Love this comment from Chad Ford

[PhoSita]

Trading Bass would free up minutes for Oly... which potentially could improve the team.   

I think Kelly is going to be a useful player, but if you gave all of Bass's minutes to KO, the team would be much worse for it.

[Kane3387]

Trading Bass would free up minutes for Oly... which potentially could improve the team.   

I think Kelly is going to be a useful player, but if you gave all of Bass's minutes to KO, the team would be much worse for it.

Then do it

[PhoSita]

Trading Bass would free up minutes for Oly... which potentially could improve the team.   

I think Kelly is going to be a useful player, but if you gave all of Bass's minutes to KO, the team would be much worse for it.

Then do it

Yeah, I'm all for trading Bass to open up more minutes for KO and Vitor.  It'll make the team worse, sure, but it will also help develop guys who have a future with the team and some upside (two things that don't apply to Bass).

[BballTim]

Trading Bass would free up minutes for Oly... which potentially could improve the team.   

I think Kelly is going to be a useful player, but if you gave all of Bass's minutes to KO, the team would be much worse for it.

Then do it

Yeah, I'm all for trading Bass to open up more minutes for KO and Vitor.  It'll make the team worse, sure, but it will also help develop guys who have a future with the team and some upside (two things that don't apply to Bass).

  More likely you'd end up freeing up some minutes for those two and more minutes for Humphries. Not a huge loss.

[Q_FBE]

The situation in Toronto?

I'm assuming he means trading Rudy Gay and suddenly improving.  AKA there's no guarantee that trading your marquee guys will make your record worse.

Oh right, right. I took it as "look at how bad things are going for them all of a sudden", which confused me. Now I'm up to speed.

It's kind of ironic that Gay improved Toronto by leaving and has sparked Sacramento's upswing. Both Sacramento and Utah have played a heck of a lot more competitively since the Gay trade and Trey Burke's return respectively, which is great news if you like ping pong balls this year.

Does that mean it is time to start cheering on both New York teams and the Lakers team too?

[Nerf DPOY]

The situation in Toronto?

I'm assuming he means trading Rudy Gay and suddenly improving.  AKA there's no guarantee that trading your marquee guys will make your record worse.

Oh right, right. I took it as "look at how bad things are going for them all of a sudden", which confused me. Now I'm up to speed.

It's kind of ironic that Gay improved Toronto by leaving and has sparked Sacramento's upswing. Both Sacramento and Utah have played a heck of a lot more competitively since the Gay trade and Trey Burke's return respectively, which is great news if you like ping pong balls this year.

Does that mean it is time to start cheering on both New York teams and the Lakers team too?

You can cheer on whoever you want. I don't really see it as a duty or find any virtue in rooting against those teams.

[D.o.s.]

You know, to tell the truth, this year's Lakers team has played some pretty entertaining basketball now that they're without Kobe.

Beat LA and all that, but its hard to root against any team, even the Lakers, when they're bad.

[Nerf DPOY]

You know, to tell the truth, this year's Lakers team has played some pretty entertaining basketball now that they're without Kobe.

Beat LA and all that, but its hard to root against any team, even the Lakers, when they're bad.

They've got so many guys I'd forgotten about, it's endearing.

For my fandom, I'd maybe have a problem with making a trade that helped them win a championship, even it benefited us. Rooting for them to win enough games to wind up picking 11th instead of 5th doesn't make me feel like I'm breaching any code of fan ethics.

[SHAQATTACK]

You know, to tell the truth, this year's Lakers team has played some pretty entertaining basketball now that they're without Kobe.

Beat LA and all that, but its hard to root against any team, even the Lakers, when they're bad.

I have to agree ......I  watched a few Lakers games so far.......and the ones Without Kobe are 100 times better or more entertaining.

But .....then Kobe is not the cult hero for me he is for Lakers fans ...it is obvious when he doesn't play their enthusiasm wanes and their crowd shrinks at home.

But .....for me the Lakers have a better game if everybody BUT Kobe is playing.....there is a lot of team effort ,passing , emotion and just better basketball.  Far as I'm concerned

Kobe I hogs the court ,  playing time, screws up everybody else's  game for the most part......they are timid to play THEIR game when Kobe is on the court ......they worry too much about what he thinks or wants .....and thus screws the flow of the game up

The above is most of what screws teams when Melois part of a team......there is no team..

The Iso ....drag feet down court give the ball to,Kobe is just flat boring .....I guess unless your a Lakers fan 

[vjcsmoke]

The Iso ....drag feet down court give the ball to,Kobe is just flat boring .....I guess unless your a Lakers fan 

Boring won the Lakers 5 championships with Kobe.  I wish I could be similarly bored.    The real reason that play doesn't work now is because Kobe got old.  He's not going to dominate like the Kobe of old.

