Around the NBA: Playoff Edition #2

[erlim]

Whoever said Jimmy Butler was the best player in our last playoff series must have been joking. He's not even close to Isaiah Thomas. Not even in the same league. Isaiah Thomas is better than this years Butler, MVP Rose, prime Pippen by magnitudes. He's closer to Michael Jordan if not a little better. 53 points, incredible!

[Rerisen]

Washington can definitely win this series without Wall being the best player in the series. But that's up to his teammates just as much as it is him. He did his part today. His teammates didn't. I don't even see how that's debatable at this point.

Disagree. His part to me, if I'm a Wizards fan, is to be the best player in the series. Because he's supposed to a better player than IT.

Did he produce a ton of box score stats? Yes, but his opposite matchup produced even more and more clutch.

That's not mutually exclusive with his teammates also not performing up to their marks either.

You know darn well if the Bulls were playing Indiana in a series and Paul George had a 36 PER in the series and Jimmy had a 25, with way less efficiency to boot, Jimmy would be getting crushed. And it would certainly be legit to compare the best players vs each other.

The new trend in the NBA seems to be to only analyze offense, I find it odd. John Wall rates as a *negative* defender on the year, and because he is, his team now has to assign other positions to try and cover his man, but they don't have the speed or agility to do it, his defensive weakness is absolutely a matchup disadvantage in a way that right now is hurting the Wiz. I didn't expect it to be this drastic. In fact, I expected Wall (and Beal if IT guarded him) to absolutely go off on IT with crazy efficiency, because he can't guard either one, but the opposite is happening.

[FriedRise]

Washington must wish they have Isaiah Canaan in their roster to contain IT. You just can't counter him with size, he'll beat you every time.

[kingkirk]

Disagree. His part to me, if I'm a Wizards fan, is to be the best player in the series. Because he's supposed to a better player than IT.

Did he produce a ton of box score stats? Yes, but his opposite matchup produced even more and more clutch.

That's not mutually exclusive with his teammates also not performing up to their marks either.

You know darn well if the Bulls were playing Indiana in a series and Paul George had a 36 PER in the series and Jimmy had a 25, with way less efficiency to boot, Jimmy would be getting crushed. And it would certainly be legit to compare the best players vs each other.

The new trend in the NBA seems to be to only analyze offense, I find it odd. John Wall rates as a *negative* defender on the year, and because he is, his team now has to assign other positions to try and cover his man, but they don't have the speed or agility to do it, his defensive weakness is absolutely a matchup disadvantage in a way that right now is hurting the Wiz. I didn't expect it to be this drastic. In fact, I expected Wall (and Beal if IT guarded him) to absolutely go off on IT with crazy efficiency, because he can't guard either one, but the opposite is happening.

If Wall hadn't dropped 40 & 14, I'd think you'd have a point. If Isaiah is going to have a better performance than that, then more power to him. But you're talking as if Wall was bad or didn't have a good game. He was incredible.

The Wizards aren't assigning other onto Thomas because Wall is a bad defender. They're doing that to conserve his energy because they need him to play big minutes and perform a huge role because his backups are very bad.

[Ice Man]

Whoever said Jimmy Butler was the best player in our last playoff series must have been joking. He's not even close to Isaiah Thomas. Not even in the same league. Isaiah Thomas is better than this years Butler, MVP Rose, prime Pippen by magnitudes. He's closer to Michael Jordan if not a little better. 53 points, incredible!

That's this series. IT averaged 23 points per game on 43% shooting in our series. Not exactly Jordan material. But he played a game for the ages last night, for sure.

[Mech Engineer]

Boston has good to great multiple perimeter defenders who can guard anyone from PG to SF.

No other team has that collection of defenders when you don't have to worry about foul trouble. If Jimmy got in foul trouble, the Bulls were done as there is no one to replicate his defense.

You need an all-star big(s) to dominate Boston. We saw whenever Lopez was good, the Bulls were winning easily and it opened up the game for others. You just needed a little more athletic big against Boston to dominate.

[dumbell78]

Whoever said Jimmy Butler was the best player in our last playoff series must have been joking. He's not even close to Isaiah Thomas. Not even in the same league. Isaiah Thomas is better than this years Butler, MVP Rose, prime Pippen by magnitudes. He's closer to Michael Jordan if not a little better. 53 points, incredible!

Game was incredible last night but you're being prisoner of the moment. IT isn't at that level.

