2008-2009 NBA Season Thread

[Phlip]

Originally Posted by Rey of Spots

ESPN - Report: Andrew Bynum reaches four-year, $58 million extension with Los Angeles Lakers

The Los Angeles Lakers have reached an agreement on a four-year contract extension with center Andrew Bynum worth about $58 million, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing sources familiar with the negotiations.

The deal would keep Bynum under contract with the Lakers through the 2012-13 season, according to the report. The first three years of the deal are reportedly worth nearly $42 million, with a team option fourth year for about $16 million.

Bynum, who will earn $2.8 million this season, showed significant improvement for the Lakers in 2007-08 before being lost for about half of the season and the playoffs to an injury. His healthy return is one reason many observers are touting the Lakers as a favorite to return to the NBA Finals and win the championship.

Given the crucial nature of having a big man in the league who can play, I can see that, especially given his young age and swift advancement, he's looking damn good out there.

[Xandy Boosts]

i thought they were trying to get a 5 year extension?

i never followed the whole bynum deal because I didn't think he would get resigned this year haha

good news though

[arkive43]

rockets VS lakers Rd 1

[Gnnr]

Originally Posted by Rey of Spots

Christmas Day
BOS at LAL

Bring it on.

Its going to be an entertaining Christmas.

[Rey of Spots]

Indiana beats the Celtics 95-79.
Phoenix beats the Blazers in an exciting game 107-96.

Lakers come back to beat the Nuggets 104-97. 5 Lakers were in foul
trouble in the 1st half. Melo's first game of the season, and it was a rough one.

[MikeisNissan]

Suck ass wizards win today?

[OptionZero]

Originally Posted by PHLIP

Given the crucial nature of having a big man in the league who can play, I can see that, especially given his young age and swift advancement, he's looking damn good out there.

I don't really think that extension was such a great move. I'm not a Bynum hater by any means, but really, there was no need to extend him now.

The Lakers possessed restricted free agent rights, allowing them to match any offer and Larry Bird rights, allowing them to go over the cap to sign him to anything. That's pretty much all the leverage you could have, short of a sniper trained on the front offices of every other competing team in the league.

Certainly, there other considerations:

- Peace of mind of having a guy signed

- Championship-level teams shouldn't be worried about the luxury tax in the short term (in which three guaranteed years falls)

- scarcity of bigs who can play (as mentioned by PHLIP)

- future contracts should be based on what you WILL GET not what you HAVE GOTTEN, and here there is youth and potential

But consider also:

- the Lakers couldn't have paid any more than this, as Bynum got the MAX annual salary allowable

- the cap might actually decrease next year, given the crummy economy, which would lower the amount they'd have to pay (the max is a percentage of basketball income, IIRC)

- His injury history + anyone's injury possibility (see: Ellis, Monta under "Young Millionaire Idiot" on wikipedia)

- Al Jefferson got only $12.5M annually on his early extension (signed before hitting RFA), he put up 16/10 with superior low post skills the year before the extension (Bynum had just put up 13 and 7 in third a season)...both are extremely young with upside

- he hasn't looked THAT good this year (hindsight), as his foul rate has regressed (increased...) considerably


In the end, all that a "bad" extension costs a team is money and potentially a roster spot, and money isn't a big deal when you're aiming for a trophy...

[imnotmatt1189]

allen iverson traded to pistons for billups and mcdyess!!!

ESPN - Denver Nuggets trade Allen Iverson to Detroit Pistons

[Phlip]

Originally Posted by imnotmatt1189

allen iverson traded to pistons for billups and mcdyess!!!

ESPN - Denver Nuggets trade Allen Iverson to Detroit Pistons

Not a bad move, lose a highly paid player who is reckless sometimes to a fault, take on a REAL point guard and replace Marcus Camby's offensive rebounding, all for less money, which will be necessary to keep Carmelo from skating for the fat cash after next season.

