NBA Playoffs 2019 - Kawhi So Serious?!

[SkynJay]

3 hours ago, Maithanet said:

I am sure that the Raptors are a better team than the Nuggets and would be heavily favored against them.  Philly is more of a toss up, since Denver would have home court, although if I had to pick one, I'd take Philly.

Watching them all year, then seeing specific playoff issues, I agree on the Raptors.  I legitimacy think  Denver was the fifth best team this year going into the playoffs.  The Raptors would have given them hell.  So would the Bucks.  I think against Philly Id have picked Denver but it would be close.

Its not the same East, but the landscape still favors the West.  The clippers stole two from the Warriors, i don't think tbe bottom 4 teams out East could have done that against the top 6 out west.   

[DireWolfSpirit]

Rhom called it a couple times earlier in the thread about the younger upcoming teams like Philly and the Bucks getting "come uppance" the first few years of their runs.

However im commited to dying on this hill with my boys now and im following Giannis cry that "We still got 2 games left!!"

eta: Fuck you Kawhi Usurper!!!

[Maithanet]

12 minutes ago, SkynJay said:

Its not the same East, but the landscape still favors the West.  The clippers stole two from the Warriors, i don't think tbe bottom 4 teams out East could have done that against the top 6 out west.   

The East was really just four deep once Oladipo got hurt, you'll have no arguments from me there. 

However, I don't think you should take any stock from the fact that the Clippers took 2 games from GSW.  The reason that happened was not because the Clippers were good, but because the Clippers were bad.  The Warriors knew they could dispatch them at any time, and thus didn't need to be particularly worried about dropping a game or two as they warmed up for the playoff run.  If they were instead playing Orlando or Detroit, I could easily see the same thing happening. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

Yep, you hit the nail on the head. The Warriors were openly saying they were looking past them. And you know what, the Clippers are a professional team with players who want to be respected. When you feel nakedly disrespected, even if you know you can’t win in the end, you’re still going to fight back out of a sense of pride.  

[Slurktan]

1 hour ago, Triskele said:

This I agree with.  It's people saying that GS would be underdogs without KD that I am taking issue with.  

Part of why KD going to GS in the first place was so controversial was because they were already the best team.  And they have the same exact core but a little wiser and more mentally tough and more experienced and Dray in better condition than he used to be.  

Who is saying this?

[KingintheNorth4]

Danny Green has really struggled. They should've started VanVleet over him.

[KingintheNorth4]

It has finally happened. I never thought I'd see the day.

Linsanity is going to the NBA Finals.

[KingintheNorth4]

I'm hoping that Kawhi can continue his amazing postseason performance and make this a series.

[Rhom]

Dubs in five.

[DireWolfSpirit]

Wish all of Canada luck. 

Who does Kawhi guard when these guys play anyways?

[SkynJay]

1 hour ago, DireWolfSpirit said:

Wish all of Canada luck. 

Who does Kawhi guard when these guys play anyways?

I'd assume Thompson unless Durant gets healthy.  I would want him on the taller player, then trap Curry as much as that is possible.

[Maithanet]

There's plenty of time to talk about the Finals, but one underreported story is how difficult the Bucks offseason could be.  Giannis is great, and he'll be in Milwaukee for a long time, but other than that, there's a ton of questions.  Here's a CBS sports article:

Quote

 

Save for Giannis and Eric Bledsoe, four of the six players who started games for them in the playoffs are set to be free agents. Khris Middleton (assuming he opts out), Brook Lopez and Nikola Mirotic are all unrestricted, while Malcolm Brogdon will be a restricted free agent. George Hill, meanwhile, has a non-guaranteed contract worth $18 million for next season, and there's no way they'll pay him that kind of money, no matter how important he became to the team in the postseason.

In a perfect world, the Bucks might wish they could just run things back with the same group, but they won't have the money to do that -- in no small part because they jumped the gun and inked Bledsoe to a four-year, $70 million extension earlier this season.

