it's Official. The Spurs WILL NOT Extend Leonard by the Midnight Deadline tonight. So he will make it to restricted free agency.
We must forgive the Cavs and Lebron, it's not their fault they ran into the buzz saw that is the NY Knicks.
Interesting. The Spurs are being cheapskates. Leonard is 2x the player Klay Thompson is, but I guess that the Spurs care about his injury history.
Under the new CBA, any team that is willing to front load enough, can poison pill the hell out of a Kwahi Leonard Offer sheet. For the Heat's sake....they would have to dump Luol Deng and his $10mil, and start Leonard somewhere around $15mil a year. I still think the Spurs are playing chicken, and somebody will force their hand and they will give him every dime he wants. Too good a player.
I don't know about that, I don't see the hate towards Miami. From a fan outside of Miami and of another team I can say that the way the team was built (collusion between 3 star players) just never sat right with many of the fans that weren't Heat fans. Sure it was great to have some super team put together using the league's rules but if you were a fan of other teams that were from places that could never get a group of players to collude like that it actually threatened you're enjoyment of the game itself. I don't think that the "hate" was ever towards the city, I think thats far fetched, it was towards the way the team was created. They became villians to most of the fans of the NBA right or not. So honestly I get where people are coming from, I couldn't stand the Heat and the big three but I'm a Wizards fan, we always lose to the Heat so it really wasn't much more than usual. I do agree with the Heat fans about the hypocrisy of the media and the shameless, shameless sports writers looking to make a buck off of Lebron and his legacy. He's a douchebag, he treats people like **** and anointing him God of Cleveland after what he did to the fans is so pandering and awful it should talked about. I just think theres a point where Heat fans just have to let it go, honestly think about being a fan of a team like the Wizards, we haven't done **** (like win anything) in like 30 years. Look at the Dolphins last 30 years. It can be a lot worse than 3 titles and a bunch of Finals appearances. The league is going to promote Lebron, Nike is going to write a narrative about him saving a city and sports writers are going to put their kids through college off of verbally fellating Lebron. But the NBA is still fun to watch and who knows maybe we can see Lebron fail. If he never wins a title in Cleveland his legacy is garbage.
Thorough breakdown of the Leonard extension situation. Worth a read. These were also Leonard's comments this past June - ""I'm just playing," Leonard said. "The Spurs are a great organization. I'm leaving that to my agent, and I'm sure they'll come out with a great understanding and a deal. I'm not focused on that at all."" From what I've read about Leonard's relationship/closeness with Pop, his focus on just pure basketball, the culture, the opportunity to learn and grow with the best, I think there's far more investment here than money. The idea that the Spurs are cheap is actually a misconception. Leonard will get his max deal, or close to it. They'll reward him. They're just ensuring they have flexibility for other considerations since they may not know what will happen with Duncan and Ginobili etc. The Spurs take care of their own. This will get done unless Leonard really doesn't want it. [video=youtube;fTsdzU2SbB8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTsdzU2SbB8[/video]
Made fun of and hated are very different. Cleveland is often the butt of the joke, but they certainly aren't hated. The Miami fan base for some reason is hated. And while Cleveland is made fun of, I still think people sympathize with them. I honestly don't think that's it. Miami is hated here in LA and there are plenty of brown people here too. My girlfriend hates the Heat. I figured after LeBron left she would get on board, but she said absolutely not, and that she hated the Heat even before LeBron was there. My girlfriend is a "brown person". I honestly think it has to do with how the people of Miami are seen. America loves blue collar people who are humble and down on their luck. That is the opposite of Miami. Miami is seen as wealthy arrogant people, which in many cases is not too far off. Unfortunately many of those types of people are the ones seen by many. It's that ridiculous lady giving the bird to Noah. It's the super wealthy people that have better things to do than show up to the games on time causing those bright yellow seats to be seen. It's the brashness of Heat fans and the F-U persona we all took after the crap the big 3 got initially. I just think those are the people America loves to root against.
Also on Kawhi: This - from 12:11 onward for about one minute: [video=youtube;P9QsbTqlv3k]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9QsbTqlv3k[/video]
LeBron generating more attention in this thread than the all the other teams combined. Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk
Guess you called wrong. It doesn't pay to root for the Knicks or Bulls unless it immediately benefits your team, or in Boik and FinO's case, one is actually your team.
Another nice night for Bosh. 30pt 8rb and 4 assists in 33 minutes. Team around 50% from 3. If Wade just had a mediocre game this would have been a blowout.
Looks like the Heat had a nice win. James Ennis only 5 minutes but he hits a 3 pointer and another shot, 2 rebounds and an assist. Looks like tonight it was Chalmers' turn to be the hot hand at PG, 20 points.
[video]https://mtc.cdn.vine.co/r/videos/12540AAAD61140139341239529472_3f4fefc40cf.0.1.6438 041290291811669.mp4?versionId=YS2enJhMy_ub5jDKZ0Om 93NrVxrXjWFo[/video]
That is one sad team Philly's rolling out there, not much talent at all. I mean...sheesh. Awful. Raptors tomorrow should be a lot more interesting. Napier+Chalmers backcourt was productive, which would be huge if they can keep playing with that efficiency while Wade takes a blow. And especially when both Wade and Bosh are on the bench. Two combo-guard types (with range) can kinda work sometimes. Hopefully they get a good thing going.
I wonder at what point in the season do we sit back for the first time and say I think we're learning how this season is going to play out.
Toronto will be a good test for this team. They are a solid team who are a lock, IMO, for a top 5 seed in the East with a pretty solid post game. Washington was pretty depleted, and although Philly played with a lot of heart and were fun to watch, they are just not a talented team. Coming off a back to back with travel, I'm excited to see how Miami responds. Expecting Wade to come out and hit his shots tonight.
https://twitter.com/CoupNBA/status/528723012791857152?s=09 Last night Miami had 33 assists against Philly... only the 7th time they have done that since LeBron had joined the Heat.
I don't think there will be a specific game. I think somewhere between 25-40 games into the season we will know what type of team we have here. After 45-65 games I think we will be pretty damn sure what we are and aren't capable of.
