NBA Regular Season & Playoffs 2017-18

GoldFour4

The 76ers are fun to watch for sure. Great experience for them no matter how far they go this year. Scary how young they are

Meatyfubu

malistheman wrote: »

The 76ers are fun to watch for sure. Great experience for them no matter how far they go this year. Scary how young they are

What happens Redick i wonder because you can't give him 20m again and his spacing is paramount given Simmons can't shoot.

Move for Kawhi maybe, Fultz, Holmes and multiple 1st round picks??

They'll have to pay Simmons the max and Saric a chunk but if they could sign Redick for another year, could they make a run at Klay next summer?

Simmons, Klay, Covington, Saric, Embiid that team wins a championship I'd imagine

ButtersSuki

Someone said recently that Portland were a very "weak" 3 seed as they were only a couple of games up on the 8th seed (they were 3 ahead of Denver in 9th too), and it looks like that's coming home to roost now. It's a very fair point.

The West 3-9 seeds were so close this year it really was crazy, I don't remember a season quite like this in over 30 years watching the NBA.

What do you do if you're Portland though gong forward? You really have to look at some kind of rebuild and that means likely trading one of Lillard, McCollum or Nurkic.

SHOVELLER

Enjoyed the 76ers win last night and as a Wizards fan these games feel like a step up in standard!
Warriors too much for an emotional Spurs last night with KD in fine form but great to see Parker and Ginobili still competing.

Osmosis Jones

ButtersSuki wrote: »

Someone said recently that Portland were a very "weak" 3 seed as they were only a couple of games up on the 8th seed (they were 3 ahead of Denver in 9th too), and it looks like that's coming home to roost now. It's a very fair point.

The West 3-9 seeds were so close this year it really was crazy, I don't remember a season quite like this in over 30 years watching the NBA.

What do you do if you're Portland though gong forward? You really have to look at some kind of rebuild and that means likely trading one of Lillard, McCollum or Nurkic.

3-9 in the West were all around the same level yeah, though the Pelicans were always going to be a bad matchup, would've rathered OKC or Utah.

In terms of going forward, the only real piece of value that I could see the FO trading is CJ. Blazers need a proper wing player, rather than having their two best players be undersized guards. Very similar situation to the Wizards right now, only they need a center and Portland need a small forward.

ButtersSuki

Osmosis Jones wrote: »

3-9 in the West were all around the same level yeah, though the Pelicans were always going to be a bad matchup, would've rathered OKC or Utah.

In terms of going forward, the only real piece of value that I could see the FO trading is CJ. Blazers need a proper wing player, rather than having their two best players be undersized guards. Very similar situation to the Wizards right now, only they need a center and Portland need a small forward.

Wouldn't have fancied OKC tbh with Paul likely to smother one of Dame or CJ on offence.

Huge gap between 1-2 and 3-9 in the West though.

That said, I don't think anyone in that 3-8 bracket wanted to play NO with Davis in particular in this kinda form.

GS won't have many answers for him but they're far superior in the other positions to make it much of a contest.

Osmosis Jones

ButtersSuki wrote: »

Wouldn't have fancied OKC tbh with Paul likely to smother one of Dame or CJ on offence.

Huge gap between 1-2 and 3-9 in the West though.

That said, I don't think anyone in that 3-8 bracket wanted to play NO with Davis in particular in this kinda form.

GS won't have many answers for him but they're far superior in the other positions to make it much of a contest.

Blazers have only lost to OKC once since KD left, 4-0 this season.

Think if Curry is still out the Pels could take it to 6.

LuckyLloyd

ButtersSuki wrote: »

What do you do if you're Portland though gong forward? You really have to look at some kind of rebuild and that means likely trading one of Lillard, McCollum or Nurkic.

You do nothing. Winning records in the regular season with a round or two in the playoffs are the best they can hope for at the moment. Profitable for owners as interest in the team is strong and they aren't in luxury tax.

ButtersSuki

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

You do nothing. Winning records in the regular season with a round or two in the playoffs are the best they can hope for at the moment. Profitable for owners as interest in the team is strong and they aren't in luxury tax.

