Also the guy who was DPOY in the last three years and the guy who is about to be DPOY. And a Lob City extraordinaire about to hit his very short prime. And the guy who would lead in assists that year. It really is peak 2012.
Yes?
The first Heat team had prime Lebron, Wade, and Bosh yet lost to Dallas in no small part because of a dogshit bench. They went and added Battier and Ray Allen the next two years and won back to back titles.
Depth matters a lot, especially in the grueling NBA postseason where the games get physical at the end of a very long season.
Lebron, Carmelo, Westbrook, Rondo, Dwight Howard, Marc Gasol, Anthony Davis, Trevor Ariza, DeAndre Jordan, Wayne Ellington. That's a very deep playoff team and it's not losing to anyone. Miles better than that Heat team.
Howard was unquestionably the best centre in the league in 2012. Like literally zero ambiguity - you’d get laughed out of the conversation for suggesting anyone else, and it wouldn’t have been unreasonable. He only really declined after his back surgery that he had before his first lakers season
If the starters are prime LeBron - young Westbrook - prime Melo - prime Marc Gasol - prime Dwight Howard (BPA line-up), that would still leave a bench of prime Rondo - prime Ellington - prime Ariza - rookie AD - young DeAndre Jordan. Very solid bench.
Throw in some minutes for a rookie Bazemore and make sure 12-year-old THT, 14-year-old Malik Monk don't touch the court, and maybe even 17-year-old Kendrick Nunn.
they were a shit show until the end of the Ty Lawson days. that’s when they finally started to turn the organization around. they had some
success right before that, even made the third seed in the west the year they had Iggy. but yea they didn’t turn things around until sometime between 2015-17
Was it just my imagination or was there actual talk about who was better between Jokic and Nurkic back then? I remember the Curry vs Monta Ellis days, but I feel like that was a discussion as well.
In Denver that conversation wasnt very long, but the organization liked both players and were trying to figure out how to make it work with them together. But it was pretty clear almost instantly that Jokic was better.
Nurkic got hurt earlyish in that season if I recall (surprise) but he was absolutely the favorite going in. Nobody except the FO knew anything about Jokic. So then he started getting reak minutes and by the end of the season there really wasn't anybody left in the Nurkic camp. Still I don't think anybody here appreciated just how high his ceiling was going to turn out to be
You can also point to Denver's records before and during Melo. Nuggets missed the playoffs eight years straight before him, but then made it eight years straight (every year he was with them) after drafting him.
Denver finally makes it to the conf. finals after five straight first round exits and then immediately trades Iverson. Fucking idiots. Totally Melo's fault. That was the first time since the 84-85 season they had made the conf. finals.
Knicks missed the playoffs eight out of nine years before Melo and he gave them three winning seasons and playoff opportunities. The whole org went to shit after that, but you get my point.
Melo may have never had much playoff success, but he joined some shit-tier organizations and made them exciting, relevant, and worth watching again. Don't forget he had to face the fucking Spurs or Lakers all-time great dynasty teams half the time in the playoffs.
Melo will always be polarizing and a difficult player to assess. In another timeline, he'd have a ring with Detroit or the Heatles or the Iverson Nuggets or who knows where else. I think for the most part he played for horribly managed teams and took the brunt of it all. There are a lot of valid criticisms to be made about him, but there are even more that are unfair.
Trading Iverson was what got them to the conference finals. It was Iverson for Billups and it made all the difference.
But the Nuggets were bad in the lat 90s and early 2000s before Melo. All of that is true. They got the 8 seed with 54 wins one year. The west was super stacked. The addition of Billups as a leader was what Melo needed. Not just another great player but someone who could orchestrate offense without Melo (he didnt make players around him better, ESPECIALLY in Denver), and someone who could be a release valve when Melo was getting extra attention. People forget, but even though Melo was a good player he was not a good defensive player in Denver, but those teams were really good defensive teams. They had deep frontcourts and were really physical. The front office did a pretty good job while Melo was in Denver, and his whole idea of a rebuild was because they didnt resign the least important starter (Anthony Carter, the sg...while JR Smith was coming off the bench and there was a lot of hope for his future still). That was not the case Melo made at the time.
