2023 Around The League NBA Playoffs Thread

[Neeva]

Beasley didn’t even play in today’s blowout and I doubt the Lakers pick up his option. Wolves may be able to pick him up for next season? He’d still be an upgrade over Nowell

[Calinks]

Morant is imploding right before our eyes.

Some people on the Grizzlies forum are saying he's not worth the max and lots of talk about how the team needs a true leader. Crazy cause he was on top of the world 4 months ago, now people think he can't cut it.

[Neeva]

Morant is imploding right before our eyes.

Some people on the Grizzlies forum are saying he's not worth the max and lots of talk about how the team needs a true leader. Crazy cause he was on top of the world 4 months ago, now people think he can't cut it.

Grizzlie fans are hating on Tyus big time as well and want to go after Nurse.

[Calinks]

Morant is imploding right before our eyes.

Some people on the Grizzlies forum are saying he's not worth the max and lots of talk about how the team needs a true leader. Crazy cause he was on top of the world 4 months ago, now people think he can't cut it.

Grizzlie fans are hating on Tyus big time as well and want to go after Nurse.

I would LOVE for them to give up on Tyus and send him home lol!

[Note30]

DLo carried the Lakers wow.

[Note30]

We need Giannis talk with Wolves fan on this board. Granted we never win anything but I think this season is not a failure. Our young players are learning and we are growing as a team. The key will be how we gel next year. Rather you like the Gobert trade or not, it's a done deal and makes no sense to trade down. Fit for Ant doesn't mean we get 4 guys standing outside and have Ant dribble all game. We are in win now mode, so trade up with anyone including Ant if you can but no trade downs. I do wish we drafted Giannis instead of Shabazz just for his TED talk.

At the moment and for the foreseeable future Ant is untouchable.

Addition by subtraction is a very real thing.

Ideally we move up in trades but we have very little capital to achieve that.

I would do a 1-1 trade of any Wolves for these players (assuming they want to be here): Jokic, Giannis, Luka, Tatum, Morant, Jaylen Brown, Booker, LaMelo Ball. On the fence with Fox and SGA.

Addition by subtraction may apply to Knight, Nowell or JMcL. For Gobert, there's enough said already and I will offer my last perspective: I am Rudy, 3x all-star, 3x defensive player of the year, rebound champ, and block champ. I been an efficient player, on winning team and knows how to win. Why am I adjusting my winning ways to fit you bunch of losers? You got a rookie that looks good but clearly is one dimensional and incomplete. You guys been losing big while I been winning. You should make more adjustments to the winning ways we do in Utah so we could win here in Minnesota because whatever you were doing before never really worked.

And if I was Ant I'd laugh in his face. He can't even catch a ball. His winning ways? He got carried. He looked good as a system player under a good coach with great players around him. He can't even score without being fed in exactly the right position. He got torched on defense multiple times. If that was truly his attitude and I was Ant I'd switch to get him on an island every day at practice. Hell I'm confident Ant could deny him position all day everyday.

And then ask the FO to trade his useless ass.

Jokic, Giannis, Luka, Tatum, Morant, Jaylen Brown, Booker, LaMelo Ball. - Who do you expect to trade to get any of those players? If your answer is Ant you're absolutely nuts.

[Note30]

Morant is imploding right before our eyes.

Some people on the Grizzlies forum are saying he's not worth the max and lots of talk about how the team needs a true leader. Crazy cause he was on top of the world 4 months ago, now people think he can't cut it.

There's been multiple times during Morant's tenure where the team has played better without him than with him.

He's definitely not a guy to build around. As long as he's on the Grizzlies they aren't going to win anything. He's an inefficient chucker who plays an offensive game dictated around his athletic ability and when he isn't able to read defenses properly he doesn't have the game sense to make the right read. I'd be pissed if I was the Grizzlies too.

[Note30]

Beasley didn’t even play in today’s blowout and I doubt the Lakers pick up his option. Wolves may be able to pick him up for next season? He’d still be an upgrade over Nowell

No thanks. Don't really like DV players on our team.

[life_saver]

We could have beat Grizzlies in 5 or 6 games last year if Brandon Clarke wasn't playing...he was pretty important for Grizzlies last season in playoffs off the bench. They missed him badly this series vs Lakers

[life_saver]

Sabonis has had a pretty rough series so far

[shrink]

The Bucks wasted a 12-point fourth-quarter lead in Game 4 and squandered a 16-point fourth-quarter advantage and an eight-point lead in the final 3:18 of the fourth in Game 5

Not just us.

