2019 NBA Catch-All - It’s Fantastic

I am glad Portland and Toronto won and both games were close, two good ones today. Both Denver and Philly are still learning, the two winners are more playoff experienced. They have good times ahead and will be back next year.

I wish Portland had Nurkic, I am afraid they are just going to get rolled by Golden State, like a 4-1 series.

Toronto / Milwaukee is interesting but I don't think Toronto matches up that well and Lowry needs to show up more than he has so far in the playoffs. I think Milwaukee takes it in 5 or 6 unless people not named Kawhi start having great games.

Portland will probably get rolled, but you just never know. That’s why you keep adding pieces and building your team. You never know when you’re going to get a shot to be the 2011 Mavs or 2004 Pistons.

I have my tickets for game 3. A treat to take my dad who’s a GS fan first and POR fan second.

LeapingGnome wrote:

I wish Portland had Nurkic, I am afraid they are just going to get rolled by Golden State, like a 4-1 series.

Yeah, I'm hoping, but this series has a very "Gentleman's Sweep" vibe to it.

That is awesome DS, I am envious you are going to one of the games.

Lol. Obligatory dramatic Titanic rendition.

I can’t believe that happened. It’s a first in the NBA. My brain has melted.

Same. I’ve seen two shots during these playoffs that I never imagined in my wildest dreams. I love this sport so much.

I couldn't sleep for a while last night after the high of that game winner, OMG.

I'm still so happy. I feel like I've been waiting 18 years for that shot to go in, and last night it did. (2001 Vince Carter reference)

Toronto's whole team really needs to step it up though, we've been very inconsistent, and that's disappointing to see.

I'm looking forward to a different style of play with the Bucks, and hopefully the Raps can match up. To be honest, I'm happy with whatever happens at this point.

I guess the media ECF match up of the Powerhouse teams that are Boston and Philly will have to wait while the two actual best teams in the east (and clearly 2 of top 3 in the NBA) play. Looking forward to it.

I like that, standings wise, 3 of the 4 best teams are in the conference finals and the 4th team finished 5th best. Yet the media really are acting like this is totally unexpected. I know the Eastern Conference better than the Western Conference but the problems with the Celtics and Sixers were actual problems (how will the Celtics fit everyone in and gain a rhythm and can the Sixers young stars overcome their deficiencies) that were given lip service.

Vector wrote:

I like that, standings wise, 3 of the 4 best teams are in the conference finals and the 4th team finished 5th best. Yet the media really are acting like this is totally unexpected. I know the Eastern Conference better than the Western Conference but the problems with the Celtics and Sixers were actual problems (how will the Celtics fit everyone in and gain a rhythm and can the Sixers young stars overcome their deficiencies) that were given lip service.

Truth. It's almost like in the era of superteams we've forgotten that chemistry matters. I never saw the Celtics as fated to be better. In fact it was fairly obvious that telling a bunch of young guys to take a back seat was going to be difficult. Even more so given that Hayward wasn't necessarily an upgrade and Irving brings all kinds of on-the-court chemistry issues to a team that was sharing the ball fairly well. To say nothing of his "leadership".

Meanwhile I'm just now hearing NBA analysts question how you play Simmons and Embiid together when Simmons can't / won't shoot outside.

That game sucked.. and even if the shot doesnt go in I don't think the Sixers had enough to win in OT. I dont know what can be done with Simmons honestly.. at this point I'd let him go to the Lakers and hang out with the Kardashians.. I'd much rather have Leonard.

That being said Drake still sucks.. I mean seriously he's the worst.

Simmons should be salvageable if only because he's young. He's also a very valuable trade asset who might never learn to shoot.

Reminds me of one of my favorite takes that remains hot

It sure doesn’t look natural. For all the dazzling passes that made him an elite prospect, Simmons is a poor shooter; he hit just 13 of his 40 jump shots at LSU, and only five of 23 in the summer league. Those numbers come from me. I’ve been tracking all of his shots going back to LSU, and will continue to once he returns to the floor in the NBA. Why? For one, because I am obsessed with weird stats like this, but there’s a deeper method to my madness: I believe Ben Simmons is shooting with the wrong hand, and I’ve never been more sure of anything in my entire life.
Simmons shot 346 non-jumpers last season, including layups, tip-ins, dunks, floaters, and post-ups. Of those, about 75 percent of his at-rim shots came off his right hand, 94 percent of his floaters were righty, and 98 percent of his post-ups were finished righty. That means 82 percent of his non–jump shots were attempted with his right hand. He pretty much replicated those results in the Las Vegas and Utah summer leagues, with 31 of Simmons’s 38 non–jump shots coming off his right hand. Is this normal for lefties? No. I also watched 150 non-jumpers taken by left-handed NBA players, and the results were nearly flipped. Lefties instinctively use their left hand; righties instinctively use their right hand. Simmons is a "lefty" that instinctively uses his right hand. The statistics suggest that Simmons prefers his right, the hand even he admits he thinks he was "supposed to" use.
TheGameguru wrote:

