Around the NBA, NEXT Vol. Volume! Sea you at the Crossroads, so you won't be lonelee!!

[Shewasfly]

Do you guys think that we cruised during the regular season? If so, the League needs to look at this and plan around it, so there is more value for a team to go after the #1 during the regular season. 2 clear examples this year, the Heat and the Lakers.

I'm not complaining. LOL

We weren't cruising. We just got hot in round 1 vs the Bucks. This 2nd round was a more accurate reflection of who we are. We were competing with the Knicks and Nets for the 5/6/7 seeds for most of the season, so it's no surprise that we were able to get the best of them. Absent our shooters going crazy again, I have strong doubts that we beat the Celtics. Honestly I think we're the worst team left (barring more injuries) and it's not really close. We just have to scratch and claw and hold on, and hope that the basketball gods favor us.

I'd have Heat with 35 % of winning. To win I think Heat would need 2 things. One Butler to best player in series. If its a tie with Tatum, Heat loose. I think there's a good chance this happens.
And second this, its an either or. Either Heat shoot like they did in Bucks series or Bam is the 3rd best player in the series on offense + Heat role players make timely 3s. This is the biggest question, the shooting is probably unsustainable. We would need Bam to have a great offensive series.

3rd best player is a stretch and probably too high a bar. That's basically saying he's going to be better than Brown. Are you truly thinking Bam is going to give us 26-30 ppg and lockdown on D for every game of the series?

I think if he's the 4th best, giving us 22 ppg and 12 boards and our shooters hit an average rate we can at least keep up. Our shooters are going to be the key, period imo. Not only bc they will provide offense, but because they will prevent the hard double on Jimmy that I just know is coming. Boston is going to take ball out of his hands and just live with whatever we can generate outside of that, unless we prove we can beat that and make them come up with another game plan. Sadly we are missing our third, so someone else (Caleb and/or Lowry, maybe Strus?) is going to have to step up and provide that consistent additional 15-20 points a game after Jimmy and Bam. We will need a ton of favor though.

[3ammy3uck3ts]

Bam at 22-12 for the series would easily make him the 3rd best player lol. Especially when you factor in his playmaking and far superior defense over Brown.

Brown is a bad defender, idk why he has this rep of being good on that side of the ball. Just go ask Celtics fans

[Lennyzinho]

Well, you're falling into traps. Can't go strictly by PPG and rebounds / assists... FG Efficiency is a thing. Defense is a thing. You can score less points than someone and still have been the better player in a series.

I think more important for us is the same key for the series vs knicks. Bench scoring and 3pt shooting as a team. Knicks had the 6th man of the year and an amazing bench. I believe 1st in the league when it came to points per game, cuz they had IQ, Hart (who later started when grimes missed a few but still), Obi Toppin, Hartenstein. And our bench slapped them around. Whenever Brunson wasn't on the court, they crumbled.

We are the definition of a team. We need to shoot around 38%+ from 3, win the turnover battle and win the FT battle.
I'm fairly confident in the TO battle because Smart and JB and Tatum can get sloppy. The FT battle is tough when playing against JB and Tatum and not having Herro driving. And the 3pt %... well... its a make or break league folks. We shall see.
I was just so very very unimpressed by the Sixers and they took Boston to 7. Boston is not playing defense the same way they were last year. They just aren't. Heat need to capitalize on that and I think they can. We are great at demoralizing teams and exposing weaknesses.

[IceColdCubano]

Bam at 22-12 for the series would easily make him the 3rd best player lol. Especially when you factor in his playmaking and far superior defense over Brown.

Brown is a bad defender, idk why he has this rep of being good on that side of the ball. Just go ask Celtics fans

22-12 on elite defense would be great, It will keep us in it, but ultimately won't win us the series against Boston.
We will need 28-12 Bam if we want to win the series.

[contract]

Bam at 22-12 for the series would easily make him the 3rd best player lol. Especially when you factor in his playmaking and far superior defense over Brown.

Brown is a bad defender, idk why he has this rep of being good on that side of the ball. Just go ask Celtics fans

22-12 on elite defense would be great, It will keep us in it, but ultimately won't win us the series against Boston.
We will need 28-12 Bam if we want to win the series.

Then we're screwed because that Bam doesn't really exist. He can have the occasional game here and there, but there's zero chance that he averages that.

[IceColdCubano]

Bam at 22-12 for the series would easily make him the 3rd best player lol. Especially when you factor in his playmaking and far superior defense over Brown.

Brown is a bad defender, idk why he has this rep of being good on that side of the ball. Just go ask Celtics fans

22-12 on elite defense would be great, It will keep us in it, but ultimately won't win us the series against Boston.
We will need 28-12 Bam if we want to win the series.