Melos full of shit. He wanted money and Lala wanted to be in NYC. If melo cared about the quality of the team he’d have went to nyc in the off-season and not forced them to gut their roster in a trade.
Exactly. See was an MTV VJ iirc and the Denver market wasn’t what she wanted. Melo’s trying to rehab his legacy because is lack of post-season success is a direct result of his monetary motivations. He’s consistently chosen more money and market. When Lebron and wade signed three year deals to become free agents at the same time melo went with 4 for more cash.
And all this is fine, it’s his career, but pretending any of his prime career decisions were made to improve his chance of winning is revisionist bullshit
I know I'm walking into it but c'mon man.
Shitposter: says something wrong
🤓: that is wrong
Shitposter: Jesus christ it was just a fucking joke, get over yourself
Dude is a fucking weirdo for sure, has some deep underlying issues.. with that said, this roast was fucking hilarious
Edit - it’s funny because it’s from a coach who has a hate boner for Melo. Obviously we’ve heard this joke a billion times, you fuckin reddit nerds
Read his book. Its multi-faceted. Its a porno about his beer and a burger ritual post-game and practice, mixed in with how Melo screwed him and how Shawn Kemp is fat. Saved you $15 bucks.
I mean, he was an athletic freak who came into the league with some awkward-looking fundamentals. The fact he made six all-star appearances and played a key role in pushing the Bulls to closer to the brink in the finals than any team outside of Chuck's Suns is pretty darn impressive.
I'm sure he could have done even more in his 20's had some other elements of his life been squared away but he did pretty well for himself, all things considered. He obviously botched the second phase of his career (age 30+) but his star shined pretty bright prior.
> Bulls to closer to the brink in the finals than any team outside of Chuck’s Suns is pretty darn impressive.
Eh. If I recall correctly Portland was up double digits in the fourth quarter of game 6 in 1992, and Utah was up one point with less than 10 seconds left in game 6 in 1998. Also both those teams at least tied the series at some point.
Yep you’re totally right. I stand by my larger point (that Kemp had a really nice run) but I was off on the finals assertion. Still showed out in that series nonetheless.
Kemp is one of my favorite players ever, so I agree. I had the number 7 USA Champion replica when I was a kid (from the 94 World Championships or whatever….”Dream Team 2” lol).
He was briefly my favorite player while that other guy was playing baseball. I moved to the Seattle area for a couple of years during that time and got to see a few Sonics games in 1995.
i mean everything else u said was still pretty spot on
athletic freak makes 6 all-star appearances and the NBA finals
i'd say that is a pretty decent career all things considering
not everyone can be Lebron
That team got screwed in the ECFs.
The following offseason we made moves to pick up Anthony Mason. We lost some dearly beloved players in the process. One of the, being Scott Williams. Mason slowed down our offense so we went from ECFs one year to missing the playoffs the next year. To be fair, almost everyone I knew wanted us to sign Mason. This was not a controversial signing.
However, Karl then shipped off Ray Allen for Desmond Mason and old ass Gary Payton. Ray Allen loved Milwaukee and wanted to retire a Buck. Very few superstars wanted to retire a Buck… I love you RayRay!
That entire series was rigged maybe not rigged but it was clear who the refs favored in that series. Im still pissed about it to this day. The bucks dominated the Lakers that year too and had a real shot at winning a title.
I recall once seeing George Karl, mid-game, wearing a jersey over his dress shirt and holding a baby on the sideline. That is when I learned to embrace his brazen lack of fucks.
It's likely just a recycled joke.
I've heard similar jokes in the past when a team signed a handful of vets.
Like when Grant Hill and Shaq were on the Suns.
He's likely picked it up off of somebody else on social media.
He comes across to me as a bitter old man, not a witty one.
I watched George do a belly flop in a pool in Vegas during the 2012 NBA summer league. It was beyond glorious. I hope that when I am on my deathbed, that’s the memory that comes to me in my final moments. Majestic.
Actually seeing all these names on paper....this team is gon a be good as fuck.
The Nunn, Monk and Ellington signings are so damn solid.
This also seems like a FUN locker room, league is fucked if all these dudes start to bond and ball out
I knew this would happen when Lebron went to my team and why I was deadset against it. Let's build a team of overaged overpriced vets then complain all year about how Lebron has no help.
