NBA Season Thread 2013-2014

Nuri Sahin

Saw this in my feed a few hours ago. Good read on Kyrie and the Cavs from Ohio.com -

Jason Lloyd: Kyrie Irving’s accolades outnumber his successes

In two weeks, Kyrie Irving will walk onto a stage of glowing lights and billowing smoke when the NBA’s All-Star game blends into a rock concert. Fans will cheer him, the league’s superstars will embrace him and Irving will realize his childhood dream when he is introduced as a starter for the Eastern Conference.

Irving is a terrific young player. He’s a magician with the ball — or a pen — in his hands. His creation of the “Uncle Drew” character has clearly increased his popularity on top of being one of the best young guards in the NBA. But the looming question hanging over this game, this franchise, is simple: Who will Kyrie Irving be when he returns from New Orleans?

Something changed within Irving last season, and it coincided with his return from All-Star weekend. It was evident to anyone around the team, particularly former coach Byron Scott, who told me in the days before he was fired, “I haven’t changed, but he has.”

Irving spoke all summer about growing up, about becoming more of a leader and committing to defense under Mike Brown. It sounded good, it has even looked good at times, but the Cavs are still floundering in the East and Irving is still getting beat by too many mediocre point guards in the NBA.
At some point, winning has to matter more than All-Star games, 3-point shootouts and even USA Basketball. At some point, if Irving wants to be considered the best in the league, he has to win.

He has the opportunity to sign a max contract this summer, and the Cavs will certainly offer it. I wonder, however, has he actually earned it?

He spoke at the end of last season how important it was to take the leap in Year 3 like so many before him, guys like LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Chris Paul, who along with their teams exploded in their third season in the NBA.
Irving has not. He’s scoring less than last season and shooting worse. His assists are up marginally and his turnovers are down slightly, but this hasn’t been the significant leap he spoke of nine months ago.

Before he was added to the East team as a reserve last season, there was much debate over whether the Cavs’ losing record would hurt his chances. There has been no such debate if Irving is worthy this season despite the Cavs’ 16-27 record.

He is 80-193 with the Cavs, and certainly that isn’t all his fault. The Cavs didn’t give him much help the last couple of years. That was supposed to change this season, only it hasn’t. If he is truly the leader, then Irving has to own some of that.

Instead he doesn’t have to because 860,221 people voted for him. That’s about 56,000 more votes than Chris Paul received for this All-Star game, which is astonishing since Paul plays in Los Angeles and is widely (and rightfully) regarded as the NBA’s best point guard. That’s where Irving is trying to get, but he won’t as long as journeymen like D.J. Augustin and the like continue tormenting him. And starting in the All-Star game only re-enforces the misconception Irving is blameless in all of this.

Augustin is shooting 53 percent and averaging 22.2 points and 9 assists in five starts against Irving. He’s averaging 9.5 points, 4 assists and shooting 40 percent for his career. After he did it to Irving again last Wednesday with 27 points in the Chicago Bulls’ victory over the Cavs, I asked him why Augustin gives him so many problems.

“Problems?” Irving responded, as if disagreeing with the assessment. So I reminded him that Augustin had 27 Wednesday after scoring 18 in the previous meeting. Irving blamed the defense.

“Most of the time when he was coming off the pick-and-roll, he was wide open,” Irving said. “He was playing so free out there. We were trying to make adjustments and most of the time he was wide open.”

That doesn’t account for all the times Augustin simply beat Irving off the dribble, but he’s not alone.

Just within the last three weeks, here are the point guards that have really hurt the Cavs: Denver’s Ty Lawson had 19 points and 11 assists (averages 18 ppg, 8.9 apg), Portland’s Damian Lillard had 28 points and 5 assists (averages 21.2 ppg, 5.8 apg), the Lakers’ Kendall Marshall had 10 points and 16 assists (averages 10.1 ppg, 9.1 apg), Sacramento’s Isaiah Thomas had 26 points and 6 assists (averages 19.5 ppg, 6.3 apg), Utah rookie Trey Burke had 17 points and 6 assists (averages 13.5 ppg, 5.6 apg) and Philadelphia’s Michael Carter-Williams had 33 points and 5 assists (17.5 ppg, 6.7 apg).

Of that list, the only player who is supposed to be in Irving’s class is Lillard, yet all of them are reaching or exceeding their averages fairly easily against the Cavs. All-Stars don’t allow the D.J. Augustins of the NBA to beat them so soundly, nor do they allow their teams to lose by 44 to the Sacramento Kings.

Irving has to take ownership of all this. When he truly does, inferior guards will stop having big nights against him.

