NBA

Guys have been getting scratched up bad lately. Joker. Porzingis. I saw a close up of Malik Beasley’s hand and his nails look 3” long. Chris Paul has long nails too. It seems a ton of players grow excessively long fingernails. Seems like something so easy to make a rule but it’s not for some reason?

Title. I was wondering because I know that this has a huge effect on the rest of the team too. When the leader of the team has poor body language it becomes infectious and I think it’s hard to overcome that for a lot of players

I’m interested in seeing who everyone’s been watching. From the last post draft presser, Presti said he’s looking for “2-way playmakers”, so that obviously means guys who make plays on both sides of the court.

Now, we also run a 5-out offense, so that means whoever is drafted must be able to play stretch the floor, and/or put the ball on the ground. Ideally prospects that can play both on and off the ball, and switch defensively

I know OKC doesn’t rebound well, but what you give up in the 5-out offense, so I don’t see Sam drafting a player that is one-dimensional, or doesn’t space the floor. I would say I don’t think Sam will draft another guard, but I thought that last year, too.

With that being said. Here are some of the prospects that fit the “dribble, pass, shoot, switch defensively” mold.

Tier 1: could realistically trade up for without gutting the team/core (mid lottery):

• Matas Buzelis, 6’10 big wing/forward - GLI

• Cody Williams, 6’8 big wing/ forward - Colorado

• Stephon Castle, 6’6 guard/wing - UConn

• Reed Sheppard, 6’3 guard - Kentucky

• Ja’Kobe Walter, 6’5 guard - Baylor

Tier 2: Will most likely be there around the Houston pick and/or potential Utah pick (late lottery/mid FRP)

• Tidjane Salaun, 6’10 forward/ big wing - Cholet (France)

• PJ Hall, 6’8 Forward/Small ball C - Clemson

Tier 3: Will likely be there around the Clippers pick (late FPR)

• Kal’el Ware, 7’ C - Indiana

• Kevin McCuller Jr, 6’7 wing - Kansas

• Justin Edwards, 6’7 wing - Kentucky

• Bobi Klintman, 6’10 forward/big wing - Cairns (NBL/Australia)

• Aaron Bradshaw, 7’1 center - Kentucky

• Dalton Knecht, 6’7 guard/wing - Tennessee

• Trentyn Flowers, 6’8 wing/guard - Adelaide (NBL/Australia)

• Tristan De Silva, 6’9 forward - Colorado

Tier 4: 2nd round options

• Grant Nelson, 6’11 forward - Alabama

Who do you like? Who am I missing? Thoughts?

I am actually beyond tilted, I cashed with a DNP. what is nick nurse cooking up with playing kj martin over house. Ill still take the good day today but that is actually mind blowing. If you degens are playing the NFL slate tomorrow I wish you the best of luck lmao, Going to be a wild one. Hope you all had a great night.

IF discord is something you are interested in, Will have a link below where i have in-depth content going over each slate, player pools for cash/gpps, cores and much more.

Edit: Didn't see Poeltl fouled out, that makes a lot more sense as you can tell i was quite confused at the end there. Still have interest if Trent sits though. And would like poeltl.

Edit: fultz on a limit off the bench. goga in, wcj out. i really like goga, i like okeke for value. houston is in play. paolo good spend up. not playing fultz, suggs downgrade. queen just a dart. mo wagner just a gpp play

Edit: zion out, ingram very solid. cj in play. murphy solid if he starts but apparently might be on a limit to 20-25 minutes. naji marshall now in play. the bigs dont change.

Edit: kuminga in, hes playable, downgrade to wiggins/saric but both still solid values

Edit: KD in. crossing off PHX

Edit: wiggins and trayce are starting. looney is out of play. pods just a dart now. i like wiggins and trayce. Ja is OUT, kennard is starting. kennard very solid value. love bane. jaren very good. really like smart. vince is just a dart off the bench now

Contrary to what Ham is telling the press, NBA executives believe Ham’s seat is scorching hot. Rob Pelinka is known to work in the shadows and word is he’s been going around the facility asking people one on one of their opinions on Ham and the day-to-day process.

Rumors on viable options and finalists:

1. Keep Ham. He’ll be gone in the off-season

2. Handy + Jent: Lebron’s guys. Handy is more known to be a hands on type of guy. Not for X’s and O’s. Players loves them and will rally for them. Interims to finish out the season.

3. Doc Rivers: Fresh perspective. Interim to finish out the season. Doc must weigh on leaving his current job for a job he’ll only work for a couple of months and might not keep in the off-season.

4. Terry Stotts: Fresh perspective. Known for his offensive mind and X’s and O’s. Interim to finish out the season which he must agrees to.

Ham will be replaced only IF he’s completely lost the locker room. Sentiment right now is a little bit more or half.

Keys to watch: Watch Ham’s body language during the next game and post interview. Watch key players body language during the game and every timeouts. Are they communicating with each other when in possession of the ball? Are they listening or engaging with the coach inside the huddles?

Sources: My friends in high places.

