Right--these incidents have become less common as the years have gone on, not more. They also tend to involve guys who have already played for teams awhile wanting to leave, rather than the old "I won't be drafted by X city" thing.
I would uh, not be using Damian Lillard as an example at the moment of a player happy in his situation that won't demand a trade.
It kind of polices itself. The players may get paid and play where they want to, but they take a pretty big hit with the fanbase.
Dame is a bad example for many reasons, especially if the argument is players bolting before their 2nd contract.
At no point in my post did I say that issue was with small market teams, or not in "destination cities". So not really sure what you are talking about or responding too here.
Yeah, swedgin mentioned non destination cities though.
The guy who's stuck around in Portland for a decade plus? The guy who hasn't asked for a trade yet, despite every media member in the league begging him to? The guy who would probably be doing Portland a favor if he asked for a trade? That guy is a bad example of a player sticking around in a small market?
"Disgrace to the game" is mindblowing hyperbole. We've had multiple high profile college quarterbacks announce their intentions to skip playing for the possible #1 team, were if they were drafted there. Guys hold out in hoop and football routinely. Teams sit guys to tank or to avoid paying incentives (or keep them in the minors for service time reasons). Sports is a business.
Is Alaa still the record for most A's in a first name? I'm guessing Macijauskas is the record for last names but maybe not?
As far as I can tell, there are two other players with 3 "a"s in their first name: Aleksandar Djordjevic and Aleksandar Radojevic.
Disgrace to the game and "bad for the league" don't seem that far removed from another, but that is just a semantics issue.
Fox is hardly what I’d call a star and the Bay Area isn’t exactly what I’d call a small market.
Let's also be clear. This wasn't Simmons for Harden. This was Simmons, 2 1sts, Seth Curry, and Drummond for an out of shape James Harden set to make a quarter billion dollars from now until he's 37 years old.
If some team gives Zion a max next year, their best hope is to find the next Zion in the draft if the ping pong balls drop in their favor. This dude has Greg Oden vibes written all over him at this point, IMO.
I dunno. I'd love Seth Curry on the C's but it basically is Simmons for Harden. Just like the KI trade was KI for the Nets lottery pick that turned into Collin Sexton. Not IT4, Jae Crowder and whatever flotsam they sent back to match. I don't know the protections on the picks but I'm guessing they end up at the back end of the 1st round.
I don't think I saw any protections on the picks, but one would assume they'll be late 1st, as I don't imagine Philly getting into the lottery any time soon without a slew of injuries. Frankly, if Simmons is Simmons, I think Brooklyn got the best player in the deal in the long term and it wouldn't even be close. James Harden is going to make 47mil next year, and then turn 34 years old and sign a monster deal. I'd want nothing to do with that. IMO, Brooklyn absolutely fleeced Morey on this deal. I agree with you that Simmons' value as a player probably hasn't dropped much, if at all, but his value as an asset was pretty terrible. If Ben Simmons is moved last offseason, I think Philly gets way more than a soon to be broken down, massively overpaid player like Harden. But we'll see how it plays out.
Morey was going after Harden almost from the day he joined Philly. Brooklyn couldn’t fleece Morey. He was fleecing himself.
Seth Curry wasn’t necessary to make the trade legal. The Nets were absolutely looking for a shooter given their addition of a complete non-shooter.
It was a one-sided deal yet the Morey apologists are patting themselves on the back while mocking Simmons, who got precisely what he wanted. Curry is such an undervalued asset as a 3-pt sniper who fits perfectly next to a great distributor. It’s an interesting reaction to say the least.
I’ve been saying this forever. Even during his good season I wouldn’t touch this guy.
This is what makes the Zion situation extra odd/fascinating. Even with his flaws, Simmons has proven to be a multi year All-Star caliber player. Most of the other "superstars" that demand out have some track record of legitimate success.
I expect him to have suitors bc the asking price will have to be reasonable due to his contract status. He isn’t getting a max deal for his defense and it isn’t like he’s Enes Kanter-level bad at that end anyway so he has one year to stay healthy at what will presumably be his new destination this summer. If he can, he’s getting paid.
It's Nick Nurse's fault. He played him too hard and too long in the All Star game. You could see him get worse and worse as the final quarter went on. He was never the same after that game.I blame Kyrie for Kemba's demise as a player. It may or not be fair, but I still blame him
There weren’t conditioning questions on Zion coming out of college. The question was whether a human body of that size could play that sort of game without injury. He was Grandmama on steroids. Oden was a good comp. After that microfracture surgery Oden hit the gym and went from ≈260 to ≈300lbs of muscle. But his knee couldn’t play the game the way he did with the extra mass.
Mostly it is just funny to blame things on Nick Nurse, but thanks for the additional medical context on the knee.
Whether or not you had them, there indeed were conditioning questions about Zion coming out of college. There were also, separately, questions about size-weight-longevity. Both have proved valid
Another funny element is Kemba played 45minutes against the Clips preceding the All-Star Game.
I'm all for blaming Nick Nurse too, don't get me wrong
Unfortunately almost certainly not that simple.
I mean I’m not sure how. The man was cut like granite coming out of college.
Most "A"s in Full Name = 5 (tie, 6 players)
I was only like 12 at the time and a Google search reveals very little in terms of specifics, but why did Jon Barry refuse to sign with the Celtics? They were a pretty solid team.
I think that that was the problem. He would not have an opportunity and salary commensurate with his inflated opinion of himself. And also…
I'll never understand the entire Jon Barry saga. He was the 21st pick in the draft, not some expected superstar in waiting. The Bucks team he ended up was far worse. Somehow he managed to have a 14 year career as basically a bench warmer, and not a good one at that, although I'm sure one of his apologists will chime in to the contrary.
Not an apologist but he was a full-time rotation player for 11 of his 14 seasons in the league and a lot of them were playoff teams. That’s a pretty decent accomplishment for someone who got by on basically being a poor man’s Grayson Allen.
There was a Danish hockey player at the Olympics whose surname was Aagaard. Just throwing that out there.
Mostly first round exits. Was released something like 5 times. EDIT: I get that Barry was above the median outcome for the 21st pick in the draft; good for him. But his stance was laughable then and remains laughable now.
