Around The League: Season Flip Edition
Feb 1, 2024 17:28:49 GMT -6
beatonz, redrum741, and 3 more like this
Post by New York Knicks on Feb 1, 2024 17:28:49 GMT -6
Who's Hot
The season flip can be very nerve racking. Especially if you have young star players who's contracts are expiring. The worst feeling is checking the season flip thread, scrolling past all those re-sign numbers down to your team name, and quickly realizing your star player just told you to go fuck yourself because he's opting for free agency. (Sigh) I know that feeling. But fortunately for the Philadelphia 76ers they didn't have to experience that. Because all 3 of their young guns decided to stay put. Carmelo Anthony, Chris Hawkins, and Arvydas Sabonis all inked 6 year 140 million dollar deal max contracts with the 76ers. Now Sabonis was later sent to the LA Clippers via trade. We'll get to that a little later. Because the #1 priority for Philly was to retain Hawkins. The 23 year old big man made his 2nd career all-star appearance last season while producing career highs in points (18.8), rebounds (12.7), and blocked shots (2.8). He has the potential to become the best center in the game. After him the next top priority was to re-sign Carmelo. Melo was Phillys top scorer last year with 22.0 PPG while making 43 % of his 3pt Attempts. With their two young stars locked up for the next 6 years it's gonna be sunny in Philadelphia.
Who's Not
The Orlando Magic had a pretty good season last year winning 51 games, and advancing to the second round of the playoffs, where they took the New York Knicks to a 7 game series. When you experience success like that, you wanna further build on it. But that's difficult to accomplish when 4 of your players decide to retire at the same damn time. That's right 4 Magic player all announced their retirement at the season flip. 1) Slick Watts, 2) Jamaal Wilkes, 3) Lloyd Neal, and 4) Truck Robinson. Robinson, Neal, and Wilkes were 3 of the top 6 scorers on the Magic roster. Wilkes was the top gun from this group with 19.1 PPG on a super efficient 49.3 % FG shooting. Robinson was the teams leading rebounder with 10.2 boards a night. And Neal flirted a double double averaging 9.2 PPG and 8.4 RPG. Watts was a solid #3 veteran point guard as well. Between the 4 of them you have 2 ITP Championship rings, 7 all-star games, 13 all defensive team selections, and a 6th man of the Year award. 4 very accomplished players are leaving our league forever. As for the Orlando Magic? They move forward with franchise player John Drew, super bargain man Jeff Hornacek, and 33 million dollars in cap space. We'll talk some more about cap space a little later in the article.
Injury Report
Damon Stoudamire (31) - A quick update on Mighy Mouse. He ruptured his Achilles in the Final weeks of the regular season. But according to the reports he should be ready for the start of the 2011 regular season. Damon finished up last season playing 71 games while averaging a career low 17.5 PPG.
More News Around The League
- Let's circle back to the Sabonis sign and trade. Sabonis was sent from Philly to LAC along with a 2012 76ers 1st Round draft choice. In exchange the Sixers get Cuttino Mobley and a 2014 1st via Clippers. Interesting deal. My first thought is can the Philly GM ever return to his home soil of Lithuania after trading the country's basketball hero? Probably not. And hopefully they don't try to extradite him and charge him with war crimes. But on a basketball note it did make sense for Philly. Sabonis was struggling to carve out a consistent role. He's not a good enough interior defender for the PF/C positions. Making him best suited for SF, where Carmelo resides. So Sabonis was kinda stuck in a bench role. And it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to pay a bench player 140 million dollars. But for the Clippers they can give him a larger role and opportunity. Sabonis should be in store for a breakout season in LA.
- The Sabonis deal was big. But it's small potatoes compared to the deal we're about to discuss. The Toronto Raptors sent all league 1st Team performer Kareem Abdul Jabbar to the Utah Jazz. The Jazz will send #2 overall pick Alonzo Mourning, #24 overall pick Oliver Miller, Thad Young, a 2012 1st Round Pick via Golden State, and $2000 GM Cash. A massive haul for a massive talent. This puts the Raptors in a rebuild situation, where they will focus on their young players like Mourning, Guerin, Lewis, and Tractor Taylor. While the Jazz will be looking to compete next season with Kareem and the young Marion leading the way.
