Bad for the NBA! (Brooklyn Nets)

[bdm860]

People are talking about Rashard Lewis and Shaun Livingston as parts of a good bench? What year is this?

[D.o.s.]

People are talking about Rashard Lewis and Shaun Livingston as parts of a good bench? What year is this?

Hahahahaha, TP.

I'm actually laughing over here.

[TeamGreen.dm]

People are talking about Rashard Lewis and Shaun Livingston as parts of a good bench? What year is this?

I regret the Rashard Lewis shoutout already haha

[TripleOT]

A couple of years ago, Mike bibby took a buyout and walked away from the final year of his deal at $6+m to take an in season buyout from the Wizards and join the Heat.  The next year, he barely scrounged up a vetmin deal, costing himself $5m. 

No one raised any concerns.  A player gave up guaranteed money to play for a title, just like AK.  He was foolish to opt out of $10m, but couldn't get a big deal anywhere and settled for the mMLE and about $10m guaranteed over three years.

AK's made $100 million already in his career.  If he chose to take a huge pay cut to ring chase, that's his right. Every other NBA owner can do with the Nets' owner is doing if they want to pay the tax bill.  The teams in the major TV markets will have a huge advantage now that the luxtax is so punitive, since they will rake in huge bucks in local TV revenue that the small market teams can only dream of.The Lakers new deal brings them $150m a year in local TV revenue, while the Celtics' new deal nets them only $20m a year.

MP is spending money to make money. If the Nets establish themselves as a top team, they can rake in local TV cash in the huge NY market.  His franchise is up in value almost $200 million since he bought it a few years ago.     

[rjb182]

I think the Nets are somewhere between the second and fourth-best team in the East-- and yes, that leaves a lot of wiggle room. I can see them being better than Indiana or Chicago because I generally think those teams are overrated. But I don't think they're in Miami's league. If Pierce and KG were going to make that big an impact, we would have won more than 41 games with them last year.

As for the rest... the dirty secret of sports is that people love great teams. We talk about competitive balance, but does anyone really wish Bird's Celtics had been forced to trade McHale before his first big contract extension, or the Lakers of the same era had to ditch Michael Cooper or Byron Scott, or the Jordan-era Bulls couldn't afford to pay a good power forward to go with Jordan and Pippen's max contracts?

People are criticizing MLB in this thread, but it's a good example. People hate that the Yankees can buy players now, but for the first 65 years of the American League, they leveraged their huge competitive advantage into Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, etc, and everyone thinks those were the Good Old Days.

There will always be competitive imbalance, because superstars sell and nobody outside of a very small geographical area really cares if the Sacramento Kings or Kansas City Royals suck.

It's more important to be smart, no matter what the odds you're facing, and that's where I have some hope that those later draft picks we got from the Nets will be worth something: these Nets are built for the short-term, and not very intelligently, IMO. Their clock is ticking, loudly.

[Chris.J]

If a Saudi prince bought the Celtics and spent crazy oil money that secured banners 18, 19, and 20 in this decade, would any Celtics fan complain?

Wow - is all that matters winning - what about how you win?

yes, winning is everything. I can careless how it is done. Like some of these above said, if it secures banner 18, 19, etc, I do not care how it is done. Winning is winning. Morals are meaningless to me if someone cannot get the job done.

Edit

[Chris.J]

Sorry guys-  I have to say that I think KG and Pierce have a lot left in the tank. I am not talking about age - they clearly only have a few more years left, I just see them both as still being very effective. OK - I may have been off by calling them the BEST starting 5 in the league. But they are close - like I said I still feel KG and Pierce still got game - more so then people are giving them credit for.

[KGs Knee]

If a Saudi prince bought the Celtics and spent crazy oil money that secured banners 18, 19, and 20 in this decade, would any Celtics fan complain?

Wow - is all that matters winning - what about how you win?

yes, winning is everything. I can careless how it is done. Like some of these above said, if it secures banner 18, 19, etc, I do not care how it is done. Winning is winning. Morals are meaningless to me if someone cannot get the job done.

Edit

[Jonny CC]

If a Saudi prince bought the Celtics and spent crazy oil money that secured banners 18, 19, and 20 in this decade, would any Celtics fan complain?

Wow - is all that matters winning - what about how you win?

yes, winning is everything. I can careless how it is done. Like some of these above said, if it secures banner 18, 19, etc, I do not care how it is done. Winning is winning. Morals are meaningless to me if someone cannot get the job done.

Edit: No personal attacks

[Chris.J]

If a Saudi prince bought the Celtics and spent crazy oil money that secured banners 18, 19, and 20 in this decade, would any Celtics fan complain?

Wow - is all that matters winning - what about how you win?

yes, winning is everything. I can careless how it is done. Like some of these above said, if it secures banner 18, 19, etc, I do not care how it is done. Winning is winning. Morals are meaningless to me if someone cannot get the job done.

 So before the mods step in I will be quiet now on that statement.

Edit: Too late personal attacks are not allowed

[Fafnir]

A couple of years ago, Mike bibby took a buyout and walked away from the final year of his deal at $6+m to take an in season buyout from the Wizards and join the Heat.  The next year, he barely scrounged up a vetmin deal, costing himself $5m. 

No one raised any concerns.  A player gave up guaranteed money to play for a title, just like AK.  He was foolish to opt out of $10m, but couldn't get a big deal anywhere and settled for the mMLE and about $10m guaranteed over three years. 

The issue is that AK was as recently as this last week was demanding more than the MLE and turning teams down.

Very different situation that Bibby and other players. I don't blame people for speculating.

[sed522002]

Kg and PP will have more in the tank for the playoffs if they're playing limited minutes (which the Nets can afford to do). KG can finally get decent spells during the game. We know how PP and KG can play when they're frest.

[TeamGreen.dm]

How do we even know these players will mesh? D-Will, Johnson and PP are primarily ISO players am I right? KG and Lopez may even have trouble co existing in the front court. I really don't feel as if this team will be as good on the floor then it will on paper

[Fafnir]

Both KG and Lopez are pretty good from all over the floor, Lopez more down low but that's fine with KG.

Paul Pierce really isn't an iso heavy player, he gets a lot of crap for his isos here on Celticsblog but he's pretty team orientated offensively.

The issue was he was the designated iso guy when plays "did" break down. That probably won't be the case in Brooklyn.

[lightspeed5]

paul pierces ability to create for others (assists) is heavily underrated.