NBA - Bring on the Playoffs

[BlackFyre2015]

Heat is gonna 3peat

[Relic]

Why does Melo deserve to miss the playoffs? He's been a total stud this year. First player since Shaq to avg 28 point to with at least 8 rebounds a game. It's not his fault management stuck him with trash like Bargs and JR.

[AnotherCrannogman]

Yes and no. "Melo is not a team player and his teams tend to underperform in playoffs where passing and defense are rewarded. I think the triangle will help him a lot like it did Jordan. Who will Phil select as coach?

[Relic]

Yes and no. "Melo is not a team player and his teams tend to underperform in playoffs where passing and defense are rewarded. I think the triangle will help him a lot like it did Jordan. Who will Phil select as coach?

Have you watched any knick games this year? I saw just about 50 games and the knock about Melo not being a team player is outdated. He's fine. I wish he would play better D but beyond that it's not his fault he has no one to pass the ball to.

[AnotherCrannogman]

I do think 'Melo will prove to be a good player in the triangle. He has the same issues Jordan did when Phil took over.

I have League Pass and watch a ton of games. Almost every night. I am a Houston fan though and think they are fading at the wrong time. The Parsons injury is huge for us if it lingers.

[David Selig]

New York missing the playoffs means Orlando will have one more lottery pick in this year's draft, the Dwight Howard trade looks better and better each year. :)

[AnotherCrannogman]

Mike Green berg of esp thinks the nets are a real threat to miami. I think I agree. Am I wrong if they meet in the second round?

[Sir Thursday]

Theoretically, Memphis can win out and pass Dallas, right? I don't know what the Spurs - Mavericks season series looks like, but I assume Dallas would rather face OKC?

The Spurs are 4-0 against Dallas this season, but Dallas actually went 2-1 against OKC. I think you're right that they'd prefer the latter.

ST

[Calibandar]

Both the Nets and the Bulls ( amazingly,even without Rose....... and Luol Deng) are the teams that have a shot at knocking out the Heat and the Pacers in a series IMO. Both of these are great against the Heat ( but Chicago maybe not so much in a series).

I watched Pacers play the Heat and the Thunder this weekend. Thunder game just ended in an Indiana win and that pretty much means they finish first in the East after all, they only have Orlando left and have the tie breaker against Miami.

Things I don't like about the Pacers:

George Hill's offense. He's just too anonymous a player for me, I have a hard time seeing what he brings. He's no scoring threat, maybe he's a good defender, but it seems like he doesn't offer enough. When you're Mario Chalmers you can be a small time role player ( and do it well, like Chalmers does) because you have LeBron, and Bosh, and sometimes even a functioning D-Wade. But Indiana doesn't have those superstars and so I would think the PG needs to bring more than Hill does.

Then there's Paul George's offense, which is generally awful, but sometimes ok, and they keep going to him because what else can they do?

I sometimes see teams not even guarding him closely anymore from beyond the arc because he is so likely to miss. Finally Roy Hibbert's offense. I've now seen a couple of games where he will go 0-7 or 0-8. Come on man, you're a huge guy whose shots all come from close to the ring, you should really be able to do better than Kendrick Perkins like shooting. West and Stephenson have been stable factors in a declining team. The team might be on the upswing again after just beating OKC, but the offensive frailties loom very large.

Some things I don't like about OKC, even though still my favourite NBA team. For one, the tactics. Still far too much of Perkins. An awful lot of iso plays rather than a coordinated offense. Scott Brooks at fault here. Why is he still unsure about what the best line-up should be? We've got a whole season under our belt man, you should know by now. Also, Westbrook's shooting still needs to improve. Then, Westbrook and Durant need to be able to make better judgements on who the go-to guy is. There is so much that has to come from these two guys in the team, they need to get a better feeling for when Durant should go alone 8 times in a row, or switch it. You're getting nothing from Sefalosha and Perkins, so that leaves 3 players on the court who can score. Ibaka is ok, but not really reliable. Jackson is good off the bench but Lamb has disappointed. Perry Jones and Roberson are unknown quantities. I don't know, I want to say they are a prime contender to win but at the same time there's still quite a bit wrong with this team, and if I am totally honest, they just do not look as good to me now as when Harden was still on the team. They just don't. Too much is on Russ and Durant and they just seem destined to go out in one series or another.

