AROUND the NBA:

[Scott41theMavs]

[Haynes] "League sources told me that earlier in the season, Coach Budenholzer met with Bradley Beal and he told Bradley Beal that he wanted him to be the Jrue Holiday of the team. And to tell a player of Bradley Beal's caliber that... it wasn't well received"

This Haynes person must be Beal's ultimate shill or something. Beal should have thanked Bud for the compliment. What a douche Beal must be. All the millions he has stolen from Washington and Phoenix over the years, and zero shame. Good luck to the Suns on trading that garbage.

[cow]

I'm not sure what that even means. Jrue's calling card is defense and Beal's is offense. That would be like telling your pet turtle you want him to be a duck.

[Chicagojk]

I haven’t been following closely but I just read that Kuminga has been out of GS rotation since coming back from injury. The reason is him, draymond and Butler have limited spacing. Sound familiar.

kuminga is a restricted free agent this summer. With only a few teams with cap space, both may need each other this summer. The player to secure a payday and GS to keep an asset to trade.

[F Gump]

About the often bragged about OKC draft haul this season (maybe 5 extra picks, and 4 1st-rounders in total !!!!!!!) looks like this as the season ends.

If they don't get lucky with play-in longshots, lottery, or coin flips, they are going to end up with (including their own picks)...
1 pick 25 (swap with LAC)
2 pick 45 (ATL 2nd)

That's it!

[F Gump]

I haven’t been following closely but I just read that Kuminga has been out of GS rotation since coming back from injury.  The reason is him, draymond and Butler have limited spacing.  Sound familiar.

kuminga is a restricted free agent this summer.  With only a few teams with cap space, both may need each other this summer.  The player to secure a payday and GS to keep an asset to trade.

Kuminga may just walk. He's a good test case for the new NBA economics. Hard to figure.

GS will be about 35M below Apron 2 with 3 players to re-sign: Payton, Looney, and Kuminga. They can probably do the other 2 (UFA) at about 9-10M each.

JK has some weird issues. He has battled injuries recently. While his usage is high, his counting numbers are meh. More significant is his RFA contract situation, where it will take a 23M QO offer for GS to make him restricted. (If a player signs a way-inflated QO, it's a disaster, as you get him for that one overpaid year with a no-trade restriction, and then he's UFA the next summer.) But signing him to a bigger deal, or sending him out in a SNT (with equivalent salary coming back, of course), plants them well over Apron 2.

I don't see any fit in Dallas. I wonder where he might fit.

[omahen]

About the often bragged about OKC draft haul this season (maybe 5 extra picks, and 4 1st-rounders in total !!!!!!!) looks like this as the season ends.

If they don't get lucky with play-in longshots, lottery, or coin flips, they are going to end up with (including their own picks)...
1 pick 25 (swap with LAC)
2 pick 45 (ATL 2nd)

That's it!

Of course Phi, Mia and Utah still owe them their FRP next season if they are not settled in this one. Miami unprotected, Philly top4 protected and Utah top9 protected.

[F Gump]

Of course Phi, Mia and Utah still owe them their FRP next season if they are not settled in this one. Miami unprotected, Philly top4 protected and Utah top9 protected.

While true, it's rarely a path to a great pick. Teams who tank to keep their pick in one year typically get way better the next year when they have no pick protection. The coaching decisions on lineups get smarter. The odd baffling injuries become scarce. The bad losses to tanking teams stop happening. It's almost like magic!!!

PHI should get everyone back healthy, and be a playoff team with a pick in the 20s. MIA will find a way to be much better too after this "baffling collapse" of unexpected losing down the stretch. (Who could have predicted that, with MIA, when they had a pick with full lottery protection? Oh yeah, everyone!) UT will be bad again, of course - because, why not milk it while they can? Look for a really bad year for them. They have top 8 protection next year, and if they land in top 8 with that protection, OKC gets nothing, ever.

[omahen]

While true, it's rarely a path to a great pick. Teams who tank to keep their pick in one year typically get way better the next year when they have no pick protection. The coaching decisions on lineups get smarter. The odd baffling injuries become scarce. The bad losses to tanking teams stop happening. It's almost like magic!!!