[Mech Engineer]

The other thing while defending this ultra-good PGs or even SG/SF is to get the ball out of their hands. That's what the dynasty Bulls did. You need to double team IT and get the ball out of his hands. This is where wings like Jimmy, LeBron make a difference. They need to be a free safety on defense. They are quick/athletic enough to rotate but can soft double-team the ball handler/main scorer.

Most teams don't have that kind of defender. It is important to use your best athletic wing defender to be that free safety. If Al Horford scores 40 points or Bradley scores 40 points to beat you, you live with that. But, if your on-ball defender(Wall) is also your main offensive weapon and needs to conserve energy, you are just asking for trouble.

[TheStig]

Boston has good to great multiple perimeter defenders who can guard anyone from PG to SF.

No other team has that collection of defenders when you don't have to worry about foul trouble. If Jimmy got in foul trouble, the Bulls were done as there is no one to replicate his defense.

You need an all-star big(s) to dominate Boston. We saw whenever Lopez was good, the Bulls were winning easily and it opened up the game for others. You just needed a little more athletic big against Boston to dominate.

I'm pretty sure Cleveland will wipe the floor with them in the next round and TT and Love aren't all star bigs.

It's easy to hide IT when there is 1 legit threat. Much harder with Bron and Irving. They'll just put shooters on the floor and clear out the side for a 2 man game.

[mj234eva]

Disagree. His part to me, if I'm a Wizards fan, is to be the best player in the series. Because he's supposed to a better player than IT.

Did he produce a ton of box score stats? Yes, but his opposite matchup produced even more and more clutch.

That's not mutually exclusive with his teammates also not performing up to their marks either.

You know darn well if the Bulls were playing Indiana in a series and Paul George had a 36 PER in the series and Jimmy had a 25, with way less efficiency to boot, Jimmy would be getting crushed. And it would certainly be legit to compare the best players vs each other.

The new trend in the NBA seems to be to only analyze offense, I find it odd. John Wall rates as a *negative* defender on the year, and because he is, his team now has to assign other positions to try and cover his man, but they don't have the speed or agility to do it, his defensive weakness is absolutely a matchup disadvantage in a way that right now is hurting the Wiz. I didn't expect it to be this drastic. In fact, I expected Wall (and Beal if IT guarded him) to absolutely go off on IT with crazy efficiency, because he can't guard either one, but the opposite is happening.

If Wall hadn't dropped 40 & 14, I'd think you'd have a point. If Isaiah is going to have a better performance than that, then more power to him. But you're talking as if Wall was bad or didn't have a good game. He was incredible.

The Wizards aren't assigning other onto Thomas because Wall is a bad defender. They're doing that to conserve his energy because they need him to play big minutes and perform a huge role because his backups are very bad.

He was incredible through the first 32 [game time] mins of the game. When I looked at the box-score, Wall had 35 points, Isaiah, 24. Isaiah owned the 4th qtr, and OT.

http://stats.nba.com/game/#!/0041600202/?RangeType=2&StartRange=19200&EndRange=31800

[ATRAIN53]

You know what ticks me off MOST about watching IT out there-

WE HAD IT

He was just named Nate Robinson....

Barley 3 years ago no one realized these little guys simply attacking the basket or chucking up 3's and not having to play defense could win you playoff games. Does it win a Final, probably not with LeBron in the way but it can get you some wins in the playoffs.

Thibs (and the 3/4 teams) made (tried) to make Nate play defense and that wore him out.

Stevens is smart, he doesn't make IT play defense and that is why the guy looks awesome and better than Butler out there-
because he's not playing any defense and WAS is not making him use any energy on that side of the floor.

Jimmy is a 2 way player, IT is a scoring machine.

Nate just didn't work with Thibs philosiphy.
If Thibs let him play like IT and we had Jimmy.....

I also think Westbrook should be watching this. Note how the knock on the Celtics is they don't rebound?
Russ would be out there scooping up boards to get his stats.

IT is concerned about 2 stats - putting points on the board and the W

and then yeah lets talk about Wall. He's really been dealing with injuries the last few years but this is what you expect out of him. he plays defense and that could be what costs them this series. imagine that.

[Mech Engineer]

You know what ticks me off MOST about watching IT out there-

WE HAD IT

He was just named Nate Robinson....

Barley 3 years ago no one realized these little guys simply attacking the basket or chucking up 3's and not having to play defense could win you playoff games. Does it win a Final, probably not with LeBron in the way but it can get you some wins in the playoffs.

Thibs (and the 3/4 teams) made (tried) to make Nate play defense and that wore him out.

Stevens is smart, he doesn't make IT play defense and that is why the guy looks awesome and better than Butler out there-
because he's not playing any defense and WAS is not making him use any energy on that side of the floor.

