A new NBA thread (HYPER HYPED DRAFT SUPER EDITION)

[Sobchak]

LMA playing with a splint like blazer fans aren't hypochondriacs.

[fallenchicken]

https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/2 ... ars_after/

wow.

[Sobchak]

https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/2 ... ars_after/

wow.

lol. Wonder how many people at ESPN were in on this.

Top comment:

I worked for a prominent NBA agent years ago. Chad Ford came by our office a few times and was buddy/buddy with the agent. He would always write puff pieces about the agent's clients while he was in town and would without fail shoot the clients up his draft board and call them "fast risers" based on "sources" who were impressed with their workouts. None of our clients ever had a bad workout. I never put an ounce of stock into anything he's written since that time.

but I think that's probably the case for many "league insiders." Can't just be a friendly dude to get some of the information. I think /r/nba dug up some stuff about Wojnarowski never writing anything bad about Charlotte (I think) Detroit then it came out that one of his best sources was a guy in their front office forwarding Woj all the NBA releases.

Nevermind, it was a Deadspin writer and it was Detroit.

http://deadspin.com/how-the-nba-flushed ... 1672199058
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/1205 ... his-scoops

[Sobchak]

That New Republic article's image lol. BABBITT! Pack your shit LeBron you're not getting to the rack.

[fallenchicken]

lol. I definitely expect most of the league insiders to be compromised by their source. Brian Windhorst is m favorite example, who is essentially Lebron's inside man. You can always count on Windhorst to come out with a piece claiming "sources" in Cleveland are unhappy with Blatt, or whoever. Gee I wonder who those sources are?

But Chad Ford changing past draft boards is just weird. Did he think no one would notice he moved Giannis up like 20 spots? Why??? It's kind of funny. And a lot sad.

[badfo]

People review the mock drafts after and I think Ford's always done pretty poorly, right? Silly to go back and change that shit. And I'm guessing somebody does it for him because writers usually don't get direct access to edit their work on sites like ESPN. It goes through multiple editors.

Draft stuff is silly anyway. All about page views, especially guys like Ford. The reality is probably a lot more boring.

The reporter thing is funny when it comes to the Thunder. Woj is just wrong or off about the Thunder somewhat frequently. We have a local guy that gets like one story a year. The rest I assume is from reporters with sources on other teams or in the league. The worst is Sam Amico who I'm pretty sure just makes shit up about every team.

The local media here can't even keep track of the guys we work out before each draft. Every year a group of Thunder fans compiles a list, almost exclusively from social media of the players or reports from media people (and a few times just seeing the players in town). I think this past year the list was like 30 players. NewsOK.com knew about three of them.

Not that it matters though because we're just going to draft whatever injured guy is available every year.

[fallenchicken]

Yeah, I think some smaller market franchises do a good job of staying out of woj's snitch circle. The Spurs never seem to get wojbombed. The Jazz don't, either. Not that anyone cares about them right now but a few years ago the Jazz quietly shopped D-Will around without it getting leaked, and of course no one knew about the D-Will trade until it was leaked out from the Nets side as the papers were being signed. It's probably easier for smaller market franchises--who obviously have to run tighter ships--to keep everything in house. Local reporters are usually the ones who have the connections to get the scoop in our case.

woj definitely only gets things that the front offices want him to have. Which is pretty harmless, because he mostly just ends up fucking espn. Tweeting the draft picks a minute before they're announced on air is excellent trolling if nothing else.

The Thunder is interesting though because with the circus surrounding Kevin Durant there are a lot of national reporters poking around. Especially as he nears free agency we're going to hear a lot of "sources" reporting him considering going to the Wizards or whatever. It's already starting.

[badfo]

I swear to god this season is the worst.

Dion Waiters doesn't deserve to play for the Thunder.

[fallenchicken]

http://gfycat.com/PortlyMilkyBluebird Russel don't give a fuck about your playing time, he going to get his high five.

[Sobchak]

http://gfycat.com/PortlyMilkyBluebird Russel don't give a fuck about your playing time, he going to get his high five.

needs to work on his high-five form.

[fallenchicken]

sobchak tell Meyers Leonard that his face and head shape makes him look like a giant baby.

[badfo]

I'll give up another first round pick if we can give all of Waiters' shots to Mitch McGary.

[fallenchicken]

Hayward has become a legit crunch-time player. You're welcome bado. Doing what we can.

[badfo]

I'm trying to find a way to describe how terrible it is watching Waiters play basketball but Trey Burke is on your team so you're getting the full experience.

[fallenchicken]

we don't need to talk about it. Burke & Waiters are just players you have to live through. It's like going to war. You come home and no one can understand.

[fallenchicken]

GM Chak doin work.

[badfo]

That's good hedging for Batum being bad and Matthews' FA. I don't think Afflalo has been a good defender in years but they gave up basically nothing (I STILL BELIEVE IN YOU WILL BARTON).

Meanwhile the Thunder are soon going to be left with one perimeter player other than Durant and Westbrook who approaches competence on offense.

[fallenchicken]

but you might ave Brook Lopez and his enormous contract! You can count on him down the stre--

Don't hang yourself, bado. Don't do it!

[badfo]

I'd feel less terrible about this if they still had our first round pick to throw at people instead of Waiters. Or if they didn't whiff in 2013 FA. Or if the FO didn't have ridiculous faith in Jeremy Lamb to become an NBA player for two straight years despite the evidence being overwhelmingly against it.

[fallenchicken]

Adrian Wojnarowski ‏@WojYahooNBA 52s52 seconds ago
Sources: OKC hasn't committed to Lopez deal, and there's still another center that they've had talks about acquiring: Utah's Enes Kanter.

Let's make a deal bado. You don't want Brook Lopez. I don't really want Enes Kanter. I want to start Gobert tomorrow night. I'm interested in Reggie. Reggie could flourish here. Kanter could be good because he's not Brook Lopez.I think both are restricted free agents(?)

[badfo]

You can have Waiters.

[fallenchicken]

bro tell you what i let you keep waiters.

[badfo]

I've watched him miss multiple wide open layups over the past month. SLC needs that sort of establishment.

[fallenchicken]

I think the inevitable lineup of Burke Ingles and Waiters would kill me.

[badfo]

What if I told you he can almost jump over a phone book?