2024 NBA Season and Playoffs

[Donoghus]

Hmmm if the Wolves take Game 2, then this series might be over for the Nuggets. I think the Wolves can steal Game 2. Antman the new kid in town and the new poster boy for the NBA. Stopping him will be something.

I expect Joker to have a monster night and the Nuggets to even series

If we have learned anything, it's to fade Sparz.

[Roy H.]

The weird backdrop to the Wolves' success this year is the failed sale of the franchise to A-Rod.  Glen Taylor says the proposed ownership group missed payments and planned to gut the roster / payroll moving forward.  The A-Rod group says Taylor is backing out because the franchise valuation has doubled to $3 billion since the initial agreement.

Who do you root for there?  Glen Taylor sucks, but do many people suck worse than A-Rod?

[Celtics2021]

The weird backdrop to the Wolves' success this year is the failed sale of the franchise to A-Rod.  Glen Taylor says the proposed ownership group missed payments and planned to gut the roster / payroll moving forward.  The A-Rod group says Taylor is backing out because the franchise valuation has doubled to $3 billion since the initial agreement.

Who do you root for there?  Glen Taylor sucks, but do many people suck worse than A-Rod?

If I’m not mistaken, Glen Taylor once reneged on a deal to bring KG into ownership.  So I totally buy the A-Rod camps version of events, and am rooting for them, disgusting tho that isn’t admit.

[Phantom255x]

So I admittedly was not an expert on the Magic and their roster like @Who and others in this forum, but is Franz Wagner seriously their #2 option? If so, I give the Magic massive credit for even getting it this far, because there is no way he could be a #2 option lol, and he was absolutely terrible today. Cavs didn't have to do much, just make life tough on Banchero. They finally adjusted and the Magic looked toast in the 2nd half.

It's gonna be a lot tougher for Cleveland next round. Even besides JT, you have Jaylen, White, Holiday with guys like Hauser and Horford who are also more than capable of hitting open look 3s.

Wagner didn't look good today, but he averaged 21 / 5 / 4 in the regular season and 21 / 7 / 5 in the playoffs before Game 7.

He's quite good, and his overall efficiency is good despite a poor 3PT shot this year.

I think you are both correct though.  Wagner is a good player, but if he is your #2, you aren't going to be that good unless your #1 is a top 3 player in the league.  Now Banchero certainly has that potential, but he is obviously several years away from that.

If he's your 3rd or 4th guy that's very good. Orlando is well set up to add 1, maybe even 2 impact players this offseason. I also read that they could have nearly 60M in cap space. Is it possible they could add Klay Thompson AND Paul George (the latter via S&T)?

[ozgod]

D Mitchell had 50pts in Gm 6. 39pts in Gm 7.

89pts in two final games.

and they lost the one he put up 50.....if the only way the cavs can win is for mitchell to put up 40-50 every night celtics should be fine.

and funny thing is thats about what they averaged in team ppg too. team really struggled to reach 100 most games. especially on the road.

His usage rate was 35%. Garland was next with 20% then Allen with 17%.

[bdm860]

The weird backdrop to the Wolves' success this year is the failed sale of the franchise to A-Rod.  Glen Taylor says the proposed ownership group missed payments and planned to gut the roster / payroll moving forward.  The A-Rod group says Taylor is backing out because the franchise valuation has doubled to $3 billion since the initial agreement.

Who do you root for there?  Glen Taylor sucks, but do many people suck worse than A-Rod?

If I’m not mistaken, Glen Taylor once reneged on a deal to bring KG into ownership.  So I totally buy the A-Rod camps version of events, and am rooting for them, disgusting tho that isn’t admit.

Until more details come out, I'm team A-Rod on this one.  Smells a lot like Taylor reneging solely due to change in fortunate/value for the Wolves.  I wouldn't be surprised if the missed payment was a very minor issue that Taylor saw as his way out of the deal, and we wouldn't even be hearing about this if the Timberwolves weren't looking so good right now (plus new more lucrative TV deals right around the corner when this fell apart probably not helping either).

Now obviously missed payments is a big deal, but I'd compare it to buying/selling a house.  The contracts get written up with a closing date of X, but it's not uncommon for there to be some minor hiccup that delays closing by a few days.  Most of the time both parties just agree to a simple extension and the deal closes no problem and you never hear about it (if you've ever bought or sold a home, you very well may have experienced this yourself).  But during the extreme rise in prices during Covid, I heard a few stories about sellers gladly voiding the deal first chance they got because their house had already gone up some huge percent during the closing process and they could now put it back on the market for money.

All that to say I wouldn't be surprised if the missed payment was all because of some minor thing Taylor didn't agree to causing the deadline to be missed.  Supposedly A-Rod's team has submitted proof they have the payment available.

This tweet from 3/20 (before the deadline):

Jon Krawczynski
@JonKrawczynski
Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez have submitted signed financial documentation to the NBA to complete the acquisition of majority control of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx from Glen Taylor, multiple sources tell @ShamsCharania and me

In his announcement last week that he had voided the contract, Taylor said Lore and Rodriguez hadn't transferred the remaining money by a March 27 deadline. Lore and Rodriguez said they could've closed by then but the NBA hadn't formally approved their purchase. The league hasn't commented.

