mco543 Posted June 26, 2014 Share Posted June 26, 2014 I see Lebron ending up potentially like Wilt a lot more than him ending up like Shaq. I don't see Lebron floating around like Shaq at the end of his career searching for rings going from club to club to club, I don't begrudge Shaq doing it but seeing him end up like that was sad. For an all-time great Wilt bounced around a lot, more than any ATG not named Shaq and he ended up on 3 teams. It's entirely possible Lebron ends up with the career path of a mercenary but I think he's aware enough, maybe too aware, of what that would do to his legacy and even if he ended up with 4 or 5 rings doing that it would have a negative effect on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RandomAct Posted June 26, 2014 Share Posted June 26, 2014 Knicks already trying to move Larkin and Sammy. Wtf. Maybe they'd be interested in a Felton for Larkin deal? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DougN Posted June 26, 2014 Share Posted June 26, 2014 LeBron is nowhere near the Shaq level yet and I think he's mindful to never even get there. Shaq was just a different level of crazy in that regard. Also, anyone REALLY think Melo and LeBron are going to team up together? I mean, I know enough teams could entice them, but I just have a feeling LeBron wouldn't want to play with someone who is so fuck-all on the defensive end. I dunno - I'm not a huge Carmelo fan and I know getting 20-30 points consistently a night is a great thing to not worry about, but I just feel like Carmelo is one of the most overrated players in the entire league. Dude flourished in Denver under a proven system and has done jack shit in my opinion since going to Knicks other than have a few overly impressive offensive onslaughts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Fowler Posted June 26, 2014 Share Posted June 26, 2014 Remember how fucking devastating Melo was in Beijing, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mco543 Posted June 26, 2014 Share Posted June 26, 2014 Melo is happy scoring his 25 a game and making his 25 a year. I don't think he's at the stage yet where winning factors into it. Although maybe having what many called his best season and not making an All-NBA team because his team was so bad will be an eye opener for him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RandomAct Posted June 26, 2014 Share Posted June 26, 2014 This guy tells me that Houston is sending Asik to New Orleans. Let the Rockets star fucking continue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlfredoE Posted June 26, 2014 Share Posted June 26, 2014 (edited) Adrian Wojnarowski @WojYahooNBA New Orleans will send a future first-round pick to Houston for Asik, league source tells Yahoo Sports. Deal will give Rockets cap space. It has begun... I think both Lebron and Melo should really consider staying out East. Every team out West tries to win. Even the bad teams are always trying to find ways to improve. The East sucks. Staying in Miami or going to Chicago is the ideal situation. EDIT: Um, did the Pelicans really trade the 2015 1st round pick? That's crazy. They'll probably be in the lottery again next year. Might be lottery protected. Edited June 26, 2014 by AlfredoE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burgundy LaRue Posted June 26, 2014 Share Posted June 26, 2014 Regarding loyalty: It's a two way street. Duncan has had a near perfect coach/GM situation for his entire run, which has presented him with consistent championship opportunities. LeBron had the Cleveland mess. Easy to be loyal to the former, less so with the latter. If San Antonio had given Duncan the equivalent of Larry Hughes/Eric Snow/Drew Gooden as reinforcements, no rational person thinks he'd have stayed. He'd have been every bit the mercenary LeBron is alleged to be, were it required. Thing is, it wasn't. Maybe it's just the crazy talking, but I think LeBron would have been fine staying in Cleveland for his entire career if he thought they had a real plan to build a strong team and win championships. They didn't, and LeBron couldn't talk anyone with good sense to come play for the Cavs. I think he knew he would have to leave Cleveland in order to have a better chance at championships. Sometimes, that's just how it is. It didn't help that Dan Gilbert proved to be crazy, and I imagine LeBron knew it for years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DougN Posted June 26, 2014 Share Posted June 26, 2014 It's looking like a lock that somehow, Rondo's gone tomorrow to someone. This is just ridiculous. Rajon Rondo's not a guy to build a team around, but it's not looking like we're going to get too much back for him and in the end, we'll have a team full of young players with no one to lead whatsoever. It's