NBA Offseason Thread 2012-2013

GoldFour4

Looking like Howard isn't off the table for the Nets. Talks of a trade sending Lopez Humpries and 3 no.1 picks to Orlando. I'd accept that if I was Orlando. You aren't going to get better and his trade value will lower as it gets nearer to the trade deadline.

leggo

I still wouldn't be surprised to see some kind of shock happen there. Just because we don't know about it doesn't mean that it's off the table.

Also, we have to keep in mind that Dwight has no contractual right to dictate where he is traded. He's just putting out the word about Brooklyn to put Magic in a corner so he gets what he wants. Certainly, if I was Rob Hennigan then I'd still listen to any and all calls, just to spite Dwight and get the best deal possible for the franchise. We also need a head coach too so we know he can work with whoever we get.

As it is, Lakers aren't going to win a ring with their current team so they still need big changes and a Howard/Kobe team still makes them a threat. Kobe won't care about bad attitudes, because he can out 'attitude' anybody. All he wants at this stage of his career is to come as close to Jordan as possible in rings, points etc. So it wouldn't be another situation like with Shaq, he's more than proven himself now.

Paully D

God I'd love to see Howard traded to a team in a city that most NBA players hate. Somewhere like Cleveland, Sacramento or Minnesota :pac:

SoulGuy

Danny Ferry has been on the job for a week and he should already be given Executive of the Year for dumping Joe Johnson and Marvin Williams. Those were just horrible contracts.

Carcharodon wrote: »

Pacers will surely match the offer for Hibbert, hard to let a big men like him go.

Dunno why I'm shocked every year by the contracts, but Hibbert getting offered the max by the Blazers is so ridiculous. I don't know why teams participate in FA the way that they do. Unless you're getting a superstar, it's a losing game. Pretty much a 100% that whomever signs Hibbert...who I like...to a max deal ends up regretting it

Paully D

Bulls interested in getting Kirk Hinrich back apparently, especially as he can play the 1 and the 2. He still lives in Chicago but would have to take a pay cut, I think he might do it to come home, although he wasn't happy with being traded to the Wizards a couple of years ago but I guess he's smart enough to know the circumstances we were in that year.

Also rumours of interest in Derek Fisher (ugh!), although I would like us to sign someone like Chauncy Billups. Billups and Hinrich, that'd do for me.

Thibs and Brandon Roy have spoken a lot on the phone lately too according to reports. Loves the idea of playing for him and alongside D Rose. That would be a great pick up providing he's healthy.

Considering Atlanta were able to offload that Joe Johnson contract I have a very, very slight hope that we might be able to do the same with Boozer's. If only :pac:

Masked Man

That Asik deal is soooooooo terrible. That much money for a guy who averaged 14 mpg last season. They need to double that and not **** up his numbers for this to even come close to been decent value.

nerd69

Y does Howard want nets then mavs what's wrong with the lakers/celts/Knicks also big city teams and the 1st 2 have a tradition of winning

As a celtics fan I think if you put him on that team they win this year

Paully D

Do any of you watch much European basketball by the way lads?

Paully D

I see Toronto have offered Landry Fields a 3 year deal, I'd imagine they've done it purely so the Knicks can't sign and trade him for Nash. Quality :pac:

Masked Man

Looks like the Celtics signed Jason Terry. 3 year deal, $5 million mid level exception. Doc said he wanted Terry and Ray Allen.

nerd69

Paully D wrote: »

Do any of you watch much European basketball by the way lads?

no lacks the flash of the nba but the talent level seem pretty decent

Masked Man wrote: »

Looks like the Celtics signed Jason Terry. 3 year deal, $5 million mid level exception. Doc said he wanted Terry and Ray Allen.

awsome my big concern last year was depth looks like where addressing it



is the celtics bit 3 a failure if they fall apart with only 1 ring i think not personally as they would not have won even that one without it but some people are saying if they dont get 2-3 it is

Paully D

nerd69 wrote: »

no lacks the flash of the nba but the talent level seem pretty decent

Agreed. Was asking really because the Bulls are supposed to be getting Nikola Mirotić from Real Madrid in a couple of years and he looks promising, lots of comparisons to Dirk. Was wondering if anyone had seen much of him in Euro League?

