Around the League: Season Resumes

Discussion of the league and of our favorite team.
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Mori Chu
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Re: Around the League: Season Resumes

Post by Mori Chu »

Cap wrote:
Sat Aug 01, 2020 7:03 pm
Statement by Oklahoma State Representative Sean Roberts:
By kneeling during the playing of the national anthem, the NBA and its players are showing disrespect to the American flag and all it stands for. This anti-patriotic act makes clear the NBA’s support of the Black Lives Matter group and its goal of defunding our nation’s police, its ties to Marxism and its efforts to destroy nuclear families.

If the Oklahoma City Thunder leadership and players follow the current trend of the NBA by kneeling during the national anthem prior to Saturday’s game, perhaps we need to reexamine the significant tax benefits the State of Oklahoma granted the Oklahoma City Thunder organization when they came to Oklahoma. Through the Quality Jobs Act, the Thunder is still under contract to receive these tax breaks from our state until 2024.

Perhaps these funds would be better served in support of our police departments rather than giving tax breaks to an organization that supports defunding police and the dissolution of the American nuclear family.
https://kfor.com/news/local/state-rep-w ... -benefits/
If OKC doesn't want 'em, I'm sure Seattle would be happy to take them back.

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Superbone
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Re: Around the League: Season Resumes

Post by Superbone »

Mori Chu wrote:
Sat Aug 01, 2020 9:00 pm
Cap wrote:
Sat Aug 01, 2020 7:03 pm
Statement by Oklahoma State Representative Sean Roberts:
By kneeling during the playing of the national anthem, the NBA and its players are showing disrespect to the American flag and all it stands for. This anti-patriotic act makes clear the NBA’s support of the Black Lives Matter group and its goal of defunding our nation’s police, its ties to Marxism and its efforts to destroy nuclear families.

If the Oklahoma City Thunder leadership and players follow the current trend of the NBA by kneeling during the national anthem prior to Saturday’s game, perhaps we need to reexamine the significant tax benefits the State of Oklahoma granted the Oklahoma City Thunder organization when they came to Oklahoma. Through the Quality Jobs Act, the Thunder is still under contract to receive these tax breaks from our state until 2024.

Perhaps these funds would be better served in support of our police departments rather than giving tax breaks to an organization that supports defunding police and the dissolution of the American nuclear family.
https://kfor.com/news/local/state-rep-w ... -benefits/
If OKC doesn't want 'em, I'm sure Seattle would be happy to take them back.
He knows exactly what the kneeling symbolizes yet he chooses to play dumb. Yes, give them back to Seattle.
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Aztec Sunsfan
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Re: Around the League: Season Resumes

Post by Aztec Sunsfan »

djy2j wrote:
Sat Aug 01, 2020 7:36 pm
Yes, it feels like they should have gotten more for TJ but dude was out for 4 months with a sore ankle. He was an enigma. He was a scorer and absolutely NOTHING else in Phx. I liked TJ. But he had a knack for disappearing against tougher opponents. He went on to work on some of those holes. Good for him.

I’m not at all sad about Melton. He didn’t show a whole lot in Phoenix.
Yeah, he was my favorite among the SF army we deployed a few years back, but it was soooo frustrating to root for the guy, I was disappointed by how little we got for him, but once the air cleared, it was kind of breaking up with that old friend that takes all your beer, ask you for money and never pays you back, have his car broken and/or his children sick once a month at least, and so on, but then you see him moving out of town, and find yourself released of all that drama and draining (monetary and emotional wise). I do not miss TJ Warren at all, no even this 53 point TJ, we all knew he had it on him, but the toll he takes on you everyday it’s just not worth it.

How many times do we hold our breath after an extremely common fall, and and a few days after it happens, because the guy might not comeback from it?

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Split T
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Re: Around the League: Season Resumes

Post by Split T »

INFORMER wrote:
Sat Aug 01, 2020 7:14 pm
djy2j wrote:
Sat Aug 01, 2020 7:06 pm
Yeah Jalen was clowning the Suns after for letting TJ go for cash considerations but since he’s awful at his job he failed to mention that we used the space to sign Rubio and we also had Oubre and just drafted Bridges.
He isn't wrong.

When you are a perennially losing team, you don't have the luxury of paying other teams to take talented players off your roster.

Paying $16 million a year for Rubio is a little tough to swallow by itself; giving up multiple draft picks, De'Anthony Melton and TJ Warren on top of that is again, why this is a still a losing team.

