Basketball (NBA/College/International)

I just want Harden to stop trying to be his own agent or hiring one on the cheap like he did with his current one who has no experience and no other clients.  He's really, really terrible at negotiating, and he's chosen to deal with that weakness by trashing Daryl Morey in the press.  🙄 

NO team will ever give that guy a long-term contract again.  Three trade requests in four years, including two to get away from first Durant and then Embiid?  What a flake.  It's no surprise that Steve Ballmer barely offered anything for him.  Who can trust him from now on to not just flake out yet again?

If you didn't catch it check out what Kevin McHale had to say about him last week.  He broke down ALL of Harden's problems as a player and a person incredibly well:

https://heavy.com/sports/houston-rockets/kevin-mchale-james-harden-daryl-morey-fallout/

This thing where Dame and Harden demand to only be traded to one team is inane.  No better way to ruin your market and therefore the chances you actually get traded than by stating that publicly.  If they're really set on Miami or the Clippers then that's fine, but keep that to yourself.  Ballmer and Pat Riley knowing that they're bidding against nobody isn't the way to make your trade happen.  🙄 

Harden is a joke. Fat, lazy, overrated, no defense, practically no playoff success. About the best thing he has going for him is that at least he's not as big of a black hole ballhog as Carmelo Anthony was.

Always enjoy remembering how Ginobili, on his worst day twice the player Harden ever was, blocked him from behind in the playoffs. Another in a long list of playoff low lights for this bum.

Lillard is at least a gamer. A real ball player. I'm sure he will end up in Miami, and I don't really mind. Not really sure he makes Miami a true contender for more than a couple of years. Jimmy is getting up there, as amazing as he is.

The most amusing thing about the Lillard situation is the Jerami Grant contract.

It is bittersweet that Lillard wants to leave. I would've wanted him to finish his career as a Blazer. 

Scoot Henderson hopefully becomes another franchise player. Curious how this backcourt with Simons will work out. Lillard/McCollum 2.0? 

I think Billups has not found his footing as a coach yet. 

Quite a HoF enshrinement recently. Happy for Dirk. Seems like a genuinely humble person. What a treat to see him play all those years.

and there it is... Henderson, Simons and Holiday? Ayton an upgrade over Nurk. 

I'm not an Ayton fan, but I like what the Blazers did. I'd like to see them keep Holiday, too. It'd give them some veteran presence (and much-needed defense) around their young guys.

this is one of those trades where all the commentators seem to feel like everyone came out ahead -  which is wild to me.   Lillard finally has a teammate as good or better than him, so that should be fun to watch.

Concensus from the talking heads is that Portland is going to trade Holiday quickly to flip for picks or younger assets for their future build.    

ha yeah this team will be built to play minimal defense.

dame's post.

Shall we resurrect this bad boy for the playoffs?

Before the season, I thought we'd get a Denver/Boston Finals series, and nothing about the regular season changed my mind.

BOS over MIA/CHI in 4
NYK over PHI in 6
IND over MIL in 6
ORL over CLE in 7

DEN over LAL in 5
OKC over SAC/NOP in 4
MIN over PHX in 7
DAL over LAC in 6

Should be a relatively interesting first round. Some major injuries will cost us a few competitive series (particularly where Miami, Milwaukee, and New Orleans are concerned), but it should be good otherwise. I could see three of the four Western Conference matchups going the distance.

7/8 on first-round matchups. I just wanted to believe in the Magic so badly, you know? Here's how I would've picked the current series:

NYK in 6
BOS in 5
DEN in 6
OKC in 6

I've been surprised by both Minnesota and Dallas. Minnesota blitzed Denver to start that series (to the degree that I wondered if the Nuggets were done), and Dallas is stronger than I thought. The poor Knicks might limp to the conference finals with like four healthy players.

It has been interesting.

Minnesota pushing the Nuggets to Game 7 was impressive,  but the Nuggets didn't even try in Game 6.   It was like they want to win it on their home floor, so just took last night off.

Dallas has a chance to win the series at home tonight.   That would be crazy.   But Luka has been playing better on the road,  so we'll see if the Thunder bounce back.      The Knicks are banged up and on the road,  so that one could end up with a game 7 too.    Only the Celtics looking like they're really ready for all this.

Posted by: @panthercult

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It has been interesting.

 

Minnesota pushing the Nuggets to Game 7 was impressive,  but the Nuggets didn't even try in Game 6.   It was like they want to win it on their home floor, so just took last night off.

 

Dallas has a chance to win the series at home tonight.   That would be crazy.   But Luka has been playing better on the road,  so we'll see if the Thunder bounce back.      The Knicks are banged up and on the road,  so that one could end up with a game 7 too.    Only the Celtics looking like they're really ready for all this.

Mavericks are off tonight, thankfully. I've been contending with having their games and the Stars games airing on the same nights and same times this series.  But hopefully they finish off OKC tomorrow night (and Stars finish off the Avalanche tonight).

I didn't get picks in for the last round, but I would've had MIN in 6 and BOS in 5.

As a dyed-in-the-wool Celtics hater, I'm afraid Boston is about to walk to their 18th title. The Mavs are a great team, but I feel like the Celtics are a terrible matchup for them. Boston should be able to slow down Luka and Kyrie with Tatum/Brown and White/Holiday.

If Dallas can keep things close, I know they can out-execute Boston toward the end of the game. Getting to that point could be a problem.

I'll take Boston in 6. 🤢 

Holy shit, what a game between the U.S. and Serbia. Definitely the best Olympic game I've seen since the U.S./Spain gold medal game in 2008.