2023-24 NBA Season Discussion

[Statlanta]

These playoffs have me look at the Nuggets with a suspect eye. I'm not impressed with any team I've seen these playoffs. Jokic being catapulted to all-time greatness seems laughable now in this mediocre era.

[GSP]

Our last loss was a month ago

After the loss against the Cavs we're 10-0

In our only other playoff loss Spos voodoo had Miami going 23/43 from 3

[sp6r=underrated]

Give jaylen brown his FMVP btw

yeah, i had 60/40 Brown holiday going into tonight but that is over. Brown has a huge huge lead.

[sp6r=underrated]

Our last loss was a month ago

After the loss against the Cavs we're 10-0

In our only other playoff loss Spos voodoo had Miami going 23/43 from 3

I detest Boston clubs as a rule but this year's Celtics team reminds me of the repeat Patriots from 20 years ago when they just rolled over teams based on depth, execution.

[jalengreen]

I think we're sleeping on the Celtics with this MIN/DEN Finals hype tbh

Alright i wasnt brave enough to do the victory lap until they won the game, now i gotta take my turn to make fun of the "MIN/DEN finals" narrative (even though the celtics were prolly favored over the field or close to it when i said this lmao). Carry on

[dreamshake34]

Initial immediate thoughts…

Lukas defense has been bad this series but G3 was absolutely atrocious. Had to wipe my glasses and make sure I wasn’t watching Trae Young out there or something. He was constantly getting blown by, giving up easy drives, never making an effort to get back in transition, bad rotations, and losing his defender leading to easy cuts at the rim.

Kyrie was awesome. Dude made some insane shots tonight. Mavs 3-6th best players are just vastly outmatched compared to Celtics 3-6th guys.

Brown or Holiday should be getting the FMVP. I don’t think you can go wrong with either one of those guys both have been so good.

TWolves or Nuggets would have been so much better as a neutral but I don’t think either beat this Boston team.

[tone wone]

Dallas just can't move Bostons defense. The 3pt attempts being so paltry and the lack of lobs/dump-offs is because they just can't get Boston in rotation.

Conversely, Boston is cracking Dallas off the dribble, keeping them in constant rotation.

[Peregrine01]

Initial immediate thoughts…

Lukas defense has been bad this series but G3 was absolutely atrocious. Had to wipe my glasses and make sure I wasn’t watching Trae Young out there or something. He was constantly getting blown by, giving up easy drives, never making an effort to get back in transition, bad rotations, and losing his defender leading to easy cuts at the rim.

Kyrie was awesome. Dude made some insane shots tonight. Mavs 3-6th best players are just vastly outmatched compared to Celtics 3-6th guys.

Brown or Holiday should be getting the FMVP. I don’t think you can go wrong with either one of those guys both have been so good.

TWolves or Nuggets would have been so much better as a neutral but I don’t think either beat this Boston team.

I think Nuggets would have been slightly favored had Murray been healthy.

[lessthanjake]

I do think there are teams in the West that would’ve matched up better against the Celtics than the Mavs do, but as I’ve been saying all along, I don’t think anyone would be likely to actually beat the Celtics. The match up stuff is probably just the difference between nabbing an extra game or two off the Celtics on the way to losing. These playoffs were basically the Celtics effectively getting a bye to the Finals, while the top Western Conference teams played rock paper scissors for the right to lose in the Finals.

[bigboi]

These playoffs have me look at the Nuggets with a suspect eye. I'm not impressed with any team I've seen these playoffs. Jokic being catapulted to all-time greatness seems laughable now in this mediocre era.

lol now you get it

[bigboi]

I'm so conflicted because I'm rooting for Boston, but Dallas winning would be hilarious because of those victory lap comments above from when the Celtics were up 20 in the 4th q lmao

Sad

[jalengreen]

I'm so conflicted because I'm rooting for Boston, but Dallas winning would be hilarious because of those victory lap comments above from when the Celtics were up 20 in the 4th q lmao

Sad

What’s wrong?

