2008-09 general league thread (non-Pistons)

[Dumars4Ever]

But Kobe might be more willing to move his family to Europe for a few years because he did it himself as a kid. He might think "that was a good experience for me, so let's take this chance to give our kids a similar thing."

[TaShawn]

But his wife might be thinking, "there are many new women for Kobe to have affairs with in Europe, and I'd rather keep him in America, where my spy network can keep tabs on him."

[roscoe36]

Originally Posted by TaShawn

Lebron may have more freedom to do what's best for Lebron. He has stated that he wants to be a billionaire, so it would help him achieve that noble goal.

Well, he could just ask to be paid in Zimbabwe dollars. He'd be a billion-trillionaire. Ah, the wonders of Weimar-esque inflation!

[Dumars4Ever]

Originally Posted by TaShawn

But his wife might be thinking, "there are many new women for Kobe to have affairs with in Europe, and I'd rather keep him in America, where my spy network can keep tabs on him."

Good point, I had overlooked that potential factor.

[bezeach]

The Philadelphia 76ers and restricted free agent Andre Iguodala have agreed to a six-year, $80 million contract, league sources tell ESPN.com.
The athletic and exciting 6-6 forward/guard has improved his scoring average in each of his first four seasons, and promises to be a mainstay on a Sixers team that recently signed former Clipper big man Elton Brand to an estimated $82 million free agent contract.
link: ESPN - Sources: Iguodala agrees to six-year, $80 million deal with Sixers - NBA

[mikhail1973]

Flip Murray signs with Atlanta:

The Sports Network - National Basketball Association

[detteam]

That's a BIG$ suspension, but it makes sense since he violated his contract.

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP)—The Golden State Warriors suspended injured guard Monta Ellis for 30 games without pay Saturday for violating his lucrative new contract by getting into a moped accident.

Ellis, who agreed to a six-year deal worth $66 million in July, severely sprained his ankle in a low-speed crash in late August. The suspension will cost the guard slightly less than $3 million.

The Warriors counted four preseason games in the suspension’s length, which means Ellis can’t return to the club until after Golden State’s 26th regular-season game, against Indiana on Dec. 17.

Ellis, who recently underwent surgery to repair a torn ligament, was unlikely to return before then anyway, but the suspension means the guard won’t be paid during his absence. Ellis’ agent, Jeff Fried, met with Golden State officials during the week to settle Ellis’ punishment.


Ellis compounded his mistake by initially lying to the Warriors about the accident. He told Chris Mullin, the Warriors’ top basketball executive, that he hurt himself playing pickup ball in his native Mississippi, but came clean about the accident several days later.

Warriors suspend Ellis 30 games for moped accident - NBA - Yahoo! Sports

Which reminds me...I still wonder how Joel Zumaya really hurt his shoulder and missed a big chunk of the Tiger's season, fully paid.

[TaShawn]

Now they're talking about how Golden State can void the contract if they choose to (which they would do if his recovery doesn't look promising). Could be a very costly mistake for this kid.


On a totally separate note, I knew Andrew Bynum was good, but I don't think I appreciated what he was doing last year before his injury.

Through 35 games last year, he averaged:
28 minutes
13.1 points
10.2 rebounds
1.7 assists
0.3 steals
2.1 blocks

FG% of .636!

He averaged a double-double in only 28 minutes with crazy efficiency. For comparison, Tim Duncan's FG% last year was .497.


Really was a shame that he blew his knee out.

[Dumars4Ever]

With the season about to start, if you want to get a quick look at which players have switched teams in the off-season, check out this list from ESPN. It also includes free agents re-signed by their own teams, so not every player listed has actually switched teams. I can't find a link to it from ESPN's front page, but I got to it via Google. It's also a bit out of date, not updated since early in October, although most player movement since then has just been teams waiving guys to get down to 15 before the season starts.

The list I linked to also includes teams renouncing their rights to retired players, some of whom have been retired for a long time. TrueHoop had a post about that during last season. Amusingly, Rick Mahorn was still on the books for Philly until just this last off-season. And as the TrueHoop link also mentions, the Pistons (as of last season) still had the rights to such luminaries as Don Reid and Victor Alexander.

[LA Dre]

The elite: Five teams who can dethrone the Celtics - NBA - Yahoo! Sports

If the Celtics have a weakness, it cannot be quantified, cannot be found on the roster sheet or in the box score. If anything holds back these Celtics, the culprit will most likely be sitting on that awkward finger between the middle and the pinky. It’ll be the ring each player now has. The Garnett-Allen-Pierce trio wanted the validation of a championship last year badly, and they played like it. It’s what drove their selfless offense and their fearsome defense, which allowed a league-low 41.9 percent shooting and 90.3 points per game, second lowest in the league.

At least we are still considered elite