Joint was getting to the point I couldn't load it on my phone at work as quickly anymore. So for all my "checking this post on your phone at work" dudes.

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/11175065/chris-bosh-eyed-houston-rockets-plan-b-carmelo-anthony

Bosh makes A LOT more sense than Melo for Houston. I believe that move would put them over the top (that and if Harden starts playing some semblance of defense AND Kevin Mac is shown the door...)

He and Howard would be a nice high/low, big-exchange type of tandem. Melo is obviously the better player but with him and Harden on the floor together they would need not two but three basketballs, all of which would stop with regularity.

Someone fart in your oatmeal?

Me neither

The Knicks missed the playoffs and the Pacers went to the ECF as a top seed, while George was third-team All-NBA and Melo missed the cut altogether.

didn't realize Melo didn't make any all nba team
that's a L

Nikola Mirotic has reached a buyout with Real Madrid, and the Bulls are now reportedly working out a contract to sign him.
If Mirotic comes to Chicago, the Bulls will need to make room for his salary. Chicago currently only has a mid-level exception to offer, but if they chose to amnesty Carlos Boozer, they will have more at their disposal. However, the additional cap room gained from amnestying Boozer was thought to be reserved for Carmelo Anthony, so this report could be suggesting that Chicago believes Carmelo will be re-signing with the Knicks.

>Nikola Mirotic has reached a buyout with Real Madrid, and the
>Bulls are now reportedly working out a contract to sign him.
>If Mirotic comes to Chicago, the Bulls will need to make room
>for his salary. Chicago currently only has a mid-level
>exception to offer, but if they chose to amnesty Carlos
>Boozer, they will have more at their disposal. However, the
>additional cap room gained from amnestying Boozer was thought
>to be reserved for Carmelo Anthony, so this report could be
>suggesting that Chicago believes Carmelo will be re-signing
>with the Knicks.


The reports on Niko's recent championship games don't look good...Dude got benched by his coach (they say he was battling injuries...but...yeah...)

And I don't like the fact that we are signing an unproven player beyond the mid-level (that was the appeal for dude...buy him out and sign him on the cheap...)...

I hope the Bulls will use Niko for trade bait....Because this doesn't solve our need for proven NBA scorers...This kid would be great as a bench player if we had Melo or Love. But as is, this ain't looking good for us...

Hope Gar/Pax got something else up their sleeves....

>The reports on Niko's recent championship games don't look
>good...Dude got benched by his coach (they say he was battling
>injuries...but...yeah...)

I read that him and the coach were bumping heads, and that's why he didn't get as much tick. I think his numbers were low case the coach sat him. Granted I've been labeled the Mirotic supporter here, so...

I'd honestly like to see what he could do. We don't know his ceiling, but his skill set is something we could definitely use off the bench. Outside of this last championship game, he's been dominant in Europe on one of the best squads.

What I read was Niko was struggling with a foot and hand injuries. He got sat down in one of the championship games...And got sat down again...The kid got into a screaming match with the coach...Coach told him to get out of his face and get some work done for his injuries..And his team STILL won...

I also read that the team is completely divided on the kid...Half supported the benching and the other half thinks he's being treated unfairly...

All that said, the Bulls need to turn the page on Melo. If they can use Niko in a trade to get Love, do it...(that wait until 30 days rule to trade Niko will hurt the Bulls..)

But if that doesn't work we have to go after crazy ass Lance (I've been against this one from the jump...But we have to do something to get a second creator to take pressure off Rose....)

We sign Lance (again, a move I've been against) and amnesty Boozer and get a REAL back up center and re-sign DJ....

And go from there (and hope Bron hops out of Miami)....

not sure how I feel about that but I pretty much called this result so I'm like whatever....

Stretch 4 rotation player with a little bit of potential left in the tank (and the Toronto Tax).

It's probably worth overpaying by a million to establish Toronto as a place where people want to stay.

I'd love for them to find a way to grab a legit PF (maybe using Amir's non-guaranteed deal (I'm not wild about Amir as a starting 4 unless Jonas steps up) and a pick or something) but a nice offseason for the Raptors so far.

First, I must say... LMAO @ this entire story.

Secondly, GOOD. He made it be known to Melo that he wanted to play with Melo months ago. DONE. Fuck this dog and pony shit.

http://espn.go.com/chicago/nba/story/_/ ... lo-anthony

Sources: Derrick Rose didn't recruit
Updated: July 4, 2014, 2:01 PM ET
By Chris Broussard | ESPN.com

It turns out that Derrick Rose was not a part of the Chicago Bulls' pitch to Carmelo Anthony, after all.

Rose, Chicago's star point guard, just happened to be in the middle of his daily workout routine when Bulls officials brought Anthony into the United Center on Tuesday afternoon, according to sources with knowledge of the situation.

Rose actually was surprised to see Anthony, one source said. He had no idea what time the Knicks' free agent would be visiting the Bulls.


Derrick Rose just happened to be at the United Center when Carmelo Anthony visited Tuesday and wasn't part of the team's official presentation to the free agent, sources told ESPN.com.

Rose broke up his workout to approach Anthony and said a brief hello, but that was the extent of his participation in the Bulls' recruitment.

Chicago took Anthony through a prepared recruitment presentation for Anthony, and Rose's impression was that teammates Joakim Noah and Taj Gibson were officially part of it, sources said.

But the Bulls' front office never asked Rose to join in.

"Derrick wasn't bothered that he wasn't a part of it," a source said. "He was just kind of shocked, like 'Man, I didn't get the memo.'"

Rose had stated earlier in the week to Yahoo! that he would not be involved in the recruitment of Anthony, so it seemed stunning when reports came out that he did indeed participate in the Bulls' presentation.

But there was no about-face on Rose's part, just perhaps a timely visit with Anthony to the arena set up by Bulls' officials.

"Derrick was just working out, shooting jumpers, going through his normal routine," a source said. "He didn't even know what time Melo was coming."

Rose, who works out daily from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the United Center, did not attend a Tuesday night dinner the Bulls had with Anthony.

Despite his public stance against recruiting, sources close to Rose said he would have indeed taken part in the Bulls' presentation if he had been asked to by members of the front office.

They have such little faith in dude at this point that he's not even
part of the pitch

Notice that Kobe flew in from FAMILY VACATION to meet with
Carmelo

That means the Lakers think more of an old hobbly Kobe than
the Bulls do of D. Rose

----------------------------



O_E: "Acts like an asshole and posts with imperial disdain"




"I ORBITs the solar system, listenin..."

(C)Keith Murray, "

The rest is just Broussard hearsay.

"Rose had told Yahoo! Sports earlier in the week that he would not be involved in the recruitment of Anthony"

Nothing else matters. He didn't feel the need to be there. He wasn't there. Non story.

He's already on record saying that he would love to have Melo on the team. Nothing more needs to be done. The Bulls system under Thibs and their core group should be enough to lure in any top free agent if they are serious about winning.

and instead had the presentation when Derrick works out on the sly to quell any doubts Melo might have about Rose's health.

"Over here are the championship trophies, down this way is the state of the art locker room and...well, looky here, D-Rose is on the court dunking. Everyone say 'Hi'. Derrick, come say hello to Mr. Anthony."

You gotta be more positive O_E lol

Kobe leaving a family vacation to recruit a guy he's supposedly friends with seems a little 'desperate' to me.

Cali, movies, Fine Beach Bitches, nice weather, $$$ and Championships. It's the Lakers fam. Sells itself. Fuck he needs to leave Europe for when he already got 5 rings?

A text of 5 Larry OB trophies with a + You = 6 is all he had to do...

from EUROPE.

*Shoulder shrug*

>and instead had the presentation when Derrick works out on
>the sly to quell any doubts Melo might have about Rose's
>health.
>
>"Over here are the championship trophies, down this way is the
>state of the art locker room and...well, looky here, D-Rose is
>on the court dunking. Everyone say 'Hi'. Derrick, come say
>hello to Mr. Anthony."

Chicago media folks have been frying Broussard, OE...

Because it's not true...At all...lol

That's the real L, homie...


And fuck Kobe...

No one believes this is true

U do know this is a Chris Broussard special, right?

And you do know that Rose usually works out at Berto, but just so happened to be working out at UC at the same time the city was shut down during Melo's visit (with big ass images of Melo in a Bulls uniform right outside the building)....

Yeah...don't believe this bullshit...

It's Broussard....

Nah...Kobe will go down as a champion; one of the greats. But he will also go down as a weirdo, me-first, asshole/snitch of a player who actually quit on his team...People can say what they want about Rose...But that kid would scratch and claw to stay out on the court no matter what...That dude stands up for his teammates...No matter how terrible they r (see Keith Bogans...lol)...

As is, this kid doesn't need to worry about Broussard just making up shit...Just try to stay healthy...

He quit in '89, threw teammates under the bus...just wondering if you apply the same standards.

An asshole? Sure...A snitch and a dude who would quit on his team? ....nope...And he did not quit on that 89 team. He was getting his ass beat on night in and night out...dude was the only reason at that time that the Bulls were a playoff team...Meanwhile Kobe quit against the Phoenix fucking suns..lol

El (Essence) emailed Sam Smith about it who pretty much said that dude quit in order to send a message to Doug Collins. He flat out quit on his team but of course you (and most everyone else) don't seem to recall that...Wilt also has a similar playoff game where he basically quit. One game doesn't define a player...if so, MJ and Wilt would be labeled as quitters too but they aren't...yet you only wanna apply that standard to Kobe huh. I wonder why.

>El (Essence) emailed Sam Smith about it who pretty much said
>that dude quit in order to send a message to Doug Collins. He
>flat out quit on his team but of course you (and most everyone
>else) don't seem to recall that...Wilt also has a similar
>playoff game where he basically quit. One game doesn't define
>a player...if so, MJ and Wilt would be labeled as quitters too
>but they aren't...yet you only wanna apply that standard to
>Kobe huh. I wonder why.


Sam Smith? That ass? lol...Nah...

Oh...u mean the game where he was continually pounded (again) by the Bad Boys? The same game where both I. Thomas and Joe Dumars were benched for much of the 4th, and yet still beat the Bulls? The same game Laimbeer sat for the fourth? The same game Doug Collins asked Jordan to involve his teammates more that game because in his mind they would have a better chance to win?

Listen...chill with involving Jordan in Kobe's embarrassing, me-first bullshit...Kobe is on his own island...Oh...And here is an original write up on that game that really explains what happened....

-----

Working More Magic, Jordan Disappears as Bulls Lose to Pistons
June 01, 1989|MIKE DOWNEY | Times Staff Writer

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — Yes, almost anybody might have expected the Detroit Pistons to be successful Wednesday night on their home court, to take a 3-2 advantage over the Chicago Bulls in their ferocious match to see who fights the Lakers for the National Basketball Assn. championship.

Yes, somebody might have even foreseen Vinnie (Microwave) Johnson coming off the bench to score 16 of his 22 points for Detroit in the fourth quarter, breaking open a close game.

However, could anybody have anticipated, before Detroit's 94-85 victory over Chicago in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals, that:

--Chicago's Michael Jordan would take only eight shots in 46 minutes?

--Craig Hodges would lead Chicago in shots and points?

--Bill Laimbeer would be benched by Detroit the entire fourth quarter?

--Detroit's Isiah Thomas and Mark Aguirre would be benched almost the entire fourth quarter?

--Detroit's starting five would combine in the fourth quarter for three points?

--Brad Sellers would play 22 minutes for Chicago after not playing in the past three games--and take one less shot than Jordan?

No wonder it was suggested that the Bulls turned Jordan into a $2.5-million-a-year decoy.

"That's a pretty crass thing to say," Jordan's coach, Doug Collins, snapped back. "That's a pretty big shot to take at us.

"Michael scores 46 points, and people say he's not sharing enough of the offense. Now he takes eight shots and you tell him he's the highest-priced decoy in the game.

"Is that fair?"

Jordan sure didn't think so.

He made a conscious effort, he said, to involve his teammates in the offense, what with the Pistons putting everybody but their trainer on him when he touched the ball.

"Why should I take the shots if they're double-teaming me, triple-teaming me, sometimes even putting four guys on me?" Jordan asked. "Didn't we still get good shots?"

Yes, Michael.

"Well, did we hit 'em?"

No, Michael.

"That's the whole story," Jordan said. "We gotta hit 'em."

Held to 18 points--10 on free throws--Jordan was virtually no scoring factor in the game, although he did account for more than half (nine) of Chicago's assists.

Detroit's defense just keeps wearing Air Jordan and the Jordanaires down, bit by bit. The Bulls got only 80 points in Game 4. This time they got only 85, and were outshot by the Pistons by a ridiculously lopsided 80-59--the 59 shots an all-time playoff low by any NBA team.

Meantime, no team has scored 100 points against the Pistons in the 1989 playoffs, in a dozen games.

"Are they wearing us down? Yes," Collins said, answering his own question. "Are we tired? Probably. Is Michael tired? Probably. That's why I tried to use some new people. Detroit just keeps throwing fresh bodies at us. These guys leave Laimbeer, Isiah and Aguirre on the bench and don't even miss them."

If there is more than one reason Jordan's tongue is hanging so far out these days, it might be because the Bulls battled five long nights against Cleveland and six against the Knicks, while the Pistons breezed through Boston and Milwaukee in eight straight.

Even so, Chicago gave a good account of itself Wednesday for a while, in front of a crowd of 21,454 at the Palace, where the Pistons have won 27 of their last 28.

The Bulls must win here Sunday to get a shot at the Lakers and their first NBA title, but first, there's a little matter of Game 6 Friday night at Chicago Stadium.

They led, 31-21, early in the second quarter before running out of gas. Jordan advised his teammates on the bus ride to the arena that they would have to step up and be heard from, since Detroit obviously intended to throw the kitchen sink at him on defense.

Bill Cartwright answered the call, supplying 10 points and 10 rebounds by halftime.

The Pistons whittled away, with their top four reserves getting as much playing time or more than the starters--excluding Joe Dumars, whose principal job is guarding Jordan. Although they trailed, 45-41, at halftime, the Pistons opened the third quarter with a 12-2 run and never trailed again.

The minute one guy cooled off, someone else got hot. Aguirre and Thomas, for example, scored Detroit's last 18 points of the first half--but sat out the final 10 minutes 50 seconds of the game, even though neither player was hurt or in foul trouble.

Vinnie Johnson refused to re-take his seat, firing in jumper after jumper. Someone asked him later how it felt to be on fire, and he said: "On fire? I wasn't on fire. At least I don't think I was on fire."

John Salley begged to differ.

"Vinnie was so hot, I'm thinking of doing a video with just Vinnie and a bunch of fire in the background," Salley said.

Said Jordan, "That's why they call him the Microwave."

Chicago was as cold as the city.

