NBA 2017: The Kings of Comedy

[Calibandar]

Playoffs begin April 15th but he's out at least 4 weeks and then evaluated.

So seems like he will be back in time before the playoffs and perhaps play some regular season games, but also worth keeping in mind that guys like Parsons and Bogut missed significant time just with the knee bone bruises this year. Of course in the case of both of those guys we are talking about troubled, injury prone guys anyway, so who knows.

Lots of injuries. Ben Simmons not playing for the remainder of the season, Joel Embiid's injury lingering, he may not play again this season either, Kevin Love out, JR Smith, Kyle Lowry out for 5 weeks. But this Durant thing, glad it's not worse because that would have ruined the finals ( and the finals are one of the few things people are still excited about).

 

[Jaime L]

1 hour ago, Calibandar said:

Playoffs begin April 15th but he's out at least 4 weeks and then evaluated.

So seems like he will be back in time before the playoffs and perhaps play some regular season games, but also worth keeping in mind that guys like Parsons and Bogut missed significant time just with the knee bone bruises this year. Of course in the case of both of those guys we are talking about troubled, injury prone guys anyway, so who knows.

Yeah and it's not like they need Durant in the early rounds of the playoffs to begin with. Think only Rockets and maybe the Spurs are a threat to them and even without Durant, I'd favor the Warriors over either. 

Hell, it still felt like a major accomplishment for the Wizards to beat 'em last night even without Durant and even with an off night by Steph and Klay, it still took like 27 John Wall to Markieff Morris alleyoops to finally kill them dead. 

[Manhole Eunuchsbane]

 The Secret to James Harden's Monster Season...

 http://www.news.com.au/sport/american-sports/nba/james-harden-has-become-unstoppable-since-break-with-kardashians/news-story/5e42bd63786aea8160fddcbf467bf42a?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark

 

/Keeping Out of the Kardashians

[Tywin et al.]

2 hours ago, Calibandar said:

 

Lots of injuries. Ben Simmons not playing for the remainder of the season, Joel Embiid's injury lingering, he may not play again this season either, Kevin Love out, JR Smith, Kyle Lowry out for 5 weeks. But this Durant thing, glad it's not worse because that would have ruined the finals ( and the finals are one of the few things people are still excited about).

 

Don't forget LaVine. He was averaging close to 20 ppg and was lighting it up from three point land.

1 hour ago, Jaime L said:

Yeah and it's not like they need Durant in the early rounds of the playoffs to begin with. Think only Rockets and maybe the Spurs are a threat to them and even without Durant, I'd favor the Warriors over either. 

I'm not so sure about that. The Jazz could take them without Durant and I'd have to favor the Spurs verse a Durantless Dubs team. The Warriors struggle with teams that can punish them physically.

[Jaime L]

9 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

I'm not so sure about that. The Jazz could take them without Durant and I'd have to favor the Spurs verse a Durantless Dubs team. The Warriors struggle with teams that can punish them physically.

Not really. Last year, the Dubs turned a corner where their small ball lineup punishes teams that go big against them far more than vice versa. Memphis once gave them trouble and has become a speedbump. Same with the Clippers trying to punish them with Griffin/Jordan. Good luck keeping Rudy Gobert on the court against a team with 5 three point shooters.

The only teams we've seen give this incarnation of the Dubs trouble was OKC/Cleveland last year who only matched up by beating the Warriors at the what they do best (i.e.: each figured out their own small ball lineup that nevertheless had bigger more athletic players than the Warriors did like Lebron, Thompson, Durant and Ibaka). But guys like Kanter and Mosgov barely are allowed to even see the floor against the Warriors anymore. 

 

[Manhole Eunuchsbane]

Just now, Jaime L said:

Not really. Last year, the Dubs turned a corner where their small ball lineup punishes teams that go big against them far more than vice versa. Memphis once gave them trouble and has become a speedbump. Same with the Clippers trying to punish them with Griffin/Jordan. Good luck keeping Rudy Gobert on the court against a team with 5 three point shooters.

The only teams we've seen give this incarnation of the Dubs trouble was OKC/Cleveland last year who only matched up by beating the Warriors at the what they do best (i.e.: each figured out their own small ball lineup that nevertheless had bigger more athletic players than the Warriors did like Lebron, Thompson, Durant and Ibaka). But guys like Kanter and Mosgov barely are allowed to even see the floor against the Warriors anymore.

 Memphis has been giving them fits this season. Hopefully they are looking at either the Pelicans/Nuggets/Kings in the first round. I don't think any of those teams have a real shot against the Warriors even without Durant.

[Jaime L]

2 minutes ago, Manhole Eunuchsbane said:

 Memphis has been giving them fits this season. Hopefully they are looking at either the Pelicans/Nuggets/Kings in the first round. I don't think any of those teams have a real shot against the Warriors even without Durant.

Fair enough. Though they certainly didn't last year so not sure how they flipped the script. But Utah and and the Clippers are mostly just trynig to keep it within 30 against the Dubs. 

[Manhole Eunuchsbane]

10 minutes ago, Jaime L said:

Fair enough. Though they certainly didn't last year so not sure how they flipped the script. But Utah and and the Clippers are mostly just trynig to keep it within 30 against the Dubs. 

