NBA Playoffs - Joker's Wild

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

19 minutes ago, Teng Ai Hui said:

It was a really good game until the Heat fell apart during the last minute and then gave up with 9 seconds left.

Being the second worst scoring team this year finally caught up with them. Denver is a worthy champion though. That roster is so well constructed and Joker now can look at Giannis and say he's the best in the world. Tonight probably solidified him as a top 20 player all-time. How high you want to rank him is up to you. 

Edited June 13, 2023 by Tywin et al.

[Teng Ai Hui]

28 minutes ago, Proudfeet said:

It was a two possession game at that point, three if Denver make the free throws on an intentional foul. They don't have timeouts to advance the ball. What would you have them do?

I understand your point, but I would have liked to see someone at least try to go into Reggie Miller mode and score 8 points in 9 seconds.

[Proudfeet]

27 minutes ago, Teng Ai Hui said:

I understand your point, but I would have liked to see someone at least try to go into Reggie Miller mode and score 8 points in 9 seconds.

I'm not familiar, but did Miller start his 9 seconds with possession or without possession? 

To be fair to the Heat, they managed to get to OT against the Bucks this postseason under similar circumstances, but that was a one possession game with more time and timeouts. They don't just rollover.

[KingintheNorth4]

Congrats to the Denver Nuggets on winning their first title in franchise history. Jokic has cemented himself in the top tier of players in the league. 

[Maithanet]

One thing to say about this year's playoffs is they were remarkably injury free.  Obviously there were a few issues, Chris Paul got hurt (probably didn't matter), Giannis wasn't 100%, and there were a few other guys that missed a game or two.  But there wasn't a single injury that meant "well that team is finished".  Which is nice, so many years that is a dominant storyline.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

44 minutes ago, Maithanet said:

One thing to say about this year's playoffs is they were remarkably injury free.  Obviously there were a few issues, Chris Paul got hurt (probably didn't matter), Giannis wasn't 100%, and there were a few other guys that missed a game or two.  But there wasn't a single injury that meant "well that team is finished".  Which is nice, so many years that is a dominant storyline.

Idk, the splits before and after Butler hurt his ankle were really stark. I still think Denver wins if he was close to 100%, but it's hard not to notice how his scoring went down a ton and he really struggled to do anything in the paint after the fact across three series. And the Heat were also without their third best player, though against Denver Herro might have been a liability. 

Ultimately the most deserving team won though. Assuming they don't have to lose any key pieces they should be the favorite in the West next year. The East is still pretty hard to read and every top team except the Bucks could expect some shake ups. A number of top 25-30 players may be on the move this offseason. 

[BigFatCoward]

Its a shame the former Yugoslavia couldn't play a match against the US. 

[DMC]

2 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

Its a shame the former Yugoslavia couldn't play a match against the US. 

Well maybe if you didn't call it a match you could at least get the US on board.

Anyway, help me out here, that'd be Jokic, Luka, the two Bogdanovics, Saric, Dragic, Zubac..anyone notable I'm leaving out?  

[BigFatCoward]

6 minutes ago, DMC said:

Well maybe if you didn't call it a match you could at least get the US on board.

Anyway, help me out here, that'd be Jokic, Luka, the two Bogdanovics, Saric, Dragic, Zubac..anyone notable I'm leaving out?  

Vucevic

i think they could put out a comparable starting 5, but then the quality drops off drastically compared to the US. 

 

Edited June 14, 2023 by BigFatCoward

[DMC]

2 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

Vucevic

Right.  LOL, like how that's the one I forgot.  

[baxus]

It would've been much more interesting to see the actual former Yugoslavia playing US, not the players from the countries of today that used to be a part of Yugoslavia.

Of the top of my head, that would've been Divac, Radja, Paspalj, Kukoc, Petrovic, plus a bunch who haven't played in the NBA or didn't stick around for long - Djordjevic, Danilovic etc.

[Proudfeet]

14 hours ago, Maithanet said:

One thing to say about this year's playoffs is they were remarkably injury free.  Obviously there were a few issues, Chris Paul got hurt (probably didn't matter), Giannis wasn't 100%, and there were a few other guys that missed a game or two.  But there wasn't a single injury that meant "well that team is finished".  Which is nice, so many years that is a dominant storyline.

Clippers? That's probably a feature by now though.

Hopefully this continues into the regular season now that the schedule is not as compressed. 

[Maithanet]

3 minutes ago, Proudfeet said:

Clippers? That's probably a feature by now though.

I guess, but that team hasn't had Leonard and George healthy together for any significant time in several years, which is why nobody really considers them a first tier team.  Even if they were healthy, I doubt they would have beaten Phoenix (and definitely not Denver). 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

2 hours ago, BigFatCoward said:

Vucevic

i think they could put out a comparable starting 5, but then the quality drops off drastically compared to the US. 