In the Lakers-Suns series, the reason we were up in the series was due to pounding them inside and slowing the game down. Kobe went off in the 2nd quarter of the game 7 yet still down double-digits, and then came out in the 2nd half to try and get the post involved in order to slow the game down (which PJ explicitly said in the post-game) and doesn't try to shoot the team back into the game (regardless of the fact that he had tried just that in the 2nd quarter with no results)....omg, Kobe quit!

When MJ gets his teammates involved and doesn't shoot over the course of the ENTIRE game, it's only that he's trying to get his teammates involved *shrug*. Funny how context only matters when it suits you. If Kobe quit, then MJ quit, FOH with the double standard. I know the context of each, don't be a hypocrite.

EDIT: Basically, what auragin_boi wrote.

Derrick Rose has never wanted to "recruit" another star. He didn't want to recruit LeBron a few years ago. He doesn't want to do it now. If people want to come, they can come but he's not begging someone to join the Bulls.

The front office knew he wouldn't be a part of it but were probably nervous that 'Melo would take it as a diss that Rose wasn't there so they scheduled the meeting during Rose's workout so they could do a walkby.

So the reports on all sides are true. Rose didn't want to be a part of it and was surprised when 'Melo showed up.

I like Derrick but this "im not recruiting stance is fuckin lame.
Even if hes not gonna recruit, dont make it public and try to be Mr. Cool.
Cause while your ass has been out with a bum knee for the past two seasons, the leagues been moving on.

If Lebron, Kobe, Dwight, Harden, and even your own teamate can do some recruiting because they want to win, so can you. Its not begging anyone to play with you--its just how the league is going now.

You can back your teamates (like Bogans) all you want. But how about backing them when theyre trying to get a free agent to come in.


I dont have to believe Broussard's shit, I know Rose has publicly stated he wont recruit--and he's holding to that.



>EDIT: Basically, what auragin_boi wrote.
>
>Derrick Rose has never wanted to "recruit" another star. He
>didn't want to recruit LeBron a few years ago. He doesn't want
>to do it now. If people want to come, they can come but he's
>not begging someone to join the Bulls.
>
>The front office knew he wouldn't be a part of it but were
>probably nervous that 'Melo would take it as a diss that Rose
>wasn't there so they scheduled the meeting during Rose's
>workout so they could do a walkby.
>
>So the reports on all sides are true. Rose didn't want to be a
>part of it and was surprised when 'Melo showed up.

I don't think we'll see a more in depth piece on Derrick vs the new age of NBA recruiting (and it could be a very interesting long form article) until a) the stars sign their deals and b) summer is over and writers are off of the free agent beat/vacations and more NBA players are available for interview.

But it would be very interesting to hear from old players and new guys about what seems to be a new era of recruitment in the NBA.

I would back u up on all this ^^^

In fact....I said the same thing when the news that Derrick balked at recruiting Melo first hit...But Im calling bullshit on the Broussard story...For too many reasons to get into...

Three things to remember about Chris Broussard's bizarre Derrick Rose report
By Ricky O'Donnell | @SBN_Ricky on Jul 4 2014, 2:44p

It is the Fourth of July and a beautiful day in Chicago. You should be barbequing or hanging out with friends and family or drinking on a boat. You should not be following the daily stupidity of the Chicago Bulls while doing it. Literally any other activity is a better use of your time right now. That's why I'm going to assume not everyone is up on this latest Chris Broussard report on Derrick Rose's involvement in the Bulls' pitch to Carmelo Anthony on Tuesday. Let's go over what Broussard is reporting:

- Rose was surprised to see Carmelo Anthony at the United Center while he was going through a scheduled workout. "He didn't even know what time Melo was coming," a source told Broussard.
- Contrary to a report by K.C. Johnson that said Rose and Anthony spoke for 15-20 minutes, Broussard is reporting Rose said only a "brief hello" to Melo. He was not part of the Bulls' pitch.
- The Bulls' front office reportedly never even asked Rose to be part of the pitch. "Derrick wasn't bothered that he wasn't a part of it," a source tells Broussard. "He was just kind of shocked, like, 'Man, I didn't get the memo.'"

As with all things Bulls and all things Derrick Rose, the recruitment of Melo was bound to get weird. This is one of the stealthiest organizations in the NBA, one that doesn't leak or reveal even the slightest hints about how they want to build the roster. Rose is introverted and sensitive, and he's watched his character assassinated over the last two seasons at least partially because of something that may have been the team's doing (the report that he was cleared to play on March 1, 2013). These are perfect conditions for a shitstorm, and that appears to be what the Bulls have on their hands right now. At least if you have a certain type of worldview, it can all be seen as kind of hilarious.

I think there are three things to remember here:

1. Who cares if Rose recruits?

Derrick Rose does not give many memorable quotes, but it's hard to forget this one: "I'm rolling with Keith". That would be Keith Bogans, the starting shooting guard for the 2010-11 team that reached the Eastern Conference Finals. Bogans averaged 4.4 points per game in those 82 starts, and Rose didn't seem to think he needed a better player next to him in the backcourt.

Even before the Keith Bogans era, Rose has steadfastly maintained he does not want to recruit additional help to Chicago. He doesn't feel comfortable doing it. I also don't think it's unfair to think there might be a small part of him that always wants to be the biggest star on the team. This is his home city, after all. Let's not forget that Woj once reported Rose wanted the Bulls to sign Joe Johnson and Boozer when they were pitching LeBron, Wade and Bosh in 2010.

This gets many fans worked up, but it doesn't really bother me for one reason: Derrick Rose would be a terrible recruiter. Rose was once a great basketball player and hopefully still will be going forward, but just because you're the best player on the team doesn't mean you have to also be the best saleman. Rose is a very private person who has had a lot of life experiences that have led him to become that way. He is probably a little bit too far inside of his head. He is the exact opposite of someone who you want recruiting talent to this team.

You want a recruiter who is outgoing and expressive and passionate about what it's like to play for this city, this team, this coach. You want Joakim Noah. Noah was part of the Bulls' recruitment of Melo and even made the trip out to L.A. yesterday to hang with Pau Gasol. Noah is the perfect recruiter. He's two-time All-Star in his own right and someone who makes the game easier for everyone else on the court. Good players want to play with him.

Which is to say: I don't care about D. Rose not wanting to recruit, because I'd much rather have Noah doing it.

2. What side is this coming from?

This is what's really bizarre. There have been three distinct reports to come out about Rose's involvement in the recruiting pitch to Melo:

- Alex Kennedy reported Rose put on a private workout for Melo to show he was healthy.
- K.C. Johnson reported the workout was incidental and that Rose and Melo spoke for 15-20 minutes.
- Broussard is now reporting Rose didn't even know Melo was going to be in the building while he was there.

All of this is coming from different people, you would have to think. Kennedy didn't make up what he heard, someone told it to him. Same goes for K.C. and Broussard. As K.C. said:

@KCJHoop
The @Chris_Broussard report DRose was shocked to see Melo speaks to disconnect somewhere. Bulls under impression Rose small part of pitch.
1:26 PM - 4 Jul 2014


My guess is this latest Broussard report is coming from someone in the organization who is sick of Rose's shit, whether fairly or not. There is enough evidence to suggest maybe the Bulls are not always approving of Rose's behavior. Even if Gar Forman, John Paxson and Jerry Reinsdorf are all publicly supportive of Rose, let's remember that there are a lot of different people in the front office.

Is there also a chance this was coming from Rose's people? I think so. This quote would seem to suggest it: "Derrick wasn't bothered that he wasn't a part of it," a source tells Broussard. "He was just kind of shocked, like, 'Man, I didn't get the memo.'"

So, why bring this up to an ESPN reporter? Maybe Rose doesn't want Melo. Remember, there was a report that he preferred Kevin Love. But even beyond that, it's likelier (in the unlikely event that this is coming from Rose's side) Rose is just sort of fed up with the organization.

3. It's Broussard

This should go without saying. There is nothing to like about Chris Broussard. He will be late on every report, and frame it with SOURCES: even after the direct source has announced it. He once went on ESPN and said LeBron signing with the Bulls was a done deal. He called being gay "an open rebellion to god". He's a complete idiot, and I don't feel bad saying it.

What Broussard is reporting is different than what K.C. reported. We should believe K.C., yes? The problem here is that someone still told Broussard this shit. He isn't making it up.

It all goes back to just how bizarre both the organization and Rose can be. I don't know what to make of it because every argument seems at least somewhat plausible. These are the Chicago Bulls, and they are socially inept weirdos.

Please go enjoy your Fourth of July.

...

https://twitter.com/swirsk054/status/485241309289271296

chuck swirsky
‏@swirsk054
Tribune story refutes ESPN report whether Rose was or wasn't involved in Melo's Chicago visit. I'll side with K.C.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/basketball/bulls/ct-derrick-rose-carmelo-anthony-spt-0705-20140705,0,7047449.story

Derrick Rose part of pitch to Carmelo Anthony from the start
Bulls had requested for point guard to participate weeks ago

By K.C. Johnson, Chicago Tribune reporter
8:39 p.m. CDT, July 4, 2014

The Bulls and Derrick Rose agree on this: Both would love to add Carmelo Anthony. And the quicker Rose's headlines are basketball-related, the better for all.

After two seasons dominated by knee injuries, Rose found himself back in the news Friday. ESPN.com reported that the front office hadn't asked Rose to attend Tuesday's free-agent pitch to Anthony and that a surprised Rose stopped his workout to briefly say hello when he saw Anthony touring the United Center.

In fact, sources said Bulls officials requested weeks ago for Rose to participate in the pitch should they get an audience with Anthony once free agency began. When official contact was allowed late Monday and details of Anthony's Chicago visit were finalized, sources said they were communicated to Rose.

The Tribune reported in Wednesday's editions that Rose came to the United Center for a previously scheduled workout and rehabilitation session, talked to Anthony for roughly 20 minutes inside the locker room and did not attend a dinner held for Anthony.

Rose is uncomfortable in the role of recruiting and has made public this stance many times, as recently as Sunday in an interview with Yahoo Sports. The Tribune reported on draft night that Rose's camp had made clear to Anthony's camp he would welcome the All-Star forward's addition.

To Rose, that was as important as whatever he felt comfortable contributing Tuesday.

Taj Gibson and Joakim Noah also participated in the pitch to Anthony. Those players attended the dinner, which also included Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, President Michael Reinsdorf, Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen, general manager Gar Forman and executive vice president of basketball operations John Paxson.

Free agent Spencer Hawes has reached agreement on a four-year, $23M deal with the Los Angeles Clippers, league sources tell Yahoo.

(At least, I'm pretty sure that's the full MLE)

and that Clipper locker room.

Otherwise should be a good move for both teams.

Can't imagine Hawes will ruffle too many feathers. Maybe JJ will be upset about his pro-life stance but they'll get by.

>Maybe JJ
>will be upset about his pro-life stance but they'll get by.

They need a good big out on the floor in the 4th quarter when D'Andre is suspect with his free throws.

Wonderful fit for both parties.

sliding Blake down to the 3..or really..... Play Jordan on a dope SF to shut em down..

definitely and upgrade signing and gives Doc some options..

The Hedo Turkoglu and Villanueva deals stick out as worse than any deal we've seen this summer.

We haven't even gotten to the "Shit we whiffed on stars, we need SOMEONE" portion of the offseason.

2010 dalembert and amare (uninsured)
2008 brand and gilbert
2007 rashard

He's not a max guy if you ask me, but Houston, Dallas and, sadly, the Lakers would probably do that.

God I hope we just take a flyer on this FA season and save our money.

To being an efficient 20 and 8+ guy.

there's an alternate universe somewhere where houston kept lowry and dragic on reasonable deals and brought bron, bosh, and dwight to just wreck the league.

He's worth good money, but not max money. His numbers would definitely go up in a different team, but I buy him as a secondary player, and he makes a great #3 man. He's perfect for Houston because they already have two big dogs on the team and he gives them a big to take pressure off of Dwight inside.

He also doesn't need to rebound much, and that's not exactly his strength anyways and that's something I *personally* expect out of a max player at the 4, unless he's an overwhelming offensive presence like Dirk.

That said, I like Bosh in certain situations and while you can argue him as a "max" guy, I don't view him as *the* guy you build a team around, but rather a good complimentary guy to put around *the* guy and possibly another guy. If it takes paying max money to bring in a guy like him to put you over, so be it. I'd pay it. I certainly wouldn't pay him to be the guy I rebuild around while my other star is on decline at best and possibly finished at worst.

So as far as the Lakers, I'd pay 15 mil for Bosh if I could also manage snatch up Lance and Ariza/Deng, but not for max money. If you think it's a good idea for the Lakers to spend that kind of money on Bosh, well...

1) he was one of the better rebounders in the league his last years in toronto.
2) you're not going to see better available in free agency in the near future.
3) even in his much-disparaged miami form, he's not so different from a bigger melo that you already offered max to.

iif you don't want him fine, but don't say you want him on a discount. why the fuck would he take a discount to lose with the lakers and have people like you shit on him? kobe didn't take a discount.

Now if he were being paid on Game 7 performances ...

I agree...

And actually he would go back to being a 20/10 guy...It's obvious to anyone who really watches how Bosh is being used by the Heat that he doesn't even get many specific plays called his way...

I think the whole "Posh Bosh" meme has allowed folks to lose perspective on just how good he was. To me a max player leads his team to playoffs. That's what Bosh did for Toronto during his time there...And this was when the East wasn't as pathetic as it is today...

We need zome off the bench scoring, but Bem fucking Gordon for 10 milli???? Weird signing imo.

but the only decent thing they've done in my book is let jammer go

"You want a one-year deal for the veteran's minimum? Sheeeeeeeeeeeeit"

https://twitter.com/BillSimmons/status/485545108427653120

and now MIL is looking at trading for Lin.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/knicks/carmelo-anthony-expected-return-knicks-nba-waits-lebron-james-article-1.1855644

http://www.sportingnews.com/nba/story/2014-07-06/nba-trade-rumors-roy-hibbert-indiana-pacers-larry-bird-lance-stephenson

If Lebron leaves the Heat then their reign is over and now the East is a two way fight between Pacers and Bulls. I like Indiana's chances if everyone returns in this scenario.

This should all sort itself out on July 10th.

hibbert disappears, hill is a platoon guard, lance is gone? and a locker room issue?, everyone else is old or insignificant or ian mahinmi.

unless he's confident west can get his kobe/duncan on but even healthier he should be aggressive in re-tooling.

cause i bet they could have gotten it done for thomas in a sign and trade and some of those power forwards

but considering they're already over the cap...

the reason all the power forwards they do have don't work (because really, they're not that bad) is because they want them to be better rebounders and rim protectors. well, fuck it, go all in at get a rebounder and rim protector.

and pick and roll defense is actually about learning and effort. it's teachable. on the other hand, he's not going to magically become a shot blocker.

just as important if not more. true, you can mitigate some of that with scheme and effort but still.

defensively i'd be looking to pair cuz with someone more mobile than roy, even at the cost of some rim protection. that just seems like a disaster waiting to happen with today's P+R heavy sets.

