Board 8 > NBA Finals Discussion

(+) Yeah! (+)

I don't have any personal animosity towards the spurs but they're one of those franchises that have been so consistently good that it's good to see them finally be crap for a change.

As a Magic fan, Pau Gasol should have been called for goaltending!

Also Nick Anderson free throws :(

Emeraldegg posted...

I don't have any personal animosity towards the spurs but they're one of those franchises that have been so consistently good that it's good to see them finally be crap for a change.

inb4 they do it again wherein they decide to tank for exactly one year and get a once in a generation player immediately :/

Yeah the Spurs have a pretty good success rate with the #1 pick...!

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/34273712/sources-nba-fines-warriors-owner-joe-lacob-500000-decrying-unfair-nba-luxury-tax

How dare NBA not want teams to repeatedly pay luxury tax with abandon and introduce increasingly harsh fines for doing so

Donovan Mitchell trade coming soon

That's already been walked back.

just get it over with cowards

no active NBA player has ever faced the Sacramento Kings in the playoffs

I too have reddit.

I don't use Reddit actually

I just like to laugh at the Kings

https://twitter.com/ShamsCharania/status/1551527342262075392

possible Brown+others for Durant trade coming?

If they want to go brown + picks for durant I have no issue, but brown + other players would be a no go for me.

supposedly it was Brown + Derrick White and picks but Nets want Brown + Smart + picks

That sounds close enough that they should be able to find a deal. Although this may prompt a third team to actually up their offer now a serious offer is on the table

i didn't want to trade brown for durant straight-up

durant is 34 and has played 90 games in 3 years, he's worse on defense than brown already, and even in his prime he was shooting like 30-40% in key playoff games

problem is that brown might be discontent with the trade offers and may be considering leaving boston already

if that's the case then maybe we do need to do this trade now, but giving up smart AND picks in addition feels like we're gonna be dead in the water

brogdon in particular is super-fragile, so losing smart and gaining KD puts us at a massive injury risk

Windhorst is reporting that these talks are old and died down weeks ago. If true it sounds like a leak from the Nets to up another teams package while simultaneously making Jaylen Brown disgruntled with the Celtics.

This KD trade talk is getting old though, wish something would finally happen.

Sorozone posted...

Windhorst is reporting that these talks are old and died down weeks ago. If true it sounds like a leak from the Nets to up another teams package while simultaneously making Jaylen Brown disgruntled with the Celtics.

would love this to be true

the fact is, brad stevens has the power to come out and shut down this chatter publicly. the fact he isn't doing so seems to lend credence to the report

Kevin "I can't beat 'em, so I join 'em!" Durant

I have basically no respect for Durant for that reason alone.

This is going to sound a little unusual I think, but I think in some respects, the NBA fans and media are responsible for so many guys trying to chase rings nowadays because of the amount of (IMO, undue) weight we give championships. Kevin durant is an all time great player who I think is at least approaching comparison to MJ as to level of talent as a player. But how many times do you see KD in the GOAT discussion, and why? Championships.

Guys like KD want to be known as the best, but they never will be because they don't have the amount of championships that MJ does, and I don't think that's right. Even though I would have liked to see KD win it in OKC, I honestly don't think I can blame him doing what he feels he must to insert himself into that conversation. I don't think # of championships in a team sport should factor in as much as it does to how great a player is.

I'm thinking that the teams with the best offers won't pull the trigger for another month (or longer). They want the Nets to be facing training camp.

I think Jaylen Brown would probably be OK to leave in free agency, depending on what other teams are out there. He has always wanted to establish his own identity and it's not really happening in Boston for a few reasons.

I also think the nets are in no rush to make a move. Durant won't sit out, they don't care about Kyrie because he's getting 0 interest so he's stuck there. Durant is their only chance at salvaging anything, they're asking price is huge because it has to be.

Emeraldegg posted...

This is going to sound a little unusual I think, but I think in some respects, the NBA fans and media are responsible for so many guys trying to chase rings nowadays because of the amount of (IMO, undue) weight we give championships. Kevin durant is an all time great player who I think is at least approaching comparison to MJ as to level of talent as a player. But how many times do you see KD in the GOAT discussion, and why? Championships.

Guys like KD want to be known as the best, but they never will be because they don't have the amount of championships that MJ does, and I don't think that's right. Even though I would have liked to see KD win it in OKC, I honestly don't think I can blame him doing what he feels he must to insert himself into that conversation. I don't think # of championships in a team sport should factor in as much as it does to how great a player is.

While I agree in general principle that fans and media have gone overboard with the RINGS ERNEH legacy stuff, especially since NBA fans are much more prone than in other sports to ranking guys, in KD's case specifically I think the irony is that the championships have actually kind of hurt his perception or at least capped it to an extent because of the specifics of how he did it. Joining a 73-win team that had already won a championship and just beaten him, etc. Calling it the hardest road didn't exactly help either.