That being said Drake still sucks.. I mean seriously he's the worst.

Drake is absolutely terrible in so many ways. Good thing the players on the Raptors are bucket-loads of fun and are easy to cheer for. I'm sure the Blazers and Bucks do as well but other than Giannis and Kanter, I don't really know anyone else's story.

As much as I don't hate the Warriors like everyone else, I'd be thrilled with any of Raptors, Bucks, and Blazers. Raptors are my number one, obviously.

Vector wrote:
TheGameguru wrote:

That being said Drake still sucks.. I mean seriously he's the worst.

Drake is absolutely terrible in so many ways. Good thing the players on the Raptors are bucket-loads of fun and are easy to cheer for. I'm sure the Blazers and Bucks do as well but other than Giannis and Kanter, I don't really know anyone else's story.

As much as I don't hate the Warriors like everyone else, I'd be thrilled with any of Raptors, Bucks, and Blazers. Raptors are my number one, obviously. :P

Bucks highest draft pick on their roster was Brook Lopez at 10 by the Nets. Five 2nd round picks and no other player higher than 15 (Giannis). Absolutely great, tight knit, and unselfish roster. Very similar to Toronto in that regard (KL at #15 is their highest drafted player).

Boston? Six top 9 drafted players and 4 in the top 3 picks. Philly has 4 top 9 players. Golden State: 6 top 7 and 7 top 11. Portland has 7 top 11 picks. That surprised me a little bit.

bhchrist wrote:
Vector wrote:
TheGameguru wrote:

That being said Drake still sucks.. I mean seriously he's the worst.

Drake is absolutely terrible in so many ways. Good thing the players on the Raptors are bucket-loads of fun and are easy to cheer for. I'm sure the Blazers and Bucks do as well but other than Giannis and Kanter, I don't really know anyone else's story.

As much as I don't hate the Warriors like everyone else, I'd be thrilled with any of Raptors, Bucks, and Blazers. Raptors are my number one, obviously. :P

Bucks highest draft pick on their roster was Brook Lopez at 10 by the Nets. Five 2nd round picks and no other player higher than 15 (Giannis). Absolutely great, tight knit, and unselfish roster. Very similar to Toronto in that regard (KL at #15 is their highest drafted player).

Boston? Six top 9 drafted players and 4 in the top 3 picks. Philly has 4 top 9 players. Golden State: 6 top 7 and 7 top 11. Portland has 7 top 11 picks. That surprised me a little bit.

In fairness, Portland traded for a few of those. Lillard was acquired in a trade for Gerald Wallace. Same with Collins, who they took after trading down with 2 other first round picks. They signed a couple as free agents.

I don't really care to much where a player was drafted but am more interested in their personal stories, journey's to the NBA, and life outside the court

For example, I like Brook Lopez a lot. He's a half-Cuban identical twin and Robin is the more publically outgoing of the two while Brook is quieter. He's also got a dry sense of humor. Really like he went from future star of the Nets, to constantly injured dinosaur with a terrible contract, to sharpshooting giant.

DSGamer wrote:
bhchrist wrote:
Vector wrote:
TheGameguru wrote:

That being said Drake still sucks.. I mean seriously he's the worst.

Drake is absolutely terrible in so many ways. Good thing the players on the Raptors are bucket-loads of fun and are easy to cheer for. I'm sure the Blazers and Bucks do as well but other than Giannis and Kanter, I don't really know anyone else's story.

As much as I don't hate the Warriors like everyone else, I'd be thrilled with any of Raptors, Bucks, and Blazers. Raptors are my number one, obviously. :P

Bucks highest draft pick on their roster was Brook Lopez at 10 by the Nets. Five 2nd round picks and no other player higher than 15 (Giannis). Absolutely great, tight knit, and unselfish roster. Very similar to Toronto in that regard (KL at #15 is their highest drafted player).