[Dr Positivity]

Bill Walton was yelling from heaven at Tatum like Malone in the 98 finals during that 4th quarter and they still went up 3-0. What can you do. I wish the East would've been healthier so there was at least a moment where they were tied 2-2 with the Pacers or Cavs and mildly threatened before winning in 6.

Brown may have won Finals MVP tonight.

Hauser is underrated.

[therealbig3]

Man, I know the Mavericks overall have held the Celtics well below what they usually do offensively, and I know that there's some data out there suggesting Luka has had a positive defensive impact...but I really, really doubt it's because of him. Because I'm seeing an absolutely atrocious defender, like quite possibly the worst big minute defender I've ever seen in the playoffs. Like worse than Amare-level. I haven't seen anyone consistently attack a weak defender and pretty much succeed every time like they've done this series with Luka.

I know that Jokic got targeted and exploited to an extent as well, but I think a lot of that is just because of his physical limitations. I think generally he gave good effort, he was in good positions a lot of the time, he made some good plays, he overall made some positive contributions to offset his limitations on that end a little bit. With Luka, I just see a whole lot of...nothing, just standing around, no movement, no recognition, and just no effort. Just lots of him just watching, as he gets blown by, or cut past, or beaten to a rebound, or lost on a rotation, or beaten in transition, or just looking at a shooter that he's supposed to close out on, that's if he even realized there was an open shooter next to him of course. Just inexcusably low effort and low IQ and overall lack of awareness at this stage.

I mean when your own coach says at a post game press conference that you need to start defending, you know it's really bad. Maybe if he stopped complaining to the officials every time he misses a shot against good defense, he'd be in position to play good defense himself...if he wanted to at least.

[Dr Positivity]

These playoffs have me look at the Nuggets with a suspect eye. I'm not impressed with any team I've seen these playoffs. Jokic being catapulted to all-time greatness seems laughable now in this mediocre era.

On the other hand the 23 Heat road to finals keeps looking harder so maybe they should be called credible. They beat 2 champion teams and Knicks are better 3rd team than than most.

[ShotCreator]

Man, I know the Mavericks overall have held the Celtics well below what they usually do offensively, and I know that there's some data out there suggesting Luka has had a positive defensive impact...but I really, really doubt it's because of him. Because I'm seeing an absolutely atrocious defender, like quite possibly the worst big minute defender I've ever seen in the playoffs. Like worse than Amare-level. I haven't seen anyone consistently attack a weak defender and pretty much succeed every time like they've done this series with Luka.

I know that Jokic got targeted and exploited to an extent as well, but I think a lot of that is just because of his physical limitations. I think generally he gave good effort, he was in good positions a lot of the time, he made some good plays, he overall made some positive contributions to offset his limitations on that end a little bit. With Luka, I just see a whole lot of...nothing, just standing around, no movement, no recognition, and just no effort. Just lots of him just watching, as he gets blown by, or cut past, or beaten to a rebound, or lost on a rotation, or beaten in transition, or just looking at a shooter that he's supposed to close out on, that's if he even realized there was an open shooter next to him of course. Just inexcusable effort and IQ and overall lack of awareness at this stage.

I mean when your own coach says at a post game press conference that you need to start defending, you know it's really bad. Maybe if he stopped complaining to the officials every time he misses a shot against good defense, he'd be in position to play good defense himself...if he wanted to at least.

It's interesting. He's just not destroying lineup performance with his defense. Trust me, truly terrible defense can make an offensive goat look like a regular player.

But he was a strong +9 on the court last game. I think his initial on-ball defense is as bad as it looks, but it's essentially funneling and he does rotate...sometimes.. I'd have to watch all of game 3. Games 1 and 2 were generally bad defensive games IMO.

[therealbig3]

I think game 3 was his worst one yet.

