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NBA 2017: Playoffs? Playoffs?!


Relic

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We are way over on the other thread. 

 

Which match do you want to see the most in round 1? Thunder Rockets is obvious,  Cavs/Heat would be interesting since everyone seems to get a kick of watching Bron squirm. Price of greatness,  I guess. 

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48 minutes ago, Relic said:

Which match do you want to see the most in round 1? Thunder Rockets is obvious,  Cavs/Heat would be interesting since everyone seems to get a kick of watching Bron squirm. Price of greatness,  I guess. 

These two, definitely. I'd pay money to see Dion Waiters and Lebron dueling for best player in the league (in Dion Waiters' mind),

Jazz-Clippers is also interesting. Both are among the rare teams left that rely on traditional big men. Could see the Clippers as we know them breaking apart in a glorious series of Stifle Tower rejections at the rim. 

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1 hour ago, Jaime L said:

These two, definitely. I'd pay money to see Dion Waiters and Lebron dueling for best player in the league (in Dion Waiters' mind),

Jazz-Clippers is also interesting. Both are among the rare teams left that rely on traditional big men. Could see the Clippers as we know them breaking apart in a glorious series of Stifle Tower rejections at the rim. 

The Heat are currently in 9th place. It would be a shame if they missed the playoffs.They have a 72% winning percentage over the last 36 games after starting out with a 11-30 record. 

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5 minutes ago, Relic said:

Really really hope the Heat get the 8th spot over Pacers or Bulls. They deserve it way more imho. 

They probably won't. They have the hardest schedule of all the times fighting for the last spots and the Bulls have an insanely easy schedule.

I can't believe I'm going to say this, but Dion Waiters deserves to be in the conversation for MVP. @Jaime L, please provide me with some more crazy pills. 

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16 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

They probably won't. They have the hardest schedule of all the times fighting for the last spots and the Bulls have an insanely easy schedule.

I can't believe I'm going to say this, but Dion Waiters deserves to be in the conversation for MVP. @Jaime L, please provide me with some more crazy pills. 

If Tywin turned out to be Dion Waiters, I'd be surprised... but only mildly so. 

So Waiters has played out of his mind in some big wins over Cleveland and Golden State among others and I comment on him a lot because he's unintentionally one of the funniest players in the NBA. But I think even during his dream season he's still only the third best Heat player (behind Dragic and Whiteside) in terms of overall value. Not to mention he's also only played 46 games.

That said, the Heat are only 3-5 since his most recent injury (they were 10-4 with him before that). 

2 minutes ago, Ramsay B. said:

But I actually hope Bulls don't make it either, I'm sick of them this year.

If the Bulls make the playoffs both the Heat and the Bulls will be pissed. 

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5 minutes ago, Jaime L said:

If Tywin turned out to be Dion Waiters, I'd be surprised... but only mildly so. 

So Waiters has played out of his mind in some big wins over Cleveland and Golden State among others and I comment on him a lot because he's unintentionally one of the funniest players in the NBA. But I think even during his dream season he's still only the third best Heat player (behind Dragic and Whiteside) in terms of overall value. Not to mention he's also only played 46 games.

That said, the Heat are only 3-5 since his most recent injury (they were 10-4 with him before that). 

Well we both are "irrational confidence guy."

Over the entire season the Heat are 27-19 when Waiters played, and the record is even better when he starts (can't find the stat right now and I need to get to the gym). Without him they're 10-21. 

He's not their best player, but he is their most valuable player. 

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2 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

He's not their best player, but he is their most valuable player. 

If he reads this he's not passing the ball the rest of the season. 

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31 minutes ago, Jaime L said:

If Tywin turned out to be Dion Waiters, I'd be surprised... but only mildly so.

So Waiters has played out of his mind in some big wins over Cleveland and Golden State among others and I comment on him a lot because he's unintentionally one of the funniest players in the NBA. But I think even during his dream season he's still only the third best Heat player (behind Dragic and Whiteside) in terms of overall value. Not to mention he's also only played 46 games.

That said, the Heat are only 3-5 since his most recent injury (they were 10-4 with him before that). 

If the Bulls make the playoffs both the Heat and the Bulls will be pissed. 

5 bucks on Roc as LaVar Ball.

 

Actually, we should totally do a vanity board:player thing. For you JL I'm going back to Jalen Rose.

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43 minutes ago, James Arryn said:

5 bucks on Roc as LaVar Ball.

Actually, we should totally do a vanity board:player thing. For you JL I'm going back to Jalen Rose.

Hmm, not sure whether I should be offended or not. 

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18 minutes ago, Jaime L said:

Hmm, not sure whether I should be offended or not. 

"There's always going to be criticism when your name is Jalen. You just have to wear a bulletproof vest and be ready for it."

 Meant very much as a compliment. Both in person and on camera he's one of the funniest pro atheletes I've ever met. He was also often unintentionally hilarious on court...I have more than once seen him complain about a non-call so much that the other team went down, scored and his team brought it back up while he was still making his case having only moved far enough to keep that ref in range...but that just adds to it. 