[Xandy Boosts]

it'll be interesting to see how this all turns out

[qwikspool]

Got this off yahoo sports

Joe Dumars had the chance to consider Dallas’ Jason Kidd and his expiring contract over the summer, a league executive said Monday, but the Detroit Pistons president had bigger, bolder ideas. Allen Iverson still gives the Pistons a puncher’s chance in the Eastern Conference this season, but this trade isn’t about him. It isn’t about Chauncey Billups.

Think bigger.

Think bolder.

Think LeBron James, 2010.

The Pistons president doesn’t just have the salary cap space for the Cleveland Cavaliers star. He also has the connections and the championship credibility. Make no mistake: Detroit and Dumars are officially in hot pursuit of James – maybe even the favorite now – and it promises to be a long, agonizing two years for the Cavaliers.

Detroit doesn’t deliver the bright lights and global metropolis destination that James wants when he opts out of his contract in 2010, but two more years of watching Kobe Bryant win titles could transform his priorities. James wants badly to be considered the best player on the planet and that won’t happen until he’s a champion.

James wants a front office with a vision that honors his greatness, and make no mistake: This makes Detroit and Dumars so dangerous, makes them Cleveland’s worst nightmare. The city could justify losing its prodigal son to New York or Los Angeles, but nearby Detroit?




Cleveland would never recover.
So why Iverson over a possible package for Kidd? Several league executives know exactly why: The trade with Denver to make an unhappy Iverson happier just further imbeds the Detroit franchise deeper into James’ agent, Leon Rose, and advisor, William Wesley. Just as they represent James, they rep Iverson.

And as much as anyone, “World Wide” Wes is one of the most important voices in Lebron’s life. Wesley lives in Detroit, where one of Rose’s clients, Richard Hamilton, is a Pistons star. What’s more, Dumars is close to an agreement with Hamilton on a two-year extension that will keep him through 2012, sources say. This is a terrific show of faith for Hamilton, who is trying to recoup hundreds of thousands of dollars that a business manager allegedly stole from him.

Wesley comes and goes at the Palace of Auburn Hills as he pleases, and few have such a window into the winning culture of the Pistons.

As one rival GM said Monday, “Damn it, I am afraid Joe has this whole thing wired. He’s got everything in place to pull this off.”
The New Jersey Nets’ move to Brooklyn is falling apart, and so is owner Bruce Ratner’s chances of using limited partner, Jay-Z, to lure James. The Knicks will be a factor, but the bumbling of the Stephon Marbury mess has reflected horribly on the organization. The Knicks have an owner, GM and coach with differing agendas and they’ve made an initial poor impression. Detroit can’t compete with New York as the global city to market James, but winning could take care of everything.

With Donnie Walsh and Mike D’Antoni as GM and coach, the Knicks can still get their act together. Yet, no one will ever need to ask that of Dumars. No one else can sell James on a winning culture as compellingly as Dumars. He had gone as far as he could with Billups, who has three years and $36 million left on his contract. Billups gave the Pistons a slight edge over Iverson to make another run this season, but Dumars had already gotten a final run out of him a year ago. Detroit won a title, reached a Game 7 of the NBA Finals and six straight Eastern Conference finals with Billups.

Now, Billups is 32 years old. He’s declining. This is a low-risk, short-term, high-reward, long-term play for Dumars.


The Pistons president believes that the young guard Rodney Stuckey, a brilliant pick out of Eastern Washington, can take over the Pistons next year. Iverson and Rasheed Wallace could leave the payroll this summer, and the Pistons will be $22 million under the salary cap in 2009. They will have a core of Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince, Stuckey, Jason Maxiell and Amir Johnson in 2010. No one else among James’ serious suitors with cap space has two All-Stars (Hamilton and Prince) and a potential third (Stuckey) for him to join.
Most of all, James knows he’d have Dumars to give him the right coach, the right teammates, the right atmosphere to chase championships for a long, long time. What makes this plan so ingenious is that the bridge from Iverson to Stuckey, from Wallace to Maxiell, makes it possible for the Pistons to reconstruct themselves without bottoming out. They’ll still be a 50-win team. Dumars hates the idea of rebuilding through the lottery, and that won’t need to happen here. He won’t be offering James a heap of ashes in 2010, but a good team needing him to complete its greatness.
For the flawed franchises falling over themselves to get under the salary cap for 2010, the most ingenious plan promises to start out of the NBA’s brightest executive mind. Joe Dumars is thinking big. He’s thinking bold. This will be an agonizing two years in Cleveland.

