NBA Playoffs

[darthseinfeld]

Good game, back and forth all day until that final few minutes when Warriors could keep a small lead.

I think CalPoly called it - going be a back n forth series. Everyone wants to go ahead and crown Golden State but the Celtics are fighting and hanging in there.

Durant should have just stayed with the team. He could have been the man the last 2 years when Curry and Thompson were hurt and would be winning more than he ever will with the Nets.

This series is going alot like the Bucks and Heat series for Boston. Problem for them is Giannis and Butler aren't Steph Curry. I think game 4 was the key game in the series. I dont see them winning a game 7 against the Warriors

 

[CalPolyTechnique]

The Celts secondary players are playing better than the Warriors right now.

I think Klay needs to have a classic Klay game in one of the next two for the Dubs to win this thing.

Watching Draymond and Looney on the offensive end is painful to watch at times. I wonder if putting in Kuminga could serve as a wildcard?

Curry is a monster.

 

[jterrell]

Unless it’s a team from L.A. or N.Y., the league makes more profit selling individuals, as opposed to teams. Curry, Lebron, KD, etc. Kids now like Mahomes and Brady, not the Chiefs or Bucs

it's been like this for decades.

jordan, griffey, kg, shaq in orlando. kurt warner's rams
it's always been about special players and then a few franchises remain relevant without them, cowboys, lakers, yankees.

ny isn't relevant in basketball and hasn't been in a long time. brooklyn jumps up but only when they add the biggest names.

brady turned millions into patriots fans.
he won't do the same in tampa largely because no one expects him to be there that long.
jordan turned billions of fans worldwide into bulls fans and it took a lot of awful play over a long period to lose most of those fans.

 

[jterrell]

This series is going a lot like the Bucks and Heat series for Boston. Problem for them is Giannis and Butler aren't Steph Curry. I think game 4 was the key game in the series. I dont see them winning a game 7 against the Warriors

BOS reminds me of Texas Tech under Chris Beard. They are flooding the floor with athletic 6'6" to 6'10" guys that are all athletes and just grinding people up defensively.
Tech's achilles under that system was insanely hot outside shooting and people who stretched the floor beyond the ability of the mega-athletes to recover.
--Yes Marcus Smart is only like 6'3" or 6'4" but he is a former football player and strong as an ox so plays much bigger. He doesn't get beat up in the post that often even when switched onto bigs.

Position-less basketball has always been a nasty defensive brand of play where only the most skilled teams survive.
BOS has a really good scoring wing to amp it up to another degree.
Such a cool series really.
And likely very much a sign of whats to come as teams decide to either build around a trae young/steph type or focus more on position-less basketball.

My Mavs have a similar quandary. Either pay Brunson 25M or move him and look for a much larger 2nd star.
My gut says they like the offense too much with Brunson's pace and outside shooting to move on.

 

[ESisback]

it's been like this for decades.

jordan, griffey, kg, shaq in orlando. kurt warner's rams
it's always been about special players and then a few franchises remain relevant without them, cowboys, lakers, yankees.

ny isn't relevant in basketball and hasn't been in a long time. brooklyn jumps up but only when they add the biggest names.

brady turned millions into patriots fans.
he won't do the same in tampa largely because no one expects him to be there that long.
jordan turned billions of fans worldwide into bulls fans and it took a lot of awful play over a long period to lose most of those fans.

Sure it has, but there’s no denying the current trendy aspects of teams like the Brooklyn Nets—it reflects the current affinity of the major networks and MSM to embrace and overemphasize certain cultural aspects. NY is the Rome of the modern world, and while they’re not currently relevant as a playoff contender, the Knicks are still significant for their old school NYC legacy.

There are a handful of teams that matter, but IMHO, the individual player is the moneymaker—20 or 30 years ago, yes, but even more so now.

