Around the League: Week 26 4/11 - 4/17

[carey]

I would love Jrue Holiday as our PG

Even at $26M a year for the next 3 years?

[In2ition]

I heard somewhere that Kawhi wants be closer to home and that this is a strategy to force himself out of SA to where he wants to go by trade or through FA the following year. He isn't buying the cult philosophy in SA and isn't about to take the Duncan like hometown discount. I also heard that he actually likes Phoenix and really wanted to play for the Suns coming out of college, but B____s screwed that up.

Where’d you hear that last piece? Kawhi refused to work out for Phoenix, which is why we didn’t consider drafting him.

Honestly, I don't even remember. Probably was misinformation.

[Split T]

I would love Jrue Holiday as our PG

Even at $26M a year for the next 3 years?

It's not ideal, but if we're gonna cap ourselves out anyways, at least Jrue makes a lot of sense. But I was really just talking about his ability as a player as he's not available anyways. Pelicans aren't moving him.

[INFORMER]

isn't about to take the Duncan like hometown discount

Why would he have to?

He shouldn't, but they ask everyone to sacrifice financially to keep the Spurs winning.

They paid Aldridge. And Manu and Tony were never on Kawhi's level. Plus, they paid Kawhi once already, without hesitation. And besides him and Aldridge, they really don't have anyone else that is going to command big money. I don't see why they wouldn't give Kawhi the max.

[INFORMER]

Silver said that tanking -- or the practice of teams intentionally losing games in an effort to improve their chances of landing a top draft pick -- is an "incredibly difficult issue" that the league continues to analyze.

"We recognize that our goal was to put the best competition on the floor, and it's balanced against legitimate rebuilding of some teams. But I know we're not there yet, and I certainly wasn't satisfied [this season]," Silver said.

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/2315 ... sue-combat

[specialsauce]

I heard somewhere that Kawhi wants be closer to home and that this is a strategy to force himself out of SA to where he wants to go by trade or through FA the following year. He isn't buying the cult philosophy in SA and isn't about to take the Duncan like hometown discount. I also heard that he actually likes Phoenix and really wanted to play for the Suns coming out of college, but B____s screwed that up.

Where’d you hear that last piece? Kawhi refused to work out for Phoenix, which is why we didn’t consider drafting him.

Honestly, I don't even remember. Probably was misinformation.

Lol maybe so, I would love if it’s true

[carey]

I'm curious what the Pelcians salary cap is going to look like next year if they re-sign Boogie. They'll have about $80M wrapped up in the trio of Jrue-AD-Boogie. That's about our entire team salary for next year atm. Then they have Mirotic and Solo making $12M each and bam you're over the $101M cap with 5 guys.

[Mori Chu]

Hey fam - should we make threads for each first-round series? Or a "playoffs first round" thread? What do you think?

[carey]

Hey fam - should we make threads for each first-round series? Or a "playoffs first round" thread? What do you think?

1st round is probably fine.

[MightyMoog]

I don't get what the big mystery about fixing tanking is. It's not lottery odds that will fix the problem, it's parity. You allow Kevin Durant to go the warriors and Lebron to willy nilly decide everything, you're going to have other teams that will resort to tanking. I think if it's going to be a superstar league, then you have to limit 1 max salaried player per team, then a second tier is at 15-20% less. That way you incentivize really good players to play for teams that don't have the appeal but at least that slot available to pay someone.

[Aztec Sunsfan]

Hey fam - should we make threads for each first-round series? Or a "playoffs first round" thread? What do you think?

I think we once used for the first round a thread for each Conference before, and it worked fine.

[The Bobster]

Philadelphia - from three straight sub-20 win seasons to 52 wins, 3rd seed in the East and a win in their playoff opener.

We can dream, right?

[The Bobster]

I don't get what the big mystery about fixing tanking is. It's not lottery odds that will fix the problem, it's parity. You allow Kevin Durant to go the warriors and Lebron to willy nilly decide everything, you're going to have other teams that will resort to tanking. I think if it's going to be a superstar league, then you have to limit 1 max salaried player per team, then a second tier is at 15-20% less. That way you incentivize really good players to play for teams that don't have the appeal but at least that slot available to pay someone.

It's easy to come up with ideas that will limit players free agent choices, but good luck trying to get these things past the players association. Players want as many options available as possible. They want the right to determine where they're going to work and live.

Here in Phoenix we never complained when Danny Manning, Wayman Tisdale and A.C. Green took less than market value to join a very good Suns team. (You know, year ago when the Suns were actually considered a title contender!)

[MightyMoog]

Bobster, I totally agree. I don't have a problem with teams tanking, I don't see it as anti competition, I see it as ultra competition. Teams are going to do whatever is available to them to compete. In today's nba you can only get and keep a superstar is you already have another one. So if you have none, your only option is to go to the bottom and hopefully draft one. Every team is trying to win, maybe not every season, but every team wants to eventually win. I guess all I'm getting at is that you can't ask an object to be square and round at the same time.

[Mori Chu]

Article on SBNation about the deteriorated relationship between Kawhi and the Spurs:

https://www.sbnation.com/nba/2018/4/16/ ... -news-saga

[Superbone]

RIP Erin Popovich. My condolences, coach.

https://twitter.com/Baxter/status/987035307878047744

[INFORMER]

I watched a little of the Will Cain show today, and it indirectly raised an interesting topic: would anyone of you put Devin Booker ahead of any of the following players:

Giannis Antetokounmpo
Donovan Mitchell
Ben Simmons
Nikola Jokic
Karl Anthony Towns

[Split T]

I watched a little of the Will Cain show today, and it indirectly raised an interesting topic: would anyone of you put Devin Booker ahead of any of the following players:

Giannis Antetokounmpo
Donovan Mitchell
Ben Simmons
Nikola Jokic
Karl Anthony Towns

No to Giannis, Simmons, Jokic, or Towns

I'd still take Booker over Mitchell, but it's close.

[ShelC]

Tough to compare against bigs but I'd put him over Jokic. If he had the exposure of being in the playoffs with a good team around him he'd be regarded a bit differently.

[Split T]

Jokic was 19/11/6 this year and shot .50/.40/.85 he's not good defensively and that's tough as a 5, but he's the best offensive C in the league.