NBA Playoffs

[rudel.dietrich]

Spurs and Clippers alone have made this a great first round.
We were spoiled by last season which had possibly the greatest round 1 ever.

5 series we put to game 7. One went to gsme six and produced what will always be known in Portland as 'The Shot'
Lillard finished the gsme, killed off Houston and moved them to the next round.

OKC vs Memphis might have been the best 7 game series of basketball I have ever seen.
4 OT games in a row and the Thunder had to come from. Down 2-3 to win two in a row.

Then fortune who is a fickle mistress had was them have an Ibaka injury and it was all over.

Then we had a great finals and the fans turned on the team and Lenron sailed to hell with this and went back home.


I hope this year Can deliver as well.

[kenyan_cheena]

Wow, it looks like the Basketball Gods are still not done with tormenting the LA Clippers...

[Rizon]

Originally Posted by kenyan_cheena

Wow, it looks like the Basketball Gods are still not done with tormenting the LA Clippers...

Same ole Clippers!! NorCal4Lyfe

[rudel.dietrich]

I thought the Rockets were done. In Games 1-4 their defense was horrid, they looked disinterred and at times looked like they have given up on Kevin McHale. Pretty amazing turn around.

If the Hawks can finish off the Wizards tonight then that would set up the ECF everyone wants.

I think the Warriors now have the Grizzles figured out. Steve Kerr has turned into a really good coach. The move of playing Bogut off Allen has essentially turned it into 5 on 4. Allen cannot shoot and the Grizzles are incapable of scoring above 90 on a consistent basis.
The Grizzles were a great old school team the last few years, but if they lose tonight or in game 7 then I feel like this summer some hard questions will be asked and their team could undergo a shift from the grind it out school of what they play now and move to a hybrid style where outside shooting, spacing and pace becomes more important.

[David Watts]

Wow, really didn't think the Rockets would win game 7.

[Rizon]

Originally Posted by Rizon

Same ole Clippers!! NorCal4Lyfe

This.

[kenyan_cheena]

Funniest thing, on another website I made a couple of posts at the time when it was 3-1 Clippers and 2-1 Grizzlies saying that 1) The Clippers look like NBA Champions (admitting that I might be premature with my praise) and 2) that Golden State's predicament was exactly what I was fearing might happen.

From that point on the Clippers went 0-3 and the Dubs went 3-0.

I would have loved it to be a Warriors-Clippers series. Just would have been such a great story to see the two former laughing stocks of Californian basketball fighting it out for the WCC.

[rudel.dietrich]

We will look back at this in the coming years and see it as one of the bigger collapses of the decade. After game 4 the Rockets looked dead. Their 3 losses were by an average of 25 points.
As I said before, watching the games, they looked outmatched, uninterested, resigned to defeat and look like they had given up on the series and Kevin McHale.

I am utterly shocked by the turn around. And I refuse to admit I like how Dwight Howard plays basketball and I still think his mental approach to the game is a waste of athletic gifts. But he was great in this series.

For the Clippers, I have to wonder if Steve Balmer will force Doc Rivers to give up GM duties.
I believe in Doc the coach. But Doc the GM has been a disaster. Maybe I am just insulted since I consider myself to be an amateur basketball analyst and I hate when those who have played the game treat the GM positions like a hobby.
But it is a full time 80 hour a week position. And coaching is a 80 hour a week commitment as well. It is impossible to try and do both IMO.

Popovich did it for a while but eventually gave it up. Red Auerbach did it. But that was 60 years ago and with all do respect to Red (whom I regard as a top 3 basketball mind ever) but with the complexity of todays game I don't think it can be done anymore.

Just understanding the salary cap and all of the potential moves and impacts of those moves is too much for someone to take on and be expected to coach and run practices.
NBA front offices have huge white boards dedicated to their entire franchise and every player in the league mapped on it and their cap hit.
The typical GMs week might see them spend 15 hours meeting with agents, then at an AAU game in Florida and then at a training camp in Ohio before getting a plane to Croatia and then finishng off the week in Nigeria.

