NBA (2019-2020)

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Flack
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NBA (2019-2020)

Post by Flack »

This week, fans got their first view inside Chase Center -- the brand new (and privately funded) arena belonging to the Golden State Warriors, after retiring Oracle Arena. Chase Center is giant, and so are their ticket prices. In one ESPN story, a long-time fan lamented that a price for season tickets was $75,000, and that was after a $10,000 discount. The Hamptons Five, aka the Death Lineup of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, Andre Iguodala, and Kevin Durant built this place.

Except Durant went to the Nets, Iguodala went to Memphis, and Thompson is out for the season after knee surgery. That left two -- Curry and Green, and Green went out in the first half with a forearm injury. Then there was one, Curry, and one guy can't carry a team that everybody is gunning for.

Many of the people who paid $75,000 this year to watch the Warriors left the opening game early as the Clippers (one of the teams to watch this year) handed them their asses with a 20+ point whupping. Patrick Beverly (perennial league bad guy) had this to say to aena staffers: "Y'all ain't the same without KD, huh?" Sometimes, the truth hurts.
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Flack
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Re: NBA (2019-2020)

Post by Flack »

Friday evening, YOUR Oklahoma City Thunder took on the Washington Wizards in the Thunder's first home game of the season. As a Thunder fan who knows every detail about the team, it was wonderful to watch a group of 10 people I've never heard of along with Steven Adams and recently acquired Chris Paul (aka CP3) play in Thunder uniforms. At least the mascot (Rumble) looked familiar.

Unsurprisingly, season tickets for Thunder fans are not $75,000/year. Right now, you can get a seat at a Thunder game for around the price of two Chalupas.
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Re: NBA (2019-2020)

Post by Flack »

Opening game, Houston Rockets vs. Milwaukee Bucks. Over the summer, the Rockets recruited Russell Westbook and a few other pieces (Tyson Chandler) to play with James Harden. Years ago in OKC, the Harden/Westbrook combo never worked because neither one likes to pass the ball. I'm not sure why Houston thinks things will be any different there. The game against the Bucks was exciting as hell to watch. Down in the fourth, Westbrook took over (as he frequently does) and scored 16 in the fourth -- problem is, the rest of the team went 1-15, which is what happens to teams when he does that. There were some passes and give and gos between Westbrook and Harden, but that just made it two-on-five instead of one. The Rockets are going to go far this year, and they had a shit ton of assists, but they still didn't win, and they're going to have to figure that out. It was one of those games where it seemed like the Rockets should have been up by 10 all night and each time I checked the score they were down by six, which is how much they lost by.
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Re: NBA (2019-2020)

Post by Tdarcos »

Flack wrote: Sat Oct 26, 2019 6:05 am Unsurprisingly, season tickets for Thunder fans are not $75,000/year. Right now, you can get a seat at a Thunder game for around the price of two Chalupas.
I was seeing that and wondering "What the [expletive deleted] do you get for $75,000?" A seat in a luxury box? Unlimited free food and drink (including beer)? Visitor access to the locker room and permission to watch them shower? (Hey, I've heard gay guys have money. Maybe they aren't interested in the cheerleaders, if you know what I mean, wink wink nudge nudge.) or what?

Presuming there are some extra perks involved, this still ignores the time value of money which I'm sure you understand, Flack, so I won't explain. If the team plays 100 home games a year (which I think is a higher number than actual) that's $750 a game.

I mean, the Transit Authority here sells unlimited bus only, and unlimited bus and rail passes. Bus fare on non-express buses is $2. The 7-day unlimited bus pass is $13, so after 7 trips, or 3½ days, the rest are free. A 5-day commuter saves $7 over the cash price. The one month pass is $72, so after 36 rides, or 18 days of commuting. the rest are free.

Even they recognize the time value of money. Now let's see if you can do some "bus fare arbitrage" and spot the glaring error in pricing.
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Re: NBA (2019-2020)

Post by Casual Observer »

Wow, everything here in the bay area is priced ridiculously but that's outrageous for stupid basketball. My rent will cost about 70k this year, a couple McDonald's breakfasts cost $16 these days, cages is about $4/gallon here, movies are $25/person and the average restaurant entree is almost $30 so who the hell has $75k/seat for season tickets to a game? Rich San Francisco fucks, that's who. CA is a state that only works for people making well over $200k/year, anyone else is broke and miserable.