[AnotherCrannogman]

Great post. I could not agree more.

The playoffs will be much more interesting this year, with no pre-destined teams to make it through easily.

[AnotherCrannogman]

Anyone watching the Nets? Garnett looks almost lost out there.

[Sir Thursday]

Some things I don't like about OKC, even though still my favourite NBA team. For one, the tactics. Still far too much of Perkins. An awful lot of iso plays rather than a coordinated offense. Scott Brooks at fault here. Why is he still unsure about what the best line-up should be? We've got a whole season under our belt man, you should know by now. Also, Westbrook's shooting still needs to improve. Then, Westbrook and Durant need to be able to make better judgements on who the go-to guy is. There is so much that has to come from these two guys in the team, they need to get a better feeling for when Durant should go alone 8 times in a row, or switch it. You're getting nothing from Sefalosha and Perkins, so that leaves 3 players on the court who can score. Ibaka is ok, but not really reliable. Jackson is good off the bench but Lamb has disappointed. Perry Jones and Roberson are unknown quantities. I don't know, I want to say they are a prime contender to win but at the same time there's still quite a bit wrong with this team, and if I am totally honest, they just do not look as good to me now as when Harden was still on the team. They just don't. Too much is on Russ and Durant and they just seem destined to go out in one series or another.

Question for you since you've watched a lot of the Thunder this year - do you feel like Ibaka plays better when Westbrook is around? I know when I watched OKC in the playoffs last year he really looked lost offensively once Westbrook went down - it felt like their P&R option really opened up his pick-and-pop game. But they've had a bit of time this year to get used to the idea of Westbrook not always being around, so maybe they've sorted that out?

ST

[Bib Fortuna]

Hell of an exciting game between the Warriors and Blazers tonight!

[Manhole Eunuchsbane]

Hell of an exciting game between the Warriors and Blazers tonight!

Man, can you imagine a seven game series between these two teams? Holy crap, I would pay good money to see that.

[Jabronius Maximus]

Every series in the West appears to be a good-great matchup. The Spurs' sudden injury problems could force them into playing an actual series against Memphis (or Phx, but unlikely). Nothing is guaranteed for Okc against Dallas, who have played them really well this season. Then there's the 'upset' potential of the Warriors-Clippers (but is there really an upset if a 50-win team beats another?). And then there's Houston-Portland, which could go either way. Each round after should only be more competitive. These playoffs should be a treat to watch.

I wonder though, how this rough Western playoffs will affect the winner. Maybe the eventual conference champion will be completely burnt out, and be erased by the Heat or Pacers or Raptors...

[David Selig]

Question for you since you've watched a lot of the Thunder this year - do you feel like Ibaka plays better when Westbrook is around? I know when I watched OKC in the playoffs last year he really looked lost offensively once Westbrook went down - it felt like their P&R option really opened up his pick-and-pop game. But they've had a bit of time this year to get used to the idea of Westbrook not always being around, so maybe they've sorted that out?

ST

Yeah, Ibaka was really lost on offence without Westbrook last season and in the first several games of this one he had to play without him, but gradually he has improved a lot. Largely thanks to Durant getting much better at finding him at his favourite spots and both of them getting used to playing without Westbrook. Reggie Jackson also improved a bit as a playmaker, though he is still much more of a scorer than a passing PG.

[Calibandar]

Funny how Chicago just lost a winnable game, now that Indiana seems locked for the no.1 spot.

They'd probably want to avoid Brooklyn in the 1st round,and rightly so, but they'd then play Indiana in the second instead of Miami, which they'd be keen on.

Toronto vs Washington could be a fun series. Raptors go into it as favorites, but Washington could be surprising. Not 4 times though, and the Raptors play well. Miami and Indiana have a very easy first round and that is indeed a big difference with the teams in the West.