[Neeva]

The Bucks wasted a 12-point fourth-quarter lead in Game 4 and squandered a 16-point fourth-quarter advantage and an eight-point lead in the final 3:18 of the fourth in Game 5

Not just us.

Well there is a reason their coach who has actually won things in the past ( not just middled) is on the hot seat!

[Colbinii]

Sabonis has had a pretty rough series so far

Yup, and against much better defenders than Towns went against and is still much better.

[Calinks]

Sabonis has had a pretty rough series so far

I will keep saying it. Barring incredibly rare exceptions, bigs should not be your go to players in the NBA playoffs. Sadly you are best suited having great wings/guards and a good big. Big get screwed with calls and can be guarded incredibly hard. Guards get away with murder. I think even Embiid who will probably be MVP, is going to get scrwed in these playoffs. He will still get his but if Harden can't carry the offense I think Embiid will get factored out of some clutch moments and they wont be able to win. Bookers, Edwards', Murrays, Tatums, etc. are what you have to have to win big.

Even against us, Jokic got scrwed several times compared to Murray with some calls. Its just not fair. I wont build around a big again unless the NBA changes its rules/foul calling. You are fine with a good big and not a great one if they are the 2nd or 3rd option.

[TimberKat]

Sabonis has had a pretty rough series so far

I will keep saying it. Barring incredibly rare exceptions, bigs should not be your go to players in the NBA playoffs. Sadly you are best suited having great wings/guards and a good big. Big get screwed with calls and can be guarded incredibly hard. Guards get away with murder. I think even Embiid who will probably be MVP, is going to get scrwed in these playoffs. He will still get his but if Harden can't carry the offense I think Embiid will get factored out of some clutch moments and they wont be able to win. Bookers, Edwards', Murrays, Tatums, etc. are what you have to have to win big.

Even against us, Jokic got scrwed several times compared to Murray with some calls. Its just not fair. I wont build around a big again unless the NBA changes its rules/foul calling. You are fine with a good big and not a great one if they are the 2nd or 3rd option.

Sabonis played fairly well. He got a shot to his eye the last game so didn't shoot well but still grabbed 11 rebounds. For the series, he avg 15.5pt, 11.5 rebounds, 4.3 assists, 47% shoot.

[TimberKat]

At the moment and for the foreseeable future Ant is untouchable.

Addition by subtraction is a very real thing.

Ideally we move up in trades but we have very little capital to achieve that.

I would do a 1-1 trade of any Wolves for these players (assuming they want to be here): Jokic, Giannis, Luka, Tatum, Morant, Jaylen Brown, Booker, LaMelo Ball. On the fence with Fox and SGA.

Addition by subtraction may apply to Knight, Nowell or JMcL. For Gobert, there's enough said already and I will offer my last perspective: I am Rudy, 3x all-star, 3x defensive player of the year, rebound champ, and block champ. I been an efficient player, on winning team and knows how to win. Why am I adjusting my winning ways to fit you bunch of losers? You got a rookie that looks good but clearly is one dimensional and incomplete. You guys been losing big while I been winning. You should make more adjustments to the winning ways we do in Utah so we could win here in Minnesota because whatever you were doing before never really worked.

And if I was Ant I'd laugh in his face. He can't even catch a ball. His winning ways? He got carried. He looked good as a system player under a good coach with great players around him. He can't even score without being fed in exactly the right position. He got torched on defense multiple times. If that was truly his attitude and I was Ant I'd switch to get him on an island every day at practice. Hell I'm confident Ant could deny him position all day everyday.

And then ask the FO to trade his useless ass.

Jokic, Giannis, Luka, Tatum, Morant, Jaylen Brown, Booker, LaMelo Ball. - Who do you expect to trade to get any of those players? If your answer is Ant you're absolutely nuts.

That is mostly my points but to a different conclusion perhaps:
1. Ant isn’t anywhere near top 20 players in the league (I didn’t list Mitchell and a few others). He is not untouchable if the right offer comes along. Maybe Bucks is ready for rebuild.

2. If anyone could look so great, got so much accolades, and win in a system/coaching, why aren’t we adopting to that system? By the way, Jazz fans weren’t the only ones voting for defensive player of the year.

3. Does Jazz really have that much more talent than Twolves or is it our players aren’t playing the winning way? Finch talked about how our guards need to learn to block out in after game 5 conference.

4. First, I don’t believe in building a system around one player. It is a matter of building a system to optimize your entire team. Second, if Ant is not even top 20, why are we building a system around him? I don’t even know what a system fits Ant even mean at this point other than 4 guys standing. He can’t even pass out of a double team.

5. None of our players are perfect. It’s a matter of learn how to play as a team. If Ant doesn’t learn that, he is going to end up like World B Free, Mark Aguirre (DAL), Byron Davis, or Kyrie at best. Guys that put up stats but never win anything.