- Jazz made two more deals adding some much needed perimeter talent in Hal Greer and Wally Szczerbiak. In the process they lost Dirk Nowitzki, who is now a member of the Minnesota Timberwolves.
- Alot of changes in Utah. But even moreso in Portland, as the Trailblazers have lost their 3 top scorers to the free agency pool. Marcus Smart, Andrew Wiggins, and former league MVP/current League asshole Theo Maledon are now avaliable for anybody to sign. Will the Blazers try to bring them back? Or is this the beginning of the blow up and rebuild process?
- If the Blazers do decide to be aggressive they will be one of 4 teams with at least 50 million dollars in cap space. Blazers have 51.3 Million, Lakers 60.9, Heat 63.6 Mil, and Spurs lead the way with 67.7 Mil. Which of these 4 teams will be the big spenders in free agency?
- As for the free agents that they're gonna be spending on. As we mentioned Smart and Maledon are two of the best guards that will be on the market. Two time MVP Larry Kenon will be testing free agency for the first time in his career at the age of 35. Career 21 PPG scorer Joe Smith is always avaliable. If you're interested in younger players there's some talented young PGs out there with Barbosa and TJ Ford. Also lets not forget SG Dwayne Wade and SG Anthony Edwards. Brandon Roy too, since the Heat declined his re-sign. Moral of the story is there's gonna be alot of real good guards in the 2011 free agent pool.
- One guy that won't be there for you to sign is Joel Embiid, who decided to extend his deal with Denver. The Rebuild process is under way so it only makes sense for Embiid to be around for The Process. Last year Joel was one of the best players in the league averaging over 30/12 per game.
- While the Boston Celtics re-upped with their free agents Darius Rice and Sam Cassell. Last year the Celtics were one of the best three point shooting teams in the league history. And the run n gun 3pt show will continue. As Rice made 72 threes despite playing in a 16 MPG bench role. While Cassell connected on 187 three pointers.
And that wraps it up. Hope your off-season is going according to plan so far. And good luck for free agency tomorrow.
The season flip can be very nerve racking. Especially if you have young star players who's contracts are expiring. The worst feeling is checking the season flip thread, scrolling past all those re-sign numbers down to your team name, and quickly realizing your star player just told you to go fuck yourself because he's opting for free agency. (Sigh) I know that feeling. But fortunately for the Philadelphia 76ers they didn't have to experience that. Because all 3 of their young guns decided to stay put. Carmelo Anthony, Chris Hawkins, and Arvydas Sabonis all inked 6 year 140 million dollar deal max contracts with the 76ers. Now Sabonis was later sent to the LA Clippers via trade. We'll get to that a little later. Because the #1 priority for Philly was to retain Hawkins. The 23 year old big man made his 2nd career all-star appearance last season while producing career highs in points (18.8), rebounds (12.7), and blocked shots (2.8). He has the potential to become the best center in the game. After him the next top priority was to re-sign Carmelo. Melo was Phillys top scorer last year with 22.0 PPG while making 43 % of his 3pt Attempts. With their two young stars locked up for the next 6 years it's gonna be sunny in Philadelphia.
Who's Not
The Orlando Magic had a pretty good season last year winning 51 games, and advancing to the second round of the playoffs, where they took the New York Knicks to a 7 game series. When you experience success like that, you wanna further build on it. But that's difficult to accomplish when 4 of your players decide to retire at the same damn time. That's right 4 Magic player all announced their retirement at the season flip. 1) Slick Watts, 2) Jamaal Wilkes, 3) Lloyd Neal, and 4) Truck Robinson. Robinson, Neal, and Wilkes were 3 of the top 6 scorers on the Magic roster. Wilkes was the top gun from this group with 19.1 PPG on a super efficient 49.3 % FG shooting. Robinson was the teams leading rebounder with 10.2 boards a night. And Neal flirted a double double averaging 9.2 PPG and 8.4 RPG. Watts was a solid #3 veteran point guard as well. Between the 4 of them you have 2 ITP Championship rings, 7 all-star games, 13 all defensive team selections, and a 6th man of the Year award. 4 very accomplished players are leaving our league forever. As for the Orlando Magic? They move forward with franchise player John Drew, super bargain man Jeff Hornacek, and 33 million dollars in cap space. We'll talk some more about cap space a little later in the article.
