ATL - NBA to investigate Lowry/Ball deals for tampering, pg. 81

[emunney]

I don't think so. Magical run from Giannis, but until he can prove that he has made the necessary adjustments moving forward and can consistently dominate against teams that are actually capable of walling him off well, those two are just better shot-makers.

Phoenix has ideal personnel to deal with Giannis and he ate them alive. I don't know what you've got in mind but there's nothing left.

Miami neutralized Giannis pretty good in the first round and got even more guys that they can throw at Giannis.

Miami got swept dude. Giannis had 24-15-8. What'd LeBron do against Phoenix?

[FrieAaron]

Phoenix has ideal personnel to deal with Giannis and he ate them alive. I don't know what you've got in mind but there's nothing left.

Miami neutralized Giannis pretty good in the first round and got even more guys that they can throw at Giannis.

Miami got swept dude. Giannis had 24-15-8. What'd LeBron do against Phoenix?

Yeah, but wait until Butler comes back

[DingleJerry]

Lebron got hurt on March 21st.

https://www.nba.com/news/kia-mvp-ladder-march-19-edition

March 19th:

1. Jokic
.
.
4. Lebron


You guys know you can look this stuff up, right?

Yea I just found odds about March 15 and LBJ was the favorite but only at +160, not negative. Jokic was 2nd. But remember LA was 1/2 seed at the time and Denver was 5-7. Then throw in the narrative, LBJ was going to win if he didn't get hurt,

[Ron Swanson]

Ayton was quite literally the perfect physical prototype to guard Giannis (6'11, 250 lb super athlete).

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

[Ron Swanson]

And that's not even mentioning the Suns had big, strong, defensive wings like Crowder, Bridges, and Cam Johnson to throw at him on top of that. Giannis absolutely eviscerated the "you can neutralize him" argument this postseason. The only person that can stop Giannis is himself (shot selection, free throws).

[DingleJerry]

Yup, think we talked about a few weeks ago too. But the shift to Giannis in the paint rather than the ball handler at top of key dribbling at a wall was a critical shift and key to making 'the wall' plan not really work, or at least makes it much more difficult. If he focuses on even more finishes in this area and keeps his FTS above say 65% in the playoffs there isn't much they can do specifically on him. Other than mass double/triple teams which leaves everyone else very open.

I think someone mentioned it when FA started too and teams like Phi, PHX, LAL, getting extra bigs might be after seeing PHX get killed due to only having one competent big (who can't get in foul trouble) could be a way to at least plan on dealing with this new Giannis style if needed. But, that could just be coincidence too.

[Ruben Quevedo]

And that's not even mentioning the Suns had big, strong, defensive wings like Crowder, Bridges, and Cam Johnson to throw at him on top of that. Giannis absolutely eviscerated the "you can neutralize him" argument this postseason. The only person that can stop Giannis is himself (shot selection, free throws).

Crowder is strong but not particular big, and the other two are neither big nor strong.

You can't guard Giannis with wings. You need big dudes who move their feet and aren't afraid to take charges.

[Milbucks96]

Phoenix has ideal personnel to deal with Giannis and he ate them alive. I don't know what you've got in mind but there's nothing left.

Miami neutralized Giannis pretty good in the first round and got even more guys that they can throw at Giannis.

Miami got swept dude. Giannis had 24-15-8. What'd LeBron do against Phoenix?

Them getting swept has nothing to do with what I was arguing, just pointing out that it’s still teams and game plans that can bother Giannis. He was pretty bad on offense shooting 45/6/63 til that last game where he finally gave up trying to score and fed the hot hand in Forbes and Bobby and racked up half his assists for that whole series.

You can still wall off Giannis and make him ineffective and force him to be a passer, the bucks were just better than the heat but they still made it hard for him.

Anyway this is getting off topic, love Giannis but still think Kd, Lebron, kawhi etc are better playoff performers. He’s right under them after this run though.

[TroyD92]

Giannis needs to play like he did against Phoenix going forward. Thought he seemed entirely different in the finals as far as his approach to the game.

[MartyConlonOnTheRun]

Ayton was quite literally the perfect physical prototype to guard Giannis (6'11, 250 lb super athlete).

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

Not sure what we are arguing but Ayton lacks some seasoning. He isn't used to guarding guys like Giannis going all out. i know he did well against other great big men but I think Ayton will get physically and mentally stronger. So I wouldn't say he is the perfect physical prototype to guard him yet. 2 years from now would be a slightly different story.

[WeekapaugGroove]

Fouling Giannis is the only way to stop him when he's going downhill at you, he's just too crafty/good of a finisher to really defend.

Whomever convinced him to stop shooting 3s deserves a cash bonus.

Sent from my SM-G986U using RealGM mobile app

[Sigra]

I don't think so. Magical run from Giannis, but until he can prove that he has made the necessary adjustments moving forward and can consistently dominate against teams that are actually capable of walling him off well, those two are just better shot-makers.

Phoenix has ideal personnel to deal with Giannis and he ate them alive. I don't know what you've got in mind but there's nothing left.

Miami neutralized Giannis pretty good in the first round and got even more guys that they can throw at Giannis.

that was diferent Giannis. at some point during this playoffs he just transformed to inside player we all wanted for years. for example, Crowder was his stopper last year and this year same Crowder was his bitch. He just transformed like buterfly. Giannis from finals IS best player on planet.

[Ron Swanson]

Giannis could drop 50 on a prime Tim Duncan/David Robinson front court and some people would still be like: "Yeah but you can hold him to 27/13/5 if you throw THE WALL at him! Harumph! Harumph!!"

[SupremeHustle]

Read on Twitter

[greekbuck34]

In order to beat us easily you need

1) Giannis to miss more than half his FTs on +15 attempts.
2) Jrue and Khris to play like trash offensively most of the game.
3) The Bucks to shoot under 25% on wide open 3s
4) To shoot over 40% on 3s because you will struggle inside the paint no matter what.

And even then the game could still be close thanks to the Bucks defense at the rim and switching 1-5 with Giannis as the small ball center.

It can happen because Giannis is a bad FT shooter, Jrue and Khris are inconsistent and the Bucks are very bad shooting team but it's still pretty hard no matter how you play defense against Giannis.

[SupremeHustle]

What playoff game comes to mind that the Bucks played well in and actually lost?

[midranger]

What playoff game comes to mind that the Bucks played well in and actually lost?

I think they played well for most of Game 5 vs Brooklyn and then KD went nuclear and they **** themselves quite a bit.

[midranger]

Fouling Giannis is the only way to stop him when he's going downhill at you, he's just too crafty/good of a finisher to really defend.

Whomever convinced him to stop shooting 3s deserves a cash bonus.

Sent from my SM-G986U using RealGM mobile app

I’m pretty sure Giannis took all the (rightful) criticism after a disasterous Game 2 vs Brooklyn to heart and reinvented himself on the fly.

Legendary playoff run.

[midranger]

Raps waived Aron Baynes.

[SupremeHustle]

What playoff game comes to mind that the Bucks played well in and actually lost?

I think they played well for most of Game 5 vs Brooklyn and then KD went nuclear and they **** themselves quite a bit.

Yep. That's the one that came to mind for me, too.