PHI should get everyone back healthy, and be a playoff team with a pick in the 20s. MIA will find a way to be much better too after this "baffling collapse" of unexpected losing down the stretch. (Who could have predicted that, with MIA, when they had a pick with full lottery protection? Oh yeah, everyone!) UT will be bad again, of course - because, why not milk it while they can? Look for a really bad year for them. They have top 8 protection next year, and if they land in top 8 with that protection, OKC gets nothing, ever.

Not sure what your point is, really. That is why teams put protections on their picks. OKC is already an elite team with a bunch of lottery tickets in next years. A chance for one of them to win is probably worth much more to them than a bunch of late FRP.

Those picks had protections on, so they couldn't be great picks in the first place. Before the season it also looked like what you expect for next season to happen. Phi and Mia picks in their twenties and Utah worse than protection. Season went bad for Mia and Phi so they will pay their debt next season (both with lesser protections).

[HoosierDaddyKid]

Playoff Jimmy is for real...

[myconsumerclub]

We need a Meme with a homeless Mark Cuban on a street corner with a sign will work for draft picks.

[HoosierDaddyKid]

https://www.espn.com/nba/insider/story/_...lar-season


Final regular season grades for all 30 teams.

[omahen]

Great game between Atlanta na Miami with Miami advancing as the first 10th seed. Miami has a group of hard working guys again. Atlanta also found several great defenders and young guys with potential. I though Trae led them well on offense, but he just doesn't play defense. Davion Mitchell killed them in the OT as Young was just leaving him open

[cow]

Great game between Atlanta na Miami with Miami advancing as the first 10th seed. Miami has a group of hard working guys again. Atlanta also found several great defenders and young guys with potential. I though Trae led them well on offense, but he just doesn't play defense. Davion Mitchell killed them in the OT as Young was just leaving him open

It might have been over but Trae giving zero effort in not boxing out Davion who rebounded his own miss in OT was the nail in the coffin.

[MaxiThreeba]

I know Timmy was a lightning rod during his Mavs time. But he seemed like he was nothing short of a great teammate here and had some big moments. His dad is an idiot but that’s not his fault.

Happy to see him having some very early success in this DET-NY game 1. 18 points on 7-10 shooting so far.

[bubbler86]

I know Timmy was a lightning rod during his Mavs time.  But he seemed like he was nothing short of a great teammate here and had some big moments.  His dad is an idiot but that’s not his fault.

Happy to see him having some very early success in this DET-NY game 1.  18 points on 7-10 shooting so far.

Timmy the chucker.

Lakers being punked so far.

[omahen]

Anemyc performance by Lakers in game 1. Bad on both sides of the floor.

[FireNicoHarrison]

Anemyc performance by Lakers in game 1. Bad on both sides of the floor.

I'm sorry for the Fakers fans here (or for those who have gone... bye bye) but they sucks. 

Their roster is mediocre, like i said a lot of times Luka-Reaves-Lebron can't play togheter. They can't guard a chair, Luka is the better defender there and it's a problem.

They will trade Reaves for sure or use him like 6th man.
I'm sorry for Reaves fan here, he is almost useless in those Lakers.

Plus they don't have quality bigs and their wings are very limited, we all know DFS and Rui is a better offensive player but a worse defensive one.

At the end of the day, Fakers will always sucks and i'm happy everytime they lost a game.

Let's go Mavs.

[ThisIStheYear]

The Lakers and Mavs both have roster construction issues post trade. The Mavs don’t have a stretch big and thus have awful spacing, and the Lakers lack a paint protector. It may take an off-season to figure out, though the Kyrie injury injury also means the Mavs lack a dynamic perimeter player. Maybe the two teams should get together for one more swap involving Reaves, filler and a couple of the Mavs front line Dawgs.

[FireNicoHarrison]

The Lakers and Mavs both have roster construction issues post trade. The Mavs don’t have a stretch big and thus have awful spacing, and the Lakers lack a paint protector. It may take an off-season to figure out, though the Kyrie injury injury also means the Mavs lack a dynamic perimeter player. Maybe the two teams should get together for one more swap involving Reaves, filler and a couple of the Mavs front line Dawgs.

The difference is that Mavs made the trade to win now, Fakers have a span of 10 years  hahahahahahaha 

Trade everyone (Kidd and Harrison too obviously). 
We need a fresh start.

[HoosierDaddyKid]

Memphis loses by a 1st playoff game record 51pts vs OKC, 131-80. It also was the 10th straight loss overall by Memphis to the Thunder. This series may end in a sweep.