Yeah, which makes sense. I saw TT speculation but, one, he’s in a contract year and having a career year, why would he be mad, and, two, he came out today with some support for Beilein too which was nice.
Doesn’t sound like John’s ready to fold his cards yet–some resistance might have been inevitable. And to be fair to a player like KL, it might be frustrating to think you’re spending your remaining best years as part of a rebuilding job (heck, old dogs have a harder time learning new tricks). Knowing John, I’ll be surprised if he bails before giving his theories a full test. He didn’t enter this new domain with any guarantees.
Maybe, maybe not. It’s not surprising a struggling team wants to trade a productive vet with a big contract for any future assets. Stylistically, he seems like a perfect Beilein guy. A rich-man’s Pittsnoggle. And overall, Love’s numbers are up from last year.
It had already gotten out that Love was probably one of them. Which is why the fact this comes out soon after seems like confirmation
Here’s some defense of Beilein at Cleveland. I thought Love was one of the guys early on who was praising Beilein?
The fact that KL has not openly supported JB as TT did pretty much tells all
Just another reason for me to hate the NBA. Not that I needed more reasons. I’m not surprised though. I know JB wanted a new challenge, but the NBA seemed like a really odd fit for him.
Hate’s a pretty strong word. There are wars, and starvation, and quite a lot of crazy sh*t out there. I’d save hate for those. I get that professional sports are rife with contradiction, but would you prefer that there weren’t a next level for really accomplished ballers? What would you change? Seriously interested.
Well for one the NBA regular season is far too long. 82 games needs to be cut down to at least 60. I’m encouraged that Silver seems to realize the status quo won’t cut it and is looking to make some big changes to the regular season structure.
I’d be curious to read more about that. @lindenberg44. Any links?
82 games is a joke. Load management is a joke. But TV money talks…gonna be hard for them owners/players to give money back
I wish it were just 58 games (everyone plays twice) with a single elimination tournament at the halfway point scheduled for the week after the Super Bowl.
That would be so money
Interesting stuff. I like the fact they’re taking initiative instead of waiting to make changes.
What is the appeal/point of the mid season tournament? I hear Bill Simmons talk about it all the time, but I don’t get why its a thing all of a sudden.
Listening to Bill Simmons all the time is your first mistake😂 guy is just a fan
I don’t get it either. How is it going to be meaningful? It seems more likely that good teams will want to lose in the first round and rest than try to win it.
Kind of the same appeal of the mid-season tournaments in College Hoops. Something to root for in the middle of the season. For the players, there would be cash incentives.
One of the reasons UM basketball gives off better vibes than Michigan football is that there are more opportunities for accomplishment. You can win the Battle 4 Atlantis, the B1G, the B1G tournament, you can get to the Sweet 16 and the Final Four. With football, it’s just the Big Ten and the Playoffs (which is basically the same thing.)
For me, the appeal of the CBB early season tournaments is that we get to see some strong opponents that Michigan wouldn’t ordinarily play. Playing extra games is good too, for the fans and players. I’m not seeing how that translates to the NBA.
I think it depends on how good the team is you root for. When the Pistons were at the top of their game, I couldn’t get enough of them. Those few games they’d play the Garnett/Pierce Celtics teams each year were so intense. So I think you’d see some high quality basketball as teams try to see how they measure up against each other.
It might be hard to imagine right now if you’re a Pistons fan, but broadly I think people would be really excited to see a tournament (especially because the NBA playoff is set up so that the best team pretty much always wins and there are very few major upsets.)
I mean, just to break up the monotony of the 82-game season, a single-elimination neutral-site thing would be just fun and interesting. I don’t care about the all-star game, so maybe do it instead of that.
As it is there’s no reason to pay much attention to the NBA before the all-star break.