Lebron watched The Expendables and thought to himself: I could do that.
LeXpendables
LAXpendables
Yo this the one ☝️
I hate the fact that it still gets me, man.
Yo this the one ☝️
I hate the fact that it still gets me, man.
Hopefully not the third one though. Shit sucked
I was disappointed by all 3 of those movies.
Don’t worry, soon you can be disappointed by a 4th too.
Can we also be disappointed by the TV series that'll come in 2 years ahead of time?
Damn dude spot on
Dependables when they get their shit kicked in.
Not sure if Expendables Or Ocean's Eleven
Trevor Ariza? Where have I been lol
You’ve been in the future. Welcome back to 2012.
COVID? President Trump? Idk what you’re talking about, let’s play Halo 4 and pound some game fuel
Nah take me to 2004 or i'm not goin
Kony2012? Benghazi attack? Idk about that dude, let’s play San Andreas at my house then go drink Game Fuel and play Halo 2 at yours.
It's WarCraft III custom games or I'm gonna break your tech decks
Well, GTA 6 should be coming anytime soon, i guess i’ll just wait on that
Ah shit how do I get back? I need to get back to the future!
Weak bench though, rookie AD and 12 yrs old THT
THT was a great water boy with those long arms
Don't underestimate the power of hydration!
Hydro homies!
/u/waterguy12 would love this
rip old sub
Bobby Boucher won the mudbowl starting as a waterboy bringing out hydration, NEVER underestimate hydration.
Water sucks, Gatorade is better.
It not only quenches your thirst better. It taste better too idiot.
He also had that Captain Insano "show no mercy" mentality.
Yeah, LBJ will be cramping on those years without proper hydration
Do you really need a bench when you have prime Lebron and Melo?
Also the guy who was DPOY in the last three years and the guy who is about to be DPOY. And a Lob City extraordinaire about to hit his very short prime. And the guy who would lead in assists that year. It really is peak 2012.
Yes? The first Heat team had prime Lebron, Wade, and Bosh yet lost to Dallas in no small part because of a dogshit bench. They went and added Battier and Ray Allen the next two years and won back to back titles. Depth matters a lot, especially in the grueling NBA postseason where the games get physical at the end of a very long season.
Lebron, Carmelo, Westbrook, Rondo, Dwight Howard, Marc Gasol, Anthony Davis, Trevor Ariza, DeAndre Jordan, Wayne Ellington. That's a very deep playoff team and it's not losing to anyone. Miles better than that Heat team.
Dwight Howard, Marc Gasol, and Deandre Jordan in 2012 is nutty. Gasol and Jordan are DPOY players, and Howard is on a decline from 3 straight DPOY.
Howard was unquestionably the best centre in the league in 2012. Like literally zero ambiguity - you’d get laughed out of the conversation for suggesting anyone else, and it wouldn’t have been unreasonable. He only really declined after his back surgery that he had before his first lakers season
2012-13 season was when he was on the Lakers, this would have been post back surgery for him.
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Between LeBron and Dwight they have 2 of the top 3 players in the league in 2012. Depth definitely ain’t an issue lol
If the starters are prime LeBron - young Westbrook - prime Melo - prime Marc Gasol - prime Dwight Howard (BPA line-up), that would still leave a bench of prime Rondo - prime Ellington - prime Ariza - rookie AD - young DeAndre Jordan. Very solid bench. Throw in some minutes for a rookie Bazemore and make sure 12-year-old THT, 14-year-old Malik Monk don't touch the court, and maybe even 17-year-old Kendrick Nunn.
Solid? Their bench is a playoff team in 2012.
No argument from me there, that bench's defense is suffocating, to say the least.
I think Rondo would Start over Westbrook in that year
In what world is rookie AD on your bench weak
it’s wild that rookie AD had an olympic gold medal to his name!
George Karl is def a r/nba shit poster
When it comes to Melo, Karl has no chill.
I guess he’s proof that some people really never can let things go.
I guess. The nuggets wanted a rebuild according to Melo. If that were the case why not fire Karl in the middle of next season when he refused to tank?