 

[jterrell]

Sure it has, but there’s no denying the current trendy aspects of teams like the Brooklyn Nets—it reflects the current affinity of the major networks and MSM to embrace and overemphasize certain cultural aspects. NY is the Rome of the modern world, and while they’re not currently relevant as a playoff contender, the Knicks are still significant for their old school NYC legacy.

There are a handful of teams that matter, but IMHO, the individual player is the moneymaker—20 or 30 years ago, yes, but even more so now.

MSM has less effect now than anytime in the recent past.
Fans drive conversation via outlets like twitter. And streaming services offer so many games people pick and choose rather than just having 1 option.

ESPN and whomever are just chasing ratings so more reflective than anything else but with ESPN+ they'll end up showing 5-6 games anyway.

The only real shift I've felt is from local coverage being blanketed to everything being more nationally driven.

 

[kskboys]

The stupid days and days between games is making my already ebbing interest in the NBA ebb faster.

Why?

 

[darthseinfeld]

BOS reminds me of Texas Tech under Chris Beard. They are flooding the floor with athletic 6'6" to 6'10" guys that are all athletes and just grinding people up defensively.
Tech's achilles under that system was insanely hot outside shooting and people who stretched the floor beyond the ability of the mega-athletes to recover.
--Yes Marcus Smart is only like 6'3" or 6'4" but he is a former football player and strong as an ox so plays much bigger. He doesn't get beat up in the post that often even when switched onto bigs.

Position-less basketball has always been a nasty defensive brand of play where only the most skilled teams survive.
BOS has a really good scoring wing to amp it up to another degree.
Such a cool series really.
And likely very much a sign of whats to come as teams decide to either build around a trae young/steph type or focus more on position-less basketball.

My Mavs have a similar quandary. Either pay Brunson 25M or move him and look for a much larger 2nd star.
My gut says they like the offense too much with Brunson's pace and outside shooting to move on.

Brunson is a good fit with Luka. I think there are other paths as long as they are willing to spend. Dinwiddie has better value now than when they traded for him

 

[darthseinfeld]

The stupid days and days between games is making my already ebbing interest in the NBA ebb faster.

Why?

I dont know. That kind of struck me when seeing the schedule. I could be wrong, but I dont remember it being like that before

 

[ESisback]

MSM has less effect now than anytime in the recent past.
Fans drive conversation via outlets like twitter. And streaming services offer so many games people pick and choose rather than just having 1 option.

ESPN and whomever are just chasing ratings so more reflective than anything else but with ESPN+ they'll end up showing 5-6 games anyway.

The only real shift I've felt is from local coverage being blanketed to everything being more nationally driven.

I think that the MSM has lost HUGE amounts of credibility in the last two years, mostly because of their dogged, singleminded loyalty to a certain ideology. Of course the cultural atmosphere remains.

Yeah, ESPN’s only concern are rating$…

 

[jterrell]

Brunson is a good fit with Luka. I think there are other paths as long as they are willing to spend. Dinwiddie has better value now than when they traded for him

Agreed on both accounts.

Will be interesting to see how Dallas handles THJ and Dinwiddie.
Both are good secondary scorers but you probably don't want both plus Brunson.
Dinwiddie might be the hotter name right now and thus the bigger trade chip.

But he did fit in well in Dallas and this team does value chemistry.

Cuban will spend but there is only so much you can do once you hit the hard cap. Dallas will be close to or above that if they sign JB to 25M.

 

[jterrell]

I think that the MSM has lost HUGE amounts of credibility in the last two years, mostly because of their dogged, singleminded loyalty to a certain ideology. Of course the cultural atmosphere remains.

Yeah, ESPN’s only concern are rating$…

All MSM is motivated by money.
Thats the entirety of everything now.
Its' absurd.
Someone like Mina Kimes and JJ Redick bringing actual sports discussion back is invaluable but as long as goofballs like Skip and Stephen A get ratings we'll see this infotainment stuff.


But the vast streaming options, social media and youtube library give people a choose your own adventure.

Hopefully nonsense will die off.

