Brady has lost 3 SBs. Gonna dimininish him, too? Hakeem didn’t even play in 3 Finals, gonna diminish The Dream next? How many years did MJ not make the Finals? Including ‘95. How many times did MJ NOT face The Dream. The matchup All Rox fans believe would have pierced MJ’s cloak of invisibility. Lucky Mike. I call total BS to the idea that 6-0 is the end all. 9 appearances? Sign. Me. Up.
This weekend can't come soon enough just so things can start happening. I still believe Morey and Co will make a move to upgrade the roster somehow. His remark of "new math" seemed too calculated much like his quote of "upping risk profile" last season in reference to the pending CP3 trade. My hope if LeBron doesnt come to Houston is that he stays out East. Any LeBron led team in the playoffs is scary and the thought of the Rockets having to face a LeBron team and the Warriors before the finals is quite the task. Once in the playoffs really anything can happen as we just saw: Injuries, officiating, etc. but has @cyberx posted anything recently?
http://abc7.com/sports/pressure-mounting-on-lakers-to-acquire-kawhi-leonard-from-spurs/3662963/ As LeBron James remains hesitant to be the first superstar to decide on the Los Angeles Lakers in free agency, pressure is mounting for the Lakers front office to execute a trade with the San Antonio Spurs to acquire disgruntled All-NBA forward Kawhi Leonard, league sources told ESPN. There's a race to secure Leonard before James is faced with deciding whether to become a free agent on Friday, especially with concern that Oklahoma City's Paul George is no longer assured of signing with the Lakers, league sources said. Another James preference that could impact free agency, league sources said: James wants to make a decision quickly in July free agency. The Boston Celtics, Cleveland Cavaliers, Philadelphia 76ers andLA Clippersare among teams who've made offers to the Spurs for Leonard, league sources said. The Lakers, the franchise that Leonard wants to be traded, did not have a good initial conversation with the Spurs, ESPN reported recently. While the Lakers came away feeling like San Antonio "shut the door on us" and the conversation never progressed or included a formal trade offer, the Spurs haven't ruled out sending Leonard to any destination, in the Eastern or Western Conference, league sources said. If Leonard can convince the rest of the NBA interested in trading for him that he'll only be a one-year rental before the signing with Los Angeles in 2019, the Lakers could have the most compelling trade package to offer San Antonio. The situation has become similar to when the Lakers were last year with the Indiana Pacers, when George informed the Pacers that he intended to sign with the Lakers as a free agent in 2018. As such, the Lakers never made a substantial offer for George to Indiana -- such as the No. 2 overall pick in the 2017 draft, or Brandon Ingram -- expecting that George would come to them this year in free agency. But now, after a trade to Oklahoma City, George is seriously considering a return to the Thunder, as well as the possibility of joining the Lakers or others. Los Angeles could be risking a scenario of James staying in Cleveland or going elsewhere and the Spurs trading Leonard to a destination with which he becomes comfortable and hedges on joining the Lakers next year. The Lakers have been weighing the conservation of young assets and future draft picks against the possibility of getting shutout of star players in July free agency. The Lakers hoped to lure James and George in free agency, which would give them more leverage in Leonard trade talks --- or simply the ability to wait until next year to sign him. Now, the price for Leonard would be substantial. The Lakers could have to surrender a combination of former first-round picks from Ingram,Kyle Kuzma, Josh Hartand future first-round picks and perhaps restricted free agent Julius Randle in a sign-and-trade agreement. The Lakers have been hunting a future first-round draft pick on the trade market in recent days, league sources said. That pick could be used to sweeten a prospective trade opportunity. The Spurs could also push the Lakers to take an unappealing contract off their books. Those are all deal points that would be applicable to leverage, which belongs to the Spurs as long as Lakers president Magic Johnson and GM Rob Pelinka haven't delivered yet on the promise of a blue-chip free agent. Johnson told reporters in Los Angeles on Tuesday that he'd step down as President of Basketball Operations if he couldn't deliver superstars via free agency or trade over the next two years. James and Paul have until Friday to exercise their player options on the final years of their contracts and become unrestricted free agents. Leonard can't opt-out of his contract until next summer, but the Spurs are aware that he wants to land with the Lakers. Rival