2022/3 season thread

It's an overpay for sure, but their hands are tied as he could walk for nothing in 12 months if he didn't sign. No team can afford to let a player walk - you sign him and deal with the problem later. At least if you sign him you can get something back when/if you trade him. The fact they've put a trade kicker in here says to me that's in play.

It's also a timing issue and it's really only an overpay for 12 months until the new TV deal kicks in and these deals will be "normal", normal as in there'll be a lot of $300m deals.

On Tatum, it's already predicted his next deal will be $500m.

I say all of this as a Boston fan.

On a more macro level what's happening to salaries is becoming crazy on a number of levels. You're going to have teams with 2 max (sometimes 3) players making $50-60m per season, and then a load of guys on $1-5m (or a few up to $10). I'm not sure what that will do for chemistry. Bill Simmons talked about this a few months ago and talked about the guys in the middle will get squeezed as an unintended consequence of the new CBA and the new cap. We will definitely see some weird rosters and guys who would make say $20m now having to take $5m etc. It'll be extremes at both ends, with the middle getting squeezed.

I spoke to a friend who is a cardiologist on the Bronny cardiac arrest story over the weekend.

She said it’s very rare but not unheard of for elite athletes of that age to get one. She said she’d do a bit of googling on the reports they came out and come back to me, which she did.

She said from what she read it’s on the lower end of seriousness judging by the short hospital stay, that being relative of course as everything cardiac-related is serious. She did also say you can’t trust media reports as being medically accurate - which is pretty obvious when you think about it.

I asked what are the long-term implications of something like this? I got the “were it my child, I wouldn’t let them play again” response, which I kind of expected.

It’ll be interesting to see how it develops.

I don’t know if any of you are old enough to remember or gave heard of Hank Gathers? It’s a cautionary tale.

Oh I know, it was just a reference to a player dying. It was a different time too. Things have changed dramatically since then from a lot of perspectives.

I genuinely hope they do what’s best for his health and not let him play if there’s even a small chance of something bad happening - it’s not like he needs the money continuing playing and making the NBA would bring. I really just hope all parties do the right thing here either way.

Haven't been around for a few reasons but good news on Brony. I just hope the decision to return to play is the right one.

In other news, really enjoying the FIBA World Cup, a huge few days of shocks.

Wouldn’t quite go so far as yo say it’s a B team but I get where you’re coming from.

I actually thought Serbia would beat them as they have so many match up advantages and they had enough size to more or less match the Lithuanian front line. Through in the psychological high to comedown after beating the US and the mental and physical effect that had on them and they were always likely to be vulnerable. It’s good news for the US though as Lithuania were the team most suited to beating the US and now they won’t see them again, Will be interesting to see how Serbia match up against the US if they meet.

in other news though I read that Borisa Simanic ultimately lost a kidney after taking an elbow in the game against South Sudan. That’s horrific. He’s only 25.

Doesn't go into too much detail, says he had two operations - which is a bad sign in itself, and points to the first one must have gone wrong/been botched. Horrific for someone so young.

Spain have looked either very good or average when I’ve seen them play. They should never have been in the position they were in where it was lose or go home v Canada and yet despite being up 13 in the 4th somehow managed to blow that game too. They really missed Rubio’s calmness and leadership. Wouldn’t rule them out from medalling next year though as they still have huge talent and really are a “team”.

The one thing this tournament shows is that there’s (as I’ve long said) many international (mainly European) players who should be in the NBA. The talent pool is enormous. The final shoreline in the Montenegro US game doesn’t do it justice. That was a 4 point game with 3 minutes left to play. And that’s Montenegro,…a county of 600,000 people….

and then there’s this:

Serbia over Germany in the final for me.

ticketmaster (US) have tickets for every team’s home games (bar the Knicks).

Personally I prefer to have my tickets sorted before I go but you can almost always pick tickets up on the say too at the stadium, Chicago don’t sell out like they used to….unless it’s a big game/form team/Lakers etc. I assume you’re going to Chicago, right?

Like if you’re going to see Chicago Orlando on a Tuesday you’ll have no problem, Lakers on a Sat night is a different matter etc.

I ’ve more than once rocked up to a venue less than an hour or two before tip off and gotten seats for list price….even from touts.

I’m going to Knicks v Suns on Thanksgiving weekend but the tickets were $400+ each, which is crazy IMO…..but I still paid it. 🙄

PM me if you need more guidance.

The problem they’ll have is they can’t pay everyone so some guys are going to get traded. Obvs. you keep SGA and Chet, but after that I’d imagine everyone is available. What I’d like to see is them packaging a few players and some of their eleventeen-thousand picks to get a star and compete that way. Wouldn’t surprise me to see them in the top half of the west this year.

if you’re the betting type, I’d take Chet as Rookie of the Year as SA will limit Wemby’s minutes and if Chet stays injury free he’ll have a very good shot at it.

Meanwhile, Germany in a bit of an upset beat Serbia. Schroder once again the star of the show……FIBA Schroder is something else.