At the time, Bledsoe was in the midst of one of the best seasons of his career, and it wasn't hard to make an argument he was the Bucks' second-best player. He once again floundered in the playoffs, though, and was benched down the stretch in the team's most important game.

 

The problem isn't just that they have a lot of guys looking at free agency.  A bunch of those guys are probably looking at a substantial raise if they hit free agency.  Lopez and Brogden were both hugely underpaid this year.  Add it up and the Bucks are faced with an unappealing set of choices: either try and pay everybody and go way over the salary cap or let a bunch of guys go and hope that the team can be just as good or better with whoever replaces them.

This is the problem IMO with the Bucks roster construction, which is that the NBA is all about getting value on your contracts, and the two places to "overachieve" on contracts is guys who are productive on their rookie contracts or guys who are so good that their max contract still doesn't match thier value.  Giannis is a great value, but beyond that this roster looks like a lot of slightly-above-average guys.  Those guys are awesome if you can pay them just $10 million a year (or less), but if you have to shell out $18-20 million a year for them like with Bledsoe, then you're going to have a problem. 

[Cpl. Tunny]

Making no prediction(that I would lay a bet on), but I really do believe Toronto could give the Dubs a real run for their money. Series will definitely go 6, i can see 7. 

Kawhi, has really made me see how great he is this postseason. Always thought him a Top 10-15 player,  He's easily top 5. And he has the killer instinct that you cant teach. I just hope he doesnt think he has to do this all by himself. Then they stand zero chance.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

It’s still kind of mind blowing that people are reporting that Cousins might play. His leg looked pretty awful after the injury took place not that long ago.

[Rhom]

3 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

It’s still kind of mind blowing that people are reporting that Cousins might play. His leg looked pretty awful after the injury took place not that long ago.

That's some Bradley Beal Thoros of Myr level zombie healing right there.

You are absolutely right though, I thought that leg was season if not career ending when I saw the pictures post injury.  Thought for sure that whole muscle group had avulsed off the bone.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

1 hour ago, Rhom said:

That's some Bradley Beal Thoros of Myr level zombie healing right there.

You are absolutely right though, I thought that leg was season if not career ending when I saw the pictures post injury.  Thought for sure that whole muscle group had avulsed off the bone.

Career ender may be a bit too far, but the visual was awful. However, it should be noted that those types of injuries can look worse than they actually are. I expect he'll be fine next year, but it's sad to think about how much money he lost. It could literally be around $100,000,000.00

[Jaime L]

Trying to think of a more impressive performance in a playoff series than Kawhi had in the Conference Finals. The guy put up a 30/10/4/2 and defensively he completely wrecked the likely league MVP once he started guarding him in game 3. He had more impressive offensive numbers against Philly but it's his unmaking of Giannis that was the most transcendent thing about him. There's a bunch of stats that bear it out - he's only guy in the league who can consistently throw the Greek Freak off his game. 

Just can't recall a player willing his team to win on both ends of the floor like this in a series he had to be every bit this good. We now need to see him on Steph. This is where legends are made. 

[Proudfeet]

And the Raptors barely won between that, the Buck's horrific three point shooting and Van Vleet shooting three pointers like free throws.

I don't know about Kawhi on Steph. Lowry and Van Vleet are pretty short. Who are they going to guard? Iguodala?

[Proudfeet]

Hahahaha. All sorts of stories of the Lakers dysfunction are coming out. Pelinka is a braggart, Magic a bully and Walton a door mat. Then there is also stories of Rich Paul and Linda Rambis controlling from the side. And this is just from a single ESPN article.

As much as I derive pleasure from their misery, it is also sadly relatable to my own experience in the workplace. I don't think it is all that uncommon unfortunately.

[Rhom]

On the Lakers, it amazes me the pass Magic Johnson seems to be getting from the media.  So Jeanie Bus allowed him to work a schedule where he shows up once every two weeks as president of basketball operations... but even Phil Jackson got killed in the media for not putting in the effort to scout and do the day to day stuff in New York.  Magic does it in LA and it’s somehow okay.

I don’t get it.