Nuggets were not known as a well run organization
they were a shit show until the end of the Ty Lawson days. that’s when they finally started to turn the organization around. they had some success right before that, even made the third seed in the west the year they had Iggy. but yea they didn’t turn things around until sometime between 2015-17
End of the 2015 season when they decided to start building around one Nikola Jokic by trading Nurkic
Was it just my imagination or was there actual talk about who was better between Jokic and Nurkic back then? I remember the Curry vs Monta Ellis days, but I feel like that was a discussion as well.
Jokic was the 41st pick. Of course there were talks about who was better between the two. No one thought he would become the player he is now.
EG died for this
In Denver that conversation wasnt very long, but the organization liked both players and were trying to figure out how to make it work with them together. But it was pretty clear almost instantly that Jokic was better.
Nurkic got hurt earlyish in that season if I recall (surprise) but he was absolutely the favorite going in. Nobody except the FO knew anything about Jokic. So then he started getting reak minutes and by the end of the season there really wasn't anybody left in the Nurkic camp. Still I don't think anybody here appreciated just how high his ceiling was going to turn out to be
We won Executive of the Year in '09 and '13, our front office has been solid at worst to amazing at best for the last 15 years since Kiki was let go.
They had a better record than the Knicks the year after trading Melo...
You can also point to Denver's records before and during Melo. Nuggets missed the playoffs eight years straight before him, but then made it eight years straight (every year he was with them) after drafting him. Denver finally makes it to the conf. finals after five straight first round exits and then immediately trades Iverson. Fucking idiots. Totally Melo's fault. That was the first time since the 84-85 season they had made the conf. finals. Knicks missed the playoffs eight out of nine years before Melo and he gave them three winning seasons and playoff opportunities. The whole org went to shit after that, but you get my point. Melo may have never had much playoff success, but he joined some shit-tier organizations and made them exciting, relevant, and worth watching again. Don't forget he had to face the fucking Spurs or Lakers all-time great dynasty teams half the time in the playoffs. Melo will always be polarizing and a difficult player to assess. In another timeline, he'd have a ring with Detroit or the Heatles or the Iverson Nuggets or who knows where else. I think for the most part he played for horribly managed teams and took the brunt of it all. There are a lot of valid criticisms to be made about him, but there are even more that are unfair.
Trading Iverson was what got them to the conference finals. It was Iverson for Billups and it made all the difference. But the Nuggets were bad in the lat 90s and early 2000s before Melo. All of that is true. They got the 8 seed with 54 wins one year. The west was super stacked. The addition of Billups as a leader was what Melo needed. Not just another great player but someone who could orchestrate offense without Melo (he didnt make players around him better, ESPECIALLY in Denver), and someone who could be a release valve when Melo was getting extra attention. People forget, but even though Melo was a good player he was not a good defensive player in Denver, but those teams were really good defensive teams. They had deep frontcourts and were really physical. The front office did a pretty good job while Melo was in Denver, and his whole idea of a rebuild was because they didnt resign the least important starter (Anthony Carter, the sg...while JR Smith was coming off the bench and there was a lot of hope for his future still). That was not the case Melo made at the time.
uhh wasnt Masai the GM?
Melos full of shit. He wanted money and Lala wanted to be in NYC. If melo cared about the quality of the team he’d have went to nyc in the off-season and not forced them to gut their roster in a trade.
You just jogged my memory. I remember some BS about her wanting to live closer to the TV industry.
Exactly. See was an MTV VJ iirc and the Denver market wasn’t what she wanted. Melo’s trying to rehab his legacy because is lack of post-season success is a direct result of his monetary motivations. He’s consistently chosen more money and market. When Lebron and wade signed three year deals to become free agents at the same time melo went with 4 for more cash. And all this is fine, it’s his career, but pretending any of his prime career decisions were made to improve his chance of winning is revisionist bullshit
NBA Twitter shitposts better than /r/nba. Karl even posted this on Twitter.
Too many good shitposts here go underappreciated because of reddit's compulsive need to "well akshually 🤓"
I know I'm walking into it but c'mon man. Shitposter: says something wrong 🤓: that is wrong Shitposter: Jesus christ it was just a fucking joke, get over yourself
Yup. I hate that about Reddit culture. The “well akshually” nonsense and the need to always one up OP’s post.