[articdragon192]

That was a good read.

[Phlip]

Now, since it was explained that way, the move just became MORE brilliant.

[Rey of Spots]

Originally Posted by imnotmatt1189

allen iverson traded to pistons for billups and mcdyess!!!

ESPN - Denver Nuggets trade Allen Iverson to Detroit Pistons

The West just got better.

[BOROSUN]

more drama... all the knicks fans are going nuts including me.
ESPN - New York Knicks have no plans to trade Stephon Marbury
i was really hoping he played this season.


it's officially gameover for the knicks. they are riding for the next top draft pick. booo




i'm glad AI is back on the east.

[Vision Garage]

hey do you guys really think Detriot is trying to get LaBron?

[Phlip]

Originally Posted by Vision Garage

hey do you guys really think Detriot is trying to get LaBron?

Post #71 in this thread up there makes it make perfect sense to me.
LeBron would be stupid to continue playing for a small market team that doesn't seem to be able to compete for a title, when he can go to a contender AND get the fat cash.

[OptionZero]

He'll get fatter cash playing in Los Angeles, Miami, or New York...or whatever other cities are included in his shoe contract.

[Phlip]

Originally Posted by OptionZero

He'll get fatter cash playing in Los Angeles, Miami, or New York...or whatever other cities are included in his shoe contract.

Speaking in terms of market size, you're more than right, but any of those team would have to get rid of what makes them contenders to be able to afford him and not get buttraped on the luxury tax.
Well, except the Knicks, because they could have a fire sale and not be any worse.

[Rey of Spots]

LBJ to the Lakers in 2010? Ha. Not going to happen. He will have to take
the biggest paycut in the history of sports for the Lakers to get him.

[OptionZero]

I wasn't implying he'd go to the lakers; i was referring to the monetary factor in where Lebron will go. Los Angeles is just an example.

Miami has Beasley on the rookie scale and virtually nothing else locked up beyond 2010; they could theoretically afford Lebron and Wade.

The Nets aren't "contenders", but they will be in Brooklyn eventually and are clearly poised to make a run at James.

[Phlip]

Originally Posted by OptionZero

I wasn't implying he'd go to the lakers; i was referring to the monetary factor in where Lebron will go. Los Angeles is just an example.

Miami has Beasley on the rookie scale and virtually nothing else locked up beyond 2010; they could theoretically afford Lebron and Wade.

The Nets aren't "contenders", but they will be in Brooklyn eventually and are clearly poised to make a run at James.

I dunno, Jon.
Miami has Beasley on the rookie scale, and only Dwyane Wade, who they will ALSO have to pay big money, which leaves not quite what Cleveland can offer LeBron.

True, the Nets are not "contenders," but they MIGHT have the cash seeing how they will only have Vince Carter to pay and have the LeBron/Jay-Z thing to fall back on as well.

At the end of it, Detroit, if the situation is as presented, will have the cash AND retain the lineup to make it happen, making it a good fit.

[Gnnr]

Miami needs a big center right now.

[OptionZero]

I'm surprised Riley didn't take a chance on Curry, although I can't really fault anyone for avoiding his contract and problems.

Riley might be able to whip his ass into shape...might

[Rey of Spots]

Lakers are good. They were down 2 with around 7 minutes to play,
then go on a 22-0 run to blow the game wide open.

[OptionZero]

and the Clippers aren't very good

Warriors have 2 wins w/o Ellis and Baron has zero.

Shouldn't have whined about team options, bitch.

[Rey of Spots]

That's what I was saying. BDiddy should have stayed up in GS.
His homecoming isn't so sweet.

[Xandy Boosts]

great fucking game between blazers and rockets right now

it's a battle down the stretch

[WERDdabuilder]

yeah good game 90-90

ah so close.!

[Rey of Spots]

That play at the end of the 4th was beautiful if it would
have worked.