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NBA Playoffs 2018

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2018 10:08 am
by Pruitt

Re: NBA Playoffs 2018

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2018 10:29 am
by Joe K
I hope I’m wrong but I really think we’re once again headed for a lopsided Warriors-Cavs Finals. I’d love to see someone beat Golden State but I just don’t see it happening. They got a near ideal draw, as they should be able to beat San Antonio, Portland or New Orleans even without Curry. Then if Curry can be close to full speed for the West Finals, I think they will beat Houston. In the East, I still don’t think any team can handle playoff LeBron. The Cavs suck at defense, and have no chance against a healthy Warriors team for that reason, but their offense alone should get them to the Finals.

Re: NBA Playoffs 2018

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2018 10:36 am
by sancarlos
Joe K wrote: Fri Apr 13, 2018 10:29 am I hope I’m wrong but I really think we’re once again headed for a lopsided Warriors-Cavs Finals. I’d love to see someone beat Golden State but I just don’t see it happening. They got a near ideal draw, as they should be able to beat San Antonio, Portland or New Orleans even without Curry. Then if Curry can be close to full speed for the West Finals, I think they will beat Houston. In the East, I still don’t think any team can handle playoff LeBron. The Cavs suck at defense, and have no chance against a healthy Warriors team for that reason, but their offense alone should get them to the Finals.
I'm glad to see you so confident in the Warriors. Out here, people are very concerned about all the injuries and don't seem nearly as cocky as in past years.

Re: NBA Playoffs 2018

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2018 10:39 am
by duff
Pacers beating Cavs in round one.

Re: NBA Playoffs 2018

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2018 10:43 am
by Joe K
I think it’s obvious the Warriors were coasting this year and have another gear if they are able to get healthy. I think I compared them earlier this season to the 2000-01 Shaq/Kobe Lakers team that lost a bunch of regular season games and then went on a 15-1 rampage in the postseason. And really, the only injury of any significance is Curry’s. They will need Curry to beat Houston but probably don’t need to rush him back before then. Even without Curry, they still have one of the 10 best players of all-time and 2 other All-Stars.

Re: NBA Playoffs 2018

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2018 4:44 pm
by sancarlos
I’m at a coffee shop and there’s a guy sitting nearby wearing a Trail Blazers shirt and a Warriors cap.

Pick a team, dude!

Re: NBA Playoffs 2018

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2018 5:08 pm
by Joe K
sancarlos wrote: Fri Apr 13, 2018 4:44 pm I’m at a coffee shop and there’s a guy sitting nearby wearing a Trail Blazers shirt and a Warriors cap.

Pick a team, dude!
Especially since the Blazers and Warriors are expected to face off in a couple of weeks. Only justification I can think of is that Damian Lillard is from Oakland.

Re: NBA Playoffs 2018

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2018 6:10 pm
by Joe K
FWIW, here are my postseason award picks:

MVP
1. Harden
2. LeBron
3. Anthony Davis

This should be close to unanimous. Obviously, LeBron is still the league's best player when he's motivated. But the Cavs were completely dysfunctional for a significant portion of the season, and he had a significant role in that.

Coach of the Year
1. D'Antoni
2. Stevens
3. Casey

I doubt MDA will win this again, but the Rockets were such a machine this year that he's my pick. Stevens has also had a sneaky great year. I don't think many analytics-based predictions had the Celtics down for 55 wins even with a healthy Hayward and Irving.

Defensive Player of the Year
1. Gobert
2. Embiid
3. Davis

This is hard only because Gobert only played 56/82 games and Embiid only played 63/82. Otherwise, they'd be the slam-dunk top-2 picks, in that order. But Gobert's defense was so great, and the Jazz played such great team defense when he played that I think he should win even with missing nearly 1/3 of the season.

Rookie of the Year
1. Simmons
2. Mitchell
3. Tatum

Mitchell had a great year, but this shouldn't be close.

Sixth Man
Lou Williams
No one else is in the running.

Executive of the Year
Kevin Pritchard -- At the time, I thought he got robbed in the Paul George trade, but Oladipo has been awesome and Indiana wound up getting great value in that deal.

All-NBA Teams
First Team: Harden, Westbrook, LeBron, Giannis, Davis
Second Team: Lillard, Oladipo, Durant, Aldridge, Towns
Third Team: Paul, DeRozan, George, Horford, Embiid

Curry and Irving don't make it for me due to missing too many games due to injury. I still picked Paul and Embiid, but I could see either missing the cut for the same reason.

