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OT: NBA Playoffs - Around the League

I get a kick out of how when Lebron & co. take paycuts everyone and their mother think it's the worst thing in the world, a travesty and of course "gay"......but when Duncan, Manu, and Parker do it? "Now THAT's a commitment to winning", "THE ultimate team sacrifice!!!", "The epitome of Class!"

The overarching media/fan narratives are the complete polar opposites for a group of guys making similar sacrifices for the exact same reasons (except of course Darth James, is making the biggest sacrifices of any of them.). They'll go to the ends of the earth to point out why one is evil incarnate, and the other is the "right way" to do it. heh.

It's a lot different when you were drafted together and the team was constructed the right way through the draft, player development, and identifying talent at a young age. Ginobli was a 57th overall pick FFS. Parker was barely a first rounder. San Antonio is a small market in an undesirable city.

Of course that's commitment.

And it's why everyone enjoyed the Spurs absolutely humiliating Miami in the Finals (and but for an unreal Allen shot the year before it would have been consecutively).
 
Montana said:
They'll go to the ends of the earth to point out why one is evil incarnate, and the other is the "right way" to do it. heh.

Case in point....

It's a lot different when you were drafted together and the team was constructed the right way through the draft, player development, and identifying talent at a young age. Ginobli was a 57th overall pick FFS. Parker was barely a first rounder. San Antonio is a small market in an undesirable city.

Of course that's commitment.
 
I really like LeBron now. He's earned a lot of respect for the way he's stepped up in the post-season over the past few playoffs (this season in particular when he was the only Heat to show up in the Finals). But his supporting cast is pretty homo, you can't deny.
 
I really like LeBron now. He's earned a lot of respect for the way he's stepped up in the post-season over the past few playoffs (this season in particular when he was the only Heat to show up in the Finals). But his supporting cast is pretty homo, you can't deny.

Wade stayed with his original team....so even if the lazy mainstream narrative held any water it shouldn't apply to Wade.

Bosh is a doofus, but that's just my opinion on him as a person....he was just as big a doofus in Toronto.
 
At least now Miami is not obligated to resigning wade or bosh. Sign LeBron. Paramount. Get Melo and Lowry or Thomas on top.
 
Wojnarowski, reporting James wants a max contract (5 x $130m) or close to it.

That's surprising, as it would seemingly indicate Bosh & Wade have agreed to take big paycuts so that both Lebron can (deservedly) get paid more, and they can improve the team around them. Would have bet good money they would all take similarly valued deals to one another again....as part of the agreement for Bosh/Wade to leave money on the table due to opting out.

The Heat would be unwise to build the team the same way they have over the past 4 years. While James is still at the top of his game, Bosh and particularly Wade aren't. It's one thing to blow through the regular season on cruise control in the shitty East, it's quite another to face the Spurs of the world in the finals. Every little hole is exposed, your broken down vets can't get open or make open shots because they're fried. Need to build the team around James with players who can actually still play rather than ring chasers. I hope they resign the super friends +1 (Lowry, Melo, whoever), best way to guarantee they won't win another 'chip.
 
At least now Miami is not obligated to resigning wade or bosh. Sign LeBron. Paramount. Get Melo and Lowry or Thomas on top.


I'd say they're pretty much obligated to sign them, I don't think either opts out without a guarantee already in place that Miami would re-sign them for X amount over Y years.....and if that's the case, then Miami wouldn't back out of that commitment, as it would drastically impact their ability to sign free agents in the future.

Slight chance both opted out without such a a guarantee, but I highly doubt it......they're both as likely to return as Lebron, imo, is not moreso.
 
The Heat would be unwise to build the team the same way they have over the past 4 years. While James is still at the top of his game, Bosh and particularly Wade aren't. It's one thing to blow through the regular season on cruise control in the shitty East, it's quite another to face the Spurs of the world in the finals. Every little hole is exposed, your broken down vets can't get open or make open shots because they're fried. Need to build the team around James with players who can actually still play rather than ring chasers. I hope they resign the super friends +1 (Lowry, Melo, whoever), best way to guarantee they won't win another 'chip.


I know that's the popular theme these days, but I think it's a great over simplification based on one series.....they made it to four straight finals, won two of them (which is better than the Spurs have done the last four years)

Do they need to be better if they face the Spurs in the finals again (which is obviously far from a guarantee), of course.....but that's why they're (seemingly) doing what they're doing....freeing up cash to improve their secondary cast.

This idea that they're somehow now shit, simply because they lost to a team that put on one the most epic finals performances in modern history....is throwing the baby out with the bath water.


More importantly tho.....it's not even an actual option (imo) for the reasons I pointed out in my last post.
 
The one caveat being if Wade & Bosh just both opted out because they believe they could get more money elsewhere.....which I agree with Mindz on, is 99.99% not gonna happen.

....and Riley and co. aren't going to tell a pair of CAA clients that they're re-sign them if they opt out, and then go back on their word tho.....just not gonna happen.
 
I know that's the popular theme these days, but I think it's a great over simplification based on one series.....they made it to four straight finals, won two of them (which is better than the Spurs have done the last four years)

Do they need to be better if they face the Spurs in the finals again (which is obviously far from a guarantee), of course.....but that's why they're (seemingly) doing what they're doing....freeing up cash to improve their secondary cast.

I just don't know how they can rely on Wade going forward. Dude played 54 games this year and looked finished by the time June rolled around. Even if you maxed out James, which seems to be the prevailing rumour out there, you'd still have a tonne of cash to fill the team out properly instead of tying yourself to Wade and Bosh as well. It seems that in the playoffs, Wade and Bosh just turn into role players, so why spend $15M/year for role players? I'm hoping the Heat and LeBron don't figure it out. Would much rather see them lose in the finals every year.
 
The one caveat being if Wade & Bosh just both opted out because they believe they could get more money elsewhere.....which I agree with Mindz on, is 99.99% not gonna happen.

....and Riley and co. aren't going to tell a pair of CAA clients that they're re-sign them if they opt out, and then go back on their word tho.....just not gonna happen.

There is another caveat though. Should LeBron NOT resign with the Heat, for whatever reason, then Riley may simply choose to not resign any of the big three. He is, however, loyal to Wade for what he's done for the Heat, both on the court and off, so he'd probably offer him something.
 
I just don't know how they can rely on Wade going forward. Dude played 54 games this year and looked finished by the time June rolled around. Even if you maxed out James, which seems to be the prevailing rumour out there, you'd still have a tonne of cash to fill the team out properly instead of tying yourself to Wade and Bosh as well. It seems that in the playoffs, Wade and Bosh just turn into role players, so why spend $15M/year for role players? I'm hoping the Heat and LeBron don't figure it out. Would much rather see them lose in the finals every year.

That was my concern as well. He sat, healthy, for 28 games to "save him" for the playoffs and then he just looked absolutely done. Very disconcerting. If you go back a few years and look at how Wade was playing the difference between then and now is staggering.
 
There is another caveat though. Should LeBron NOT resign with the Heat, for whatever reason, then Riley may simply choose to not resign any of the big three. He is, however, loyal to Wade for what he's done for the Heat, both on the court and off, so he'd probably offer him something.

Unless there is some sort of prior agreement that they all want to part ways if Bron goes elsewhere, Wade & Bosh leaving that kind of money on the table (both will be lucky to get 10-11 million a season) would make it challenging for Miami to do business with CAA clients in the future.
 
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