NBA 2016-2017 Season Thread

[venessian]

Originally Posted by jet

Same, don't really watch if Lakes are out. Keep kobe, fish, gasol and cluck the rest maybe keep barnes I like him. Throw in walton for free.
Wow, Walton is slated for almost $12M over the next 2 years and Blake $12M over the next 3. Artest's contract is brutal.

Barnes and Brown can opt out now.

Originally Posted by Steve B.

Fish?
Might as well; he's not tradeable, he's a good leader, and he could be an assistant coach later on. He's not that expensive, if they can find a starting PG.

 

[jet]

Originally Posted by venessian

Wow, Walton is slated for almost $12M over the next 2 years and Blake $12M over the next 3. Artest's contract is brutal.

Barnes and Brown can opt out now. Might as well; he's not tradeable, he's a good leader, and he could be an assistant coach later on. He's not that expensive, if they can find a starting PG.
This right here about d fish. You never knew walton made 5mm? It's been a running joke with the guys at work for at least a year now his dad must have played a part in that fosho.

 

[venessian]

^
I knew Luke was in the $5M range but I thought his new contract was declining in value year by year, not ascending. Yikes. That contract is a whale.

Damn, this year the Lakers had 6 guys at about $9M total who basically played 0 minutes in the playoffs.

At least Mbenga and Powell gave some decent minutes....

 

[RFX45]

I find it weird that Blake gets $4m consistently every year for his contract.

And damn, what are the rules about buying out players? I mean at this point Walton is really just a waste of space.

 

[embowafa]

Can you really put a price on hearing 20K people say "LLLUUUUUUUU-ahhhhrhhhhgrh" about once a game?

Oh, $5M?

 

[RFX45]

Once a game? More like once every 20 games, no?

 

[atila]

 

[LawrenceMD]

on espn no less:

http://sports.espn.go.com/los-angele...ory?id=6522942

Pau Gasol: Rumors caused 'suffering'

"My girlfriend and I are fine, we're happy, we're doing well. Kobe and I are fine," Gasol told ESPNLosAngeles.com in the parking lot outside the Lakers training facility Tuesday, after his exit interview with Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak and coach Phil Jackson.

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"She [Lopez Castro] was suffering because she saw me suffering. And I was suffering because I was seeing her suffering. When you add that to other stuff to what's already happening, it's tough."

ah man...not a good way to shake the "soft" tag dangling from your neck.

I just finished listening to the Simmons-Lupica podcast (two of the most "we're going to force our opinions on you as FACT" guys ever). I guess they both agreed the bynum is the better guy to trade and gasol is the one to keep (because he's technically better and willing to be a 2nd banana).

The way the lakers are utilizing bynum reminds me of the way the Yankees are dealing with Joba Chaimberlan. Joba/bynum show flashes of franchise player/brilliance - management over-manages them by handling them with kid gloves and heaping praise on them constantly... player kinda atrophies and buys into thinking they are the the real thing before actually doing it for a whole season.

 

[fir3fox]

True, Pau seems like the one that's most willing to defer AND compared to Bynum I'm not sure he's very good trade bait. 10 year vet and he hasn't learned that off the court **** shouldn't interfere w/ his job? The soft label is there to stay.

Besides, Kobe doesn't want his authority challenged. This all sets up well for Bynum to head out to Orlando w/ a couple of chumps from the bench.

 

[RFX45]

WTF! Dudes game is affected because his GF is suffering so he is suffering as well? Booo-*******-WOOOOOO!!!!!

 

[Ambulance Chaser]

It's kind of refreshing to know that a world-famous athlete has girl problems just like the rest of us do. How great would it be if Pau was a member of SF and lurking in the "I just broke up with my gf" threak?

 

[foodguy]

c'mon guys, you're thinking like sportswriters. and i don't mean that in a nice way. do you really think the "girl thing" was the only thing that was going on? Granted, it was the one he got asked about the most. So you think in the last 10 years as a professional basketball player, he's never had girl troubles during the season?
I think there's a lot more to what bynum described as "trust issues" and they have to do with the lakers building up big leads by exploiting the inside game and then reverting to jump shots, losing the lead, and then trying to jump-shoot their way out of trouble. it's not just kobe either, dude can make those shots. but the bench is particularly bad at it and they haven't.
short of another injury that finally bursts the buss bubble, bynum's not gong to get traded. kobe's not going to get traded. paul probably won't. nobody wants dfish or walton. that seems to leave artest and odom as the most likely bait and how many teams are going to want to go for ron-ron?
The lakes need a pg, but they don't have any draft choices and they aren't in a salary situation where they can add anyone we would like. they're kind of between a rock and a hard place.
my guess is they hope steve blake's horrible second half was an abberation and that he'll blossom under a new head coach and with a slightly different system. i think there will be some shuffling down-roster, but that's about it.

 

[sexandcandy]

nah, i see big changes coming, as early as next season. howard/igoudala are strong possibilities

 

[foodguy]

should also have added ... there's pretty persuasive evidence that there were no "girl troubles" to begin with ... like pictures of said girlfriend at all of the games, including pictures of her sitting with his mom.

 

[jet]

would love howard as a laker, i sense big changes coming