AROUND the NBA:

[RoyTarpleysGhost]

Our Oligarchs are learning from the Russians!

Hah. Don't even get me started.

[MFFLER est 01]

A pretty polarizing player.    As he got older, his flaws became more and more apparent.    Also seemed like an odd player to be paired with.   His last few years this played out where he was playing for low $$.    

Bigger than you think, and he was a world class athlete.    He always played hard too.  Feels weird calling him a point guard, but he finished his career #6 in assists, #14 in points and #67 in rebounds.  Per Google, him and Lebron are the only players with 25K points and 10K assists.    

Him or Iverson...who was the better player?

That's tough! Westbrook had the better overall career... Ima have to say Russ which pains me to say because I like Ai more

[DallasMaverick]

A pretty polarizing player.    As he got older, his flaws became more and more apparent.    Also seemed like an odd player to be paired with.   His last few years this played out where he was playing for low $$.    

Bigger than you think, and he was a world class athlete.    He always played hard too.  Feels weird calling him a point guard, but he finished his career #6 in assists, #14 in points and #67 in rebounds.  Per Google, him and Lebron are the only players with 25K points and 10K assists.    

Him or Iverson...who was the better player?

Both were high-usage, low-efficiency players on some good teams.

Statistically, I’d have to give it to Westbrook.

But his decision-making…

But Iverson’s defense…

Ugh.

Ok. Westbrook.

[KillerLeft]

Him or Iverson...who was the better player?

It depends on what you mean by "better" I suppose, because AI didn't have the longevity he should've. Not through decline, necessarily, but more by wearing out his welcome a little too young. 

...but, as accomplished as Westbrook is, I can't in good conscience put him over Iverson, who's an example of a player who actually changed the game. NBA officiating changed to slow him down, which has only happened for maybe 5-6 players ever, and if he were still playing today with the European ball-handling standards, with the gather step and all the rest, he'd be even better.

[RoyTarpleysGhost]

Yea I'd say Russ had the better career. But Iverson is a more iconic player.

I blame a lot of this triple double culture on Westbrook and Harden.

[cow]

Give me Iverson too, but I've always liked Westbrook, warts and all. He played his ass off and maximized his potential.

[windjc]

Iverson was much better in the ways I think matter — he was a leader, he was clutch, he was a winner and a champion.

His stats came from winning not athleticism. He was a beautiful and iconic player to watch.

Westbrook was none of those things. Westbrook was a freak athlete that played in a way that converted to stats. He will retire with impressive stats and that’s about it.

[HoosierDaddyKid]

Iverson was much better in the ways I think matter — he was a leader, he was clutch, he was a winner and a champion.

His stats came from winning not athleticism. He was a beautiful and iconic player to watch.

Westbrook was none of those things. Westbrook was a freak athlete that played in a way that converted to stats. He will retire with impressive stats and that’s about it.

 I respected Westbrook's game. Besides being probably the most athletically gifted PG ever, he had his warts. He wasn't a great shooter and committed untimely turnovers. But he was always competitive, played balls to the wall, and load management wasn't in his vocabulary. He's a well-deserved first-ballot HOFer in my eyes. I also don't see the comp to Allen Iverson. Two totally different players. AI was more of a SG.

[FireNicoHarrison]

AI all day.

[HoosierDaddyKid]

They won 26 games last year with a depleated roster,no shooting,tanking,and with the most clutch games in the league. 

Only Lakers,Spurs,Jazz,Suns,and Portland actually got better. It's still unclear if the Wolves replacing Randle,and Naz for Melo is improvement. 

Oh the Mavs also got better. You guys overrate West teams and underrate your own. 

You're losing from the finals team

Luka

Derick Jones

Josh Green

Dwight Powell

Dante Exum

Tim Hardaway

Jaden Hardy

AJ Lawson

Replacing them with

Cooper Flagg

Naji Marshall

Zaccharie Risacher

Santi Aldama

Klay Thompson

Max Christie

Marcus Sasser

Sergio

Morez Johnson

Tarik Biebrovic

Mousa Cisse

Jett Howard

John Poulakidis

I like this team more. It's ok let's fly under the radar this season and shock people. No expectations no problem

Just as you say nobody knows what the T-Wolves will be with Ball, the same can be said for the Mavs, who have a rookie coach. All the teams you mentioned got better, but how much better is yet to be determined. What we do know is the Spurs and Thunder are still at the top of the food chain in the West. Either way, it should be interesting next year. I think the Jazz, Blazers, and Grizzlies are the teams to watch. Maybe the Mavs also. We just don't know yet.

