The ILF-ILNBA Basketball Thread

[pelliott]

PLAY THIS WHILE POSTING ITT


The NBA season is right around the corner! If your favorite NBA team is great, well then AWESOME. I'm jealous of you. If your team is wack, why should you be excited, you say?

Cuz we're getting potentially the best draft class since 2004. Get ready for an amazing Tankapalooza season, where half the league is trying to be Wack for Wiggins. He's probably the best prospect coming into the league in years and has the potential to be a franchise-changing player. He's not the only one, though! Julius Randle, Jabari Parker, and others are all probably going to be in the 2014 draft! So Bobcats (edit: Woops, they're the Hornets now/again!) fans, get ready to draft 4th and miss out on these can't-miss prospects!

Who is my team? Why, the Cleveland Cavaliers! After a few years of Comic Sans and toxic lake water jokes after something happened to this team in the summer of 2010 I forget what, the Cavs are poised to make a leap. After 4 top-4 draft picks in three years, the Cavs have lots of young talent, spearheaded by 2011 #1 overall pick, Kyrie Irving.

Irving is the league's next superstar. Nasty handles, incredible jump shooter, and the potential to be the best point guard in the league. He's flanked by Tristan Thompson, an athletic power forward who may not be able to score, Dion Waiters, an athletic shooting guard who may not be able to shoot, Anthony Bennett, another athletic power forward who may not be able to defend (but he's the Canadian Charles Barkley!), and Anderson Varejao & Andrew Bynum, two big men who may be incapable of staying healthy. CATCH THE FEVER.

But seriously, I'm actually excited to watch them! Kyrie Irving is an extremely fun player to watch and the team as a whole should be significantly more watchable and potentially challenge for a playoff spot!

Tell me all about your favorite team and which of your star players you'll miss when they trade him away for beans.

(DISCLAIMER: I'm not actually this much of a sadsack, it's for comedic effect, I swear)

[bigchiefbc]

Born and bred in MA, so I bleed green. The Celtics are going to be bad this year, but I fear they're not going to be bad enough. Danny gave us a nice start with the Pierce/Garnett trade, and the fact that we got a first-rounder for a coach that was leaving anyway made me do a backflip. But we need to keep going and blow this team to smithereens. I know that Rondo's value is down right now, but I'm really worried that if we let him come back and play, he's gonna win us a handful of games, and we just simply can't allow that to happen. Hell, trade Jeff Green while you're at it.

I lived through the Pitino/O'Brien years, and there's nothing worse than being a mid-30-win team, just on the verge of an 8-seed every year. Being in mediocre-team purgatory is the worst place to be. If you can't compete for it all, then blow it up and get in the lottery.

[pelliott]

I hope the C's blow it up. Ainge might be too stubborn to go full tank mode at this point.

Underrated appeal of trading a player for pennies on the dollar is if the assets you get back aren't going to pay off immediately. So even if Rondo isn't super valuable right now that may be better in the long run of the next couple years to trade him for a couple picks and maybe a young player...

[D.o.S.]

Depends on what you get in return.

Also runs counter to the way Celtics Ownership sees the franchise--they're much more in the Mavs-Bucks-Nets continuum of being willing to spend to keep a good team going and/or competitive.

I just don't think any of the assets are particularly appealing--I've heard a lot of Drummond +Stuckey/Charlie 'I'm Hairless' V for Rondo. Fuck that. No one's giving up their 2014 draft pick for Rondo because the league is so stacked at the point right now--even if he is a top 10/top 5 PG in the league, there aren't that many teams that need a ball-handler.

Kyrie Irving is a beast. One of these times he has to play a whole season, right?

Also, fucking A just put Chris Webber in the Hall of Fame.

[bigchiefbc]

Depends on what you get in return.

Also runs counter to the way Celtics Ownership sees the franchise--they're much more in the Mavs-Bucks-Nets continuum of being willing to spend to keep a good team going and/or competitive.

I just don't think any of the assets are particularly appealing--I've heard a lot of Drummond +Stuckey/Charlie 'I'm Hairless' V for Rondo. Fuck that. No one's giving up their 2014 draft pick for Rondo because the league is so stacked at the point right now--even if he is a top 10/top 5 PG in the league, there aren't that many teams that need a ball-handler.

Kyrie Irving is a beast. One of these times he has to play a whole season, right?

Also, fucking A just put Chris Webber in the Hall of Fame.

Do you really think this Celtics team is going to be able to compete for a championship as presently constituted, though? Because if not, then what's the plan? If the plan is to rebuild, then keeping Rondo is counter to that goal. If the goal is to try to reload and compete again soon, where is that help coming from? I don't think a team with Rondo as their best player is going to be able to compete for a title. So they'll need to get a new alpha dog. They're not going to be able sign a stud free agent, and Rondo is our only significant trade chip.

