Hts121

The Celtics had to part ways with Sullinger to make room for Horford. Sullinger has signed a one year deal with Toronto. Good signing for the Raptors and good opportunity for Sully to improve his stock ahead of next summer.

Cavs close to a deal with Birdman to help fill out the bench

Like I said, they will add some more ring chasers at the vet minimum. You can bank on that. It's the chemistry, not so much the depth, I would be concerned about. That said, their depth was second to none.

Add Mo Speights to the growing list of GSW signing Durant casualties. He is signing with LAC

^But how is that different from the past. The only difference I see is that the top teams are not monopolized by the larger markets. SAS's ability to break that trend, along with the emergence of the global market, has allowed smaller market teams to successfully build a winner.

Maybe. It has expanded significantly since the 80's. Plus 7 teams, I believe (Charlotte, Orlando, Toronto, Memphis, New Orleans, Miami, Minny). I may be missing one or two "new" teams (Brooklyn, OKC don't count since they relocated). Plus an increase in roster size from 12 to 15 means that one could argue that the talent is diluted. Not sure if I buy that because I strongly believe the talent has gotten better in the NBA and every other major sport (baseball may be an exception), regardless of what the stars from yesteryear claim. Regardless, I don't see the Cavs and GSW as any more dominant or superior than LAL and the Celts were in the mid-80's. Those were super teams with multiple all-stars on their rosters. The least competitive era was probably during the Bulls' run in the 90's.

That's part of the nature of the game. Perhaps no "team sport" is more dominated by individual talent. LeBron, for instance, adds 20 wins to just about any team he gets put on.

I wouldn't be surprised at all if Westbrook is moved, but OKC will want more than Love. LAL would probably offer them D Russell and Ingram

Shaq's move was not unprecedented. Moses Malone signed with Philly in the early 80's while he was on top of his game. Kareem forced his way onto the Lakers. Barkley forced his way out of Philly. Perhaps the pioneer of modern free agency is Tom Chambers when he left Seattle for Phoenix. It's certainly much more common now, no doubt about that

Turns out that the Cavs were able to S/T Delly to the Bucks, receiving in return the rights to some Spanish big man who is 34 and will likely never play in the NBA, but more importantly a $4.8 million trade exception. Just so happens to match up with Dunleavy's salary. This deal was finalized before the Dunleavy deal. Seems like they should be able to use this new TPE as opposed to the larger one ($9.8mill?) they received last year in the AV deal. That would be great if they could hold on to the entire Varejao TPE. You can't combine TPE's so it is better to have one $10mill TPE than to have two $5mill TPE's. The larger one can be used right up to the one year anniversary of the AV trade and will be a good chip to have at the trade deadline once teams start looking to dump salary. And teams will likely be looking to dump salary since the cap projection for next summer went down from $107m to $102m.

For all the gripes about a perceived lack of parity in today's NBA, especially from former NBA players, looking at the actual facts is enlightening. Between 2006 and 2016, seven different teams won the NBA championship (Mia, SAS, Bos, LAL, Mia, GSW, Cle). Between 1980 and 2005, seven teams won the NBA championship (LAL, Phi, Bos, Det, Chi, Hou, SAS).

GSW should be able to bring on a few more ring chasers. I doubt they will overplay Curry or anyone else, especially after the lesson they learned this year. They will have sufficient depth. It's the chemistry I would worry about if I was a Dubs fan. The Warriors, 1 through 10, had some of the best chemistry this league has seen in a long time. That was a key ingredient in their success

^Yes. A solid pro who should give us quality minutes whenever inserted. I suppose you were holding out for the Russell Westbrook trade? From last summer: LeBron James has interest in Mike Dunleavy http://www.cleveland.com/cavs/index.ssf/2015/06/nba_rumors_lebron_james_has_in.html From last night: LeBron James has always wanted to play with Dunleavy http://www.cleveland.com/cavs/index.ssf/2016/07/cleveland_cavaliers_to_acquire_2.html

