NBA Regular Season & Playoffs 2017-18

rushfan

ButtersSuki wrote:

Boston - Philly was such a strange series really, not your typical 4-1 gentleman's sweep by any means. Philly could easily have won all 4 games they lost but for silly turnovers, missed dunks, unnecessary techs, poor coaching decisions etc.

What's the betting that Simmond's missed dunk, which would have been the winning of the game, in game 3 will never happen him again. A learning curve.

snotboogie

McLoughlin wrote: »

I'm a Celtics fan as well didn't expect them to reach this far. My hope now is they don't get swept and at least give Lebron a bit of a challenge

Celtics are a better team than last year, Cavs are a worse team than last year. I'd be disappointed with the same result. If anything the Celtics match up better with Cleveland than Indiana did. I still think people are too fixated on the injuries rather than looking at the talent that is actually out there

snotboogie

snotboogie wrote: »

Celtics are a better team than last year, Cavs are a worse team than last year. I'd be disappointed with the same result. If anything the Celtics match up better with Cleveland than Indiana did. I still think people are too fixated on the injuries rather than looking at the talent that is actually out there

Celtics are young though there not played as well on the road and having lebron on the other team puts a lot of pressure on you

ButtersSuki

rushfan wrote: »

What's the betting that Simmond's missed dunk, which would have been the winning of the game, in game 3 will never happen him again. A learning curve.

This whole series was a massive learning curve for all of them (that will return). Let's be honest, even with this relatively disappointing end they've exceeded expectations hugely this year. If they didn't go on the 16-0 run to end the season they'd have been a couple of slot further down the pecking order and likely avoided Boston who were (masterminded by Stevens) too clever for them. The future is very bright - even if they pick up no-one in Free Agency.

ButtersSuki

snotboogie wrote: »

Celtics are a better team than last year, Cavs are a worse team than last year. I'd be disappointed with the same result. If anything the Celtics match up better with Cleveland than Indiana did. I still think people are too fixated on the injuries rather than looking at the talent that is actually out there

Latest Bill Simmons pod which i listened to this morning had one line in it on the above - show me another team in the NBA that loses it's 2 best players and wins 2 series in the Play Offs (he may even have said makes the Play Offs, I'm not 100% sure what the exact quote was but you get the point). They've massively overachieved, no matter how you look at it.

snotboogie

ButtersSuki wrote: »

Latest Bill Simmons pod which i listened to this morning had one line in it on the above - show me another team in the NBA that loses it's 2 best players and wins 2 series in the Play Offs (he may even have said makes the Play Offs, I'm not 100% sure what the exact quote was but you get the point). They've massively overachieved, no matter how you look at it.

They never really had Hayward though, he was a free agency pick up that they pulled out of the air and only played a few minutes for them. I know you can say roster construction and salary but they've had all year to work around the roster and they have two really good guys guys on rookie contracts. Rozier has come in and improved the defense and given 70-80% of what Kyrie gives going forward. The sustainability of this performance is for sure a question on Rozier and to a lesser extent Brown and Tatum but if they keep this up it should be a very interesting series. I think Stevens will throw everything at LeBron; Brown, Semi, Horford, maybe even Yabusele! I can't wait to watch the first game on Sunday

Gregk961

Great video on Simmons vs the Celtics. The on/off stats are crazy! All will be sorted with time I'm sure but typically genius move from Stevens.

Pyjamarama

Gregk961 wrote: »

Great video on Simmons vs the Celtics. The on/off stats are crazy! All will be sorted with time I'm sure but typically genius move from Stevens.

I hate this kind of over reactionary stuff. Its the usual "only the last series matters". Ben has been sensational all season and he had a really really tough time against the No.1 ranked D in the league... the guy is a rookie point guard... when was the last time that a rookie point guard had the kind of impact on a team that Ben has had?

There's no "Ben Simmons" problem, if he develops, like rookies usually do, then he's going to be the best player in the league when LeBron retires imo. tbh while Brad is an amazing coach he didn't do anything unbelievable to stop Ben. The big issue was that the Sixers don't have the athletes to put around Simmons to counter what Boston was doing. Just a bunch of streaky shooters that couldn't get open against the Celtics superior athletes. And even with that the Sixers could easily have won that series 4-1... the Celtics deserved it but bar game one it was an incredibly close series. It was great coaching but not genius.