Re: NBA Playoffs 2018

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2018 7:03 pm
by Pruitt
Coach of the Year
1. D'Antoni
2. Stevens
3. Casey

I doubt MDA will win this again, but the Rockets were such a machine this year that he's my pick. Stevens has also had a sneaky great year. I don't think many analytics-based predictions had the Celtics down for 55 wins even with a healthy Hayward and Irving.
Casey's done a great job, but it wasn't until I saw the Rockets a couple of months ago that I realized their lineup is full of guys on their 4th team.

I'd give D'Antonio my vote.

Re: NBA Playoffs 2018

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2018 7:07 pm
by Avram
Pruitt wrote: Fri Apr 13, 2018 7:03 pm
Coach of the Year
1. D'Antoni
2. Stevens
3. Casey

I doubt MDA will win this again, but the Rockets were such a machine this year that he's my pick. Stevens has also had a sneaky great year. I don't think many analytics-based predictions had the Celtics down for 55 wins even with a healthy Hayward and Irving.
Casey's done a great job, but it wasn't until I saw the Rockets a couple of months ago that I realized their lineup is full of guys on their 4th team.

I'd give D'Antonio my vote.
Brett Brown. IMHO not even close. team won 10 games 2 years ago. 16 game streak to finish the season, half of it without hteir best player

Re: NBA Playoffs 2018

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2018 8:49 pm
by Joe K
Avram wrote: Fri Apr 13, 2018 7:07 pm
Pruitt wrote: Fri Apr 13, 2018 7:03 pm
Coach of the Year
1. D'Antoni
2. Stevens
3. Casey

I doubt MDA will win this again, but the Rockets were such a machine this year that he's my pick. Stevens has also had a sneaky great year. I don't think many analytics-based predictions had the Celtics down for 55 wins even with a healthy Hayward and Irving.
Casey's done a great job, but it wasn't until I saw the Rockets a couple of months ago that I realized their lineup is full of guys on their 4th team.

I'd give D'Antonio my vote.
Brett Brown. IMHO not even close. team won 10 games 2 years ago. 16 game streak to finish the season, half of it without hteir best player
I could totally see an argument for Brown based in part on the amazing, multi-year job he’s done with player development. Guys like Saric and Covington have gotten a lot better over the years and he helped Embiid weather the early injury problems. Simmons has also gotten a lot better as the year progressed. It’s a really strong year for coaching jobs and Brown, Quin Snyder, Terry Stotts, Alvin Gentry and Nate McMillan could all get a bunch of votes in addition to my top-3. It’s probably the deepest category this year as I think there’s a clear winner (or at least top-2) for some of the other categories.

Re: NBA Playoffs 2018

Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2018 5:30 pm
by tennbengal
I’ve adopted the 76ers as my playoff rooting interest team.

Re: NBA Playoffs 2018

Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2018 6:38 pm
by Johnny Carwash
P.J. Carlesimo keeps making me momentarily think Super Dave Osborne is in the announcers' booth.

Re: NBA Playoffs 2018

Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2018 7:09 pm
by Pruitt
Raptors didn't choke away a game 1!

Re: NBA Playoffs 2018

Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2018 12:53 am
by TT2.0
Joe K wrote: Fri Apr 13, 2018 6:10 pm FWIW, here are my postseason award picks:

MVP
1. Harden
2. LeBron
3. Anthony Davis

This should be close to unanimous. Obviously, LeBron is still the league's best player when he's motivated. But the Cavs were completely dysfunctional for a significant portion of the season, and he had a significant role in that.

Coach of the Year
1. D'Antoni
2. Stevens
3. Casey

I doubt MDA will win this again, but the Rockets were such a machine this year that he's my pick. Stevens has also had a sneaky great year. I don't think many analytics-based predictions had the Celtics down for 55 wins even with a healthy Hayward and Irving.

Defensive Player of the Year
1. Gobert
2. Embiid
3. Davis

This is hard only because Gobert only played 56/82 games and Embiid only played 63/82. Otherwise, they'd be the slam-dunk top-2 picks, in that order. But Gobert's defense was so great, and the Jazz played such great team defense when he played that I think he should win even with missing nearly 1/3 of the season.

Rookie of the Year
1. Simmons
2. Mitchell
3. Tatum

Mitchell had a great year, but this shouldn't be close.

Sixth Man
Lou Williams
No one else is in the running.

Executive of the Year
Kevin Pritchard -- At the time, I thought he got robbed in the Paul George trade, but Oladipo has been awesome and Indiana wound up getting great value in that deal.

All-NBA Teams
First Team: Harden, Westbrook, LeBron, Giannis, Davis
Second Team: Lillard, Oladipo, Durant, Aldridge, Towns
Third Team: Paul, DeRozan, George, Horford, Embiid

Curry and Irving don't make it for me due to missing too many games due to injury. I still picked Paul and Embiid, but I could see either missing the cut for the same reason.