Jordan Farmar and the Clippers have agreed to a two-year, $4.2 million contract, with the second season a player option.
L.A. lost Darren Collison in free agency and they did well to land a quality backup PG with their bi-annual exception. Farmar should take over most of Collison's 26 minutes per game. Although he played well for the Lakers last season, injuries limited Farmar to just 41 games played -- fantasy owners should view him as little more than a low-end source of 3-pointers and assists while Chris Paul is healthy.

And then Bryce Alford once he leaves school.

Jokes aside, a pretty nice signing for the price, considering that CP3 tends to miss 15 games a year and Farmar should be able to run the offense.

someone like the hawks are gonna lock him up for like 4-5 yrs for no reason.

@Chris_Broussard
Cleveland has replaced Miami as my frontrunner to land LeBron James...
9:27 PM - 6 Jul 2014

I'm not saying LJ to Cavs is done deal or I know 4 a fact; just my gut feeling based on many conversations I've had around this story...
9:54 PM - 6 Jul 2014

These convos aren't sourced enough 4 me to report as fact. But I've heard enough to believe "the wind is blowing" LJ back home. We'll see...
9:57 PM - 6 Jul 2014

...

@stephenasmith
My plan was to wait for @ESPN_FirstTake in the AM. But @SportsCenter has called me for duty. Here I come. Approx 11:30pm. Buckle Up!
10:01 PM - 6 Jul 2014

He's playing in LA, Miami, Houston, or Phoenix before returning to Cleveland. At this point that is the best move for him as far as winning a chip sooner than Cleveland.

they missing out this off season, hope they're aggressive next year when the talent is still cheap

MCW comes back with Noel and that other dude they drafted. If the Big three breakup they should easily get the 8th seed.

milwaukee was an 8th seed in the east just a year ago.

they need to tank for a guy like mudiay or have a plan to secure a star on the wing....otherwise they're just a lesser version of new orleans.

>milwaukee was an 8th seed in the east just a year ago.
>
>they need to tank for a guy like mudiay or have a plan to
>secure a star on the wing....otherwise they're just a lesser
>version of new orleans.

Players 4-12 or whatever rotation they run are fully capable of besting another team's players. They should be straight for years to come. It took Portland a minute to turn it around but they did. As long as one team isn't dominating every year your squad has a strong chance to improve. A Pacers team without Lance or Hibbert and a Bulls team without Rose or Melo is beatable, in my opinion. That's what you're looking at if one of the big three leaves Miami.

They will be one of the five worst teams in the league next year, add another Top 5 pick in the 2015 draft, then bring that player plus Embiid the following year in 2015/16.

That team will make the playoffs, bring Saric over that summer and possibly add some key free agents if they feel close enough to go without sacrificing their future in 2016/2017.

That's the deal.

They are actively trying not to make the playoffs next season, in fact if they do they lose a first-rounder from the awful Moultrie trade with Miami made by the prior regime.

If they miss the playoffs again the pick becomes a second rounder in the following year's draft which will be nearly worthless.

They will not be sniffing an eight seed even in the East.

As part of the saric/elfrid swap

move. I wouldn't be mad if James went back to Cleveland (my biggest gripe would be facing that team in my Bulls' division...But fuck it...Let's go...)...And the fact that dude's agent is talking to the Cleveland brass again cannot be diminished...James wouldn't even take Gilbert's phone call just months ago (it took Big Z's retirement to get them together in the same builiding)....

Still low odds on this happening, but people would rally around this move....The Cavs would become the team to root for everyday NBA fans.

-----

Cavs believe James is open to pitch
Updated: July 7, 2014, 8:43 AM ET
By Brian Windhorst and Marc Stein | ESPN.com



After more than two years of planning, the Cleveland Cavaliers believe they have LeBron James legitimately listening to their pitch to leave the Miami Heat and return to his home state in free agency, according to sources close to the process.

There has yet to be a firm indication that James actually is ready to leave Miami after four years and two championships with the Heat, but sources told ESPN.com that the four-time MVP is increasingly considering the Cavaliers as an option as he moves into the final stages of deciding which team to sign his next contract with.

James is becoming more interested in the Cavs' free-agency pitch, according to sources. However, James will meet with Heat president Pat Riley sometime this week to receive Riley's plan for the Heat's future.

A critical face-to-face meeting looms with Heat president Pat Riley on a day to be determined this week, sources confirmed Sunday night, so that James can hear the Hall of Famer's plans for the Heat's roster. But James' agent, Rich Paul, has already sat down with Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert in what is regarded as the first formal step toward trying to shrink the gulf between James and Gilbert after the ocean of hard feelings stemming from James' departure from Cleveland in 2010 to sign with the Heat.

Sources say that the Cavs' pitch made to Paul last week -- which they also hope to make this week to James in their own face-to-face meeting -- revolves around Kyrie Irving and the other young prospects they have, in addition to the numerous options Cleveland possesses to add to the roster over the next year.

It is the second part of this pitch the Cavs hope will be the key selling point in getting James to choose them. While several teams like the Heat, Los Angeles Lakers and Houston Rockets have cap space to make moves this summer, the Cavs hope to show James how they have collected and created tools to continue adding into the next few years.

The Cavs also believe they have made the greatest move yet this summer, convincing Irving to sign a five-year maximum contract extension in the first few hours of free agency. With No. 1 overall pick Andrew Wiggins under control for the next five seasons as well, the Cavs are pitching youth and roster stability to James, who played on one of the oldest teams in the league last season.

The team also potentially owns three first-round picks in the 2015 draft, including the Heat's pick if they fall outside the top 10. They also have the Memphis Grizzlies' pick if it falls between Nos. 6 and 14 and their own pick. The Cavs believe they can use these as assets in potential trades to further upgrade the roster if James will come aboard.

The Cavs also made an unheralded trade late on draft night that has potential to become valuable next year, an aspect they intend to explain to James: as part of a draft-pick swap, the Cavs traded Alonzo Gee for Brendan Haywood in a deal that will be announced after July 10.


In addition to having size the Cavs need, Haywood has an unorthodox contract created when he was waived via the amnesty clause by the Dallas Mavericks. Haywood will be on the Cavs' books for $2.2 million this season but has a $10.5 million deal for the following season that isn't guaranteed until Aug. 1, 2015. This is one of the most unique contracts in the league, and the Cavs could use it in a straight trade or a sign-and-trade to add a major free agent next summer, even though they aren't positioned to have cap space.

The Cavs still have several hurdles to overcome. Rival teams are skeptical that James and Gilbert will be able to patch up their differences in the wake of James' televised "announcement" and Gilbert's subsequent open letter that attacked James' character and got him fined by then-commissioner David Stern. There has been a cooling of the tension between the parties in recent years, but James still harbors some ill feelings that both would have to attempt to settle before any partnership could be renewed, sources said.

On a more basic level, the Cavs currently don't have the cap space to sign James to the $20.7 million maximum contract he is looking for. They have some players on non-guaranteed deals they could waive but will want to keep Anderson Varejao, who has a partially guaranteed deal and is the lone holdover on the team from James' years in Cleveland.

The easiest way to get near the needed space would be to offload the $6.3 million salary of guard Jarrett Jack, and the Cavs have been in trade talks involving Jack for several weeks, sources told ESPN.com.

at all... simple reason is East vs West... getting to the finals is so much easier in the East...

Kyrie is as good as anyone on Phoenix or LA and Clevelands biggest weakness is it's front line, which is equally weak in Phoenix and LA

I'm not saying LJ to Cavs is done deal or I know 4 a fact

http://t.co/Cl0AxLlrGL

in the past...the Lakers are very rarely in play for a lot of free agents...and these guys just seem to get so much wrong BEFORE it happens that it's really only worth your time to analyze stuff after it happens..

at least with say political pundits they are analyzing what groups of people are going to do...based upon polls and such... So I guess you have some data to analyze to suggest what might happen..

but with guessing where free agents are going to sign.... You're trying to figure out what ONE GUY is going to do...

a lot of these guys seem to be just trying to throw shit up against a wall and act like they got some inside info...

players don't always pick where the money is...they don't always pick where the team has the best chance to win right away.... they don't always go to team up with a particular player or coach....they don't always go back to their hometown to play or play in the city where they live in the offseason..

there are numerous examples of guys who ended up some place that didn't not fit at least some of those categories..

it's all conjecture....

Stephen A just threw some shit out there about Bosh being the key free agent, and everyone is waiting on what he's gonna do...lol.. But I mean why not...nobody else sayin that shit so Stephen A got to find an angle..

the other chubby dude on there is making the same fukkin comment about how money is the only thing these guys are taking into consideration..

don't nobody know what the hell they are talking about....

and won't until the player makes his wishes known....

shit is funny...

but there are some guys who are going to look real fukkin stupid if the shit don't go the way they been saying it's gonna go... muhfukkas gonna look like the Karl Rove of the NBA...

so theres that too..

in sunny California then going to yo house and rubbin lotion on La La's azz might be reason enough to come and play for the Lakers...

maybe it's not...

but we won't know until the guy say so...

that shit could carry more weight than some fat expert on espn making an assumption about what a guy is going to do based only on how much money a team can pay him...

but again...we won't know till he say so... until then it's all conjecture...

was all over twitter yesterday

what actually came out yesterday was that kevin love was not involved...but that both Kobe and Melo were both there at some point over the weekend.... that came from an assistant AD at UCLA..

again..that's not out of the ordinary

I don't even believe wojo's rumors. if there's a deal, fine. but if not I ain't listening to that bullshit.

http://card.mygamercard.net/lastgame/rjcc.png

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

dude said this morning when Greeny asked him about Dan Gilbert's plane flying to Miami. "yes, that happened...don't know who was on the plane, but it happened...everything else...I have NO idea. I'm not reporting anything until I know for certain and right now I simply do not know what Lebron is gonna do". Supposedly this dude knows Lebron better than any other media person out there.

https://twitter.com/sheridanhoops/status/486171078738599936

Apparently Woj said something today... that would give it more credibility than the other two.

Of course the Heat would leak that out....Would anyone expect anything differently? lol...

The crazy part is Bosh may be the one that has the last word on this...If he bolts for Houston (which could def. happen) Bron is out.

http://tinyurl.com/mbklnxy

.

Should've known better than to listen to a Cleveland fan foaming at the mouth in hopes Bron comes back.

http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/07/07/report-lebron-james-entire-inner-circle-including-his-wife-want-him-to-sign-with-cavaliers/

i don't know why ppl lend so much credence to what lala anthony wants and where she wants to live, but are completely dismissive of lebron's wife having any say in his decision.

Josh...come clothes-line people with US!!!

http://fansided.com/2014/07/07/miami-heat-rumors-serious-interest-josh-mcroberts/#!bad7kQ

Just flashed across my phone on my ESPN app. Cotdamn...that GUAP!

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/11187137/chris-bosh-seriously-considering-houston-rockets-max-four-year-96-million-contract-offer

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http://cdn1.sbnation.com/imported_assets/1791789/GiD24rQ.gif

I gave you til Friday, told you call me right back"

Bosh and Dwight.


Bomb I see you big upping Embiid's twitter shit. Youd be calling Howard a cornball for the same shit. Dont front.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Opts out, leaves all that money on the table, and LeBron and Bosh bounce. OUCH.

Now the Heat can add a couple good players to the starting roster to surround Lebron and Wade. A banging big man, a slashing guard.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Bron gets mad and bounces to Cleveland. Riles gotta kiss Wade's balls...Morey, you crazy for this one!!!

i don't see it tho. melo + bron both @ max doesn't leave much room for reinforcements. plus losing your only real big makes a pre-existing weakness even weaker.

You could potentially add someone like him plus others. If I'm Miami, I'd prefer a Gasol + Monroe over paying Bosh like that.

My exact wish.
I want Monroe more than any FA not named Lebron.

>You could potentially add someone like him plus others. If
>I'm Miami, I'd prefer a Gasol + Monroe over paying Bosh like
>that.

was talkin it out of the blue on Mike and Mike this morning (I do indeed dislike that show lol)

why it would be assumed that Bron is automatically staying. Bosh leaving could be a deal breaker for LeBron.. Who really knows?


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they can flip lin -- they've already got a philly deal on deck -- sign bosh outright, and then re-up chandler afterward. as long as he hasn't signed a sheet with another team yet, his cap hold is still miniscule.

daryl knows what he's doing.

>they can flip lin -- they've already got a philly deal on
>deck -- sign bosh outright, and then re-up chandler afterward.
>as long as he hasn't signed a sheet with another team yet, his
>cap hold is still miniscule.

I could see him ending up w/ the Mavs for around 10mill if they can't land Melo.

it means they have the room to offer bosh a max. they can pay chandler whatever they want after that, he's their own free agent.

they're just hoping he doesn't sign an offer sheet w/ another team before they get this bosh thing settled, that would tie up their cap space for 3 days.

he wants to get paid but he can also make as much if not more from endorsement shit.

Dallas offers a similar market in that regard with less youth and upside. Id be surprised if he chooses Dallas unless its a huge overpay max type deal.

after last weeks "fake drama" and then if Nick Johnson plays well in summer league.

I think that Philly deal is in place and will happen but theyre throwing it out there t see who else might bite on Lin.

The Heat are better off going after McRoberts as RuPaul's replacement for 1/3rd the price & filling out their roster w/ decent role players (Ariza/Born Ready/Deng/Stuckey/Jameer/Marion/Vince/Emeka/Jason Smith/Aminu/Ekpe/Pierce) rather than matching that offer.

To preserve the cap hold, they could even put their trade exception to use & propose a sign-&-trade for Parsons/T-Jones (assuming Parsons isn't asking for anything north of 10mill per) since that would most likely be necessary for Bosh to sign w/ the Rockets.

>The Heat are better off going after McRoberts as RuPaul's
>replacement for 1/3rd the price & filling out their roster w/
>decent role players (Ariza/Born
>Ready/Deng/Stuckey/Jameer/Marion/Vince/Emeka/Jason
>Smith/Aminu/Ekpe/Pierce) rather than matching that offer.
>
>To preserve the cap hold, they could even put their trade
>exception to use & propose a sign-&-trade for Parsons/T-Jones
>(assuming Parsons isn't asking for anything north of 10mill
>per) since that would most likely be necessary for Bosh to
>sign w/ the Rockets.


Bron would be looking at what u r talking about like, "Nah...I'm good..."

Parsons plays the same position as Bron, and in a much more perimeter manner. We not talking about a dude that can bang at the PF position (and play center from time to time like Bosh did)...

Nah...Melo would be just about the only player that would keep Bron in town. And as Dula has said, Miami would be unable to build a complete team financially giving both of those dudes the ultra MAX.

The smart money for Bron would be to either sign a one year deal with Miami and convince Bosh to do the same) OR....