We took the loss on a lot of individual transactions last off season. I wanted TJ gone, but having to attach an asset to him was tough. We clearly got taken advantage of by Pacers and Grizzlies. I get the feeling we just didn’t value Melton and he was gone anyways. I think we wanted Carter and wouldn’t be surprised if the Carter/Melton swap was our idea. But maybe not.

Ultimately, while we lost on a lot of transactions, we did improve the team. We cut out the dead weight, though we paid a price. I’m willing to look past it this 1 time because we did ultimately end up with a better team and I’m hoping this was just a James Jones reset. He absolutely cannot continue to get poor value and waste assets in trades though.

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In2ition
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Re: Around the League: Season Resumes

Post by In2ition »

ShelC wrote:
Sat Aug 01, 2020 7:33 pm
Wouldn't be a losing team is Ayton doesn't get suspended.
I agree. This whole narrative is dumb. They would have won nearly 40 games this season if the season wasn't suspended and Ayton wasn't suspended. That's with a hole at PG and without a flamthrower for more spacing and gravity. They are going for much more than 40 wins next yr, unless Sarver's shallow pockets limit the ceiling.
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Superbone
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Re: Around the League: Season Resumes

Post by Superbone »

In2ition wrote:
Sat Aug 01, 2020 11:26 pm
ShelC wrote:
Sat Aug 01, 2020 7:33 pm
Wouldn't be a losing team is Ayton doesn't get suspended.
I agree. This whole narrative is dumb. They would have won nearly 40 games this season if the season wasn't suspended and Ayton wasn't suspended. That's with a hole at PG and without a flamthrower for more spacing and gravity. They are going for much more than 40 wins next yr, unless Sarver's shallow pockets limit the ceiling.
Yeah, I have no doubt we would currently be in the top 8 right now if Ayton wasn't suspended for those 25 games.
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ShelC
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Re: Around the League: Season Resumes

Post by ShelC »

Agree with Aztec and Split on TJ. Nice player, but his scoring was a luxury that we, as a losing team, just didn't need - especially with 2 players ready to fill in and Cam on the way.

In terms of the transaction, I honestly don't care about that either. Sometimes you gotta cut the cord and move on. Jones needed to make a quick move and did so. No calling multiple teams shopping him, no leaks to the press from other teams or issues with TJ when he finds out from ESPN that he's being shopped, etc. McD would've held onto TJ for 5 more months until he got "value". Trade the guy and move on. One step back to take two steps forward.

But we're on an easy target right now, and I'd bet most of those taking shots on social probably couldn't have picked TJ Warren out of a crowd 2 years while he was playing here.

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Mori Chu
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Re: Around the League: Season Resumes

Post by Mori Chu »

I was as big of a TJ Warren fan as anybody. And we shouldn't have needed to give away a pick to trade him. But I don't lose sleep over his being gone. SFs are a dime a dozen, and we have shown this by having 3-4 different SFs on the roster who were about as good or useful as Warren at any given time. We are doing fine at TJ's position with Oubre and Bridges. If you just paste TJ Warren onto our current roster, or replace Oubre with him, I'm not even sure we get any better than we are. I prefer the defense of Bridges and the intangibles of Oubre. And I especially prefer that we were able to get Rubio using the cap space freed up by trading Warren. Wish we had gotten a 1st rounder for him, but I like our team with him gone. All the best to him in Indy.

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Shabazz
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Re: Around the League: Season Resumes

Post by Shabazz »

Sorry, guys. It was ridiculous to attach a high second rounder then and it is now. There was no excuse for it. Just poor negotiating, like with the Josh Jackson trade.

In a vacuum, losing one second round pick is not the end of the world. Multiple trades where you lose unnecessary value is a dangerous trend.

I also think this regime is displaying some concerning trends when it comes to how it treats the draft.

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Split T
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Re: Around the League: Season Resumes

Post by Split T »

Shabazz wrote:
Sun Aug 02, 2020 11:53 am
Sorry, guys. It was ridiculous to attach a high second rounder then and it is now. There was no excuse for it. Just poor negotiating, like with the Josh Jackson trade.

In a vacuum, losing one second round pick is not the end of the world. Multiple trades where you lose unnecessary value is a dangerous trend.

I also think this regime is displaying some concerning trends when it comes to how it treats the draft.
I agree. I understand the big picture, but that big picture could have been accomplished without giving up so much value.

