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Post by El Marsh on Jul 6, 2019 21:44:02 GMT
Wow, Kawhi and Paul George to the Clippers 😲 West is going to be crazy unpredictable and even more competitive this year and the East just lost a top team. Philly and Milwaukee have both got to be really happy right now. Thunder gets a ton of draft picks and I just can't help but think Westbrook will be on the way out. I believe he's friends with Lebron too. Imagine if he got traded to the Lakers for a ton of money and more draft picks? Thunder would be THA FUTURE but the Lakers would dominate. Yeah, Westbrook's been nothing but loyal to the Thunder, never making any fuss public fuss or dogging it on the court when the roster got worse. You have to think that he's ready to move on and being another Los Angeles native (like Kawhi), you'd have to think there's some appeal to potentially moving back to the coast. Unfortunately, I think him and LeBron would probably be really uncomfortable playing together because they're effectively the same player offensively (though LeBron is the better shooter.....and passer....and.....ok, so Westbrook is like a worse, more-athletic-at-this-point version of LeBron lol). Neither one is very effective without the ball in their hands and they're both defensive liabilities, though the league doesn't really care about that. Compounded with that is that Westbrook still has like 4 years on his MASSIVE contract (he's slated for $38m this year and $47m in 2022-23, the final year of his contract). I think he's going to be tremendously difficult to move because of that number and his track record for making bad crunch time decisions.
Kawhi to the Clippers is really unsurprising, even with the media trying to play up the uncertainty of his destination for the past couple of weeks. Paul George escaping being moved from Oklahoma City really kind of came out of left field and is on the whole pretty awesome. I don't know what else they have there besides Lou Williams and (I think) Patrick Beverly but with Lou Will now being the #3 scoring option, I think they're in good hands, at least in terms of starting firepower/defense.
Toronto fans should be thankful that they won during their Kawhi rental season because as good as the rest of the team outside of him was down the stretch, I think Boston, Milwaukee, and "maybe" Philadelphia will all be better than them. I'd really love to throw the Pacers in as a sleeper but they lost the guys who led the charge when Oladipo went down and being Indiana, they didn't sign any impact free agents to replace them. Brooklyn should make the playoffs again at the very least but I don't think they'll make any deep runs until #35 is playing for them. Meanwhile, my Bulls will still suck. >_<
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Post by El Marsh on Jul 7, 2019 5:31:29 GMT
Don't sell woof tickets, kids!
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Post by OrochiGeese on Jul 7, 2019 5:57:08 GMT
Yeah, Westbrook's been nothing but loyal to the Thunder, never making any fuss public fuss or dogging it on the court when the roster got worse. You have to think that he's ready to move on and being another Los Angeles native (like Kawhi), you'd have to think there's some appeal to potentially moving back to the coast. Unfortunately, I think him and LeBron would probably be really uncomfortable playing together because they're effectively the same player offensively (though LeBron is the better shooter.....and passer....and.....ok, so Westbrook is like a worse, more-athletic-at-this-point version of LeBron lol). Neither one is very effective without the ball in their hands and they're both defensive liabilities, though the league doesn't really care about that. I think that's a great analysis 💡 Given how both of them dominate the ball (and have chased people off their team as a result of that), there's no way they could co-exist on the court. And I don't think Westbrook would accept being the leader of the B-team for them. I really wonder where Westbrook ends up though. Aside from Steven Adams, Westbrook just doesn't have the best history of team chemistry. And after what we saw with Kyrie in Boston, I think teams have to take into consideration the personalities of players. Having said that, Westbrook is easily top 10 in the league in ability and I think he'd be really interesting in the East. And my theory about Westbrook getting added to the Lakers got further crushed (LOL) given the news of today of the Lakers signing many others, including re-signing Rondo. It's pretty awesome that Cousins gets to reunite with AD and Rondo given how great the Pelicans were becoming that year when Cousins got injured. Them plus Lebron plus Danny Green plus a few others. I think they are going to be a strong team. Cousins has matured SO much over the past year (and he went from being a guy that annoyed me to a guy I rooted for and actively felt bad for when