Sign with Cleveland who has a youth movement AND cap space AND picks for the future...

Like I said...I get that Bosh has been a dude we can all joke about. But the dude sacrificed his game A LOT in Miami.

He should jump at that Houston deal and don't look back...

>Parsons plays the same position as Bron, and in a much more
>perimeter manner. We not talking about a dude that can bang at
>the PF position (and play center from time to time like Bosh
>did)...
I said replace Bosh w/ McRoberts then get Parsons via a sign & trade basically replace Rashard/Bosh (their front-line during the 2014 ECF/Finals) w/ Parsons/McRoberts. If they want to go BIG then bring Parsons off the bench & start T-Jones. Use the left over money to add depth at all positions.

Basically the could potentially have roster similar to this:

Jameer/Bazz
Wade/Born Ready
Bron/Parson
T-Jones/Rashard
McRoberts/Jason Smith

Throw in Marion/Pierce/Emeka for vet min along w/ Aminu/Ekpe & you have a very versatile/athletic line-up for their pressure defense.

>>Parsons plays the same position as Bron, and in a much more
>>perimeter manner. We not talking about a dude that can bang
>at
>>the PF position (and play center from time to time like Bosh
>>did)...
>I said replace Bosh w/ McRoberts then get Parsons via a sign &
>trade basically replace Rashard/Bosh (their front-line during
>the 2014 ECF/Finals) w/ Parsons/McRoberts. If they want to go
>BIG then bring Parsons off the bench & start T-Jones. Use the
>left over money to add depth at all positions.


Bron won't be staying for that...And Miami won't be doing Houston any favors. They would rather just tank than get a player (Parsons) who wouldn't be able too reach his full potential playing the same position as James...

HOWEVER. I can def. see Bron re-signing with the Heat for 1 year and then going from there...

But Bron doesn't want to be playing with broken down aging players u r naming. The Spurs won because they were deep...But they were deep with some key players who also happened to be young, which balanced out the oldtimers...

Bron wants to play with either a max guy or another player that is young and a stud...

I think Bron either stays with Miami for 1 year or bolts...

Like I said...Bosh is the key...Bron is just sitting back...Miami would be in a flurry to sign Melo if Bosh leaves (which he should...He has his rings...Now it's about the money AND getting more respect. Remember. He would be the one with the championships. Not Harden/Howard).


The saving grace for Miami is Boshy's wife loves life in Miami...But yeah. Shit is getting nuts...

She brings a lot of joy to the world with them bikinis.

24 mil per for bosh to play a similar 3rd wheel role?
if houston is working under the assumption they can offer that number, why not aggressively go after melo
anyway, if this is true (with in 10-20 million even) then bosh needs to take it so riles can figure out a way to start talks with melo

>24 mil per for bosh to play a similar 3rd wheel role?
>if houston is working under the assumption they can offer that
>number, why not aggressively go after melo
>anyway, if this is true (with in 10-20 million even) then bosh
>needs to take it so riles can figure out a way to start talks
>with melo

Well everybody is reporting this now. Not just Mr. Sources...

And Bosh would fit in better than Melo/Harden....

He's the perfect player for the Rockets...

>And Bosh would fit in better than Melo/Harden....

cause i'd agree with that
that's a hell of a number if all you want is some one to give you 16-18 every now and then, underachieve on the boards, and improve your help D

edit: nvm houston allegedly already threw this offer out to melo as he was their first choice, but he wasn't interested for whatever reason. bosh is a contingency plan after the rockets fell out of the melo sweepstakes

NAH...its based off the fact that Bosh will finally be able to play his natural position and not go hard on the 3s. What u saw of Bosh in Miami is a player who rarely had plays called for him...

bosh has only begun to chuck threes the last year and a half
as far as his natural position......he's played center the majority of his career in toronto so let's not reach for excuses for his ineffectiveness
i'm not sure bosh is going get more plays drawn up for him in houston, and if he does it's probably going to be as a stretch 4 jacking 3 anyway so.....
ATEOTD the heat would have loved to get 20 and 8 from that dude on a nightly basis. it's not like there weren't opportunities or a need for that. he just wasn't always assertive enough

@ESPNSteinLine
ESPN learned that Josh McRoberts has verbally committed to sign with the Miami Heat
2:01 PM - 7 Jul 2014

ESPN has learned that McRoberts will receive Heat's full midlevel for the next four years ($23 million) with a player option after Year 3
2:05 PM - 7 Jul 2014

http://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=8&topic_id=2346566&mesg_id=2346566&page=#2347198

so he can get another top 5 pick next couple years

Yep...This^^^^is the truth...

All that "Rupaul" shit?

His missing the underlining point...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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.

I looked at this as them re-building their bench and everyone is coming back.


Download my new mixtape featuring Lecrae, Andy Mineo, Christon Gray and more. Positive Hip Hop: http://www.noistrade.com/wadeoradio

have left. You think Bosh is gonna take like 11 or 12 after just being offered 24 per by Houston?

Mcbob got vision and shooting,

He has to be in the right system to be productive ala Diaw

Diaw/McRoberts are systems player. They have to play point-forward to be productive as opposed to playing a traditional PF role.

.

Fixed that for you.

Adrian Wojnarowski @WojYahooNBA · 1m
Free agent Danny Granger has agreed to a two-year, $4.2 million deal with the Miami Heat, league sources tell Yahoo Sports.
ReplyReplied to 0 times RetweetRetweeted 987 times987 FavoriteFavorited 156 times156

Bron should soon announce he will be re-signing w/ the Heat for the max. Melo taking his money & staying w/ the Knicks.

>Adrian Wojnarowski @WojYahooNBA · 1m
>Free agent Danny Granger has agreed to a two-year, $4.2
>million deal with the Miami Heat, league sources tell Yahoo
>Sports.
>ReplyReplied to 0 times RetweetRetweeted 987 times987
>FavoriteFavorited 156 times156


Ha!...


All these moves could mean two things....Bron has already caught up with Bosh and let him know that they would do more damage together in Miami and ride it out for another year...

Or...

He gone. Bosh gone....And...

shit...

waste of an asset.

Born Ready for 10mill per rounding out the ensemble. If Bron end up leaving Miami, Riley is assembling an ensemble of goons to go after Bron when he returns to South Beach.

Mavericks pushing on an offer sheet agreement with Houston restricted free agent Chandler Parsons, league sources tell Yahoo.

https://twitter.com/WojYahooNBA/statuses/486233623566516224

If Parsons signs the offer sheet the Rockets can't even sign-&-trade him plus his cap hold would sky rocket to around 10mill.

>If Parsons signs the offer sheet the Rockets can't even
>sign-&-trade him plus his cap hold would sky rocket to around
>10mill.


Nah...they can still sign Bosh straight up...Houston would love for Parsons to stay. But that doesn't hold up the deal considering that Bosh is still a free agent who can go where he wants AND fits Houston's needs...

And there's still the matter of Houston being able to re-sign Parsons for as much money as they want...

But I don't think this stops them from going after Bosh. Cuban is going after Parsons because he's a damn good player (he was always on their radar). Nothing more nothing less...

Morey has even cited him before.


He talks about why these deals mean Miami is trying hard to keep big 3.


https://twitter.com/BimaThug

http://dimemag.com/2014/07/report-melo-torn-knicks-bulls-lakers/

Carmelo Anthony has narrowed his list of possible teams down to three: the Bulls, Lakers and the Knicks. In Frank Isola’s most recent piece for the New York Daily News, a friend of Anthony’s says he’s “torn” over the choice between the three teams with each offering their own advantages and shortcomings.

Anthony met with Knicks president Phil Jackson and Knicks officials on Thursday and Friday, who Isola reports offered him a maximum contract of five years and $129 million — the most any team can pay him. But, Anthony is also said to be debating Chicago and Los Angeles, even though only the Lakers can offer him a maximum contract, though it would only be for four years and $96 million.

Here’s Isola:


"Carmelo Anthony is “torn” over where to spend the prime years of his career, according to a friend of the Knicks All Star forward.

Anthony, 30, is still debating his next move with the Knicks, Lakers and the Bulls as his top three choices, the source claims. Chicago is still in the running despite the fact that the Bulls, barring a sign-and-trade, cannot come close to matching the max deals the Knicks and Lakers offered Anthony last week. However, the Bulls do allow Anthony to stay in the Eastern Conference, play in the large market and join a contending team.

Knicks president Phil Jackson, despite hints to the contrary, offered Anthony a max deal of five years, $129 million. The best the Bulls can do is $75 million over four years. If it was just about taking the most money, Anthony already would have announced his intentions to rejoin the Knicks. But Anthony is intrigued by the Bulls as well as the Lakers, who have the ability to give Anthony a max deal ($96 million) over four years. Anthony also lives in Los Angeles during the off-season and is friends with Kobe Bryant. It is believed that if Anthony were to sign with the Lakers, Pau Gasol would likely re-sign with the purple and gold."


About that max offer Jackson supposedly extended to Anthony on Friday, the Wall Street Journal‘s Chris Herring has a different view of ‘Melo and Phil’s meeting. A source tells Herring Anthony felt New York’s max offer was hazy, and he got mixed signals when he spoke to the team on Thursday — the day before Jackson, according to Isola, offered him the five-year max:


"According to a person familiar with the situation, Anthony felt as if he got mixed signals from the New York Knicks during his meeting with the team on Thursday. While Anthony and his camp were told that he could have a maximum contract if he wanted it, a source said, team president Phil Jackson continued to preach the virtues of taking less than the maximum—a message that left Anthony questioning whether the max offer was sincere."


This could explain why the Lakers became serious contenders for ‘Melo after the meeting, Herring postulates. Phil, as is his custom, has been using Carmelo Anthony’s own comments in an attempt to placate his need for a better surrounding cast in New York. The only way for Anthony to do that is to take less than the max, so it frees Phil to go after better players.

Here’s why ‘Melo is torn:

The Bulls can’t offer him the max, but they do have more pieces to surround Anthony with his best chance to win a title now, something he’s said is a primary factor during his free agency wanderings around the country over the last week. Chicago has reigning Defensive Player of the Year, Joakim Noah; runner-up to Sixth Man of the Year, Taj Gibson — if they don’t have to unload him to land ‘Melo; a healthy — fingers crossed — former MVP in Derrick Rose and a coach and system with Tom Thibodeau that perfectly conjoins with Anthony’s score-first mentality. Except, Chicago offers the least money in what could be Anthony’s last big payday before he gets too old to command that sort of money.

The Knicks can offer the most money. That’s about all they offer except a tentative plan hatched last week to make a run at Pau Gasol, after moving Tyson Chandler to Dallas. Plus, and this is totally speculative, but Phil’s Triangle Offense might make better use of ‘Melo’s mid-range game, though he’d have to buy in to a system that rewards more offensive movement than the iso-heavy Anthony might be prepared to undertake.

The Lakers, possibly after New York’s reported mixed signals about the max offer, provide a good locale — Anthony’s wife, La La lives and works in Los Angeles and they have a summer home there — plus a full max contract they’ve already offered him. That’s forgetting to mention a motivated Kobe Bryant coming back after a season where he only appeared in six games. They also might re-sign Gasol, but right now Pau is still a free agent. Still, neither the Lakers nor the Knicks offer the sort of surrounding talent Chicago has, but the Bulls can’t offer the money LA and New York can come up with.

That’s a lot of think about, so it’s no wonder Anthony is torn. If he wants to win, he should go to Chicago. If he wants the most money, he should choose New York. If he wants what might be the best bet for his pocketbook and family, plus a chance to play with a player like Kobe, the Lakers are the team.

We’re glad we don’t have to make that decision because he’s going to get raked across the coals no matter where he elects to sign.

I'll say it again, homie...

The Bulls need to come to Melo/Knicks and tell him (them) we are willing to do a sign and trade...

Offer 1st round picks, contracts off the books, Niko, and Jimmy Buckets...Get the deal done. He wants to win AND his money...Make it known that the only way he can get his money in the Chi is through a sign & trade...

Call the Knicks bluff...

if carmelo comes to chicago, it will be via a sign and trade. not an outright signing. i'm pretty sure everyone involved in the process is aware of that. not sure why you keep belaboring that point or treating it as a revelation. lolz.

that isn't the holdup. the holdup is that carmelo's an unrestricted free agent and he hasn't decided yet where he wants to play. it's not about the bulls not offering enough. that's just dumb internet fan talk. that part of the process hasn't even come up yet. he'd have to decide on chicago first. before chi and ny even talk S&T specifics.

>if carmelo comes to chicago, it will be via a sign and trade.
>not an outright signing. i'm pretty sure everyone involved in
>the process is aware of that. not sure why you keep belaboring
>that point or treating it as a revelation. lolz.
>
>that isn't the holdup. the holdup is that carmelo's an
>unrestricted free agent and he hasn't decided yet where he
>wants to play. it's not about the bulls not offering enough.
>that's just dumb internet fan talk. that part of the process
>hasn't even come up yet. he'd have to decide on chicago first.
>before chi and ny even talk S&T specifics.


It's not that I think I'm dropping a revelation...lol...It's my way of saying that this is all about convincing Melo to strong arm the Knicks...

I already know Melo is still making up his mind...I'm not among the fanboy contingent...My fear, Dula, is that the Chi was walking away from the Melo sweepstakes...

I just want them to continue the pressure. Whether or not Melo decides to ride with us is moot at this point. Let's just continue to go hard...

dude wants to actually compete, Now

la doesnt give him that, not without more moves

NY doesnt give him that for at least a year

CHI is the only team that can content NOW with him. (albeit injury concerns)

>My fear, Dula, is that the Chi
>was walking away from the Melo sweepstakes...

they haven't walked away. they just understand that his returning to new york is and always has been by far the most likely scenario, and they're plotting their contingencies as any smart organization would. but they're still in the mix until they get an official no, and are operating accordingly.

http://my.chicagotribune.com/#section/438/article/p2p-80738411/


>I just want them to continue the pressure.

they've made their presentation. he was reportedly very impressed, evidenced by them still being in the mix. at this point it's just a waiting game for everyone involved.

It doesn't for me.

mcdermott and mirotic are great gets who fill vital team needs. hopefully resign augustin, and get rose back at full health, and they're still in great shape.

but melo would be a coup. it's an ideal fit.

>mcdermott and mirotic are great gets who fill vital team
>needs. hopefully resign augustin, and get rose back at full
>health, and they're still in great shape.
>
>but melo would be a coup. it's an ideal fit.

Mcdermott...I think he's going to shock a lot of people...Niko? Gotta wait and see that...

btw, if the Bulls do a S&T with the Knicks, they should try to give up Snell instead of Butler. We've got shooting now, and we'll need a defensive stopper like Butler to guard Lebron & everybody else.

They go into barbershops and take notes

I trust beat reporters more than anyone else...

