Liberty Links: NBA announces new league rules, season will start sooner

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NBA announces new rule changes - Twitter

The NBA Board of Governors has brought upon some new rules changes for the league:

These are certainly positives. The NBA has a pace problem at the end of games, where the final three minutes of action, especially come playoff time, can feel like an eternity between free throws and timeouts. It also eschews a situation the Sixers frequently found themselves in where Brett Brown would be calling timeouts with the team down 26 at the end of the fourth quarter because some end of the roster player blew a defensive assignment. The league is moving in the right direction here.

The season will also be starting almost two weeks sooner than usual:

I would assume (and hope) this leads to more rest for players and less back-to-backs, which Zach Lowe gives some credence to:

A Good Front Office Is the NBA’s Newest Market Inefficiency - The Ringer

This reminds me of how the Sixers use to employ a really smart, forward-thinking general manager who positioned the team for future success. Whatever happened to that guy?

This was not the free-agency period for front offices to enjoy a summer vacation. Fever dreams of now-or-never superteams that can beat the Warriors are coming to life; either you’re building or you’ve already lost. Sam Presti took a franchise locked into overpaying for mediocrity — dishing out $85 million the next for years for an underwhelming Victor Oladipo, for example — to one destined for more than a bottom-rung playoff seed. Presti shed Dipo’s contract, beat out the other vultures circling the George lease, and gained more defense in adding Patrick Patterson and re-signing Andre Roberson. Just one season after losing his last superstar teammate, Russell Westbrook will have another, if only for a year.

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is not a Piston - The Step Back

Kenatvious Caldwell-Pope signed a one-year deal with the Lakers worth $18 million, as he missed out on the max contract he was seeking from the Pistons. Caldwell-Pope, however remains more of an idea of an archetype as a player at this point rather than one who actually fills that role:

He did not deserve a max deal. However, the Pistons did not seem to have a ton of options without him. Neither losing him for nothing or keeping him for a lot seemed a good idea. Despite what he did, the team would not come out of free agent negotiations better off.

Then Avery Bradley happened. He happened so fast. Suddenly, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope didn’t matter as much. No longer was there a two with potential. There was now a two who had reached and exceeded his.

With this moment came perspective and a bit of sadness. Basketball makes me sad sometimes. What made Pope special was all the things he wasn’t yet. What if he finally found his shot? What if he kept improving as a defender? What if he could take on some secondary playmaking duties? These are a lot of questions for a $20+ million salary to answer.

Just throwing this out there too from last week:

Is R.J. Barrett the Greatest Canadian Basketball Prospect Ever? - The Ringer

I believe that's R.J. "Kings Pick" Barrett actually. Barrett is also the godson of Steve Nash.

R.J. Barrett shook up the basketball world last weekend. The 17-year-old prodigy led Canada to its first gold medal in basketball in the FIBA U19 World Championship, and he was named MVP of the tournament despite being two years younger than most of the other players in Cairo. Barrett’s shining moment came in the semifinals against the United States, when he had 38 points on 12-of-24 shooting, 13 rebounds, and five assists, giving Team USA its first defeat in international competition in six years. He won’t be eligible for the NBA draft until at least 2019, but he already looks like one of the best prospects in the world, regardless of age. Canada has produced some great young players over the past few years, and he has a chance to be the best of all of them.

Cedi Osman signs contract with the Cavaliers - Twitter

Cedi Osman, a former teammate of both Dario Saric and Furkan Korkmaz on Anadolu Efes in the Turkish Basketball League, was one of my favorite prospects in the 2015 draft. I stand by my take from the night of that draft:

Here's a video of Korkmaz and Osman dressed up as Star Wars characters in a Slam Dunk contest in Turkey as well. The Sixers really messed up not grabbing Osman in 2015 for an Efes reunion this year:

Cornered Market - Cleaning the Glass

Former Sixers VP of Basketball Strategy Ben Falk on the "Winner's Curse" that haunts teams in free agency:

That overvaluing might happen for a number of reasons. Some teams want the instant gratification: they are desperate to improve their team immediately and so they’ll pay a premium to secure a player they think will help. Some teams pay too much attention to what just happened, spending on a player who had a suddenly good season or playoff run. Some overpay to keep their own free agents, falling victim to the endowment effect and thinking more highly of something they already have. Some teams have cap space and feel committed to using it, so as players come off the board and their options for using that cap space dwindle they revise their estimates of how much those remaining players are worth.

Chris Paul: ‘It was time for a change’ - The Undefeated

I still don't think it's truly hit me that Chris Paul will now play for the Rockets. Also, what happens if Paul ends up on a team that has no. 3 retired or already has an established presence on the team wearing that number? Does he completely rebrand? I guess he'd never play for the Sixers under that requirement. Paul spoke with The Undefeated about his upcoming life changes:

How would you describe your time in Los Angeles?

Oh, my goodness. I’m going to miss so much. Other than North Carolina, this has become home for me and my family. For my kids, this is all they’ve really known. The community and the people. My neighborhoods. My friends. My kid’s friends that they went to school with. And Clippers fans have been not only amazing to me but unbelievable to my family. Me and my crew, when we come somewhere, it’s not just me.

This is all my kids have pretty much known. My son is 8, and we’ve been here for six years. We really have come to know a lot of different people who were friends and family now. A lot of people in the Clippers organization have become family to us.