god damn you stole my thunder
Cleveland and the Lakers could do that deal right now*, I think. Cleveland at $172M is only over the tax line by $2M, they can send/receive up to 125% (+$250k) of their outgoing salary as long as they don't go over the $178M first apron. Lakers are below the second apron by a tiny amount (just like the Knicks) and so they have to take back less than they send out, but they can still aggregate players in a deal. That leaves $6M worth of payroll wiggle room, which is usually enough to find matching players. So for example, Lebron for Garland + Okoro works, as it leaves Cleveland under the 1st apron. So does Garland + Niang, if Cleveland wants to hurt their guard depth less. Lakers would just have to waive one of their players to make room.
It doesn’t sound like nothing. I’m sure LeBron has taken a practice off here and there over the last few seasons while being in street clothes. It’s the first time I recall him not being there at all and his coach needed to say that “He’s taking some time” just as all the smoke of him asking to be traded surfaces.
Tyty Washington and David Stockton should retire immediately if they let Bronny put 30 points on them.
I'll occasionally joke about it because F the Lakers, but there's really no sober argument that it's less valid than any other title. 22 teams were at the bubble, nobody who was a real playoff contender didn't go there, the playoff series were all normal length, normal conditions, except no travel. Well, OK, so there's no travel, meaning the starters are getting more rest and aren't as likely to get injured, so Lebron and AD didn't get injured. So what? Sometimes your injury-prone stars get injured, that's the breaks - but sometimes they don't, and that's also the breaks. There's nothing about both teams taking a plane flight a few times that's going to magically make them less-able basketball players. The other team got the same perks here of rest and recovery (pre-bubble and lack-of-travel during the playoffs). If we'd won that title the banner would be right there next to the others and we'd smirk at anyone trying to tell us it shouldn't be.
This is more or less where I am too. The Sox board does the same thing with the Dodgers winning the bubble WS and people also did it with the Spurs/Heat in their lockout-shortened seasons. The crazy thing is a lot of Cs fans (myself included) were irked by the line of thought that the Cs had an easy path because the star players on their opponents teams were hurt until they faced Dallas, and thus their chip is somehow unearned or something.
LeBron and AD had a good 2023 playoff run, and injuries weren't a factor last year either.
Yeah this is where I am. They won the title under the same circumstances as everyone else, but everyone admits that it was a unique season - why is it so hard to admit that those particular circumstances (extra rest and no travel) were particularly advantageous to a team like the Lakers that was old, injury prone, and top heavy? Imagine if around mile 18 of the Boston Marathon, the top 10 racers all stopped where they were, went home and rested for 4 months, came back and ran 6 more miles on an inside track? It’s just not the same, even if everything was as fair as can be under the circumstances. I still remember when Lakers coach Phil Jackson said that the 99 Spurs deserved an asterisk because they won a title in the strike-shortened season. Were he a neutral observer, what do we think he’d say about the bubble championship?
I mean, we don't know what would have happened if aliens landed and took over the bubble, either. We don't know what would have happened if Jimmy Butler had grown a third arm. We don't need to resolve all (or any) counterfactuals in order to just run the ol' experiment we do every year, of "we've got these teams, lets have 'em play off". We know what did happen, in the real world where we played the games. There are no do-overs.
A long break preceding the playoffs has never happeend in NBA before. It did happen that year. That is a far simpler, and more clear and less theoretical, comparison than aliens landing or anyone growing a third arm. I hope you recognize the difference between those things.
It was definitely a unique year, but teams with good seeding usually let their stars go into maintenance mode ~1 month before the playoffs, so it's not as anomalous as you'd initially think.
I'm aware of your point, but variations in circumstance far larger than merely being spared some travel, happen in the league every year - namely, injuries to stars. Bill Russell was injured for the 1958 Finals vs St Louis. Nobody's advocating to asterisk that one, I assure you. Is anyone asterisk-ing Houston's titles because Michael Jordan chose to ride a bus in Birmingham during that time? They'd be idiots to. And yet those circumstances surely had a far bigger impact on the outcome than Anthony Davis getting a bit more sleep than he might otherwise have got (and which Butler and Adebayo got too!). So focusing on that as a way to minimize the title is both really small, and also really cherry-picked.
Um, how much of the thread have you read? Because these sure read like a delegitimizing:
See, that's what a title is - they give out one a year, each largely the same as the others, determined through playoff series. Over the years we've added teams to the league, added rounds to the playoffs, changed the order of home games in the series, the length of early series, added salary cap rules, and on and on... but the title is still the same, still earned in substantively the same way. As was that one.
Every year is a unique year.
Unless you are also arguing 'every year is equally unique' though you're still missing the point several have made. And we all knwo that is not really true.Every year is a unique year.
Summary of why I'm a cranky-pants over this:
I think the argument is that the Bubble isn't more anomalous than Milwaukee being completely on the ropes, having all the Nets get injured, and then toe-on-the line. Giannis was a monster and flags fly forever, but that was sketchier than the Lakers' bubble win imo.
You're making good points.
I don't think it's very credible to compare those things, honestly, and would be truly surprised if you thought there was any year with a bigger anomaly in context...or even close, honestly. There are certainly more examples of contenders having 2-3 starters hurt than teams getting months off AND being sequestered for the entire 'playoffs', for example, for sure.
1. I strongly agree that 2020 was extremely anomalous because of the "long break and a sequestered environment occurring in the middle of a pandemic". It's true to the point of tautology to call that "anomalous" -- it was wacky!
And then Pina goes on to argue that despite all of the above, the Lakers' real problem is their terrible D.
And Bronny updates. Twitter was hyped about him scoring 30 points yesterday in the G league, so I checked on his stats: In 4 games he’s averaging 14/3/3 on a cool .469 TS. He’s about as good a scorer as his dad is a defender right now.
And he’s not just up there chucking, his TS is .612. Bronny is 2nd on his g league team in shot attempts per game, nobody can say he’s not getting an opportunity.
Good for Bronny, even if its just 1 good game.
I though the breakup article he linked was more interesting than the analysis: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/12/09/the-new-business-of-breakups
Are you arguing with a straight face that any of those are as impactful on the playoffs as having the players sequestered together in a resort after a multi-month break? If so, you really really need to step away from the thread for a while.
Dude, rather than arguing with you about what "reality" is, I don't think anyone else is interested in hearing any further on this, so let me instead post a fun compilation of things that managed to interrupt an NBA game, and let's leave it there:
