RealGM

Starters:
** Brooklyn **
James Harden
Joe Harris
Kevin Durant
Bruce Brown
Blake Griffin

** Heat **
Kyle Lowry
Duncan Robinson
Jimmy Butler
PJ Tucker
Bam Adebayo


Injuries:
Kyrie Irving - OUT (Conspiracy Theory)
Victor Oladipo - OUT (Knee)

This one is going to be one tough W to bring home...



Lets gooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

The heat are a better team then the Kyrie-less version on the Nets, and in my opinion are the best team in the NBA (san Kyrie). They are outstnading on both ends. Lowry/Butler/Adabayo are all-stars on BOTH sides of the ball. Tucker we know is legit and robinson/Herro are as good/better then Harris/Mills

going to take enormous games from everyone who plays, including a monster night by Harden to win this one.

They have an enormous coaching advantage too.

This is a great measuring stick

If Nets get this, confidence will sky rocket. While I want the Nets to win, I am not counting on it with Miami having the momentum it has. But if they do win, it is certainly a confidence booster and Harden has to start hitting his shots and regain his confidence. We need Houston Harden back.

Prokorov wrote:The heat are a better team then the Kyrie-less version on the Nets, and in my opinion are the best team in the NBA (san Kyrie). They are outstnading on both ends. Lowry/Butler/Adabayo are all-stars on BOTH sides of the ball. Tucker we know is legit and robinson/Herro are as good/better then Harris/Mills

going to take enormous games from everyone who plays, including a monster night by Harden to win this one.

They have an enormous coaching advantage too.

This is a great measuring stick

I have a great amount of respect for the Heat.

However, they aren't infallible. They got beat by the Pacers the other day.

We have Kevin Durant and James Harden. I will never count us out.

Prok with amazing takes and conclusions as usual .

Harden been on a watch. If he picks his game up so will others. Joe more than anyone relied on set up shots.

I wonder if Marks looking for pass first pg. Maybe Rondo, seem like he's odd man out there. Give them Carter and second, I'm not impressed with him at all, good practice player, nothing more.

GTR11 wrote:Prok with amazing takes and conclusions as usual .

Harden been on a watch. If he picks his game up so will others. Joe more than anyone relied on set up shots.

I wonder if Marks looking for pass first pg. Maybe Rondo, seem like he's odd man out there. Give them Carter and second, I'm not impressed with him at all, good practice player, nothing more.

I think we definitely need to make a trade for a PG. We only have one legit ball handler/shot creator.

I mean, it would be nice if Kyrie would act like an adult and get vaccinated like the rest of his teammates, but here we are.

MrDollarBills wrote:

Prokorov wrote:The heat are a better team then the Kyrie-less version on the Nets, and in my opinion are the best team in the NBA (san Kyrie). They are outstnading on both ends. Lowry/Butler/Adabayo are all-stars on BOTH sides of the ball. Tucker we know is legit and robinson/Herro are as good/better then Harris/Mills

going to take enormous games from everyone who plays, including a monster night by Harden to win this one.

They have an enormous coaching advantage too.

This is a great measuring stick

I have a great amount of respect for the Heat.

However, they aren't infallible. They got beat by the Pacers the other day.

We have Kevin Durant and James Harden. I will never count us out.

Heat is the toughest matchup for us. But in a vacuum I wouldn't call them the clear best team in the league.

Lowry has not been his old self this season, he hasn't been vintage Lowry since the pandemic started. Maybe we chalk up last year as a tank year but it's possible that age has caught up with him and he's no longer a fringe all star performer.

It appears that Herro has taken a step up this season, albeit very small sample. But given his work ethic, it's not surprising that he goes from average rotation player with potential to a starter level / 6MOY player over the off-season.

Overall, I still put the Heat in that tier 1 East team with us and Bucks. It's way too early in teh season for me to rank teams in this tier apart.


My main focus on tonight is how Nash uses his rotation. From all accounts I get the vibe that he treated the first 4 games as extended pre-season, an opportunity to experience different rotations. I am eager to see how we look when we finally settle on a set rotation and how we match up to other top teams when that happens, hopefully tonight.

