2015-2016 NBA SEASON: THE FAREWELL TOUR

[Moss]

We have the cap room in the summer to try grab a star or veterans but so do a lot of teams. My genuine concern is that we're going to nurture these young players, they will start getting really good and then they will fuck off to a team that can win once their contract is up.

Even with a young team though we should be scraping the bottom end of the playoffs. There's no way the Celtics were better than us player for player this year or last. Yet they are 80-72 over that period and we're 54-97. And they even have better draft options than us this year

I'm sure we will come good next year if we have a good offseason but it's just frustrating to watch us underachieve so much considering the players on the roster.

Growing pains, no way around it. Oladipo is a keeper, Vooch has been good, and Gordon has shown enough this year for plenty of optimism. Hezonja too - just give it time.

You're dead wrong about the Celtics though, they have talent. Isaiah Thomas is better than anyone on the Magic and Crowder/Bradley/Sullinger/Olynyk are valuable too. Throw in Brad Stevens who is one of the better coaches in the NBA and a deep roster beyond the guys I mentioned. That's why they're better.

[Moss]

Jesus I can't believe Spurs lost to Hornets.

Kemba and Batum are legit all-star caliber and they have a solid rotation around them. It's just easy to underestimate the Hornets since they give minutes to two goofy white dudes in Zeller and Kaminsky and one goofy black dude in Al Jefferson.

Hilarious that Lin carried them though. If only it was Kaminsky dunked on Duncan or something.

[kisada]

at this point it's hard to say if oladipo will ever meet the expectations that made him the darling of that draft, but gordon is turning into something special. i don't care much though for big men who can't play defense, nor do i really care much for pg's who can't shoot. but i do like fournier. even if you just built around gordon (hoping he turns into a legit star) and fournier/vucevic you can do some good things. but that will take time.

but all in all, and as mentioned before, their overall talent fit is a mess. trading harris (kinda?) helped that but they are in dire need of better spacing and rim protection.

and yeah like moss said, the celtics are very good. they are pretty much just a collection of good to pretty good guys who all play the way their coach wants them to. and brad stevens is a freaking genius. it's no wonder they rack up the wins.

[kisada]

Kemba and Batum are legit all-star caliber and they have a solid rotation around them. It's just easy to underestimate the Hornets since they give minutes to two goofy white dudes in Zeller and Kaminsky and one goofy black dude in Al Jefferson.

Hilarious that Lin carried them though. If only it was Kaminsky dunked on Duncan or something.

makes me sad that gilchrist got injured again. i was really salivating over seeing him and batum play defense together. i hope they can keep batum next season and put it all together.

[Moss]

at this point it's hard to say if oladipo will ever meet the expectations that made him the darling of that draft, but gordon is turning into something special. i don't care much though for big men who can't play defense, nor do i really care much for pg's who can't shoot. but i do like fournier. even if you just built around gordon (hoping he turns into a legit star) and fournier/vucevic you can do some good things. but that will take time.

but all in all, and as mentioned before, their overall talent fit is a mess. trading harris (kinda?) helped that but they are in dire need of better spacing and rim protection.

and yeah like moss said, the celtics are very good. they are pretty much just a collection of good to pretty good guys who all play the way their coach wants them to. and brad stevens is a freaking genius. it's no wonder they rack up the wins.

look at Dipo's last 10 games or so, he's been on fire. 45 against the Cavs. He's at 35% from 3 this year so just a few ticks below being a serious threat - and we know how athletic he is so defending and getting to the rim aren't a problem.

I think you hope for Dipo to become the "star" in a year or two and have Gordon/Payton/Hezonja as support. Fournier and Vooch might get too pricey by the time that core is ready but that is a lot of talent.

[Jem]

Oladipo has really stepped it up recently. His numbers just keep climbing which is a product of getting more trust and more minutes I feel. He had been demoted to 6th man earlier in the season. He started getting more minutes in January and it's increased since then due to the Harris trade and injuries. In his last 5 games he's averaging 27.8 points, 5.6 rebounds, 3.2 assists and he's shooting 45.5% from 3. I think his month by month on points has gone something like 13 > 15 > 17 > 21 > 23

Trading Harris definitely helped purely because he was causing a minutes logjam and keeping Fournier/Gordon off the floor. And honestly he wasn't a great contributor to the team, his stats may have looked ok but the ball always seemed to get stuck with him.

Like I said though, my main concern is that by the time people come good their contracts might be expiring. Vucevic is actually signed through 18/19 on a cheapish contract ($12m a year) so I'm not worried about him leaving. It's the others that concern me. Fournier is a restricted free agent this summer, Oladipo the summer after that and Gordon/Payton the summer after that. Ideally we keep them all but that might not be possible.

It's a real shame we didn't get Millsap last off-season. There's talk about Al Horford who would be great but we'd obviously have to offer like a max contract, hope we get him and hope he stays at that level for the 3 years.

[Jem]

The one thing the Magic do have going for them is that tickets are cheap as hell. Earlier this year I got a $50 pass that gave me tickets to 8 games with random seating allocation. Ended up with an executive suite in one of those games, lower bowl in 3 and trash in the other 4. Got a lower bowl row 7 ticket the other day for $35 too but you can usually always get upper bowl tickets for $10-15.

A season ticket with random seat allocation is $300 which seems great value even if you only got like 10-15% of the games in non-trash seats.

[Cail]

SI tweeting out that Craig Sager's doctor says he has 3-6 months to live

[kisada]

oh no really? damn. i like him

[Akiyama]

Yeah.. I'm heartbroken man.

[Moss]

Saw he was no longer in remission but didn't realize they gave him a timeline...

[tyven]

Greg Popovich pls save Craig

[Siccmade]

The Dubs and Clips are back at it...

[Siccmade]

Pop for President.

His post-games are what dreams may come. Fucking lol.

[Moss]

interesting article

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/15...n-curry-armour

[tyven]

interesting article

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/15...n-curry-armour

That part about the Nike meeting was so fucking cringeworthy

[Moss]

That part about the Nike meeting was so fucking cringeworthy

haha I loved that. inept people in every organization ever

for those that dont read the article, in Nike's pitch meeting they called him "Steph-on" and had left Kevin Durant's name on some of the slides

[Roranora]

read that yesterday, a rare quality article on espn

I laughed when reading how Nike called him "Steph-on" and had Kevin Durant on a powerpoint slide

[Krandor]

Post on r/nba entitled "Chasing 400"

[notorious bum]

James Harden is THE X-Factor.