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Re: NBA (2019-2020)

Post by Ice Cream Jonsey »

Casual Observer wrote: Sat Oct 26, 2019 7:49 am My rent will cost about 70k this year,
Jesus! When put that way it is truly, incredibly high. I don't want to make this the "cost of living" thread, so I'll separate this out if need be.

Our previous place is in downtown Denver, a few blocks from Coors Field. We sold it to a guy that desperately wanted to be a landlord, to the point where he had fart face about the color of the water heater. I think I saw something about how he was trying to get $2500 a month for a 1900 square foot place, and the bottom 600 feet was where I had the arcade. I heard that four people are renting it out, which means four cars, which means everyone is angry because there isn't enough space. And that is just an insane way to live. It is genuinely a shock to me that there are places where rent is over twice that.

I'm sure capitalism in general will try to screw this up by using remote workers.
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Re: NBA (2019-2020)

Post by Flack »

Here's one of the articles I found regarding Warriors season ticket prices:
https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/ar ... 557678.php

The mortgage at our last house was $3k/month so about half of CO's, and that was for 4,200 sqft sitting on a little over an acre with a pond. I get that comparing life in SF to Oklahoma is about as apples-to-oranges as you can get, but... Jesus. (There's always that thing people in California say how they would never live in Oklahoma, which is funny, because it's so mutual.)

But yeah, the guy in that article talks about the additional commuting and parking costs to games and says something about $45 for parking. You can get (admittedly, nosebleed) tickets for Thunder games for $10 a seat. The last time I took my kid to a game, we spent $20 on tickets and $20 on dinner. And parking on the street was free (parking meters don't collect after 6pm downtown).

Then again when people say "fresh fish" here it usually means "catfish" so there's that.
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Re: NBA (2019-2020)

Post by pinback »

"When people say 'fresh fish' here it usually means we just got a new busload of inmates. Signed, Andy Dufresne." /crumples up paper
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Re: NBA (2019-2020)

Post by Tdarcos »

About 30 years ago, I had a job reading newspapers for a clipping service. In the newspaper for Butte, Montana, the editor talks about looking to hire an additional reporter to cover news. One guy flew in from Los Angeles to interview for the job. The job pays about $45,000 a year. The guy is currently making $100,000 a year. So, the editor asks how can the guy afford such a pay cut. He explained the cost of living in Montana is less, so is the stress level, and, when he sells his house, in a not-very-nice part of LA he'd get about $250,000 for a house he originally bought for $16,000. He could by a bigger house in Butte than he has in LA for about $45,000, leaving him and his wife with about $100,000 after taxes. The editor was thinking there are some people in town running shops who would sell you their home and business for $200,000.
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Re: NBA (2019-2020)

Post by Flack »

Thank you for sharing your 30-year-old anecdote about differences in costs of living in this thread about the 2019-2020 NBA season.
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Re: NBA (2019-2020)

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"Butte"

hee hee
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Re: NBA (2019-2020)

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Today, YOUR Oklahoma City Thunder had their first meeting with the aforementioned Golden State Warriors. Under normal circumstances, the Warriors would be a 2:1 favorite against the Thunder, and the Thunder this year are 0-2 which would tip the odds even further, but this year's Warriors are not last year's Warriors -- and to prove the point, late in the third, OKC was up by 42 (!). UP BY 42. Halfway through the fourth all the starters came out and the game coasted to a merciful ending with the Thunder winning by 27 -- which, trust me, says a lot more about the Golden State Warriors than the Thunder.
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Re: NBA (2019-2020)

Post by Ice Cream Jonsey »

I feel like a lot of teams that got waxed by the ole superteam there are going to settle some scores this year.
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Re: NBA (2019-2020)

Post by Flack »

After the game one loss, Warriors coach Steve Kerr essentially said "this is the new normal," and stressed that the team's record over the past five years was the best five-year record of any professional team, ever. You just can't do that forever, and especially not after losing 60% of your starting lineup. Another fact that's being thrown around is that 9 of the Warriors' players are 23 and under. It's a new team and you're right, many games this season are going to look like that diner fight in Superman II when ol' Clark Kent showed up without any super powers. Terence "Turd" Ferguson scored 24 on the Warriors today. 24!
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Re: NBA (2019-2020)

Post by Flack »

The biggest train wreck story in the NBA so far is the Lakers. The Lakers, who didn't even make the playoffs last year, made a lot of moves during the off season to get King James some help. They traded for Rajon Rondo, who hasn't played this year so far due to a calf injury. They also traded for Demarcus Cousins, who tore his ACL during the off season and isn't expected to play this year. Even though the Lakers managed to beat the Pelicans, the biggest Lakers story of the day was LeBron's weird hair extensions coming out during the game and trying to fix it while on the court.

https://nba.nbcsports.com/2019/10/27/le ... out-video/

In other Laker news, there are rumors that the team is interested in acquiring former Warrior/current Grizzly Andre Iguodala, and currently unemployed JR Smith. It says something that the Lakers are talking about recruiting players after playing three games.
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Re: NBA (2019-2020)

Post by bryanb »

I think it's going to be an interesting season. There are no foregone conclusions this year. The era of the superteam seems to be ending, and superstars will inevitably be humbled in the process.

