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

Sheesh when did Bryant become this full of himself. Get off my lawn.

 

Yeah it's crazy. They are all bought. They don't report anymore, they just write whatever narrative their contact wants to put to the public.
I stopped following it

 

Some inconsistency in Brooklyn's messaging.



You're not all in on your quest to win now if you're letting assets expire and go unused.

Just some posturing trying to milk everything they can out of us.

 

I'm still shocked this is happening to Brooklyn, on paper they have a great team.

Irving / Mills
Curry / Harris
Royce O'Neale / TJ Warren
Durant
Simmons / Claxton

They're one or two more rotation players - a PF/C and a defensive stopper at the SG/SF - away from being loaded and have the mMLE and a 6.3m TPE to make that happen. If I was them I'd try to mend relations and go for a championship. They're going to have 7 shooters close to 40% from three.

 

What is the hold up then? Waiting for KD trade first?

 

Do you have a scoop on whether or not Harris or Curry have been included in the talks with Kyrie? I saw a recent tidbit from Windhorst saying Harris and Curry were in the BRK roster plans and they were planning on playing Simmons @ the 5 and putting 4 sharp-shooters around him.

 

Nash’s basically career ending injury derailed that (the most).

 

I wish we could've seen Phil with that team. Even with Nash's injury, I think he could've managed the Dwight/Kobe situation. He definitely knew how to use Pau and how to get through to MWP. He would not have wanted to play Kobe 40 MPG in a fast paced offense. Players like Blake, Duhon, and Jamison are all the high IQ type that Phil enjoys having on his teams. I think we would've done much better, even if they weren't championship caliber without Nash.

 

Thank Jimmy for that. Although that was @The Rock ’s main dude Mike ‘antoni instead “who didn’t get a fair shake while here” allegedly. Wanted him back this year.

Couldn’t figure out a better way to use Pau than parking him outside on the circle.

 

Another big "What if?" for us in the 2000s... Phil would have had the balls to save Kobe from Kobe.

 

problem was that dwight wasn't his usual self coming off major back surgery. he didn't look right all year

phil probably gets that team to finish a little higher in the standings, but no way were they going to make a deep playoff run

 

Dwight definitely wasn't Dwight, but again I'm trusting the greatest NBA coach of all time to be the personnel manager that brought him those 11 titles. Phil was a big man with his own back injuries as a player, I think that point of reference would have been more beneficial than a message of "run harder," aka the MDA way. Dwight was already in contact with Phil that season about managing the injury:
https://www.slamonline.com/archives/phil-jackson-text-messages-dwight-howard-about-his-back-injury/

Maybe. But I'll never bet against a trio of Kobe, Pau and Phil especially when the players are being appropriately utilized and their minutes are under control.

 

the alleged HOF'er Pau had already gone full time soft and pissing fans off, Dwight was injured but serviceable, Nash's career ended, and MWP was thinking of another name change and being a heavyweight boxer. DanTony may not have been the right guy for the job, but Phil probably wasn't saving that mess. But Kobe was still capable of amazing feats at that time, so I would have loved to have seen what they could have done anyways.

 

Yes but Dwight just came off a career altering back surgery. Nash had a career altering knee/never injury in the second game. Kobe blew his Achilles out as we were gelling. And Pau was the odd man out under MDA.

It’s not really the same thing. Show me another team that has a DPOY that can guard 1-5 and playmake like Simmons with 7 shooters around him. Two of those happen to be some of the best ISO players in the league, with KD being maybe the best offensive player on his day.

Just a strange situation.

 

it's weird what can make things come together or fall apart, which is why i think phil jackson has made an appearance in the thread.

 

it will be really weird if Simmons never regains form and just checks out mentally on his career

if mental health is really an issue in this situation, it really opens up some things that teams may have legitimate collective bargaining things to bring up. What is the right thing to do when it comes to paying a top level athlete 10's of millions per year when he can't / won't perform. Will players play the mental health card to get out of situations they don't like. Has the potential to get ugly. After dealing with Kyrie's versions of mental health, it's kind of surprising to me they traded for him, but he was probably the best talent they could acquire to give them options. But then dude didn't play the rest of the year, now has back issues, etc.

 

i think one of the reasons the draft is such a crapshoot is that assessing mental fitness is REALLY difficult. i say this as what some misguided folks would call an expert on psychological assessment.

there's just not enough unbiased data available to make sound judgments of whether a guy really wants to play or is able to handle scrutiny or the doldrums of rehab, etc.

and you're right that simmons is an interesting test case. my theory is that he needed a fresh start and a supportive team/organization, and he'll be exactly what he was. but maybe not, right? then what?

 

And what about Kyrie? I support freedom of choice, etc, but beyond that, he seemed unreliable and marching to the beat of his own drum. That has to drive an organization crazy. "I'm going to do what is best for me 100% of the time" just doesn't seem to fly if you are getting paid millions of dollars to perform. It's why the whole players sitting out games to rest is such a hot topic for the league.

Opposing team fans are spending thousands on tickets to watch all time greats to play in their hometown a couple of times a year. What if they decide to sit out that day just to do the Popozitz rest routine? Fans feel ripped out and will be less likely to drop big money in the future.

What about the media companies that are partially paying for the players' absurd contracts with huge broadcast contracts? They are putting these guys on nationally televised broadcasts, and need to sell advertising in order to justify the crazy contracts they give out. If I found out all of the opposing team stars aren't going to play that night, I'm neither buying a ticket nor tuning in to watch. Advertisers are now pissed because they aren't getting what they were sold for advertising exposure. All of it has cascading effects the league has to manage.

The next CBA could get pretty interesting, but I do think they are going to have to navigate a few major changes for both sides. A work stoppage would not surprise me at all.

 

This is another reason I think Kyrie absolutely wants off the Nets. There is only room for one crazy mo-fo on that squad and he's not gonna be out-crazied by some Crocodile Dundee punk.