2018/2019 NBA Thread
 

First off..

LBJ to the Lakers for $154 mil

Melo + PG staying in OKC

CP3 stays in Houston

OKC is screwed until Melo leaves. And after that, not sure if Westbrook and PG will work. I mean, Westbrook had KD (who is better than PG) but Westbrook is still going to be a ballhog.

CP3 back is nice for the Rockets, but losing Ariza is going to hurt. I think Ariza was overhyped after leaving the Lakers, but still provides good defense and the Rockets will miss him.

LBJ to Lakers... not sure why LBJ committed so quickly unless he knows Kawhi and/or Cousins is coming. I can't see the Lakers being a better option than Philly or Boston if he wants to play with young guys since those teams have better young guys. Maybe he feels like his body is aging and this is going to be his last stop too so he signed a 4 yr contract to give himself some security instead of continuing doing the 2 year and opt out after a year deals.

Going to be an interesting few weeks of free agency.

Kawhi and LeBron to the Lakers I see in the future. They’ll have to give Ingram and Ball(hopefully).

I'm hoping LAL can find a way to keep Ingram. He, Kawhi & KBJ would be a SCARY group of wings for anyone else to reckon with.

haha am I reading this right? sounds like even Lakers fans want Lonzo Ball shipped out.

Ball will bust, I am sure of it. Kuzma was the star of the draft for us.

Lakers definitely have something else lined up to have landed LeBron. I find it hard to believe Pop and the Spurs will want to put up with the Ball's BS.

Also, Stephenson getting signed is fucking hilarious. I can already see his face when he's had enough of LeBron trying to "coach" him up.

In my opinion I think Lebron should have stay in the east. It was a guarantee that he will go to the championship the way he did with the cavs. Now he has to go thru Houston, Golden state, Etc... Just have to wait who they pick up. I dont see Stephenson and ball doing it.

Kuzma will never be any better than he is right now. An okay scorer, mediocre/bad passer, bad rebounder, bad defender. He's Jamaal Crawford in a bigger, younger body.

Ball could be really good next to LBJ. I really hope they keep Ball/Ingram, bring in Kawhi as a free agent next summer. Ball, Ingram, Leonard, LBJ, and any long athletic big at the 5, is a great lineup with four dudes who can legitimately create offense & have a ton of length/smarts on the defensive end.

i wonder how long bron is going to put up with lavar and his antics. that is going to get interesting real quick.


I am now interested what kawhi is going to do.

I agree. Theres definitely something up if the Lakers easily and quickly picked him up.


PG staying is a mistake on his end. Even non laker fans on social media thought that decision was stupid.

Spurs basically want 2 starters and 3 1st round pics for Kawhi. Thats their asking price from any team interested. Pretty steep if you ask me.

Spur won't let go unless they have a good deal back for kawhi. I think 76er is in a better spot.

I think Ball will bust too, especially when you compare him to guys taken after him like Jason Tatum and Donovan Mitchell. (He might be able to surpass guys like Josh Jackson, Dennis Smith, or Kyle Kuzma but who knows).


Not sure how that's going to happen with the ball in LeBron's hand. Lonzo is not a shooter and I don't see him running off screens and being a catch and shoot guy. If he doesn't get moved and stays with the Lakers and LBJ, I think he might become a "glue guy" and helps a little bit in every category (I want to say a 15/5/5 guy but his shooting sucks so maybe a 10/6/6 guy like he already is now)?


Yea, no idea why PG stayed there on that sinking ship to be Russell Westbrook's sidekick either.

His shot is going to pan out. IDK why, but I have absolute confidence in him.

I see him being the kind of guy who shoots 41% from the field, 38% from three, something like a 15/10/7 guy. He's also pretty handy on defense because of his smarts & length.

Mostly I think he lightens LBJ's load. With Ingram, Ball & LBJ you have three guys who can create offense & Kuzma is a competent scorer if not much else.

RAPTORS IN THE FINALS NEXT YEAR!!!