^I think the Bulls and Knicks will have enough trouble making the playoffs. Who are Chicago's bigs? Their new starting backcourt made something like 50 three pointers, all of last season. The Knicks will have to hope both Rose and Noah return to form and stay healthy. Doubtful. I'm thinking the Celtics will be up there with the Raptors for #2, and maybe Indiana too. The Pacers have made some really nice moves, adding Teague and Al Jefferson, plus Paul George being another year removed from his devastating injury and the anticipated continued development of Myles Turner. Those are the teams to watch in the East, IMHO. I am not sure how you define "excited". I liked it. We picked him up for basically nothing and we were not going to get anything better than him with the money we have to spend. We spent most of that cap room re-signing RJ. I like his basketball IQ and locker-room presence. I like his 40% 3-point shooting, which spreads the floor since you can't leave him open. Career 45% shooter from 3 in the playoffs. I like that he is hungry for a title (much like RJ was when we signed him and nobody was excited). I like his height. I like that he is now a year removed from back surgery. Bottom line is that he is a solid pickup. Not spectacular. Nothing to be jumping up and down about. But he's never hurt his team. He's role player and he plays his role. Plus, he always seems to kill us, so I will be happy to not be playing against him anymore.

Barbosa to the Suns. Rush to Minny. Idk.... Not to be a hater, but how wise can it be to lose half your rotation after setting all kinds of records. Still a good signing, but the risks are apparent. Also losing Luke Walton on that bench, fwiw.

Dunleavy. I like it. Would have loved it if Griff could've squeezed a pick out of Chicago. This all makes sense now. It's been reported that Wade was only seriously considering Chicago, his hometown. Denver and Milwaukee were unwitting pawns. But were we? I don't think so. Bron has always wanted Dunleavy on his team. We tried to sign him last summer. In other news, RJeff re-signed for two years. In typical fashion, Lil' Kev announced it on his snapchat account.

I might have to amend my previous answer on what the Cavs get out of the playing a seemingly pointless role in the Wade sweepstakes which has, perhaps not so coincidentally, accelerated his suitors' pursuit into overdrive. A few of them (Heat, Bulls) need to clear some space to give Wade what he wants. We just so happen to have a trade exception. I'm just hoping Griff is as smart and shrewd as I think he is. We could wind up with a quality piece plus a pick before this is over.

^There's absolutely no doubt about that. He opted out of his $12 mill contract last year to sign with SAS for the vet minimum.

That's one expensive ring he is hunting for. He gave up over $10 mill to sign with SAS last year and probably passed up on more to sign with GSW now So now there has to be 30 people on GSW's roster, right? They've essentially exchanged Barnes, Bogut, and Ezeli for Durant, Pachulia, and West. Much better on offense (I'm not sure they really needed help there.... except the end of Game 7) and much worse on defense, IMO. They will bring back Livingston, but Barbosa is still up in the air last I heard.

That's one expensive ring he is hunting for. He gave up over $10 mill to sign with SAS last year and probably passed up on more to sign with GSW now

I get that Wade is not the player he once was, but he would never be considered a back up plan to JR

It puts the pressure on Miami to give Wade what he wants. Cavs are just playing along to either (a) appease LeBron, (b) troll Miami, © a little of both. My bet is c And that alone isn't even my prime reason for having reservations, it's his injury history. My concerns too. I'd rather add a top notch center. LeBron is not best friends with any top notch center

Methinks this is just epic trolling of Miami by Cavs/Bron/Wade. There's a lot of smoke, but I suspect that is all this is.

The meltdown in Game 6 in OKC has changed the NBA landscape in a HUGE way. In no way am I saying this won't make the Warriors more potent, but keep in mind that they had to clear out Bogut, Barnes, and Ezeli to sign him. They did sign Zaza Pachulia to man the middle. KD replaces Barnes and that is an unquestionable upgrade. I'm not so sure about Pachulia though. He has a great season (for him) in Dallas, but he doesn't give you what Bogut/Ezeli gave on the defensive side of the floor and will take a while to learn the system GSW runs which relies heavily on their big men setting good screens as their shooters are zig-zagging around the court to get open. You also have to wonder who is going to sacrifice to appease KD. Durant took over 20 shots per game last year. Barnes took 9. I don't think getting Durant creates more possessions for GSW. I'm also wondering when Steph, Klay, and Draymond start demanding to get paid more than Timo Mozgov.

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