unclevlad Posted June 17, 2023 Report Share Posted June 17, 2023 Yeah, the union would probably whine at a 5 game suspension. I put no weight to that. In college basketball, I suspect that Bob Huggins' career as a college coach is toast. Apparently, 6 weeks ago, he used an anti-gay slur twice, and made a number of seriously tasteless comments. https://apnews.com/article/bob-huggins-homophobic-slur-west-virginia-daee2346b59daf853400bcc21ced59eb WVU didn't fire him, but cut his salary greatly, and he's only on a 1 year contract...so, clean up and put up or else. So now he gets arrested for DUI...and not some mild technical violation like .05 in a .04 state. No...0.21% BAC. Incoherent in the roadside sobriety test. The slurs SHOULD have had him tossed into the nearest mud puddle earlier. This is worse. And like Ja, it's a 2nd apallingly STUPID incident within a very short time frame. But Huggy Bear isn't some 20-something kid, he'll turn 70 before the season starts. I get the whole "waiting to gather more information" but overall, this should not take long at all. This will be termination for cause, presumably, so they'll make sure everything's done properly...but I suspect the paperwork will start Monday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclevlad Posted June 18, 2023 Report Share Posted June 18, 2023 OK, the paperwork won't be needed. I presume they're discussing terms, but report is that Huggins has already agreed to resign, and he's already told the team that. EDIT: it's official. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclevlad Posted June 19, 2023 Report Share Posted June 19, 2023 Looks like the band's breaking up after a rather long run... Reports are that Draymond Green will decline his option for next season, making him an unrestricted free agent. It isn't a done deal that he's gone, but presumably he's thinking he can get more than the $27.6M signing the option would give him. That's gonna be problematic. For 23-24, Steph's at $52M, Klay's at $43M, Ender's at $24M, and Poole goes from $4M to $27M as his new contract kicks in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclevlad Posted June 20, 2023 Report Share Posted June 20, 2023 Since pre-draft bloviation bores me beyond measure, we need to find other goodies. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/busting-4-major-myths-about-referees-in-the-nba-playoffs/ Not that this'll move the needle among the diehard conspiracy-mongers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pariah Posted June 21, 2023 Author Report Share Posted June 21, 2023 Nuggets head coach Michael Malone gets tattoo of Maxie the Miner holding NBA championship trophy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclevlad Posted June 23, 2023 Report Share Posted June 23, 2023 Interesting. Wizards trade Chris Paul to the Warriors, for Jordan Poole. Is this trying to appease Draymond, or reflective of other issues with Poole? Warriors actually save a good deal of cash. Poole got signed to something of a risky extension...4 more years, over $120M, because he'd shown flashes, but didn't really have a real track record. And this year was definitely not up to that deal. Paul's contract only has 1 more year, and he may well retire. I don't think the changes make the Warriors contenders, whether Green returns or not; I tend to see it as a stopgap, and maybe I'm reading things into it...but getting rid of a problem player and contract. And to absolutely no one's surprise, Wembanyama to San Antonio. 7-4, 240...but really smooth. HUGE!!!!!!!!! hands. Really nice form on his shot. This isn't a Manute Bol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grailknight Posted June 28, 2023 Report Share Posted June 28, 2023 Taking care of the new kid! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclevlad Posted June 28, 2023 Report Share Posted June 28, 2023 Yeah, I heard. There was a comment that they imparted many, many lessons about the realities of the NBA. Not many better sources out there...Duncan even moves into the social media era, at least to a degree. Duncan retired after the '16 season. Ginobili too...not perhaps the a star at the level of Robinson or Duncan (no height jokes intended) but one of Argentina's most popular, and he retired in '18. And that really, REALLY brings out HOW FREAKING TALL!!!!! the kid is!!! Cuz that's David Robinson standing on his left. Robinson's 7' himself. No pressure on the kid, tho. Just meet 2 legends...Duncan's arguably a Mount Rushmore level power forward, Robinson made the 75th anniversary all time NBA list, Ginobili is HOF...and Sean Elliott on the other end *only* has his number retired by the Spurs. Slacker.... Way to keep the expectations down, having that group take you to dinner the night you arrive in town. Imagine if the place they went to, had a dress code...and tried to turn away THAT group............................. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pariah Posted June 29, 2023 Author Report Share Posted June 29, 2023 The NBA has a new CBA: NBA's new Collective Bargaining Agreement officially signed, includes in-season tournament The most interesting part, at least to me, was this: Quote Individual player awards will now have a 65-game minimum for eligibility. This includes honors like All-NBA. Which is fine. I've never been a fan of load management anyway. The article also points out that the Association is looking for something like three times as much money in its upcoming media deal. We'll see. