2015-2016 NBA Season Thread [ARCHIVED] Basketball • Page 30

Slander, by definition, cannot be accurate.

#englishteacher

 

Boom. Roasted.

 

Why you gotta pile on like this Chris? Why?!

 

Mavs can't hit shit right now.

 

Hope you dig it! The research that went in to it and the interviews he got are excellent.

 

Goooood. Want that lottery pick.

 

Stop

 

I'd rather the Rockets miss, keep the pick and move on from Bickerstaff, Dwight, Brewer, TJones, Terry, Smith

 

AYYYYY @Jason Tate

 

Love it. No one expected that this year.

 

the fact that we might end up a 5th seed is even more crazy.

 

I even doubted them lol We lost almost the entire starting five and I didn't expect CJ to emerge into what he has become. I'm excited for the future with this team.

 

I'm mostly excited I have fellow Blazer fans here.

 

@Jason Tate same. I always feel so alone.

 

I know! Solidarity!

 

The Vertical Podcast with JJ Redick: Adam Morrison joins The Vertical Podcast
Adam Morrison joins The Vertical Podcast — The Vertical Podcast with JJ Redick — Overcast

 

Great episode. Only critique is that I wish it was longer.

 

I guess there will be no sabonis reunion since they have no pick, lame :(

 

Not a blazers fan, but congrats to them. I always gotta give it up for my fellow small market teams that find success, especially after everything they went through the last year

 

It's definitely cool to see "small markets" find success in sports, but this actually brings up an interesting topic: the diminishing importance on playing in a big market in a capped league.

Generally speaking, big markets have always done much better than the small markets, until recently. The NBA is branded so well and integrated with technology in a way that it no longer matters financially about being in a larger market. Is Russell Westbrook leaving any marketing money on the table playing in OKC? Kevin Love and Lillard are expanding their brands in small markets. The list goes on. If you're marketable, it doesn't matter. Yes, Kyrie and Love have places in Cleveland, but they really don't spend much time here beyond playing home games. They live elsewhere in the off-season and are on the road a ton during the season.

The most dominant team in the league right now is a non-traditional power team in a city that is not typically lumped in with the "big markets". The way the NBA is structured and the way players approach the game today, simply being a big market is not enough. All things equal, things like the city are deciding factors, but it's no longer as important. Who's your ownership group? Who is in your front office? Are they willing to go beyond the cap if need be? What are your training staff and facilities like? Who is on your roster? Who is your coach? What are the ideas for rotations and usage? What is your cap situation/flexibility to build out the roster? Is the city a state income tax-free state? These questions now trump the city in which the team resides.

Sorry for the rant haha

 

Big market might not matter to personal brands, but it's still fairly useful in filling arenas. Haha

 

Well yes, my post was really focused on the idea of personal branding and how the team you play for goes along with it. What do you mean by useful? Did the Clippers sell out their games before the CP3 era? Maybe a few here and there. Did the Celtics sell out during the Pitino era? Did the Bulls sell out in the Jalen Rose-Jay Will era? Having a good team still trumps the city you play in. No one wants to attend games for bad teams. That to me feels more important than the city even, if we are going to go down that road.

 

I feel like Portland fans have always been pretty loyal. We've mostly always been decent to good but never great and we still sell out the Rose Garden (fuck "Moda Center" imo). But having a player like Lillard is really helping that now, he has really loyal fans.

 

Yeah, Portalnd has generally been one of the better fanbases in terms of attendance. I still would think those "Jailblazer" teams got low attendance, but I have nothing on me to support it. Not being a Portlander/Portlandian, but I would imagine the lack of major sports helps with that support. I guess now you have an MLS team, but the Blazers don't really have any competing interests in town for sports.