₦airaland Forum

If you're Chris Paul, Harden, Lillard or Westbrook how will you feel about the Davis trade.

You have suffered several years under the tyranny of the ruthless Splash Brothers and KD. Then finally, the Evil kings have been dethroned and incapacitated. Suddenly! your hopes are raised, you feel you can finally get the opportunity you crave for.

Then just like that another juggernaut arises I feel pity for these guys. They have little or no chance of winning a title at this rate especially Chris Paul and Lillard.
KD was right CJ McCollum and Co have to stop bothering about what's going on at the top of the league.

BykeLaByke:
Zion Williamson the last infinity stone needed for Lonzo to bring showtime to New Orleans.

I feel your hot takes! you're always cracking me up.
Is this lavar's nairaland burner account?

With A.D and another superstar joining LeBron and kuzma, suddenly I am beginning to miss the warriors and I am a Lakers fan . It would have been nice to have two superteams go at each other. The NBA is simply a league of superteams and a few exceptions in between.

Meanwhile the pelicans look tasty, lonzo and Ingram are still 21yrs old shit! They have enormous room for growth especially Ingram. The pelicans have 2 potential superstars on their hands with zion and Ingram. A pass first floor general in lonzo. A borderline all-star in in jrue holiday that can offer veteran leadership or be flipped for further juicy assets. A 4th pick, and a stash of first round picks.
These guys have assets, young stars, and cap space. They will be in prime position in the future to make trades for superstars. And they have a great GM.
The pels may well be a championship team in 3yrs.

This KD Injury just changed the NBA landscape

1) Suddenly, the Knicks are likely not to get KD and Kyrie. Subsequently they may not want to trade a their assets for Davis

2)The Davis sweepstakes becomes more complex. Will he team up with Kyrie at the Celtics or LeBron or just go to another team?
3)Suddenly the raptors are the defacto favorites to make a run at the title out of the east next season. Cos the sixers may lose butler and the Knicks are likely to still be shit.

steady986:
Congrats to the Warriors for extending this by one more game. They did well. Their shots were falling in.

I actually think the refs were hard on them in this game. I almost felt sorry for them.

Two home losses should make the Warriors know that Oracle is not the fortress they think it is. That being said, it's one more game for us basketball fans to savour.

Raptors in 6.

Raptors have no excuse now, they have to grow some balls and seal this title.
The warriors are too physically and emotionally beat up.
The last game in oracle arena, mehn!
The game will be emotional as f**k, those emotions can also propel them to a win.

Khanben:
Not saying the raptors will win, but you seem to have forgotten that kawhi's spurs was beating GSW by 20pts before Zaza's curse struck. Kawhi's defense is just extraordinary(one of the things Nick has said recently that I agree with is that there is elite defense and above that is what kawhi can do). Imagine a scenario where they put him a Draymond from full court especially when Green is initiating the offense. The amount of steals/turnovers kawhi can force in this scenario can hurt GSW.

I don't know how someone will look at this series and say the warriors are the favorites. The raptors defense is legit, who on the warriors can stop kawhi? Only KD and he's injured at the moment. If KD comes back early, I see a warriors win but otherwise, it's a raptors win.

Kawhi, Lowry and Danny Green are all legit wing defenders. They will make life difficult for curry and klay.

Regardless of who wins this series will change the legacy of kawhi and curry.

If curry wins, he automatically joins the top 10 all time player and number 2 point guard ever behind only magic.

If kawhi wins, he becomes undoubtedly the best player in the league. 2 final MVPs, 2 Dpoy, 2 nba titles and he's not even 30 yet! He can win a couple of regular season MVP and we are looking at the second coming of MJ.

If the warriors lose and the curry has a shitty series which is very likely with kawhi on him +several double teams. He would be seen as the star player that keeps choking in the finals.

If Toronto makes the finals, I don't see the warriors winning without Durant.

Kawhi, danny Green and siakam will take turns to make life hell for curry and klay.
Draymond green needs to have a monster series to get the other guys involved in the offence.
And then the warriors will lack a consistent scoring threat from inside which makes matters worse for them.
However, two big factors play into the warriors favour
1) Experience
2) Toronto's unique ability to choke

With championship experience and heart the warriors will makes this a series but matchup wise Toronto has the edge.