Very well could be Knicks year to be a sneaky top three team should Sixers not find a way to improve their depth beyond Embiid and Maxey. Bucks have much room to improve as well with Lillard's shooting struggles of recent.

The NBA is currently negotiating a new media rights deal. In such a tumultuous environment for traditional media companies such as Disney and Warner Bros. , technology companies such as Apple and Amazon may be ready and waiting to take over.

I'll take you through a deep dive into this as well as the future of the NBA viewership experience, who is going to win the rights to broadcast the league, why the NBA’s asking price might be too high and what all that means for the fans.

Later this year, the NBA is expected to announce a new media rights deal. The current deal, which was announced in 2014, was a nine-year deal worth $24 billion signed with Disney-owned ESPN and Warner Bros.-owned Turner Sports (TNT). At the time, the deal was worth nearly three times the outgoing deal, and exploded the league’s annual media rights revenue from about $966 million to $2.6 billion. Team valuations also went through the roof, with recent transactions having NBA franchises selling at 8-10x revenue multiples, figures unheard of in industries outside of tech. This time, however, the outcome may not be nearly as lucrative.

Over the last 50 years in the United States, the growth of professional sports has been intrinsically tied to TV rights. TV executives realized that not only were sports great for selling advertising, they were also a great tool to entice customers into bundles that allowed them to sell the rest of their programming. This created a flywheel effect where more sports on television networks brought more cable subscribers which meant more revenue for television networks, part of this revenue was reinvested into the same sports leagues and thus leagues continued to grow. A symbiotic relationship.

Thus an incredibly profitable 4 decade run for sports leagues and the cable television networks that carried them had begun. In this time, the NBA has become one of the fastest growing sports leagues globally and this growth has been captured commercially. The behemoth that is the NFL is the only sports league that makes more money than the NBA annually

Annual Revenue By US Sports League
NFL: $18.6 billion
NBA: $10.6 billion
MLB: $10.3 billion
NHL: $5.9 billion
MLS: $1.6 billion
This growth is not slowing down either, Forbes magazine estimates that in 2023 the league will generate close to $13 billion in revenue.

What is notable, however, is how much of this revenue is tied to media rights. The NBA’s growth is heavily reliant on their national media partners such as ESPN and Turner Sports being able to continue to pay for these rights. The league's current annual revenues are from the following sources; 50% of revenues come from media rights, 16% from general seating, 12% from premium seating, 11% from merch, licensing, parking and non event revenue and 9% from arena sponsorship and advertising.

The league’s massive international profile is only enough to provide around $500 million annually from international TV providers such as Sky Sports and DAZN. Over time, the league hopes that social media, arena experiences and live events can provide a larger chunk of revenues. These, however, continue to be long-term ambitions.

The Headwinds
Over the last couple of years, whispers around the league have claimed that NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has been looking to triple their current media rights deal. $75-80 billion is the figure that the league has allegedly been looking to reach. A steep valuation that would only be rivalled by the 10-year $110 billion deal that the NFL signed with CBS, FOX and Comcast - their longtime partners- as well as recent additions, Disney and Amazon Prime Video, in 2021.

Despite this, the NBA finds itself in a unique position. Not only does the league lack the NFL’s spectacular viewership numbers, it also finds itself renegotiating these rights at a time when their incumbent media partners are facing serious existential threats to their future revenues. We shall examine both these issues.

Average NBA Regular Season Viewership
1995-96: 2.99 million
2022-23: 1.59 million (-47%)

The Cable Dilemma
Let’s go back to the television networks. During the successful 4 decade run we mentioned earlier, ESPN and TNT could only show so many games within a 24 hour span. It was not possible to appease every fan from every team. As a result, regional sports networks (RSN) were born. While being smaller than their national counterparts, these networks could show every game within a team’s regional market. These catered to loyal viewers who could be priced accordingly and thus RSN were great revenue generators.

The final evolution of the cable TV and sports marriage came when networks began bundling content together. ESPN was tied to Disney’s channels, TNT was tied to Warner Bros. channels and multiple RSNs had bundles with NBC and Fox. Cable companies could charge more and more and customers were more than willing to pay. This peaked in 2011 where 85% of households in the US paid for cable TV. This number is now below 60%.

The major catalyst for this change was streaming. Netflix, buoyed with endless venture capital dollars, began to license content from traditional studios such as HBO and FX that traditionally aired on cable TV. This was the premium content, besides sports, that kept these cable subscriptions renewed by customers. These networks coexisted with Netflix at first, but began to compete with them by offering their own streaming services with their proprietary content. Namely Disney+, Hulu, HBO Max etc.

This came with a change of business model. Instead of simply syphoning revenue from people who signed up to cable as an afterthought, these companies now had to attract new customers to sign up to a new service without sports. The latter is much more difficult. Disney, HBO and FX had to put their best content on their sites as well as aggressively green light new shows and movies to catch up to Netflix’s deep content library. A very expensive endeavour.

A few years on from this pandemic phenomenon, the effects on cable TV are starting to take shape. Customers who were never that interested in sports now have much better alternatives to cable as all their favourite content is available on different streaming sites with no ads. Consequently, cable has very little to offer other than sports and news.