he hurt himself in the playoffs this year). I think that playing with his old teammates and Lebron is going to bring out the best in him. I know Kawhi and PG make an awesome addition to the already scrappy Clippers (especially Beverly and Williams) but I give the Lakers a ton of credit for responding to that news huge today with the moves the made. The top 4 Western teams in the playoffs from this past season (especially the Warriors) probably feel like they went to sleep and woke up like 10 years in the future. It's an entirely different Conference now! Kawhi to the Clippers is really unsurprising, even with the media trying to play up the uncertainty of his destination for the past couple of weeks. Paul George escaping being moved from Oklahoma City really kind of came out of left field and is on the whole pretty awesome. I don't know what else they have there besides Lou Williams and (I think) Patrick Beverly but with Lou Will now being the #3 scoring option, I think they're in good hands, at least in terms of starting firepower/defense. Here's whats amazing: The Warriors couldn't effectively stop Lou Williams during the first round. So given that he is now just the #3 option for the Clippers, that is scary how good they will be offensively and defensively cause all the top Clippers players right now are monsters on defense. Toronto fans should be thankful that they won during their Kawhi rental season because as good as the rest of the team outside of him was down the stretch, I think Boston, Milwaukee, and "maybe" Philadelphia will all be better than them. Agreed and I think Toronto knew the risks here. The Kawhi trade last year was the single biggest trade and paid full dividends. They got what they wanted in the short term and knew from the start it may just be short term. I do feel bad for any of the long time Toronto players who may now get traded as a result of Kawhi leaving. But every single one of them now have a Championship and memorable season to show for it. I wonder what DeMar DeRozan thinks about all of this! |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 7, 2019 7:53:57 GMT
Paul George escaping being moved from Oklahoma City really kind of came out of left field and is on the whole pretty awesome. I'd take offense but I oscillate between having a weird civic pride in being from Oklahoma City and hating actually living in Oklahoma. Unless you're specifically knocking the Thunder, in which case I have no strong feelings there. Carry on. |
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Post by BakFu on Jul 7, 2019 8:19:35 GMT
Don't sell woof tickets, kids!
Finally, someone left Askren counting ceiling lights, for some reason I’ve been wanting to see that clown get STARCHED for a while now. Masvidal must have been in a hurry to get to an after party or something, that is a pretty CRITICAL! 🙂 |
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Post by IamAres on Jul 7, 2019 15:13:45 GMT
I don't know what "woof ticket" means, but the fact that that fight was over before the clock and graphics at the bottom could finish their assembling animation is hilarious.
It does make me wish you could start a Firepro match with c2c moves. 😄
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Post by Zealot on Jul 7, 2019 15:23:14 GMT
It's basically a slang term for taunting/calling someone out on their lying or some other BS.
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Post by OrochiGeese on Jul 7, 2019 22:33:12 GMT
"Honk Ticket" > "Woof Ticket" 🦆
But yeah, I'd love to start FPW matches with C!C moves!! I once tried to use a priority to chain the Entrance taunt to a move to start a match with a strike or running strike. It didn't work :(
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Post by BakFu on Jul 7, 2019 22:50:17 GMT
It's basically a slang term for taunting/calling someone out on their lying or some other BS. Yeah, this. Askren talked a bit of shit and had a perfect record up till this fight. Apparently he ran his mouth leading up to the fight and Jorge took offence. I was not sad to see this outcome, don’t know why I care, but Funky Ben has always annoyed me, and for as much as he wants to be Chael Sonnen, he isn’t. Dude is legit, was an Olympic team member, NCAA div 1 champ/all American, one fc and bellator champ and all of that, but his attitude leaves a bit to be desired in this faceless internet voice’s opinion.🙂 |
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Post by IamAres on Jul 7, 2019 23:08:44 GMT
Okay, now I get it.
Yeah, I have zero patience for that kind of trash-talking this-guy-could-never-touch-me bullshit. At that point, even if you win, you're still full of your own shit because you didn't do anything close to what you said you were gonna do. That kind of dick-waving shit deserves to eat one-hit knockouts.
Like, didn't you train your whole life to get to this spot? Have some fucking respect. Or have a knee to the skull. It's faster.
