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NBA 2024-25 Season Thread


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12 hours ago, beer said:

Says the dude that moved teams like a $5 whore. I watched or attended  nearly every fucking game for years with my season tickets.  We were one of the most loyal fan markets in OKC and he fucked off to Cali for what? Not for lack of fucking solid sell out crowds who loved the team every goddamn night. He is a pathetic sick fuck creating this drama and deserves to fade away. What a trash human for saying this. And we thought Westbrook was a dick?

 

On 1/1/2025 at 3:39 AM, ztejas said:

Man the Suns are a fucking train wreck. At some point you need to get as many picks as you can for KD and Book.

Booker is so clearly at this point not a franchise player. He can't out produce a 36 y/o Durant. Phoenix is never going to do anything with that dude as the "cornerstone".

On one hand, you have to give him credit for his on the court play at his age.  He's still elite level and might be the best natural scorer in history.  However, it's hard to feel sorry for him.  He forces his way out of every team when everything isn't perfect and he got himself into this Phoenix situation and it's not like it was a surprise.  He's a great player but would be a terrible GM.  

But for him to say fans care more about free agent drama is ironic considering his history.  His legacy will be a weird one.  He bounced around a lot and while he has a title, it was at GS which one them before and after him.  If he gets a statue somewhere, where will it be?  None of those teams are doing it.

Supposedly, he reached out to OKC either last year or the year before.  They had the assets and he'd fit there but they weren't interested.

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15 minutes ago, beer said:

Not anymore

I get it but I think you went a little strong there calling him a "trash human". He's a weird/complicated dude and my love for him has honestly waned a bit the past couple years - but some of that is just me emotionally separating and being at peace with how his career has come to a close.

Holistically I think what should define his legacy almost more than anything is all of the USAB stuff. We don't win in Tokyo if he doesn't commit. I'm not sure we squeak by Serbia if he doesn't commit again. That shit is a big fucking deal and I think gets glossed over BECAUSE we didn't lose either year. 

You're in a fucking dogfight with Serbia and the best player on the planet - you have your two biggest superstars of the past 15 years out there who - by the way - are two of the greatest 10 players to ever touch a basketball. In the last minute of the game you need a bucket to quiet things down and escape and cap off a huge comeback and who does the ball go to? Who do you trust to take maybe the biggest shot in USAB history? And does he ice that shit or does he come up short?

That's who Kevin Durant is. Strange guy. Strange legacy. Burned a lot of bridges and collected a lot of haters along the way. He's a hooper's hooper and he's unapologetic about it. 

From that same Olympics he produced another one of my favorite clips of all time when he embraced and consoled a teary-eyed Wembanyama after France came up short. That's not a trash human being - that's some genuine shit. 

YMMV. I'm incredibly biased but I will always defend the guy and he will remain one of my favorite athletes of all time. In a lot of ways he deserves the hate but he also deserves the love that he gets from fans like me. 

There will never, ever be another Kevin Durant. For better or worse. He is and will remain one of one. 

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28 minutes ago, beer said:

Ok well dont bring logic and reason into it. 

I'll say this, the memorabilia on display in his restaurant was seriously lacking. There, I said it. 

I honestly was going to let y'alls comments slide then I had a couple drinks and I'm like "fuck I gotta go defend my boy again"

How about that Joc Pederson singing? I was sad to lose Lowe - fuckin loved that guy. Here's to a better Rangers season this year. 

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24 minutes ago, Message Board User said:

Couple things - 

1) If only Minnesota had a 1b option that they didn't trade away for peanuts a few months ago.

2) Love his talent, but Ant is immature as hell and is just telling his opponents how to frustrate and stop him.

 

This is actually what I came here to post about but I got sidetracked with y'all hating on my boyfriend. 

The Gobert trade that Minny pulled was absolutely ridiculous and then they followed it up by shipping KAT for Randle which is somehow looking even worse than that terrible Gobert deal. 

Like - you have an amazing young talent and then you make a playoff run where it looks like said young talent has gotten through to your enigmatic big-man and has him playing good ball and then you just ship that motherfucker away? 

I mean holy shit how dumb are you Minny? What the fuck are you doing? 

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4 hours ago, ztejas said:

That's who Kevin Durant is. Strange guy. Strange legacy. Burned a lot of bridges and collected a lot of haters along the way. He's a hooper's hooper and he's unapologetic about it. 

Yup, KD in a nutshell. He's given hoops fans a lot of thrills. 

1 hour ago, Message Board User said:

2) Love his talent, but Ant is immature as hell and is just telling his opponents how to frustrate and stop him.

 

This chucklefuck is the definition of a 10 cent head. I'm starting to think he's dumb as fuck. 

