Blowouts have always been more common in the playoffs. Though this year has been much worse then usual. Remember last years finals when the first 6 games were practically blowouts before an epic Game 7, despite two great teams.

The golden state - cavs finals could go on for a few years now. LeBron is really the only "old" important player at 32 and he's likely to be like Jordan where he is still awesome until 35/36. Golden State's starters are all under 30.

Not sure what overtakes those two teams for the next few years. Boston has some good draft picks coming up, so they possibly could make a good trade. Washington could add a star and I still think Beal and Wall could get better. (Blake Griffin maybe) Other then that though, San Antonio/Clippers have both got aging teams. Houston maybe if they add some guys but they have a bunch of players with injury histories. Hayward/Lowry and George all likely to leave and not to teams that are going to compete.

Get ready for the 2021 NBA FINALS Sixers Vs. Warriors

LeBron has mused he could retire early, he may just walk away at 2020 and just demand an ownership cut from Dan Gilbert.

Of course the one conference final game I don't watch ends up going to the last play.

I will have to watch the replay but very early and in warmups Cleveland looked like they were chilling.

Skip the first half kosko. The second half of the game was when it got good.

The simplest way to increase competitiveness is to tighten the salary cap. The fact that the cavs can afford 3 superstars, and golden state 2 (arguably 4) while other teams are scraping by with one is just ridiculous.

(05-21-2017 10:40 PM)kosko Wrote:  Of course the one conference final game I don't watch ends up going to the last play.

I will have to watch the replay but very early and in warmups Cleveland looked like they were chilling.

Haha.....I didn't even consider watching that game and considered the outcome a foregone conclusion. I found it too much effort to even check the score.

I knew the Raptors couldn't beat Cleveland......but why on earth couldn't they at least show one ounce of heart that Boston showed last night?

Instead we've got guys like Patrick Patterson spied partying at the club drunk out of his mind and posting on IG merely less than 3 hours after being eliminated by Cleveland.

Need to gut our whole roster!

The NBA has always been a top heavy league. Restricting the salary cap would do nothing in that aspect. The only way it would help the competitive balance of the league is if they allowed players like LeBron(his salary) to eat up 50-60% of the cap which isn't going happen, hence there will always be cap room to maxout for 3 stars.

The NBA allows teams to go over the cap if they're resigning players (and offer more money too), which is how the Cavs have been able to spend all that money. They did this to allow small market teams to be able to keep their stars, but its look like its helping the Cavs keep decent role on the team like JR/Tristan etc.

I would argue the salary cap is killing the larger market teams like the Knicks and Lakers. Now that stars can be famous as fuck anywhere(Westbrook in OKC, LeBron in Cleveland) There's almost no way they can compete in free agency against teams in states with no income tax like Texas. The Texas teams have had no problem signing free agents and making trades and its why LeBron could take slightly less when he went to Miami. Golden State was lucky enough to draft their entire team.

(05-22-2017 11:43 AM)godzilla Wrote:  The NBA has always been a top heavy league. Restricting the salary cap would do nothing in that aspect. The only way it would help the competitive balance of the league is if they allowed players like LeBron(his salary) to eat up 50-60% of the cap which isn't going happen, hence there will always be cap room to maxout for 3 stars.

The NBA allows teams to go over the cap if they're resigning players (and offer more money too), which is how the Cavs have been able to spend all that money. They did this to allow small market teams to be able to keep their stars, but its look like its helping the Cavs keep decent role on the team like JR/Tristan etc.

I would argue the salary cap is killing the larger market teams like the Knicks and Lakers. Now that stars can be famous as fuck anywhere(Westbrook in OKC, LeBron in Cleveland) There's almost no way they can compete in free agency against teams in states with no income tax like Texas. The Texas teams have had no problem signing free agents and making trades and its why LeBron could take slightly less when he went to Miami. Golden State was lucky enough to draft their entire team.

Toronto for this reason has had a hard time locking down free agents. Many NBA players dint understand Canada and especially the tax situations hee so they just don't even bother with it. I think this has changed over the years though as players see that Toronto is a great to city to live in if you have bankrolls to spend.

Going forward you either so have to spend well or draft perfectly. Teams with poor management will pay dearly by pissing away resources (Kings, Nets, Knicks). You for sure need to draft your franchise player so you can lock him down, even better if you can find 2nd option as well. Then only will you be appealing enough to lure in free agents for that third slot with the cap. After that you can find bums for cheap to full out the roster.