A "friend familiar with the situation", I tend to not believe it

I'm not gonna knock the writers, but even Stephen A. said nobody knows, all these sources don't know, only the players know. To report stuff like this is to drive up drama

It would sound more believable if they talked to say an agent, but trying to talk to a friend of a friend of a friend of a player? I'll wait till they sign dem papers

like, there are reasons why bron is taking a while. basketball reasons.

melo just seems to be milking it.

He's got 3 legit offers to consider..

30mil more to stay home in NY
Move to LA, play with Kobe & Gasol for a 4 year MAX
Play with a Bulls team that should contend but take way less money

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
<---- 5....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dlgiritpmfo

=======================================

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unlike bron, during the decision, i dont think melo knows yet.
its odd that the dominoes will fall after melo, not bron.

Just want to be clear here - he made The Decision on 7/8/2010. So, Melo is just doing what Bron did. Just saying.

You're literally just posting out of hate.

-Chicago has the better ready-to-go roster, but not the money and don't have a lot of attractive options for S&T deals to pay him. Still, Rose and Noah makes for a great tandem to play with while being coached by one of the best coaches in the game at the moment.

-New York can offer the most money and the allure of Phil Jackson's vision, but don't really have the greatest roster and would have to do some leg work to get another star for Melo to play with, not a lot of assets to make it happen with, and they have an unproven coach. Amare's massive expiring could net something worthwhile though.

-Lakers can offer him max money, but not like New York can. Roster wise, they're a gamble in that they can offer the probability of Pau resigning, a healthy Kobe who may or may not still be a major threat, and a promising young rookie in Randle. If those stars align and Pau does what Pau usually does, Kobe returns as something resembling his former self, Randle happens, Marshall's play-making stays on track, and Nash's expiring deal nets something else? Add Melo to that and they could do a lot more damage then people are willing to give them credit for. Still, that's an awful lot of things that need to go just right, and they STILL HAVE NO COACH.

-Houston has Dwight and Harden, along with assets that shouldn't be too hard to trade to free up money. That said, McHale sucks, Harden is redundant with Melo on the team (seriously, Born Ready would be a better fit for that squad with Melo, but I digress), Still, they'd likely lose Parsons, Asik, and Lin in the process, which is a loss of considerable depth.

-Dallas, which I'm shocked he didn't give more of a thought. Dirk, Monte, and Tyson is a good nucleus to join. They have long term coaching stability and a coach who will go all out when he smells blood. Not sure what the issue with them is, but that's a great situation IMO. As it stands they should probably just add Ariza and Isiah Thomas and relaunch a new era of gunslingers. They'd outscore most teams more nights then not, but I digress. Melo, Dirk, Tyson, and Monte puts them at top four out west, possibly displacing OKC in the top three.

Yeah, there's a shitload of things to consider

https://twitter.com/WojYahooNBA/status/486268766389813248

Really not sure what Hennigan is doing there. I thought they needed a defensive complement to Vucevic rather than a rich man's Andrew Nicholson.

>Really not sure what Hennigan is doing there. I thought they
>needed a defensive complement to Vucevic rather than a rich
>man's Andrew Nicholson.

No clue what he's doing with these signings this offseason.

but I ain't mad at these guys..

these teams should see that this isn't the route to take...overpaying just saddles you with guys you can't move once it goes bad..

someone will pay jordan hill, but after that it's all gambles.

orlando needs a veteran presence and shooting. $8 mil is pretty wild, though. phoenix is gonna miss him.

that dude will not be missed. horrible defender, usually missed the 3's he took, and was never aggressive in the paint offensively.

later dude.

"While his individual numbers aren’t particularly staggering, it’s his effect on the rest of a team’s offense where he provides his value. The Suns averaged 110.4 points per-100-possessions with Frye on the floor, compared to only 102.5 points per-100 possessions with Frye on the bench, per NBA.com.

"Particularly, his presence helped the development of guard Goran Dragic and pseudo-combo forward Markieff Morris. With Frye on the court, Dragic’s shooting percentage rose from 47% to 52.1%, his three-point shooting skyrocketed from 29.1% to 46.7%, and his assist rate rose from 20.4% to 24.1%. Morris’s numbers also skyrocketed across the board with Frye on the floor. His true-shooting percentage went from 55.3% to 58.3%, and Frye’s presence gave him more space to operate in his preferred 15-19 foot area — the area of the floor where he took the most of his shots outside of at the rim — where Morris’s shooting percentage rose from 43.5% with Frye off the floor to 51.9% with him on it."

Channing just isnt that good. the Morris bros werent solid early on but they were BALLIN later in the year, especially 'Kief. thats why Channing's minutes dropped, mainly bc he isnt aggressive and just shoots 3s all the time (we have Gerald Green who is a much better shooter).

Channing did swish some threes here and there but you woulda laughed if you had seen all the times he would be boxed out of the paint for rebounds by fucking shooting guards. it was infuriating.

damn....

ain't mad at these cats...

but damn...that's a lot of damn money for a role player..

and I know that's a position that's thin in FA right now..

but like I said... I ain't mad the Lakers are waiting till all this hashes out because of all the contracts I've seen so far...ain't 1..well maybe Farmar..but other than that..not a one that I would have been cool with the Lakes doing..

no way...

our plan b or c will put us solid squad together because the guys that are actually worth some dough or some years are still out there...

they're tossing out there. Bosh @ 96 mill....lol. Not to be options #3.

They doin' him dirty:
http://www.sbnation.com/lookit/2014/7/7/5878791/dwyane-wade-free-agency-heat-lonliness-emptiness-sadness-oh-god-why-someone-call

agreement with Riles, he'll be in Miami and they'll take care of him one way or the other

The demise is real, yes, but he had some really good games last year still...

The Bulls should have him visit and offer him some bullshit deal, even though he won't take it, it'll look that much funnier when Miami pays him 3x what the market justified for him, while Bosh is taking like a 30% discount then the market indicates

everyone already knows what's going down with dwade

a Heat player.

You'd be guffawing like a mule if it were a Lakers player, Melo, a Spur, Durant, etc.

and i would LOVE for him to NOT resign
so again....FOH

You're mad because he's Lebronese and they clowned.

It's ok. Just admit it.

i don't even want wade on the heat
him having no market value actually helps the heat secure him at a lower price if it comes down to that
unfortunately it won't because everyone and their grandmother knows what wade and the heat are doing so this is just a unfunny cheap shot

>unfortunately it won't because everyone and their grandmother
>knows what wade and the heat are doing so this is just a
>unfunny cheap shot
>

A question though - who will you want on the Heat if Lebron leaves?

>>
>
>A question though - who will you want on the Heat if Lebron
>leaves?

http://gamedayr.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/nba-bandwagon-transfer-form-570x604.jpg
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
<---- 5....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dlgiritpmfo

=======================================

Ditch the paper, save the trees, and go mobile! Text bizcard to 32462!

nigga probably cry himself to sleep if i say that lol

I thought it was clear that Wade was off the market. Wade will retire as a Heat. I'm sure every team knew that.
He is waiting to just sign as a formality, get his jersey retired, get a small stake of the franchise and have a street named after him in Miami.


http://twitter.com/Drewmathic

He's simply not very good anymore, and his value
is nowhere near max territory. He's basically 2
years away from veteran-minimum type production.


-->

gonna happen.

pacers low balled the fuck out of em
now one wants to counter with a tyreke deal or something

Once those guys sign, guys like Lance, Deng, etc. will start seeing legit offers.

well i guess the mavs and lakers have been linked to him

The only people signing right now will likely be role players. People are waiting to hear about the big free agents and Lance's people would probably rather get more offers and find out who whiffs on the big FAs before settling on a deal.

and some teams like dallas don't have a realistic chance of getting them either
just seems like u could scoop him right now with a 4/44 type deal

I think Hinkie would rather get a pick and eat a contract like Jeremy Lin or Kendrick Perkins than sign Lance right now.

Lord knows what's going on in MIlwaukee is up to but I could see them being scared off by Lance's antics. There locker room already has enough issues.

Charlotte is apparently hot for Gordon Hayward and Lance is their plan B.

Dallas also doesn't need a SG so even if they miss on a big name, they are more likely to go after someone like Deng than Lance. But mostly, there's no reason for them to rush to sign Lance before the big FAs make their decision.

Also, I doubt Lance's people are going to rush into a deal when they can wait and see if they could land at one of the better teams that missed out on a top FA.

pretty damn good consolation prize if they miss out on Bosh.

player out of the two.

So if he goes to Houston, guaranteed Harden would give him the "my bad" look 25 times a game. He'll have to guard his man AND Harden's man

Lance might swing on that dude by game 6.

i wonder if lance could play PG full time though
or maybe have harden bring the ball up and only pass to lance when he's in scoring position and have lance defend 1s full time

And melo is clearly a better offensive player than lance. Lance don't have to have the ball in his hands as much as melo and lance covers hardens weaknesses on the defensive end. I don't see why there would be a problem with fit at all.

u said lance would play SF for houston so not sure why i'm even responding foreal foreal

and why can't lance play the 3? He can guard the 3 and rebounds better than most 3's.

he like the Lakers and the Lakers like him...

>pacers low balled the fuck out of em
>now one wants to counter with a tyreke deal or something


----------------------------



O_E: "Acts like an asshole and posts with imperial disdain"




"I ORBITs the solar system, listenin..."

(C)Keith Murray, "

bwhahahaha
you better HOPE and PRAY that nigga get more than 12 mil a year
(nope raising the stakes bwhahahahahahha)

a couple of grantland reads on an otherwise slow news day.

...

http://grantland.com/features/nba-trade-rumors-espn-yahoo-new-york-post-lebron-james-jason-kidd-offseason-trade-signing/

The Trade Rumor Era
Sources: The NBA’s offseason has swallowed the actual season

BY BRYAN CURTIS ON JULY 7, 2014

Look, everyone knew LeBron James was opting out. Carmelo Anthony was no surprise, either. There has been only one truly brain-melting piece of news to come out of this NBA offseason, and Tim Bontemps had it. He just had to tweet it.

Bontemps is a 29-year-old reporter with the New York Post. On June 28 at around 9 p.m., he sat at a desk in the News Corp Building staring nervously at his Twitter notifications. A bunch of his followers were talking about Andray Blatche’s civic protest art. Which was fine. What worried Bontemps was that someone in the NBA’s Twitter piranha tank — Woj, Stein, Amick, Shelburne, Broussard, Windhorst — knew what he knew: that Jason Kidd was engineering his exit from Brooklyn.

It was more important than any story Bontemps had written all year. That’s because the trade rumor — shorthand here for any offseason transaction news — has become the dominant form of NBA journalism. “For everybody in my line of work,” Bontemps said, “the offseason has really become bigger than the regular season.” The fate of Kidd and LeBron and Melo is now more important, in media terms, than the San Antonio Spurs winning the NBA title.

The chief method of putting points on the board in the Trade Rumor Era is to file a story that includes the words “league source.” Inserting the phrases “I’m told” or “I’m hearing” into otherwise anodyne sentences adds a further layer of mystery. Bontemps stuck with the former. He tweeted the Kidd news. If Twitter could have made a sound that night, it would have been that of a dozen well-connected NBA reporters suddenly crying out in terror. To quote David Aldridge: “Whaaa?”

“This story comes out and it’s like — boom — there are 50 people making calls on it all of a sudden,” Bontemps said. When a big piece of news escapes in the NBA, all the piranhas in the tank start nipping away: They confirm the news, they dispute it, they add details. (A few tweets later, they give credit to the guy who got the scoop.) Stein said the Bucks and Nets were already talking compensation. Shelburne added that the Lakers weren’t interested in Kidd. Woj nodded.

“I can’t comprehend how big this has been,” Bontemps said. “When I got it, I thought it was going to be a big story. I had no idea. I didn’t expect it would be the lead story in sports for three days. It’s been stunning.” In the only game that counts, Bontemps had nailed a 3 on the opening possession.

The trade rumor has long been a part of NBA writing. Twenty years ago, you could pick up the Post, turn to Peter Vecsey’s “Hoop du Jour” column, and feast on a buffet laid out by league sources. From July 1994: “Georgetown coach John Thompson (was) contacted by the Clippers regarding his interest in the coaching job.”

But even in Vecsey’s scenery-chewing prime, when he doubled as a reporter for NBC, he was treated as an outlier on the sports page. “Rumor was always a dirty word,” said Chris Sheridan, who covers the NBA for Sheridan Hoops. Indeed, maybe the most remarkable thing about the Trade Rumor Era is how the rumormonger, repackaged as an “insider,” has moved from the periphery of sportswriting to its center. Today, if you tell someone a reporter traffics in rumor and innuendo, that person’s response will be “How can I follow him on Twitter?”

For decades, baseball and the NFL have maintained scoop-friendly “hot stove” leagues in the offseason. For the NBA, the phenomenon is relatively new. “I started covering the league when it was deader than crap during the summer,” said former Sports Illustrated writer Jack McCallum.

“The idea we’re interested in covering the NBA in July never happened before,” said Ric Bucher, who writes for Bleacher Report and is the CSN Bay Area sideline reporter for the Golden State Warriors. “It was Finals, draft, and then sometime around September, when guys were getting ready to come to camp, that’s when you started paying attention again.”

Before asking how we got here, it’s worth studying the Trade Rumor Era. It has acquired its own language, its own high-PER reporters, and an ever-expanding schedule. “It’s not just the offseason,” said ESPN’s Marc Stein. “It’s transactions, period. People love transactions.” The strangeness of Stein’s new world began to dawn on him in January 2007, when he got massive traffic for reporting a trade. Earl Boykins had been shipped to Milwaukee.

The NBA offseason no longer begins when a team wins the title. This year, the offseason began on May 18 — the day Roy Hibbert scored 19 points in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals. That’s when a “rival executive” told Yahoo’s Adrian Wojnarowski that Minnesota was making noises about trading Kevin Love. Woj — who has mastered the Trade Rumor Era better than anybody — then posted two tweets, holding out Boston and Houston as possible destinations for Love. They were retweeted nearly 2,000 times combined. By comparison, Woj’s column about Hibbert’s Game 1 performance was retweeted 72 times.

The Trade Rumor Era doesn’t much reward insight into what happens on an NBA court. It’s about the possibility of what might happen on a court in the future, provided a player is willing to sign for the midlevel exception. Oddly, that’s what makes it fun. “The Finals are about the Heat and the Spurs, LeBron James and Tim Duncan,” said Henry Abbott, ESPN.com’s NBA editor. “But LeBron James’s free agency is about everybody’s imagination. Now your team may get LeBron. You can project your dreams onto it.”

We haven’t lost adventurous basketball writers. There are several on the books at ESPN and Grantland, Chris Ballard and others at Sports Illustrated, the lovably crackpot team that blogs under the SBNation banner, and the scattered remnants of the FreeDarko army.