the fucking late 90s all over again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niners Fan in CT Posted June 26, 2014 Share Posted June 26, 2014 Maybe if LeBron would have played balls to the wall through whatever "injury" he suffered in the Boston series they could have won but I believe he had already made up his mind by that point. He, Wade and Bosh already grilled up the dogs and hamburgers. As for the Rondo business, I'm going to wait to kill Ainge.. lets see what his plan his. I will admit it does not look good Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mco543 Posted June 26, 2014 Share Posted June 26, 2014 New Orleans going all in to be an 8th seed and probably finish 9th is bizarre. I fail to see how Morey is such a purported genius when his plans seem to be to, as was stated above, go star fucking. If the Rox sign Carmelo (or Lebron, or both) I don't see how Dwight ever gets a touch on offense that isn't off him getting an offensive board or an alley-oop and they're paying a fuckton of money for a guy who is essentially going to be rendered Ben Wallace, it may be Super Ben Wallace but still that's a lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RandomAct Posted June 26, 2014 Share Posted June 26, 2014 Dwight wishes he was as good as Ben Wallace. Otherwise you are absolutely right. Howard is going to get pissy if he isn't getting touches. Also, can you imagine the insane amount of flopping between Lebron and Harden? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlfredoE Posted June 26, 2014 Share Posted June 26, 2014 That's what I was thinking with the Pelicans. Why trade a likely lottery pick for a guy who pouted over being a backup center, who will likely be a backup center on your team AND he's a 1-year rental. They've made some pretty stupid deals since the league stopped VETOING them from making deals! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mco543 Posted June 26, 2014 Share Posted June 26, 2014 I can't imagine Lebron playing with Harden. Harden is legit the worst defensive "star" player I've ever seen in my life (not that Melo is at all much better), as bad and lazy as Wade was defensively Harden is substantially worse and Lebron may kill him. Dwight is absolutely going to bitch and complain about his touches and if they sign Lebron all Dwight is going to do offensively is clog the lane. This team may work out really well in NBA 2k but in the real life NBA it seems like a disaster on the court and in the dressing room. I don't think Dwight is willing to accept being a defensive anchor and nothing else at this stage, this isn't Chamberlain in the 70's with the Lakers where he was cool taking 8 or 9 shots a game, doing his Russell impression, and letting West and Baylor or West and Goodrich run the show. I don't know what it is but as soon as we enter draft week the last few years the GMs seem to lose all sense of reason and rationality with these deals. They're like kids in a candy store and go insane. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burgundy LaRue Posted June 26, 2014 Share Posted June 26, 2014 Dwight had the physical attributes to beome this generation's Hakeem Olajuwon. Wallace was in no position to ever be that good. Wallace maximized his talents though, much more than Dwight has. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RandomAct Posted June 26, 2014 Share Posted June 26, 2014 The biggest difference between Wallace and Dwight is that Big Ben had a winners mentality. Howard does not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaedmc Posted June 26, 2014 Share Posted June 26, 2014 The more teams prep, the more I think Lebron isn't going anywhere. I think this is just an elaborate scheme to cause the competition to make room for the best player, but when it's over all they'll end up with Carlos Boozer and disappointment. Just trust me on this. I've seen it before, okay. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DougN Posted June 26, 2014 Share Posted June 26, 2014 Only thing is that the top teams that give Miami trouble don't seem to be scrambling that much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LooseCannon Posted June 26, 2014 Share Posted June 26, 2014 That's what I was thinking with the Pelicans. Why trade a likely lottery pick for a guy who pouted over being a backup center, who will likely be a backup center on your team AND he's a 1-year rental. Because he's on the same tier as Dwight Howard and Kevin Love when it comes to rebounding and he's on the same tier as Marc Gasol and Dwight Howard when it comes to defense. New Orleans pretty clearly intends to start Asik and Davis together. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Fowler Posted June 26, 2014 Share Posted June 26, 2014 Everyone was gonna clear room for Melo anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beech27 Posted June 26, 2014 Share Posted June 26, 2014 Regarding loyalty: It's a two way street. Duncan has had a near perfect coach/GM situation for his entire run, which has presented him with consistent championship opportunities. LeBron had the Cleveland mess. Easy to be loyal to the former, less so with the latter. If San Antonio had given Duncan the equivalent of Larry Hughes/Eric Snow/Drew Gooden as reinforcements, no rational person thinks he'd have stayed. He'd have been every bit the mercenary LeBron is alleged to be, were it required. Thing is, it wasn't. To be fair, we had Drew Gooden for awhile I agree that Duncan has had a sweet ride but he isn't the only guy to stay loyal to his team. What is unique is that he has played for the same coach his entire run. The Pop/Duncan tandem is an insane run. However, you have to think about the times that San Antonio ownership could have gotten rid of Pop. The loyalty to San Antonio is really Tim's loyalty to Pop. The same could be said for Tony and Manu. Both could have played for other teams for more money but they chose loyalty over an extra few million. From 2004-2010, Ginobili could have started on about 85% of the teams in the league but got stuck being the 6th man. Tony Parker is always in the Top 5 point guards in the league but doesn't get paid the same. He chose loyalty. I wish Lebron had a coach similar to Pop who he had loyalty to or an owner like Cuban who isn't afraid to open up the purse strings to surround his superstar with a great team every year. It may seem like I am bashing Lebron. I am not. However, I am worried he ends up like Shaq who was so desperate to collect jewelry, he tried in vain to sign with every possible championship team he could grab onto and it really diminishes their legacy. Hey, I'm a Lawrence resident, KU grad, and lifelong fan. I love Drew Gooden now and forever. His weird playoff renaissance with the Wiz was brilliant. But, I mean, the dude has played for every team in the league six times over for a reason. And I best remember Larry Hughes for advertising vertical jump VHS tapes that I may or may not have invested in as a gullible youth. As for the Spurs, yeah, no one can say a bad word about them. The players, front office, and of course, Pop. Perfect storm, and you can't really remove any piece of it, and guess how it would work otherwise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RandomAct Posted June 26, 2014 Share Posted June 26, 2014 Everybody trying to get Lebron/Melo, and I'm over here like "Yeah, Trevor Ariza sounds good". 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cristobal Posted June 26, 2014 Share Posted June 26, 2014 Adrian Wojnarowski @WojYahooNBA New Orleans will send a future first-round pick to Houston for Asik, league source tells Yahoo Sports. Deal will give Rockets cap space. It has begun... I think both Lebron and Melo should really consider staying out East. Every team out West tries to win. Even the bad teams are always trying to find ways to improve. The East sucks. Staying in Miami or going to Chicago is the ideal situation. EDIT: Um, did the Pelicans really trade the 2015 1st round pick? That's crazy. They'll probably be in the lottery again next year. Might be lottery protected. "A future 1st round" suggests it likely is protected for x years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greggulator Posted June 26, 2014 Share Posted June 26, 2014 Morey's a total genius. He built a really good, dangerous team that's now a Jeremy Lin trade away from becoming a potential title contender. I know it's the West, but LeBron + The Rockets right now is the favorite to win the title. Melo gets them pretty close, too.He inherited a quality roster with Yao and T-Mac, and they came close to knocking off the Lakers in the playoffs that one year. Then Yao got too hurt and T-Mac's expiration date passed. The Rockets never fell below .500. He never had a chance to draft a LBJ/KD/Anthony Davis/Duncan type of player. The Rockets were in the .500 no-man's land.Now he's somehow in an amazing possible spot. Dwight Howard's still a damn good center. James Harden, despite his flaws, is still a first-team All-NBA player. And all they have to do is dump Jeremy Lin and have the cap space to try and grab either one of the best players of all-time or an incredibly talented scorer. That's just absolutely amazing work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlfredoE Posted June 26, 2014 Share Posted June 26, 2014 I know it's the West, but LeBron + The Rockets right now is the favorite to win the title. goodhelmet's gonna ban you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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