The Knicks and the Kings are terminally poor. These teams may. It be good for long time now and the fans there will continue to suffer.

I figured out the solution. Get rid of max contracts. There should be no max to what a player can be offered by a team.

Let's say i'm a team with a ton of cap room. How about I offer 70 million a year to lebron. Cav's can match, or hope he takes a lot less to stay. If they match, they will need to get rid of either kyrie or love, probably both.

Keep the salary cap the same, but get rid of max contracts, bird rules, etc.

Instantly the league is evened out.

If you get rid of max contracts, a team could be bad for a really long time if it maxes out the wrong player.

Completely agree, you'd have to get rid of guarenteed contracts, which honestly wouldnt be a bad idea.

Players union would never agree to that though.

How about we just let small market teams get their day in the sun. Cleveland fans weren't trying to break up Boston's big three 9 years ago when Lebron was choking. Back then I do remember thinking the Cavs front office sucked for not finding decent guys who wanted to play with the GOAT. It seems to be a theme that people suddenly want to change the rules when big city coastal teams aren't crushing the little guys.

Being born near Cleveland might bias me, but I believe we waited long enough to not suck.

Sad to see the WCF went the way they did. Had Kawhi not been injured, the series would have been an entirely different story.

Spurs would have likely won G1 on the road. They were up what, 25 points in the third? Losing Kawhi demoralised them completely. Not to mention they lost their best scorer, defender, and play creator all at once for the other games.

Seriously unlucky. But it happens.

Let's see it. 16-0. 4 straight wins, Durant MVP.

NBA playoffs boring as hell, it's the LeBron show every year. Would love some NFL like parity, a smaller league, or less games in the regular season.

(05-16-2017 08:27 PM)BallsDeep Wrote:  There was no way the NBA was going to keep Lonzo Ball from going to the Lakers, even though the odds were against them.

I wonder how many people legitimately believe in the integrity of the NBA lottery.

I may not believe in the legitimacy, however happy to benefiting from it. C's are in mid rebuild mode and the number #1 pick should accelerate the process.

Kevin Love is putting in work tonight. Great game so far.

These guys are funny. Looks like Barkley got under Shaq's skin.

Shaq just isn't as entertaining as the other guys. I think they should replace him with Garnett, I'd love to hear Garnett and Chuck trash talking. Shaq just isn't on their level.

Dude is a beast!

(05-24-2017 09:12 PM)Repo Wrote:  Shaq just isn't as entertaining as the other guys. I think they should replace him with Garnett, I'd love to hear Garnett and Chuck trash talking. Shaq just isn't on their level.

Tend to agree. Garnett is just a natural high energy, funny cat.

He was always played with a controlled rage as a player, but then the camera would flash to the bench and he would be over there cracking up with his teammates.

A younger Shaq was bit more energetic, clever and had some great quips and one-liners. This version is just bloated, low energy and many times the others have to throw him a bone to get a coherent sentence out of him.

What happened to Gary Payton? He was hilarious.

(05-25-2017 09:47 AM)MY DETROIT PLAYAS Wrote:  

(05-24-2017 09:12 PM)Repo Wrote:  Shaq just isn't as entertaining as the other guys. I think they should replace him with Garnett, I'd love to hear Garnett and Chuck trash talking. Shaq just isn't on their level.

Tend to agree. Garnett is just a natural high energy, funny cat.

He was always played with a controlled rage as a player, but then the camera would flash to the bench and he would be over there cracking up with his teammates.

A younger Shaq was bit more energetic, clever and had some great quips and one-liners. This version is just bloated, low energy and many times the others have to throw him a bone to get a coherent sentence out of him.

Why does Shaq always refer to his accolades such as his rings and threaten to beat people up? He seems to carry this sense of insecurity even into his middle age. I read a couple of his autobiographies and I realise that some people can never shake their childhood. Shaq was teased growing up for being awkward and goofy. He wasn't a ladies man either. If you can tap into this element, you can irk him.
I like Shaq though. He's funny, he's hiphop and the most dominant centre of all time to me. I don't know if it's his voice though but he seems to come off as slow and bumbling due to the excess base that he carries. I've heard some claim that Shaq is the dummy but it's actually Chuck who is Bama as fcuk.

Boston is getting destroyed!