A40:
Lol naah I don't think any athlete dealt with more hate than Kobe. From his run-in with Shaq where everyone sided with Shaq to Colorado to just having the reputation as a selfish and pain in the a$$ teammate

The difference with Kobe is at no point did he ever care what anyone thought about him. He fed off all the hate and till this day you watch his interviews and everything and the defiance and unapologetic nature he possesses is unmistakable. Guys like LeNomad and KD wanted to be loved, KD knew he would get heat for joining GS, what he thought was being the best player would make that go away but instead it seems to have worsened things especially from the camp of pained Bronsexuals who feel he has denied their queen a shot at more championships. It is what it is

And who says Durant is not feeding of the hate? He's about to be 3 time finals MVP, showing up when it counts.
Kobe who went on social media to try and insert himself in the Goat conversation is not sensitive?

All ultracompetive guys are sensitive, but as long as its not disrupting your performance on the court it doesn't matter.

Imagine Jordan who keeps newspapers carrying headlines that slander him in order to motivate himself facing Twitter and social media scrutiny. If that's not sensitive then I don't know what is

etidy:
I see a lot of Durant is sensitive comments but kobe and mj were tough men. I disagree with this, imagine if kobe and mj played in this social media era were every thing u do and say is microanalyzed and everyone has an opportunity to say rubbish at you. I am pretty sure kobe and mj would have been seen as ultrasensitive and psychopaths by the way they handle it.

The bias against Durant especially by bronsexuals makes you empathize with him even if you have his weak move to the warriors, it feels personal sometimes.
If you want to analyze sports that's okay.! But when it gets to the point where a journalist starts psychoanalysing a player and somehow acquires superpowers to know what the player is thinking in his head, then a line is being crossed.

I see a lot of Durant is sensitive comments but kobe and mj were tough men. I disagree with this, imagine if kobe and mj played in this social media era were every thing u do and say is microanalyzed and everyone has an opportunity to say rubbish at you. I am pretty sure kobe and mj would have been seen as ultrasensitive and psychopaths by the way they handle it.

Anyone who calls Nick Wright a basketball analyst is a joker. The guy makes my ears bleed everytime I listen to him, at least with Chuck you know he's either trolling or being plain dumb but Nick Wright actually believes the nonsense he's saying.

So happy for the warriors showing up tonight. I don't mind any other team winning the playoffs this year but definitely not the rockets. I can't stand them and their shitty brand of basketball.

I am not convinced the sixers and raptors can beat a focused Celtics in the playoffs. Well, it's just game 1. The raptors need to stop choking while the sixers don't look like a team and they have a leadership problem.

Meanwhile, I have a question for the house
If Mike buldenhozer takes the bucks to the finals and wins it, will he get the credit for turning the bucks around or would the jokers say Jason kidd and Joe prunty built the squad?

This question is actually for the Steve Kerr haters who argue that he's just lucky. Curry made a quantum leap and became MVP in kerr's first season now we are seeing the same thing with giannis and bud. There are inferences that can be made here.

Walton joining the kings, good for him

The irony is that the same night the sad event happened, we had a ruptured pseudoaneursym of the right femoral artery on our hands in my center, unfortunately my consultant a vascular surgeon had traveled out so we were planning to refer to luth. The patient went into shock, so much resuscitation, th patient somehow survived and had a A.K.A.

SmooshCHN:
Deliberately killing another human still shocks me. The sad thing is, that place has a canal where those miscreants stay and it happens from time to time. Knowing Nigeria, nothing will be done. I'm pack my bags once I'm done.
Upon their meagre salary, I can't count how many times I've seen them pay for patients bills. From common #4500 chest x-ray to CT scan of like #60000. They sometimes contribute when patients can't afford CT scan. It's not even doctors alone. The average decent Nigerian deserves a better life and that life is outside Nigeria.

Sad stuff, it was chilling when I heard the news. I didn't know that we "medics" plenty on this forum.
I started residency recently. But I have made up my mind to "port too" the system is just crazy ., no time for nonsense again.

Tundesam923:
sheesh!!! Kd would set the nba on fire. The fg and efficiency would be higher than harden, because he's practically 7 feet and can shoot over anybody. But harden has been otherworldly!!! Can kd do this on a nightly basis? The conditioning and the agression to pull this off?(kd has been know to be a bit passive, not having that mamba mentality-"go get it mentality". Kd has the skills, and he's a better overall player, but am not sure he can pull it off

KD was basically scoring champ 4 years in a row, if he didn't join golden state he would have at least 6 scoring championship now. Mehn! We have forgotten he was the slim reaper. Passive? Nah! Even in the first NBA finals run which okc lost, kd averaged 30+.. Mehn! KD is the truth..