Masked Man

I'm not surprised. Seems like he wants to win a title. I'd imagine that's more important to him than another 3 million. And there was rumour's that him and Rondo didn't get along, which probably didn't help matters.

Makes the Heat a hell of a lot of easier to root for next year.

edit:

Reports: free agent Ray Allen scheduled to visit @MiamiHEAT Thursday & @LAClippers Friday http://es.pn/R2ylsF

nerd69

its gona be rough rooting against rayray

padraig_f

Masked Man wrote: »

I'm not surprised. Seems like he wants to win a title. I'd imagine that's more important to him than another 3 million. And there was rumour's that him and Rondo didn't get along, which probably didn't help matters.

Makes the Heat a hell of a lot of easier to root for next year.

Sorry, it wasn't true (I posted that Ray Allen had agreed to sign with the Heat, deleted it soon after). I got duped by a fake twitter account, designed to looked like Adrian Wojnarowski, who's usually very reliable.

nerd69

thank god for that

GoldFour4

yup I was the same as padraig, fake account looks identical to Woj's real one and he is usually spot on.

nerd69

lads dont do that to me

Masked Man

No worries Padraig.

nerd69 wrote: »

its gona be rough rooting against rayray

As soon as the Celtics are out of contention I'll be rooting for the Heat if Ray is there. He's one of my favorite players in any sport, not even Bosh and Wade could make me want Ray to do badly.

GoldFour4

Deron Williams stays with the Nets officially

GoldFour4

SoulGuy

The Suns offered Eric Gordon a max deal worth $58 million over 4 years, but the Hornets are expected to match it.

Lafortezza

Is Eric Gordon that good? I've never really seen many of his games, he always struck me as a slightly undersized 2 guard, who was a good shooter with range to the 3 pointer.
Not a great defender, or the sort of player to totally take over and dominate a game.
And isn't he a bit injury prone?

GoldFour4

Lafortezza wrote: »

Is Eric Gordon that good? I've never really seen many of his games, he always struck me as a slightly undersized 2 guard, who was a good shooter with range to the 3 pointer.
Not a great defender, or the sort of player to totally take over and dominate a game.
And isn't he a bit injury prone?

Yeah i'd let Phoenix have him if I was the Hornets GM. He's good but not a max contract guy. Overpaying him and being stuck with the contract could be the difference between keeping Davis with the team in a few years time.

NufcNavan

SoulGuy

Lafortezza wrote: »

Is Eric Gordon that good? I've never really seen many of his games, he always struck me as a slightly undersized 2 guard, who was a good shooter with range to the 3 pointer.
Not a great defender, or the sort of player to totally take over and dominate a game.
And isn't he a bit injury prone?

I like Gordon but much like Hibbert he's just not worth a max contract. I can't even understand Lance Blanks thought process here. How does a team that has $60M to divvy up amongst 12 guys suddenly decide , "alright, let's start out by giving Eric Gordon 25% of that"

padraig_f

Lafortezza wrote: »

Is Eric Gordon that good? I've never really seen many of his games, he always struck me as a slightly undersized 2 guard, who was a good shooter with range to the 3 pointer.
Not a great defender, or the sort of player to totally take over and dominate a game.
And isn't he a bit injury prone?

Have only seen him in bits and pieces, but his numbers are good. In '10-'11, his 3rd season, he averaged 22 pts/game on a pretty bad Clippers team, with good efficiency (PER 18.56, 7th among shooting guards that year). That PER would've been good enough for 5th last season in SGs, behind Wade, Ginobili, Bryant & Harden.