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starlord Posted June 29, 2023 Report Share Posted June 29, 2023 4 hours ago, Pariah said: The NBA has a new CBA: NBA's new Collective Bargaining Agreement officially signed, includes in-season tournament The most interesting part, at least to me, was this: Which is fine. I've never been a fan of load management anyway. And making All NBA team can result in massive contract bonuses in the tens of millions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclevlad Posted June 29, 2023 Report Share Posted June 29, 2023 No joke about the bonuses, as it can change the percentage of the cap, on a max deal contract. 65 games still allows some rest, and what we might see is simply "ok, start the game, then you're on the bench for the last 3 quarters." In-season tournament? Why? I think it's not merely a terrible idea, it's a self-defeating one. My first take is, oh, our regular season isn't interesting enough to keep fan interest, so we'll invent this hokum and pray they like it. Alternately, another plausible message is yeah, we know the season's way too long, so here's maybe a way to make it seem shorter...or to make some of those early games more interesting. And the rich will get richer. Quote The restrictions limiting veteran contract extensions have been loosened. Whereas most players were previously limited to 120% of their previous salary in the first year of an extension, now those players will be able to earn as much as 140% of their previous salary upon the start of a new deal. And we can safely assume who's gonna get those. There's a tension here, too, with this part: Quote There will now be a second salary cap apron -- $17.5 million over the current apron -- which will help curb spending among the league's most expensive teams. Any team that crosses that threshold will lose access to the taxpayer mid-level exception. Will it cut spending by the big spenders...or just redirect that mid-level exception money to the max contract extensions? Also, how will this interact with the 65 game requirement for awards? A secondary effect: I think these terms will only exacerbate the alienation between the players and those parts of the fan base that think the NBA's filled with rich, spoiled brats. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Logan D. Hurricanes Posted June 29, 2023 Report Share Posted June 29, 2023 Sounds like they are desperately trying to find a way to get the players to care about the regular season. Probably too late for that, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pariah Posted June 29, 2023 Author Report Share Posted June 29, 2023 1 hour ago, unclevlad said: In-season tournament? Why? I think it's not merely a terrible idea, it's a self-defeating one. My first take is, oh, our regular season isn't interesting enough to keep fan interest, so we'll invent this hokum and pray they like it. Alternately, another plausible message is yeah, we know the season's way too long, so here's maybe a way to make it seem shorter...or to make some of those early games more interesting. Maybe they're trying to be like MLS? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclevlad Posted June 29, 2023 Report Share Posted June 29, 2023 What, at best a 2nd-rate league with little or no TV exposure, and with lower net worths than a single year of Aaron Rodgers' salary? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pariah Posted June 30, 2023 Author Report Share Posted June 30, 2023 But ... but .. fútbol is the world's most popular sport! It's the Beautiful Game! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclevlad Posted June 30, 2023 Report Share Posted June 30, 2023 2 hours ago, Pariah said: But ... but .. fútbol is the world's most popular sport! It's the Beautiful Game! And high school baseball is baseball, it's America's Pastime! Pariah 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pariah Posted July 12, 2023 Author Report Share Posted July 12, 2023 Las Vegas and Seattle, to the surprise of absolutely no one. NBA Eyeing Future Expansion Teams in Two Major Cities When this will actually happen is anyone's guess, although the commissioner said it won't happen until the next round of media deals is in place. Same story, different sport. That would take the league from 30 teams to 32, requiring some realignment. Memphis probably moves to the Eastern Conference, resulting in two conferences of 16 teams each. Each conference would presumably have either two divisions of eight or four divisions of four—whichever option the commissioner and the owners think is most profitable, in all likelihood. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pariah Posted July 12, 2023 Author Report Share Posted July 12, 2023 Okay, here's my proposal: To begin with, the new team in Seattle will be called the Supersonics, and their colors will be some combination of green and yellow. It simply cannot be otherwise. As for the new team in Vegas, I'm envisioning something audacious, overstated, and self-aggrandizing. (Much like the NBA itself, and many of its most famous players.) So I'm calling the team the Las Vegas Millionaires. Their colors will be black, silver, gold, and red. Both of these teams will play in the Western Conference, moving Memphis to the East. I'm envisioning four teams in each of eight divisions, looking something like this: WESTERN CONFERENCE Northwest Division: Seattle, Portland, Golden State, Sacramento Pacific Division: LA Lakers, LA Clippers, Phoenix, Las Vegas Midwest Division: Utah, Denver, Oklahoma City, Minnesota Southwest Division: Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, New Orleans EASTERN CONFERENCE Great Lakes Division: Milwaukee, Chicago, Indiana, Detroit Central Division: Toronto, Cleveland, Memphis, Philadelphia Atlantic Division: Boston, Brooklyn, New York, Washington Southeast Division: Charlotte, Atlanta, Orlando, Miami I considered swapping Philadelphia and Washington in this model. Otherwise, the alignments all seemed pretty self-evident, at least in terms of geography. And there you have it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclevlad Posted July 12, 2023 Report Share Posted July 12, 2023 Those divisions look fairly reasonable. The odd man out there is Memphis. If it's 2 divisions of 8...you might get a better grouping. Your SE, plus Memphis...that's 5. Indiana, Washington, and Philly. Milwaukee, Detroit, Cleveland, Chicago, and Toronto are all Great Lakes. One might have to look at schedule construction. 