Black Mamba
Member
I swear, Coach K better not put out a Melo-Lebron 4/5 unit in this game. Tyson and Love should combine for all 40 ins.
Hell, they might need to play both at the same time if need be.
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2012 NBA Offseason |OT2| Lakers Fans Despise Freedom.
- Thread starter Rodeo Clown
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I swear, Coach K better not put out a Melo-Lebron 4/5 unit in this game. Tyson and Love should combine for all 40 ins.
Hell, they might need to play both at the same time if need be.
ryutaro's mama
Member
Put Bron on Pau and Tyson/Love on Marc.
jobber
Would let Tony Parker sleep with his wife
You saw video of KD at Rucker and at random semi-pro leagues during the lock out. I haven't seen video of Kobe playing a pick up game in years. If Kobe Bryant is coming into the gym, you know somebody gotta have it on video unless he goes to some super exclusive gym where nobody cares.
LiveFromKyoto
Member
ROFL @ Skip trying to invent a storyline where Kobe gives a fuck what happens in a few years. He wants his Michael ring now so he can start working on his Russell before he's a cripple that not even Teutonic super-science and an all star team can chauffeur to a title.
The Finals should be awesome, with two teams for the ages going at it. But I'll be damned if this doesn't render most of the rest of the league pointless. Like, if you're a Bucks fan, why should you care now? Your shit's not going anywhere, ever. This will draw in casuals and ratings for the Sunday games, but it can't be good for the long term health of the league.
ryutaro's mama
Member
jobber
Would let Tony Parker sleep with his wife
Thanks!
are players allowed to play pick up games in the off-season under the new CBA?
Serious question.
ryutaro's mama
Member
ClovingWestbrook
Banned
Lets be honest, were the Bucks going anywhere before this? No. Were the Wizards? No. Were the Jazz? No. Nothing has changed for these teams.
Ninja Scooter
Member
The long term health of the league is for them to stop pretending parity can happen. The lockout was bullshit. They screamed about bringing in more competitiveness but it was just about the smaller market owners getting a bigger piece of the revenue pie. Thunder/Heat ratings were through the roof. Superteams=ratings=healthier league.
shira
Member
I bet he'll get the PRP/HGH knee treatment again
ryutaro's mama
Member
Pittsburgh Pirates
Kansas City Royals
Chicago Cubs
All irrelevant teams since I've been alive.
Most years, only 4 teams have a shot at winning it all and a lot of seasons are way over by July.
Yankees, Sox steal all the bestest players.
League is fine.
Ninja Scooter
Member
smaller market teams in the MLB can survive because they can put a bigger emphasis on cost controlled prospects. You can win and win consistently without having to overspend and give out huge contracts if you scout and draft well. The Rays can lose stars and replace them. The NBA isn't like this. If baseball were like the NBA than the teams that have Pujols, ARod, Kemp, ect... would dominate every year. Basketball will never be able to emulate the parity of baseball or football because you only have 12 man rosters, 5 playing at a time, and superstars like Bron and Dwight have such huge impacts you can surround them with crap and still make the playoffs.
Contracting about 10 teams really would help things.
jobber
Would let Tony Parker sleep with his wife
So if a star like...Taj Gibson........plays a pick up game(not team related) and rips his acl and mcl trying to rebound over a fat 300 pound rick ross lookin dude, would the Bulls still be obligated to pay his salary for the upcoming season if he can't play?
The lockout gave the players liberty to do such things.
Lakers fans in a nutshell. No grace, no class.
I don't think they can play in the Drew leagues and stuff like that, but how the fuck can you not allow basketball players to play basketball in the off season?
Unless you want the entire league to report to camp out of shape and rusty, this is a good thing.
There are certain things that are deemed "dangerous" that they can't do like riding a moped, but Monta Ellis is an idiot.
darkside31337
Tomodachi wa Mahou
This is the dumbest shit ever.
Baseball has way more parity in it than any other sport. Any team who makes the playoffs an win the world series - the titles the Cardinals have won in the past several years is proof enough.