Boston? Six top 9 drafted players and 4 in the top 3 picks. Philly has 4 top 9 players. Golden State: 6 top 7 and 7 top 11. Portland has 7 top 11 picks. That surprised me a little bit.

In fairness, Portland traded for a few of those. Lillard was acquired in a trade for Gerald Wallace. Same with Collins, who they took after trading down with 2 other first round picks. They signed a couple as free agents.

And that is the case with other teams as well. I think it goes more towards the perception issue and the idea that you have to have multiple high draft picks in order to rebuild and/or contend. No, you have to have the right pieces. Philly and Boston have accumulated all these picks over the years. They are inferior teams to both Toronto and Milwaukee.

I think all teams have players with great stories. Bucks sure do. Heck, Embiid is a great story. I also find him to be a front running, self-aggrandizing, smarmy troll. The story is great, but who is the person and how do they represent themselves? From everything we know, there really is no better combination of story and person than Giannis. Read the NYT piece from last week, or the 60 minutes piece, or the TNT one, or...you get the picture. Middleton, Brogdon (very intelligent and thoughtful individual), Lopez, and an number of others have neat backgrounds without being a-holes.

I really don't dislike any of the remaining players or teams. Can't say the same for Boston or Philly.

Oh, and Brook is a straight up, card carrying, geek culture nerd.

Sure to be a good team you need to have picks or chemistry but let’s face it what the NBA has show us for a decade is you need to convince 3 or 4 elite true max guys and some role players to play on the same team. It’s been Miami with Lebron, Cleveland with Lebron and Golden State. You had Boston with their super crew for a bit and San Antonio with their core. Other than that everyone else has to find the magic fit to finish in Second.

So I’m not sure there’s as much strategy as you are making it.

To be fair, the Spurs developed organically through the draft. I think what most fans object to (when the object to this) are superteams being slapped together with superstars from disparate teams.

As far as teams in the running now the Blazers are a fairly organic team. Definitely not a super team. Same with the Bucks. If not for Durant and Boogie, the Warriors were also a great example of a fairly organic roster built from rehabbed free agents and draft picks.

Excited about tomorrow night, because it will be the only highlight of the Knicks season and because I'm also interested to see how it goes horribly wrong for the Knicks.

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D6aZ7tTWwAIIiQy?format=jpg&name=large)

Jayhawker wrote:

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D6aZ7tTWwAIIiQy?format=jpg&name=large)

Edit: Is it weird that one of my first reaction to the full pic was, "Jeremy Lin's a Raptor?"

I would've felt bad for a lot of people in the aftermath of that crushing loss, but not at all for uber-sh*t-talker Joel Embiid.

And to be clear, I'm fine with the broad majority of sh*t-talking.

Prederick wrote:

I would've felt bad for a lot of people in the aftermath of that crushing loss, but not at all for uber-sh*t-talker Joel Embiid.

And to be clear, I'm fine with the broad majority of sh*t-talking.

He could still be crying for all I care.

So many NBA players current and historic sh*t talk way worse than Embiid.. not sure why he specifically gets called out here.. I guess social media magnifies what probably is no different than during Jordan's era.

76ers will keep Coach Brown for next season. Good, I think they should and didn't understand all of the media speculation that he was on the hot seat. His whole team changed mid-season and their best player was injured for half of their playoff games, I don't think he deserves to go out because they lost in the second round.

TheGameguru wrote:

So many NBA players current and historic sh*t talk way worse than Embiid.. not sure why he specifically gets called out here.. I guess social media magnifies what probably is no different than during Jordan's era.

Agreed. And when I saw him crying I saw a young man who truly felt the moment and will hopefully grow from it.

TheGameguru wrote:

So many NBA players current and historic sh*t talk way worse than Embiid.. not sure why he specifically gets called out here.. I guess social media magnifies what probably is no different than during Jordan's era.

The "Why" for me is because most of the historic sh*t talking stayed on the court. Embiid has brought the level of disrespect to a whole new level in press conferences and social media. He is also notorious in shrinking away when things go poorly. He constantly trolls and baits both in the media and on the court. He is dismissive publicly of those who are "below" him. Want to call him a modern day Laimbeer with his taunting and baiting for a reaction? Sure. I didn't like Laimbeer either.The laughing about the elbow to the face of Jarrett Allen with Simmons in the press conference was the final straw for me.

On another front, this was gold:
IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/9r6mSV0.gif)