13 teams in the West at .500 or above. The number 4 seed in the east has a losing record. (Well, 4th-6th depending on how you look at it. Still they have the 4th best Point Differential)

Vindicare605

United States16129 Posts

November 25 2013 05:09 GMT

#1445

On November 25 2013 13:08 MassHysteria wrote:
Jodie Meeks, Steve Blake, and Jordan Hill. The 3 players who set the tone for this Lakers team. They are the ones who try the hardest/hustle the most out of all the team dating back to last season.

X.Henry and Wes Johnson get an honorary mention from me though. They can stink it up but I really like them beyond their play. Compared to Dwight Howard, they seem so mature for their age, humble, and just so easy to cheer for. Good guys.

N. Young has also grown on me. He is not what I expected at all lol. A big dummy, but weirdly likable hah.

As long as Nick Young keeps a quota of "5 dumb shots a game MAXIMUM" then he's ok.

He's been playing surprisingly good defense and has been passing the ball pretty well also in the system, and in typical Nick Young fashion when he gets hot he can put up some points in a real hurry.

So yea, he's been a good guy for us off the bench lately. I don't think he's ever cut out to be a starter but off the bench he works pretty well.

AxionSteel

United States7754 Posts

November 25 2013 07:04 GMT

#1446

Toronto and their offense that gives me eye cancer and sub 500 record is the #4 seed in the East. Very good start for that conference!

Doraemon

Australia14949 Posts

November 25 2013 10:36 GMT

#1447

On November 25 2013 16:04 AxionSteel wrote:
Toronto and their offense that gives me eye cancer and sub 500 record is the #4 seed in the East. Very good start for that conference!

they have a whole division below 500 LOL

seiferoth10

3362 Posts

November 25 2013 11:34 GMT

#1448

So, will we have a #4 seed with a losing record in the playoffs? That would be amazing.

Also, starting tomorrow NBA.com will have box scores with links to videos i.e. if Rudy Gay is 2-20, you can click on the "20" and see all 20 field goal attempts in an amazing lowlight reel. This SportVU thing is paying dividends.

sc4k

United Kingdom5454 Posts

November 25 2013 12:42 GMT

#1449

On November 25 2013 20:34 seiferoth10 wrote:
So, will we have a #4 seed with a losing record in the playoffs? That would be amazing.

Also, starting tomorrow NBA.com will have box scores with links to videos i.e. if Rudy Gay is 2-20, you can click on the "20" and see all 20 field goal attempts in an amazing lowlight reel. This SportVU thing is paying dividends.

That is cool :D if a little crazy

Existential

Australia2107 Posts

November 25 2013 16:34 GMT

#1450

Derrick Rose out for the season. Wow really feel for this guy :/

In other news, Kobe signed a contract extension for 2 more years.

AxionSteel

United States7754 Posts

November 25 2013 16:38 GMT

#1451

Really tragic news about Rose

MassHysteria

United States3678 Posts

November 25 2013 16:44 GMT

#1452

I was surprised at it being the whole season (I remember it took Lin like 8 weeks) but then I read how he opted to have the reattachment surgery instead. A longer recovery, but hopefully better in the long run for him. Poor guy.g

I bet they wish they had little Nate still.

andrewlt

United States7702 Posts

November 25 2013 16:59 GMT

#1453

On November 25 2013 13:55 Jerubaal wrote:
13 teams in the West at .500 or above. The number 4 seed in the east has a losing record. (Well, 4th-6th depending on how you look at it. Still they have the 4th best Point Differential)

Only 4 teams in the east have positive point differential versus 10 in the west. 11th team in the west at 0. Still, it's early and the east have to play each other more.

cLutZ

United States19574 Posts

November 25 2013 16:59 GMT

#1454

On November 26 2013 01:34 Existential wrote:
Derrick Rose out for the season. Wow really feel for this guy :/

In other news, Kobe signed a contract extension for 2 more years.

In other news, Lakers guaranteed irrelevant for 2 additional years.

Roggay

Switzerland6320 Posts

November 25 2013 20:32 GMT

#1455

On November 26 2013 01:59 cLutZ wrote:

Show nested quote +

In other news, Lakers guaranteed irrelevant for 2 additional years.