Coaching and being a GM take two skills sets.
The Clippers bench was a mess this season and it got them in this series. By the end of the series they were visible running on fumes. Griffins already poor defense had degraded and their are multiple Vines of him being shredded.
And I think besides the physical fatigues, the mental strain was there as well. Knowing you were in for a 42 minute night of playoff basketball and that as soon as you sat down for a rest you were going to lose ground

Next season looks no better for Clipper fans.
If they give Jordan a max deal (and they will) then their cap space is completely gone. They will have to make due with trade exceptions, mid level exceptions and min salary players.


Rivers really has them in a salary cap bind and contracts like Spencer Hawes are untradable even more so since they don't have the draft picks to package to get rid of him.
And he made some really dumb trades getting rid of draft picks.
Even their late 1st this year would have helped them immensely since rookie deals represent one of the best values in the NBA in terms of performance per cap dollar.


That is another in my overly long posts that no one cares to read. But this series was significant for both teams. It justifies to a degree how the Rockets built their team, probably saved Kevin McHales job and made him look like one of the better coaches in the league and must make Clippers fan fear for their future.

[kenyan_cheena]

I enjoyed reading it.

[rudel.dietrich]

And the Clippers don't have a second rounder either. Yikes, it is worse than I thought.

[kenyan_cheena]

Draft Lottery Day!

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by rudel.dietrich

We will look back at this in the coming years and see it as one of the bigger collapses of the decade. After game 4 the Rockets looked dead. Their 3 losses were by an average of 25 points.
As I said before, watching the games, they looked outmatched, uninterested, resigned to defeat and look like they had given up on the series and Kevin McHale.

I am utterly shocked by the turn around. And I refuse to admit I like how Dwight Howard plays basketball and I still think his mental approach to the game is a waste of athletic gifts. But he was great in this series.

For the Clippers, I have to wonder if Steve Balmer will force Doc Rivers to give up GM duties.
I believe in Doc the coach. But Doc the GM has been a disaster. Maybe I am just insulted since I consider myself to be an amateur basketball analyst and I hate when those who have played the game treat the GM positions like a hobby.
But it is a full time 80 hour a week position. And coaching is a 80 hour a week commitment as well. It is impossible to try and do both IMO.

Popovich did it for a while but eventually gave it up. Red Auerbach did it. But that was 60 years ago and with all do respect to Red (whom I regard as a top 3 basketball mind ever) but with the complexity of todays game I don't think it can be done anymore.

Just understanding the salary cap and all of the potential moves and impacts of those moves is too much for someone to take on and be expected to coach and run practices.
NBA front offices have huge white boards dedicated to their entire franchise and every player in the league mapped on it and their cap hit.
The typical GMs week might see them spend 15 hours meeting with agents, then at an AAU game in Florida and then at a training camp in Ohio before getting a plane to Croatia and then finishng off the week in Nigeria.

Coaching and being a GM take two skills sets.
The Clippers bench was a mess this season and it got them in this series. By the end of the series they were visible running on fumes. Griffins already poor defense had degraded and their are multiple Vines of him being shredded.
And I think besides the physical fatigues, the mental strain was there as well. Knowing you were in for a 42 minute night of playoff basketball and that as soon as you sat down for a rest you were going to lose ground

Next season looks no better for Clipper fans.
If they give Jordan a max deal (and they will) then their cap space is completely gone. They will have to make due with trade exceptions, mid level exceptions and min salary players.


Rivers really has them in a salary cap bind and contracts like Spencer Hawes are untradable even more so since they don't have the draft picks to package to get rid of him.
And he made some really dumb trades getting rid of draft picks.
Even their late 1st this year would have helped them immensely since rookie deals represent one of the best values in the NBA in terms of performance per cap dollar.


That is another in my overly long posts that no one cares to read. But this series was significant for both teams. It justifies to a degree how the Rockets built their team, probably saved Kevin McHales job and made him look like one of the better coaches in the league and must make Clippers fan fear for their future.

Nah, keep the posts coming. I enjoy this thread.

[TGH-Adfabre]

Originally Posted by kenyan_cheena

I enjoyed reading it.