Now that I got that out of the way, how do you think the Lakers will look next season?

I say they trade all the spuds for Kawhi. Go grab Boogie as well...

Then grab:
Lance
Javale
JR Smith
Matt Barnes
Dellavedova
Zaza Pachulia

Lakers are picking up Rondo and Caldwell-Pope too. Doesn't look good for Lonzo and Lavar Ball...

Lol the evil org just got boogie

Rondo is one of the best passers in the history of the game, I'm sure he can make this work. It will be weird if Lonzo stays, but I would actually start Rondo over him rather than platoon them.

I'd start Ball. 100%. He's already better than Rondo.

Even more with the WTF to the NBA. Boogie is a good replacement for JaVale even if hes coming off an injury. I am all for Lebron being on the Lakers now, but seriously unless Kawhi comes to the Lakers, who is gonna beat the Warriors now? Not Rockets, theyve lost some key pieces, and the Celtics cant do it with just Kyrie. Fuck the Warriors

I don't think there's enough ball to go around for the Warriors and no idea how Cousins will react to that. Kind of worried about Cousin's spontaneous temperament, but I think he would be more of a team player and fit in much better than Dwight Howard (who will probably whine and sulk about not getting enough touches and then only give a half ass effort if he doesn't feel like superman is getting his respect).

Even if Cousins comes back 50% he's going to be a major upgrade over JaVale McGee or Zaza. You can probably just throw the ball to Cousins if you have nothing going on and he will power his way through and make something out of nothing. (McGee will be missed but I feel like the Warriors didn't aggressively pursue him during free agency again and that probably made him feel under appreciated and sign somewhere else even if it's for the same veteran's minimum he would have got with the Warriors).

I dont know how the hell its possible or fair for a deal like this to even happen.

Boogie is pretty much going to GSW for free.

Considering he's signing for 5.3M, I think the Warriors are offering him their full mid level exemption lol

Considering he could've taken a contract for like $26M, yeah he's going there for free.

It just blows my mind that a player that could possibly qualify for a max offer is allowed to name or take such a low price.

do players take pay cuts for a better shot at getting a ring? if the answer is yes, im going to assume that is why he moved for so cheap.

He claims no one else made him any offers. I'm thinking he just took the first offer given to him, which was a Zilvia-style lowball offer. He probably thought that was as high as he'd get, and knowing him, he didn't wanna get butthurt by worse offers. His agent should be shot haha.

Look at GSW's bench the last two years for your answer. Yes, they do, big time.

Kevin Durant, that weasel, also has taken paycuts both years he's been there.

Because he is a chump & is actively hurting the player's union by doing so.

I think Boogie made the decision out of pettiness, with his volatile personality. The Pelicans probably offended him with not being committed to their offer, especially since they performed well without him.

Just surprised he didn't go to the Wizards if he didn't care about the money. Always thought him and Wall were close, and that'd be a fun team to watch.

After this years Ref debacle in the playoffs, and now this I probably won't be paying attention to the NBA as much this up-coming season unless they make some drastic changes to the refs, or playoff format.

They need to take notes from the VAR system in the World Cup. Works way better than any video review system in professorial US sports.

I don't think a lot of teams, if any, were going to offer cousins the max after his ACL tear. Sacramento really screwed Cousins by trading him. He was set to sign a 5yr/210M contract with the Kings but lost about $75M by being traded to New Orleans who could only offer him a 4yr/135M contract. Now he's making 5.3M this yr. lol

I think Cousins could have went to any number of places and signed a 15-20M/1 yr contract to try to revive his image. Like it was said, Washington was probably a good spot since they traded Gortat and need a center or even joining LeBron with the Lakers. I think Cousins chose the Warriors because he felt like he has a better chance to rebuild his image there, especially if he wins a ring. It will show that he CAN be a team player and can be coached, unless he totally blows it like Rondo with a respected coach and the Mavs organization or Dwight Howard with any of the places he's been.