Agreed. But then again, its not like they had any other choices. The fans would have rioted if they had no signed him.

cLutZ

United States19574 Posts

November 25 2013 21:03 GMT

#1456

That contract is an albatross. Its essentially preventing them from having more than 1 good player on the team. I thought Kobe was going to wise up and take like $1million so they could actually get players other than steve blake.

Jibba

United States22883 Posts

November 25 2013 21:08 GMT

#1457

Ahahahahahahhahahahahahahhahhahahahhahahah

Kobe should've been amnestied last year and immediately re-signed for the next two years, with half of the $50 million they're spending this year going into a marketing campaign to hype his return from injury, and the other half being saved so they could get out of luxury tax hell. Instead, they're going to keep climbing that luxury tax ladder for 5 (?) straight years with increasing rates each year, while Kobe "Winning is #1" Bryant drains the team's chances of winning a bit further. Give me a break. Maybe the Lakers and Knicks management can do a 1:1 swap, so we can see who will fuck up each other's franchises more.

Yes, Kobe represents the franchise, but so did Joe Montana and cutting him loose was the correct decision. The Lakers were bidding against themselves on this one. No other team was going to sign Kobe for $15m+ coming off an injury, as his added off-the-court value is mostly only realizable for the Lakers. They had a good bit of leverage and they tossed it away. Height of stupidity. Even if you're adamant Kobe retires as a Laker and you're willing to overpay to do it, they overpaid by $10m/yr on top of the overpay!

You can't just keep pointing to that Time Warner cable contract when the repeat offender tax is ramping up. They either need to get under that threshhold for a season, or they'll have to spend increasingly larger amounts of money to keep up. And if they don't keep up, that cable contract goes to waste anyways because your nationwide base isn't tuning in for a 33 win team.

This is what a team with a good front office looks like. Look at those Duncan and Parker contracts.
http://hoopshype.com/salaries/san_antonio.htm

DystopiaX

United States16236 Posts

November 25 2013 21:10 GMT

#1458

Depends. I could see this being 2 things:
1. Kobe just wants to get money before he retires
2. Kobe still thinks he's an elite player worth that much money.

I think it's far more likely the second, given his competitive nature and how much money he makes from endorsements, etc. He was doing really well last season before his injury and I think he thinks (and he could very well) have one or two of those seasons left in him. I would agree that it's not enough for the Lakers to really compete though. With him on the books now they have enough room for one more max contract and that's basically it, and that doesn't count filling up the rest of the roster. Especially with no/no significant draft picks/outperforming young rookies playing for them, which is something you really need on a championship level team given the cap (see Kawhi Leonard, Jimmy Butler, etc.)

re: the Bulls- disappointed Rose got injured again, glad that they appear to be going the safe route in repairing the miniscus for the possible long-term benefit. Call me a fanboy but I think that he can still play at an elite level, and he's only 25. Given the fact that our organization hates paying the tax and with Rose out our offense will be torture to watch I can't imagine us not semi-blowing up the team now. Obviously with the East as it is we'll be a playoff team without trying, but I think we try to blow it up and build around a Rose-Butler-Noah core along with the incoming pieces like that Bobcats pick (it's coming soon!) and Mirotic (hopefully). Meaning trade Deng because we don't need the last season with him anymore, hopefully for either a young prospect or a non-lottery pick (if you can trade Gortat for a lottery pick anything is possible), let Boozer play out his contract or try to package him with Deng, trade Gibson if we can. Rose is young enough that assuming when he comes back he can still play ball (I'm optimistic) we still have a pretty good core waiting for him.

seiferoth10

3362 Posts

November 25 2013 21:28 GMT

#1459

Wasn't 2 years 65m on the table for him? I know salaries can just keep going up if you stay with the same organization, but I don't know if the new CBA affected that rule.

But hey, if Kobe takes another serious injury, you know he's man enough to hang it up and walk away from that 25m next year.

Jibba

United States22883 Posts

November 25 2013 21:36 GMT

#1460

On November 26 2013 06:28 seiferoth10 wrote:
Wasn't 2 years 65m on the table for him? I know salaries can just keep going up if you stay with the same organization, but I don't know if the new CBA affected that rule.

But hey, if Kobe takes another serious injury, you know he's man enough to hang it up and walk away from that 25m next year.

Are we sure about that?

I wonder how Pau feels about it. He's either going to have to take a huge paycut (and get underpaid), or the Lakers let him loose in order to get their big FA. I don't see how they can make Kobe + Pau + FA Star happen. And gl getting Love.