2 interconference games per team, that's 32. Leaves 50. Baseline...let's say 3 games against every other conference team, that's 45. (And it's sensible if the playoff formula is, let's say, top 2 in each division get in, then the next 6 are based on conference record.) Leaves 5 games. 3 might be divisional by division placement the season before...the top 4 teams play an additional game against each other, the bottom 4 do as well. The other 2 could be doing that between divisions in the same conference. 1 and 2 in one division plays 1 and 2 in the other; 3 and 4 vs. 3 and 4, and so on. Eh, we'll see. Another question, if they do expand...do they use the NHL's model for their last expansion? Vegas Golden Knights shocked the sports world, developing a winning club *immediately*. In part because the NHL didn't let teams protect a whole lot of players, IIRC. One thing is that they're gonna adopt a no-flop ruling...get caught flopping? Technical foul. Might be good in principle, but...disastrously BAD in practice. The NBA already has, IMO, the worst-regarded replay system in US pro sports. FAR too many, they take FAR too long, and flagrant foul reviews leave fans totally confused too often. I agree that flopping is bad for the game, so...well, I'll give it a shot, but I'm not all that hopeful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pariah Posted July 25, 2023 Author Report Share Posted July 25, 2023 LeBron's dream of playing with his son might be over before it's even started: Bronny James suffers cardiac arrest, collapses on USC court: LeBron James' son now in stable condition I'm old enough to remember the names Hank Gathers and Len Bias. Scary stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cygnia Posted July 25, 2023 Report Share Posted July 25, 2023 2 hours ago, Pariah said: LeBron's dream of playing with his son might be over before it's even started: Bronny James suffers cardiac arrest, collapses on USC court: LeBron James' son now in stable condition I'm old enough to remember the names Hank Gathers and Len Bias. Scary stuff. Reggie Lewis too. Pariah 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclevlad Posted July 25, 2023 Report Share Posted July 25, 2023 VERY scary stuff. I remember Gathers as well. Bias...that one, cocaine was considered a major factor. Reggie Lewis' case was...contentious, to say the least. I remember when that one happened, too...and the very first thought I had was, oh man...Celtics again. Drugs again??? I hope not!!! But that question was never clearly resolved. USC had a separate incident last summer, with another freshman recruit. Another cardiac event. The kid came back to play, but his season was strongly curtailed as the team medical and training staff kept a VERY!! close eye on things, as they absolutely should. The details matter in terms of how things will go moving forward, but the careful, methodical approach can be safely assumed, particularly given that Bronny has SUCH a massive profile. We'll all start with hoping Bronny's health is the top priority...which suggests there's no way he can be NBA-ready for 24-25. Makes ya wonder if LeBron will structure things to be a part-time player for THAT season, at a MUCH lower salary, so he can conceivably play in 25-26. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Hopcroft Posted July 30, 2023 Report Share Posted July 30, 2023 "Bronny" James, the son of HOF-bound legend Lebron James, suffered more than a setback this weekend -- he was the one in ten likely to survive a heart attack during a practice at USC. Bronny is supposedly a great talent. He has already studied basketball skills with a father who is unbelievably good in all facets of the game (the fgact that he has only one ring to show for it can be laid down to limits on how often one can beat Stephan Curry). Lebron really wanted to play in the NBA with his son. Will that happen now? Will USC find a way to get him healthy enough go on the court, or should Lebron just be satisfied that his sone still draws breath? I hope that everyone makes the right decisions so this talented your man gets a long, healthy life even if playing basketball is not ion his future? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grailknight Posted July 30, 2023 Report Share Posted July 30, 2023 Lebron has 4 rings, 2 in Miami, 1 in Cleveland and 1 in Los Angeles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclevlad Posted July 30, 2023 Report Share Posted July 30, 2023 Ummmm.... When proper, trained medical attention can be on-scene within moments, I don't believe heart attack survival is anywhere NEAR as bad as 1 in 10...and why add "during a practice at USC"? In fact, a very similar incident happened last summer...at USC...and the kid came through. Yeah, I can see the 1 in 10 survival rate for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, but a LOT of that relates to response time issues. And LeBron has 4 rings. I have yet to hear what they think may have triggered this. That's important to determine his limits moving forward. Did find this:https://www.sportingnews.com/ca/ncaa-basketball/news/bronny-james-cardiac-arrest-explained-heart-doctor-lebron-son-next-steps-recovery/cesjqahuhz5k5mujyws7mq3a Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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