Something to remember with the max contract, is that elite players are significantly underpaid. If there was no max-contract limit, the elite players would probably get double what they get now. So just because a player gets a max contract, doesn't mean they need to be elite. A player below elite level, which Gordon probably is, can still be good value on a max-contract.

His injury record is a concern. In 4 seasons, he's only played a full season once: season 1: 78 games, season 2: 62 games, season 3: 56 games, season 4: 9 games. But if you're confident his injuries were unfortunate rather than a recurring problem, I think it could be a good deal. The shooting-guard position is weak at the moment, and 3 of the 4 players ahead of him are the wrong side of 30. Gordon is still only 23.

John Hollinger's player profiles on ESPN are very good. You need an ESPN Insider subscription, but they're almost worth paying the subscription for alone. He has one for every player in the league. On Gordon:

+ High-scoring off-guard who draws fouls with powerful bursts to basket.

+ Short but very strong. Good shooter, albeit overrated. Average passer at best.

+ Moves well and competes on defense, but lacks length. Poor rebounder.

Gordon missed 26 games but still firmly planted himself as a rising star by averaging 23.6 points per 40 minutes -- fifth among shooting guards -- and doing so with surprising efficiency. Gordon mostly gets acclaim for his jump shot, but that's misplaced -- it's his ability to get to the line that sets him apart. He ranked eighth among shooting guards in free throw attempts per field goal attempt, and when he wasn't hit he shot 64.8 percent at the rim.

As for his jumper, it's good, but not special -- a low liner that's yielded a career 37.5 percent mark on 3s; last season he shot 38.4 percent on long 2s as well. You don't want to leave him open for it, certainly, and the threat of that shot opens driving lanes for him. But the real damage comes when he uses his powerful build in the paint.

Gordon has really improved at creating for others as well, upping his assist rate and increasingly orchestrating pick-and-rolls to start the offense. His rebounding is still quite poor, especially for somebody so strong, but defensively he's been reasonably solid. All told he's one of the league's brightest young wing players, and it's pretty easy to foresee an All-Star Game or two in his future.

malachyscott wrote: »

Yeah i'd let Phoenix have him if I was the Hornets GM. He's good but not a max contract guy. Overpaying him and being stuck with the contract could be the difference between keeping Davis with the team in a few years time.

They'll have the unibrow fairly cheap for the next 4 years so they can afford it, can decide to extend him or not later on.

padraig_f

malachyscott wrote: »

Deron Williams stays with the Nets officially

I was hoping he'd go to the Mavs because I like watching Rick Carlisle's teams, but they don't really have enough talent right now. The Mavs are in a bit of trouble now because they let Chandler go, mainly so they could have a shot at Deron Williams.

The Brooklyn-New York rivalry should be pretty good next season. New Jersey was never going to rival New York, even if they were good (which they weren't). But Brooklyn is a cooler place than Jersey, I love their new black-and-white design, haven't seen the jerseys yet but the t-shirts and caps look really good. New stadium, owner who doesn't give a **** about luxury tax. And now they possibly have a better team than the Knicks.

Paully D

padraig_f wrote: »

I was hoping he'd go to the Mavs because I like watching Rick Carlisle's teams, but they don't really have enough talent right now. The Mavs are in a bit of trouble now because they let Chandler go, mainly so they could have a shot at Deron Williams.

Reckon Dallas might just clear cap space now and make a run at Howard and Chris Paul next year?

GoldFour4

Paully D wrote: »

Reckon Dallas might just clear cap space now and make a run at Howard and Chris Paul next year?

I think neither guy will want to go there. Mark Cuban is usually solid when it comes to building a team but he made a big mistake in letting Tyson go. It's gonna be a few years before the Mavs are a playoff team again.

I think Paul will stay with the Clippers at the end of the day. Dwight will sadly probably get his way and get traded to a location he wants. The magic won't let him get away for nothing in return and will eventually trade him for the best offer they can get.