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11 minutes ago, James Arryn said:

"There's always going to be criticism when your name is Jalen. You just have to wear a bulletproof vest and be ready for it."

 Meant very much as a compliment. Both in person and on camera he's one of the funniest pro atheletes I've ever met. He was also often unintentionally hilarious on court...I have more than once seen him complain about a non-call so much that the other team went down, scored and his team brought it back up while he was still making his case having only moved far enough to keep that ref in range...but that just adds to it. 

Hah, I'll take it. 

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Ok, I have to get this off my chest and see what others here (who's bball IQ I highly respect) think.

What Russel has done this season is mind-blowing, and I don't care that the game has changed and helps his chances, we won't see it again for a long time. And, to me, there is no argument whatsoever who the MVP is, hands down. I don't care about wins. If you traded Harden and Westbrook the Thunder would be sub-.500 easy. It's a travesty it's even an argument, and I'm taking nothing away from Harden.

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2 hours ago, Michael Seswatha Jordan said:

Ok, I have to get this off my chest and see what others here (who's bball IQ I highly respect) think.

What Russel has done this season is mind-blowing, and I don't care that the game has changed and helps his chances, we won't see it again for a long time. And, to me, there is no argument whatsoever who the MVP is, hands down. I don't care about wins. If you traded Harden and Westbrook the Thunder would be sub-.500 easy. It's a travesty it's even an argument, and I'm taking nothing away from Harden.

I agree that Harden has the better team, but he also (at least this season) plays better team ball. And it's a team game. Westbrook is amazing, but I don't think he's a great teammate. By that metric, I give Harden the MVP. 

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1 hour ago, Michael Seswatha Jordan said:

Ok, I have to get this off my chest and see what others here (who's bball IQ I highly respect) think.

What Russel has done this season is mind-blowing, and I don't care that the game has changed and helps his chances, we won't see it again for a long time. And, to me, there is no argument whatsoever who the MVP is, hands down. I don't care about wins. If you traded Harden and Westbrook the Thunder would be sub-.500 easy. It's a travesty it's even an argument, and I'm taking nothing away from Harden.

At this point I don't have a problem either way. I don't think 32/11/10 is that much more impressive than 29/8/11 from a guy who does it much more efficiently. I think Harden has done more to make his teammates better and play within the flow of the offense but Westbrook has been both tireless and more of a cultural phenomenon. I mean when I think of this season, I'm going to think of Westbrook first. 

You might be right that the Thunder wouldn't be as good with Harden instead of Westbrook, but I definitely think the Rockets would be worse if the reverse was true and they had Westbrook instead of Harden. 

And look at tonight. Westbrook goes 45/9/10/5 in a very tight win including the backbreaker 3 and then final steal to ice it over Memphis.

Harden in turn put up a 31/7/10 in a calm, in control 6 point win over the Nuggets. Only Westbrook makes that line look pedestrian or feel boring by comparison.

So maybe Westbrook does deserve the MVP for the sheer force of the season he's having ...even if I still think Harden's been subtly more valuable. 

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9 hours ago, Michael Seswatha Jordan said:

Ok, I have to get this off my chest and see what others here (who's bball IQ I highly respect) think.

What Russel has done this season is mind-blowing, and I don't care that the game has changed and helps his chances, we won't see it again for a long time. And, to me, there is no argument whatsoever who the MVP is, hands down. I don't care about wins. If you traded Harden and Westbrook the Thunder would be sub-.500 easy. It's a travesty it's even an argument, and I'm taking nothing away from Harden.

To me his performance is more impressive than what Robertson did back in the days when even I could have been an NBA player.

So, that said, let me also say I think he would be a very deserving MVP winner.

I will however disagree with the notion that if you switch Harden to the Thunder in exchange for Russ, it's a 0.500 team.

It's a much more limited support cast than the Rockets have, but in that case Harden would just do even more and put even bigger numbers. He's capable of it.

 

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Well, I've watched both the Rockets and the Thunder play and the way in which Harden and Westbrook get triple-doubles are two different styles. 

Harden has the benefit of having good if not great shooters. In which, a lot of the assists come on drive and kick plays to create open 3's. Westbrook has no such advantage, he has zero shooters (Oladipo maybe?), and gets his assists purely by his sheer will of force in drawing defenders and laying off for easy layups. Here's what I'm saying, if you switched the two, Russel's #'s might be even more gaudier. While, I think Harden would have more trouble approaching a T-D as often. I think Harden is great for the Rockets, but I don't see him doing what Russel does with the lineup the Thunder has. It's pure speculative opinion, I know this. 

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To answer the original question, I'm most looking to Jazz-Clippers because I think it will be the most competitive series and Wizards-Bucks because its the series that I have a (slight) chance of getting to see a game in-person.

As far the MVP goes, I pretty much always prefer the team guy to the raw stats guy, and that's the case here too. That said, Westbrook's numbers are so extraordinary that I have no problem whatsoever if he wins it.

Also, Cleveland has now won 4 straight, including last night's beatdown in Boston where LeBron had 36/10/6. Small sample size, but its starting to seem that they've found their playoff gear again.

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