OptionZero

Rounding up what we know so far (note nothing is official till tomorrow at the earliest):

SIGNINGS
Elton Brand
Verbally agreed to Sixers deal, 5 years, $80M.

Baron Davis
Got suckered into verbally agreeing to Clippers deal, 5 years, $65M
Again I say: suckaaaaaaaaa

Gilbert Arenas
Stays with the Wiz for 6 years, $111m or something.

Antawn Jamison
Stays with the Wiz for 4 years, $48M

Corey Maggette
Verbal agreement with Warriors for 5 years (unclear on dollar amount, could be $35, could be $50). I'll say $50M now and be pleasantly surprised if it's less.

Dsagana Diop
Full MLE deal with the Mavericks. Proving that the Mavericks have no plan, they overpaid for a center that has no offense whatsoever to go with a point guard that has no offense whatsoever. Thanks, Cuban. Always good for a laugh.

Mickael Pietrus
MLE deal with the Magic for full or nearly full MLE, roughly 5 years, $35M

PENDING RESTRICTED FREE AGENTS
Note: Restricted free agents may sign offer sheets with other teams, but the original team has 7 days to match any such offer on substantially the same terms. The home team, as usual, can beat any offer outright by adding a 6th year and bigger annual raises (10.5% versus 8%).

Monta Ellis and Andris Biedrins
Going no where. Warriors will match any offers, Warriors still have something like $25M under the luxury tax, so give up ur fuckin dreams of stealing my boys right now. Yes, shut up.

Ben Gordon and Luol Deng
Deng figures to stick, but Gordon is questionable. Rose makes any high-paid Bull guard redundant. Hughes makes $25M or something the next two years, so he'll be a boat anchor that sticks. That means Gordon or Hinrich must go.
I think Gordon is a better fit as a pure 2, but no if he demands $10M+ annually like a dumbfuck.

Deng should not be making more than Tayshuan Prince (5 years, $45M). If he asks for more, he too is a dumbfuck.

Andre Iguodala, Louis Williams
With the Brand signing pending, it looks like the Sixers won't have too much cap space...but fortunately for the Sixers, the Warriors don't quite have enough to make an offer to scare the Sixers. Iggy turned down 5 years, $57M last year like a dumbass, and I doubt he gets that much.

Sixers should be damn good though, Miller/Iggy/Young/Brand/Dalembert is awesome. They need a 3P shooter (and ironically dealt a good one away to get cap space for Brand).

Lou Will did nothing last year to get enough attention from other teams. Sixers will match and keep him to caddy for Andre Miller

Emeka Okafor
Doubt he goes anywhere, and no one's got enough cash to make a worthwhile offer anyways, I believe. He'll stay with Charlotte and plod along in Larry Brown's system. Stupidly turned down $13M annually last year, IIRC.

Some agents need to get fired.

Josh Smith, Josh Childress
With Philly and GS spending their cash, looks like ATL is in the clear on Smith. They should be able to keep him w/o going up to the max.

Childress is still a goner if someone comes in above the MLE, which the Warriors can and hopefully do. He's redundant on the Hawks with Marvin Williams and the Hawks management is in tatters.

TRADES
Minnesota-Memphis

OJ Mayo, Antoine Walker, Greg Buckner, and Marko Jaric

for

Kevin Love, Mike Miller, Brian Cardinal

Memphis gives up the best player (Mayo) and takes on the worst contract (Jaric's 3rd year). Seems about right, I suppose.

Minnesota adds the most overall talent (Love + Miller) and saves some cash...but Love and Jefferson is a stupid pairing. Neither is a center, neither can defend, and Miller is useless on a rebuilding team.

Minnesota-Philadelphia
Rodney Carney, Calvin Booth, Utah's protected first round pick for nothing.

Philly does it to get Carney/Booth's contract off the books to sign Brand. Pick is just incenive for Minnesota to eat the contracts (small ones).

Minnesota SF position looks crowded: Miller, Brewer, Carney. Contenders that need shooting should call McHale.

Quickie Analysis:

Sixers are the second best team in the East.

Baron Davis needs to fire his agent (SUCKA!)

Maggette will be awesome with Nellie (for 2/3rd the price of Baron).

Memphis backcourt is sicknasty with Conley, Mayo, Gay (great lawfirm name). Frontcourt is still a mess.

Orlando GM should be shot.

ALTRNTV

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PDSuhyfY28[/ame]



07'-'08 Lakers Championship DVDs

norbac

lol, also lol on baron davis after seeing that brand and magette is confirmed on leaving, i guess its not soo bad, he did grow up in l.a, high school, college and pro, he's also rich, set for life and the night life in west side is always happening

Gnnr

I missed the first one but I'll try to catch the rest.