But even those wordsmiths write with a new lexicon. An NBA player is no longer an NBA player. A player is (in descending order of desirability) an “asset,” a “piece,” a “trade chip,” a “salary dump,” or an “amnesty case.” A side effect of the new basketball writing is that “young piece,” like “outstanding length,” has been desexualized.

“They cease to be basketball players and they cease to be human beings,” Bucher said. “Owners look at players and coaches as acquisitions and goods. We fall into doing the same thing.”

The Trade Rumor Era can’t produce enough actual transactions to appease the masses. (Case in point: The big name on Day 1 of free agency was Wizards center Marcin Gortat.) So scoops are broken into their component parts. It’s news of a sort when an NBA team expresses interest in a free agent via phone call. Then through a meeting. A big meeting is a “face-to-face meeting.” Insiders score points by revealing where a face-to-face meeting took place (“an L.A. office building,” the “house of Mavs owner Mark Cuban”); its length (six hours versus two); the swag on offer (Jeremy Lin’s uniform number, a Tobey Maguire–narrated movie trailer); who else was at the meeting (or in Derrick Rose’s case, who wasn’t); the players’ mood at the meeting (“Carmelo was ‘truly engaged in the conversation’”); and, finally, when the meeting has ended (“Carmelo meeting over”). If a contract offer was extended at a face-to-face meeting, it is inevitably being mulled.

On Sunday, reporters who delight in this small ball seemed to finally have had their fill. Twitter reported that Cavs owner Dan Gilbert may have dispatched a plane to Miami; Kobe Bryant and Carmelo Anthony may have played a pickup game; and Pau Gasol may have joined them (that is, everyone but Gilbert) for dinner. “This can’t be what happens in a society that isn’t heading into oncoming traffic,” CBS’s Zach Harper tweeted. Yet it was a sign of the preeminence of trade rumors that even “meta” writers couldn’t afford to log off.

The Trade Rumor Era is powered by a network of anonymous sources. A few years ago, the piranha tank seemed to adopt the policy of overexplanation from the news pages of the New York Times (e.g., “officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk on the record”). But the NBA writers’ ornate descriptors — “a source familiar with the team’s thinking” — didn’t help much. I’m familiar with a team’s thinking. Recently, more writers have opted for minimalism: “league source.”

On June 26, a source told Bucher that Kyle Lowry and Chris Bosh were switching teams. After 3,500 retweets, Bucher withdrew the scoop and apologized. With the enormous demand for scoops on Twitter, readers would have quickly forgiven him anyway. What was interesting in this case, Bucher told me, is that his source sent him dozens of texts and even mimicked the language of an NBA front office — telling Bucher, for instance, that his team was waiting for the second round to end. It was as if the source had inhaled the fumes of the Trade Rumor Era. An even stranger case was that of Oregonian columnist John Canzano, who reported on July 1 that Bosh and Dwyane Wade would return to Miami. Canzano even supplied the contract terms. The piranha tank barely twitched.

In the Trade Rumor Era, the premium currency isn’t really a rumor at all. It’s a genuine scoop, like Stephen A. Smith’s called shot of James, Wade, and Bosh to the Heat in 2010. “That’s better than ‘so and so is interested in Player X,’” said Sheridan. “Everybody’s interested in good players.” According to Sheridan, so many rumors sluice around on Twitter that NBA front offices have more or less made their peace with them. Everyone is talking, gossiping, peddling info. When someone like Sixers GM Sam Hinkie enforces an omertà with the press, insiders ask, “What’s his problem?”

How did we get here? Partly it’s a quirk of history. When LeBron James becomes a free agent twice in four years, he’s bound to launch a new form of media. “I remember when Charles Barkley went to Phoenix during the summer of ’92,” said Jack McCallum. “But Charles had wanted out of Philly for seven or eight years. And it still was done via a trade. It wasn’t done with the seduction of free agency you could write about.”

What has changed is that the seduction is now baked into the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement. The 2011 CBA resulted in shorter contracts for the owners; it capped star salaries far below their real market value. Zach Lowe has reported that NBA bigwigs call the new reality “player-sharing.” If you turn your league into the NBA Trade Machine, it’s no surprise the rumor guy would become the league’s most valuable Twitter celebrity.

“The other key factor is that transactions equate to hope,” said Marc Stein. Tanking teams like the 76ers have essentially turned into one big hypothetical trade rumor, scheduled to be enacted months or even years into the future. For their fans, the season is beside the point; the offseason is where the action is.

Fans, by the way, don’t much mind the Trade Rumor Era. Gone is the old lament that you can’t get attached to players because they’re always changing teams. Fantasy sports have rewired our brains so that deals interest us almost as much as wins and losses. “When the season’s going along,” Tim Bontemps said, “it’s ‘why can’t this guy get traded, why can’t this coach get fired, why isn’t this happening?’ There’s never any satisfaction with ‘this is the team we’ve got.’”

And it’s not just fans who think this way. New-breed NBA owners like Marc Lasry and Mikhail Prokhorov demand constant roster churn to justify their exorbitant buy-ins. “If you spend $400 or $500 million on a franchise,” Ric Bucher said, “you approach it a little bit differently than if you spent $10 million (30 years ago) because your buddy David Stern said, ‘Hey, you’ll have fun with this.’” The moves, in turn, lead to more stories.

Finally, it’s worth noting that the Trade Rumor Era has been enjoyed, if not perpetrated, by the insiders themselves. A reporter is never more useless than when his sport is out of season. But what if the season never ends?

The last five offseasons have made the NBA insider indispensable. He reported on James’s free agency; the James Harden trade; the Dwight Howard sweepstakes; and now James, Anthony, Love, and Kidd. Combine that with an uptick in interest in the league and it’s safe to say the NBA writer is a bigger star vis-à-vis his peers than he has ever been in the history of sportswriting. In retrospect, “The Decision” seems less like a commercial pact between player and network than a collusive agreement that the news cycle would never end.

Twenty years ago, battles between NBA beat writers were fairly opaque. You might see a scoop a few days later in your local paper, by which time the original scooper’s name had disappeared and the story was attributed to “press reports.”

In the Trade Rumor Era, everyone is a national basketball writer. Woj competes with Stein. Stein competes with the personal trainer in Cleveland who’s guaranteeing LeBron will come home. The trainer competes with message-board prophet “Carl2680,” who beat even Bontemps to the Kidd scoop. Twitter is their Thunderdome. The old penalty for getting beat on a story was that your editor called. The new penalty is that your Twitter followers remind you that Woj, Stein, Sam Amick, and the rest are outhustling you. “It’s not just that they get credit,” said Bucher. “But then you get ridiculed for being late, as if you somehow didn’t know it was going on.” And then your editor calls.

NBA writing isn’t the only journalistic beat that has come to be defined by its hot stove. If every basketball writer has started to sound like Adrian Wojnarowski, then every Hollywood reporter has begun to sound like Nikki Finke. Finke’s rise is instructive. She became a player by scooping the hiring and firing of executives that 99 percent of the public had never heard of — the Earl Boykinses of show business. It wasn’t the transactions per se that made people perk up. It was the idea that Finke purloined info from inside a closed system. Finke acquired the air of an antiestablishment hero. Today’s basketball writers — Woj, Stein, the whole piranha tank — serve the same purpose with the NBA.

The Post’s Tim Bontemps was almost bred for the Trade Rumor Era. He went to college at St. Bonaventure. During his freshman year, he began a mentorship with a Bonnie alum who was rising in sports media. The mentor was Adrian Wojnarowski. Now they go at each other on Twitter, vying for scraps of intel about pieces and trade chips, trying to find a league source who will illuminate the world. “People know if they go to Woj, he’s going to give ’em something nobody else has,” Bontemps said. “That’s the goal for me and everybody to catch up to.”

...

http://grantland.com/features/nba-miami-heat-double-standard-contract-sacrifice-lebron-james-chris-bosh-houston-rockets-free-agency/

The Miami Heat and the NBA’s Double Standard of ‘Sacrifice’
Why superstar players seeking max salaries are stuck between a rock and a hard place — while NBA owners are laughing all the way to the bank

BY ZACH LOWE ON JULY 8, 2014

In a time of hushed meetings and amorphous potential offers, the Rockets have transformed a thought exercise into a real thing by presenting Chris Bosh a concrete choice: take a pay cut to stay in Miami, or earn your full maximum salary over a four-year deal in Houston.

It’s not quite the ideal test case for a new collective bargaining agreement designed with perhaps one eye on engineering “competitive balance” by making it harder for teams to retain superstar clusters. Adam Silver trumpeted that catchphrase every chance he got during the 2011 lockout, but the league’s primary goal during that torturous offseason was to transfer cash from players to owners.

Silver is sincere in his desire for greater parity, and the easiest path to achieving it is to prevent in-their-prime superstars from teaming up. The new CBA attempted to do that by installing a super-harsh luxury tax. Spend a lot on players, and you’re going to face a crippling tax penalty that gets more severe as you add payroll. Superstars are expensive to sign and even more expensive to keep; the tax was crafted to make the “keeping” part prohibitive.

But that’s only part of the story. The league also beefed up that tax so more money would flow from big-spending teams to their (mostly) smaller-market brothers, who need those tax proceeds to pad their bottom lines. It is a revenue-sharing mechanism. Any impact on competitive balance would be a happy ripple effect.

If the NBA really wanted to blow apart superteams, it would pitch extreme solutions — a hard salary cap and the elimination of the ceiling on individual player salaries. But pushing for those changes might lead to another lockout and could produce unknown consequences that might sabotage the league’s goal of competitive balance.

The punitive tax hasn’t led to Silver’s “competitive balance,” but it has changed spending habits on the high end. Profitable juggernauts like the Lakers and Heat have made painful cost-cutting moves since the lockout. Even the Nets, who have spent as if their owner has no idea there are rules about spending, want to get under the tax for the 2015-16 season.

The penny-pinching isn’t all about saving owners’ precious scratch. There are basketball reasons for the frugality. As long as there is a salary cap limiting what teams can spend, there will be a real tension between players grabbing as much money as they can and their teams’ ability to sign as many quality players as possible.

This puts star players in an impossible position: accept a pay cut “for the good of the team” or look like a glutton. When stars take pay cuts to stay together, fans rail against their collusion and call the NBA product a rigged game. When stars chase the money, fans rip them as pigs.

Meanwhile, minimum-salary players and young guys on rookie contracts literally cannot take pay cuts, and the glut of cap room that comes with shorter contracts has created bidding wars for mid-tier veterans. Stars make the most, and they are the most obvious target for savings.

The stars can’t win, in part because the NBA has created a system in which a player maximizing his individual income makes it harder for his team to build a competitive roster around him. But are people — media, fans, GMs — overstating the difficulty of that challenge? Maybe the onus should be on teams to spend wisely enough so they can accommodate multiple star players without prodding those stars to “sacrifice” in pointed public comments.

Take what Miami has done so far in free agency. It had dreams of opening up enough cap space to make a run at a $10 million–plus player — Kyle Lowry, Marcin Gortat, or someone else. It’s unclear how real that dream ever was, but its mere existence represents a puzzling communication breakdown between the Heat and the Big Three.

It was just math. LeBron James wants the maximum salary, the Heat have to make Udonis Haslem whole, and Shabazz Napier and Norris Cole are due what they are due. If the Heat wanted to get $10 million under the salary cap — the only realistic way for them to sign an outside free agent at that amount — Bosh and Dwyane Wade could only earn something like $24 million combined next season. They were each due $20 million before they opted out.

A two-man pay cut of that scale just didn’t compute, and if Miami thought it was possible, it hadn’t done enough digging with the players and their agents.

So they appear to have moved on to Plan B, which might have been Plan A all along: stay over the cap and use the available exceptions for over-the-cap teams to sign useful role players. (1) The Heat used the full midlevel exception, starting at $5.3 million next season, to nab Josh McRoberts. They used the biannual exception of about $2 million to bring in what remains of Danny Granger’s lower extremities. (2)

(1. There is endless confusion about this, so let’s be clear: A team cannot get under the cap, use cap space to sign outside free agents, and then use the full midlevel exception. The full midlevel is only for teams that start and stay over the cap.

2. Plan B could change if the stars bolt, leaving the Heat with cap space, and several credible scenarios paint the Cavaliers as a much stronger contender for LeBron than anticipated.)

These are not exactly glamour signings, but they fit the Heat’s vision as a small-ish shooting and passing machine. Both players can fill the old Shane Battier/Rashard Lewis role as nominal “power forwards” who supplement LeBron by spacing the floor and banging with opposing bigs on defense. Sparing LeBron those bruises is part of the job description.

McRoberts is coming off a career-best year from 3-point range, and the Heat are betting it wasn’t an outlier, especially since outside shots tend to be open when you play with LeBron. McRoberts is an ace passer who can put the ball on the floor and keep the machine moving — Boris Diaw, but with better hair and no post game. He’s a natural power forward with experience in various defensive systems before Charlotte in which he blitzed pick-and-rolls far from the hoop — a key tenet of Miami’s defense.

He won’t protect the rim or improve Miami’s rebounding problems, but he can fit Erik Spoelstra’s system on both ends. The full midlevel seems a bit much — unless you’re convinced that McRoberts’s long-range shooting last season wasn’t a fluke — but the market for bigs suggests he was going to get this money from someone. Chris Kaman was out of shape and shot the ball damn near every time he touched it last season, and Portland is paying him nearly $5 million for next season.

Granger might be washed up. He perked up in Los Angeles, but he still logged only 10 minutes per game in the playoffs, and he’s coming off endless knee and leg issues. He’s been a stout defender, and he played a lot of small-ball power forward before Frank Vogel erased that alignment from Indy’s playbook. In a best-case scenario, Granger would start against power forwards who don’t post up, he’d hit open 3s, and he’d spend stretches defending some star wings to help LeBron and Wade save energy. In a worst-case scenario, he’s done — another uncreative Heat acquisition of a big name with aging legs.

Even these non-glam signings will require sacrifice from the Heat stars. If Miami was going this over-the-cap route all along, it could have asked LeBron, Wade, and Bosh to simply opt into their contracts, saving us the drama of tracking Dan Gilbert’s private plane and Savannah Brinson’s Instagram account.

But it asked for the opt-outs anyway, and it did so to save money. Here’s why: The new CBA includes an “apron” that is slotted $4 million above the tax line, which is projected at about $77 million for next season. (3) That would put the “apron” at $81 million. Teams are banned from exceeding the apron, even by a single penny, if they engage in certain transactions after July 1. On that list: using the full midlevel, which the Heat have apparently just done with McRoberts.

(3. The exact figures will come out this week, but sources involved in the process say earlier projections for a salary cap at $63 million and a tax line near $77 million will prove close to the mark.)

If that proves to be the case, the Heat cannot go over that projected $81 million mark. Their three stars were slated to make about $61.5 million next season before they opted out. Tack on McRoberts, Granger, Napier, and Cole, and the Heat could see the apron fluttering just ahead of them before even thinking about what it might cost to bring back Ray Allen and Chris Andersen — incumbent players who, you know, actually helped last season.

