2020/21 NBA season + Olympics

Are we doing an Olympics thread? Or just continue here?

Also, I saw Space Jam 2 (or whatever it's called) yesterday. If you thought KD was insecure, this casts new light on LeBron's precious ego. I almost sprained my eyes from the constant rolling they were subjected to. That said, I'm sure plenty on here will love it! :)

They’ve had plenty of opportunities for wake up calls in recent weeks - they’ve lost 3 of their last 5 games now, they are really struggling to adjust to Fiba rules and the physicality of international play. They are also somewhat bizarrely struggling (relatively) with the shorter 3 point line. Another thing that is exposed though is how better drilled the competition is compared to them. All of that said though, if they don’t win they’ll be vilified - and rightly so given the talent they have at their disposal.

A few years ago i spent a lot of time in Denver with work. At the time I posted that when getting a flight I met the U17 US mens team on their way to a tournament in South America. I spoke to the coaches and a few of the players for a bit as we shared a shuttle (train) to the terminal. Here's the team:

Kinda weird thinking I was in the midst of such talent.

I was going to post on this last week when it was doing the rounds but boards wasn't working. Anyway........

For the theatre alone of watching Westbrook tell Lebron to F Off a few times it'll be worth it. Lol.

I think it's a great move for them for the regular season as they need someone to go balls out for 82 games and not take any breaks on the intensity. The extra wins Westbrook will give them could be enough to get them homecourt, even in the loaded West.

I'd worry about the fit come Play Off time though. When healthy last year Westbrook was very good, that said, he still has and always will have the potential to do dumb sh*t.

At the back of my mind though part of me is thinking are Lebron/Klutch/the Lakers thinking of having this as Plan A to get Chris Paul mid-season assuming Paul signs with Phoenix. Because if it's not working early LeBron will want him gone asap.

He's absolutely awful. And I saw that knowing him personally.

Not to mention no-one outside of Ireland would understand the Cork accent.

Was just reading about Kawhi..................Mother of God talk about entitled. He hasn't signed with the Clippers costing them $10million+ for next season to start with. On top of that he's asked to talk to OTHER teams about doing a 1+1 (Player Option Year 2) - which basically means he wants SOMEONE to pay him $39.5million+ TO NOT PLAY next season (he's injured and most likely won't play at all next year), and then have the option to walk away. Naturally enough no-one seems interested in that option, but that's apparently all he's offering the Clippers at the moment too. I think the Clippers would be mad to essentially cost themselves $50m for a 1+1PO, and should insist on at least 2 years, if not 3.

Schroder one is head-scratching to think no one wanted to pay him market value. He had Covid coming into the play offs, seems very unfair to judge him on that. He was solid all year prior to that, considering he turned down $21m per year for 4 years a few months ago it’s bizarre really that the best deal he can get is $5.9m for 1.