Why is Eric Gordon not in the running for sixth man?

Re: NBA Playoffs 2018

Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2018 6:05 am
by Johnnie
Not exactly playoffs specific, but...


Re: NBA Playoffs 2018

Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2018 6:26 am
by Joe K
TT2.0 wrote:Why is Eric Gordon not in the running for sixth man?
Williams averaged about 4.5 more points and 3 more assists than Gordon per game, with almost the same shooting efficiency. Also, if you want to be over- technical, Gordon started a significantly higher percentage of his games than Williams.

Re: NBA Playoffs 2018

Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2018 6:44 am
by tennbengal
Turns out being a 76ers fan is fun.

Re: NBA Playoffs 2018

Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2018 9:50 am
by Joe K
tennbengal wrote: Sun Apr 15, 2018 6:44 am Turns out being a 76ers fan is fun.
The Belinelli and Ilyasova signings were really great mid-season pickups (made possible by the Hawks' own Process-inspired teardown). Simmons is like LeBron in that his driving and passing is so good that if you surround him with enough shooters the offense can be virtually unstoppable. Between signing those two guys and Fultz returning, the Sixers basically added 3 rotation players without having to give up any assets.

Re: NBA Playoffs 2018

Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2018 2:21 pm
by Avram
Joe K wrote: Sun Apr 15, 2018 9:50 am
tennbengal wrote: Sun Apr 15, 2018 6:44 am Turns out being a 76ers fan is fun.
The Belinelli and Ilyasova signings were really great mid-season pickups (made possible by the Hawks' own Process-inspired teardown). Simmons is like LeBron in that his driving and passing is so good that if you surround him with enough shooters the offense can be virtually unstoppable. Between signing those two guys and Fultz returning, the Sixers basically added 3 rotation players without having to give up any assets.
And if Simmons gets a jumpshot, Whoa Nellie!

Re: NBA Playoffs 2018

Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2018 5:12 pm
by A_B
Oof.

Re: NBA Playoffs 2018

Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2018 5:54 pm
by Pruitt
duff wrote: Fri Apr 13, 2018 10:39 am Pacers beating Cavs in round one.
Only one game, but...

Re: NBA Playoffs 2018

Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2018 4:46 am
by TT2.0
rough game for the rockets. chris pqul sucked but harden was god tier and capella was worlds better then towns. take the win and hope you dont shoot 27% from 3 all playoffs. also if harden doesnt get his mvp this year it would be a joke

Re: NBA Playoffs 2018

Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2018 6:48 am
by Joe K
TT2.0 wrote: Mon Apr 16, 2018 4:46 am rough game for the rockets. chris pqul sucked but harden was god tier and capella was worlds better then towns. take the win and hope you dont shoot 27% from 3 all playoffs. also if harden doesnt get his mvp this year it would be a joke
Harden will win it, easily. There’s an effort by the usual hot take artists to create a Harden-LeBron debate but among actual awards voters Harden is the runaway choice. As he should be. The Cavs’ effort level has been pathetic at times this season and LeBron (along with Ty Lue) certainly deserves criticism for that. Hell, the Cavs just lost homecourt advantage to the Pacers because they completely no-showed the first quarter of a playoff game.

Re: NBA Playoffs 2018

Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2018 7:18 am
by duff
Pruitt wrote: Sun Apr 15, 2018 5:54 pm
duff wrote: Fri Apr 13, 2018 10:39 am Pacers beating Cavs in round one.
Only one game, but...
Don't sell the Pacers short, especially against the Cavs. I believe the season series wins have given the Pacers a needed edge for the playoffs. Add to the fact that Cleveland needs someone else to show besides James.

Re: NBA Playoffs 2018

Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2018 9:34 am
by DSafetyGuy

Re: NBA Playoffs 2018

Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2018 8:38 am
by L-Jam3
There’s at least one silver lining from last night, and it’s that for the first time in a few years I can say “man, fuck Dwyane Wade with a crowbar. Fuck him and his first name.”

Re: NBA Playoffs 2018

Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2018 9:11 am
by Joe K
L-Jam3 wrote: Tue Apr 17, 2018 8:38 am There’s at least one silver lining from last night, and it’s that for the first time in a few years I can say “man, fuck Dwyane Wade with a crowbar. Fuck him and his first name.”
Hopefully Wade’s game last night ends up just being a historical footnote by the end of the series like the 2011 Brandon Roy Resurrection game against Dallas. That was one of the all-time incredible performances that will be forgotten due to the series outcome.