I see your logic if you're an owner but if you're a player like Lillard or McCollum in particular are you happy with that? Keep that up and one or both will be demanding a trade.....

I'd rather see more teams roll the dice like Houston and go all in than just tread water tbh.

Meatyfubu

ButtersSuki wrote: »

I see your logic if you're an owner but if you're a player like Lillard or McCollum in particular are you happy with that? Keep that up and one or both will be demanding a trade.....

I'd rather see more teams roll the dice like Houston and go all in than just tread water tbh.

Why demand a trade? Lillard has probably been a tad underrated but CJ is overrated so they've done well.
What more could they want, 2 minus undersized defenders in a tough conference who appears to have overachieved on the face of it but given 3rd and 8th were so close they've pretty much achieved expectations.

Although Sixers look successful now I don't believe the pure tanking for multiple seasons is the way to go but giving money long term to simply use it is crazy too.

Also probably worth knowing as a caveat to the under cap issue is that teams must use 90% by end of the season so they don't have tons to spare either.

Lillard may want more but given availability of talent in Portland and available assets on the market. Lillard and CJ should be happy to stay put. Locking in tons of multiyear money simply to go all out is basically what the Grizzles, Lakers, Hornets have done. Batum Parsons Mozgov and Deng all on huge multiyear deals and even before they signed they wouldn't move the needle

mixery

Davis is a beast OMG

NufcNavan

Ballgame.

ButtersSuki

Meatyfubu wrote: »

Why demand a trade? Lillard has probably been a tad underrated but CJ is overrated so they've done well.
What more could they want, 2 minus undersized defenders in a tough conference who appears to have overachieved on the face of it but given 3rd and 8th were so close they've pretty much achieved expectations.

Although Sixers look successful now I don't believe the pure tanking for multiple seasons is the way to go but giving money long term to simply use it is crazy too.

Also probably worth knowing as a caveat to the under cap issue is that teams must use 90% by end of the season so they don't have tons to spare either.

Lillard may want more but given availability of talent in Portland and available assets on the market. Lillard and CJ should be happy to stay put. Locking in tons of multiyear money simply to go all out is basically what the Grizzles, Lakers, Hornets have done. Batum Parsons Mozgov and Deng all on huge multiyear deals and even before they signed they wouldn't move the needle

Again can see your points and the players you mention (and their teams) aren’t Portland. None of those teams have a history like Portland, or a fan base that demands more than middle of the pack mediocrity. Sone of those teams would love to be middle of the pack they’re so bad; but not Portland.

I guess I’d be fine with it if they declared that’s all they’re trying to do...but almost every soundbite from them from the GM to the players indicate otherwise.

For me, it’s win or nothing - and that’s what I like about what Houston and what they’ve done (even though I hate how they play). I’d rather go all in, try and lose than half heartedly try and fail anyway.

Portland see treading water. They need to decide what they are.

Osmosis Jones

Portland are definitely in 'win now' mode, I'm not sure what I'd like to see in the off-season but after this playoff series the only player I can guarantee won't be available for a trade is Lillard.

LuckyLloyd

It’s very easy to convince yourself that it’ll fall for you after just getting the 3 seed, that you just had a bad couple of games at the wrong time

Meatyfubu

ButtersSuki wrote: »

Again can see your points and the players you mention (and their teams) aren’t Portland. None of those teams have a history like Portland, or a fan base that demands more than middle of the pack mediocrity. Sone of those teams would love to be middle of the pack they’re so bad; but not Portland.

I guess I’d be fine with it if they declared that’s all they’re trying to do...but almost every soundbite from them from the GM to the players indicate otherwise.

For me, it’s win or nothing - and that’s what I like about what Houston and what they’ve done (even though I hate how they play). I’d rather go all in, try and lose than half heartedly try and fail anyway.

Portland see treading water. They need to decide what they are.

Well Houston are in the position that imo you have the best GM in the league in Morey so its hard to compete with that.
He is incredibly analytical and as much as D'Antoni has been heralded as a game changer for his 8 second offense, Steph taking the 3pt shot to the next level, Morey is one of the primary drivers of analytics. Sloan conference is a large part because of him, he's a game changer.