Injury Report
Damon Stoudamire (31) - A quick update on Mighy Mouse. He ruptured his Achilles in the Final weeks of the regular season. But according to the reports he should be ready for the start of the 2011 regular season. Damon finished up last season playing 71 games while averaging a career low 17.5 PPG.
More News Around The League
- Let's circle back to the Sabonis sign and trade. Sabonis was sent from Philly to LAC along with a 2012 76ers 1st Round draft choice. In exchange the Sixers get Cuttino Mobley and a 2014 1st via Clippers. Interesting deal. My first thought is can the Philly GM ever return to his home soil of Lithuania after trading the country's basketball hero? Probably not. And hopefully they don't try to extradite him and charge him with war crimes. But on a basketball note it did make sense for Philly. Sabonis was struggling to carve out a consistent role. He's not a good enough interior defender for the PF/C positions. Making him best suited for SF, where Carmelo resides. So Sabonis was kinda stuck in a bench role. And it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to pay a bench player 140 million dollars. But for the Clippers they can give him a larger role and opportunity. Sabonis should be in store for a breakout season in LA.
- The Sabonis deal was big. But it's small potatoes compared to the deal we're about to discuss. The Toronto Raptors sent all league 1st Team performer Kareem Abdul Jabbar to the Utah Jazz. The Jazz will send #2 overall pick Alonzo Mourning, #24 overall pick Oliver Miller, Thad Young, a 2012 1st Round Pick via Golden State, and $2000 GM Cash. A massive haul for a massive talent. This puts the Raptors in a rebuild situation, where they will focus on their young players like Mourning, Guerin, Lewis, and Tractor Taylor. While the Jazz will be looking to compete next season with Kareem and the young Marion leading the way.
- Jazz made two more deals adding some much needed perimeter talent in Hal Greer and Wally Szczerbiak. In the process they lost Dirk Nowitzki, who is now a member of the Minnesota Timberwolves.
- Alot of changes in Utah. But even moreso in Portland, as the Trailblazers have lost their 3 top scorers to the free agency pool. Marcus Smart, Andrew Wiggins, and former league MVP/current League asshole Theo Maledon are now avaliable for anybody to sign. Will the Blazers try to bring them back? Or is this the beginning of the blow up and rebuild process?
- If the Blazers do decide to be aggressive they will be one of 4 teams with at least 50 million dollars in cap space. Blazers have 51.3 Million, Lakers 60.9, Heat 63.6 Mil, and Spurs lead the way with 67.7 Mil. Which of these 4 teams will be the big spenders in free agency?
- As for the free agents that they're gonna be spending on. As we mentioned Smart and Maledon are two of the best guards that will be on the market. Two time MVP Larry Kenon will be testing free agency for the first time in his career at the age of 35. Career 21 PPG scorer Joe Smith is always avaliable. If you're interested in younger players there's some talented young PGs out there with Barbosa and TJ Ford. Also lets not forget SG Dwayne Wade and SG Anthony Edwards. Brandon Roy too, since the Heat declined his re-sign. Moral of the story is there's gonna be alot of real good guards in the 2011 free agent pool.
- One guy that won't be there for you to sign is Joel Embiid, who decided to extend his deal with Denver. The Rebuild process is under way so it only makes sense for Embiid to be around for The Process. Last year Joel was one of the best players in the league averaging over 30/12 per game.
- While the Boston Celtics re-upped with their free agents Darius Rice and Sam Cassell. Last year the Celtics were one of the best three point shooting teams in the league history. And the run n gun 3pt show will continue. As Rice made 72 threes despite playing in a 16 MPG bench role. While Cassell connected on 187 three pointers.
And that wraps it up. Hope your off-season is going according to plan so far. And good luck for free agency tomorrow.
