}~~~> Official 2024/2025 NBA Thread<~~~{ OKC Thunder NBA champs}

Bro, its in the agreement of the sale; she is to remain governor of the team; that means she is in charge of the team; that was part of the sale terms; Mark doesnt run the Dodgers either; I dont think he doesnt want to run any of the teams; he moves like he wants good people that know what they are doing, running the teams; he just wants to package the teams together and make a killing....
This is what I watched about the Celtics sale. 17:32-19:22

Jeanie is still the governor but Walter's is now the majority owner. He has final say. Cuban sold the Mavs in Dec '23. No longer ran basketball operations June '24.

“Actually I fully expected to run basketball,” Cuban replied. “The NBA wouldn’t let me put it in the contract. They took it out,” Cuban wrote about his sale to the Adelson family. “I thought they would stick to their word because they didn’t know the first thing about running a team. Someone obviously changed their mind.”
 

@REDLINE

Where do LeBron and the Lakers stand?​

After making Jake LaRavia their top priority in free agency -- there was actually a small bidding war for the young backup forward among several teams, sources told ESPN -- the Lakers were holding about $8 million with the remains of their midlevel exception and watching center options such as Brook Lopez and Clint Capela come off the board.

Teams who had centers available were keeping their price for the Lakers high when they called, sources said, after they had established what they were willing to pay for Mark Williams (in February's rescinded trade). In case you forgot, that price was:

  • a young player (2024 first-rounder Dalton Knecht)
  • L.A.'s unprotected first-round pick in 2031
  • L.A.'s unprotected pick swap in 2030
That was a sign of the desperation the Lakers felt to get a center to pair with Luka Doncic. And, five months later, the Lakers still found themselves without one. That was the case until the Lakers agreed to sign Deandre Ayton on Wednesday, once he cleared waivers following his mildly surprising buyout from the Portland Trail Blazers.

Ayton is far from a perfect option. There's a reason he was waived on a max deal by Portland. But at the same time, the 2018 No. 1 pick is a talent and arguably the second-best center to hit the open market this summer besides Myles Turner. But sources said Ayton could be a positive option for the Lakers, and at minimum, a significant upgrade on last year's incumbent, Jaxson Hayes, whom the Lakers agreed to bring back as Ayton's backup Thursday evening.​


All of that, though, will sit in the background as we wait for the next signal as to how James is feeling about things -- something we haven't learned anything more about publicly since Paul's cryptic statement to ESPN's Charania.

The entire situation, on its face, is a confounding game of dueling passive-aggressive moves. James could've been a free agent had he opted out of the final year of his contract, which, as one executive said, would have been the way to truly make this a wild situation.

James instead opted to collect his money, and perhaps just as importantly, maintain his no-trade clause. Doing so would seem to have indicated he expected to play his eighth season in a Lakers uniform.

Paul's statement, however, left things up to interpretation. And since then, we haven't heard anything publicly -- not from James, not from Paul and not from anyone with the Lakers, be it general manager Rob Pelinka, coach JJ Redick, governor Jeanie Buss or Mark Walter, who just happened to pay several billion dollars for the right to take over for Buss as team owner.

Not even a statement from the Lakers formally announcing the option pickup, which, considering James is one of the greatest players of all time, sent its own nonverbal message.

So where do things go from here?

It's one of the biggest topics of conversation around the league. The concept of a trade is not impossible -- nothing is impossible in the NBA after the Doncic trade -- but it is unlikely due to James' large salary and his no-trade clause.

There were a few inquiries from eyebrow-raised teams, sources said, just to gauge whether this was something or nothing. For now, there is no action. But it is surely being monitored.
 

@REDLINE

Where do LeBron and the Lakers stand?​

After making Jake LaRavia their top priority in free agency -- there was actually a small bidding war for the young backup forward among several teams, sources told ESPN -- the Lakers were holding about $8 million with the remains of their midlevel exception and watching center options such as Brook Lopez and Clint Capela come off the board.