It’s clear based on [Taylor's] statement, including his choice not to grant a limited extension, that Taylor grew frustrated with the process. Beyond transactional issues, Taylor didn’t feel Rodriguez and Lore ingratiated themselves to the Taylor family, and more important, to the Timberwolves fanbase.

This stuff makes it sound like a deal could have gone through if Taylor wanted, like a simple extension and/or a few formalities was all that stood in the way.

And I can only laugh at the part that says "Taylor didn’t feel Rodriguez and Lore ingratiated themselves to the Taylor family", ha.  I'm always apt to believe stories about some old billionaire having his feelings hurt over a perceived slight.  Hilarious if true.

[celticsclay]

The weird backdrop to the Wolves' success this year is the failed sale of the franchise to A-Rod.  Glen Taylor says the proposed ownership group missed payments and planned to gut the roster / payroll moving forward.  The A-Rod group says Taylor is backing out because the franchise valuation has doubled to $3 billion since the initial agreement.

Who do you root for there?  Glen Taylor sucks, but do many people suck worse than A-Rod?

If I’m not mistaken, Glen Taylor once reneged on a deal to bring KG into ownership.  So I totally buy the A-Rod camps version of events, and am rooting for them, disgusting tho that isn’t admit.

Until more details come out, I'm team A-Rod on this one.  Smells a lot like Taylor reneging solely due to change in fortunate/value for the Wolves.  I wouldn't be surprised if the missed payment was a very minor issue that Taylor saw as his way out of the deal, and we wouldn't even be hearing about this if the Timberwolves weren't looking so good right now (plus new more lucrative TV deals right around the corner when this fell apart probably not helping either).

Now obviously missed payments is a big deal, but I'd compare it to buying/selling a house.  The contracts get written up with a closing date of X, but it's not uncommon for there to be some minor hiccup that delays closing by a few days.  Most of the time both parties just agree to a simple extension and the deal closes no problem and you never hear about it (if you've ever bought or sold a home, you very well may have experienced this yourself).  But during the extreme rise in prices during Covid, I heard a few stories about sellers gladly voiding the deal first chance they got because their house had already gone up some huge percent during the closing process and they could now put it back on the market for money.

All that to say I wouldn't be surprised if the missed payment was all because of some minor thing Taylor didn't agree to causing the deadline to be missed.  Supposedly A-Rod's team has submitted proof they have the payment available.

This tweet from 3/20 (before the deadline):

Jon Krawczynski
@JonKrawczynski
Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez have submitted signed financial documentation to the NBA to complete the acquisition of majority control of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx from Glen Taylor, multiple sources tell @ShamsCharania and me

In his announcement last week that he had voided the contract, Taylor said Lore and Rodriguez hadn't transferred the remaining money by a March 27 deadline. Lore and Rodriguez said they could've closed by then but the NBA hadn't formally approved their purchase. The league hasn't commented.

It’s clear based on [Taylor's] statement, including his choice not to grant a limited extension, that Taylor grew frustrated with the process. Beyond transactional issues, Taylor didn’t feel Rodriguez and Lore ingratiated themselves to the Taylor family, and more important, to the Timberwolves fanbase.

This stuff makes it sound like a deal could have gone through if Taylor wanted, like a simple extension and/or a few formalities was all that stood in the way.

And I can only laugh at the part that says "Taylor didn’t feel Rodriguez and Lore ingratiated themselves to the Taylor family", ha.  I'm always apt to believe stories about some old billionaire having his feelings hurt over a perceived slight.  Hilarious if true.

Bill Simmons has talked about this whole thing a lot on his podcast, and this seems to be one of the kinds of topics he is a bit more connected on (I am guessing because he is quite wealthy, he is probably friends with some other quite wealthy people and this kind of stuff comes up). But anyways, it seems like there is a good chance that Taylor saw a way out of the deal, but it also did seem for quite a while that there were real issues with Arod and Lore coming up with and having the money. This was talked about some before the latest issue when the sale was voided/payment was missed.

[W8ting2McHale]

And I can only laugh at the part that says "Taylor didn’t feel Rodriguez and Lore ingratiated themselves to the Taylor family", ha.  I'm always apt to believe stories about some old billionaire having his feelings hurt over a perceived slight.  Hilarious if true.

Translation: A-Rod was his usual dirtbag self and Taylor was finally irritated enough to no longer want his money.

[Birdman]

Lakers interested in Charles Lee..hope he don’t go there cause James will fired him next season

[Who]

I read the team is now worth twice by Taylor sold it for. That he was looking for a way to back out of the deal to get more money elsewhere.

[Who]

I am really excited for this Pacers vs Knicks series.

A contrast of styles. Pacers with Haliburton led ball movement. Knicks with Brunson led heliocentricism.

[Phantom255x]

I absolutely love the jersey color matchup in this

[Phantom255x]

I feel like I watch these teams just not guard Brunson, or only have one single guy on him and he just blows by guys or gets easy jumpers. Your best bet is probably to just double him and force the others to beat you.

[Who]

I miss Buddy Hield. The Pacers were much more fun when he was on the team bombing away from 3.

[blink]

Obi Toppin seems to always be making great plays when he gets in the game.