[HoosierDaddyKid]

Brian Windhorst: "He owned 27%, and now they own Ramona about 77%; is that correct? Shelburne: That the Buss family owns 17 or 18… Windhorst: And Patrick Soon-Shiong owns about 7%. We don't know, unless you do, what percentage is selling. Shelburne: I believe they're buying all of Mark's shares. Windhorst: It's not; he didn't actually make two billion because he didn't pay 10 billion for the team. But I'm not going to get into all that; it has to do with valuations. There are potentially reasons why he would want to get liquidity for his businesses. Again, this is not a financial podcast. And there are also reasons why he would want to potentially be able to show the SEC that he made an investment that returned a big profit for his insurance business." ‘Chris Paul is a very good friend of Bob Iger's. He just recently retired, so he's available. I know he has some production company deals that he's done. I think he's got the world as his oyster; he can do whatever he wants, but if I'm Bob Iger, I think one of my first calls is to Chris Paul and asking how he would like to be involved, if he would like to be involved, etc. But I certainly think that's a name to watch as we go forward here.’ Ramona Shelburne: "Bob Iger is a huge NBA fan. He used to have Clipper season tickets. I got to know him because he would sit center court at the Clippers games. He got to be really good friends with Chris Paul. I don't think he is still a season ticket holder for the Clippers. I didn't see him at any games last year in Intuit Dome. He is really the trump card here, guys. He is an extremely popular man in NBA circles. Remember the bubble that saved the 2020 season? That was a lot of Bob Iger and Chris Paul and Adam Silver getting on the phone and just making that happen."

YouTube

[HoosierDaddyKid]

As The Athletic first reported last summer, Buss’s agreement with the Walter group stipulated that she would remain the team’s governor for at least five years. What’s more, it’s worth remembering that the NBA strongly dislikes governorships changing hands on any frequent basis. Per league sources, that’s why the five-year term approach (at minimum) was prioritized in the previous deal and driven by the league’s preferences. So, what’s next for the Lakers? Here’s what we know: Jeanie Buss will apparently remain governor for at least another four years, as was agreed upon when she sold the team to Walter. But while Iger told The Post he has “every intention to honor the agreement,” there was a caveat. “If things change, they’ll change,” Iger told The Post. “But we’re going into this with enormous respect and appreciation for who she is and what she represents in the organization.” Iger has already reached out to Buss and Lakers coach JJ Redick, whom he has known since Redick’s playing days with the LA Clippers. From what we’re told, the sale is for Walter’s shares in the Lakers. It doesn’t affect Walter’s ownership of the Los Angeles Sparks or his ownership of the back-to-back World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers. Iger and Kushner immediately jumped at the opportunity, coming to an agreement to buy the Lakers within three business days.

New York Times

[HoosierDaddyKid]

Mike Vorkunov: NBA teams have skyrocketed in value over the last 25 years. In 2002, the Boston Celtics were sold for a record $360 million. In 2025, the Boston Celtics were sold for a record $6.1 billion. The Lakers were just sold for a record $12.5 billion. Watch the numbers go up

bsky.app

[HoosierDaddyKid]

The Sacramento Kings and Washington Wizards had both presented offers to Westbrook; per @ShamsCharania, Russ decided to retire instead

x.com

[HoosierDaddyKid]

A stacked East Group B, which consists of the Knicks, Sixers, Cavaliers, Heat, and Pacers, will be the most heavily featured Eastern Conference group in nationally televised broadcasts — five of the 15 NBA Cup games on the national broadcast schedule will be matchups from that group, including three apiece for New York and Philadelphia. The NBA will also nationally televise five matchups from West Group C, which features the Lakers, Warriors, Spurs, Trail Blazers, and Kings. Los Angeles and San Antonio will each get three national broadcasts during group play. After previously announcing the dates and groups for its third annual in-season tournament, the NBA today revealed the schedule for the group play portion of the event. The group play stage of the tournament, which is formally known as the Emirates NBA Cup, will begin on October 30 and run through November 27. The group play games will take place on five consecutive Fridays, with a handful of games also played on Tuesday, Nov. 24 and Wednesday, Nov. 25. The NBA has published its schedule by date, as well as its schedule by team. Each Friday will feature a doubleheader on Amazon Prime Video, while NBC/Peacock will nationally broadcast a doubleheader on Nov. 24 and ESPN will air a tripleheader on Nov. 25. The full schedule of nationally televised NBA Cup games, starting with Knicks at Sixers and Lakers at Warriors on Oct. 30, can be found right here.