I think why bother with win now if you basically have no chance. I think being as flexible as possible and evolving is the way to take teams to the next level.
The next big trend I see is contractual, I suspect in the next few years we'll see far less max length deals. People will get paid more but it'll be more on 2-3 year deals.
Take J.Wall for example you want to be locked into him for 40m+ in 3 years time to win now because thats where the Wizards are

ButtersSuki

Meatyfubu wrote: »

Well Houston are in the position that imo you have the best GM in the league in Morey so its hard to compete with that.
He is incredibly analytical and as much as D'Antoni has been heralded as a game changer for his 8 second offense, Steph taking the 3pt shot to the next level, Morey is one of the primary drivers of analytics. Sloan conference is a large part because of him, he's a game changer.

I think why bother with win now if you basically have no chance. I think being as flexible as possible and evolving is the way to take teams to the next level.
The next big trend I see is contractual, I suspect in the next few years we'll see far less max length deals. People will get paid more but it'll be more on 2-3 year deals.
Take J.Wall for example you want to be locked into him for 40m+ in 3 years time to win now because thats where the Wizards are

I hear what you're saying on most of the above but re. the point in bold - that contract is looking VERY bad right now. Not as bad as BG in Detroit, but bad.

I know all about Morey from his Celtics days. He's done a few interviews with Bill Simmons that are worth checking out if you haven't heard them.

Just one thing on not trying to win ow if you have no chance.....at best there's maybe 4 teams can win a title every year, with significantly diminishing odds from 1-4. So what do you do if you're the other 26 teams? Tank? Or try to build something? I don't see what Portland are really doing to progress. It's all a bit "same-y" to me year after year. They're doing the same thing each year with a marginal improvement and expecting a huge leap when it's not happening....blow it up to win or to tank - but stop doing the same thing.

ButtersSuki

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

It’s very easy to convince yourself that it’ll fall for you after just getting the 3 seed, that you just had a bad couple of games at the wrong time

Just to clarify, I'm not a Portland fan!

Itssoeasy

Sixers 26 heat 26 end of first quarter.

Itssoeasy

Getting chippy in the sixers heat game.

Itssoeasy

Ben Simmons would want to relax a bit. He's now on three fouls.

Itssoeasy

Sixers 56 heat 61 HT this a good game.

For Forks Sake

Pelicans sweep Portland.

Just the 47 points/11 boards for Davis tonight. Man's a beast.

ButtersSuki

Will be very interesting to see how the Warriors handle the Pelicans. As amazing as Davis has been, you could argue that it’s the two way play of their guards that stifled Portland. With no Curry for Games 1 and 2 it will be a very interesting series if they take 1 of those first two games.

And Mirotic has been excellent. That trade really looks awful now if you’re Chicago.

Also, do any Portland bigs block out? Such a basic thing to do and yet the amount of put back dunks I saw in that series (highlights alone) was crazy.

K.O.Kiki

For Forks Sake wrote: »

Pelicans sweep Portland.

Just the 47 points/11 boards for Davis tonight. Man's a beast.

ESPN predictions LOL

For Forks Sake

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

ESPN predictions LOL

Any franchise that pays Evan Turner over $17m a year deserves everything they get.

Meatyfubu

I can see it happening again where teams believe that they have to lock in guys to LT deals because the next salary cap hike is coming with the gambling bill. If it doesn't happen some teams are going to overpay as per usual and get stung.

Some take aways from the Pelicans series:

AD is a perennial MVP Candidate when healthy.

Playoff Rondo is real and underpaid.

Holiday is not overpaid and may take a leap next, he is a former all star tbf.

Boogie Cousins is not getting re-signed by the Pelicans when he asks for the max, back to the Kings perhaps.

I'd say the kings is the last place boogie would sign

Meatyfubu

Marcel Delightful Viewfinder wrote: »

I'd say the kings is the last place boogie would sign

True but they have a tendency to offer silly contracts and offering Boogie a max would be ridiculous and somebody will probably do it.

Itssoeasy

This game isn't going to celtics way.