Around the NBA 8.0

[catch20two]

How red is Cho's face right now?

Blood red.

[TinmanZBoy]

Did Clifford just dislike Biz personally or does he not realize what big men are supposed to do in today's NBA?


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Last season Clifford was pissed off that Biz didn't stay in Charlotte during the summer. He spent a lot of time in Africa helping people, how terrible of him...

Biyombo is the reason I will never like Clifford.

Cliff did say biz is a very likable guy, very easy to root for in the postgame interview of Biz's first game back in Charlotte, which is true...very likable player

[catch20two]

Biz lead the playoffs in screen assist which is points created off his screens. That is his offense and also include his offensive rebounding ability.

This is an amazing stat that gets massively overlooked. He is as elite at screen setting as he is protecting the rim. Lowry, DeRozen and Cory Joseph have been feasting off of Biyombo screens all season.

Kemba used to feast off Biz' screens. It was the moment in games when Al went to the bench and Kemba carried the offense.

I just wish Biz got to play with our newfound floor spacing in Batum and co sans Hendo with his screens.

[Jstock12]

Trading Valanciunas (and getting a really good haul for him) and re-signing Bismack to be their starting C suddenly becomes a legit option for Toronto.

[PG13]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/ShulerSitsch/status/734941724649357312[/tweet]

[LofJ]

Biyombo will be a free agent. Maybe Clifford (the free agent whisperer per Jared Dudley) will ask for his forgiveness and bring him back to Charlotte.

[Eoghan]

Biz lead the playoffs in screen assist which is points created off his screens. That is his offense and also include his offensive rebounding ability.

This is an amazing stat that gets massively overlooked. He is as elite at screen setting as he is protecting the rim. Lowry, DeRozen and Cory Joseph have been feasting off of Biyombo screens all season.

Kemba used to feast off Biz' screens. It was the moment in games when Al went to the bench and Kemba carried the offense.

I just wish Biz got to play with our newfound floor spacing in Batum and co sans Hendo with his screens.

Yep. If Charlotte had signed Milsap instead of Jefferson and Hendo learned what a three pointer was and attacked the rim more instead of settling for Kobe shots we'd probably be in the playoffs right now, consecutively.

[catch20two]

Biyombo will be a free agent. Maybe Clifford (the free agent whisperer per Jared Dudley) will ask for his forgiveness and bring him back to Charlotte.

This would make my offseason. I doubt Biz returns tho. Toronto will do EVERYTHING to keep him now including considering trading Val.

[Braggins]

Biyombo will be a free agent. Maybe Clifford (the free agent whisperer per Jared Dudley) will ask for his forgiveness and bring him back to Charlotte.

He'll probably want to stay in Toronto. Maybe if Toronto decides to go for a big name in free agency they won't be able to resign Biz. In that case reaching out to him could be a legit possibility. I won't lie though, if I was Biz and our front office tried to reach out to me I would give them the finger wag.

[TinmanZBoy]

a Lin/Biz bench would have been great for the Hornets, Hornets had a MLE wasted last season, they could have offered Biz that type of money

[catch20two]

a Lin/Biz bench would have been great for the Hornets, Hornets had a MLE wasted last season, they could have offered Biz that type of money

Cliff wouldn't have played Biz over Al, Hawes, or Zeller at C. It would've took a barrage of injuries well into All Star Break before Biz got on the floor.

[catch20two]

Biz' physicality and rim protection is negating Tristan's offensive rebounding and LeBron attacking the rim. He's essentially the MVP of the series without having to score much because he's changing the complexity of Cleveland's strengths.

[yosemiteben]

I really, really hope we get a TOR - OKC Finals.

I also do not understand what possessed Frye. Dude is shooting 61% from the field and 58% from three in the playoffs. At this point I feel like CLE has to start him. He took whatever possessed Deng and has stretched it for the entire playoffs.

[LofJ]

Biz is like a brother that got ran out of town by a horrible woman that ruined his life. Now he's back on his feet and thriving in a new city and we're happy for him, but we wish he had never met that woman to begin with.

[yosemiteben]

Javi ‏@javipblb 2h2 hours ago
710 players in the 3-point era (since 1979) have taken at least 100 two point shots in the playoffs. Kevin Love has the worst 2P%.

Michael Gallagher ‏@MikeSGallagher 8h8 hours ago
Stephen Curry was 3-of-12 from beyond halfcourt during the regular season. Kevin Love was 3-of-20 from within 3 feet in his last 8 games.

[yosemiteben]

Jeremias Engelmann ‏@JerryEngelmann May 22
Cavs Defensive Rating in playoffs
with Irving on the floor: 109.7
with Irving off the floor: 91.6

I'm starting to seriously think CLE might be better without KLove and Kyrie.

