NBA Season - 2013-2014

[gblews]

Not sure of what Andrew's plan is here. If he really doesn't want to play basketbll anymore then he could just quit and explain that playing in constant pain, not being able to meet his own expectations on court etc, are all factors. But hanging around but refusing to cooperate is so disrespectful of his teammates, coaches, and to the Cavs' organization and fans.

Maybe he is hoping to be eventually cut, becoming a free agent and seeing if he can catch on with a contender. Other players have engineered exits from teams they don't want to be with, Bynum wouldn't be the first.

Found it interesting that the Heat were mentioned as a possible destination for Andrew. I haven't kept up with the them this season, but I take it this means that the Greg Oden experiment didn't work out. However, with the way the NBA's waiver system now works, the Clips should get a shot at him before the Heat and if so, they will try and keep him for whatever is left of his contract. The Clips appear to be one of those teams who have become so enthralled with certain Lakers players over the years, they'll ignore common sense when they have an opportunity to sign one.

 

[Neroon]

Apparently there is a story that Cleveland and - here's where you come in gblews - the Lakers are working on a trade of Bynum for Pau Gasol

 

[Alidar Jarok]

If the Lakers do that, they are more subject to sentimentality than I would have thought. Unless Gasol is unable to play, I can't see why you would give up a healthy player for one with considerable risk at this point (even more risk than when Cleveland signed him). I suppose they could be going for the injury exemption to the cap, but it's been a long time since I remembered how that one worked (and seemed to think it wasn't all that good overall).

 

[Neroon]

Money. It's all about the contracts, according to the article.

The motivation for the deal is simple: With L.A. trailing the pack of Western Conference playoff contenders, dealing Gasol for Bynum — whose salary is only partially guaranteed — would bring massive savings in salary and luxury tax payments. It’s hard to quantify the Lakers’ potential savings more exactly given that other pieces would have to be involved to make the swap legal by NBA rules, but with the move L.A. would likely be able to slide under the luxury tax line for the first time since 2007.

 

[1001001]

Money. It's all about the contracts, according to the article.

The motivation for the deal is simple: With L.A. trailing the pack of Western Conference playoff contenders, dealing Gasol for Bynum — whose salary is only partially guaranteed — would bring massive savings in salary and luxury tax payments. It’s hard to quantify the Lakers’ potential savings more exactly given that other pieces would have to be involved to make the swap legal by NBA rules, but with the move L.A. would likely be able to slide under the luxury tax line for the first time since 2007.

Exactly.

They could trade for Bynum, cut him, and save millions.

 

[gblews]

Looks like the Bynum-Gasol deal won't happen since reports are that the Lakers are trying to sweat the Cavs for more assets in order to take Andrew and give up Pau. Cavs will likely just cut him by Monday and then we'll find out who really wants him.

But barring a last minute miracle, like Pau playing like his old self, he is a goner either by the trade deadline or via free agency after this season. He was a great player for us but has seemed to lose his motivation after the 2010 championship.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

I have it listed that Bynum is costing the Cavs $12 million. The Lakers are way over the cap so the best they can sign him for is $5 million (and, probably under the new CBA rules, for the $3 million mini mid exception). Given this, the Cavs still have to eat $7-9 million of his contract and won't be able to get under the cap for probably another year.

I don't know. I guess it would depend on what the Lakers really are demanding, but they seem like they're going to be screwed by his salary for the next two years either way.

 

[gblews]

Bynum would only cost the Cavs $12 million if he is on their roster on 1/7. Only $6 million of his salary is guaranteed. The Lakers aren't looking to sign Andrew to a new contract. If the trade were to be completed, they'd cut him by Monday, thereby saving themselves his guaranteed money and Pau's salary. The Lakers would be under the cap after this move.

However, they are going to be under the cap anyway after this season and after letting Pau walk so there isn't any urgency to make this deal. That's why it likely won't happen because if it does, it would have to be on the Lakers' terms.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

I was talking about if Bynum was cut and signed, rather than traded.

However, if it's only $6 million guaranteed, that would make a lot of sense to cut now rather than try to work out a trade rather than have the rest become guaranteed.

 

[Borgminister]

The latest craze: Lebroning!

 

[gblews]

The latest craze: Lebroning!

^^ That is damn funny. Two players flopping on the same play, and as a result of the same "contact". Both should get one of those flop warning letters. Lebron appears to be trying to toss the Pacer player but then changes his mind and decides to flop in mid toss.

Reggie Miller needs to tutor both. That guy was a master of initiating contact, then bouncing off to get the foul call. He used to do this on offense without the ball. And if he didn't get the call, he'd be all over the refs.

 

[Wadjda]

Looks like the Bynum-Gasol deal won't happen since reports are that the Lakers are trying to sweat the Cavs for more assets in order to take Andrew and give up Pau. Cavs will likely just cut him by Monday and then we'll find out who really wants him.

But barring a last minute miracle, like Pau playing like his old self, he is a goner either by the trade deadline or via free agency after this season. He was a great player for us but has seemed to lose his motivation after the 2010 championship.

Pau in a position that he is comfortable in + Kyrie + Luo Deng....

Would Lebron go back to Cleavlend?

 

[gblews]

Looks like the Bynum-Gasol deal won't happen since reports are that the Lakers are trying to sweat the Cavs for more assets in order to take Andrew and give up Pau. Cavs will likely just cut him by Monday and then we'll find out who really wants him.

But barring a last minute miracle, like Pau playing like his old self, he is a goner either by the trade deadline or via free agency after this season. He was a great player for us but has seemed to lose his motivation after the 2010 championship.