I think Nets have more impetus to make a move than teams bidding on him purely because they don't own any of their future picks. Unless you can convince Kyrie/KD to run it back for 1 more year then entering the season with them both on the roster is a massive risk if they sit or phone it in until deadline. Last thing you want is to be shifting them both in January with the team sat in a lotto / play-in position

I really don't think Durant will sit or phone it in if he can't be traded.

Kyrie's a lost cause of course

As a Heat fan I hope the Celtics implode.

SirChris posted...

As a fan of any of the other 29 teams I hope the Celtics implode.

fixed

https://twitter.com/DetroitPistons/status/1551729289497911297

I'm Pro Teal

the Celtics literally made Marcus Smart off-limits for a Kevin Durant trade

they get what they deserve either way

https://twitter.com/Charlottean28/status/1551731458091454464

90s CGI at its finest

https://twitter.com/ShamsCharania/status/1553790454726070276

RIP

the GOAT.

RIP

SeabassDebeste posted...

the GOAT.

The fourth most GOAT

RIP

KD has let it be known-Trade or get rid of Nash and Marks.

Didn't he want Nash? or is that just hearsay?

I think he ends up getting traded, or nothing at all happens.

Didn't he say they don't really need a coach?

Or was that Kyrie?

Either way, I don't feel like KD has ever shown great support of Nash.

I am so over KD at this point. He and Kyrie have held the franchise hostage from day 1 and are directly responsible for the state of current affairs. If you don't think nash has been a good coach I get that, but Marks has done nothing but suck KD and Kyrie's cock ever since they got there and now KD just decides he's had enough? Marks did nothing to him.

Though I'm loathe to say it, the only way the nets get out of this at all is if KD decides to play anyway, and gives them time for a team to get desperate and give them what they gave for Harden. The nets need to trade him for a haul much more than KD needs to play anymore basketball, he could just sit and be done. If he does that, the nets are boned. Ultimately though, I'm rooting for the meteor, because KD and kyrie and simmons are all lame, and the nets are also lame for reneging on not letting kyrie play unvaccinated.

Also, p sure Kyrie was the one who said that stuff, durant has been mostly quiet over his tenure there. Kyrie was the one who went AWOL for a time there after nash was announced as coach.

Marks said no to KD one time so now he's done with him

Durant destroying his own legacy. Imagine that.

KD is a little bitch

Durant's legacy is going to be somehow making the billionaire owners look like the good guys when the next lockout happens

It's kind of amazing how beloved KD was when he was still in OKC compared to where he is now

Players are gonna get absolutely fucked in the next CBA because of the antics of selfish players now who of course won't care as it doesn't affect them

Question here for everybody who knows more than me. Has KD won anything when he didnt go to an already established superteam?

Team accolades no. Individual accolades yes.

Yeah his MVP season he got it with Russ out half the season

RaidenGarai posted...

Question here for everybody who knows more than me. Has KD won anything when he didnt go to an already established superteam?

KD won two playoff rounds in 2011.

he went to the finals in 2012 on his homegrown team at age 22, then promptly lost his third-best future-MVP player. they came from down 2-0 to beat a spurs team that was on a 20-0 run including 10-0 in the playoffs

the next thunder team was the best ever at the time by regular season, and then westbrook got hurt in round 1 of the playoffs when patbev dove into his knee while he was trying to call a timeout. couldn't beat memphis alone, though he did win one game alone.

with westbrook out much of the season, KD won MVP in 2014. he won two playoff rounds, then ibaka got hurt vs the spurs. that was an incredibly close six-game series that i believe required OT to close out. (the spurs subsequently annihilated miami in the finals)

he was hurt in 2015.

in 2016, he was down 2-1 without home court and came back to beat the spurs who had won 67 teams and statistically were actually the best regular season spurs ever. absolutely torched prime defensive kawhi leonard that series. he managed to get up 3-1 against the warriors as well.

the 2021 nets were a superteam, but until harden and kyrie got hurt, they were doing superteam things. were up 2-0 on the eventual champion bucks and on the verge of going up 3-0.

so while he's never won a championship and he's had some disappointing losses (including personally choking in 2016), i think his record has actually been quite solid even in the playoffs.

Yeah KD is undeniably an all time great player, and sometimes players like that don't win the accompanying level of championships because winning those is hard. Any argument that he can't carry a team are bad imo, things just don't work out a lot of the time. Honestly, I don't think KD would have gotten quite the same vitriol (some, but not as much) if the superteam he went to wasn't the one that had just beaten him in the playoffs.

Even Lebron couldn't carry cleveland alone in his prime, you have to have some sort of supporting cast if you're gonna win anything that's just how it is, and even then it can not be enough (Those same warriors lost in the finals during their 73 win season). KD's behavior is more of an indictment on him than his performance.

SeabassDebeste posted...

in 2016, he was down 2-1 without home court and came back to beat the spurs who had won 67 teams and statistically were actually the best regular season spurs ever. absolutely torched prime defensive kawhi leonard that series.

this one still hurts

not quite as much as the following season because of Zaza (the worst) but yeah it was wild to see how overwhelming OKC became after those first three games