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Post by OrochiGeese on Jul 12, 2019 2:28:55 GMT
Rockets trades Chris Paul and draft picks to Thunder for Russell Westbrook. Back when Chris Paul joined the Rockets, I really thought they were going to for a two-team rotation with Harden leading one group and Paul leading another: and whatever group would start would be based on their opponents. Given their inability to get along, this may have proven to be the better plan. Then again, they did make it far in the playoffs and Paul's injury did hurt them. But they just seemed to hit a wall playing together. Trading Paul off the Rockets was smart but replacing him with Westbrook is a head scratcher . Now we have two PG's in Harden and Westbrook seemingly incapable of sharing the ball on the same team. I can't see how they can both be starters and co-exist on the court. They gotta have some kind of unorthodox strategy planned. I get they may have been friends during the Thunder days but Harden is a different player now. And man, I just really wanted to watch Pat Riley referee Westbrook vs. Butler in Miami 😭 IPPON!  |
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Post by El Marsh on Jul 13, 2019 17:40:52 GMT
^nice use of Kuroko there Gooseman!
But yeah, that trade was pretty crazy. The only way to move Paul's ridiculous contract was to trade it for another equally or more ridiculous contract and really, only the oft-injured John Wall was really the only contender there and Washington.....well, I doubt even Washington really knows what they want to at this point :P
Westbrook and Harden apparently WANTED this reunion to happen so it'll be interesting to see how things shake out. Really, the most effective use for them would be to have one lead the second unity but yeah, nobody's keeping a $40m on the bench, even if they play a superstar's minutes (i.e. 36 mpg or better). Still, I think that however they do it, Westbrook will be a better fit in Houston than CP3. Even without the list of injuries, Paul just never really added as much to the Rockets as anybody would have liked. It's telling that the most memorable thing from his tenure there was the locker room confrontation with his old teammates at the Staples Center (which is STILL pretty damn hilarious two years later).
And yeah, with talk of OKC showing interest in shipping CP3 to Miami, we may still get that crazy epic "superstar" conflict, as there's just no way that Butler and Paul wouldn't come to physical blows at some point. xD It's going to be a very interesting NBA season coming up.
That said, it's a bit of a shame that teams like Indiana and Denver don't attract major stars to bolster their already talented cores. I feel that teams like them, Milwaukee, Orlando, etc. are always being left out in the cold because of the way the larger markets tend to dominate free agency and trade markets. It's not that the smaller teams don't have assets to exchange, it's that star players just don't want to play there if it can be helped. I think the only major star to go to a small market team in recent years was Paul George signing an extension with OKC before last season (and before being traded to his hometown Clippers last week). Of course, he had the experience of having played in a small market for his entire career (firs in Indiana then one season in OKC before re-signing with the latter) so he was rather used to it. I'll be interested to see what happens when small market superstar (and reigning league MVP) Giannis Antetokounmpo hits the market in a couple of years.
As much as I'd love for Kansas City to get another NBA franchise, it probably wouldn't go much better than the first one (the Kings from 1972-1985), in large part because a city this size and away from the coast wouldn't be able to lure in "impact" free agents. They'd basically have to strike it rich in the draft immediately, like OKC with (Westbrook, Harden, and Ibaka in successive years; Durant too but he played a season in Seattle which has a notably bigger media/population imprint than Oklahoma City) to have anyone of note. Otherwise, it'd be another Charlotte and New Orleans situation.
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Post by El Marsh on Jul 13, 2019 17:48:41 GMT
Also, how about the Anaheim Angels throwing a combined no-hitter on the night that they honored recently deceased teammate Tyler Skaggs?
The entire team wore his #45 jersey (as teammates Mike Trout and Tommy LaStella did at the MLB All-Star Game earlier in the week) and his mother threw out a pretty great first pitch.
The Angels beat the Mariners 13-0.
They scored 7 of their runs in the first inning.
That's 7/13 runs in the first frame.
Tyler Skagg was born on July 13th, aka 7/13.
He would have been 28 years old today.
There really aren't words to describe that "coincidence."
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Post by Zealot on Jul 14, 2019 14:39:23 GMT
Yeah. Quite the inspired performance by the Angels. If there are baseball gods, they were most definitely there that night.
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Post by Timberwolf on Jul 14, 2019 14:41:05 GMT
Must be Angels in the outfield 😉
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