MrDollarBills wrote:

GTR11 wrote:Prok with amazing takes and conclusions as usual .

Harden been on a watch. If he picks his game up so will others. Joe more than anyone relied on set up shots.

I wonder if Marks looking for pass first pg. Maybe Rondo, seem like he's odd man out there. Give them Carter and second, I'm not impressed with him at all, good practice player, nothing more.

I think we definitely need to make a trade for a PG. We only have one legit ball handler/shot creator.

I mean, it would be nice if Kyrie would act like an adult and get vaccinated like the rest of his teammates, but here we are.

It's still early, and Nash is trying out things. On paper, we should be fine with playmaking abilities from our bigs. (KD Griffin BBJr even Claxton) Mills can be the ball distributor if he's asked to, he's not a Lou Williams or Nick young.

One problem if we do go out and get a traditional smallish PG is it makes it hard to play Mills or Carter at the 2 due to size. It makes more sense that our forwards/bigs share some ball handling responsibilities when Harden is off the floor.

If we play with the same energy we did on Monday, we should be OK. Miami is really good but they don't come with any obviously terrible matchups for us.

Last year we weren't a perfect team but any time we had a "BIG" game or a game against a contender - the team came out with swagger, confidence, aggression. Regardless of who was in or out of the lineup. That's why we had the best record in the league vs. teams over .500. It's not like we relied on our big 3 - they played only 8 games together. That's all I want to see from the team. So far only KD + Mills have brought it every game.

Two things to watch this game:

1. Claxton minutes. Blake + LMA are healthy but this is 100% the type of matchup we need Claxton for. Lowry loves bombing deep 3s. Robinson and Herro are big threats on the perimeter. Bam likes taking a lot of jumpshots. This is a team you got to switch against or they'll pick you apart. He was good last game but he's been inconsistent. Blake has also been straight up bad this year.

2. Our 2nd unit offense. Against Washington, Nash said F spacing - we're just playing high effort guys. I think there was a point where we played Brown, Bembry, Claxton at once. That's dangerously bad spacing. Washington is bad defensively so it didn't matter. Miami might kill us during those minutes. We've also been struggling during the Harden ONLY minutes. That unit with him + Harris + Claxton used to destroy people last year.

MrDollarBills wrote:

GTR11 wrote:Prok with amazing takes and conclusions as usual .

Harden been on a watch. If he picks his game up so will others. Joe more than anyone relied on set up shots.

I wonder if Marks looking for pass first pg. Maybe Rondo, seem like he's odd man out there. Give them Carter and second, I'm not impressed with him at all, good practice player, nothing more.

I think we definitely need to make a trade for a PG. We only have one legit ball handler/shot creator.

I mean, it would be nice if Kyrie would act like an adult and get vaccinated like the rest of his teammates, but here we are.

Even when he's going to come back, I don't have any confidence in him going mia or get hurt. I mean give me any reason to think otherwise.

Patty is going to be great addition. It's just he is pure scorer, if you ask him to do extra, let's say I'm not looking forward to it.

This experiments Nash ran was/is disaster and hard to watch. Having Harden being in a slump just make me cringe. We need vet pg asap.

haosmoove wrote:

MrDollarBills wrote:

GTR11 wrote:Prok with amazing takes and conclusions as usual .

Harden been on a watch. If he picks his game up so will others. Joe more than anyone relied on set up shots.

I wonder if Marks looking for pass first pg. Maybe Rondo, seem like he's odd man out there. Give them Carter and second, I'm not impressed with him at all, good practice player, nothing more.

I think we definitely need to make a trade for a PG. We only have one legit ball handler/shot creator.

I mean, it would be nice if Kyrie would act like an adult and get vaccinated like the rest of his teammates, but here we are.

It's still early, and Nash is trying out things. On paper, we should be fine with playmaking abilities from our bigs. (KD Griffin BBJr even Claxton) Mills can be the ball distributor if he's asked to, he's not a Lou Williams or Nick young.

