The NBA Thread

MattS said:
For sure, though the Knicks got Lowry back last night on a nice hook from Barret to get him his 5th foul. Jimmy looked real human last night also - both teams definitely banged up at this point
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Yep haha. RJ gave him a taste of his own medicine.

at the end of the day, when both teams are complaining about the reffing, there's probably something wrong with it haha. since I'm a knicks fan (and I'm not used to us being in the playoffs lol), I usually watch nearly all playoff games every year. and I really hate when the refs insert themselves into the game. If you wanna let them play physical, then let both teams play physical. If you wanna call ticky-tack fouls, call them.

The Warriors get away with the moving screens a lot too. Don't know if the NBA needs to consider adding another ref or what....I can somewhat understand teams getting away with some of this stuff, especially in a motion offense because there are always guys running around and they can't possibly see everything. But that screen on Zeller was particularly egregious since the ref was staring right at it and let it play on. I don't understand what defenders are supposed to do. If they try to run through the screen, refs are calling it a foul on the defenders. So they then need to navigate around the screens and shooters get so much space.
 
MattS said:
Lol, yes, the refs have really had it in for the Knicks this series..

The reffing has been terrible for each team at times this series. I’m tired of watching Brunson (who is a wildly impressive player and absolute badass) get away with push offs and throwing his shoulder into players on drives because he’s too small to call it. But I get your sentiment, I honestly hate watching the Knicks play too.

These are two blue collar teams and it’s been physical all series - but it’s so easy to pull clips to prove a point (the continuation 3 Brunson got at the end of game 2 that even confused the announcers, the Heat jumper that hit the rim the refs ignored and called a 24-second violation for).
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Back in the 90s these no-calls would resulted in at least one fight.
 
TenderLovingKiller® said:
Back in the 90s these no-calls would resulted in at least one fight.
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yep. we've mostly kept a level head although Josh Hart was getting super frustrated last night with the reffing. He got hit with 5 fouls in something like 7 minutes. I was a bit surprised Randle kept his cool the other night when he got hit from behind on a rebound by Zeller.

Also props to Grimes for getting that steal on Jimmy while his leg was really hurt. It was a very Jimmy-esque defensive play. That was also probably a foul on Grimes but at least the refs let them play on haha
 
MikeH said:
yep. we've mostly kept a level head although Josh Hart was getting super frustrated last night with the reffing. He got hit with 5 fouls in something like 7 minutes. I was a bit surprised Randle kept his cool the other night when he got hit from behind on a rebound by Zeller.

Also props to Grimes for getting that steal on Jimmy while his leg was really hurt. It was a very Jimmy-esque defensive play. That was also probably a foul on Grimes but at least the refs let them play on haha
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That steal almost broke me. Like Jimmy, you can’t get picked by a dude on one leg! But couldn’t agree more man and my initial response was more angry fan than anything. Also, I hated Lowry most of his career - but since he’s on my team and I benefit from his bullshit, I root for him. Outside of maybe Marcus Smart, he’s the most annoying impact player in the game
 
sahomerrocks said:
What's the other option for an 8 man rotation instead of Green? Now I don't watch all the late games so I might be wrong but it seems like Green has been on with Jokic off, so of course the +/- is gonna be trash but they've been dominating net rating in the playoffs due to being ok on defense while playing Gordon at the 5 with Jokic off. Would you try Cancar or Nnaji or Bryant instead?
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Jeff has been the 7th man in this series and has def played with Jokic some in this series. For example, he was on the court with Jokic when the Suns rallied in G5 Q2.

The bench played at its best for the 15 game stretch that Jeff was hurt. They had Zeke at the 5, Cancar at the 4 + some combo of Brown / Braun / Murray / Bones. The problem is both Zeke and Cancar then got hurt, fell out of the rotation and have struggled with their shot after their playing time disappeared.

Cancar is a great playmaker, solid rebounder and okay, switchable defender as long as he isn't matched up against a super atheltic PF. He was shooting 40% from deep til he fell out of the rotation.

Zeke might be the best perimeter defender on the team pound for pound and, while ideally a 4, can switch 2-5. He's a decent rebounder (so an upgrade on Jeff). He was a 40% 3 point shooter during his first two seasons but the team inexplicably fucked with his shot during the offseason and now its a mess. But he can also score around the rim.