Thinking about it, if we just didn’t do the Warren trade. Still traded down for 11 and Saric, drafted Clarke, didn’t trade the Mil pick for Baynes and Jerome, and drafted whoever at 32, we still could have created the cap space to sign Rubio. Most of the money we saved from dumping Warren went into acquiring Baynes/Jerome. If we don’t acquire them and just waive and stretch JJ instead of that Memphis trade, I think we can still sign Rubio. Then we could have used the room exception on Holmes instead of Kaminsky. We could have had this:

Rubio, Melton, Okobo
Booker, Johnson, Lecque
Oubre, Bridges, Warren
Saric, Clarke, maybe someone at 32
Ayton, Holmes, Diallo

Big difference is we’d swap Baynes for Holmes(Baynes was great for us, but I think Holmes is better)
We’d miss out on Jerome(meh) but we’d still have Melton. We’d have whoever we took at 32, we’d have this year’s 2nd rounder and we’d have the Milwaukee pick.

Now you don’t actually need to trade Warren, but you still can. Now teams don’t have leverage over us and you can even potentially package Warren/Johnson/Picks together to go get a shooter somewhere, amongst other options. Point is we’d have a lot more options/assets right now.

Again, I’m ultimately ok with things. Our team is better, we still have a potentially bright future. Jones needed to hit refresh and clear out a bunch of dead weight, but it also could have been done more efficiently.

Even if we still take Cam instead of Clarke, we still end up better right now and going forward.

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Superbone
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Re: Around the League: Season Resumes

Post by Superbone »

Split T wrote:
Sun Aug 02, 2020 12:28 pm
Even if we still take Cam instead of Clarke, we still end up better right now and going forward.
We definitely would have been going forward with either Cam or Clarke.
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Split T
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Re: Around the League: Season Resumes

Post by Split T »

Just watched end of Spurs-Grizzlies, JJJ hits a tough 3 to tie it with 10 seconds left, then Dillon Brooks fouls Derozan with 1 second left and he hits the free throws to win it. Spurs now the 9 seed.

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Shabazz
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Re: Around the League: Season Resumes

Post by Shabazz »

I have a hard time watching the Celtics with Brown (taken 1 pick before Bender) and Tatum (1 pick before Jackson) thriving.

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Mori Chu
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Re: Around the League: Season Resumes

Post by Mori Chu »

That's a bummer that the Spurs won. They are a team we need to pass to get to the #9 seed and a chance for the playoffs. At this rate it could be hard to get within firing distance of Memphis, Portland, and the Spurs. The West is brutal.

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Re: Around the League: Season Resumes

Post by bajanguy008 »

I am making this comment without even watching the highlights as this is a general statement and just not today but Dillon Brooks drives me crazy with his decision making
He's a fiesty guy and obviously a hard worker but I don't see him as a top defender and always want Book torch him cuz he likes to yap
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Cap
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Re: Around the League: Season Resumes

Post by Cap »

Mori Chu wrote:
Sun Aug 02, 2020 4:03 pm
That's a bummer that the Spurs won. They are a team we need to pass to get to the #9 seed and a chance for the playoffs. At this rate it could be hard to get within firing distance of Memphis, Portland, and the Spurs. The West is brutal.
Could be hard? It’s certainly very hard, at the least. Could be impossible.

To quote Tom Hanks, “The ‘hard’ is what makes it great.” Impossible would suck.

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Re: Around the League: Season Resumes

Post by O_Gardino »

Split T wrote:
Sun Aug 02, 2020 3:46 pm
Just watched end of Spurs-Grizzlies, JJJ hits a tough 3 to tie it with 10 seconds left, then Dillon Brooks fouls Derozan with 1 second left and he hits the free throws to win it. Spurs now the 9 seed.
That was a great make by JJJ, too. He got fouled pretty well on the play (no call) but kept balanced and focused.
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Superbone
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Re: Around the League: Season Resumes

Post by Superbone »

Shabazz wrote:
Sun Aug 02, 2020 4:03 pm
I have a hard time watching the Celtics with Brown (taken 1 pick before Bender) and Tatum (1 pick before Jackson) thriving.
Agreed but that was a great game. Celtics got off to a 24 point lead and Blazers came all the way back and were going back and forth. However, the ending was marred by a horrible pass from Nurcic from under their basket with 3 seconds to play as he just heaved it out of bounds not even close to a Blazer. They had time for Lillard to get it in the backcourt and get off a 3.

I’ll tell you one thing though, next time we play the Celtics, my whole defense is going to be predicated by 3 point defense. They make an alarming amount. Did it to us in our scrimmage too.
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Re: Around the League: Season Resumes

Post by bajanguy008 »

Isaac got hurt again....
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Cap
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Re: Around the League: Season Resumes

Post by Cap »

bajanguy008 wrote:
Sun Aug 02, 2020 5:26 pm
Isaac got hurt again....
Dammit, Abraham, the angel told you to stop!

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