One problem if we do go out and get a traditional smallish PG is it makes it hard to play Mills or Carter at the 2 due to size. It makes more sense that our forwards/bigs share some ball handling responsibilities when Harden is off the floor.

On paper?

Sorry I don't share your confidence or want to test that hemi Harden spoke about. KD logging 37m is not something to be exited either. Ok playmaker fixes a lot of issues.

MrDollarBills wrote:

Prokorov wrote:The heat are a better team then the Kyrie-less version on the Nets, and in my opinion are the best team in the NBA (san Kyrie). They are outstnading on both ends. Lowry/Butler/Adabayo are all-stars on BOTH sides of the ball. Tucker we know is legit and robinson/Herro are as good/better then Harris/Mills

going to take enormous games from everyone who plays, including a monster night by Harden to win this one.

They have an enormous coaching advantage too.

This is a great measuring stick

I have a great amount of respect for the Heat.

However, they aren't infallible. They got beat by the Pacers the other day.

We have Kevin Durant and James Harden. I will never count us out.

Lowry didnt play in the pacers game and it was a close game that went to overtime on a questionable late no call. So I wouldnt use that as the best example.... although you are right and to use another rocky reference



With Durant we can beat anyone, anyday. its not a sure loss, but with the current active roster they are in my mind cleary a notch better then us and a matchup nightmare on both ends. A win here would put a huge hop in my stop and give the team huge confidence.

Maybe im too high on them, but I see this miami team as better then Kawhi's raptors.

MrDollarBills wrote:

GTR11 wrote:Prok with amazing takes and conclusions as usual .

Harden been on a watch. If he picks his game up so will others. Joe more than anyone relied on set up shots.

I wonder if Marks looking for pass first pg. Maybe Rondo, seem like he's odd man out there. Give them Carter and second, I'm not impressed with him at all, good practice player, nothing more.

I think we definitely need to make a trade for a PG. We only have one legit ball handler/shot creator.

I mean, it would be nice if Kyrie would act like an adult and get vaccinated like the rest of his teammates, but here we are.

I think we have plenty of shot creation, harden just needs to play himself back into shape.

haosmoove wrote:Heat is the toughest matchup for us. But in a vacuum I wouldn't call them the clear best team in the league.

Lowry has not been his old self this season, he hasn't been vintage Lowry since the pandemic started. Maybe we chalk up last year as a tank year but it's possible that age has caught up with him and he's no longer a fringe all star performer.

Lowry maybe lost a step, but always kills us. last year he dropped 24/8 on us in three games on 60+ TS% And he has always given us trouble defensively... even elite ball handlers like harden and kyrie turn it over a ton against him.

It appears that Herro has taken a step up this season, albeit very small sample. But given his work ethic, it's not surprising that he goes from average rotation player with potential to a starter level / 6MOY player over the off-season.

Overall, I still put the Heat in that tier 1 East team with us and Bucks. It's way too early in teh season for me to rank teams in this tier apart.

I think its:

Heat
Nets

Bucks

I dont see the bucks in the same class as the heat/nets. i put the nets over the heat with Kyrie but not without him. The heat absolutely demolished the bucks.

My main focus on tonight is how Nash uses his rotation. From all accounts I get the vibe that he treated the first 4 games as extended pre-season, an opportunity to experience different rotations. I am eager to see how we look when we finally settle on a set rotation and how we match up to other top teams when that happens, hopefully tonight.

I am with you on settling on a rotation, i dont see one that doesnt have miami with all kinds of mismatches.

We need 2 huge games from Harden/KD, joe needs to hit his shots and a role guy needs to give us 15-20 points.

MGrand15 wrote:Two things to watch this game:

1. Claxton minutes. Blake + LMA are healthy but this is 100% the type of matchup we need Claxton for. Lowry loves bombing deep 3s. Robinson and Herro are big threats on the perimeter. Bam likes taking a lot of jumpshots. This is a team you got to switch against or they'll pick you apart. He was good last game but he's been inconsistent. Blake has also been straight up bad this year.

