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the NBA is a joke - Dwight Howard wants to leave for New York or L.A.

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What reality do YOU live in?

Well, yes, a small market team may luckily put together a team to win a championship every once in 25 years and that same team may contend for multiple championships.

BUTTTTTT, the NBA has turned in to championship, ring chasing premadonnas that want to go to big market cities to market their "brand".

The chances of more Tim Duncans coming into the league are slim to none since the league is letting in younger and younger uneducated selfish me-players. They may have to play on small market teams for more than a few years because they are drafted, but after that they bolt!

Cleveland can't even win with arguably one of the best players ever. Do you seriously think they can ever win?

I don't.

One of the greatest players to ever quit in a playoff series. That's all that needs to be said on this subject.

As for Tim Duncans being few and far between? Of course they are. We've got Durant already. For everything reported about Kyrie Irving, he's probably another one. We've already seen young players like Brandon Jennings calling out the actions of LBJ and other superstars.
 
So he's going to leave Westbrook?

possibly. OKC has a very short window to win. They have a lot of young players, and there's no way they'll be able to keep them all in OKC for long, as some of them will bolt to other cities because they want bigger contracts. the good young players never stick around in the same place for long...as soon as they get some success and they become a desired player, they want to leave for more money or a flashier city.

Once some of OKC's good young players start to leave, OKC will have to start replacing them with aging, washed up veterans and will be stuck in a treadmill of mediocrity for a few years...not good enough to win, not bad enough to draft good talent, not flashy enough to attract free agents....
 
No, you're overreacting because of the Decision. Players demanding trades and having their "foot out the door" have been around since Free Agency. Tim Duncan was all but headed to Chicago and Orlando.

For every "Dwight wants to be in NY/LA" comment, there's another young player like Durant that makes a commitment to a small market team. It happens year in and year out. I'm not sure what NBA he's been watching for the last 20 years if he hasn't seen this shit play out dozens of times already.

Let's be honest, who didn't see Dwight Howard wanting to go to LA in the future? He's only tried to be Shaq for years.

While I get your point, let's not forget that LeBron also signed his 1st contract extention here without much hype surrounding it.

Let's wait until Durant does it again before grouping him in with those that are good for the league.
 
Small market teams will win NBA championships. However; like MLB, small market teams will have a harder time doing it and have a smaller window of opportunity than larger larger market teams.

To X's point, yes this stuff has alway happen but it's been primarily on 2nd and 3rd tier players. It's happened on the elite level guys but it's been spaced years apart. Within the last 12 months we've gotten this stuff from Lebron, Melo, Chris Paul, Dwight Howard, Chris Bosh, and Amare Stoudamire. It's out of control now that Lebron did what he did and the risk is the flood gates are wide open.

How do you fix it? In baseball, the yankees buy as many players as they can and contend nearly every year. In football, we just had the steelers and packers in the super bowl, two small market teams. Basketball used to be somewhere in the middle. But now the players are taking over the league.
 
While I get your point, let's not forget that LeBron also signed his 1st contract extention here without much hype surrounding it.

Let's wait until Durant does it again before grouping him in with those that are good for the league.

LBJ took a 3 year extension, there was nothing but hype about it meaning he was going to leave. Durant took his full extension the first day he could sign it. Huge difference between the two.
 
possibly. OKC has a very short window to win. They have a lot of young players, and there's no way they'll be able to keep them all in OKC for long, as some of them will bolt to other cities because they want bigger contracts. the good young players never stick around in the same place for long...as soon as they get some success and they become a desired player, they want to leave for more money or a flashier city.

Once some of OKC's good young players start to leave, OKC will have to start replacing them with aging, washed up veterans and will be stuck in a treadmill of mediocrity for a few years...not good enough to win, not bad enough to draft good talent, not flashy enough to attract free agents....

you know that he just signed a 6 year extension with the Thunder, right?
 
While I get your point, let's not forget that LeBron also signed his 1st contract extention here without much hype surrounding it.

Let's wait until Durant does it again before grouping him in with those that are good for the league.

Not entirely the same thing since Durant signed quite longer extension than LeBron...whose three year extension just started the whole "where will LeBron go after his short extension is up" thing.
 
possibly. OKC has a very short window to win. They have a lot of young players, and there's no way they'll be able to keep them all in OKC for long, as some of them will bolt to other cities because they want bigger contracts. the good young players never stick around in the same place for long...as soon as they get some success and they become a desired player, they want to leave for more money or a flashier city.

Once some of OKC's good young players start to leave, OKC will have to start replacing them with aging, washed up veterans and will be stuck in a treadmill of mediocrity for a few years...not good enough to win, not bad enough to draft good talent, not flashy enough to attract free agents....
What the hell? This post is like....completely wrong. From start to finish.

Let's see where to start. OKC doesn't just have a short window, it's very short? Really? Um, no? Aside from Miami, they have the longest window.

Now onto the money issue. Have you ever heard of a thing called "bird rights?" Yes, that weird rule that allows teams to offer their own players more money than any other team in free agency. So how, exactly, will they get more money elsewhere unless the OKC brass lets them walk?

And last but not least, the appeal of a flashy city! Do you watch OKC? Read any articles about them? Anything? If you did, you'd realize those players, ESPECIALLY Durant, don't have the "bright lights big city"-esque dream.

Geez. Stop being so damn pessimistic and bitter. Everybody in the NBA isn't LeBron.
 
LBJ took a 3 year extension, there was nothing but hype about it meaning he was going to leave. Durant took his full extension the first day he could sign it. Huge difference between the two.

