NBA 2020-21 reg season 1st half thread

Anthony Edwards being a superstar would rule so much. Just the most gregarious guy who doesn’t take anything seriously. Too many great athletes are Tom Cruise in Collateral

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/30906202/blake-griffin-sit-detroit-pistons-weigh-trade-buyout-options-former-all-star

I have a feeling that in the right situation Blake would get back into one last training jag with the guy who wears a mask and have a good season

Would be sad if he’s truly cooked at 31.

all that juice marinated his bones too long

I think the celtics should be all over Andre Drummond.

looks like the AD injury is not was bad as it could have been. Considering the lack of a real homecourt advantage there is no need to rush him back.

no! xp

It will probably be Dallas because they need rebounding the most

embiid out, simmons scores 21 in the first half

The chicago bulls are the least interesting team to me. I think Zach Lavine is having an amazing season? Don’t care

Weird team for sure. They really haven’t been interesting in a long time. Lavines shooting numbers are insane but I still put him in that category with like Drummond or Beal where I don’t know if they’re actually any good / can help a good team win.

The chicago bulls are the least interesting team to me. I think Zach Lavine is having an amazing season? Don’t care

― Matt Armstrong, Monday, February 15, 2021 11:13 PM (thirty-four minutes ago)

def... a bunch of top 10 picks and i don't want to watch any of them play

Draymond Green always keeps it real.

💯💯💯pic.twitter.com/beY04KiEyC

— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) February 16, 2021

YES

embiid out, simmons scores 21 in the first half

― lag∞n, Monday, February 15, 2021 10:16 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

career high 42, a lot of these are just typical bad simmons half court shots that went in or good simmons transition shots but a few have him as the roll man and looked pretty good, free simmons

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtP9WcQMo4c

lol dray "i think we can all agree james was dogging it"

As loveable and sympathetic as Dray is there, you gotta think Bob Myers' heart beats a little faster hearing that. Not that it hints at any sour notes in Dray's relationship with GSW, but that when those notes eventually come, what is he going to say then?

To be clear - not saying that's a bad thing. In fact it's awesome if players hold teams accountable in that more outspoken way. Go Dray

He's going to expect to be traded in a professional way instead of being treated like shit?

dray def has a real point and he went big with it which imo is good, but cant help but wonder what harden and drummond thought about it

also players are extremely well paid and entered into these agreements with teams willingly and they have a union which negotiates these terms and so forth, and tbf its completely not true that teams never get backlash for trades/how they treat players etc, im torn cause im reflexively sympathetic to his complaint but also it was a bit of a multimillionaire temper tantrum

fair. the criticism tends to fly both ways but the teams have a bigger, more organized PR machine on their side.

yeah i was a little confused because i don't think drummond or blake is being treated badly? if a guy is definitely not in a team's future plans it's best to just be upfront about it, not risk the guy getting hurt or something, and working towards a separation.

i do think he raises a good point about the effect it has on a player's psyche to be publicly singled out and benched so the team can trade you. we don't know if that's true in drummond's case but in this current era of asset protection it's considered an acceptable course of action w/o any consideration given to how it makes the asset feel. it's pretty crazy that they're shutting him down w/ over a month to go before the trade deadline, it has to feel kinda shitty even tho he is getting paid millions of dollars.

and i do think there is still an imbalance in the way the public & basketball commentariat view situations such as the pistons basically benching blake griffin until they can buy him out because he sucks. it's again just accepted as an inevitable course of action for a franchise in their position, which wouldn't be the case if blake was playing like an all star and announced that he was sitting games out bcuz he wanted to be traded to a better team. how much that imbalance matters in reality is up for debate but it does exist

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EuVMYg4UUAEA7s5?format=png&name=small

you know what was the really bizarre thing as far as how blakes team treated him was the clippers doing whole mock retirement ceremony for him raising his jersey to the rafters and so forth as part of pitching him to resign then trading him less than a year later lol real psycho shit

if a guy is definitely not in a team's future plans it's best to just be upfront about it

i think this is the crux of the argument tho... harden decided the rockets weren't in his future plans, he was upfront about it and it was a huge controversy for weeks on end until the team decided they had found a suitable trade package for him. and in the interim period between him deciding that he didn't want to be on the rockets and the team trading him, he was expected to show up and work and play hard as if he hadn't already made the decision. part of this comes w/ the territory of being a player of his stature, but blake is that player to the pistons but because he sucks now it's considered logical and inevitable for the team to take him off the court until they can get him out of town. there is a burden there that the players carry that the franchises do not and tho it is the natural course of business i don't think draymond's wrong for verbalizing the player's perspective from w/in that dynamic

xp
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLRMArfgFbs

the franchises will always have the power to say to a player "you suck now and we don't want to play you" but when harden said to the rockets "you suck now and i don't want to play for you" you have ppl like zach lowe or whoever saying they won't vote james harden as an all star bcuz he sabotaged his old team

one thing is that teams being able to trade players is part of the overall agreement, where players demanding trades is not (tho there are rarely no trade clauses)

yah and nba players dogging it or wearing 'thats all folks' shirt or tweeting 'i dont want to be here' creates villains which is good for the league.

gotta be hard for players like drummond who are just constantly in trade rumors. or for players like rubio who do it all right but are just kinda thrown around the league despite feeling at home in a place.

it would be better for the league if there was some mechanism formal or informal for players and teams to work out trade demands behind closed doors

what the cavs are doing should be considered insane and beyond the pale tho. the trade deadline is march 25!

yeah that is weird

yah when brow said he wanted out the team had to play him even if just like 20 minutes per game

if anything they should be showcasing drummond if they want to trade him, wonder if theres something going on interpersonally that we dont know about

the mechanism is surely agents and management just.... talking!?

it doesnt work that good tho

maybe they should build an app

it's insane the players allowed fines for public trade requests to be in the CBA

tho if you're anthony davis $50k is like 2 quarters worth of pay so maybe it's not a huge deal

i don't think dray was specifically criticizing teams for the asset protection actions, rather pointing out the double standard.

The Blake in LA situation is a great example of the psychological toll he's talking about. Not saying that getting traded, even under shady circumstances, always has that kind of effect, but it is a pretty unique thing about sports that your employer can just decide you are gonna go work for a different employer in a different city. They know what they signed up for, etc., but just because you know something can happen doesn't mean it doesn't mess with you when it does. Demar in Toronto another example - he seems like a pretty sensitive guy, became a local hero over many years of work... I don't know, I think it would impact me.

The flipside of the Draymond argument though is that memories are hella short. Whatever ill will is harbored towards players in the midst of trade demands is usually forgotten once they begin to carve a narrative with their new team. Kawhi, AD, whoever. (With the exception of the fans of the jilted team.) Even Vince Carter, who was the first big trade demand I remember and got seriously roasted, wrote a new narrative pretty quickly.

if anything they should be showcasing drummond if they want to trade him, wonder if theres something going on interpersonally that we dont know about

― lag∞n, Tuesday, February 16, 2021 12:50 PM (fifty-two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

the "attitude and play" leaks have been coming out of cleveland for the past week or so

ah

the silliest part of this whole charade is that neither drummond nor blake are getting traded, they're getting bought out.

cld see someone taking drummond and sending back another bad but not as bad contract but yeah theres no hope for blake unless the pistons want to send out assets with him

dont see why toronto wouldnt pack up their expirings and throw in a second to get a year of him. worth a shot.

how do you buy out blake if he has a team option for next year?

*player option