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I love Jimmy Butler--most of the time--but he's rarely been consistently good enough to justify the massive headache he inevitably becomes. It's one thing when he's ejecting himself away from soft ass teammates in Minnesota. But, at some point, he's part of the problem.

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9 minutes ago, aggie08 said:

I love Jimmy Butler--most of the time--but he's rarely been consistently good enough to justify the massive headache he inevitably becomes. It's one thing when he's ejecting himself away from soft ass teammates in Minnesota. But, at some point, he's part of the problem.

That's a wild fucking take.

He took Miami to the Finals twice in four seasons.

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But what team can reasonably trade for Jimmy and still be a contender for 1-2 years?

Is swapping Beal+picks for him going to make the Suns better? (On the court, not future salary cap) 

Can the Bucks get him without giving up Giannis or Dame, and does it do enough or create more holes to fill?

If the Rockets can swing a FVV+Green+picks deal for Butler, does that make them a solid 2 seed in the West? 

Golden State with Wiggins+assets has been thrown around, but I really don't see that making them better enough to vault into the top 3. 

Does a team like Denver want him? They could make it work. 

I'm not sure he gets traded though. A lot of teams are cap strapped or can't make it work without making more issues in this years roster. If Miami's price is relatively cheap just to dump him and clear cap, maybe it could happen, but I would imagine they want several picks in return. 

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16 minutes ago, ztejas said:

Can you win a title though? Feel like you need a guy and you don't have one. 

Not talking shit just curious what you think. Would love to see y'all take it all the way. 

It's the same story as the last couple seasons - the missing 2-way wing with size.  That could be the Cavs undoing in the playoffs vs the Celtics and/or the Knicks (part of the reason I'm so salty about the KAT trade is it elevated the Knicks to legit title contenders).  I'm also still traumatized from the 2023 playoffs when the Knicks obliterated the Cavs, who just looked so...soft.  And will the size of, say, the Magic or Bucks or Hawks bother the short backcourt?  

But 30-4 is 30-4 and history says that about half the teams that start this well win the title.  Atkinson has been money all season and should win CoY unless there's a complete collapse.

We may have a better sense of how the Cavs can handle playoff atmosphere after Jan 8 (vs OKC on ESPN) and Jan 16 (at OKC on TNT).  Can't wait.

 

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3 hours ago, aggie08 said:

I love Jimmy Butler--most of the time--but he's rarely been consistently good enough to justify the massive headache he inevitably becomes. It's one thing when he's ejecting himself away from soft ass teammates in Minnesota. But, at some point, he's part of the problem.

He's been a bitch at every stop.   When you have a problem with everyone you're the problem.

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7 minutes ago, Message Board User said:

It's the same story as the last couple seasons - the missing 2-way wing with size.  That could be the Cavs undoing in the playoffs vs the Celtics and/or the Knicks (part of the reason I'm so salty about the KAT trade is it elevated the Knicks to legit title contenders).  I'm also still traumatized from the 2023 playoffs when the Knicks obliterated the Cavs, who just looked so...soft.  And will the size of, say, the Magic or Bucks or Hawks bother the short backcourt?  

But 30-4 is 30-4 and history says that about half the teams that start this well win the title.  Atkinson has been money all season and should win CoY unless there's a complete collapse.

We may have a better sense of how the Cavs can handle playoff atmosphere after Jan 8 (vs OKC on ESPN) and Jan 16 (at OKC on TNT).  Can't wait.

 

It can be done. You don't have prime LeBron or Durant or Kawhi but you don't necessarily need that. Every once in awhile a team squeaks through and takes a title home despite not having a pantheon-level player at the height of their powers. 

2004 Pistons. 2011 Mavs. 2014 Spurs. 

Sometimes you're the best team in the league and it carries through four rounds and you go hang a fuckin banner. 

Gun to my head I'm not taking you out of the East, though. I like Boston and NY a bit better.

Y'all just need to go prove all of us wrong 😉 

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3 hours ago, ztejas said:

That's a wild fucking take.

He took Miami to the Finals twice in four seasons.

It ends the same way everywhere he goes, and we (including me) just excuse him with some variation of: "It's okay that he's acting like a petulant child*; he just wants to win so bad, and the franchise he's with is full of losers."

Those Finals appearances were in the post-LeBron East, he had a little injury luck (KD and Giannis) and the Celtics still hadn't figured things out yet...but I give him and those teams full credit for getting hot and making their runs, and Jimmy has some absolutely incredible, ballsy postseason performances to his name. 

But, at some point, he's an 18, 5, and 4 guy who has played over 60 games twice in 8 seasons, who maxed out as a fringe top 10 guy at his peak. If he was a true superstar, he would be getting pummeled for his repeat history of blowing things up. But he's a 2nd or 3rd tier guy that everyone kind of likes, so he gets away with it.