Then we're screwed because that Bam doesn't really exist. He can have the occasional game here and there, but there's zero chance that he averages that.

Don't know what to tell you, but were screwed then, because outside of Bam we have nobody else who can consistently bring us offense. Our equal distribution offense struggles mightily when they lock down our stars and force our 3-8 men to score instead. Boston will score more than Knicks did, and we struggled to stay ahead of those guys in that series, it was the skirmishes of defense and some streaking runs here and there that won us those games. Also the knicks helped by doing some boneheaded plays at the end of games. Boston goes on these 20-4 runs through a game, if you don't have the horses to keep up offensively were screwed. Unlike last year, Jimmy is on a bum ankle and will not be the 35ppg scorer we think were getting. If Jimmy averages 28ppg well be extremely lucky.

[3ammy3uck3ts]

Bam averaging 28 compared to 22 will not be the final difference in the series lol

[IceColdCubano]

Bam averaging 28 compared to 22 will not be the final difference in the series lol

Actually yes it will, because nobody ever actually averages a straight 28 in every game. They will ultimately hit 20points one game and 35 points on the next, or 30points and then 25points, etc. Which means those big scoring games ultimately win you those specific games, even if its by a single point. Our margin for success increases substantially, and limits how much offensive low percentage shots we give out to our inefficient role players.

Your an analytics guy right, what was our win percentage when Bam scored more than 25ppg in the regular season?

[3ammy3uck3ts]

Bam averaging 28 compared to 22 will not be the final difference in the series lol

Actually yes it will, because nobody ever actually averages a straight 28 in every game. They will ultimately hit 20points one game and 35 points on the next, or 30points and then 25points, etc. Which means those big scoring games ultimately win you those specific games, even if its by a single point. Our margin for success increases substantially, and limits how much offensive low percentage shots we give out to our inefficient role players.

Your an analytics guy right, what was our win percentage when Bam scored more than 25ppg in the regular season?

Im a hooper and know the game first and foremost but yes I’ve started to learn more and more about the analytics. Heat are 12-4 when Bam scores 25 or more and I hope he does but I don’t think that’ll be the deciding factor. We’re also 15-3 when we shoot over 40% from 3 this season.

3 keys for us imo outside of defense:

1. Shooters hit their shots, especially the open looks.
2. Jimmy being playoff Jimmy back to his round 1 health.
3. Bam gives you an efficient 20 at worst.

This is what won us the Bucks series convincingly and Bam didn’t even hit this mark round 1. Ultimately this team will only go as far as its shooters take us from this point on imo but will gladly be wrong.

[AirP.]

Read on Twitter

[Dc__20]

Not being negative. I just have a hard time believing the run extends past this series….. unless Jimmy is healthy / bam aggressive and the shooters get hot in 4 games

[ShulaDon92]

One thing is conclusive. Stephy Curry could never defeat LeBron without Durant.

-SHULA

[ShulaDon92]

Can't wait to see Jokic rip the crown from Lebron's dead corpse and place it on his head as the new KINg.

-SHULA

[ShulaDon92]

Luka is resting and will explode next year but if Cuban keeps sabotager, part time Kyrie and doesn't flip him for a good asset, they will go nowhere again.

Let secret agent Kyrie play in LA

-SHULA

[ShulaDon92]

Luka fn Doncic didn't make the playoffs after teaming with Kyrie Irving.

Think about that.

Lol

-SHULA

[greg4012]

Luka is resting and will explode next year but if Cuban keeps sabotager, part time Kyrie and doesn't flip him for a good asset, they will go nowhere again.

Let secret agent Kyrie play in LA

-SHULA

Jason Kidd ain't it and the FO are proving to be negligent operators

[ShulaDon92]

Luka is resting and will explode next year but if Cuban keeps sabotager, part time Kyrie and doesn't flip him for a good asset, they will go nowhere again.

Let secret agent Kyrie play in LA

-SHULA

Jason Kidd ain't it and the FO are proving to be negligent operators

Their only hope is landing an ADavis type big. A monster that can dominate. Perhaps Embiid.

-SHULA

[ShulaDon92]

The Celtics Brown and Doncic together would ship if you add a Bam Adebayo or perhaps a Brandon Ingram.

-SHULA

[3ammy3uck3ts]

I’ll take Kyrie in a heartbeat under a clause to void his contract if he does any dumb ****.

Just another guy to fill our biggest hole on the team at PG who’s play on the court would put us over the top

[ShulaDon92]

I’ll take Kyrie in a heartbeat under a clause to void his contract if he does any dumb ****.

Just another guy to fill our biggest hole on the team at PG who’s play on the court would put us over the top

I know he's team Bam but nahh. Give me this verLowry better.