NBA Off-Season

May LeBron play on interesting teams.

 

Brooklyn has to protect its draft picks, they owe them all for the Harden trade so they can’t suck.

Lakers have nothing to offer besides LeBron or Davis. No picks until 2027 at earliest.

I hope Kyrie goes to Detroit. That would be perfect, or SacTown

 

The Brogdan trade seems like a steal for the Celtics, since the main assets going out are the pick (which will probably be so late, you'll be happy to get a player who makes the roster), Nesmith (if you think he can develop with regular playing time) and Theis (decent backup C, not a playoff option). Danilo is a nice depth piece for the regular season, for the 50ish games or so that he'll play.

 

Hard to imagine a worse combination than Durant, Harden and World B. Flat.

Sean Marks should be fired AND suspended.

 

I wouldn't be so quick with the trigger on Marks.

Let's not forget what he manufactured out of the end of the Garnett/Pierce/etc. "era." He built up a solid foundation with Atkinson which was truly amazing.

Then Durant/Flat Earther chose to come to Brooklyn. Was that Marks' doing or someone else? I don't think that was Marks' preferred lusting (unlike say the Knicks and LeBron). That fell into Brooklyn's lap and then Tsai and Marks went along with it. Harden was certainly thrust upon him, again not his preferred choice.

Then Flat Earther just torching last year with his knucklehead stance.

If it wasn't for Myers, I'd take Marks any day.

 

Also, prior to Brooklyn, Kyrie was seen as a difficult personality and a free thinker, but also a truly gifted offensive player. He's won a championship, and he was headed to Brooklyn to play with his buddy, Kevin Durant. I'm not sure the Nets deserve scorn for not anticipating a global pandemic that would reveal one of their three stars was anti-vax.

The other thing in play here - What did the Nets lose by doing these deals? I think Atkinson was a solid head coach, but Durant doesn't come without Kyrie, and they were both FAs. The '24 and '26 picks they have to give up to the Rockets - and potential swaps in '23 and '25 - look like they could be bad, but it depends on what they're getting for Durant, and whether Simmons plays. (He might suck in the playoffs, but a healthy Simmons wins you regular season games.) No clue what Brooklyn's gate receipts were for the Durant, Kyrie and Harden deals, but I imagine they might have sold out here and there. They didn't win a championship with that core, but they had a better chance with them than Caris LeVert, Joe Harris and Spencer Dinwiddie as their core.

 

There's nothing here Marks didn't already know when he acquired the Toxic Trio. Harden showed his priorities by partying maskless in the depths of the pandemic, and then throwing in the towel when the going got tough. Same with Durant, who has collected $312 million from the Nets and has one playoff series win to show for it, was horrible in the playoffs vs. Boston this year and won't set foot on the court for Brooklyn under his new contract. World B. Flat is radioactive and has a scarce trade market.

The stars continue to accrue power in the NBA, and not in a good way.

 

World B. Flat.
You magnificent bastard.

 

The pre-KD Nets were a nice story, but their ceiling was plucky 7 seed who put a scare into the 2 seed by winning that one game on the road.

 

I'm not going to fault Marks for the original addition of Kyrie and Durant. That's a no-brainer. Any team would've jumped at adding that pair.

After that I'm not enthusiastic about a lot of the decisions they made. Hiring Nash was a mistake. Focusing on bringing in guys like DeAndre Jordan and letting guys like Jarrett Allen go was a mistake. The Harden trade was a mistake. In retrospect letting Kyrie be a part-time player was a mistake.

There's an alternate world where KD, Kyrie and Harden (or Simmons) actually play together and they're absolutely a legit title threat. Still, I don't blame Tsai for drawing a line in the sand on the Kyrie thing. I wouldn't lock him down to a long-term deal either.

Please let KD go to the Suns and Kyrie to the Lakers. The entertainment level will be off the charts.