NBA Games Discussion Thread

[pancakes3]

Possibly. It's more likely that Mark is a players' coach seeing as he used to play and he trusts the players to go out there and play ball especially since he has such a smart player in Curry and a savvy player in Jack. I doubt that there are "plays" but rather just guidelines.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

KYP-know your personnel

Jackson coaches Curry and Jack, and both players are floor generals. He seems to trust them with the ball coming out of timeouts. I don't think there are plays called beyond running Steph Curry and Klay Thompson off screens and double screens. Occasionally, Barnes will try to exploit a size or quickness mismatch. The only other shots come from Landry at the elbow or Bogut on either a follow shot or a very rare post entry feed. GS is almost entirely a jump shooting team. Their jump shooters all can create a shot off the dribble.

Aside from subbing and motivating during timeouts, I think Jackson doesn't have a ton of work to do. GS also is deep with rebounders and fouls off the bench. I thought he did a great job getting Beidrins and Ezeli in for token minutes. Popovic refuses to play Blair. At the end of game four, I thought Bogut was fresh and he had a lot more energy than Duncan. Bogut defended and rebounded well as SA missed a lot.

Kudos to Mark Jackson on coaching them up.

[GhostsOfGil]

OT but wow, what a disappointing game 7 at the Verizon eh..

[FAH1223]

Grizzlies were down 17 in the first half but slowed the game down in the 2nd and got the W in overtime.

Crazy to think this series could have been a flat out sweep.

Conley needs to learn how to zip those passes to his bigs off the pick and roll. Gasol and Randolph are open on rolls but Conley doesn't seem to hit them a lot.

[Silvie Lysandra]

[

There is no sugar coating this trade. It was one of the worst of the decade and it was clearly recognizable as a bad trade the moment it was made. At least I was able to recognize it, as well as a few others. The only justification was that Pollin was ailing and perhaps that accelerated the team's win-now strategy. Basically, EG thought a couple more years of 45-win basketball was better than really trying to rebuild from the ground up.

Obviously but:

Would you rather have Curry and Klay than Wall and Beal? I'm assuming that Ernie wouldn't be smart enough to see that Wall and Curry would be incredible backcourt mates though, and Curry likely doesn't keep us from getting #1. But for the sake of argument, let's make that the choice.

[nate33]

[

There is no sugar coating this trade. It was one of the worst of the decade and it was clearly recognizable as a bad trade the moment it was made. At least I was able to recognize it, as well as a few others. The only justification was that Pollin was ailing and perhaps that accelerated the team's win-now strategy. Basically, EG thought a couple more years of 45-win basketball was better than really trying to rebuild from the ground up.

Obviously but:

Would you rather have Curry and Klay than Wall and Beal? I'm assuming that Ernie wouldn't be smart enough to see that Wall and Curry would be incredible backcourt mates though, and Curry likely doesn't keep us from getting #1. But for the sake of argument, let's make that the choice.

I would take Wall and Beal over Curry and Klay in the long run because I don't trust Curry's ankle. But that doesn't absolve EG in any way whatsoever. If a GM is trying to win games but fails so spectacularly that he lucks into the #1 overall pick, he doesn't deserve credit. He deserves scorn.

It would be one thing if EG had been trying to tank at the time. If, for example, he took Rubio knowing Rubio wouldn't come over for a couple of years, then I might praise him for lucking into Wall. But that wasn't the case here. It was the opposite. EG couldn't manage to win even when mortgaging future assets in a short-sighted attempt to win now.

[montestewart]

EG couldn't manage to win even when mortgaging future assets in a short-sighted attempt to win now.

So quotable, I had to quote it.

[FAH1223]

Now Knicks fans can shut up. They are done

[montestewart]

Now Knicks fans can shut up. They are done

It's been pretty fun watching the Pacers pick them apart.

[dangermouse]

Barnes is good...

Its like he's not even a rookie. He just does everything right. GSW sure got lucky that he fell in their lap.

[FAH1223]

Probably why we shouldn't trade Wall anytime soon and have the leap of faith in signing him long term.

Lionel Hollins knew little about Conley when he took over as head coach of the woeful Grizzlies in January of 2009. He had a long history with the franchise, having twice served as an assistant and interim coach. But he spent the beginning of the 2008-09 season in Milwaukee, as a Bucks assistant.

One thing was clear, though: The players who had been given a chance to play that season had gotten the last guy fired, so the other guys couldn't be much worse.