teams are trying to measure how much to offer the Spurs for Leonard without a clear sense of their chances of re-signing him next summer. The Spurs haven't ruled out a trade to the Lakers -- nor the Western Conference -- for Leonard, but are unlikely to be motivated to make a deal with Los Angeles - or any team --- until they have the leverage to extract every possible asset. Thus far, San Antonio hasn't been responsive to all teams who have inquired about Leonard, or ruled out the possibility of trading him to any league destination, sources said. James hasn't ruled out a return to Cleveland, but his chances of staying with a reshaped and upgraded roster are murky. The Cavaliers have been working on several trade and salary-cap clearing possibilities to be aggressive in free agency, but have been stymied in attempts to meet or discuss scenarios with James, league sources said. James had been clear that he wouldn't engage with the Cavaliers throughout the pre-draft and pre-free agent process, and has stayed consistent with that posture. James' unwillingness to commit beyond the 2017-18 season made it challenging for Cavs management to execute a George trade, because he wanted a James commitment beyond next season to make one of his own, league sources said. It is unlikely that the Cavaliers would've traded Kyrie Irving with James and George together on the Cleveland roster. Now, the longer the Cavaliers go without clear communication with James, the less chance that the Cavaliers can find ways to upgrade the roster to James' satisfaction. The Cavs would love to get involved with George or Chris Paul's free agency in concert with re-signing James. But because they are likely to be deep into the luxury tax, they will be barred from receiving players in sign-and-trade deals, which makes getting involved in free agency of stars nearly impossible. Cleveland has inquired about Leonard, sources said, but the Cavaliers probably don't have the assets to top the rest of the market. Leonard has been adamant that he doesn't want to step into the San Antonio locker room again, and the Spurs have been adamant that they won't be forced into a trade, or a timetable, prior to the February trading deadline, league sources said. No team talking with the Spurs about Leonard has found them to be in a rush to make a deal.
I don't think you understand what I was saying given that you are not coming up with applicable comparisons. My point was that you hype Lebron up by talking about his finals appearances while leaving out the context in which that happened. The East was an absolute joke so of course the ONLY good team in the East made the finals every year. Last season was the most difficult Eastern Conference playoffs in Lebron's career. Deep down you know there's NO chance that the same teams he was on would have made 9 finals appearances if they had to make it out of the West. Sorry, that diminishes the "9 finals appearances" talk, but it doesn't diminish Lebron as a player. It's just pointing out why the "9 finals appearances" talk is stupid and not impressive given the circumstances.
Randle makes sense for the Nets. But the Nets already have a cheap rim running center in Jarrett Allen, so Capela doesn't make as much sense in terms of allocating cap resources there.
8 straight appearances and 9 in total is ridiculously impressive no matter how you slice it. Now the point of the East being fairly weak is correct and is a fair point, but how is that LeBron's fault? He isn't in charge of the other teams in the East and what moves they make. Ideally it would have been great if the conferences were a bit more balanced, but that isn't something players are fully in control of. I am not going to hold it against LeBron that the other teams in the east did nothing to improve their rosters to compete with the Heat and Cavs. I mean you have had some really bad run franchises in the East in the past decade - NY, Brooklyn, Magic, Charlotte, Detroit, Philly (well IMO the moves Coangelo made hurt the team and they could have gotten more of a return for Noel/Jah and of course the Fultz pick). Add in the teams that are treading water in Indiana, Washington, Chicago, Bucks, Hawks. I mean its really been just Toronto, Boston, Cavs and Heat who made strides to improve. Two of them with LeBron, Toronto relied more on internal development but do not have a superstar. Boston is still the best run team in the East but even they required a once in a life time type trade with Brooklyn (and Prok blowing it up not wanting to pay the tax).
This is cool, but Ugh. Too much noise all over the place. I think I'm Lebron-ed out. Information overload. I'm just waiting for the weekend to see the fireworks.
It is. They're just salivating at the mouth for it to happen. I'm sure the possible idea (which wouldn't happen) of a Lakers/lbj and Celts/Kyrie finals is just blowing their heads up.