In other words, the Heat asked for the opt-outs so Pat Riley could deliver this message to his stars: “You have to take pay cuts, otherwise we’re not going to be able to bring in Josh freaking McRoberts with the full midlevel.”

The apron becomes a hammer. It’s a multifaceted hammer too. Cross the line, and you can’t acquire a player in a sign-and-trade until the following July. Merely approach it, and it becomes harder to make trades that bring in more salary than they send out, or even sign minimum-salary players when injuries strike. It is a menace floating in the distance, the NBA’s version of that veil in the Department of Mysteries.

Putting the apron in play also conveniently hard-caps the Heat just above the tax line, reducing Micky Arison’s exposure to huge tax payments. Miami can spend only so much now.

The players’ union fears that teams are using the apron to force sacrifices from players who have already turned over so much to owners swimming in NBA cash — when other available tools might allow teams to spend more. “Teams are being exposed for what they are doing,” says Ron Klempner, the interim executive director of the players’ association. “It has been laid bare. They are hiding behind the rules. Teams like the Heat have the ability to bring back all their players, and give them raises, but they are choosing to go in another direction.”

He continued: “There is a misperception that players are being asked to cover for their teams. But I am concerned that the sacrifice they are making is not as much for the good of their teams as it is for the good of the owners.”

Players sacrificing money for wins and personal comfort is not new, though stars including Tim Duncan and Dirk Nowitzki have typically waited until a bit later in their careers to do it.

And every dollar counts. Kobe Bryant refused to take a meaningful late-career pay cut, and that decision will have consequences as the Lakers seek to construct a workable roster around him. The capped-out Nets wanted Kyle Korver last season — Billy King, the Nets GM, says Korver is like a son to him — but they had only a $3 million salary slot to offer, and Korver opted for about twice that in Atlanta.

But the Nets example shows that teams can spend more if they are willing to ignore the apron and get creative, Klempner says. Brooklyn’s payroll rocketed above $100 million last season. They ran through the apron like a high school football team tearing up one of those banners the poor cheerleaders have to hold. They punted the full midlevel exception in doing so, but they managed to find workable talents with the smaller midlevel slot that tax teams get (Mirza Teletovic, Andrei Kirilenko) and via minimum contracts (Shaun Livingston, Alan Anderson).

The Nets are anything but a model of prudent spending. They are a spook story about what can happen when a team loses all of its flexibility and patience, leaving it to desperately flip one expensive contract for an even more expensive one that runs longer.

But the Heat could have proceeded down a less frugal path, giving raises to their own free agents (via Bird rights) and digging deeper to find quality players without using the full midlevel and triggering the apron. Hell, the Heat got Allen and Battier using the smaller midlevel exception for tax teams — the one they deemed not good enough to snag McRoberts this time around. Fill out the roster with that toolbox, and there’s no need for the guys producing the wins to take haircuts.

Granger is going to make only about $700,000 more than his minimum salary, and he didn’t produce at a rate that merits much more than that last season. McRoberts had a nice season, and the market for bigs who can shoot, walk upright, and hold a basketball is climbing fast.

But Klempner’s point is this: The Heat are asking their stars to forfeit millions so the team can pay McRoberts and Granger an extra $2.7 million per year combined and Arison’s Carnival Cruise Lines can continue to offer the very best in overstuffed buffets and kitsch. And the Heat have opted against just re-signing their own guys because the roster they built was no longer good enough. Whose fault is that?

Are Miami’s stars subsidizing so-so team management? Perhaps. Wade is at the center of this. In 2010 he was the linchpin of the entire Heatles plan, one of the three or four greatest shooting guards ever, a legend the Heat decided still merited the compensation due a legend in his prime.

Wade is still a tremendous player when healthy, but he wears down every season and his market value is nowhere near $20 million. Still, the Heat and Wade are stuck with each other, and Miami has long believed that this kind of loyalty counts for something when the next crop of star free agents comes around.

All of this brings us back to Bosh. Houston, through skillful management and plain old luck, has assembled a roster that has allowed it to offer Bosh his full max salary. It’s fitting that the roster includes a feisty young point guard, Patrick Beverley, whom the Heat waived. On the flippity flip, that roster also includes Jeremy Lin, whom the Rockets chose over Goran Dragic (4) and now must salary-dump (along with a draft pick) to clear space for Bosh.

(4. You can add Lowry, but the Rockets flipped him for a first-round pick that was probably the swing piece in the James Harden trade.)

Bosh would fit beautifully in Houston. A big who can shoot 3s while doing enough big-guy stuff — rebounding, defense, etc. — is massively valuable. Bosh is used to spotting up, working without the ball, and yielding the lane to another post-up player — key skills for anyone joining Dwight Howard and James Harden.

The Rockets’ pitch to Bosh centered on his defense and how he would mesh with Howard on that end, per a source familiar with the matter. Houston reassured Bosh that he is an underrated defender — that all the loudmouths who deride him as “soft” conveniently miss him chasing pick-and-rolls 30 feet from the hoop, creating turnovers with his long arms, and fighting hard in the post.

Flash back to Houston’s first-round loss against Portland, when the Rockets had to assign Howard and Omer Asik to defend LaMarcus Aldridge on the perimeter. Doing that compromised their spacing and shifted a rim protector away from the basket. Imagine how devastating they might be if they could shift those assignments to Bosh, who is taller and rangier than Terrence Jones, while leaving Howard to whack away shots near the hoop.

Again: This isn’t the ideal test of whether the ultra-punitive luxury tax has really made it more difficult to keep superteams together. Bosh would be joining a similar collection of stars in Houston, a large market that doesn’t appear to need much help attracting players. Bosh isn’t choosing between wildly divergent salaries as he would be in a system with no ceiling on individual player compensation.

The NBA has tried to gin up free agency and player movement. Contracts are shorter, half the league has major cap room, and the tax makes it pricey to keep starry cores together. But that wasn’t necessarily an altruistic gesture, a rejiggering designed to help Milwaukee and Minnesota compete with the big boys. Shorter contracts and unlimited individual player salaries could actually make it harder for small-market teams to re-sign their own stars, unless those changes came along with some added protection — an NFL-style “franchise tag,” or some other cap mechanism.

It was a business decision to stoke interest in the summer and turn the NBA into a year-round league. It enabled more revenue sharing and something close to leaguewide profitability. An NBA team is already a damn near foolproof investment, and the national TV deal won’t kick in until the 2016-17 season. We’ll soon reach the point when owners will make money every season and bank insane profits when they decide to sell their franchises.

Meanwhile, some fans demand that stars who currently earn artificially deflated salaries make further sacrifices for the greater good. Such sacrifices do help, especially when a star player is signing a massive deal as he enters the latter stages of his career. Carmelo Anthony is not going to be worth $30 million when he’s 35, and if he signs a max deal with New York, it will be harder for Phil Jackson to construct a long-term contender around him.

Harder, but not impossible. The CBA provides team-building mechanisms for everyone, even the mega-spenders, and deep-pocketed owners could always green-light tax payments when a championship window emerges. The salary rules in the NBA are so complicated that players are losing the public relations battle because it’s just simpler to point to Duncan and say, “Be like him.”

But sacrifice is a two-way street, and every situation is a beehive of complex variables. No choice is easy, and the hero/villain lines are never as clear as we’d like. If it’s so virtuous for a great player to give up salary, why shouldn’t an owner also be called upon to lose money if it will help his team win?

Like, I know the press keeps busy and the stars drive headlines, but since I'm not a fan of the Heat, the Bulls, the Knicks, or the Rockets, I really don't care about all the gossip flying right now. Yeah, it can be funny, but no I don't really care about what weird machinations the Heat have to fit under the salary cap or whatever other CBA nonsense that burns up the blogosphere right now, because I know that at some point it will all be done, I can read a recap, and then I can prep for the 2015 season with Chris Kaman as a Blazer.

Basically wake me up once the ink is dry. Between then I'll be watching summer league and checking preseason box scores, because same as always it's the rookie class that's the most interesting part of the offseason. All this free agency stuff is just fodder for the bloggers to get clicks.

I'm tired of scavenging for updates only to see some bullshit about Ainge stilllllllll trying mighty hard to get KLove and source say he's creative enough to put something together, or what 10th man signed somewhere I could care less about.

I'm drowning in Broussard's sources and Bleacher Report entries on google explaining why Team X MUST sign/avoid/trade Player Y.

I'm a fan, I'm selfish, and I'm starving for actual news. Fuck your future, fuck extra years and roster potential and all that shit. Just put some names into a fucking hat, pull one out, hold a gawdamned press conference, and satisfy my selfish thirst for any *actual* NBA news in July.

See, this is the only news I really care about. Does anyone outside Portland really care? LaMarcus will smartly wait till next summer to sign any extension, because he'll still be worth the same $, only then he'll be able to explore options outside of Portland as well, possibly get an extra fat year one year further down the line of his career. Ho hum, but it makes next year potentially bittersweet if Portland is unable to ultimately re-up with LA.

http://www.blazersedge.com/2014/7/8/5882221/freeman-blazers-f-lamarcus-aldridge-to-pass-on-contract-extension

My sources tell me LA has spoken with KD on heading to the Lakers. LA will be a Laker next offseason and Durant in 2016.

Yes, I just scooped the fucking internet.

But it's a big cash difference, I didn't read closely enough on first glance (because, seriously ... fuck all the wannabe "capologist" articles these days). He's passing on $55M to get $108M. Non-story, but still a potential story if he gets a similar offer somewhere else, decides to pursue it.

to help compensate for the ‘megamax’ money he’ll lose after leaving Portland.

They’ve also agreed to buy him out of whatever shoe contract he’s currently under.

Sources tell me they’ve already prepared a massive “LA in LA in LA” marketing campaign around LA rockin LA shoes in his eventual LA digs.

Sources also tell me that Carmelo Anthony helped orchestrate this deal with his wife, summertime LA resident La La Vasquez.

Details are vague at this time, however my sources tell me that we WILL have concrete details by August 2015.

Sources say LA is enamored with all the shit LA has done in years past, and thinks it really has merit today.

A few Lakers fans pointed out that while their history is a selling point, this isn’t exactly your daddies- or even your older brothers- Lakers, and that LA basing his move on some shit that most recently happened like 6 years sounded a little fishy.

My sources told them to shut the fuck up and fall in with the official company line or be excommunicated.

It makes more sense for players to hit the market. There is zero benefit to them extending with a year left besides injury risk.

But it sounds like LA is like Chris Paul with the Clippers - he intends to stay but wants to wait so he can get the max years and (possibly) money.

http://www.sheridanhoops.com/2014/07/08/sheridans-top-25-free-agents-july-8-edition/

A plugged-in source tells me there is a 90 percent chance that LeBron James will return to the Cleveland Cavaliers, and it will be announced on www.lebronjames.com if it happens.

------------

THIS WON'T HAPPEN BUT IF IT DOES THEN LEBRONON IS GETTING FRIED. He should go to LA, Miami, Phoenix or another team before Cleveland. But if he comes back for some odd reason, Y'ALL GETTING FRIED.

his website. People gon be on that site all week now refreshing.

shit is too perfect.

the BEST spot if he can deal with a year or two out would be philly (they'd just need to steal a pg and a shooter to give them some options on the wing) but can't wait a year or two, so cleveland is next best for that dynasty.

like, "yeah, I hear what you are saying and I like it." "Yeah, make those moves to clear cap space for me." "Me with Kyrie and Wiggins, yeah, that can work."

Then at the last second..."Yeah, Dan Gilbert is an ass hole. Fuck the Cavs, I'm going back to South Beach."

>like, "yeah, I hear what you are saying and I like it."
>"Yeah, make those moves to clear cap space for me." "Me with
>Kyrie and Wiggins, yeah, that can work."
>
>Then at the last second..."Yeah, Dan Gilbert is an ass hole.
>Fuck the Cavs, I'm going back to South Beach."

That vocal minority will burn jerseys and cry about how Bron will never be Jordan.

The rest of us root for the Cavs and every player on the team. I'm happy for him. He has strong ties to the community to this day and is an inspiration for everyone in the community. He's someone that youths look up to because he made it off hard work from a place that few survive.

I won't believe it until he's in uniform on opening night. That won't happen for the record.

According to Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer.

is this what a max deal is now?

WTFFFFFFFFF

yall know I like hayward, loved his game since college, but WTFFFFFFFFF

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/sources--gordon-hayward-agrees-to--63-million-offer-sheet-with-hornets-051222460.html

wojo says the jazz plan to match - https://twitter.com/WojYahooNBA/status/486744764675420161

http://card.mygamercard.net/lastgame/rjcc.png

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

Gotta make up for those Gilbert Arenas and Amare deals.

.

.

.

on the court.

Adrian Wojnarowski @WojYahooNBA · 20m

Jazz prepared for possibility of max sheet for Hayward and remain unwavering about revelation it's coming: They plan to match and keep him.

in that whats a player worth post.

Of course everything is magnified when youre white



BUT GORDON DIDN’T HAVE A GREAT YEAR LAST YEAR AND SHOT JUST 41% HOW CAN HE GET A MAX CONTRACT?

The market was oversaturated with money and lacked talent. When the market opened I counted 24 slots of 12 million or more available for players and only 12 players who were near worthy of a 12 million dollar contract.

It also tells you how the rest of the league views a player that can produce the numbers I just mentioned. The league lacks talented wing players so the combination of playing a position that was in demand and a market that was overloaded with money created the ideal situation for Gordon Hayward.

HOW GOOD A PLAYER IS GORDON HAYWARD?

As I mentioned before, not a lot of players, average 16-5-5 in this league. Playmaking wings are really important and not a lot exist.

Hayward’s best talent is what he does for his teammates.

When Hayward was on the floor Favors shot 54% when Hayward was off the floor Favors shot 46%. The same goes for almost everyone on the Jazz last year. Trey Burke’s EFG% was 46.5% with Hayward on and 39.8% with him off. Same applies to Jefferson 55.6/51, Alec 50.5/47 and Kanter 50.5/46.

The off court/on court stats are nice (but may say more about the people replacing Gordon/Utah's bench) but the Jazz are now investing 27 million on the two core pieces (Favors and Hayward) of one of the worst teams in the NBA.
Favors and Gordon were supposed to step up when Utah let Jefferson and Millsap walk and they both turned in lousy seasons.
For me the biggest issue is that thebJazz saw this coming; I would have traded Gordon mid season to try to get some assets back instead of being forced to overpay him to maintain a roster that has little chance of making the playoff in the West unless Dante Exum becomes a superstar overnight.

Hayward is a really well-rounded player, he gets involved at the defensive end, too. He obviously is not worth a max deal in some meritocratic sense, but in this market we saw Cleveland ready to throw one at him, we saw Charlotte do it and now Utah match. I think under different circumstances, Philadelphia would have been interested also. Outside of a couple big hitters potentially changing, the market is pretty thin. Not only will Hayward and Stephenson and guys like that get the huge bucks, the second level guys are also getting obese checks (Meeks, Frye, et al).