Chances are good that the Pittsburgh Pirates will make the playoffs this year.
Teams with low payrolls can be good teams. The Tampa Bay Rays have one of the lowest payrolls in baseball yet have made the playoffs 3 out of the last 4 seasons, in the same division with the Yankees and Red Sox who have a payroll that is 3 times larger than theirs.
Baseball creates competitive balance because it takes 25 guys to win a title. One guy cannot completely dominate the way it happens in the NBA, a superstar team doesn't guarantee shit in MLB.
LiveFromKyoto
Member
There was a belief before the Celts\Heat and now Lakers thing happened that you could draft a solid core, make a good trade or two then sign a couple of solid role players in free agency and it doesn't matter where you are, you have a shot. Now that doesn't really matter - for as long as this trend continues, OKC's window is effectively shut.
Ninja Scooter said:
For the marquee stuff? Sure. For the Fox Sports Midwest stuff? For the local mid & small market broadcasts? And for season ticket sales? I dunno man. Like I said, this stuff will for sure bring in the casuals, but if you're a die hard for a non warm weather or major market team, really, your team is just background noise. Why invest any emotion (or money) into it?
ryutaro's mama said:
Baseball has a lot of empty stadiums, though the Cubs will never be one. But they also have more parity than you're giving credit for. In this century:
2001 - Arizona Diamondbacks
2002 - Anaheim Angels
2003 - Florida Marlins
2004 - Boston Red Sox
2005 - Chicago White Sox
2006 - St. Louis Cardinals
2007 - Boston Red Sox
2008 - Philadelphia Phillies
2009 - New York Yankees
2010 - San Francisco Giants
2011 - St. Louis Cardinals
That's 9 different teams in 11 years, including small markets. In baseball you just have to get hot for a month at the end and you can beat anybody. Basketball's way more about having the best player on the floor, upsets just don't happen much.
jobber
Would let Tony Parker sleep with his wife
I'm sure you can go to the team's practice gym and workout, preform drills, play pick up games with guys trying to get a spot on the team. It's all voluntary in the off-season.
Fenderputty
Banned
I love baseball, but the league isn't healthier than the NBA. Parity or not.
Knux-Future
Banned
Most player play pickups games.
Iggy went back to Zona a few summers back.
Iggy went back to Zona a few summers back.
LiveFromKyoto
Member
That's assuming they keep their team together, which odds are they won't be able to.
Blackace
if you see me in a fight with a bear, don't help me fool, help the bear!
No way does MLB have parity like the NFL.. And you can't pretend that it does. You CAN buy a pennet in baseball, can't happen in the NFL. But baseball is a happy blend of small market teams doing well and big market teams buying titles...
ItWasMeantToBe19
Banned
OKC has three of the best offensive players in the NBA. If any of their young players learn how to defend or pass (well Harden can pass, but the rest are all below average passers for their role), they could be a really great team. The Spurs won 22 consecutive games and have young players that are getting better. The Lakers are a better team than them, but luck exists, nothing is a lock in the West.
No, because five teams a year have a great QB you have to be legendary at every other spot to win a Super Bowl without a great QB. Parity-wise, it's NHL > MLB > NFL > NBA for winning championships.
No, because five teams a year have a great QB you have to be legendary at every other spot to win a Super Bowl without a great QB. Parity-wise, it's NHL > MLB > NFL > NBA for winning championships.
Blackace
if you see me in a fight with a bear, don't help me fool, help the bear!
It really deopends what players leave OKC in that time..
That just puts greater incentive to be in a big market with greater sponsorship opportunities. Even Luke Walton was getting sponsorship deals in LA.
Blackace
if you see me in a fight with a bear, don't help me fool, help the bear!
But then Mark Cuban would be screwed
ItWasMeantToBe19
Banned
The loss of the Spanish DeAndre Jordan will be devastating for the Thunder if it happens.
What player has Cuban paid that close to a max contract other than Dirk?