Brook Lopez: 28-9-3-4-3 in a win tonight

D’Angelo Russell: 44-12 in an insane comeback win tonight

Ivica Zubac: 12-9 in 18 minutes tonight

Julius Randle: 45-11-6 vs Portland the other night followed by 21 pt and 30 pt games.

How did the Lakers give up on all 4 of these guys?

aliondo:
wetin dey worry this OKC sef??

Mehn the Western conference playoff picture is muddled up. Okc has gone from top 3 to trying to avoid 7th seed.

Tundesam923:
Lol @shannon. He's a goat now...but max? That guy is not in his right senses like at all. The way he hypes LeBron up? It's borderline insane! 8 points in an Nba final against the dirk and the Mavericks, not beat an aging core of Tim Duncan, Manu and Tony Parker in 2014 with 2 all stars. He argues in a vacuum so much...

Shannon is a clown but I love him, max I can bear with it despite his occasional verbal diarrhea. But you know who I can't tolerate? NICK WRIGHT ! HE'S PROBABLY THE DUMBEST, BIAS LEBTARD AND KD HATER OUT THERE. HE'S AN IDIOT

Na wa oh! The announcer doing the intro is just blaring out 3 time nba champ, 1 Time NBA champ etc... If you don't got a ring hide your face . That's still the holy grail of NBA greatness.

Randle dropping 33,11 and 6 assist, zubac dropping 16 & 11 in 22 mins, DLo producing all-star numbers.... Mehn the Lakers front office is cursed For crying out loud if you knew you don't want to resign randle at least trade him for some assets. So much blunders back to back for the Lakers
Luol Deng and mozgov deals
DLo trade
Drafting lonzo
Letting randle walk for free
The poor offers for Paul George and Kawhi
The Anthony Davis debacle
Tampering fines
Dwight Howard and steve nash disaster


Mehn! Since Dr Buss died the Lakers have been up there with the Knicks and Suns in shithousery, save for lebron looking for a sunny retirement home

Lakers traded zubac for a btec no Wagner . mehn! Rob pelinka is a bad GM period. Rob and magic may be good with the politics of the game, but team building.. Nah!

A40:
Man these Celtics looking like the biggest flops of the season low-key. Blew an 18pt lead the other night and a 28pt lead tonight. If the playoffs started today they would have home court

Kyrie is injured. Water is wet

This is the biggest question about kyrie: Injuries.
His game is so dependent on cutting, dribbling, shooting from impossible angles off the dribble that it places so much pressure on his fragile knees.

As for the Celtics chemistry issues I put some of the blame on brad Stevens, its one thing to be a tactical genius that can extract the best performance from a bunch of mediocre guys, it another to be a great manager of egos and manage a team of very talented players to a championship level. This is why I get annoyed when people disrespect Steve Kerr.
Secondly, a lot is said about how trade rumours are running the Lakers chemistry but no one talks about its influence on the Celtics locker room. You have guys like jaleyn brown, rozier, Hayward, smart and even Tatum who know their days are probably numbered in a celtics uniform.

I will keep saying it , the Lakers are not an 8th seed, any team with lebron is not a usual 8th seed. iinjuries derailed them this season and the warriors will still beat them in a 7 game series but its gonna be tough. I don't want the warriors playing them in the first round . If they can shot free throws they would have given the healthy Celtics a smackdown today.
And you guys can put down all that shit about team chemistry disruption at least for now . Adversity can break a team, but it can also galvanize them.

Roland17:
I am really laughing at "the Celtics begging", you got me there. The TD Garden is home to some of the greatest ever, who is AD to compare? Don't make me burst into deeper laughter for office. AD is not even good enough (remember I am using good, not great) to lace the shoes of McHale/ Havlicek at the Garden worth more..

You guys wrote the Celtics off since AD announced his decision. Scroll back the pages of this thread in case you have forgotten. Suddenly, the chickens are coming home to roost, as I predicted. The Lakers have bluffed despite their machinations, they are broken and have no existent locker room and now everyone knows the fleece master, the master builder D. Ainge has the last card to this whole situation and they can smell it from a distance.