As we pivot back to the NBA angle, we can imagine now that a big NBA fan still pays for cable, but a casual NBA fan who had cable for other reasons now probably doesn’t have a cable subscription and watches all of their favourite content on Netflix. Worse still, a non-fan probably cut cable out ages ago. The latter two are bad outcomes for cable companies because all of that is churned revenue that they may never get back.

These losses in cable customers, tied with de-bundling of cable content puts Disney-owned ESPN and WB-owned TNT in precarious positions during these ongoing media rights negotiations. With Disney doubling down on Disney+, the idea of selling ESPN has been floated by none other than CEO Bob Iger. A combination of issues that puts the NBA’s dreams of a record media deal in jeopardy.

A Silver Lining

The NBA will be hoping that the streamers, notably Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Youtube TV and even Netflix toss their hats in the bidding war for basketball’s most lucrative league. The economics of the current media situation make it so that these cash-laden technology companies are uniquely positioned to potentially take the sport onto their sites to grow their recurring subscription revenues. Despite this, the streamers themselves have to establish whether such an expensive commitment will make economic sense for the future growth of their businesses. In 2021, Amazon paid the NFL $1 billion per year for 10 years for the right to air Thursday Night Football, and this year incorporated interactive ads that allowed customers to make Amazon purchases during the broadcast. This may indeed be the future of sports viewership.

However this pans out, it will be very interesting to observe who wins the right to air NBA basketball for the next decade. On the consumer side, questions arise on where you would rather watch your basketball, TNT or Youtube? Amazon or ESPN? Will the cable companies charge exorbitantly to make up for lost revenues? Will streaming sites fill your broadcast with ads? All these possibilities await, as fans of the sport watch on impatiently.

I do further deep dives like this on my blog which you can find linked in my profile.
Let me know your thoughts.

Hello,

I am a dude from Europe and a lifelong NBA fan. I will be going to L.A. for business reasons in March and I don't want to miss the opportunity to attend a game at the Staples and make a dream come true! I have never been to L.A. nor to any NBA game, so I would be very grateful for any tips, especially related to the following questions.

1. What is the best place to get tickets? I only know about TicketMaster.

2. How long in advance should I get tickets?

3. How early should I arrive to the game? 1 hour before is enough? I will probably spend my day at the LACC so traffic won't be an issue at least!

4. How safe is the area around the Arena ? If my place is something like a15-20 min walk from Staples Center, would I be safe walking back alone after the game?

I hope this is within the rules of the sub, I went through them and it seemed so, but I apologise if I am mistaken.

Anyway, can't wait to be there!

[edit] Thank you very much for all your answers, they've been very helpful!

Dejounte, Bogdanovic, Capelle, Hunter all available.

As a GM who has both Okongwu and Jalen Johnson on his team, I'm very excited about this news. Okongwu's break out year that we've been waiting for two years could finally come. I think we can expect Duren-like performance from Okongwu if he starts and gets 30 minutes.

Since returned from injury, Jalen Johnson averages 18 points 10 rebounds with 1.2 steal, 1.2 threes in 32/mpg.

I think something like 20 points 10 rebounds 2.5 stl/blk with decent percentages totally possible if these players get traded.

There is still a month left until the trade deadline and of course nothing is certain, but the Hawks are currently behind the Bulls in 11th place, and it doesn't look like much will happen. It makes much more sense to go for a rebuild.

What do you guys think?

Recently found out that the 2018-2019 Memphis Grizzlies had 3 Former Defensive Player of the Year Winners (Marc Gasol, Jaren Jackson Jr. and Joakim Noah). Not to mention they also had All Defense players in Mike Conley and Dillon Brooks.

Was wondering if there are any other former teams out there with great defensive accolades if they were all in their peak..

I pose the question in this way because I'm interested to see if people would take a player like Luka/Wemby/Jokic over a coach like Spoelstra or Pop or a GM like Stevens or Riley. I'm including owners in this discussion so would it worth taking an owner who's happy to pay a high tax bill like Ballmer or Lacob?

I think overall most would take players first so perhaps it's better to ask how long would it take for you to draft a staff member

It not every day that an NBA player turns 101; in fact, it's only happened once before! Best of wishes to Johnny Macknowski of Dandridge, Tennessee.

He is basketball's only surviving WWII vet. He is one of four living people to have begun playing professional basketball prior to the NBA's existence, alongside Clint Parmer, Leo Kubiak, and Bill Calhoun. He and Bob Harrison are the two surviving individuals from the inaugural NBA championship series.

If you want to read more about him, that talks at length about both basketball and his life after basketball.

‘You said you wanted to be the GOAT, now arise Baphomet,’ the genie replied

The 2018 Warriors were 100% coasting during the regular season and turned it up during the playoffs and played elite defense. I can't speak for the 2001 Lakers as I was too young to watch them, but statistically they had the best defense in the league in the 2001 playoffs so I assume they likewise were coasting.

The Nuggets are the worst defense to win a ring in the last 25 years and even they were at least solid. The Bucks are aiming to become the first truly 'bad' defensive team to win a ring in a long time