Teams who had centers available were keeping their price for the Lakers high when they called, sources said, after they had established what they were willing to pay for Mark Williams (in February's rescinded trade). In case you forgot, that price was:

  • a young player (2024 first-rounder Dalton Knecht)
  • L.A.'s unprotected first-round pick in 2031
  • L.A.'s unprotected pick swap in 2030
That was a sign of the desperation the Lakers felt to get a center to pair with Luka Doncic. And, five months later, the Lakers still found themselves without one. That was the case until the Lakers agreed to sign Deandre Ayton on Wednesday, once he cleared waivers following his mildly surprising buyout from the Portland Trail Blazers.

Ayton is far from a perfect option. There's a reason he was waived on a max deal by Portland. But at the same time, the 2018 No. 1 pick is a talent and arguably the second-best center to hit the open market this summer besides Myles Turner. But sources said Ayton could be a positive option for the Lakers, and at minimum, a significant upgrade on last year's incumbent, Jaxson Hayes, whom the Lakers agreed to bring back as Ayton's backup Thursday evening.​


All of that, though, will sit in the background as we wait for the next signal as to how James is feeling about things -- something we haven't learned anything more about publicly since Paul's cryptic statement to ESPN's Charania.

The entire situation, on its face, is a confounding game of dueling passive-aggressive moves. James could've been a free agent had he opted out of the final year of his contract, which, as one executive said, would have been the way to truly make this a wild situation.

James instead opted to collect his money, and perhaps just as importantly, maintain his no-trade clause. Doing so would seem to have indicated he expected to play his eighth season in a Lakers uniform.

Paul's statement, however, left things up to interpretation. And since then, we haven't heard anything publicly -- not from James, not from Paul and not from anyone with the Lakers, be it general manager Rob Pelinka, coach JJ Redick, governor Jeanie Buss or Mark Walter, who just happened to pay several billion dollars for the right to take over for Buss as team owner.

Not even a statement from the Lakers formally announcing the option pickup, which, considering James is one of the greatest players of all time, sent its own nonverbal message.

So where do things go from here?

It's one of the biggest topics of conversation around the league. The concept of a trade is not impossible -- nothing is impossible in the NBA after the Doncic trade -- but it is unlikely due to James' large salary and his no-trade clause.

There were a few inquiries from eyebrow-raised teams, sources said, just to gauge whether this was something or nothing. For now, there is no action. But it is surely being monitored.
Wherever they stand if he's gonna leave just leave, there's just always so much drama around him.

He ain't The King he's The Queen.

And yes I like Lebron, but he's overly dramatic and there's always some bs with him.
 
@REDLINE




But in the end, they couldn’t live with his bad ways. The tardiness to team flights and practices, according to a team source. The skipping of rehabilitation appointments. Fans saw him slam chairs when he was taken out of games. And a team source said there were tantrums in the locker room when he was sidelined for poor effort.


 
@REDLINE




But in the end, they couldn’t live with his bad ways. The tardiness to team flights and practices, according to a team source. The skipping of rehabilitation appointments. Fans saw him slam chairs when he was taken out of games. And a team source said there were tantrums in the locker room when he was sidelined for poor effort.



He's unprofessional, has no love for the game and is just tall.
 
He's unprofessional, has no love for the game and is just tall.

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good lawd man.
 

I been keeping up with them last season. I like Bub, Sarr and George....nice little core...then they added more. I think Tre gonna be legit.

This could be the Thunder out East if they can find they SGA. I think Sarr can be the Chet....I think someone on the roster will amount to be J Dub....who's gonna be the best player though? If its a star among them Wiz gonna be for real. I mean i'm glad my Mavs got Cooper Flag but thinking about that group with Flagg or Wemby last year.....they would've been the real deal. But I think they still are though. They got all them young niggas and then got 3 washed niggas lol...They got some vets though so I don't know....Middelton cooked but shit CJ still got it. Shit maybe i'm sleeping on Wiz for this year play in is definitely possible.
 

Yea this doesn’t apply to the lakers situation..
 
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