I think Malone was leaning towards trying Peyton Watson (who is a rookie and raw af). But already an impactful defender (4 blocks in one game at the end of the season) and played the Suns really well in our late season games. I have no idea if he is ready for playoff minutes, but he would bring defense and hustle. And Paul George just raved his *offensive* game while comparing him to Brandon Ingram which is fascinating.

Point being, there is no clear answer. But part of that is because Malone has repeatedly failed at player development since we took the leap to contender because he overplays washed vets in an overly tight 8, maybe 9 man rotation during the season. And either way, Jeff Green does literally nothing at a positive level outside of dunking and not making blatant mistakes. Meanwhile, he is meh defensively, the worst rebounder for his size I've seen since Wilson Chandler and is shooting 30% from 3 this year.
 
DownIsTheNewUp said:
Point being, there is no clear answer. But part of that is because Malone has repeatedly failed at player development since we took the leap to contender because he overplays washed vets in an overly tight 8, maybe 9 man rotation during the season.
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Malone sounds kinda like Thibs, although I think Thibs and his staff have been quite good at developing our young guys. The whole 8-9 man regular season rotation though is tough. We have a few guys who deserve more playing time too, especially when we need to switch things up, but in the playoffs all these guys have been out of the rotation and can't give us good minutes because most aren't in rhythm at all.
 
TenderLovingKiller® said:
…to a point. Thibs is great at developing role players and secondary stars. I don’t think he has a clue how to develop or nurture elite talent.
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Eh. If you're talking about Minnesota, I don't think anybody has the patience to baby KAT haha. My biggest gripe with Thibs is that he hasn't held Randle accountable at all when he's playing without effort. I get that you can't just bench your star player all the time for stuff like that, but it is frustrating.

I think this knicks FO and staff has done a great job developing the role players though. Grimes, Mitch, Quickley have all developed well under him. Sims looks like a decent backup big. Deuce has given us good minutes on defense. All these guys were drafted late in the 1st or 2nd round. Obi has even improved a bit on defense and rebounding but I feel bad for him since he's stuck behind Randle in the rotation. Had we known Randle would become a 2x all star, probably wouldn't have taken Toppin with that pick.
 
bettim84 said:
Welp, I guess Klay is washed now that not even his Game-6 version works anymore. Bummed but I’ll admit there’s some poetry in having Lebron oversee the end of the GSW dynasty.

Now I can’t wait to see Jokic wipe out the Lakers and then win it all.
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yea I'm rooting for the Nuggets now out of all the teams left.

Great season for my Knicks even though it ended in disappointment. We gotta figure out what to do with Randle this off-season. The ankle injury really set him back this post-season but he just failed to show up again in the playoffs for the most part. Quickley was a surprising no-show before Bam took him out with that football play. At least maybe he will be cheaper to extend now...RJ's play (outside of last night) was promising. Brunson is him.

I don't think the FO has any balls to try to trade Julius. I personally like him, but he's been the most polarizing Knicks player since Melo. The obsession with some Knicks fans of absolutely hating him for every little thing is bizarre to me. Kenyon Martin went on a weird rant about how Julius' mind isn't in the right place because he immediately went to kiss his son and wife after we won in game 5.
 
bettim84 said:
Bummed but I’ll admit there’s some poetry in having Lebron oversee the end of the GSW dynasty.
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Lol well that's not what happened. It was rocky all year and picked up a the end; while a title was possible it was very improbbable. We'll reload again and continue to be a threat.
 
I did not want Jokic to win the MVP for the same reasons, he didnt want to win the MVP. And I'm nervous af about the officiating the Nuggets are about to recieve.

That said--



And even funnier considering all the people who pretend Jamal wasn't deeply missed...

 
I took pleasure in the collapse of Knicks after a shit experience watching Game 5 at the Garden and getting harassed by Knicks fans.

And I’m looking for a Heat/Lakers rematch.

We were always a threat.
 
David A. said:
I fucking hate Jokic.
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That's an extremely weird player to hate. Dude's humble, empowers his teammates, a guy from a very poor country who went from 2nd round pick to superstar and is one of a kind.

Why?

And either way, anyone who isn't from LA and casually roots for the Lakers (regardless of reason) might as well be a Trump supporter in my book 😉
 
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