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norbac

they'd better win gold, and kick ass like dream team 1

kouki_s14

it's on NBA.com video section

Gnnr

Oh werd!? Thanks for that +rep

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Xandy Boosts

USA vs CANADA EXHIBITION ON ESPN RITE NOWWWWW!!!!

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Xandy Boosts

damn nobodys online? only 4 minutes left

here's the rest of the schedule for the exhibition games

if anyone could get the times, post it

Date Opponent Location
Friday Canada Las Vegas
July 31 Turkey Macao, China
Aug. 1 Lithuania Macao, China
Aug. 3 Russia Shanghai, China
Aug. 5 Australia Shanghai, China

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yudalicious

is anyone excited about the spain vs usa game? which should, eventually happen in the gold medal game... I don't think it will be an easy game for the usa at all, it will be a greaattt game though.

Xandy Boosts

gasol bros, jose calderon, rudy fernandez, etc

hell yea i'm excited

btw, dwayne wade looks like gary payton from behind since he's bald now

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ALTRNTV

I love Paul Pierce as a player, but as a person...

"I don’t think Kobe is the best player. I’m the best player.
There’s a line that separates having confidence and being
conceited. I don’t cross that line but I have a lot of confidence
in myself."

-Paul Pierce

Xandy Boosts

the way he said that, he sounds conceited to me

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ALTRNTV

Isn't it time to change your signature?
I get sad looking at that. lmao

lyrical struggle

People are writing off B. Davis. He will be solid trust me. Now clippers have to get their head out of their arse and get him some help.

Phlip

FOX Sports on MSN - NBA - Warriors re-sign Ellis to multiyear deal
The Warriors apparently don't want to be back in the playoffs.

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imnotmatt1189

yes please. same here.

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1991 Nissan 240SX SE Coupe

enkei2k

how bout them knicks? 16 players and they get some random nobody at PG. embarrassing to say the least. anthony robertson? whoo...? well at least they got rid of balkman today.

The Denver Nuggets have acquired forward Renaldo Balkman from the New York Knicks in exchange for guard Taurean Green, forward Bobby Jones and a second-round draft pick in 2010.

source - Nuggets get Balkman from Knicks - NBA - Yahoo! Sports

he wasn't that good a producer...just provided random energy off the bench in blow outs...can't shoot FT's ...

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xquizitditz

BOROSUN

yea, the knicks just keeps picking up weak players. happy balkman is gone they also traded cash for him gone.

knick is now 2-3 on the summer leagues. gallinari is a joke. roberston is okay. also crawford sucks even when he's not playing.

hearing they're going to releasing starburry before training camp starts is a horrible idea. play him thru next year his contract ends. duhon to replace starburry...you got to be kidding!

bad start already

Xandy Boosts

warriors used over 200 million this offseason......

i wanna change it but i dont know what to change it too

ill get rid of it for now since some of you guys cryin

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Xandy Boosts

yo akademik, you seem to be the nba creator around here

go make an invite only nba social group

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OptionZero

Re-signing their two best young players means they don't want to be in the playoffs? How do you figure that?

The Warriors aren't as far from the playoffs as the media and casual fan thinks.

1. The conference will be bunched together

With the expected improvements of the Clippers, Blazers, and Kings from last year and decline of the Mavs, Suns, and (maybe) Spurs, you have the bottom moving up and the top tripping a bit. Fewer free wins against the bottom, fewer sure losses against the top.

A 48 win team will not miss the playoffs.

2. The purported "loss" of Baron Davis

Baron Davis, when healthy and motivated, is a top 3 point guard, sometimes looking like the best point guard in the league. Problem is, toward the end of the year (and for much of his career...) he wasn't healthy and wasn't motivated. His shot selection got worse and worse, reverting to his "pound the rock for 22 seconds before launching a long jumper", his defense disappeared. He put up stats, but his actual impact on the game wasn't all that positive.

His continual flirtation with Hollywood and desire to play back "home" in LA became a distraction, and his demand for superstar treatment and superstar money ($15-20M annually) are not what you want in the lockerroom full of young talent you're trying to develop.

The Clippers will certainly be better than last year since last year they had No baron and no brand and trotted out Dan Dickau and Brevin Knight at point guard, but the Warriors won't necessarily be that much worse...if at all.

The Warriors lost Jason Richardson and everyone thought they'd fall. They won more games.

The A's, another bay area team, lost Jason Giambi, Jason Isringhausen, Mark Mulder, barry zito, Tim hudson...and did plenty fine along the way.