Look, we are not dealing with AD, his dad, his camp and his nonsense, we are dealing with the Pelicans and I can assure you D. Ainge and the Celtics are far from desperate. AD has reeled himself in murky waters filled with dirt and this will be dealt with as strictly business. Do you realize how stupid we have made LA and Magic look if by 3 PM eastern time AD is still in New Orleans? We did that without hyping this trade. That would mean all the smearing and blackmail against the Celtics on social media, including this thread were useless. Without saying a word, the fear of the Celtics led to desperation for Magic and LA.

Sometimes, silence is golden my friend..

Let me assure you that we are not letting go of our assets for a short term deal. Bring all the rumors you have of all that has been said if you like but like I did before, I will just laugh.

#Greenrunsdeep
#Celticpride

this feels like paying the bride price of a lady who doesn't want to marry you .

The Lakers, Celtics, spurs and a few others are storied franchises in the league but your history doesn't win titles it is what you have now that counts. Players don't care about 1 title in the last 31 yrs pride some fans maybe bragging. What the players care about is simple: Can I win here now? Unless you have won it all like lebron, no player will see a better situation to win and go to a dysfunctional team ( I am not saying the Celtics are dysfunctional)
PG just turned down the Almighty Lakers for the lowly OKC.

I know it hurts your ego but the truth is that in today's market the teams court the players and not the other way around. Whether they trade for Davis or not, come free agency the Celtics will line up like every wretched team to try and convince him to sign for them.

Roland17:
Can LeWhine just shut his self-preserving, hypocritic, and sanctimonious mouth already? The rules of the game are not written to exclude you Bron!!! You are the same person who openly tampered with AD on several occasions. You want to talk about Barnes being traded in the middle of the game but you are orchestrating the worst behind the scenes with the Lakers. The Lakers are clearing out the entire roster of young players and vets just to please you, yet you are speaking about Barnes and the Mavs!!!!

Fact: Barnes knew he was on the trading block. The Mavs informed him before the game that a trade was being discussed and Barnes chose to play rather than sit. So can these NBA cry babies just stop already with this nonsense?

At some point the owners are going to fight back, I keep saying it. They choose to stay quiet while the players have continued to blackmail them on social media and other avenues. The next collective bargaining meeting is going to be a difficult one I can assure you guys. This has gone too far.

Lebron is a self serving zealot. But The NBA is a superstar league. The owners may pay the bills but the fans are there because of the players. The lower players may not have a say in how their future pans out or how they are traded but the Superstars are too big that they will always have a say.

Superstars drive the league, the owners will definitely seek and get more leverage on how to control their assets under contract but the reason the NBA's popularity is growing across the globe and money is rushing in to the league is because of the Superstars not the Celtics, not even the Lakers, or some dumb owners. The Superstars are conscious of this fact.

Just look at the Celtics practically begging (roland wont like to hear that ) for the opportunity to trade for a player who prefers their arch rivals with the hope they can beg and convince him to change his mind. Because they know that without those marque players you don't stand a chance of winning. How do you control players of that caliber who know their worth to your franchise? Nah you don't, instead you make them partners and satisfy them.

A40:
This was a team that was 4th before LeBron got hurt. I don't get why they were so desperate to clean out their roster to get Anthony Davis at that cost. And what's worse from all intents and purposes they had no backup plan. The Pels know this and are playing them like suckas. Unfortunately it seems the Pels themselves don't know how to get out while they are ahead

Maybe Anthony Davis is worth it? 25/26 I believe , he's the perfect building block that will prolong lebron's prime and will attract fellow free agent stars to come to L.A. this dude has the second highest career PER. He's no Jordan , but imagine Jordan was available in the primez which team will not gur their roster for him . The only problem was the Lakers shouldn't have been in such a dire position to Starr with. From draft blunders, letting food players go and then landing lebron but filling up the roster with misfits . That's the problem!
Regardless, I low-key don't want the warriors to play the lakers in the first round. Make no mistake a fit Lakers squad with lebron is not an 8 seed team, they legit can give the warriors a serious scare.

F**k team chemistry those young players can't say they didn't see it coming. This is the Lakers, they don't do slow rebuilds. Which team will have lebron on his last legs and not try to win NOW. You can't put the blame on lebron . Once you sign a player of his stature, be ready to trade the farm to give him the talents he needs.

