NBA 2017-2018 Season Thread

Lebron and Chris Paul to the Spurs for talent diversity.

I don't think LeBron is teaming up with Chris Paul, his health is too undependable. The dude can't play/finish a full season of basketball and Lebron always gets to the end only to come up short because he has no help so i don't see that happening.

Sterling said:

Lebron and Chris Paul to the Spurs for talent diversity.

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Naw let LeBron come to the Pelicans. He and AD con probably do it.

Nola said:

Naw let LeBron come to the Pelicans. He and AD con probably do it.

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Damn...never thought of that.

He probably shouldn't go around punching whiteboards out of frustration then.

zzeris said:

Same here. This and the Dallas series are what ruins his advocates arguments for GOAT. He gave up in the locker room before the game started.

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There is no argument for any player not named Michael Jordan. Unless you didn’t see Jordan play, in which case...carry on.

Jait said:

There is no argument for any player not named Michael Jordan. Unless you didn’t see Jordan play, in which case...carry on.

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So no love for Bill Russell or Kareem?

Oblio said:

Has anyone brought up that LeBron broke/injured his hand after the first game? After learning that it makes sense that he performed the way he did in the final 3 games.

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Just a bullshit excuse

Gaige said:

So no love for Bill Russell or Kareem?

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If you want to go back, it has to be Wilt. Wilt was a freak and he wasn't playing with 32423423423234 HoF dudes like Russell was.

Look when LeBron is in a Rockets Jersey next year we can finally stop talking about Cleveland. Finally.

Brahma said:

Damn...never thought of that.

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I would love to see it but I don't think it won't happen cause New Orleans isn't a big enough city/franchise (financially wise) for a player like Lebron.

yamikazo said:

We'll see what happens, but 2/4 of the Warriors "superstars" may take a significant pay cut to stay in Oakland/SF.

I'd expect to see a group of owners form a coalition to prevent that sort of thing. Will be hard to get by the players because they won't take kindly to a more restrictive free agency.

There's a lot of time between now and then. If the NBA evolves into 3 or 4 superteams composed to beat the Warriors that's going to be a strong narrative.

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This isn't solely directed at you. You just happen to be the last basketball is boring mah competitive balance guy to post.

This isn't anything new. In fact outside of the seventies which is widely considered the dark ages of the NBA, the league has never had parity.

Pre 1970 it was all Celtics and Minnesota Lakers. In the Eighties it was 5 Laker championships, 3 Celtics championships, then the one for the Sixers and one for the pistons who repeated in ninety.

In the nineties you had six for the Jordan Bulls and two for the rockets along with the start of the spurs and Lakers modern dynasties. The spurs and Lakers then went on to win five a piece between 2000 and 2014 with a celtics win, the pistons, the heat championships and Dirk getting a ring. Now we have golden state and had the Cavs until lebron's projected relocation.

The NBA has always been a dynasty driven league where the same teams dominated in three to eight year stretches. I'm not sure why this is all of a sudden some horrible thing that golden state is doing to basketball? The celtics and Lakers alone account for more then a third of all titles and the 2000 to 2014 lakers/spurs combo make up more then half of the 21st century titles.

Vimeseh said:

This isn't solely directed at you. You just happen to be the last basketball is boring mah competitive balance guy to post.

This isn't anything new. In fact outside of the seventies which is widely considered the dark ages of the NBA, the league has never had parity.

Pre 1970 it was all Celtics and Minnesota Lakers. In the Eighties it was 5 Laker championships, 3 Celtics championships, then the one for the Sixers and one for the pistons who repeated in ninety.

In the nineties you had six for the Jordan Bulls and two for the rockets along with the start of the spurs and Lakers modern dynasties. The spurs and Lakers then went on to win five a piece between 2000 and 2014 with a celtics win, the heat championships and Dirk getting a ring. Now we have golden state and had the Cavs until lebron's projected relocation.

The NBA has always been a dynasty driven league where the same teams dominated in three to eight year stretches. I'm not sure why this is all of a sudden some horrible thing that golden state is doing to basketball? The celtics and Lakers alone account for more then a third of all titles and the 2000 to 2014 lakers/spurs combo make up more then half of the 21st century titles.

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You bring up a lot of good points (except I don't seem to have the view that you assume I hold).

The owners in the last CBA tried to bring about more parity. I think the owners are concerned about their own ability to put together a contending squad because contenders make more money (both in the short term with more playoff games = more ticket revenue and long term with more trophies = higher sales price when they cash out).

We saw two big changes in the current CBA:

They brought in huge tax penalties for repeaters. This scares away most teams, but when you're in the dynasty window, teams seem to be willing to pay it – the NBA owners may have some shrewd financial dudes but if you dangle the trophy in front of them they reach into their pocketbooks for the chance at glory. There's a lot of history to write on this between now and the end of the CBA, but I'd call this only somewhat effective. Depending on what the Golden State owners are willing to pay, that opinion could change, but I'd guess ownership in general will dig in deeper.

The hometown contract incentives for superstars to stay put and not create superteams. Again, we'll see what happens with this, but so far some of the game's biggest stars have eschewed the huge 5-year mega-contracts to maintain their own control over their fate. Oklahoma City lost Kevin Durant in Free Agency even though they could offer him dozens of millions more than anyone else and he even chose to take a massive paycut from the max in his prime. The narrative around this is still ongoing, but again I'm predicting ownership will want more power/options at their disposal.

Here's the fundamental question: Do owners believe most teams are like the Warriors or like the Thunder?

Although maybe in 5 years they'll be asking a different question. Lots of basketball still to be played.

I wasn't disputing your basketball finance stuff or why the CBA was constructed like it is, or even what the owners want. Your post was just the most recent to touch on, if only tangentially, about power teams and league parity. So I quoted you. Probably not the best post to quote for my little ramble but I'm on the tail end of a 12 hour shift and not exactly of the clearest mind.