The NBA Thread

MikeH said:
I don’t like saying “well if team A had just won one more game they would have won it all”. I guess I mean that I don’t see Giannis winning it all without some other star player(s) alongside him. There are very few guys and teams that can win it all without having a star running mate. I like Middleton but he’s not it. The Mavs, Pistons, Raptors and maybe you could say the Spurs, are the only teams that have won a championship with one superstar and an ensemble cast the past 20 years. It’ll be interesting to see who wins this season though. But the Bucks and Raps are the only two teams left without multiple superstars.
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Right on, that’s a more nuanced point. As someone who’s been living in Michigan for about 20 years and watched those mid-00s Pistons teams make two NBA finals (different era, I know), I tend to believe that less-than-perfect and even superstar-less teams have a shot to win it all (though the window only opens up 1-2x per decade). E.g. I think the Raptors could actually win it all again this year, though Boston seems to have other plans. The lack of home court advantage definitely created a bigger pool of contenders.
 
bettim84 said:
Right on, that’s a more nuanced point. As someone who’s been living in Michigan for about 20 years and watched those mid-00s Pistons teams make two NBA finals (different era, I know), I tend to believe that less-than-perfect and even superstar-less teams have a shot to win it all (though the window only opens up 1-2x per decade). E.g. I think the Raptors could actually win it all again this year, though Boston seems to have other plans. The lack of home court advantage definitely created a bigger pool of contenders.
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I absolutely loved those Pistons teams. I agree with ya too—it could happen again. It requires everything to align and as you said, this season is far from normal. I sadly feel like whatever team wins this year will have an asterisk next to them when people look back on this season. I don’t think there’s a clear favorite anymore this year. It can be anybody’s year right now IMO.
 
Rip_City said:
MIKE
DAN
TONY

www.google.com

D'Antoni tells Rockets he won't return as coach

Houston head coach Mike D'Antoni has told the Rockets he won't return, ending the veteran coach's four-year run with the Rockets.
www.google.com www.google.com

It was honestly time, though.
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He doesn’t wanna be stuck coaching with Westbrook’s 3 years and 40+ mil each year contact haha I think Morey is gonna be gone too this offseason and wouldn’t be surprised to see Fertitta try to offload contracts and include assets...

I could see Dan Tony go coach in Philly. Maybe they go for Morey too...and keep Brand as GM to work under him.
 
MikeH said:
He doesn’t wanna be stuck coaching with Westbrook’s 3 years and 40+ mil each year contact haha I think Morey is gonna be gone too this offseason and wouldn’t be surprised to see Fertitta try to offload contracts and include assets...

I could see Dan Tony go coach in Philly. Maybe they go for Morey too...and keep Brand as GM to work under him.
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I like MDA but I can't think of a worse philosophical fit with his style and the Sixers' roster.
 
Rip_City said:
Don't forget from last year when Damian BANISHED his ass with a half court buzzer-beater last year in the first round. I don't think he psychologically recovered from that either...just another routine GW shot hit over him. Nothing to see here.

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PG13 been under-performing in the Playoffs for years right along with LouWill who are the Clippers 2-3 options and as a Lakers fan I absolutely love it that it not only continued but spread over to Kawhi as well. Dame is a killer though, only guy in today's NBA that has that absolute late game killer in him like Kobe did. He was also thrashing the Clippers all night on Twitter, inviting Beverly to Cancun with him hahaha

Loved that Dame time wave Rondo's brother gave to Westbrook while ending the Rockets series as well.. This is quite the epic little bubble thus far.

Papa AD about to put the Joker to bed in this next series 🌚
 
sahomerrocks said:
I like MDA but I can't think of a worse philosophical fit with his style and the Sixers' roster.
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Yeah, zero chance he goes there unless they get rid of Embiid especially. If i'm the Sixers or any possible contender i'm not touching D'antoni with a 10 foot pole though. The series against the Lakers was one of the most out coached series i've ever seen honestly. Lakers were the better team regardless but Vogel was running circles around him making adjustments while D'antoni literally didn't make a single one and just kept saying "they had the Lakers just where they want them". Just like Harden, they will both be remembered as great in the Regular season but elite at consistently underachieving in the Playoffs.
 
sahomerrocks said:
I like MDA but I can't think of a worse philosophical fit with his style and the Sixers' roster.
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Haha true. Don’t know how I didn’t think of that. No shooters on the Sixers...the latest rumor I saw was that Sixers were looking at Donovan, Ty Lue and Dan Tony but Dan Tony might go to the Pacers. I also wonder if Doc Rivers gets fired...crazy that he’s the coach of 23% of the teams who have blown 3-1 leads.
 
MikeH said:
It’s all going to plan. Nuggets can only win if they go down 3-1.
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Worked against the previous two teams for sure haha

Zero chance it will against the Lakers though, ol' dad bod Jokic is about to get a restraining order on Dwight after this series is over 🙀
 
hype said:
Worked against the previous two teams for sure haha

Zero chance it will against the Lakers though, ol' dad bod Jokic is about to get a restraining order on Dwight after this series is over 🙀
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It’s more that when Jokic can’t match up with AD when he finally agrees to play the 5. It’s infuriating that AD doesn’t like playing the 5 (it was like when Melo hated playing the 4...) it’s clearly the best position for him in creating mismatches.
 
MikeH said:
It’s more that when Jokic can’t match up with AD when he finally agrees to play the 5. It’s infuriating that AD doesn’t like playing the 5 (it was like when Melo hated playing the 4...) it’s clearly the best position for him in creating mismatches.
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True to a point but he's also at his best when he can float on the perimeter and be that help defender at times to the basket. He's elite at guarding 1-5. He's not a banging center and wants to save his body in the regular season which im cool with and he's stated many times he'll do whatever is necessary once the Playoffs roll around where you see him play the 5 much more often. McGee has played what, maybe 10 minutes at the most of actual non garbage time since game 2 of the Rockets series? AD played the 5 pretty much every minute from game 2 on the last series and has played a decent amount starting off this series as well. Howard is without question the best option on Jokic for most of the minutes as it leaves AD to roam and cause absolute havoc on the other 4 guys and if needed he can take over in the second half and shut most of his game down.

Luckily the Lakers finally have a coach again that can make great in game adjustments and decisions. Like in this current series you have McGee who can guard Jokic better then any defender he's faced in the Playoffs outside of probably Gobert yet he's only the Lakers 4-5th best player to guard him on our roster. Jokic just has no chance to consistently have good minutes with what the Lakers can throw at him while they all get to remain fresh at all times and even after Jokic lost the weight he's still far from great shape to say the least. Hopefully people will stop saying he's at AD's level which was ridiculous in the first place imo especially when you factor in the defensive side.

That lineup with Morris/AD as the bigs is absolutely lights out though defensively (offensively as well much of the time). If they keep playing the way they are they'll go down as an all time great Playoff defense. He's the number one guy I hope they are looking to re-sign, he's a great fit next to AD in the modern day smaller ball NBA most teams throw out now.

I'm interested to see what adjustments Malone makes but honestly the Lakers are just an awful matchup for them and vastly superior at every single facet of the game so only so much a coach can do. Plus they were already in the Nuggets heads 2-3 minutes into the 2nd quarter of game 1. They're mentally weak just like the Nuggets of the mid 2000's when Kobe would wreck havoc on them and they'd fold every single year...

I do agree though that McGee needs to play extremely limited to no minutes again in this series to not give the Nuggets any real hope.
 
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