[HornetJail]

Jeremias Engelmann ‏@JerryEngelmann May 22
Cavs Defensive Rating in playoffs
with Irving on the floor: 109.7
with Irving off the floor: 91.6

I'm starting to seriously think CLE might be better without KLove and Kyrie.

Overreaction to the last two games, because Irving's been terrific offensively, but that team has always been LeBron first, everyone else a very distant 2nd. Either way, the Cavs defense is going to get wrecked by whichever Western Conference team they face in the Finals.

[yosemiteben]

Hilarious deep dive analysis of the State Farm - Hoopers commercials: http://us13.campaign-archive1.com/?u=3bde25be9124031bedcc3f109&id=f400c5db40&e=6a68bd6303

Spoiler:

Spotlight: Meet the Hoopers, a family in chaos

This is the issue at hand: It is highly, highly, highly suspect that Mr. Hooper and Mrs. Hooper, through sexual congress, created Kevin Hooper. And it is also highly, highly, highly suspect that The State Farm Agent and Kevin Hooper are not somehow tied together, given that they look so much alike. That means something is afoot. Some possible explanations:

The Looper Theory: This one asserts that The State Farm Agent is the future version of Kevin Hooper. He escaped back in time after an attempt to kill him went awry. He moved into the house next to the Hoopers to watch after the younger version of himself to make sure he stays safe from anyone else sent back in time to kill Young Kevin because that would, in turn, kill the current version of himself. Or something. I don’t know. Time travel is stupid and confusing.

The Dead Wife Theory: This one asserts that Kevin Hooper was actually originally born as The State Farm Agent’s son. They were a young family of three. It was the mom and the dad and the son. But then catastrophe struck: In a horrible and impossible to avoid accident, Kevin’s mother was killed. The State Farm Agent fell into despair. He was inconsolable and also unable to care for Baby Kevin. Child Protective Services was going to remove Baby Kevin from the home. The Hoopers, having seen all of this take place, offered to take Baby Kevin into their family. And so they did. After years of counseling, The State Farm Agent was able to correct the trajectory of his life. He thought it’d be too traumatizing to tell Kevin about everything, though, so now he just exists as an overly eager neighbor, watching his son grow up from just out of arm’s reach.

The Dead Parents Theory: This one is essentially the same as The Dead Wife Theory except in this one The State Farm Agent is Kevin’s older brother instead of his father.

The first theory is a bit too fantastical to feel true. The last two theories are a bit dark, which I guess makes sense because this whole series is a commercial for an insurance company, and one time an insurance company ran an ad about dead children during the Super Bowl, so I suppose they could be true. But I think the truth here is simpler, because the truth generally is. So, a better explanation:

The Infidelity Theory: This one asserts that early into her marriage to Mr. Hooper, Mrs. Hooper had an affair with The State Farm Agent. Kevin Hooper was born of that.

The five Meet The Hoopers commercials they've shown so far are fat with evidence that this is the correct theory. Let's go one by one through each.


Commercial: Meet the Hoopers

This is the commercial where we're introduced to everybody, and so the very first image we see in the Meet the Hoopers campaign is a group portrait of the family, and that would make sense given that the commercial series is about them. But look closely. There are several Easter eggs in the picture that hint at the turmoil the Hoopers are hoping to keep hidden. There’s:

(1) The Baby: See his look of consternation? Everyone else is smiling because everyone else is old enough to understand the importance of appearing happy. Not the baby, though. He can’t hide his hurt. There was probably a scene a few minutes before this picture was taken where he asked why Kevin looked so much not like anyone else in the family and so they told him that Kevin had a different dad and now Baby Hooper's mad that Kevin gets to be included in the picture. Babies are always doing selfish and hurtful **** like that.

(2) The Scarlet Letter: Look at Mrs. Hooper. What’s the first thing you notice about her? Because I’ll tell you what the first thing I notice is: That bright red sash that runs across her blouse. It looks a lot like when they made Hester Prynne wear that bright red adulterer’s A on her chest in The Scarlet Letter. And now look at Kevin, the alleged result of Mrs. Hooper's alleged affair. Bright red belt. That can’t be a coincidence. I mean, who the **** wears a red belt?

Grandpa Hooper also has touches of red in his outfit (the overalls), which to me suggests that he was possibly complicit in the affair. Maybe he encouraged Mrs. Hooper to cheat? Maybe he’s always had an issue with Mr. Hooper and was hoping that the affair would be enough to force the two apart? (Baby Hooper is probably just wearing red because he needed to match the other three.)

