2023-24 Running NBA thread

The Pistons are stripping the payroll in preparation for the upcoming sale to Las Vegas, St. Louis or Seattle.

 

Not within 100 miles of what's actually happening, but you can keep pretending this if you want.

 

That’s funny. Yeah I’m mystified at his regression. He’s always been a scorer first but everything around here was he was a great teammate, hard worker, unselfish. The punch was so wrong and upset the apple cart for sure. I’ve written before, he was a key reason Ws won a title.

I’ve looked at his stats a couple of times this year and they’re god-awful for a regular dude, for $40M? Oh man. Maybe he gets better, becomes at least a consistent scorer on an awful team, Monta Ellis like, someone has to score right?

 

This is an evergreen response to Starman.

 

They're shipping off players for "cap space." They were already miles under the cap anyway.

They're clearing cap space they'll never use. That's all pure profit for Gores when he dumps the team.

 

They look like an East Finals team to me.

 

Did Vanessa sue anyone today in association with the Kobe statue unveiling?

 

No, that's not what they're doing. At all.

The Pistons have a shitty team that needs to rebuild. They traded two guys who are 34 and 32 for a bunch of younger guys and draft picks. They've been trying to trade Bogdanovic for two years but their price has always been too high.

They made a flurry of deals that freed up playing time for their young core and put some decent guys around them. It's what they should be doing. They're still not going to be any good, but having older players taking minutes away from their young guys made no sense at all.

On top of that, they are not moving. They are not moving to Seattle, which is going to get an expansion franchise soon. They are not moving to Vegas, which is getting the other expansion franchise soon. And absolutely nobody is moving fucking anything to St. Louis. They are not moving anywhere.

And if Gores sells, you think he's worried about the $4 million he still owed Alec Burks? The Suns sold for $4 billion dollars last year. No one buying or selling an NBA team gives a single shit about the payroll.

By the way, the salary cap for this season is $135 million. The Pistons are sitting at $137 million. That's your "cap space."

 

Knicks are a blast to watch when the Garden gets rolling. Love their trades this year, and would love to see them make a big, big run. How fun would that be in June?

 

It's certainly not crazy. Philly is a mess. The Bucks haven’t shown me much.

 

Meanwhile the Cavs have quietly won eight in a row and 16-of-17, and did half of that without Mobley and Garland, who are now back. At full strength, they are as good as anyone in the league, and certainly playing like it these days.

 

They are a weirdly under-the-radar team. I had no idea they are second in the east right now.