 

[darthseinfeld]

Agreed on both accounts.

Will be interesting to see how Dallas handles THJ and Dinwiddie.
Both are good secondary scorers but you probably don't want both plus Brunson.
Dinwiddie might be the hotter name right now and thus the bigger trade chip.

But he did fit in well in Dallas and this team does value chemistry.

Cuban will spend but there is only so much you can do once you hit the hard cap. Dallas will be close to or above that if they sign JB to 25M.

In a perfect world you would keep Dinwiddie. He can with Brunson, and is a good person to stagger and lead the 2nd team

 

[ESisback]

All MSM is motivated by money.
Thats the entirety of everything now.
Its' absurd.
Someone like Mina Kimes and JJ Redick bringing actual sports discussion back is invaluable but as long as goofballs like Skip and Stephen A get ratings we'll see this infotainment stuff.


But the vast streaming options, social media and youtube library give people a choose your own adventure.

Hopefully nonsense will die off.

Yeah, it’s hard to kill nonsense if it sells. I always said—if an old guy pooping got viewers, there’d be a whole film franchise:

“Old Man Pooping”
“Old Man Pooping, Number 2”
“OMP3”
“Old Man Pooping, Back To The Bowl”

 

[jterrell]

In a perfect world you would keep Dinwiddie. He can with Brunson, and is a good person to stagger and lead the 2nd team

Agreed but THJ would also have that same role.

You'd like 2 of Brunson, Luka and Dinwiddie OR THJ on the floor but you don't want more than 2 of Brunson, Dinwiddie, THJ unless you give up on or avoid all defense.

Dallas could really use a guy like Brandon Ingram. Bigger dude with offensive skill. But lack resources to go get a guy like that so would need some luck or better GManship than they've displayed the last 30 years.

 

[CalPolyTechnique]

Happy for Wiggins.

Love the reclamation storyline for him. A game away from being a major contributing factor to an NBA title.

 

[VaqueroTD]

Curry getting old. Can’t believe he snapped his Playoffs 3pt streak.

Just amazing how Golden State through the years pulled off guys like KD, Wiggins, D’Angelo Russell… and still kept much of the nucleus intact.

Jerry should be taking cap notes from them.

 

[jterrell]

This all goes back to my initial thoughts on the series.
BOS cannot get in droughts.

The game is won with offense and BOS isn't going to win scoring 90-something.
They've done the job on defense to hold GSW to 105 or so but you aren't keeping them in the 90s more than once every 3-4 games so you better go score.

BOS has had a tremendous season win, lose or draw.

As has GSW. They very adroitly used a tank year to develop some low draft picks and to re-shape their cap.
Insane to be this good while also flat busting out on Wiseman that high in the draft.

People are going to have to start giving Kerr a lot more credit. He can coach and someone on that staff can really develop guys.

 

[darthseinfeld]

Happy for Wiggins.

Love the reclamation storyline for him. A game away from being a major contributing factor to an NBA title.

That trade was a complete fleecing. You guys aquired him as a negative asset. He is finally start to tap into that two way potential, and gives you guys a late shot clock iso threat

 

[darthseinfeld]

This all goes back to my initial thoughts on the series.
BOS cannot get in droughts.

The game is won with offense and BOS isn't going to win scoring 90-something.
They've done the job on defense to hold GSW to 105 or so but you aren't keeping them in the 90s more than once every 3-4 games so you better go score.

BOS has had a tremendous season win, lose or draw.

As has GSW. They very adroitly used a tank year to develop some low draft picks and to re-shape their cap.
Insane to be this good while also flat busting out on Wiseman that high in the draft.

People are going to have to start giving Kerr a lot more credit. He can coach and someone on that staff can really develop guys.

I think they need a more consistent third option. They have alot of guys that can put up a 20 game any given night, but none of them are ever going to give you a consistent 15+. I dont think it needs to be another All Star, but a guy like Malcolm Brogdon would go along way.