Part of the problem was Irving being anointed the Big Man on Campus immediately upon arriving. He hasn’t been held accountable much the last couple years. That has festered into what we’ve seen this year, which is too much dribbling, at times a lousy attitude and a 21-year-old who has shown his immaturity.

Two opposing general managers this season have told me they think Irving is pouting. Over what is anyone’s guess. Jarrett Jack hasn’t been the locker room enforcer he was supposed to be. Luol Deng should help, but he just arrived and may not be here past April.

That has left Mike Brown trying to keep everyone in his “circle” despite what has been a disappointing season.

“You can X and O to death and all that, but when times get tough, are we going to stick together and fight together? Or are we going to do what is easy to do?” Brown asked. “Everybody has people in their ear. When they leave this building, they’re saying: ‘It’s not your fault, it’s the coaches fault’ or ‘It’s the system’ or ‘It’s that player’ or ‘they don’t have good enough players.’ And that’s where the fractions can happen or the splitting can happen.”

If Irving truly wants to lead, if he truly wants to evolve into the best player in the game, as he said at the start of the season, then it’s his job to police the locker room. Instead, he’s talking about his “brand.”

When he was asked again last week about bypassing the chance to play for Australia in the Olympics a couple of years ago to preserve his chance to play for Team USA in 2016, Irving said “It was a big decision, not only for myself but for my family and my brand. That’s what it boiled down to.”
You know what will really help Irving’s brand?

Winning.

Dublin Red Devil

Kyrie is an All Star, like it or not. This is not the All NBA 1st team. It's All Star. The fans vote for who they want to see on All Star night.

Kyrie is a great player, with some of the best handles in the League. He will run the offence, provide scoring and assists(Throw up lobs to James/George etc) on the night.

That being said, we all know he's there because Rose and Rondo are not. Nobody said Kyrie was fundamentally the greatest PG in the league but he is the best available option in the East for the All Star game. 860,221 voters agree

Nuri Sahin

If no one quotes, the ignore function actually works.

Dare_2_defy wrote: »

6 games on tonight:

Suns@Sixers
Raptors@Nets
TWolves@Bulls
Clippers@Bucks
Hawks@Thunder
Kings@Jazz

Raps/Nets is the game of the night for me

No DeRozan tonight apparently which is disappointing, otherwise I'd tune in. Nets should continue to roll for sure now.

I'll probably just keep an eye on OKC game KD myself.

Dublin Red Devil

Allot of weight on the shoulders of T Ross to score and make up for the loss of DeRozan. Valenciunas will have to have a great night if Toronto are to have a shot in BK tonight

Nuri Sahin

Raptors - Nets going down to the wire.

Nuri Sahin

KG and D Will just imploded in the space of 60 seconds or so. Raptors win.

Nuri Sahin

KD. Game over.

41 points tonight.

scottmcb04

Was watching the Blazers warriors game last night, warriors defense can be very good despite what some ppl on here seem to think! They kept the highest scoring team in the NBA to 21 pts below there average!

The commentators mentioned an interesting stat also, the Warriors have the 4th best fg % defense in the league, so when it comes to playoff basketball, they are going to be really tough to beat!

ButtersSuki

scottmcb04 wrote: »

Was watching the Blazers warriors game last night, warriors defense can be very good despite what some ppl on here seem to think! They kept the highest scoring team in the NBA to 21 pts below there average!

The commentators mentioned an interesting stat also, the Warriors have the 4th best fg % defense in the league, so when it comes to playoff basketball, they are going to be really tough to beat!

My pick to win the West from before the season started!

ButtersSuki

Whenever you hear athletes use the phrase "my brand", you know their go us is on areas that don't add anything to their game. Disappointing.

Dublin Red Devil

Fair fuchs to Toronto. Beat Brooklyn away without their best player. Lowry and Valanciunas picked up the slack.

Whats interesting. Brooklyn have played 12 times ion 2014, 10 wins. 2 losses, Both against Toronto

kmart6

How interesting....

D2D

Clutch by the Raptors to take the W in Brooklyn.

KD has to get MVP this year, dude's unstoppable right now

Dublin Red Devil

kmart6 wrote: »

How interesting....

You Mad!

Nuri Sahin

scottmcb04 wrote: »

Was watching the Blazers warriors game last night, warriors defense can be very good despite what some ppl on here seem to think! They kept the highest scoring team in the NBA to 21 pts below there average!

The commentators mentioned an interesting stat also, the Warriors have the 4th best fg % defense in the league, so when it comes to playoff basketball, they are going to be really tough to beat!