Jimmy is a 2 way player, IT is a scoring machine.

Nate just didn't work with Thibs philosiphy.
If Thibs let him play like IT and we had Jimmy.....

I also think Westbrook should be watching this. Note how the knock on the Celtics is they don't rebound?
Russ would be out there scooping up boards to get his stats.

IT is concerned about 2 stats - putting points on the board and the W

and then yeah lets talk about Wall. He's really been dealing with injuries the last few years but this is what you expect out of him. he plays defense and that could be what costs them this series. imagine that.

I agree..you don't want your best offensive weapon playing defense on PGs who are in general quick. You need a PG(or best offensive player)defender other than your best offensive player.

Maybe that's the problem with Cp3 along with them not having a good SF. If Reddick could be a 3 and D guard, you hide CP3 on defense and let him go to work in offense during 4th quarters where he is not falling off.

If your PG is not your best offensive player, then it's a lot easier to scheme but Boston does have unique talent to do use a PG as their best offensive player.

[Rerisen]

If Wall hadn't dropped 40 & 14, I'd think you'd have a point. If Isaiah is going to have a better performance than that, then more power to him. But you're talking as if Wall was bad or didn't have a good game. He was incredible.

The Wizards aren't assigning other onto Thomas because Wall is a bad defender. They're doing that to conserve his energy because they need him to play big minutes and perform a huge role because his backups are very bad.

But Wall IS a bad defender, despite being their most physically capable guy to keep up with IT.

And if he wasn't they'd have the option to sick him on IT when he was getting out of control, even if they wanted to do switch offs to keep his energy.

So when you say 'if Isiah is going to have a better performance' I would think you would have a point if it wasn't Wall's position.

This idea of having to hide your star from another star defensively for 'rest' all the time is a modern concept, and not a good one. We never hid Derrick Rose from matchups just 5 years ago, and he did more than Wall responsibility wise.

[Ice Man]

All that said, it is true that IT always has an easier assignment than the opposing PG. That guy is expected to guard him, while IT is not expected to return the favor. Something that should be considered when evaluating IT's performances.

It's like what we do with Butler and Wade. Jimmy is supposed to lead the offense and guard the opponent's best wing. Wade is supposed to ... I dunno, collect paychecks or something.

[Jcool0]

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[kingkirk]

But Wall IS a bad defender, despite being their most physically capable guy to keep up with IT.

And if he wasn't they'd have the option to sick him on IT when he was getting out of control, even if they wanted to do switch offs to keep his energy.

So when you say 'if Isiah is going to have a better performance' I would think you would have a point if it wasn't Wall's position.

This idea of having to hide your star from another star defensively for 'rest' all the time is a modern concept, and not a good one. We never hid Derrick Rose from matchups just 5 years ago, and he did more than Wall responsibility wise.

Wall isn't a bad defender. He's not as good as what he was, but to call him a bad defender is incorrect.

If hiding your star defensively is a bad idea because of rest purposes, I'm assuming you supported Jimmy Butler guarding Isaiah Thomas for the entire game? What are your thoughts on Pop not using Kawhi on Harden? He didn't guard him. Must mean he is being hidden or is bad, right?

[otwok]

Whoever said Jimmy Butler was the best player in our last playoff series must have been joking. He's not even close to Isaiah Thomas. Not even in the same league. Isaiah Thomas is better than this years Butler, MVP Rose, prime Pippen by magnitudes. He's closer to Michael Jordan if not a little better. 53 points, incredible!

Probably the most ridiculous thing I have read.

[Payt10]

Toronto is such garbage. Cavs sleepwalk again through the Finals. So much for all their regular season struggles meaning anything.. I actually think the Bulls would have given them the most trouble with a healthy Rondo and Wade.

[bledredwine]

Toronto is such garbage. Cavs sleepwalk again through the Finals. So much for all their regular season struggles meaning anything.. I actually think the Bulls would have given them the most trouble with a healthy Rondo and Wade.

Yeah the East is such a joke. The other day I was watching a first round matchup of MJ Pipp bulls vs Alonzo L Johnson hornets. Man what a difference in quality of basketball.

[jc23]

a month ago people were saying the cavs were in trouble, those people are stupid. You would think years of lebrons teams having hiccups in the regular season would have taught them by now. Teams take on the identity of the teams best player, lebron likes to coast at times during the year.

The day you see lebron getting a injury here and there and going games looking like an average player, thats when you say the cavs (or whatever team he is on) is vulnerable. we got a few more years.