[Achtane]

[D.o.S.]

Depends on what you get in return.

Also runs counter to the way Celtics Ownership sees the franchise--they're much more in the Mavs-Bucks-Nets continuum of being willing to spend to keep a good team going and/or competitive.

I just don't think any of the assets are particularly appealing--I've heard a lot of Drummond +Stuckey/Charlie 'I'm Hairless' V for Rondo. Fuck that. No one's giving up their 2014 draft pick for Rondo because the league is so stacked at the point right now--even if he is a top 10/top 5 PG in the league, there aren't that many teams that need a ball-handler.

Kyrie Irving is a beast. One of these times he has to play a whole season, right?

Also, fucking A just put Chris Webber in the Hall of Fame.

Do you really think this Celtics team is going to be able to compete for a championship as presently constituted, though? Because if not, then what's the plan? If the plan is to rebuild, then keeping Rondo is counter to that goal. If the goal is to try to reload and compete again soon, where is that help coming from? I don't think a team with Rondo as their best player is going to be able to compete for a title. So they'll need to get a new alpha dog. They're not going to be able sign a stud free agent, and Rondo is our only significant trade chip.

I don't think having Rondo as your best player allows you to contend for a title night in and night out.

I do think that it'll be easier to bring talent in Rondo sticks around--he might be the only bright spot Boston has in that department.

Even though I don't see a similar player to KG in the upcoming available stars bracket, and I think that our project players were better then, it's worth noting that Boston was able to keep Pierce while cleaning house the last time we went through something like this--and that we got Ray Allen for a Top 5 pick. (The pick Seattle used on Jeff Green, funnily enough.) This draft class projects to be much deeper than the Durant/Oden one, and the rookie scale contracts are much friendlier now, so it stands to reason that the pick would be worth more than it was then. Not to mention we have a 10 million dollar trade exception for the duration of this season, which opens up a whole host of possibilities.

My big fear with retaining Rondo has to do with his impending payday--assuming he doesn't go all Adrian Peterson, he's got one good year before he's up for a new contract. He already took a hometown discount once, and I'm not sure he'll do so again.

[julius_deane]

I'll be getting ILFantasy Basketball going again soon. Hope to see some new players this year.

If I have a favorite team, one that I root for above all others, it's the Bulls.

I grew up watching Jordan and Pippen, et al in the middle or an area with no NBA teams. It's hard to express how excited I am to see Rose's return. And Joakim Noah is my fav ever since his Cleveland is boring comment.

However, I fully expect to watch lots of other teams this year. I'm more of a player guy than team guy, so...
Cavs for Kyrie and Sideshow
Bucks for The Larry Sanders Show
Heat cause duh
Warriors cause Harrison Barnes, Curry, KT
Grizzlies cause Grindtime Ballgame, We Don't Bluff (TN born and raised, lived in Memphis for a minute)
Portland cause Batum and Lillard

[pelliott]

https://twitter.com/dionwaiters3/status ... 5153261568



(plus you get to hear what an absurd human being Austin Carr is)

[julius_deane]

Rose is looking good and so is life.
I'm getting ready to start up the ILFantasy NBA league. We did yahoo last year, but I may set up another too, if anyone is interested. Look here for info!

[julius_deane]

Here's the link: http://basketball.fantasysports.yahoo.c ... balldrones
The draft if tentatively set for the Monday night before the regular season starts, 8pm Central. We'll adjust that as needed, as well as the size of the league and teams.

[rustywire]

Rooting for: Blazers, Suns to make it back to the playoffs; Greg Oden's knees.
Rooting against: Bulls fans, Knick fans, Laker fans, Net fans.

I want to see Jerry Sloan, Phil Jackson & George Karl all coaching again.
Also want to see Seattle get a team other than the Kings, because those Sac fans don't deserve to get screwed.
Give them the Hawks. Or the Pelicans. Hell even the Heat. One of them teams with soft fans...

Finally I'm predicting Lakers somehow get one of the top 3 picks. Because shenanigans.

[MSUsousaphone]

My Pelicans are going to be rocking it. Get on the bandwagon early. And fuck that shit rustywire. Soft fans. My ass. Suck ass team and it's stayed here. Gonna be legit now that it has actual players. Just like the Saints. 40 years of goose eggs in any other city and that team would have folded. NOLA can bring it. Just gotta give them something to pull for.

[adapt]

man... yahoo... BOO

i might join the fantasy league anyway but yahoo kind of blows.

[adapt]

also, if the suns make the playoffs this season i will eat a log of human shit. go blazers.