2024/25 nba season

[mp3]

I have to agree I really don't get what the Bulls are thinking other than clearly house in hopes of Cooper Flagg.

I saw on realgm that the Warriors are looking into Kevin Durant trade, normally I wouldn't pay much attention to this but after the last few days who knows!

[Andrew]

Shaq being traded definitely was a huge shift in power, though for me it wasn't too surprising given the growing rift with Kobe and management. Something was going to give there, whereas this was really out of the blue.

Bulls are undoubtedly in tank mode. They really need more picks to do that effectively, but hey, par for the course with their front office.

[Jeffx]

Wow, Bucks traded Middleton to the Wizards for Kuzma;

https://www.nba.com/news/2025-nba-trade-deadline-buzz

[Murat]

For the first time in my life I felt a disdain, disappoinment towards NBA when I learned Luka Doncic was traded.

He is not the first superstar but this is the first time I saw a player traded in their peak and possibly at a high point that could get even higher.

when Iverson got traded in 2007 it was certain that Sixers were done with him and couldn't do it anymore. Both sides wanted to move on, it was a question of what would his next team be.

when Gasol got traded in 2008, Grizzlies reached a ceiling and lost lots of key players and became a bottom feeder. They had to rebuild.

LeBron signed with Miami, it wasn't a big deal in terms of fans losing engagement - it excited the entire league and we had a wonderful 2010-11 season. He had a reason - he wanted to win a championship. He won!

KD signed with Golden State and we saw a dynasty. He got his ring as well.

You can justify almost all of the star trades but not this one. I still can't believe he is not a Maverick anymore. As someone who saw him at Real Madrid 8 years ago (whew), I saw a superstar. Dude played like a 32 yo Chris Paul at age 17. Everyone at that game, saw a top 5 player in worldwide was coming.

Dude is one of the top 3 players of the world (Jokic, Giannis, Luka).

Conspiracy theories terrified me even more. Some say Adelsons want to move the team to Vegas to have the team in a casino-arena structure so they are following through John Fisher/Mark Davis route, ran the team to ground and infuriate fans. I say that LeBron and co will be granted Dallas Mavericks 2.0 as Adelsons will get the Vegas expansion, and first player Mavs 2.0 will sign, is going to be Luka.

If so... as someone who follows the league since 2005, following the forum since 2006, spamming the forum since 2009/10... NBA doesn't mean as much as it used to me anymore. Such a disappointing transaction.

[mp3]

What a crazy trade deadline week that was!

[Jeffx]

Conspiracy theories terrified me even more. Some say Adelsons want to move the team to Vegas to have the team in a casino-arena structure so they are following through John Fisher/Mark Davis route, ran the team to ground and infuriate fans. I say that LeBron and co will be granted Dallas Mavericks 2.0 as Adelsons will get the Vegas expansion, and first player Mavs 2.0 will sign, is going to be Luka.

If so... as someone who follows the league since 2005, following the forum since 2006, spamming the forum since 2009/10... NBA doesn't mean as much as it used to me anymore. Such a disappointing transaction.

That theory about the move to Vegas actually makes the most sense to me now. It would be a shame if they moved...lot of wonderful history in Dallas, going back to the Aguirre/Blackman/Harper/Vincent years.

Even with the Knicks resurgence, my interest in the NBA isn't what it used to be since the Pat Riley/Van Gundy years. The old timers here know how much I was into the NBA during the NLSC black & blue days.

[Andrew]

My interest has also waned in recent years, though I still love classic games and highlights, delving into NBA history, and gaming (though I'm definitely more of a retro basketball gamer these days).

[mp3]

I saw a theory that the mavs owners are from Vegas and have interest in moving the team there so by trading Luka would kill the mavs fanbase then lower attendance, the mavs Instagram I believe have had over a million people unfollow the mavs on socials.

[Andrew]

I've seen that theory posted as well. I guess we can't rule it out, but considering Hanlon's razor - "never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity" - it's also possible that Nico and the other bigwigs are just that clueless about running an NBA team.

[mp3]

Mark Cuban said in an interview not so long ago that when he sold the team that he would act as an adviser to Nico and the owners but apparently that didn't last to long and that when he heard the mavs were thinking about making some minor changes iam guessing either last year or the summer and asked nico if he wanted to sit down and talk about it and he replied were good thanks so Cuban didn't act as an adviser anywhere near what he expected too, I can't remember what podcast it was from but it was on youtube shorts for sure.