Fact is, it was his 1st opportunity to re-sign, he's on a great young up & coming team in a Conference where only the Spurs look dominant (and even their time should be running out, and they just took the Lakers to the wire last season. Of course he's going to re-sign for as long as he can.

Oh, and there just happens to be a new CBA coming up that could potentially do away with the type of contracts these guys are getting
 
Fact is, it was his 1st opportunity to re-sign, he's on a great young up & coming team in a Conference where only the Spurs look dominant (and even their time should be running out, and they just took the Lakers to the wire last season. Of course he's going to re-sign for as long as he can.

Oh, and there just happens to be a new CBA coming up that could potentially do away with the type of contracts these guys are getting

So what was different about LBJ's situation? Coming off of his only trip to the Finals, in a Conference always viewed as weak where he had just singlehandedly crushed the team standing in his way. Yet, he chose the 3 year route, and not the full 6 years. Oh, but he wanted to max out his contract, etc etc. New CBA. Point is, what LBJ did was unheard of, and at this point in time is still an outlier, not the norm
 
Geez. Stop being so damn pessimistic and bitter. Everybody in the NBA isn't LeBron.

Agreed up until this. It's not just LeBron. We've heard rumblings about quite a few players wanting to play in N.Y, L.A, or Miami.. Paul, Howard, Melo just to name a few.
 
So what was different about LBJ's situation? Coming off of his only trip to the Finals, in a Conference always viewed as weak where he had just singlehandedly crushed the team standing in his way. Yet, he chose the 3 year route, and not the full 6 years. Oh, but he wanted to max out his contract, etc etc. New CBA. Point is, what LBJ did was unheard of, and at this point in time is still an outlier, not the norm

LeBron signed his contract extention after the '05-'06 season, when Detroit was still in the middle of their run.
 
LeBron signed his contract extention after the '05-'06 season, when Detroit was still in the middle of their run.

Sorry, you're right. The season we were 1 rebound away from knocking them out of the playoffs.
 
There is no way the NBA is enjoying whats going on right now. You're reaction, gregdawg, is the reaction the NBA gets in most markets. The NBA built itself on superstars like Magic, Bird and MJ. Now a new bread of superstars are doing their best to tear it down. This recent player activity is not David Stern's plan but a terrible example of live by the sword die by the sword. The superstars who did the NBA so well over the past 25-30 years are starting to ruin things. Stern needs to correct this trend in the CBA negotiations because it's getting out of control. If Orlando, great weather, great city, no state income tax and an ownership committed to putting pieces around Howard can't keep him, there is no hope for the Clevelands, Detroits and Salt Lake Cities of the NBA.

The ownership in Orlando has screwed up plenty of times. Howard is the reason that team is good every year. From the moment they decided to sign Rashard Lewis to a massive, max contract, they were in trouble.

This winter, no one made them trade for ARenas, they did that all on their own. THey could have pulled off that PHX trade w/o ever touching Arenas. Their mistake again.

I hate this idea that because a guy gets drafted by a team who should have to stay with that team. As long as he gives them ample warning that he wants to leave, I'm fine with it.
 
Agreed up until this. It's not just LeBron. We've heard rumblings about quite a few players wanting to play in N.Y, L.A, or Miami.. Paul, Howard, Melo just to name a few.
I haven't heard about any other superstars wanting to play in Miami. Nene, if I remember correctly, is the best player to have been linked to Miami and they were one of three teams he's interested in. Other role player type players flocking to Miami isn't a problem.

But regarding stars, why is it so surprising that they are interested in playing in LA or NYC? LA is coming off b2b titles while NY is quietly on the upswing while building a good young core. Players want to win and those teams put players in a very, very good position to do just that.

With CP3, his team isn't a contender and the only assets they have are David West (who is the 2nd best player on the team) and Marcus Thornton (who can't get consistent mins to even increase his value). They did have assets in Peja's expiring and Bayless but what did they do? Bring in CP3's "friend," who happens to play the same position as CP3, and a bunch of crap. Instead of making an upgrade and going for contention by targeting Iggy, for example, they go for.....crap. Is it so surprising that he wants to go elsewhere when the teams owner (well, former owner) wouldn't commit to building a contender?

With Dwight, his team was a contender yet they felt the need to overhaul it now. That got them a bunch of expensive, aging role players in return and the team doesn't seem to be much better. He's basically in the same position as LeBron was in. He's surrounded by role players, many of which are older, and the team has little to no flexibility to make future significant improvements. I give ORL credit for trying to make strides to get better...but they just weren't able to bring in a significant upgrade and they won't be able to in the future. Is it so surprising that Dwight is considering walking away from that if they don't win a title?

And then if they want to leave, where would it be "OK" to go? Small market teams, excluding OKC, typically don't have tons of cap space. Minnesota has/had a decent bit, but that organization isn't run well at all so I could see why stars would shy away from there. Sacramento has some young players and cap space....but with the likelihood of them moving the star wouldn't even know where he'd be playing in a few years.

Again, I think CP3 and Dwight leaning towards leaving is totally understandable. But as far as where to go...which teams have the space to get it done and are actually appealing? Not many, for various reasons (such as the front office or future location, as noted above). NY just happens to have a lot of cap space and young talent coming up and LA has a good young center (tho he has injury probs) to offer via trade. It's the "perfect storm" so to speak: the team is good, has a committed front office, can actually acquire a star, and happens to be in an appealing city.
 

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