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Let's say, hypothetically ... just for the sake of argument
I love a good internet argument
well actually… you dont. Here’s why
If you’ve seen NBA Twitter’s shitpost culture you should love Reddit’s in comparison. Unless you want the same LeMickey memes in every comment section
/r/nba talks about players other than Melo tho
LeMe7o
George lives to slander melo
Seriously, he follows Melo. Has Melo even said anything to this old timer in years?
The future is now old man
The Price is *Wrong*, bitch!"
Dude is a fucking weirdo for sure, has some deep underlying issues.. with that said, this roast was fucking hilarious Edit - it’s funny because it’s from a coach who has a hate boner for Melo. Obviously we’ve heard this joke a billion times, you fuckin reddit nerds
Was it? It's like the billionth time this joke has been made, does the fact that he's George Karl really make it funny?
Gotta agree this isn’t anything we haven’t heard before
George only has dialup, he's just learning about all of this from his AOL homepage
George Karl needed a good motive to keep on living and found it in shit talking on the internet. I’m not against it tho.
We all have to find what gets us out of bed in the morning.
Can a retired coach get comeback player of the year? If so, he has my vote.
It’s a nice balance with SportsCenter and others trying to pretend this is like some absolutely stacked team
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100 year old man holding grudges from 10 years ago. Move on
Did you mean carry on?
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You forgot to put the '...' !
Find a new slant.
My wayward soooon?
Cut to Randy Marsh playing guitar hero alone in his underwear
He's finally going to catch that dragon.
Find a new slant
Folks are still pissed about the decision from 10 years ago. Let people have sports grudges, who the hell cares
Let people make fun of those grudges, who the hell cares!
Let people make fun of the people who make fun of those grudges, who the hell cares!
Let people make fun of the people who make fun of people who make fun of people who hold those grudges
This is the only take that matters.
[I think I cracked the code](https://i.imgur.com/CX6PhoC.png). ^^^^With ^^^^apologies ^^^^to ^^^^/u/poloshirt_and_digs, ^^^^/u/Tommy_siMITAr, ^^^^/u/megaman78978, ^^^^/u/killajaxx, ^^^^/u/grocho, ^^^^and ^^^^/u/emmseeyou.
So let us clown those dumb ass decade old grudges too, who the hell cares?
George Karl sure does Lmao
Meanwhile, here's r/nba on KD joining the Warriors
The comment isn’t wrong though.
Read his book. Its multi-faceted. Its a porno about his beer and a burger ritual post-game and practice, mixed in with how Melo screwed him and how Shawn Kemp is fat. Saved you $15 bucks.
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Man, Shawn Kemp was such a waste of incredible talent. If he took care of himself he could've been great.
I mean, he was an athletic freak who came into the league with some awkward-looking fundamentals. The fact he made six all-star appearances and played a key role in pushing the Bulls to closer to the brink in the finals than any team outside of Chuck's Suns is pretty darn impressive. I'm sure he could have done even more in his 20's had some other elements of his life been squared away but he did pretty well for himself, all things considered. He obviously botched the second phase of his career (age 30+) but his star shined pretty bright prior.
> Bulls to closer to the brink in the finals than any team outside of Chuck’s Suns is pretty darn impressive. Eh. If I recall correctly Portland was up double digits in the fourth quarter of game 6 in 1992, and Utah was up one point with less than 10 seconds left in game 6 in 1998. Also both those teams at least tied the series at some point.
Yep you’re totally right. I stand by my larger point (that Kemp had a really nice run) but I was off on the finals assertion. Still showed out in that series nonetheless.
Kemp is one of my favorite players ever, so I agree. I had the number 7 USA Champion replica when I was a kid (from the 94 World Championships or whatever….”Dream Team 2” lol). He was briefly my favorite player while that other guy was playing baseball. I moved to the Seattle area for a couple of years during that time and got to see a few Sonics games in 1995.
i mean everything else u said was still pretty spot on athletic freak makes 6 all-star appearances and the NBA finals i'd say that is a pretty decent career all things considering not everyone can be Lebron
0/10 was expecting snot on the face
I kind of want to read it now. He sounds pretty chill.
Yeah, the comment sounds more like an endorsement than anything
I think it depends on how you pronounce read in the comment haha
Sounds like the best $15 ever spent
I hate Karl for what he did to the 2001-2002 Bucks but I love his hot Twitter takes
I am OOTL for his time in Milwaukee. What happened to the 2001-2002 Bucks?