I think the defensive numbers aren't looking that bad despite that because Boston is just not a great offensive team, at least in the playoffs. Tatum and Brown are not guys that can really capitalize on weak defense consistently throughout a game. Which is why they all of a sudden hit a cold spell and let Dallas back in the game.

If instead of Tatum and Brown, you replaced them with LeBron (current LeBron, not even prime LeBron), who would continue to pick apart your weaknesses over and over and over without getting caught up in any sort of iso chuck fest or go on an inexplicable streak of dumb decision making, I think these games would look a lot uglier for Dallas, and Luka's defensive "effort" would be even more obvious imo.

[Dr Positivity]

2010 Celtics, 2011 Heat, 2012 Thunder, 2013 Spurs, 2014 Heat, 2015 Cavs, 2016 Warriors, 2017 Cavs, 2018 Cavs, 2019 Warriors

Vs

2020 Heat, 2021 Suns, 2022 Celtics, 2023 Heat, 2024 Mavs

Feels like a randomly big drop off for finalist quality. I like all the 2010s teams except for maybe 18 Cavs. What’s more is the 2020s don’t have 18 Warriors vs Rockets super conference finals matchups either. The 20s finalists actually all have a case for 2nd best team. Warriors/Celtics ages well as a clash of two cores who made runs in other years, and Lakers/Nuggets 23 to an extent.

[GSP]

Man, I know the Mavericks overall have held the Celtics well below what they usually do offensively, and I know that there's some data out there suggesting Luka has had a positive defensive impact...but I really, really doubt it's because of him. Because I'm seeing an absolutely atrocious defender, like quite possibly the worst big minute defender I've ever seen in the playoffs. Like worse than Amare-level. I haven't seen anyone consistently attack a weak defender and pretty much succeed every time like they've done this series with Luka.

I know that Jokic got targeted and exploited to an extent as well, but I think a lot of that is just because of his physical limitations. I think generally he gave good effort, he was in good positions a lot of the time, he made some good plays, he overall made some positive contributions to offset his limitations on that end a little bit. With Luka, I just see a whole lot of...nothing, just standing around, no movement, no recognition, and just no effort. Just lots of him just watching, as he gets blown by, or cut past, or beaten to a rebound, or lost on a rotation, or beaten in transition, or just looking at a shooter that he's supposed to close out on, that's if he even realized there was an open shooter next to him of course. Just inexcusably low effort and low IQ and overall lack of awareness at this stage.

I mean when your own coach says at a post game press conference that you need to start defending, you know it's really bad. Maybe if he stopped complaining to the officials every time he misses a shot against good defense, he'd be in position to play good defense himself...if he wanted to at least.

Read on Twitter

good reasoning Imo for why Lukas oncourt defensive rating still seems good despite not matching eye test

as far as the worst big min defender Harden in Houston had some series just as bad if not worse as well

Demar Derozan is prolly the worst Ive seen tho hes prolly the biggest playoff dropper ever and even tho his scoring catered horrendously his defense was horrific too

[Peregrine01]

I think we're sleeping on the Celtics with this MIN/DEN Finals hype tbh

Alright i wasnt brave enough to do the victory lap until they won the game, now i gotta take my turn to make fun of the "MIN/DEN finals" narrative (even though the celtics were prolly favored over the field or close to it when i said this lmao). Carry on

Looks like Minny matched up uniquely well against Denver. Still, even with Denver’s loss of depth and Murray’s bad play/injuries, it went to 7 games. Also, it seems quite evident that Minny lost a lot of gas by the time the WCF came around. Their ball pressure looked outright scary against PHX and Denver but they weren’t able to apply close to the same effort against Dallas. A lot of it is due to how much better Luka/Kyrie are as on-ball guards but I also think Minny’s guards were worn out the deeper into the playoffs they went. Maintaining the same level of ball pressure like Minny did against PHX and Denver is extremely taxing.