NBA and WNBA thread

If he leaves, he leaves and they rebuild - can't really complain given he brought them a championship. They have some good pieces to trade if they want to go all in on the rebuild too.

You have to laugh at the Knicks - can they ever get anything right? Ok a lot of it isn't their fault but its just classic Knicks isn't it? Don't win the lottery, KD gets hurt so even if they get him it won't matter next season, they couldn't get near a good offer for AD and if they don't land Leonard (chances are slim and none) or Kyrie (unlikely) then they've traded away Porzingis for nothing! You couldn't make it up.

Talk of Leonard now going to the Lakers - don't know how it works salary wise but that would be a dominant trio alright. They'd still have a thin bench though. I never get too invested when the Lakers make a splash with big names in free agency, because it rarely works - adding Malone and Payton didn't work, adding Howard and Nash went worse than anyone could have possibly imagined. They do better when they're wheeling and dealing for pieces (albeit a lot of that was the Jerry Buss and Jerry West era). But it would be very interesting to see how a LeBron/AD/Leonard lineup would fare. How must see is the first Laker/Pelicans game now? AD vs his old team, Zion against LeBron, the young upstarts against the veterans...it will be immense! Could see it either being an opening night game or Christmas day.

Lebron and AD will smash it as long as they can put a reasonable roster around them.
Pelicans have done well but Lakers were desperate to make the most of Lebron given his age. Otherwise knowing AD was a free agent in a year’s time they may have struggled to get anything like that deal.
It’s widely presumed the lakers office is a mess but they’ve still acquired 2 of the best players in consecutive years.
KDs and Klays injuries make the summer a little less interesting.
I’m intrested to see what pelicans do with the 4 pick. What Khaei, Butler and Kyrie do.

Personally, I don't think Leonard would attach with two other stars, he's proven he can win as the no one option on a squad why would he accept being 3rd option to LeBron and AD, best bet for his would be either stay in the east as with the collapse of the Celtics and the potential for butler and Harris to leave the only potential stumbling block would be the bucks, either stay in Toronto or maybe the face of the knicks!! Then maybe the knicks could chuck an offer at kemba walker and add RJ Barrett to maybe make a decent starting line up including Dennis Smith JR and Mitchell Robinson, or maybe if kemba isn't possible chuck some money D'Los way? Even though I'm hoping the knicks pick garland as I would love to see Barrett and Zion in the NBA on the same side especially with Lonzo finding them!!

Mike Conley traded to Utah for Korver, Crowder and picks. ESPN are proclaiming this puts the Jazz in contention for a finals berth. Really? I must have missed the part where Conley justified that huge contract by becoming a perennial all star and leading the Grizzlies to the business end of the playoffs each year. He's not a game changer IMO. Utah were decent and he does improve them, but not enough to compete in the West.

So fairly predictable drafting at the business end last night - I thought Garland may have gone 3rd or 4th as his stock seemed to rise this week, but he wound up 5th for the Cavs. Zion is apparently the 2nd heaviest player in the NBA already! What a beast he's going to be, just hope his knees hold up for his prime years as there are some concerns with his size, power and ferocity his body could take a lot of wear and tear quite quickly in his career. Cannot wait to see what he can do at this level - really feels like this is another Shaq, or a Tim Duncan or a LeBron kind of player coming in, happens so rarely.

I think I read he only played 5 games, but is fully fit now. Maybe that's why he fell to 5th, although Atlanta traded up to 4th specifically to get Hunter and I think the Knicks were always going to take Barrett really. They were impressed with Garland's workout though. This draft class is shaping up to be one of the best if the guys all fulfil their potential. For me the best class in recent memory was 1996 (Iverson, Allen, Marbury, Kobe, Nash, Camby etc) and obviously 2003 was strong at the top end with LeBron, Wade, Melo and Bosh.

I think Atlanta had a great draft when you add in they got cam reddish to add to Collins and young add Alex Len and you have a very good young starting 5!

Don't know enough to say but his stats at Duke don't look great - 35% FG, under 4 boards and 2 assists a game in 29 minutes and just 13.5ppg.

I dunno the pressure is off with Atlanta there not competing like Atlanta, maybe that may be the environment he needs to work in the quirks in his game!!

I’ve just sent that and immediately realised how miserable I’ve become!!

www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/27059802/sources-nba-talks-fewer-games-season-event

Looks like Silver is willing to try a few new ideas out. Personally I'd be in favour of reducing the 82 games down - it's a funny number anyway as some teams only play each other 3 times. I think 58 apiece is plenty. I read once that by about the 50 game mark every year, the 16 playoff teams were practically set and there is little movement other than the seeding and maybe 1 or 2 lower teams dropping out. Also you can get more drama - think back to the 50 game lockout season of 98-99, the Knicks started badly then got better and climbed into the playoffs. With another 32 games they would likely have finished higher up but after 50 games had to settle for the 8 seed, from which they made it all the way to the finals.

You also have lower chances of things like KD and Klay both suffering wear and tear injuries in the final.

So then do you introduce an FA cup style event to make up for some of the reduction? I know the American market isn't huge on mini tournaments but it could grow on them. And the NBA has a global market to consider these days anyway. A straight 1 and done knockout could be fun and give the 25 or so teams that start the season with no hope of winning the championship a chance to win something else.

I'm not keen on a playoff play-in tournament though, big waste of time. Instead, why not go to a 1-16 format league wide but revert round 1 to a best of 5, to reduce potential travel and increase excitement/interest. Or how about upping the ante by drawing the top 8 teams against the bottom 8? So the number 1 seed might get the 9th best team up first. More chances for upsets, more interesting series than a lot of what we get now which are squashes. And more chance for someone to come through the playoffs other than the top few teams. Only once has a lower seeded team won the championship, so there's not much element of surprise in rounds 1 and 2 usually. A random draw could shake that up.

Final idea, if 58 games is too few, and to make the numbers work for a cup competition, why not expand to 32 teams? Seattle and Vegas. The main concern with expansion is watering down the talent across the league but with fewer games guys could play more minutes and the weak end the talent pool might not even be needed. Teams might have 12 players instead of 15 with 10 forming the main rotation.

What ideas do you lot have for constructive changes?