The lesson:

It's not who you lose. It's how your team looks at the end of the day, which leads me to my next points:

3. We're more efficient offensively

Points per game means very little if you shoot a poor percentage. The streakiness of the Warrior offense was quite obvious to everyone in the league, and that streakiness failed us at the end of the year. Efficiency rules supreme, which is why the Lakers, jazz, and Hornets were the best team in the West. They scored alot of points and did it without mistakes (bad shots, missed shots, turnovers).

No Baron, and perhaps soon No Jackson means more shots for Ellis and more shots for Maggette. Both Ellis and Maggette are tremendously efficient scorers- they won't hoist alot of 3's, they attack the rim, they have deadly midrange games, they create separation and disruption in the defense. Maggette averages a ridiculous 9-10 FTAs per game- far more reliable than someone shooting 7 3's per game (Baron).

Maggette's true shooting percentage (which accounts for 3's and free throws as well as other buckets) was 59%. Baron Davis? 52%. That's a consideraby difference.

We don't really need to talk about Ellis, because anyone that shoots his percentage from a guard spot can create his own offense.

Remember the Warriors do not run a traditional spread offense with lots of motion, ala princeton style (the Kings old scheme, or the triangle). They spread the floor and then demand that their guards create dribble penetration for themselves, while their speedy big men move to the vacant spots. It's not complicated, and Ellis and Maggette will most certainly thrive.

4. Depth matters
Perhaps our greatest flaw last season was the lack of depth. After the starting 5, Nellie was so desparate he brought Webber out of the abyss. Barnes and Pietrus were horribly inconsistent and usually bad, Croshere and Hudson were never healthy, and the rookies were too raw to earn his trust, particularly defensively.

Now, the Warriors brought back their most dependable swingman reserve, Kelenna Azubuike, a skilled big man in Turiaf, and a true point guard in Marcus Williams. That expands our bench considerably and will be guys that Nellie actually uses.

The best part? These guys have sufficient experience you kinda know what you'll get (Ka has 1.5 years, Turiaf 3, and Williams 2; but are also young enough to still improve (KA and Turiaf are 25, Marcus Williams is 22).

Behind them you have the supertalented rookies and 2nd year guys like Randolph and Brandan Wright, ready-to-play Richard Hendrix, even Belinelli and Watson might be decent rotation guards.

We had nothing off the bench this year but we have reserves to actually use.

5. Frontcourt size

Instead of the 6'7 Matt Barnes or Mickael Pietrus playing backup center and power forward, we might actually see the 6'9 Brandan Wright, 6'8 Richard Hendrix, and 6'10 Ronny Turiaf.

A considerable improvement on the glass and defensively in the paint.



You know I'm not a homer, i'll bash a move by any team if it's a poor one...yet I am optimistic and excited to see the new Warrior team.

silnismo

Clippers sign Ricky davis.

Kwame brown signs with detroit.

first off kwame is garbabe, he barely got playing time in memphis! and Ricky Davis is definately a good move for clippers fans since they are in need of more offensive players besides baron, and kaman and their other injury prone players.

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OptionZero

I disagree. The Clippers didn't really need another scoring swingman:

Baron and Jason Hart are the point guards; Eric Gordon and Cuttino Mobley are the 2's; Al Thornton is the 3. R-Davis slides in as a backup 3, but since virtually all the other guys on the perimeter are already scorers, what they a really needed was an on-ball defender like Quinton Ross, who they renounced and can only re-sign for the minimum now.

Even Tim Thomas can play a small forward as a "big" 3. The Clippers will be one of the most porous defensive teams in the league. Camby is ridiculously overrated defensively.


Kwame Brown has crappy handles and no offensive game to speak of, but the Lakers want him for his post defense. At the league minimum, he might be preferrably to DJ Mbenga.

mothon

Yay were finally getting a permanent nba team hear in okc.....I dont think that they have a name for the team yet though.

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BOROSUN

its the sonics.

mothon

The "sonics" name is staying in seattle....The oklahoma city team is going to have a diff. name.

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BOROSUN

the sonics is moving to oklahoma.

while seattle will be building within 5 yrs a new arena will host another nba team.

grizzlies and hornets have move to different cities but, still have the same team name.
the sonic name has been around i dont think they will change it.

mothon

copied from espn online...."The NBA has filed for trademark rights to six nicknames for the league's new Oklahoma City franchise: Barons, Bison, Energy, Marshalls, Thunder and Wind."

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BOROSUN

heh?

read here.
NBA.com: NBA Commissioner David Stern Statement on Settlement Between Sonics and the City of Seattle

nvm, i just read thats they might change the name to sooners wtf?


seattle new franchise team should be called the seattle starbucks and the sonics should stay in oklahoma.