Everything 2018 Off Season

[Apollo]

So stupid. $5.3 mil? What a clown show. Im at a loss for words. How much money did cousins leave on the table here?

Coming off an ACL it sure looks like he's hitting reset on his contract year to get paid to his expectation.

[Truth Teller]

Cousins won't play until about January.. and may not be himself. He could take the entire year to rehab. The Warriors spent the money for the playoffs..

But.. Cousins may hurt their chemistry. They played a lot of ISO ball against the Rockets. Cousins is a beast but when the ball is in his hands its not in KD's or Curry's. And as an opponent I would rather have it in Cousins hands. Plus he doesn't run back on defense and that can hurt. A guy like Capela runs the court like a gazelle.. and he won't keep up.

The Warriors feast in transition.. Cousins will hurt that not help it.

Now the kicker is his ego. Will it allow him to come off the bench even with that team? If Kerr feels like he's hurting the team or he'd be better off the bench he might not like that and sulk.

Just trying to feel optimistic about this. It stings though. NBA needs another lock out to fix this shit.

Too optimistic. The funny thing is that Warriors could literally cut Cousins if he ruins their chemistry and still have the best roster in the league. So I see no downside for them.

This is equivalent to you and 4 friends going to an elementary school and just beating down on the grade 1 basketball team. Except you also take the grade 1 basketball teams 3 best players.

[Truth Teller]

Even if no one wanted to pay Cousins the max. I'm sure he still could've gotten what Caldwell Pope got (which is ridiculous).

[Joey]

Jesus Christ. Cousins is 27 and he already wants to chase for a ring instead of getting money.

The way I see it, is he knows next season is possibly a write off, at least for the most part - and teams are weary to give him the money he wants. So sign with Warriors, where there will be zero rush/pressure for him to play (like there would be in LA), he can come back for a little while late in the season, prove he's healthy, get a ring out of it, and then cash in next season with another team... how I hope it played/plays out anyway.

[Mindlessness]

good shit boys, peace out, I'm watching the Leafs next season

[Joey]

The worst position to be in the West will be the 8th seed. You don't get a lottery pick and you get steam rolled out of the playoffs.

That's likely the case for 6 & 7 as well I would think, with Houston and whatever the Lakers end up becoming as well, only worse, since 6/7 obviously get a worse pick than 8. Lol

[Blacklash2k4]

LOL we all say we aren't gonna watch the NBA, but we totally are. We are Raptors fans after all. We'll watch the Raptors lol

[Apollo]

You're actually right, it is fair. Its like if you had a friend who saved money and make some nice investments (draft picks), then kept parlaying the investments and built a megacorporation where the money keeps stacking and stacking.

Other teams can still be mad at that other friend though.

Indeed they could be and maybe that's natural but then again only about 5% of people in any activity are truely crushing it and having such a reaction to winners is a losers mentality, which helps no one.

If this hurts the NBA business then something will be done and there are example in the past where the league had to implement tactics to attempt to level the playing field. I think this does Infact hurt business by the way. Every fanbase needs to believe their team can one day be a winner even if that's false.

[golden]

It's damn hard to replicate though. The cap smoothing is what was needed but the PA kibosh'd it. And there won't be another cap boom like it.

Combined with Curry's ankle injuries early in his career that got him waaaay below market price for a long time. And they also hit grand slams on mid-lottery and outside the lottery picks. Warriors were equal parts really smart and really lucky.

[Joey]

There's no way to stop a player like Demarcus Cousins from taking a $5M contract though ... no matter how you write up the CBA, there's just no way to stop something like that.

[Mindlessness]

There's no way to stop a player like Demarcus Cousins from taking a $5M contract though ... no matter how you write up the CBA, there's just no way to stop something like that.

I think the Union shouldn't be happy/do something - not because they care about competition, but because the best players are turning down money.

[Apollo]

Combined with Curry's ankle injuries early in his career that got him waaaay below market price for a long time. And they also hit grand slams on mid-lottery and outside the lottery picks. Warriors were equal parts really smart and really lucky.

Luck = opportunity + ability. Lots of teams passed on Steph. Lots of teams passed on the other guys. Many of the same teams passed on both. The Warrior deserve all the credit in the world. They build a system and stuck to it, this is the result. This signing is probably what tips the scales for changes coming not too far off.

[Blacklash2k4]

There's no way to stop a player like Demarcus Cousins from taking a $5M contract though ... no matter how you write up the CBA, there's just no way to stop something like that.

He has a point. There is no way to stop this. The Players Union would never agree to this because you're basically taking away choice in free agency from the players. This is just a matter of the fact that the NBA has come to the consensus that no one can beat the Warriors! As much we all hate the Warriors, the way the built in their championship legacy has been pretty spectacular management (outside maybe signing Durant).

[Joey]

I think the Union shouldn't be happy/do something - not because they care about competition, but because the best players are turning down money.

I tend to agree, but again ... what could they possibly do? Negotiate a minimum salary? Who determines it? What if teams aren't willing to pay it? Get's too mirky. I have no idea how they fix that.

[Blacklash2k4]

We have to agree that Warriors has had tremendous management to get to where they are. They didn't give up on Steph. They traded the right original back court and got rid of Ellis. They drafted very well (Thompson, Draymond, and etc.). They made very good long-term deals that obtained good players that no one wanted to give another chance (Bogut, Igoudala, etc.). They only made one free agent splash in Durant. This was very good management on the part of the Warriors!