----------------------------



O_E: "Acts like an asshole and posts with imperial disdain"




"I ORBITs the solar system, listenin..."

(C)Keith Murray, "

damn let me find out C tier stars saying no thanks to the cavs
well bynum and deng already did so shouldn't be surprised i guess

in returning

niggas on here were reporting/reacting like it was actually extended

biggest thing was mcbob signing? smh.

Soon as the first domino falls we gon need a new post.

>Soon as the first domino falls we gon need a new post.

"THIS some BS! Original was better!"

Marc Stein @ESPNSteinLine · 10m
ESPN sources say Brooklyn Nets on verge of acquiring Jarrett Jack from Cleveland in three-team deal

Marc Stein @ESPNSteinLine · 9m
Boston is third team in deal will acquire Tyler Zeller from Cleveland as well as future first-rounder and Marcus Thornton from Nets

Marc Stein @ESPNSteinLine · 8m
Three-team trade will see Nets acquire Jarrett Jack and Sergey Karasev from Cleveland. Boston gets Thornton, Zeller and a first

Boston still only has 100 first round picks from the Nets, not 101
@rob_starrk

a double headbutt off the top ropes from Jason and TJ Kidd.

hopefully today is the day

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
<---- 5....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dlgiritpmfo

=======================================

Ditch the paper, save the trees, and go mobile! Text bizcard to 32462!

Bron meeting with Riles today right?

Boston gets a 1st round pick and Zeller just for taking on Thornton! holy shit...

I like how the Nets got Karasev in there too... when your old with limited picks like the Nets you gladly bring on a 20 year old who went 19th overall 1 year ago

Jack is the perfect replacement for S.Liv AND a legit option for Hollins to sit Deron's ass down on the bench if he's playing poorly

>Boston gets a 1st round pick and Zeller just for taking on
>Thornton! holy shit...
>
>I like how the Nets got Karasev in there too... when your old
>with limited picks like the Nets you gladly bring on a 20 year
>old who went 19th overall 1 year ago
>
>Jack is the perfect replacement for S.Liv AND a legit option
>for Hollins to sit Deron's ass down on the bench if he's
>playing poorly
Yeah, Jack is definitely a Hollins type of dude...perfect replacement as you said.

Cleveland gets what they wanted...clear space for Bron (possibly flip Wiggins for Love and slide him in at the 4/5)

Boston gets some pieces, and as much as I hate the Celtics, Ainge with pieces to play with might be pretty dangerous

>(possibly flip Wiggins for Love and slide him in at the 4/5)

and was dead ass serious.

beside him

That's the big rumor going around.

They have zero chance of keeping Love and have a shot at an excellent youngster who will likely be an all star they can keep for the next 5 years while paying him peanuts.

There’s not a better deal out there for them than that.

Regardless of what DEM SOURCES say

http://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=8&topic_id=2346566&mesg_id=2346566&page=#2347049

It leaves a funny situation for Dan G and all the Cavs fans who talked major shit.
Of course end of the day no matter what you take Bron back. is there someone out there who is a cavs fan who is still openly hating on Bron and this move?


Rich knows what hes doing. He sees teh dead end in Miami. The does a complete faceturn for Bron for most casual fans. He got his 2 chips - took some of the monkey off his back and now hesback to help the hometeam win its first.

to get back at Gilbert and to get an apology?

And if so, can you imagine the NEW letter Gilbert would pen and do you think he'd use a different font?

@rob_starrk

thinking LeBron is getting the Cavs to jump through all these hoops, make all the moves, and then at the end to be like, yeah, I was just messing with you. I'd never play for a Dan Gilbert owned team again. Fuck that dude. I'm going back to Miami.

Lebron instantly becomes GOAT.

hed be instant worst heel of all time

But it's fun to imagine.

I can’t imagine a man of his stature and prestige within the league
stooping to such childish, ridiculous antics.

Obviously I could be wrong but that seems like a stretch.

altho he already had a handshake agreement with 2 of his best friends to join the Heat, schedule a tv special to rip the hearts out of his hometown fans all while wearing a picnic tablecloth?

which is what him and bosh are doing right now despite having another handshake agreement most likely
you're trying to suggest his meeting with gilbert as something MALICIOUS and childish
bron above that.





plus the tv show raised money for charity
being forthcoming would have eliminated that opportunity
step your philanthropy game up

if they are doing the same thing now, they are wasting everybody's time.

I just asked if anyone has mentioned that possibility. and by the responses, yes people have. I never said that's what i think he's doing.

However, to act like bron is the pillar of professionalism and because of his stature in the nba he'd never do such a thing is kinda comical. lol

>However, to act like bron is the pillar of professionalism and
>because of his stature in the nba he'd never do such a thing
>is kinda comical. lol

Not as comical as ignoring the fact that he acknowledged that mistake, even as you admit he acknowledged it.

that in post 337. If you had responded with that originally, the convo woulda went differently. Instead, you said this.

>That's an incredibly convoluted. soap opera type theory "
In response to Reply # 309

I can’t imagine a man of his stature and prestige within the league
stooping to such childish, ridiculous antics.

I think the Decision was an absurdly decadent celebration of self and an asshole move like no other, regardless of the bullshit Boys & Girls club donations. It’s not like there wasn’t a gazillion other things he could have done to raise money for them.

That said, it was as shitty moment he has said wasn’t the best move and wouldn’t repeat. I’d like to think he‘s grown from that incident. If he’s somehow just as much of a self absorbed ego maniac as he was in that moment four years ago, my guess is that he’s also smart enough to know that he’d likely take an even bigger PR hit this go round for doing some shit like you suggested.

As I said, I could be wrong. That’s an awful lot of vitriol and he’d have to be a unique brand of despicable to go that route.

>That's an incredibly convoluted. soap opera type theory "

I can’t imagine a man of his stature and prestige within the league
stooping to such childish, ridiculous antics.


The fact that he admitted it was a mistake, sure that's a valid point. But he's done the exact same thing you originally said before lol

>>That's an incredibly convoluted. soap opera type theory "
>
>I can’t imagine a man of his stature and prestige within the
>league
>stooping to such childish, ridiculous antics.


>The fact that he admitted it was a mistake, sure that's a
>valid point. But he's done the exact same thing you originally
>said before lol

So... you're literally choosing to overlook the single most valid point in this whole exchange, which is the fact that he did an unbelievably selfish and shitty thing (note to the idiots in the audience, I'm talking in sports terms here), later realized what an asshole he was or at the very least realized what a PR nightmare it was.

Yet, you're pushing this as though the man hasn't aged four years, matured four years, and gained more polished business acumen during that time.

Who knows, you could be right. I just think it's a little weird that you’re going this hard over it. Even if he stays in Miami, that’s not proof he was just doing this to waste everyone’s time. How many guys shop around and ultimately stay put? An awful lot. Duncan did it. Kobe did it.

You and bshelly must be bored out of your minds. We got him calling Melo a drama queen for taking time to mull his options, saying shit like this has nothing to do with basketball reasons and he just wants attention. We got you saying Lebron is just trying to twist the knife in Cleveland’s heart, a place he spent his whole damn life, mind you. He knows he fucked up, yet you insist he’s actually trying to build on the vitriol he created four years ago.

Nice.

lol

I'll sum it up though:

You're being ridiculous.

the difference between melo is that teams aren't making roster moves based on trying to get Melo to come. Cleveland did it 4 years ago and they doing it again. Besides Jack, Cleveland was poised to sign Hayward to an offer sheet but decided against it bc of bron (although utah was likely to match anyway).

Teams was freeing up cap space for the possibility of landing bron and the other big 2 four years ago...ain't happen. we all know why tho.

You put way too much thought into my original post and somehow, not enough thought at the same time lol.

kudos.

they wouldn't have a 2nd jersey burning ceremony would they?
smh
alot of this reeks of the "Bron to the knicks according to my sources" shit from the 1st time around
the 1 time he was a fagent he went left field with it (relative to the dominating rumors at the time)
wouldn't be surprised if something like that happened again (aka LA/Hou)
ppl are focused on cleveland and miami totally ignoring the fact he has face to face meetings scheduled with mitch and morey

...as Perez Hilton with a bag of dicks that you won't have to follow Bron back to Cleveland....

so i can laugh my fucking ass off (again)
what ever lebron decides i'm down with since he's going display the best basketball in the nba in that situation
watching a clownable owner catch (another) L is just a cherry on top
ain't gon lose any sleep either way

where lebron goes.

this is like deja vu
smh @ mike brown being fired both times gilbert ramped up to beg lebron tho

to play for David Blatt or will he "request" somebody else?

there's a couple of factors that makes this scenario seem like a stretch
but u never know i guess

everybody is expecting him to take less money in Miami, nobody is expecting him to do that in Cleveland. He can get his max deal, be a returning hero in his 'hometown' and play with a bunch of young guys that can develop. The Cav's maybe not be contenders right away but if Kyrie can stay healthy and Wiggins is anywhere close to the they'll have a nice foundation and with Lebron the only big contract on the books they'll be able to get him some 'help'.

It may not be a "dynasty" situation like Miami but they Cavs could put together a very competitive team and really who would be their competition in the East? Realistically if Lebron had waited another year or so for Boston's "Big 3" to fall off he might've won a title in Cleveland anyway.

Lebron will be 30 in December and as great as he is he's still human like everybody else and has to look the big picture and his future and the smart thing right now may be to get the money.

Dan Gilbert gonna present him Apl De Ap from the BEP & make Anderson Varejao stand out in front of which ever entrance Bron uses to "make like a tree".

follow up moves, they won't be a contender right away anyway, Blatt can be the placeholder coach until they're really ready to compete.

just curious
lebron can elevate any pile of shit
but i hope maverick carter or someone points out the track record that midget owner has

Blatt has a better track record than spo did.

Blatt gets lots of live worldwide

unless Melo goes to the Bulls

in the game?

He owns an NBA team.

Ideally, most of these guys want to win in addition to printing money.

You need the best players to win.

When the best players are available, they have options.

This means teams have to work their ass off to create situations the best players find attractive enough to sign.

James is the best player. He has options. Teams have to bend over backwards to get him, and that means creating a team he’d like to play for.

Yet, somehow, your weird, obsessive lust for James+your weird, obsessive hatred for everyone in the NBA who *isn’t* James leads you to call teams “desperate” for pulling out all the stops to get him.

Very odd.

cavs would become WITHOUT lebron
yes...he looks especially desperate
but why apply context to anything when you can just be a babbling contrarian every time i hit reply
luckily you inadvertently listed a host of reasons why you basically agree with me
i'll just add that gilbert is in this position because of his ineptitude in running a franchise which was the catalyst for bron bouncing in the first fucking place :)


>Yet, somehow, your weird, obsessive lust for James+your weird,
>obsessive hatred for everyone in the NBA who *isn’t* James



only paralleled by your weird obsessive lust for replying to me every time i mention brons name.....

i'm convinced

He's not a troll. Just delusional.

Trolls know they're trolling.

He really thinks he's providing valuable, credible information.

im at this point with this cat..bcz it happens every year... nigga you aint got that many dam sources that nobody else have..

would even mention his name.

I think he really thinks he's putting out good information.

I think he really does have “sources”. It’s not as though he can say who is telling him what, after all. I just think HE thinks every tidbit of information he’s getting is good, reliable, and true.

Obviously he knows that’s where his bread is buttered, but I genuinely don’t believe he’s making it up.

Man....a person's true colors are imo most evident in how they treat you when you aren't in their good graces. We saw how Gilbert reacted, completely entitled as if Bron was his property. This dude is a legit piece of shit and I sincerely hope Bron gives him a big "fuck you".

was what bron is/was doing.

I mean dude just took down the letter off his website the other day lol

which is a shame because he deserves to shit on gilbert any chance he has
i think he is going give gilbert dumb ass a legit chance to pitch his shitty franchise like he did back in '10
hopefully he makes the right decision again
if not that's his decision and Cleveland will be one of the best teams in the nba again

I think he’s realized it’s a bad idea to burn bridges in this business.

Lebron’s big ‘fuck you’ should have come right away if at all.

Gilbert may own the team and rightly deserve his own just deserts, but Cleveland’s fans don’t deserve more torment.

Twisting the knife just to be a dick won’t be a good look for Bron and I’d rather see him take a more standup approach as opposed to his childish exit last time. There’s literally nothing to be gained by it.

like, the cavs are jump jump jumping over every hoop they can, hellbent on just the chance he'll take a meeting, and the best they can hope for is that lebron only signs short term in miami.

I can't understand WHY Bron would even think about playing for this dude. Say whatever about their fans or the city or the guys playing there, but bottom line is the guy at the head of the organization who signs the checks is a piece of shit. Lebron should know better.

Kinda like how Dan Snyder isn't really a shittier human being than most NFL owners, but he certainly plays the part.

i bet he worse than sterling

always ready and willing...

I thought the draft was bad, but this is terrible. Everything is comic sans font with them.


----------------------------
Same as it ever was!

The Rockets have reached out to Luol Deng on Wednesday.
He's obviously just a backup plan behind Chris Bosh and perhaps even if a team offers up an unmatchable offer sheet to Chandler Parsons. Few players saw their value decrease quite like Deng due to a significant drop off in production and durability last year.


Bosh and Deng wouldnt be a bad haul if possible

But yea like the blurb says wonder what that means for CP

Deng might come cheaper though.

...because all know that fool wasn't born in 1985.

https://twitter.com/ANM90/status/486951392154644480/photo/1

edit: flatbed for the whip suggest the move is a short distance

Sam Amico ‏@SamAmicoFSO

LeBron expected to announce free-agent choice on http://lebronjames.com . I'd start refreshing at time of his meeting w Heat (6 pm EST).

his agent met with the teams of interest but wouldn't he want to met the owners/gms himself before making a decision?

"JUST A KID FROM AKRON OHIO!"

Amazing marketing strategy...million times better than the decision.

you don't think its possible to have his web designer on deck to take that picture down right before a 5pm announcement?

point: it's impossible to gather anything from the pic

marketing team?

thus an official announcement
btw that akron hat pic is post decision
it's in miami heat colorway with the heat logo flame on the N, smh

Carmelo Anthony will re-sign with the Knicks "barring a last minute change of heart," according to the NY Daily News.
The report adds Anthony had been "agonizing over this" for the past week. "He will have something for everybody on Thursday," an anonymous friend of Anthony said. "He is really torn because this is the biggest decision of his career. But he wants to get it done in New York. He told me he believes in Phil."

He chose Fisher over Thibs which is an L.

He couldn't humble himself and take a second role like other superstars have done in the past to win chips.

>He couldn't humble himself and take a second role like other
>superstars have done in the past to win chips.

FOH