Edit - it may of been the Shannon Sharpe/Mark Cuban interview he made the comment about Nico...

[Andrew]

It does appear that he basically lost all power and influence when he became a minority owner. Not surprising of course, though clearly (and I suppose naively) Cuban expected them to honour an agreement to keep him more involved.

[Jeffx]

Am I the only bone here who completely ignored All-Star Weekend?

Adam Silver better wake up and realize his product stinks. Man, do I miss the 90s NBA.

[Andrew]

Nope, apart from some clips on social media, I skipped it as well. I haven't found it enjoyable for at least a decade now.

Adam Silver better wake up and realize his product stinks. Man, do I miss the 90s NBA.

Couldn't agree more.

Seriously, 30 minutes of basketball in a three-hour broadcast? That's shameful.

[mp3]

I take the week from the nba completely, Allstar weekend and everything about it is a joke!

The whole format, teams, everything even down to the court is just terrible and I have to agree with Draymond Green's comments about the rookies playing the allstars, players not selected to the allstar team playing...

Heck I even have an issue with Mac being in the dunk contest when he's only played 1 game for the Magic in over 2 years and primarily is a G league player... it's the "NBA" allstar weekend.

I think Adam Silver needs to be stopped.

[Andrew]

A G League player on a two-way contract becoming the first threepeat champion speaks volumes about the lack of star power in the dunk contest nowadays.

[mp3]

I couldn't agree more mate, I really don't like putting Mac down but he's played 7 nba games total over 4 teams in 3 years, that 81 minutes total.

I think last year the magic signed him a couple of days before the allstar weekend too? Could be wrong but either way I don't consider him an nba player at this point

[Andrew]

Oh for sure, by all means let him compete, get that prize money. It's more of an indictment on the lack of star power that is willing and able to put on a show in the dunk contest.

[mp3]

I saw a meme yesterday actually that Magic had offered LeBron 1 million dollars a couple of years ago to compete in the dunk competition and the actually prize money is only 100k for winning it but like the nba cup shows the players earn far more than the prize money for theses events so why would they want to compete when they can save face and still get paid millions.

[Andrew]

It looked like he might actually compete in 2010 after he stole Nate Robinson's thunder in the immediate aftermath of the 2009 contest, but then didn't.

[Jeffx]

https://www.si.com/nba/mavericks/news/d ... on-tickets

Shameful what the Mavs ownership & front office are doing, but it's part of the big plan:
Phase 1: Get rid to star player
Phase 2: Raise ticket price
Phase 3: Demand new Arena
Phase 4: Bemoan lack of fan support
Phase 5: Las Vegas Mavericks

[Murat]

https://www.si.com/nba/mavericks/news/dallas-mavericks-receive-massive-fan-backlash-after-another-wild-move-luka-doncic-trade-season-tickets

Shameful what the Mavs ownership & front office are doing, but it's part of the big plan:
Phase 1: Get rid to star player
Phase 2: Raise ticket price
Phase 3: Demand new Arena
Phase 4: Bemoan lack of fan support
Phase 5: Las Vegas Mavericks

Sadly, it will work. We have bad memory, bad attention span, can't see it from a wider perspective. A lot of times, what we do is reactionary.

Unfortunately fans mean nothing, it's the media/broadcasting deals that makes teams money, instead of fans.

[Jeffx]

It just gets worse for the Mavs...season-ending ACL injury for Kyrie.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/441 ... est-season


Wemby's being shut down too with that blood clot in his shoulder. Hope it's not life-threatening and the doctors can get a handle on it...damn.

https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/vict ... -shoulder/

[Andrew]

The Wemby situation definitely is concerning. When I was in primary school, a classmate's mother died of a blood clot, so ever since I've found that to be a very ominous diagnosis. Granted, she was not in good health and Wemby's a professional athlete, but still, fingers crossed that it can be taken care of.

[Leander]

https://www.nba.com/game/uta-vs-tor-002 ... /box-score

I like Kessler as he is a good defender. He had 18 points, 25 rebounds and 8 blocks. I wanted to read the game report, but did not find his performance...but then I found the line ""The Jazz had a 58-45 advantage in rebounds despite being without center Walker Kessler (rest)."

What?

[mp3]

I was really hoping the knicks could of traded for him, I like Robinson but he's definitely Mr Glass out there