Ninja Scooter
Member
You wouldn't get parity, you would just get shittier teams. LA, Miami, NY would still have the best player (singular instead of plural) while the smaller markets would be forced to give max contracts and build around guys like Pau, Harden, Bosh, ect... The Heat w/ Lebron would have the best record in the league at 48-34 and win the title. At any given time there is only like 5 REAL franchise players in the league. These guys would go to the biggest markets.
ItWasMeantToBe19
Banned
It is possible that guys like LeBron or Dwight wouldn't go to large market teams because a lot of those teams would get desperate and get their guy a max deal and not leave a max contract for the upcoming free agent superstar.
That incentive wouldn't be any greater than it already is. The difference is max contract guys couldn't collude together to ruin the league.
There's no way there wouldn't be more parity if Lebron and Dwight were on different teams than they are currently. Players can't go to big markets if that team already has a max player.
LiveFromKyoto
Member
Keep in mind I'm not saying the Lakers did anything wrong, or that Laker fans shouldn't be happy or enjoy this. This could end up being the best team they've ever had, it's a perfect storm that's not easily repeatable.
Just saying that I know that as long as the league's in this shape, my team ain't ever winning it all, and that's now true of most franchises. Before I could at least pretend they'd get their shit together long enough for it to happen. Now it's basically impossible. If the league boils down to 4-5 big market superteams (if the Clippers are ever sold to somebody who's not an evil cheap racist we're all fucked) the plucky contenders aren't going to be able to get through them all to win a chip.
Maybe a semi-finals banner one day though. *Dreaming*
Just saying that I know that as long as the league's in this shape, my team ain't ever winning it all, and that's now true of most franchises. Before I could at least pretend they'd get their shit together long enough for it to happen. Now it's basically impossible. If the league boils down to 4-5 big market superteams (if the Clippers are ever sold to somebody who's not an evil cheap racist we're all fucked) the plucky contenders aren't going to be able to get through them all to win a chip.
Maybe a semi-finals banner one day though. *Dreaming*
All they *have* to do is not pay Ibaka and get a real coach to replace Brooks.
They'll be fine, but they're underdogs again in the meantime.
Ninja Scooter
Member
Your team was NEVER winning it though. If you are a small market you basically have to get lucky and draft a once in a generation talent. That's the only chance you ever had. Unless the league starts forcing guys like LeBron and Dwight to go to Milwakee or Sacramento, and there is no realistic way for that to happen.
And make sure to build correctly around that once in a generation talent. It's the best thing you can hope for to try convincing him to stay since for most guys winning cures everything.
But the point is that even that is impossible now. Even if you draft that talent, you can't win because 3 or 4 teams have multiple superstars and are basically the only realistic contenders. Small market teams used to have slim but not nonexistent odds.
Blackace
if you see me in a fight with a bear, don't help me fool, help the bear!
the Mavs have been in the top 5 for payroll for about a decade... Only the Lakers, Celtics, Heat had a higher payroll then them. Miami only paid 3 mil more for their roster...
shira
Member
How could you match salaries when trading players.
Well basically the only way a team could trade for a max player is to trade out their current max player, or if they didn't have a max player currently.
ryutaro's mama
Member
The problem is, because of how the Yanks/Sox can spend, they are usually the teams taking up 2 playoffs spots every year.
Just cause the Marlins won the chip a couple of times doesn't mean the league has parity...
NFL has the closest thing to parity of the big 3.
ItWasMeantToBe19
Banned
San Antonio and Oklahoma City nearly won the title last year.
Blackace
if you see me in a fight with a bear, don't help me fool, help the bear!
Well basically this is a bad idea
Ninja Scooter
Member
You can win. The Thunder are doing it. The Spurs did it for years. Your "only one max contract per team" plan would only punish teams like this. OKC and SA could never reap the rewards of their good scouting and drafting because other, less competent teams would just snatch Tony Parker, Manu, Harden and Westbrook away from them with max deals that they would not be allowed to match.
Fenderputty
Banned
NFL has the most parity of the three, but it's not all that even either. There's the ocasional team that makes a run and underdogs seemingly have a better shot on e in the playoffs, but a ton of the same teams make the playoffs every year.
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