"To me it was pretty simple," Hollins said. "They'd drafted Mike fourth overall the year before, but he'd gotten hurt as a rookie. They also had Kyle Lowry as the starting point guard and they'd been talking about trading Mike.

"I came in and was like, 'Why are we talking about trading him? We're not going anywhere. Why don't we put this guy out there and see if he can play before you go trade him?'"

It was exactly the kind of objective, blunt assessment the Grizzlies needed to hear. And Hollins might have been the only guy who could have delivered it.

"If your job is to paint a yellow square, you paint it to the best of your ability," he said. "They didn't ask you to paint the whole court, they asked you to paint that square."

In this case, that meant convincing the franchise the best thing it could do in the short term was prepare for the long term.

Just a few weeks before, Conley was nearly traded to Milwaukee for Ramon Sessions.
But shortly after taking over for Marc Iavaroni, Hollins met with Conley and told him he was the new starting point guard, and he would be given every chance to remain the starting point guard for the rest of the season.

"It was more than a rumor," Conley said. "My dad's also my agent and he called me to say I wasn't playing this one game. When they tell you that, you know it's pretty serious.
"So after all that happened, for [Hollins] to come to me and say, 'I don't care what happened before, I want to see if you can play or not' … I can't even put enough words in the sentences to say how much it means to me."

Mike Conley makes good on show of faith - ESPN

[Ruzious]

Just a few weeks before, Conley was nearly traded to Milwaukee for Ramon Sessions. But shortly after taking over for Marc Iavaroni, Hollins met with Conley and told him he was the new starting point guard, and he would be given every chance to remain the starting point guard for the rest of the season.

"It was more than a rumor," Conley said. "My dad's also my agent and he called me to say I wasn't playing this one game. When they tell you that, you know it's pretty serious.
"So after all that happened, for [Hollins] to come to me and say, 'I don't care what happened before, I want to see if you can play or not' … I can't even put enough words in the sentences to say how much it means to me."

That loud groan/weep you might have just heard came from my Milwaukee brethren.

...or they had too much beer and brots last night.

[LyricalRico]

^ Wow, that trade would have happened in 2009...meaning you would probably never have drafted Brandon Jennings. Not that 2009 was a necessarily a great draft year, but maybe that would have changed some of the other trades/signings since then that happened with Jennings on board.

[verbal8]

^ Wow, that trade would have happened in 2009...meaning you would probably never have drafted Brandon Jennings. Not that 2009 was a necessarily a great draft year, but maybe that would have changed some of the other trades/signings since then that happened with Jennings on board.

I don't know that 2009 Conley would have changed their fortunes that much. If they had slipped a few spots and Jennings was gone, I wonder if they would have gone with Ty Lawson?

[GhostsOfGil]

Kareems youngest song is doing a reddit AMA today:
http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1 ... t_im_also/

One of the most interesting AMAs I have ever read. Still pissed that Wall canceled his.

[Higga]

Never thought Conley was gonna be this good in the pros. I think Memphis wins the West and gives Miami a real test in the Finals(can't see them winning unfortunately).

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Kareems youngest song is doing a reddit AMA today:
http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1 ... t_im_also/

One of the most interesting AMAs I have ever read. Still pissed that Wall canceled his.

It is good for him to vent some things, but at the very least that was TMI. Kareem, at worst, could sue for son libel.

I have an adult daughter who I didn't raise. Her story would be harsh and biased, and probably even more hateful. If she misrepresented facts and I was famous I would lawyer up. The son seemed just as anxious to elaborate on his drug use. The whole article is something I am sorry I read.

It's sad.

[montestewart]

Ha! Nate tries to back off LeBJ, who shoulders and elbows him repeatedly, bulling him to the floor. Foul on the china shop again.

[GhostsOfGil]

Wow Boozer sucks. He takes a jump shot every time he has an open lane. TAKE IT IN.

[FAH1223]

Grizzlies close out the Thunder in OKC. They almost choked it away with Zbo missing free throws and letting the Thunder get easy buckets after being up 12 with 4 minutes left.

Charles Barkley was saying something like:

"Jumpers end your season, man!! Ask the Knicks, ask Golden State if they wish they had big guys who could score easy baskets!!"

I think we sort of do have some of the same elements as Memphis has ... albeit Zbo and Gasol are better than Nene/Okafor offensively and rebounding wise.