It's unfortunate but it is what it is. I personally believe players like lonzo and Ingram will do well playing away from the spotlight. Ingram in particular will come good in a quiet environment like San antonio, He's just too skilled and athletic to be a bum.
The vets are just place holders from the get go, None of them is staying beyond the season. Even if the Lakers luck out on Davis, one player is goner : LONZO BALL
The Lakers need to trade him asap before the deadline

Khanben:
If GSW maxes out all their players (i.e KD and klay), they are on track to pay as much as $300million in luxury tax. I'm just wondering if any organization will be willing to pay that much.

Dray is a goner with or with KD. Even if KD left, the warriors will be crazy to give him a max contract. Dray is likely to take a pay cut and when Iggy's and Livingston's contract expires the warriors will go hunting for talent again.

A40:
Simmons-Redick-Butler-Harris-Embiid

On paper this is quite the starting 5. Redick and Harris can shoot the 3 and spread the floor. And is a massive upgrade on Chandler. It would be interesting to see if they can hold on to Butler and Harris or perhaps Harris is insurance in case Butler does not stay. Personally I think the Sixers would be really dumb to give Butler the max

This is a wicked team if brett brown can get them (Butler and Embiid in particular) to buy in and play team basketball. Its over in the east. Embiid is the deal breaker, there is no counter for him in the east and now you can't double team him .This increases the pressure on the celtics to secure AD and kyrie in the Summer unfailing to bring balance in the east or all their years of wheeling and dealing is in vain.

On the flip side this must make KD think again abt leaving his moat "warriors" to go to the Knicks with only Kyrie without Zion or Davis. The Sixer's have 4 legit all stars .Damn!

A40:
I'm sure the Pelicans are just doing shakara. They would be dumb to not rob the Lakers of all their young players and a couple of first rounders. I don't blame Magic who has always been about stars and the ability to bring big names. My only issue is he seems to be bowing to LeBron and his wants instead of leveraging his status as a legend and letting him know that this is the Lakers and no player is bigger than the Lakers. Maybe a few years in the doldrums have humbled them and I understand that LeBron does not have a lot of years left in the league so there is increased urgency to get someone

I think its unfair to blame lebron
Once you sign a player of his caliber with just 2-3 years left, you do so based on agreement that you will give him the tools to win NOW not tomorrow.
It was magic who dropped the ball with Paul George to a certain extent with Kawhi. If you know you're not in a win now mode, don't pursue lebron develop your guys first then fill the main deficit in free agency like the warriors did.

As for kawhi, I doubt he resigns with the raptors unless they win the east and the reason is simple: There is/are going to be super teams In the east soon. The sixers are there already, the Celtics and Knicks may join that list next year. At the end of the day for a player who has tasted winning he will wanna be where he can play with another superstar. Kyle Lowry ain't one and he's aging , who will be his robin?

There is a difference between rejecting a deal out of spite and anger and rejecting a deal because it ain't good enough. Unless the pelicans have a great deal already agreed with the Celtics rejecting the Lakers deal is risky for several reasons.
DAVIS AND RICH PAUL F**KED UP! BUT BUSINESS IS BUSINESS! YOU THROW AWAY FEELINGS AND DO WHAT'S RIGHT FOR YOUR ORGANIZATION
1) Davis or any potential trade asset can get injured in the second half of the season greatly affecting the valuation of the players
2) If kyrie walks or the Lakers land a free agent in the summer, the market for Davis will get depressed.
3) The spurs are a great example to learn from, it pays to strike while its hot! getting derozan and a pick which turned out to be useless for kawhi and green was a L.
Derozan has peaked and can't take the spurs anywhere, Kuzma is arguably at his level already and will be better. They could have had kuzma, Ingram and hart to build on now.
4)Picks are always attractive until you draft them who remembers the famous nets pick that cavs got from Boston via the kyrie trade. Everyone was so hyped that it was valuable and it will be a top 3 pick because the nets were bad. Look how it turned out? Colin sexton Gilbert could have flipped that pick for demarcus cousins and gave lebron a better shot at the warriors convincing him to stay .
5)Kuzma+Lonzo+Ingram+Hart+Zubac are not scrubs. There is an all-star right there and worse case they all will make solid NBA starters coupled with the fact that they are all in their early 20s. Throw in two first round picks, an opportunity to trade mirotic and jrue holiday for more assets. You have a team set for the future.