I've only been catching bits and pieces of games really, so it's hard for me to say. Seems to mostly be their old formula (just pounding them with size, winning the battle of the boards, bunch of second chance offensive boards, etc) 

[briantw]

Without Durant a potential eighth seed match-up with New Orleans could be a lot more interesting.

[Tywin et al.]

3 hours ago, Jaime L said:

The only teams we've seen give this incarnation of the Dubs trouble was OKC/Cleveland last year who only matched up by beating the Warriors at the what they do best (i.e.: each figured out their own small ball lineup that nevertheless had bigger more athletic players than the Warriors did like Lebron, Thompson, Durant and Ibaka). But guys like Kanter and Mosgov barely are allowed to even see the floor against the Warriors anymore. 

 

Well to be fair they've never had to face the Spurs, and I feel like they could beat the Warriors in the same way the Cavs did. But the point I was trying to make was that you can wear down Golden State over the course of 6 or 7 games if you have a team that can get physical with them.

[DanteGabriel]

Really enjoying Cavs-Celtics. LeBron, Jaylen Brown, and Jefferson just traded threes. But Jesus do I hate NBA refs...

[Jaime L]

54 minutes ago, DanteGabriel said:

Really enjoying Cavs-Celtics. LeBron, Jaylen Brown, and Jefferson just traded threes. But Jesus do I hate NBA refs...

Big win for the Celtics.

You know, I don't care if it's the 1 vs. 4 or 2 vs. 3, Bradley Beal and I really want Wizards-Celtics in Round 2. Anything beyond that is gravy in my view. 

[Jaime L]

6 minutes ago, Triskan said:

Did the Wizards get offended by all the Durant talk last off-season and start to take it out on people?  

 

Gods, I am disappointed by Portland this year.  

Based on how he threw Zaza into Durant, Marcin Gortat seems personally offended. 

Not sure why Portland is so much worse this year although now you get all the fun "should they trade McCollum" "should they trade Lillard" talk. 

[Jaime L]

Just now, Triskan said:

Oh, that's fun to you?  How is that fun to you?  Are you a clown now?  Tell me how that's fun?

Because before the fortunes our two teams reversed, all that talk was about Beal.

But you weren't enjoying the Boogie for McCollum rumors? Of course in retrospect maybe you coulda just offered Evan Turner and Festus Ezeli. 

[Jaime L]

6 minutes ago, Triskan said:

And now you twist the knife...

I kid because I care, Frisky! 

[briantw]

41 minutes ago, Jaime L said:

But you weren't enjoying the Boogie for McCollum rumors? Of course in retrospect maybe you coulda just offered Evan Turner and Festus Ezeli. 

Evan Turner and a conditional second was probably enough, to be honest.

[Relic]

4 hours ago, Triskan said:

Gods, I am disappointed by Portland this year.  

Take that statement and extrapolate it over the past 16 years if you want to know how it feels to be a Knicks fan. 

[Calibandar]

Good thing they didn't sign Joakim Noah to an expensive long term deal.

Because that would really be a millstone around the neck given both his injury history and his current short and long term prospects.

I've been surprised by how poor Portland has been. I thought at some point they would pick up and certainly take that no. 8 spot.

11 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

Well to be fair they've never had to face the Spurs, and I feel like they could beat the Warriors in the same way the Cavs did. But the point I was trying to make was that you can wear down Golden State over the course of 6 or 7 games if you have a team that can get physical with them.

I do really hope that Golden State has to play a fit Spurs team this playoffs. Really want to see that.

If Golden State wins that, there can be no more talk of them lucking out in the Western playoffs anymore, which has been the case in the last two seasons. I want to see them take on the Spurs. And preferably Clippers in the second round.

[briantw]

6 minutes ago, Calibandar said:

Good thing they didn't sign Joakim Noah to an expensive long term deal.

Because that would really be a millstone around the neck given both his injury history and his current short and long term prospects.

Even if there was no injury history, the fact that he's been dog shit on the court for a couple years now should have made signing him to that deal a huge no-go for any competent franchise.  Granted, the injuries probably have something to do with that, but I honestly don't see how any rational GM could look at his on court production the two years prior to this one and think he was worth fourteen million a year.  When you take his age into account too (he's thirty-two and clearly out of his prime now) the contract is even worse.

I remember when the rumor hit that the Knicks were interested in signing him to a big deal, my reaction was to laugh.  Knicks gonna Knick.

[Calibandar]

I wonder who's worse off, the Knicks or the Nets. Surely, alongside the Kings, these are the perennial 3 super sad franchises of the NBA. I was looking at the NBA draft for this year and it seems like the no.1 pick will be a great player. And the Nets, with only 9 wins so far, are very likely to get that no.1 pick. Except they don't, they again don't get anything of value and are certain to be just as bad again next year. Boston really robbed them in that trade for Pierce and Garnett ( who really haven't played a worthwhile game since they left Boston, though admittedly Pierce perked up again in that year with the Wizards).

I also wonder why they want to be rid of Carmelo, or at least why Phil does. I understand he's about to turn 33 and has a lot of years left on that high priced deal, but the other side of it is that he is the only great player on that Knicks team, and if you get rid of him, you really go into Brooklyn Nets territory in terms of quality, losing every other night. And who's to say you will get anything good in return? And they won't have a high draft pick this time either if rebuilding is the big objective.