Anyway, I was enjoying reading Bill Simmons' NBA mailbag again and he came up with the LVP award. Thought this was funny and quite right.

Q: So who was the LVP for the 2013-14 season?

—B.S., Los Angeles

SG: Fine, I wrote that one. They wouldn’t let us vote on this, but here’s how my ballot would have looked.

1. Josh Smith: Helped get a first-year coach and a once-great GM fired (it’s coming); drained Detroit’s salary cap; is completely and totally untradable; probably launched somewhere between 700 and 750 truly reprehensible shots; enraged the advanced metrics nerds; nearly broke the SportVU cameras and Goldsberry’s shot charts; sucked the life out of Detroit’s fan base; was disowned by the no. 1 Defender of All Lefties (Jalen Rose); couldn’t have been less fun to watch. Did I miss anything? Oh, wait — his old team (the Hawks) played better without him. And he achieved the advanced metrics triple crown, with his PER dropping from 17.7 to 14.1, his win shares per 48 minutes dropping from .075 to .021, and his sulks per 48 minutes skyrocketing from 8.2 to 14.8. If the LVP trophy changed sizes depending on the season, then Josh Smith’s 2014 season is a 40-pounder. He did everything short of getting arrested. The good news — we still have five days to go.

2. Raymond Felton: He’s gotta be in disbelief right now. What else did Ray Felton have to do? He was the league’s worst starting point guard, by every conceivable calculation, and somehow became untradable even with a cheap contract. He single-handedly derailed New York’s slash-and-kick offense by being unable to slash or kick. He seemed to actually gain weight during the season, which is always funny because these guys play sports for a living — I mean, you REALLY have to eat to gain weight when you’re an NBA starter. He became involved in an embarrassing gun scandal that stole some NY Post headlines and saw his wife making crazy accusations about him. And if that weren’t bad enough, New York’s mid-December deal for Kyle Lowry fell through … and the Raptors immediately took off and eventually made the playoffs. Find me the one Knicks fan who likes Ray Felton right now. Seriously, I’ll wait.

3. Andrew Bynum: Forced a trade from Cleveland by hijacking a practice and shooting every time he got the ball, even if he was past the 3-point line. The Bulls acquired him and immediately waived him. Eventually, Indiana signed him and went into an inexplicable tailspin — even without Bynum playing — almost like he spiritually infected the team like Sayid got spiritually infected during the final season of Lost. You know when they call someone like Derek Fisher a “veteran leader”? Bynum might be a “veteran cancer.”

4. Larry Sanders: He’s like Bizarro Hakeem in 1993, in that he just slapped together a career LVP year, only he can’t even crack the top three. Nightclub fights, a PETA scandal, a marijuana suspension, a $44 million extension that hasn’t even kicked in yet (and Milwaukee is already regretting), a near fight in the locker room with Gary Neal, severe regression on the court, and even last week’s bizarre marijuana-should-be-legal defense that murdered his trade value. (Hold on, I have to hug a sobbing Zach Lowe again. I’ll be right back.) The good news: When you’re gunning for the worst record in basketball, you want 2014 Larry Sanders on your team. So he wasn’t THAT unvaluable.

5. Kobe Bryant: If only for Jedi mind tricking his team into a L-U-D-I-C-R-O-U-S $48.5 million contract extension when he knew his body wasn’t anywhere close to being what it was. (And as soon as he came back, he broke down again.) At least he led the young guys by example on and off the court — oh wait, nobody’s seen him for four months. Keep getting dem checks, Kobe.

FWIW, his tp 5 for MVP:

My top five for MVP: (1) Kevin Durant, (2) LeBron James, (3) Blake Griffin, (4) Joakim Noah, (5) Dirk Nowitzki.

And his All-NBA team:

First-Team All-NBA: Durant, LeBron, Noah, Chris Paul, Harden.

Second-Team All-NBA: George, Griffin, Dwight Howard, Curry, Dragic.

Third-Team All-NBA: Kevin Love, Nowitzki, Al Jefferson, Kyle Lowry, Tony Parker.