That's all well and good in the regular season, but the ability to play lockdown defense is something they'll come up short in. That plus Coach Jackson's sermons can only do so much. It's hard to say what the Spurs will do this time around given what they've shown against the big name teams this seasons, but there's no doubt that the likes of Warriors and Blazers need to target the western conference finals.

I still think a fully fit OKC side have another gear in them to take both out in a handful of games during a series somewhat comfortably though.

ButtersSuki wrote: »

Whenever you hear athletes use the phrase "my brand", you know their go us is on areas that don't add anything to their game. Disappointing.

Yup. The more you hear or read about him, the more worrying it gets. That's not to say he won't have a good career, statistically at least, but nonetheless given his talent, stuff like that isn't nice to see.

Dare_2_defy wrote: »

Clutch by the Raptors to take the W in Brooklyn.

KD has to get MVP this year, dude's unstoppable right now

Durant in the last 30 days: 54, 48, 48, 46, 41, 37, 37, 36, 36, 33, 33.

Ridiculous :pac:

kmart6

Dublin Red Devil wrote: »

You Mad!

Why would I be?!

killwill

Nuri Sahin wrote: »

That's all well and good in the regular season, but the ability to play lockdown defense is something they'll come up short in. That plus Coach Jackson's sermons can only do so much. It's hard to say what the Spurs will do this time around given what they've shown against the big name teams this seasons, but there's no doubt that the likes of Warriors and Blazers need to target the western conference finals.

I still think a fully fit OKC side have another gear in them to take both out in a handful of games during a series somewhat comfortably though.




Yup. The more you hear or read about him, the more worrying it gets. That's not to say he won't have a good career, statistically at least, but nonetheless given his talent, stuff like that isn't nice to see.



Durant in the last 30 days: 54, 48, 48, 46, 41, 37, 37, 36, 36, 33, 33.

Ridiculous :pac:

On a serious decline!!!

Dublin Red Devil

New Orleans at Cleveland - Cavs
Orlando at Detroit - Pistons
Boston at New York - Knicks
San Antonio at Houston - Spurs
Memphis at Portland - Blazers
Washington at Golden State - Warriors
Indiana at LA Lakers - Pacers

Dublin Red Devil

Paul George on Jimmy Kimmel.

For Forks Sake

Dublin Red Devil wrote: »

Paul George on Jimmy Kimmel.

This is "NBA Season Thread 2013-2014", I fail to see any relevance.

PizzamanIRL

Gonna be interesting to see what OKC are like when Westbrook is back. If anything goes wrong people will stupidly blame Westbrook straight away. Lucky for Perkins.

Reading that back you'd swear Westbrook never played with OKC before

Dublin Red Devil

For Forks Sake wrote: »

This is "NBA Season Thread 2013-2014", I fail to see any relevance.

The best player on the No.1 team in the NBA. In LA tonight to play the Lakers in the Regular Season 13/14..... What have you got against Paul George?

kmart6

Dublin Red Devil wrote: »

The best player on the No.1 team in the NBA. In LA tonight to play the Lakers in the Regular Season 13/14..... What have you got against Paul George?

Again...the relevance?

PizzamanIRL

Dublin Red Devil wrote: »

The best player on the No.1 team in the NBA. In LA tonight to play the Lakers in the Regular Season 13/14..... What have you got against Paul George?

Want some easy money DRD?

You might not like it but....Lakers 4/1 to beat Indiana. Do it. Trust me.

GoldFour4

If you have a problem with a post then report it. The button is right there.

Dublin Red Devil

PizzamanIRL wrote: »

Want some easy money DRD?

You might not like it but....Lakers 4/1 to beat Indiana. Do it. Trust me.

I don't think so mate. Wouldn't be brave enough to back against Paul George. You don't need to be a business man to see that's gonna be a bad investment

Dublin Red Devil

kmart6 wrote: »

Again...the relevance?

That's it. Just thought it would be a fun video some might like to see. You didn't have to watch it if you didn't want too.

kmart6

Oh I didn't, wasn't wasting my time, the Kimmel show is terrible!

Nuri Sahin

PizzamanIRL wrote: »

You might not like it but....Lakers 4/1 to beat Indiana. Do it. Trust me.

I want to say you should offer Evens as that makes perfect sense, but I shouldn't say anything really since I bizarrely got PM'ed by the one man fan club and was told off o_0

_________

Anywhoo, Harden isn't playing tonight for the Rockets against the Spurs in the game of the night, which is a good thing for the sake of the team. Lin and Howard has worked well this season when they've got some decent minutes together.

Nuri Sahin

Pekovic out indefinitely for the Twolves by the by, big loss for them. Been a juggernaut at the offensive end this season.