I think Russell Westbrook is less selfish than he used to be, but I'm also not sure the combination with Harden is really going to work. Both guys want the ball all the time, regardless of how well they're playing at the moment. I'm not sure you'll end up getting the best out of either player if you force them to share, though. At times during the Rockets-Bucks game I honestly thought the Rockets played best when Westbrook was playing alone with Harden on the bench due to foul trouble. That said, if Harden had shot better (2-13!) the Rockets would have won that game.

I'm hoping the Pelicans get their first win soon as I'm actually thinking of supporting them this season. They're a fun team to watch with a high octane style and a team with depth and a surplus of hard workers but no superstars (regardless of Lonzo Ball's opinion of himself). It'll be interesting to see what kind of NBA player Zion Williamson becomes and Nicolo Melli is a fantastic shooter fresh out of EuroLeague.

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Re: NBA (2019-2020)

Post by Ice Cream Jonsey »

Flack wrote: Sun Oct 27, 2019 8:49 pm The biggest train wreck story in the NBA so far is the Lakers. The Lakers, who didn't even make the playoffs last year, made a lot of moves during the off season to get King James some help. They traded for Rajon Rondo, who hasn't played this year so far due to a calf injury. They also traded for Demarcus Cousins, who tore his ACL during the off season and isn't expected to play this year. Even though the Lakers managed to beat the Pelicans, the biggest Lakers story of the day was LeBron's weird hair extensions coming out during the game and trying to fix it while on the court.

https://nba.nbcsports.com/2019/10/27/le ... out-video/
What the broadcast won't tell you is that right before his fake hair leaped off his head it shouted FREE HONG KONG.
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Re: NBA (2019-2020)

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The Rockets beat the Thunder last night by 4 points, which should terrify the Rockets (they should beat the Thunder by 20). Some of the new Thunder players looked pretty good, although I still don't know all their names yet so I made up new ones like mop-top and spot to call the action at home. It was nice at the end to see Westbrook making nice with all the Thunder players and coaching staff. Durant, who gets boo'ed out of the stadium every time he comes back, did not do the same last year.

The Warriors beat the Pelicans, which bumps their record to 1-2. Tonight if I have time I'll watch the Nuggets game, who are currently 3-0.
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Re: NBA (2019-2020)

Post by Flack »

Aaaaaaaaaaand Stephen Curry broke his wrist last night.
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Re: NBA (2019-2020)

Post by bryanb »

The Pelicans pulled off an important victory (their first this season) last night against the Nuggets. Both New Orleans and Denver could potentially be sponsored by Basketball Reference as they both have deep benches and extensive rotations. The Who Is That? Award for last night goes to Frank Jackson, an ex-Blue Devil who managed to score 21 points on 80% shooting coming off the bench for the Pelicans. In other notable Nawlins news, Jrue Holiday is back from injury and had an excellent game while Nicolo Melli got his first start and didn't do a whole lot with it. Melli looked more than a little tentative, taking only five shots and repeatedly passing up open shot opportunities. He gives some size to the Pelicans and is good at setting screens, but I'm not sure he'll keep his place on this freewheeling team if he doesn't shoot more. I expected Denver to excel on the inside with players like Nikola Jokic, Paul Millsap, and Mason Plumlee, but instead Brandon Ingram and Jahlil Okafor really had their way in the paint, scoring 25 and 26 points respectively. Ingram seems to have massively improved his game, especially his three point shooting but he's better pretty much across the board. A candidate for Most Improved Player? Probably only if the Pelicans can start winning more than 20% of their games. Both teams kind of failed defensively, but at least it wasn't embarrassing like that 159-158 game between the Rockets and the Wizards.

One bright spot for the Nuggets is that Michael Porter Jr. who missed all of last season due to injury played well. In just twenty minutes of play, he scored 15 points which made him the high scorer for Denver.

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