For now. The US is still the best team when it comes to depth, but a lot of the top 10ish players are from somewhere else including I think the consensus top 3. The US has a lot of aging stars that won't be there or that impactful for the 2028 Olympics, which comically enough is in LA. I wouldn't be surprised if we miss out on the gold then. Our younger stars are kind of flawed and I don't see an obvious American candidate for MVP in the next few years unless you think Tatum can be more consistent or Zion can stay healthy. Ja is a lot of fun to watch, but Idk if he's a "winning player." We'll always have at least a plurality of the top 25ish players, but without elite players the US could have a problem considering we throw teams together at the last second when other nations' teams have been training together for years at a time. 

[BigFatCoward]

5 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

For now. The US is still the best team when it comes to depth, but a lot of the top 10ish players are from somewhere else including I think the consensus top 3. The US has a lot of aging stars that won't be there or that impactful for the 2028 Olympics, which comically enough is in LA. I wouldn't be surprised if we miss out on the gold then. Our younger stars are kind of flawed and I don't see an obvious American candidate for MVP in the next few years unless you think Tatum can be more consistent or Zion can stay healthy. Ja is a lot of fun to watch, but Idk if he's a "winning player." We'll always have at least a plurality of the top 25ish players, but without elite players the US could have a problem considering we throw teams together at the last second when other nations' teams have been training together for years at a time. 

I would say top 4 Giannis, Joker, Luka, Embiid, and none are particularly old, or on the downlope, or injury prone (Embiid seems over early career vulnerability).   

And you have to wonder if Wembanya might not be best of the lot in 2 or 3 years.

 

[Proudfeet]

51 minutes ago, Maithanet said:

I guess, but that team hasn't had Leonard and George healthy together for any significant time in several years, which is why nobody really considers them a first tier team.  Even if they were healthy, I doubt they would have beaten Phoenix (and definitely not Denver). 

Agreed. Just saying that they'd be the underdogs against any of the other 15 playoff teams as well. Not sure how good they would be if healthy, but I appreciated seeing Kawhi being tasked to defend ball handlers instead of chilling in the left corner "for help defense and getting rebounds".

This almost never happens if both are healthy. Took Dallas almost eliminating them and Luka playing Zubac out of rotation, and torching everyone from Batum to Morris to George before Lue finally relented.

__

Speaking of Phoenix, Ayton is definitely gone right? Are there any potential suitors lining up? 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

15 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

I would say top 4 Giannis, Joker, Luka, Embiid, and none are particularly old, or on the downlope, or injury prone (Embiid seems over early career vulnerability).   

And you have to wonder if Wembanya might not be best of the lot in 2 or 3 years.

 

Curry and KD both could be placed ahead of Luka, but that's probably the top six overall right now. Missing the playoffs completely has to be a blackeye for him.

With Wemby it's going to be simple, will he stay healthy? If so the sky is the limit. 

The undeniable shift this century has been that basketball has become way more popular all over the world and teams everywhere are getting better at scouting and training players at younger ages. The Ringer updated its top 125 players list today and there are a lot of foreign born players on it. US vs The World would be fun to see, but as has been mentioned before Team World has too many bigs and not much depth at PG or wings. That will change though as international players continue to thrive and set an example for others.

[Slurktan]

2 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

The undeniable shift this century has been that basketball has become way more popular all over the world and teams everywhere are getting better at scouting and training players at younger ages. The Ringer updated its top 125 players list today and there are a lot of foreign born players on it. US vs The World would be fun to see, but as has been mentioned before Team World has too many bigs and not much depth at PG or wings. That will change though as international players continue to thrive and set an example for others.

Are you wsnting a us vs the world series or something? If its one game you dont need depth and Luka, Shai and Jamal Murray are a pretty fucking good threesome to go with freak and joker

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

33 minutes ago, Slurktan said:

Are you wsnting a us vs the world series or something? If its one game you dont need depth and Luka, Shai and Jamal Murray are a pretty fucking good threesome to go with freak and joker

I'd probably play Wiggins over SGA and bring the latter in as a sixth man. That team needs more defense and when you're building a team of stars you need a few that will do the dirty work. 

It would be fun to see a seven game series though. Team USA has all the wings, but our current class of bigs isn't great. I'd probably play Bam at the 5 and AD at the 4 since he clearly does not want to be a traditional center. Then I'd just say fuck it and play Curry, LeBron and KD with Tatum, Kawhi and Booker being the key bench players. It's the second unit where the US would do so much damage. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

And so it begins: