even better."3

The Thunder have been fetishized as selfless and pure, all sacrificing their own glory for the sake of the team. And that narrative rings largely true. But we can dispense with the notion that any great player — Harden in particular — is bereft of individual ambition.

"It's about winning first," Harden says at the gym in Santa Monica, "but I want to be an All-Star, All-NBA, get individual awards. I know all that takes hard work and dedication, but yeah, I want that. Of course I do."

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7982195/the-many-faces-oklahoma-city-thunder-guard-james-harden

hahahaa

"You're dealing with a person who's so eclectic, so unique, that he just doesn't fit into the natural expectations," says Presti. "There's an artistry to the way he plays the game. He's expressing himself out there. I think someday after basketball is over he's going to realize he has an artistic trait, that he's naturally a great painter or something. You have to have a unique confidence to be who he is."

and this is nick collinson, basketball expert

"When he's out there with the second unit, almost every screen is for him. He's always going to be getting touches."

"I've never played with anyone who's as good at setting his man up for screens," says Collison. "And he can do it on or off the ball."

really hate when people use "bereft" when they mean "devoid"

Stat out 6-8 weeks.

dude is gonna play like 25 games this year tops.

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/8570097/serge-ibaka-improve-thunder-continue-contend-nba-championship

Ibaka had 28 assists last season. That is not a typo. He assisted on just 2.5 percent of Thunder field goals while on the floor, the fourth-lowest mark in the league among guys who played at least 1,000 minutes. He almost makes Tyler Hansbrough look like a good passer.

lol

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2012/10/29/harden_trade_false_economy_of_okc_thunder_sending_james_harden_to_the_houston.html

that last paragraph ... OT(lack of)M

eddy curry vs dwight howard tonight ppl!

From http://ballerball.com/2012/10/30/stephen-jackson-matt-bonner-and-the-coldplay-concert-that-changed-everything/

Popovich had sat the team down a couple weeks prior to tonight and told them he’d be pairing them off with people they didn’t normally hang out with. Their instructions were simple and plain: bond.

Bonner had been in charge of planning the evening’s festivities.

After a quiet dinner at El Chico’s, they headed to the Coldplay concert.

Jackson had been unsure, asking Bonner, “This ain’t like that Radio Bread trash Brent Barry used to be listening to, is it?”

...

The silence got too loud. Jackson’s knee was bouncing and Bonner popped his neck. Jackson couldn’t take it anymore. He had to say something.

“Yo, Matt, I ain’t even gonna front,” said Stephen Jackson, “That was incredible.”

Bonner held the wheel in his right hand and finished off a bottle of Cherry Coke with his left. He nodded as Jackson spoke.

“I told you,” said Bonner.

...

During Yellow Jackson had become emotional. They had box seats and the rest in the box were standing. He had been standing with for the whole concert. During Clocks he had even began jumping. He pulled out his phone and waived it back and forth over his head.

But Yellow awakened something in him. He was overcome. He had to sit down.

When Chris Martin sang, “You know I love you so”, Jackson had to excuse himself. Bonner stopped him on his way out and asked him where he was going. Jackson turned around and Bonner saw the tears. Jackson didn’t bother wiping them because sometimes men, even captains, cry.

“This ain’t like that Radio Bread trash Brent Barry used to be listening to, is it?”

OH MY GOD

oh my lord

i can't believe you cut this though!

“Radio Bread?” Bonner had asked with a laugh, “I think you mean Radiohead. And no. This isn’t anything like Radiohead.”

haven't listened to it yet but simmons posted an nba podcast w/ zach lowe & haralabob

yeah i want to listen to that too

That Bonner/Jackson piece might be the best NBA fiction in quite some time. So perfect.

fffffiction?

aw, it is fanfic. still amazing

btw guys, the season starts tonight. who wants to do the honors?

i've been contemplating it

go for it imo

I didn't want this in the season thread but wanted to share. Ludacris was Anthony Davis for Halloween:

technically offseason

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/A5BetNDCMAAhg2d.jpg:large