6. We complain about the One Who Shall Not Be Named on miss rebounds. How many times Ant missed a pull up jumper at end of qtr or end of games? Didn’t we loss the last game because he can’t hit a game tying 3? Going 0-6 from 3s?

7. The Trade didn’t turn out as good as we wanted and that is a fact. Let’s move on and figure out how to make it work instead of sell low on our assets. Addition by subtraction doesn’t apply in this case. If we trade Towns or a center, we need an all star coming back and not an aging one either.

[Calinks]

Sabonis has had a pretty rough series so far

I will keep saying it. Barring incredibly rare exceptions, bigs should not be your go to players in the NBA playoffs. Sadly you are best suited having great wings/guards and a good big. Big get screwed with calls and can be guarded incredibly hard. Guards get away with murder. I think even Embiid who will probably be MVP, is going to get scrwed in these playoffs. He will still get his but if Harden can't carry the offense I think Embiid will get factored out of some clutch moments and they wont be able to win. Bookers, Edwards', Murrays, Tatums, etc. are what you have to have to win big.

Even against us, Jokic got scrwed several times compared to Murray with some calls. Its just not fair. I wont build around a big again unless the NBA changes its rules/foul calling. You are fine with a good big and not a great one if they are the 2nd or 3rd option.

Sabonis played fairly well. He got a shot to his eye the last game so didn't shoot well but still grabbed 11 rebounds. For the series, he avg 15.5pt, 11.5 rebounds, 4.3 assists, 47% shoot.

I'm just saying I think its fine if that's your 2nd or 3rd guy which Sabonis is. You are just in trouble if your big has to be your best scorer IMO. If I had to build a team today I'd get a good servicible big but I wouldn't put most of money into or build around them.

[Calinks]

Nuggets looking great again. Suns are starting to comeback now but a lot of people felt the Suns would destroy Denver.

[TimberKat]

I will keep saying it. Barring incredibly rare exceptions, bigs should not be your go to players in the NBA playoffs. Sadly you are best suited having great wings/guards and a good big. Big get screwed with calls and can be guarded incredibly hard. Guards get away with murder. I think even Embiid who will probably be MVP, is going to get scrwed in these playoffs. He will still get his but if Harden can't carry the offense I think Embiid will get factored out of some clutch moments and they wont be able to win. Bookers, Edwards', Murrays, Tatums, etc. are what you have to have to win big.

Even against us, Jokic got scrwed several times compared to Murray with some calls. Its just not fair. I wont build around a big again unless the NBA changes its rules/foul calling. You are fine with a good big and not a great one if they are the 2nd or 3rd option.

Sabonis played fairly well. He got a shot to his eye the last game so didn't shoot well but still grabbed 11 rebounds. For the series, he avg 15.5pt, 11.5 rebounds, 4.3 assists, 47% shoot.

I'm just saying I think its fine if that's your 2nd or 3rd guy which Sabonis is. You are just in trouble if your big has to be your best scorer IMO. If I had to build a team today I'd get a good servicible big but I wouldn't put most of money into or build around them.

Do you count Magic Johnson, Tim Duncan, KD, and Giannis as center? Is Kobe better than Shaq? Since 1980, I believe only 94, 95 Rockets and 2000, 2001, 2002 Lakers won with their best player being the center. It's been that way for a while, especially with the 3 pt shots.

[Calinks]

Sabonis played fairly well. He got a shot to his eye the last game so didn't shoot well but still grabbed 11 rebounds. For the series, he avg 15.5pt, 11.5 rebounds, 4.3 assists, 47% shoot.

I'm just saying I think its fine if that's your 2nd or 3rd guy which Sabonis is. You are just in trouble if your big has to be your best scorer IMO. If I had to build a team today I'd get a good servicible big but I wouldn't put most of money into or build around them.

Do you count Magic Johnson, Tim Duncan, KD, and Giannis as center? Is Kobe better than Shaq? Since 1980, I believe only 94, 95 Rockets and 2000, 2001, 2002 Lakers won with their best player being the center. It's been that way for a while, especially with the 3 pt shots.

I think it was easier pre... lets say 2010 or so. In the 80's and 90's, bigs were a lot more valuable because everybody got hacked and beat down and bigs were better able to handle it and still get theirs. Also the post game was so important. Back then, it was a good idea to build around elite bigs, they were very reliable. With the rules now though, its just a lot easier if you have an elite guard as opposed to an elite big. You can touch the guards today yet bigs still get hacked and they even get punished for using their size advantage against smaller players.