Pau in a position that he is comfortable in + Kyrie + Luo Deng....

Would Lebron go back to Cleavlend?

Pau to Cle before the trade deadline, is music to my ears IF the Cav want him badlly enough to give up their 1st rounder this season or maybe 2015. I doubt they want him that badly. Besides, the Cavs can just wait and try to sign him out of free agency this summer.

LeBron back to Cleavland is not at all farfetched. It would complete the circle and somewhat right the "wrong" that occurred a few years ago.

 

[Wadjda]

It was plain flat out wrong the way he did it but he had every right to do it.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Looks like the Bynum-Gasol deal won't happen since reports are that the Lakers are trying to sweat the Cavs for more assets in order to take Andrew and give up Pau. Cavs will likely just cut him by Monday and then we'll find out who really wants him.

But barring a last minute miracle, like Pau playing like his old self, he is a goner either by the trade deadline or via free agency after this season. He was a great player for us but has seemed to lose his motivation after the 2010 championship.

Pau in a position that he is comfortable in + Kyrie + Luo Deng....

Would Lebron go back to Cleavlend?

Pau to Cle before the trade deadline, is music to my ears IF the Cav want him badlly enough to give up their 1st rounder this season or maybe 2015. I doubt they want him that badly. Besides, the Cavs can just wait and try to sign him out of free agency this summer.

LeBron back to Cleavland is not at all farfetched. It would complete the circle and somewhat right the "wrong" that occurred a few years ago.

I doubt they would trade a first rounder in this year's draft because it's apparently a good one and Pau isn't getting any younger. I suppose they could give next year's draft if they can get the salaries to work out (the biggest problem with any Gasol trade).

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Interesting article in new age statistics: DataBall

Tony Parker is one of the best playmakers in the world. For more than a decade now, he’s been the straw that stirs the Spurs’ stiff offensive drink. But despite winning three rings and an NBA Finals MVP, Parker has never quite been considered a true superstar. Once again this year, he’ll begin the All-Star Game on the bench, playing behind guards who have somehow turned slighter successes into superior Q scores. Maybe this is because Parker is a foreign player, or maybe it’s because he plays in a smaller market deep in the heart of Texas.

But maybe it’s also because our box scores undervalue the importance of the “little things” that players like Parker do and overvalue the most easily quantifiable events like made baskets and rebounds.

On one hand, the notion that we award Leonard three points for his buzzer-beating shot in Cleveland makes sense. After all, he was the one who made the freaking shot. On the other hand, giving Leonard credit for the basket is like awarding George Clooney the credit for Gravity.

“We practiced that play 1,000 times, so I knew we’d be able to execute it,” San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich said after the game.

If we applied this conventional basketball accounting to the game of chess, we’d assign far too much importance to the singular checkmate move, while entirely overlooking that move’s hugely relevant tactical precedents. Chess matches are rarely won or lost in one final action, and the same goes for basketball possessions. They are rarely decided by their terminal actions, and players like Parker or Chris Paul commonly put their teams in advantageous situations one way or another.

In the era of “big data,” the current statistical system — the one that produces the box score — is a typewriter, albeit a reliable one. It was born out of pencil-and-paper convenience rather than a desire to truly measure the contributions of the 10 athletes on the floor. Still, it has worked well, and as a result it’s persisted from the time of Bill Russell, through the Michael Jordan years, and well into the LeBron James era; its derivative dogmas have morphed into things we have termed “advanced stats” and “basketball analytics.”

In the last few decades, pioneers like Ken Pomeroy, Dean Oliver, and John Hollinger effectively took advantage of spreadsheets and other newfangled accoutrements of the personal computing era to launch us headlong into basketball’s computational era. We continue to learn from their contributions, but things are still rapidly evolving.

I don't have the background knowledge to truly understand this, but it sounds promising. Its biggest flaw seems to be that it doesn't seem to evaluate players well outside the context of their teammates (players who are good at passing to great shooters will do very well, but it's the great shooter who deserves a lot of the credit). Still, if this works, it could revolutionize Basketball in the way Baseball was revolutionized (although it's probably far more difficult to pull off given the speed of the game and the number of interactions that happen at once).

 

[gblews]

^^ I think advanced analytics in the NBA will be useful to some teams with certain players. Problem with the NBA is that regardless of a player's advanced stats, a Michael Jordan, Shaquille O'Neal, or LeBron James, could just mess all of it up. You could put your little team of 8-9 guys with off the charts per minute stats and scores and win a lot of regular season games but get squashed in the playoffs because the other team's stars are simply better.

Also, NBA basketball is such a game of emotion, way more so than baseball or even football, that guys get all pumped up and play way over their heads particularly in the playoffs. Hollinger has been pushing this stuff for years and on paper a lot of times it has made sense. But when you're in the heat of the playoffs and you have LeBron coming down the lane holding the ball over his head, the advanced analytics as well as the players on the opposing team, are going to step aside.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

I'd always thought the 3 division leaders were always the top 3 in the conference standings for the purpose of playoffs (like other sports where a wildcard team can never seed higher than any division leader).

Apparently not (?) since the Bulls were momentarily in the #3 conference spot ahead of Toronto.

 

[Neroon]

No matter who it's against, LeBron's 61 pts is noteworthy

 

[gblews]

No matter who it's against, LeBron's 61 pts is noteworthy

True. Sixty-one is a boatload against anyone. But it does kind of put Kobe's 62 in only 3 quarters into dynamic perspective. Especially so in light of all the talk about LeBron already being among the top 5 players of all time. Many believe that Kobe's night against the Mavs was as close as anyone might have come to Wilt's 100 if he had played the 4th quarter.