Ditto

[kenyan_cheena]

Warriors got away with another one.

[rudel.dietrich]

Must win game for the Hawks tomorrow. If they lose then I see this being a Warriors and Cavs finals.

[kenyan_cheena]

Curry

[rudel.dietrich]

This is proving to be quite a boring round. Korver has a very serious ankle injury. About as bad as Rubios from earlier in the season (Rubio had the worst ankle injury I have ever seen live, I have a strong stomach and even I had to look away on that one).

The Hawks sadly look done. It is a shame because they are not playing their style of basketball and the Cavs are playing a very ugly an almost unwatchable brand of basketball.

The Rockets could do anything after that last series, but in all honesty, they are done.

It is looking like Warriors vs Cavs.


And if that is indeed the series then it could be an anti climatic end to a great season. The Cavs are beat up and thin and just overall more talented.
And to steal a phrase from Zach Lowe, they are playing caveman basketball right now. It is ugly, hard to watch and frankly insulting that they have gotten this far.
The 4th quarter of game 1 vs the Hawks was a travesty. It was constant Lebron isolations that took 20 seconds of the shot clock.

If they play that way against the Warriors then I could see a sweep happening. If Lebron thinks last Finals against the Spurs was eye opening in terms of the talent gulf, then wait until they play the Warriors.

And this will be an interesting offseason for the Cavs.
Smith, Thompson, Sumpert and Delodova are going to get paid.
I can't imagine Lebron leaving Cleveland again, but we did make the contract with a player option. If he feels that Cleveland does not offer the best chance of winning a title, then he has shown that he is not afraid to bolt.

I see no scenario where Love is going stay so that frees up that cap space. But I don't see a scenario where the Cavs get better next season unless they luck into some undervalued talent as a mid level exception.

The Rockets actually have some cap space and could improve.
The Hawks worry me some. Millsap is one of the better contracts in the league at 2 years at 8 million. He is going to get paid this offseason. Demare Carroll is also going to get paid as well.

I don't know the free agent landscape yet. But I wonder how they will look next season. If they can find a serviceable center and move Horford to PF and move Scroder in the starting lineup and Korver at SF maybe that could be an option. That would leave the bench to be worked on, but they have the #15 draft pick and will have a bit of cap room for a small signing or two.


The Warrior look to be in great shape. Draymond Green will get a max deal and probably from the Warriors.
The Warriors really need to move David Lee since he is taking $15,493,680 next season. Even if it means packaging in a draft pick to get rid of him.
That would offer more flexibility.


I just hope that the Rockets and Hawks can defy the odds and make these series more interesting. But the Hawks are simply worn down, beat up and seemingly have forgotten how to play fluid basketball the last few few. I have no idea what happened but it has been sad to watch.

[kenyan_cheena]

It will be funny if both series end in sweeps and the players have to sit around twiddling their thumbs for more than a week.

Cavs probably would have been better off just keeping Wiggins, hey?

[rudel.dietrich]

Originally Posted by kenyan_cheena

Cavs probably would have been better off just keeping Wiggins, hey?

Yeah that is an interesting topic. There is a reason Wiggins was not mentioned in the LeBron coming home letter. I think the team knew as soon as he was returning that Wiggins was gone.

For his part, Wiggins showed some character. He wore the teams apparel, said the right things, did well in training camp and summer league and was a good member of the franchise up until he got traded.

It would have been interesting to see how they would have been had that trade never happened.

Stranger things have happened, but I see no way in which Love signs a new deal. He has been a good teammate but he looks so unhappy on the court. The Cavs misused him all season long and from all accounts his personality never meshed well with the team.

Anything could happen, but I see them meeting the Warriors in the finals and it being an epic beat down and LeBron using the summer to evaluate how the Cavs can change how they play.

Their current style of offense just will not get it done. And their cap situation is going to be tricky if they want to bring back Thompson, Smith and Shumpert or any combination of those.

[kenyan_cheena]

There was a little promo for the ECF playing during Game 3 of Warriors-Rockets and even then they managed to sneak in a photo of LBJ shaking Irving's hand and Love was in the background looking all alone.