The only one not wearing red in the picture is Mr. Hooper. It’s because he’s the victim here. He probably made Mrs. Hooper and Grandpa Hooper wear that red (he probably bought that belt for Kevin, too, though Kevin is likely unaware at this point that anything is amiss). It’s their secret shame. He’s forcing Mrs. Hooper and Grandpa Hooper to wear their disgrace in their family photo rather than acknowledge it directly. Sometimes keeping something hidden is worse than just talking about it.

(3) Hands: Look at Mrs. Hooper in that photo again. Notice her hands? See how she’s holding the left one in front? There should be a ring there, but there’s not. Mr. Hooper is wearing his wedding ring. Where's Mrs. Hooper's? Mr. Hooper likely took it after he found out about the infidelity, then told her to make sure her ring-less hand is showing in the picture, same as how he made her wear that red.

We're literally one second into the campaign and this **** is already a **** Breaking Bad-level of nuanced complexity.

Let me point out three more things that happen during the first commercial that support The Infidelity Theory's thesis statement.

(1) Image to Audio Correlation, pt. 1: There’s a whole history of academic text on the relationship in movies and TV shows and music videos and so on between the images shown on screen and the words that are said aloud while those images play.The first thing we hear the first time we see The State Farm Agent is "The all-star family..." He’s literally standing there with everyone else the first time we hear the word “family.” That’s not an accident. It’s a subtle clue that he’s wrapped up in all of this.

One more thing here: Notice his shirt? The biggest and brightest red available. They’re basically throwing this **** in our faces now. And to extend that point...

HIS WHOLE **** HOUSE IS RED!!!! This **** was probably sleeping with every wife in the subdivision. What a sleaze. Also, notice he lets himself into the yard? A metaphor for how he lets himself into the bedrooms of the women in the neighborhood as well, I’m sure. This all fits together too perfectly for it to be a bunch of coincidences.

(2) The Adulterers, Together: The first time we ever see Mrs. Hooper and The State Farm Agent together on screen they’re both wearing red and also her gloves are red and also he’s holding a red thing and, I mean, come on. They might as well be wearing signs around their necks.

Also, I’d like to point out that they’re working together here trying to rescue the remains of a burned dinner, which is likely another metaphor. The burnt food represents either the affair between Mrs. Hooper and The State Farm Agent since they've been caught or it represents the relationship between her and Mr. Hooper. It's getting easier and easier to make out these grayed lines of betrayal.

(3) Image to Audio Correlation, pt. 2: The last thing we hear in the commercial is “It’s the Hoopers!” and as it’s being said Mrs. Hooper is shooting a no-look shot at the rim behind them, but in doing so the basketball knocks the first “O” out of “The Hoopers” and then that “O” crashes into the house, destroying it. It’s both a symbolic and literal display of the way she’s wrecked the family's name and the house. Also, to swing back around to the beginning of all of this, the commercial opened with just a shot of the official family members and now, after having given us very many hints, it closes with a new shot of the family, this time including The State Farm Agent.

This is some Sherlock Holmes ****, my dude.

[mrknowitall215]

Jeremias Engelmann ‏@JerryEngelmann May 22
Cavs Defensive Rating in playoffs
with Irving on the floor: 109.7
with Irving off the floor: 91.6

I'm starting to seriously think CLE might be better without KLove and Kyrie.

Overreaction to the last two games, because Irving's been terrific offensively, but that team has always been LeBron first, everyone else a very distant 2nd. Either way, the Cavs defense is going to get wrecked by whichever Western Conference team they face in the Finals.

I don't think it's a overreaction at all. Despite Kyrie's brilliant display of individual offense while shooting decent percentages throughout the playoffs, the Cavaliers have fared better without him on the floor

With Kyrie on the floor the Cavaliers have a plus net rating of 6.8, but without him on the floor they have a plus net rating of 16.8. Most of that hit is on the defensive end while not losing much offensively without him. The team's assist percentage as a whole actually skyrockets from 57.4% to 68.5%

With everything being said, in this year's playoffs the Cavaliers' net rating and assist percentage has been at it's highest without Kyrie on the floor than any other player. It's quite perplexing & intriguing to analyze considering the perception that Kyrie has been a catalyst for them throughout this postseason as the team's leading scorer

Source - http://stats.nba.com/team/#!/1610612739/onoffcourt/advanced/

[yosemiteben]

Good stuff MKIA. I'm a Duke fan so I have a predisposition to roll my eyes at "teams are better off without Kyrie" theories, but I think it's clear that he's not an ideal PG to start next to LeBron. Kyrie is by far the most effective offensively breaking down off the dribble, and LeBron commands such high usage that it doesn't make sense to pair him with a ball dominant PG.

The ideal PG for LeBron is a Chauncey Billups-esque PG that can shoot the three and facilitate ball movement without needing to dominate the ball.