Did Chris find time to complain about the play where he tried to rip LeBron’s shoulder out of its socket or is he angry about other fouls they didn’t get away with?

Retirement? 

It’s not even just Boston! The Zion pick will be out there, the Clippers might be a real thing, and like we’ve seen with Kawhi in Toronto and more notably with PG re-signing in Oklahoma, there are teams willing to gamble on rentals if they have the confidence they can sway a guy to stay.

I generally enjoy the basketball takes around here, but the consensus that the Pelicans messed up for not wanting to cosplay the 2017-18 Lakers is baffling.

Possibly the best part of this gif? Buddy just kept walking. A pro’s pro. 

Also, the team is bad and ownership is dumb but they swept the Blazers last playoffs and, uh, just beat the Rockets without their best player. They’d be better with the core of a 30 win Laker team. Everybody can see that.

He missed a ton of bunnies, played no defense, and lost to the fucking Hawks a week after he tried to trade all his teammates. We don’t have to constantly supplicate ourselves before his greatness or blame everybody else when he takes the L. It’s okay, man. 

Westbrook’s likely maturing and realizing, “you know, I’m pretty great at everything except that whole shooting thing–maybe I should do that less.” You’re right that if he woulda gotten there before Durant left, well, maybe Durant doesn’t leave. (That said, if reports of him bailing on a dynasty are true, who knows…

To me, PG has a very similar argument to Harden: both have been typically great this year with an extended run of insane, high-level play. He’s actually a better fit next to Westbrook than Durant was, which is something I didn’t see coming–not saying he’s a better player (he’s not) but he fits more cleanly. OKC’s the…

Nah, man. Giannis has been on fire since jump street. George is in that “why don’t we give this guy some MVP buzz?!” category that amounts to a handful of third and fifth place votes. Nothing to sneeze at, certainly, but he’s not at that level. 

Did you enjoy “More than an Athlete”? No? Well, what if we made it ten times worse? 

This is a great point. The Lakers front office fucked up over the summer when they decided to surround LeBron with largely bogus veterans on one-year deals (Rondo and Javale are defensible; Beasley and Lance far less so) and hoping against hope that this would be the year when LeBron finally made the young players…

It’s definitely the worst case scenario, but it would be incompetent past any reasonable measure. The thing is, this isn’t like when LeBron or KD left at the end of their deals and their teams didn’t get any compensation for being obstinate. New Orleans has AD under contract for 18 months and every reason to move him…

Also Draymond, Manu, Khris Middleton, Goran Dragic, Michael Redd, Kukoc, Rashard Lewis, DeAndre, Rodman, Arenas, Trillsap, & Marc Gasol. But yeah, no value there. I get it. 

Okay, I guess I’ll play along with this hypothetical. If that happens, are the Lakers going to suddenly not have the same mediocre assets to offer for a top 10 guy? You think Kuzma, Hart, Chino Hills Eric Snow and some bad firsts will be off the table a few months from now? Because I do not.

Consider what OKC gave up for the last superstar that was toooootally going to end up a Laker: Oladipo and Sabonis. Both those dudes are better than what the Lakers are offering. And AD is better than Paul George. I realize that nobody thought Dipo was going to be this good, but he had a way more complete game than…

“New Orleans should trade the best player they’ve ever had for the core of a Laker team that won 35 games in a year during which all of those players have regressed.” Sure thing. 

What we don’t know: where Zion’s going, what Boston might offer or has promised already, how serious AD is about the Clippers, etc.

“But if the worst-case scenario does happen and Davis just walks away for nothing in 18 months, the Pelicans won’t have won anything.”

I like how LeBron turning it on to leapfrog the Kings for the eighth seed is where this Lakers season has gone. And by “like” I mean “fucking love.”