Re: NBA Playoffs 2018

Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2018 9:27 am
by Avram
Joe K wrote: Tue Apr 17, 2018 9:11 am
L-Jam3 wrote: Tue Apr 17, 2018 8:38 am There’s at least one silver lining from last night, and it’s that for the first time in a few years I can say “man, fuck Dwyane Wade with a crowbar. Fuck him and his first name.”
Hopefully Wade’s game last night ends up just being a historical footnote by the end of the series like the 2011 Brandon Roy Resurrection game against Dallas. That was one of the all-time incredible performances that will be forgotten due to the series outcome.
Embiid coming back changes the whole thing. Miami played out of their minds last night (at least Wade did) and played really good D, but who stops Embiid? Whiteside?

Re: NBA Playoffs 2018

Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2018 9:30 am
by mister d
Have people tired of Embiid's shtick yet or is it still getting giggles?

Re: NBA Playoffs 2018

Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2018 9:32 am
by Avram
mister d wrote: Tue Apr 17, 2018 9:30 am Have people tired of Embiid's shtick yet or is it still getting giggles?
iF you are a Sixers fan like me, it never gets tiresome
He is an absolute joy

Re: NBA Playoffs 2018

Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2018 9:35 am
by mister d
He's Dwight Howard.

Re: NBA Playoffs 2018

Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2018 9:49 am
by Giff
mister d wrote: Tue Apr 17, 2018 9:35 am He's Dwight Howard.
WTF did he ever do to you, jesus.

Re: NBA Playoffs 2018

Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2018 9:50 am
by Joe K
mister d wrote: Tue Apr 17, 2018 9:35 am He's Dwight Howard.
That’s a pretty bad comp. The main issues with Howard are that he’s rubbed a lot of teammates the wrong way and that his effort has been inconsistent in the latter part of his career. I don’t think you anyone could say either of those things about Embiid. By all accounts, his teammates love him and he played his ass off on the court. And while I don’t fault Kawhi for he’s handling his injury issues this year, is Embiid expressing frustration about *not* returning from an injury quickly really going to bother Philly fans, coaches or execs?

Re: NBA Playoffs 2018

Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2018 10:02 am
by Avram
Joe K wrote: Tue Apr 17, 2018 9:50 am
mister d wrote: Tue Apr 17, 2018 9:35 am He's Dwight Howard.
That’s a pretty bad comp. The main issues with Howard are that he’s rubbed a lot of teammates the wrong way and that his effort has been inconsistent in the latter part of his career. I don’t think you anyone could say either of those things about Embiid. By all accounts, his teammates love him and he played his ass off on the court. And while I don’t fault Kawhi for he’s handling his injury issues this year, is Embiid expressing frustration about *not* returning from an injury quickly really going to bother Philly fans, coaches or execs?
Absolutely. As far as I can tell, there is pretty good chemistry on this team, and they all get along well. If anything, Embiid tries too hard on the court sometimes.

Re: NBA Playoffs 2018

Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2018 10:07 am
by Joe K
Avram wrote: Tue Apr 17, 2018 10:02 am
Joe K wrote: Tue Apr 17, 2018 9:50 am
mister d wrote: Tue Apr 17, 2018 9:35 am He's Dwight Howard.
That’s a pretty bad comp. The main issues with Howard are that he’s rubbed a lot of teammates the wrong way and that his effort has been inconsistent in the latter part of his career. I don’t think you anyone could say either of those things about Embiid. By all accounts, his teammates love him and he played his ass off on the court. And while I don’t fault Kawhi for he’s handling his injury issues this year, is Embiid expressing frustration about *not* returning from an injury quickly really going to bother Philly fans, coaches or execs?
Absolutely. As far as I can tell, there is pretty good chemistry on this team, and they all get along well. If anything, Embiid tries too hard on the court sometimes.
Also, All-NBA caliber players are really hard to find! If you have one who’s 24 years old and under contract for several more years, they can do whatever the hell they want on social media.

Re: NBA Playoffs 2018

Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2018 10:09 am
by mister d
Oh, its nothing about his on court performance. (Howard is probably a Hall of Famer?) They just both seem irritating as fuck.

Re: NBA Playoffs 2018

Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2018 10:18 am
by Joe K
mister d wrote: Tue Apr 17, 2018 10:09 am Oh, its nothing about his on court performance. (Howard is probably a Hall of Famer?) They just both seem irritating as fuck.
Howard is 100% a Hall of Famer. Although the way the game is played has somewhat passed him by, he was first-team All-NBA five years in a row, made second or third team 3 other times, and has 3 DPOY awards. That’s easily enough to make him a lock.

Re: NBA Playoffs 2018

Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2018 12:34 pm
by tennbengal
Delaware, are you doing a Cowherd bit?

Re: NBA Playoffs 2018

Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2018 12:38 pm
by mister d
I'm not, I'm doing a "nonstop attempts to be cutesy-goofy by adults wears on me quickly" bit. And I'm pretty certain people will eventually come around on this one.