Gregk961

Pyjamarama wrote: »

I hate this kind of over reactionary stuff. Its the usual "only the last series matters". Ben has been sensational all season and he had a really really tough time against the No.1 ranked D in the league... the guy is a rookie point guard... when was the last time that a rookie point guard had the kind of impact on a team that Ben has had?

There's no "Ben Simmons" problem, if he develops, like rookies usually do, then he's going to be the best player in the league when LeBron retires imo. tbh while Brad is an amazing coach he didn't do anything unbelievable to stop Ben. The big issue was that the Sixers don't have the athletes to put around Simmons to counter what Boston was doing. Just a bunch of streaky shooters that couldn't get open against the Celtics superior athletes. And even with that the Sixers could easily have won that series 4-1... the Celtics deserved it but bar game one it was an incredibly close series. It was great coaching but not genius.

Ben is the Sixers most important player and his effectiveness was greatly reduced by the Celtics game plan. It's a pretty rare thing in the NBA to contain a team's best player over a full series. Ive always been more impressed with Stevens playcalling rather than game planning but he has been Popovic level in these playoffs.

Of course it's reactionary, it's a post-series breakdown, by design it's reactionary. I do agree the title is clickbait(I'm a supporter of the channel but it has gone very bad for misleading titles this season) but the content is pretty hard to disagree with.

ButtersSuki

Haven't watched it yet (I will as I normally like Coach Nick's stuff) but for me the one really obvious difference between his regular season play and his Play Off play was the way he took the ball at pace from a turnover/rebound/inbounds and charged full pace up the court before the defence even had a chance to set/mid set in the reg. season v walking it up in the Play Offs. That alone changes so much. If you're going at pace early you have way more opportunities and space and you're forcing the defence to move first. Let them set and there's less space, less options and less opportunities.

Boston played him very smartly, but give him a few years and he's not making the mistakes he made this post season. Assuming everyone stays healthy (a big if I know), the Boston Philly rivalry could be great over the next 5-10 years.

ButtersSuki

snotboogie wrote: »

They never really had Hayward though, he was a free agency pick up that they pulled out of the air and only played a few minutes for them. I know you can say roster construction and salary but they've had all year to work around the roster and they have two really good guys guys on rookie contracts. Rozier has come in and improved the defense and given 70-80% of what Kyrie gives going forward. The sustainability of this performance is for sure a question on Rozier and to a lesser extent Brown and Tatum but if they keep this up it should be a very interesting series. I think Stevens will throw everything at LeBron; Brown, Semi, Horford, maybe even Yabusele! I can't wait to watch the first game on Sunday

Yeah but the point still holds - they played without one all star for the whole year, and another for the Play Offs (as well as other injuries). Take away 2 All Stars from any other team (Cleveland, Toronto, OKC, Pelicans, Minnesota...even GS - trying to stick to the teams who had 2 this year, incl. injued players) do you honestly think they're making the Conf. Finals? I don't. Not even GS (partly as they're in the West). However you look at it, they're overperformed. No-one - and I'm sure they'd say this themselves - incl. Ainge and Stevens saw Tatum at this level this quickly. What's great for Boston in a silver lining way is if Hayward wasn't injured, Tatum doesn't get nearly as much minutes or experience. Boston was never going to win it all this year anyway, so in a bizarre way they're improving their younger talent (not just Tatum) in a way they likely never envisioned, so this is all bonus territory for them now on that front too.

irishman86

NufcNavan wrote: »

DeMar DeRozan makes $83 Million the next 3 seasons

Kyle Lowry makes $64 Million the next 2 seasons

Serge Ibaka makes $45 Million the next 2 seasons

Normal Powell makes $42 Million the next 4 seasons

Those salaries are revolting

DeRozan would have been offered a max at nearly every team

LuckyLloyd

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/23456720/is-lebron-james-michael-jordan-greatest-nba-player-all

Traditional media slowly moving the right direction. Bill Simmons just moved LeBron to 2 ahead of Bill Russell. Like pulling teeth, but we'll get there in the end...

LuckyLloyd

Apparently watching Westbrook chase triple doubles is massively profitable...

ButtersSuki

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/23456720/is-lebron-james-michael-jordan-greatest-nba-player-all

Traditional media slowly moving the right direction. Bill Simmons just moved LeBron to 2 ahead of Bill Russell. Like pulling teeth, but we'll get there in the end...

I think you just have to be fair. He’s 2.

ButtersSuki

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/23456720/is-lebron-james-michael-jordan-greatest-nba-player-all

Traditional media slowly moving the right direction. Bill Simmons just moved LeBron to 2 ahead of Bill Russell. Like pulling teeth, but we'll get there in the end...

Can't read that right now but what Simmons actually said (at least on his pod) was LeBron and Russell were 2A and 2B, rather than an outright 2.

ButtersSuki

One interesting point that was brought up on LeBron v Jordan debate during the last week or so on Open Floor was this type of categorisation:

Jordan was the better player, LeBron will have a better career (taking into account the sustained excellence over a longer period of time etc.).

I think that's an interesting way to look at it.

Osmosis Jones

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Apparently watching Westbrook chase triple doubles is massively profitable...

Lakers tickets being 100 quid more than Clippers is hilarious, I wonder what the prices are when they play each other.

McLoughlin

Osmosis Jones wrote: »

Lakers tickets being 100 quid more than Clippers is hilarious, I wonder what the prices are when they play each other.

Depends on the home team I guess ?

Osmosis Jones

McLoughlin wrote: »

Depends on the home team I guess ?

I suppose I'd pay more to not have to look at that awful Clippers logo in the center of the court too.

irishman86

ButtersSuki wrote: »

One interesting point that was brought up on LeBron v Jordan debate during the last week or so on Open Floor was this type of categorisation:

Jordan was the better player, LeBron will have a better career (taking into account the sustained excellence over a longer period of time etc.).

I think that's an interesting way to look at it.

I wouldnt say LBJ has had the better career myself, his losses in the finals paired with Jordan having won six titles which is all the more impressive taking the period of time

irishman86

The Raptors make the move they should have three seasons ago
Hopefully the end of hero ball

ButtersSuki

irishman86 wrote: »

I wouldnt say LBJ has had the better career myself, his losses in the finals paired with Jordan having won six titles which is all the more impressive taking the period of time

I meant from a total stats perspective by the time he retires.

I don't think he's getting 6 rings no matter what he does at this stage tbh, but his career stat totals will be insane and likely never bettered in my lifetime at least.

rushfan

Dwayne Casey fired by Toronto

ButtersSuki

5 (5!) Spurs assistant coaches interviewed by Milwaukee in total! Shows the respect for Pop one some levels I guess.

One of them (James Borrego) got the Hornets job.

ButtersSuki

rushfan wrote: »

Dwayne Casey fired by Toronto

Not surprised. Not saying it's the right decision btw, but they had to do something and they're largely hamstrung by their roster and contracts.

He also didn't help himself with some of his post game comments, which were shall we say ill-advised.

ButtersSuki

I mostly missed the Rodney Hood not going into he game shenanigans the other night but caught up on it this evening. Talk about an inflated opinion of yourself.

ButtersSuki

Good (short) interview with one of the owners of the Celtics on the Bill Simmons pod. Great insight into the Brooklyn trade for anyone interested in such things.

And a good Lowe Post pod too about the Casey firing.

stuchyg

ButtersSuki wrote: »

Good (short) interview with one of the owners of the Celtics on the Bill Simmons pod. Great insight into the Brooklyn trade for anyone interested in such things.

And a good Lowe Post pod too about the Casey firing.

That's my drive to and from work sorted tomorrow so. Home then in time for Celtics v Cavs

Vital Transformation

Celtics up 20 halfway through the 2nd quarter. They are playing great defence, forcing Lebron and co to make difficult fadeaway jumpers and hook shots from the midrange.