Other things I liked:

Q: I’m a big OKC fan and watch most of their games. The way that teams guard Kevin Durant is unlike anything I have ever seen. He is basically denied the ball from the moment he crosses halfcourt. Against the Rockets on Friday, he was denied by two people at certain points during the game. Have you ever seen another player guarded like this?

—Kevin Gill, Richmond

SG: Please add that entire paragraph to KD’s 2014 MVP files. By the way, I’m pretty sure nobody would defend Durant that way if Harden still played for OKC. I’m almost positive. (I know, I know, beating a dead horse.)

So true.

Q: I just read the following headline, “Mason Plumlee blocks LeBron James’ dunk attempt in final seconds, Nets complete season sweep of Heat.” Here’s a fun game: making up absurd yet more believable headlines from the NBA. Like – “JR Smith mortally stabs teammate during 4th quarter timeout.”

—Ben, Fairview, UT

SG: I wouldn’t believe that one. But I absolutely WOULD believe …

“Felton fined 25K for eating BBQ on Knicks bench during final home game”

“Third assistant coach leaves Warriors as Jackson maintains everything is fine”

“Parsons vows that flying back and forth to film The Bachelor won’t affect him in the Finals”

“Boozer looks forward to playing with toupee in playoffs”

“Paul George categorically denies appearing in Teen Mom’s latest sex tape”

“Fourth assistant coach quits Warriors, changes name, enters FBI witness protection program as Jackson maintains everything is fine”

“Gasol admits giving himself vertigo as last-ditch effort to stop playing for D’Antoni”

“Details still scarce after Waiters-Irving fistfight at charity event”

“Heat-Nets tensions rise after Pierce and Garnett give Wade’s ex-wife courtside seats for Game 3”

[Ferrum Aeternum]

Every series in the West appears to be a good-great matchup. The Spurs' sudden injury problems could force them into playing an actual series against Memphis (or Phx, but unlikely). Nothing is guaranteed for Okc against Dallas, who have played them really well this season. Then there's the 'upset' potential of the Warriors-Clippers (but is there really an upset if a 50-win team beats another?).

The 3 through 8 teams in the West are all pretty evenly matched. Even with the Spurs having some injuries I don't love the Grizzlies' chances should that turn out to be the 1 vs. 8 matchup; the Spurs have shown this year to be a little vulnerable to the athletic up-and-down teams in the conference, which the Grizzlies of course are not. Pop has figured out how to completely neutralize the Griz natural advantage of Zach and Marc in the paint, regardless of what personnel he throws out there.

The dream scenario I keep trying to not think of is Griz win out, Warriors lose out which would match up the Griz vs. Clippers for the 3rd year in a row. By far the most winnable of the three playoff scenarios, and not just because of the teams' records.

[Maithanet]

Toronto vs Washington could be a fun series. Raptors go into it as favorites, but Washington could be surprising. Not 4 times though, and the Raptors play well. Miami and Indiana have a very easy first round and that is indeed a big difference with the teams in the West.

Unfortunately, there's no guarantee that Washington finishes 6th. They are a game ahead of Charlotte, who has the tiebreaker. Washington's last two are Miami and @ Boston, whereas Charlotte is @Atlanta (clinched the 8 spot) and home against Chicago. It's pretty tough to determine where this is going to shake out, because it's possible that both teams Charlotte plays will have nothing to play for.

Anyways, I hope that the Wiz don't fall to the 7 spot, because even though I don't think they'll beat Toronto (at all) I'm pretty sure they'd at least take a couple games and if things go their way, anything could happen. Whereas if they play Miami they'd probably spoil a game, but everyone knows Miami is moving on.

[sperry]

Man, I still don't know why the hell Simmons insists on pushing the Harden trade narrative, despite the fact that he's just dead wrong. Harden did not want to play in OKC. He was not interested in being third banana, and for good reason. He's too good a player for that. So even with it not being a slam dunk that keeping Harden would be right in any case, he didn't want to be there and it makes it all a moot point.