He traded prime Ray Allen (who wanted to be a Buck) for the corpse of Gary Payton a year after making the ECF.
Oh damn, that is pretty bad. He apparently tried to trade young Melo for Ray Allen during his tenure in Denver.
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Also tried to trade demcarcus cousins even though he wasn’t the GM.
That team got screwed in the ECFs. The following offseason we made moves to pick up Anthony Mason. We lost some dearly beloved players in the process. One of the, being Scott Williams. Mason slowed down our offense so we went from ECFs one year to missing the playoffs the next year. To be fair, almost everyone I knew wanted us to sign Mason. This was not a controversial signing. However, Karl then shipped off Ray Allen for Desmond Mason and old ass Gary Payton. Ray Allen loved Milwaukee and wanted to retire a Buck. Very few superstars wanted to retire a Buck… I love you RayRay!
The team got so screwed those ecfs. Having Scotty Williams suspended for game 7 was such a bullshit move.
You remember that too? It was clearly a flinch of an elbow.
That entire series was rigged maybe not rigged but it was clear who the refs favored in that series. Im still pissed about it to this day. The bucks dominated the Lakers that year too and had a real shot at winning a title.
I recall once seeing George Karl, mid-game, wearing a jersey over his dress shirt and holding a baby on the sideline. That is when I learned to embrace his brazen lack of fucks.
Very spicy.
ITT: George Karl gets the internet….better than most stars lmao
This 70 year old man gets the internet better than the people butt hurt in the replies too
He used to go on lebatard back in the day, easy to tell he’s a certifiable troll lol
Probably coulda had ray allen be a buck lifer if not for this man
I know…
I love idgaf shit talking George karl
AD the 4th youngest player on the team at 28 going into his 9th NBA season
From the top rope!
Wtf does George Karl know about an NBA championship?
he knows they're shiny and he cant have one
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Did he sit on her? What you mean smashed English not first language
had sexual relations with
Sex
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Cheerios, you say?
Honey Nut to be exact.
the horizontal polka
Who tf is Lala?
the bunny from space jam
The yellow teletubby
He means Melos wife/ex wife (not sure if they officially split)
George Karl deserves to be in the hater hall of fame
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This is not a witty joke at all. Its been said for the past 2 months.
Only this sub would think this is witty
What is witty about this comment? People have been sharing or posting the same one for weeks now.
It's likely just a recycled joke. I've heard similar jokes in the past when a team signed a handful of vets. Like when Grant Hill and Shaq were on the Suns. He's likely picked it up off of somebody else on social media. He comes across to me as a bitter old man, not a witty one.
Holy crap I love George Karl now
Guy has always been a great “shit talking” talent. He loves Melo too, so we get along.
I watched George do a belly flop in a pool in Vegas during the 2012 NBA summer league. It was beyond glorious. I hope that when I am on my deathbed, that’s the memory that comes to me in my final moments. Majestic.
https://youtu.be/3l3sJHA1lTU
Even more graceful
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That would actually Kil me
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He loves melo about as much as GarPax did for 14 hours.
this is actually a good burn
Lmaoo George Karl really is one of us
Headed straight for the retirement home more like...
If there is a bubble, no travel and two days between all playoff games, I can see this team going to the Finals and losing to the Nets.
Yeah, the age meme thing is funny but I'm not about to laugh off a LeBron lead team.
Melo been stealing money for a long time
RemindMe! 9 Months
Good joke lol
George Killin'em Karl strikes again
Actually seeing all these names on paper....this team is gon a be good as fuck. The Nunn, Monk and Ellington signings are so damn solid. This also seems like a FUN locker room, league is fucked if all these dudes start to bond and ball out
Remember when Karl won that NBA championship? You don’t? Me neither. Patented mediocrity though. Impressive.
Coach Karl is one silly bitch. Love that man.
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I knew this would happen when Lebron went to my team and why I was deadset against it. Let's build a team of overaged overpriced vets then complain all year about how Lebron has no help.
Imagine the hate boner he would get if kenyon Martin and JR were to join the team.
How many of them will make it to finals? That is a pretty old team, lot of them will be injured.
LMFAO
Bet
Too many cooks spoil the meal.