Hoops Rumors

[HoosierDaddyKid]

Brian Windhorst: ‘Josh Kushner is a minority owner of the Miami Heat and previously was a minority owner of the Memphis Grizzlies and therefore has been approved to have that by the NBA. He has been vetted on some level by the NBA and approved by the NBA to own pieces of two different teams. In fact, he will have to sell his share of the Miami Heat, which, by the way, the Heat don't sell shares very often. That's a very closely held team. That's neither here nor there. He'll have to sell the shares of the Miami Heat before he can buy the Lakers. That potentially could take some time, as a side note.’

[Chicagojk]

The Lakers sale is really weird.   There are a lot of unanswered questions.    The federal probe.   I read last week I ,I believe, that Walter supposedly had a stroke a year or two ago and there were reports he may not be back to normal.    Maybe that played some into it?    If you look past the probe, maybe he is a different stage in life now and decided to take 2.5 billion more instead of putting time and energy into a second franchise.    

Supposedly they were made a whole bunch of changes lately to align themselves similarly to the Dodgers.  New owners means new changes typically.   Do these people stay or do the new owners bring in their guys?  There was a report that the new owners would honor the commitment that was made to Jeannie Buss, but it was very toothless.    I can't imagine the new owners twice removed are going to let someone else lead the organization.   Maybe she is just there in title or at best case has a seat at the table.

[SleepingHero]

It depends on what you mean by "better" I suppose, because AI didn't have the longevity he should've. Not through decline, necessarily, but more by wearing out his welcome a little too young. 

...but, as accomplished as Westbrook is, I can't in good conscience put him over Iverson, who's an example of a player who actually changed the game. NBA officiating changed to slow him down, which has only happened for maybe 5-6 players ever, and if he were still playing today with the European ball-handling standards, with the gather step and all the rest, he'd be even better.

I think Iverson's ability to average 30+ in the early slow paced 2000s is a greater feat than averaging a triple double in 2020. Stats are so inflated now.

Like Iverson scored or assisted on 43% of the entire's teams points for an entire season, and went up to 49% of the entire teams offense in the playoffs en route to the finals.

Russ has similar counting stats, but Iverson did his damage through pure hooping skill. Gotta take Iverson here.

But it's closer than I would have expected going back and looking through it.

[dirkfansince1998]

Give me Iverson too, but I've always liked Westbrook, warts and all.  He played his ass off and maximized his potential.

I get that this has been the narrative ever since Westbrook entered the league but I never really saw it. For a player that supposingly played hard and outworked others his defense was really bad. Especially off the ball. Gambling for rebounds instead of closing out on shooters. Unable or unwilling to chase shooters around screens.
If we are just talking about effort on defense I have Westbrook in the Harden tier.
And I guess that's something he has in common with Iverson (and many other high usage ballhandlers). In his best years Iverson was surrounded by four hard working plus defenders. Snow, McKie and Lynch on the perimeter with Mutombo and/or Ratliff in the paint. Switch hunting wasn't a thing and that allowed Iverson to gamble in passing lanes.

[cow]

I get that this has been the narrative ever since Westbrook entered the league but I never really saw it. For a player that supposingly played hard and outworked others his defense was really bad. Especially off the ball. Gambling for rebounds instead of closing out on shooters. Unable or unwilling to chase shooters around screens.
If we are just talking about effort on defense I have Westbrook in the Harden tier.
And I guess that's something he has in common with Iverson (and many other high usage ballhandlers). In his best years Iverson was surrounded by four hard working plus defenders. Snow, McKie and Lynch on the perimeter with Mutombo and/or Ratliff in the paint. Switch hunting wasn't a thing and that allowed Iverson to gamble in passing lanes.

I'd counter that effort doesn't equate to prowess.  You can be bad at something and still give great effort.  I don't think anyone is blind to Westbrook's many flaws, but he left it all out there (good and bad).