Also Phil Jackson got the MOST out of those Laker teams and somehow managed the big egos enough to still come home with the hardware.  Sure there were ego conflicts.  But when the team brings home the big prize.  The fans don't need to care much - they got the bragging rights and get to hold the ticker tape parades.

Anyways not to derail on Kobe, who I could care less about, his time is past.  But as far as the draft and the future.  Of course Ainge is gonna play it close to the vest.  I expect to see some wheeling and dealing from him and I really hope we can get lucky with ping pong balls for once.

Luckily this upcoming draft isn't 'Duncan or Bust'.  We have hope of still landing a stud if we get a pick from 2-6.

[dasani]

hmmm. see I never took Ainge's overrated comment to mean that he wouldnt mind getting a top 5 pick in this draft. Just that there are no Lebrons or Durants in this draft. Which is what most analysts agree with. Also it is top heavy (think top 5 really being legit) type of class, which Ainge has always said. If the C's started trending downward in a place to get such pick the so be it. Doubt Ainge was ever against that.

As for the Toronto thing, Celtics are totally different. Rudy Gay took up most of the possessions while being inefficient taking the ball out of a guy like Terrence Ross's hands and limiting him. There is no one dominant guy that would have that effect on this team.

I dont think Ford has the connects like he used to with the FO, he was kind of off last year about who the C's were picking in last years draft till the day of. The overrated comment is something that Ainge is saying in press. Chad gets most of his speculation from opposing GMs, who have no clue of what Danny's next move is.

[obnoxiousmime]

hmmm. see I never took Ainge's overrated comment to mean that he wouldnt mind getting a top 5 pick in this draft. Just that there are no Lebrons or Durants in this draft. Which is what most analysts agree with. Also it is top heavy (think top 5 really being legit) type of class, which Ainge has always said. If the C's started trending downward in a place to get such pick the so be it. Doubt Ainge was ever against that.

As for the Toronto thing, Celtics are totally different. Rudy Gay took up most of the possessions while being inefficient taking the ball out of a guy like Terrence Ross's hands and limiting him. There is no one dominant guy that would have that effect on this team.

I dont think Ford has the connects like he used to with the FO, he was kind of off last year about who the C's were picking in last years draft till the day of. The overrated comment is something that Ainge is saying in press. Chad gets most of his speculation from opposing GMs, who have no clue of what Danny's next move is.

But isn't "top heavy" a relative term? If the top guys are now being reclassified as slightly overrated, wouldn't it return to just being a "deep" draft?

For instance, I'm starting to think there isn't as wide a chasm as people thought between say, picks 4-6 (Embiid, Wiggins, and Parker seem like sure top 3s) and the other lottery picks.

And what about the late teens/twenties guys? Are they supposed to be particularly below average or something?

[dasani]

hmmm. see I never took Ainge's overrated comment to mean that he wouldnt mind getting a top 5 pick in this draft. Just that there are no Lebrons or Durants in this draft. Which is what most analysts agree with. Also it is top heavy (think top 5 really being legit) type of class, which Ainge has always said. If the C's started trending downward in a place to get such pick the so be it. Doubt Ainge was ever against that.

As for the Toronto thing, Celtics are totally different. Rudy Gay took up most of the possessions while being inefficient taking the ball out of a guy like Terrence Ross's hands and limiting him. There is no one dominant guy that would have that effect on this team.

I dont think Ford has the connects like he used to with the FO, he was kind of off last year about who the C's were picking in last years draft till the day of. The overrated comment is something that Ainge is saying in press. Chad gets most of his speculation from opposing GMs, who have no clue of what Danny's next move is.

But isn't "top heavy" a relative term? If the top guys are now being reclassified as slightly overrated, wouldn't it return to just being a "deep" draft?

For instance, I'm starting to think there isn't as wide a chasm as people thought between say, picks 4-6 (Embiid, Wiggins, and Parker seem like sure top 3s) and the other lottery picks.

And what about the late teens/twenties guys? Are they supposed to be particularly below average or something?

I agree that it is a much better draft class than 2013, but the 2013 draft is starting to look like one of the worst in the past decade starting with the #1 pick (Bennett). 

But yeah outside of those top 3 there are no real franchise turning guys. Some guys may even be projects. The guys in the late teens/twenties are not going to necessarily be sub average, but they will not be able to get some opportunites of the top guys because they will be on the playoff teams, unless the fill a glaring need of that team. But this draft has like 3-4 real head turners and the rest of the guys are like what we have seen in the past drafts.