2022-23 Team Developments: News / Trades / Free Agents / Rumors

feels like it's going to take lawyers to get it all solved. if he's just fired, they owe him his full contract, i think. seems like they'd rather not pay him and are hoping for a resignation to avoid litigation.

 

I saw something on First Take saying that he had a choice. Fired, Resign or suspension. That's just odd as hell to me, you give him the option to chose, but leak the story anyway.

 

I definitely think legal issues are at play here. Leak came from them to try and force him to resign. I don’t see how he just comes back and coaches next year.

 

Yeah. That sounds off. I do think they wanted him to resign. Contract might have made it tough to just fire him.

 

and you think Brooklyn are a threat

 

Could you imagine Michael Jordan a teammate of Simmons He’d end his career. Look what he did to Kwame.

 

Not really important to this thread but how do you have Walker (as in Lonnie) penciled in at PG? Or did you mean Kemba Walker because no way in hell is Lonnie a PG. Guys with a 1.6 career avg on dimes tend not to get slotted in as a PG

 

Oh man, MJ would have had Simmons broken within half a season- an Unrepairable level of broken. The mental toughness of the average NBA “star” these days just doesn’t compare to recent eras of the past. Yeah, I’ve turned into “that old dude,” but there’s plenty of evidence with guys like Durant, Simmons, Kyrie, etc in today’s game that are way too mentally soft to have made it in much tougher eras.

 

MJ would destroy Kevin Durant, James Harden, Kyrie Irving, many others. Not in the 80's-90's because they would be different but today, yes.

 

You’re all correct. The nets don’t have leadership and their 3 best players are all sort of headcases. I don’t like Durant and I think Simmons is one of the softest players to come into the NBA while Kyrie might be legitimately a little crazy.

But talent can do amazing things. Durant is still one of the best offensive players to ever pick up a basketball, Kyrie is an incredible offensive player in his own right and Simmons is underrated to me, he can defend 1-5, be a terror in transition and playmake extremely well.

Surround those 3 with the level of shooters they have with Curry and Harris 45%+ and Mills, Warren, O’Neale all at 40%. Then add in the defence of Claxton, O’Neale and Edwards (who in his own right might be close to a 40% shooter this year too) and you’ve got something there.

On paper they’re the favourites in the east for me.

 

Talent can only get you so far. If it only took talent, the Kobe/Shaq Lakers would have ripped off 8 Chips in a row.
When they first were formed, their team’s talent was one of the highest in Laker history: Shaq, Kobe, Van Exel, Eddie, Fish, Horry, B. Scott, Elden.
That team couldn’t get it done.
The following, extremely talented, “favored to win the Title” Laker squads for the next two seasons couldn’t either.
What happened in the summer of 1999 that changed Everything?
The Lakers brought in the greatest coach ever in all of professional team sports: Mr. Phil Jackson.
Without proper leadership, the Lakers were just a bunch of talented individuals, who were waiting to be shown how to become greater than the sum of their parts.

 

You know though, I think KD straight up lost that hissy-fit to Joseph Tsai when Joseph backed Nash and Marks. KD has destroyed his rep IMO I wouldn't touch him if I were another GM and I think we saw that was the case when the Nets tried to trade him, KD found out his market value ain't anywhere near where he thought it was. Naw he tucked his tail in and came back and said "OK forget all that stuff about fire everybody, I was just kidding guys, hey, it's me, KD the comedian."

 

I think KD wants to win, he isn’t getting any younger. And Irving and Simmons are front runners.

Everything, everyone says is true. No leadership, bad attitude etc etc. But talent still trumps all and I’d be surprised if they don’t come out of the east at least once during KD’s tenure there.

 

They have shooters but are weak at 4 and 5. Boston, Milwaukee and Philadelphia are still better teams. I'd put them at a toss up in a series against Miami and Atlanta too. The top 6 in the East, are a little better than they are in the West IMO.

 

Are they weak at the 4 though? They have Simmons and Durant who I would call some of the better PF’s in the league, as well as Markieff Morris who is an adequate backup. I think Simmons ends up playing a lot of 5, and I don’t see how he is any worse than Horford, Bam or Green. Claxton is also a nice piece at the 5.

Granted they are bit small and light at the 5, but who is going to really hurt you from Center with a bruising game? Embiid and Jokic?

I think last season was a perfect storm and Boston isn’t actually that good, with Philly you’re relying on Harden getting back to MVP form to be better, Milwaukee will be a challenge. Miami to me doesn’t have the firepower and Atlanta is fools gold. I think Nets are right up there and I pick them to come out of the East. Let’s check back 20 games in.

 

Simmons and Durant can't do anything with Giannis or Embid. I don't think either could guard Bam either. Boston is deep, they wore KD down in 4 games.Atlanta has guards and size. I think you are relying on the Nets ability to score, but they have injury concerns with their top 4 players too. Simmons is the only real defensive guy they have, but I wouldn't count on him exactly "locking down" the top players on these other teams. James Harden is not some kind of scrub, I expect him to bounce back with a strong season too. The East is tough this season.

 

Beverley for Crowder..problem solved for us. There is your 6'6 veteran wing.

 

He's the exact type of guy we need and I guess trading one guy I hate for another I hate is a push in the regard in that iteration. I don't think CP will ever allow Bev to be on his team. In general, we can't (and I don't think we will) add him to a team that already has Bev, DS, and the Laker version of Russ. That'll be too much for me to pay to watch.

Theoretically we could offer Walker, Gabriel, and some draft compensation in December. That's a nightmare.

 

We’ve seen how to stop Giannis. Just a build a wall so he can’t drive passed you in transition and play him for the drive in half court. You’re going to force Milwaukee to beat you with outside shooting and I’m not sure they get that done every single time.

Ben Simmons is 6’11 and 245, Bam is 6’9 and 250… not sure why he can’t guard him. Or anyone at Center apart from Embiid and Jokic. And they can always sign Boogie or Dwight to throw bodies at those two.

I feel like people are really underrating Simmons, that guy is seriously good. The guy can guard 1-5 legitimately while running an offence.

Defensively I think they’ll be ok. Simmons is DPOY caliber, Kessler Edwards at 6’8 showed phenomenal defence at the guard and wing position last season as a rookie (he also shot over 40% on catch and shoot and corner 3s), Royce O’Neale is a nice 3&D wing, Claxton is a good pick and roll defender at the 5 and KD is pretty good defensively because of his size and basketball IQ. They have more than people think. And Kyrie, Mills, Harris and Warren have all been between slightly below or slightly above average defensively their whole career - only Curry with his size has been a true weak link.