Agree on this... regarding Blake I thought he was really good vs. the Wizards and his poor play earlier was because Nash had him at PF. Blake isnt going to succeed at PF at this point in his career.

2. Our 2nd unit offense. Against Washington, Nash said F spacing - we're just playing high effort guys. I think there was a point where we played Brown, Bembry, Claxton at once. That's dangerously bad spacing. Washington is bad defensively so it didn't matter. Miami might kill us during those minutes. We've also been struggling during the Harden ONLY minutes. That unit with him + Harris + Claxton used to destroy people last year.

I think we need to play those defense heavy/no spacing lineups. maybe its just 1 6 minute shift but we cant have teams just feel confident for 48 minutes. And some of our defenders can shoot (Carter, Milsap).

Harden | Carter | Bembry or Brown | Milsap | Claxton Has more then enough floor spacing IMO.

GTR11 wrote:

MrDollarBills wrote:

GTR11 wrote:Prok with amazing takes and conclusions as usual .

Harden been on a watch. If he picks his game up so will others. Joe more than anyone relied on set up shots.

I wonder if Marks looking for pass first pg. Maybe Rondo, seem like he's odd man out there. Give them Carter and second, I'm not impressed with him at all, good practice player, nothing more.

I think we definitely need to make a trade for a PG. We only have one legit ball handler/shot creator.

I mean, it would be nice if Kyrie would act like an adult and get vaccinated like the rest of his teammates, but here we are.

Even when he's going to come back, I don't have any confidence in him going mia or get hurt. I mean give me any reason to think otherwise.

Patty is going to be great addition. It's just he is pure scorer, if you ask him to do extra, let's say I'm not looking forward to it.

This experiments Nash ran was/is disaster and hard to watch. Having Harden being in a slump just make me cringe. We need vet pg asap.

Well he did play more games then any of our stars last year. and despite the harping on it, he really hasnt missed many games to personal reasons. i outlined it in the other threat but i think it was liked 10 games in 9 seasons. and some of those were super legit excuses (Kobe's death, his kid being born, his initiation (or whatever they call it) into his tribe... etc...).

We need him to win a title. were good to get a top 3-4 seed without him, but were not winning a title with our coaching without him.

Prokorov wrote:The heat are a better team then the Kyrie-less version on the Nets, and in my opinion are the best team in the NBA (san Kyrie). They are outstnading on both ends. Lowry/Butler/Adabayo are all-stars on BOTH sides of the ball. Tucker we know is legit and robinson/Herro are as good/better then Harris/Mills

going to take enormous games from everyone who plays, including a monster night by Harden to win this one.

They have an enormous coaching advantage too.

This is a great measuring stick

You are massively overrating the Heat. They don't even have a top 10 player on their roster. Lowry couldn't even get the Raptors to .500 last year.

They are not even close to the level of the Nets/Bucks/Lakers. I'm not even sure they are better than the Hawks.

They could win this game. But I'll take KD/Harden over them in a playoff series easily.

They are as solid a team as it get's, same tier as Bucks in my opinion. I think we can win a 7 game series but it would be close. This of course would mean Harden playing at his MVP level, which is what would make the difference even tonight. If Harden hits a groove we will win. Otherwise I take the Heat, they will capitalize on every turnover and things could even get ugly.

At this point, I think there's a 95% chance we never see Kyrie in a Net uniform again.

If we continue to struggle, you better believe the Trade Kyrie noise is going to hit 100. Not sure what team would take him though. At this point, he's the most difficult player to deal with in the league and I don't think it's close.

Either way, I'm mostly fine with our PG situation right now. Harden/Mills/Carter is pretty damn good. We just need Harden to be Harden. Carter's been struggling with his shot but I'll take a pitbull defender like him ANY DAY. Another scorer would be nice though. We need the option of sitting Harden + KD together during the regular season.

Only time will tell.....but I believe we are the better team and baring unforeseen injury's will have a better record at the end of the season.

Both teams are looking for statement wins. For us we need Joe to hit his three's and score a minimum of 15 points. We also need our bench to give us another strong showing. We have LA back and home court advantage so I like our chances.