Would I want him on my playoff team at a reasonable number that could be moved when things went sideways? Fuck yes.

Do I want him as the leader and best player on my team? Fuck no.

 

*usually over a contract dispute, not team performance

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Says the dude that moved teams like a $5 whore. I watched or attended  nearly every fucking game for years with my season tickets.  We were one of the most loyal fan markets in OKC and he fucked off to Cali for what? Not for lack of fucking solid sell out crowds who loved the team every goddamn night. He is a pathetic sick fuck creating this drama and deserves to fade away. What a trash human for saying this. And we thought Westbrook was a dick?
All of that is true but he isn't wrong to me. I see more hype around free agency and the trade deadline and all the rumors surrounding both than the regular season gets. The NBA regular season has turned into a beating. And has been for a long time. The ratings keep getting worse.
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12 hours ago, Message Board User said:

Couple things - 

1) If only Minnesota had a 1b option that they didn't trade away for peanuts a few months ago.

2) Love his talent, but Ant is immature as hell and is just telling his opponents how to frustrate and stop him.

It’s not just a 1b option, it was a 1b option who is a wholly unique floor spreading big that opened up the entire floor and cleared out the paint for his drives. Instead they have a ball stopper in Randle and a 7’2” dude you don’t have to guard outside of four feet. I can’t think of two worse archetypes to play with Ant. 

11 hours ago, ztejas said:

This is actually what I came here to post about but I got sidetracked with y'all hating on my boyfriend. 

The Gobert trade that Minny pulled was absolutely ridiculous and then they followed it up by shipping KAT for Randle which is somehow looking even worse than that terrible Gobert deal. 

Like - you have an amazing young talent and then you make a playoff run where it looks like said young talent has gotten through to your enigmatic big-man and has him playing good ball and then you just ship that motherfucker away? 

I mean holy shit how dumb are you Minny? What the fuck are you doing? 

The Gobert contract and second apron made that trade even worse than it was at the time, and it was atrocious when they made it.  They were forced to do something to get away from the apron and they needed assets to unload Rudy, all of which they ironically had to give up to get Rudy. They were in a no win situation and basically did the only thing they could have done. Vincenzo has been playing great lately after a bad start which lessons the sting a little but they took a bath on that trade to recover from purely self inflicted wounds. 

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There are just so few teams would could trade 50 million away to get Jimmy and then the package would have to be something Miami would want.

I was hearing the Griz trading for him. The package was Smart, Clarke, Aldama and Kennard. Why would the Heat do that?

Then the Warriors was like Wiggins, Kumminga, Looney and Anderson. I guess that Kumminga is something, but you have to pay him and Wigs still has 3 years left. So you basically lose cap flexibility.

I just don’t see a trade unless it’s a wild 3/4 teamer, but even then it’s rough.
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3 hours ago, Message Board User said:

 

I would have thought the Kings might be a seller at this point. I don't think Cam fixes that team, but he has 2.5 years left on a modest contract. It's the Kings though, and they have been delusional for years, so I don't think an overpay would surprise me. 

OKC getting Cam would be interesting, depending on who they give up. They could use another scoring option to mix in their lineup, but I wonder if this would be an overreaction to Chet being injured. Their defense is terrific right now, and any trade for a 22m player would likely require at least one of their wings going out in return. I think I would take the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it approach" if I were them, unless they have some dead weight they can bundle with picks to make this work. 

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21 minutes ago, Dutchrudder said:

I would have thought the Kings might be a seller at this point. I don't think Cam fixes that team, but he has 2.5 years left on a modest contract. It's the Kings though, and they have been delusional for years, so I don't think an overpay would surprise me. 

OKC getting Cam would be interesting, depending on who they give up. They could use another scoring option to mix in their lineup, but I wonder if this would be an overreaction to Chet being injured. Their defense is terrific right now, and any trade for a 22m player would likely require at least one of their wings going out in return. I think I would take the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it approach" if I were them, unless they have some dead weight they can bundle with picks to make this work. 

That’s why I don’t think they’ll do it.  There are four players they won’t touch so unless the Nets do it for 2 or 3 role players plus draft picks, it’s not worth it.

OKC is also playing with a lot of continuity, especially on defense, and they still haven’t played a game with a full roster yet.  (Chet and Caruso are still out.)

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48 minutes ago, closetohumping said:

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On 1/3/2025 at 9:17 PM, ztejas said:

Spurs' war-chest is just as crazy. 

And we have a 20 year-old playing for us that might already be the best player in the league. But KEEP IT QUIET and don't tell anyone! I don't think anyone has noticed yet...

Yeah.....no.

Be patient. Wemby's time is definitely coming. But the gap between Jokic and everyone else is still fucking massive.

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