Around the NBA - Conference Finals and Finals

[thebuzzardman]

This is where I was going Gravy...I could tell the difference on our team after watching 78/79 full games which players looked
"comfortable". Payne wasnt one of them...If we pick the right coach- you will see the difference...

I imagine whatever coach we hire will follow the Carlisle - Atkinson model of playing more guys. It's got to be a big topic in the interviews

It has to be, because as an apron team we need one or two of these guys to become rotational players. You can't just play Bridges 46:30 minutes straight against the Hornets.

Especially since Mikal is allergic to taking FTs

[BKlutch]

If IND wins, I might be done with the nba for a long while

We will all, however, be required to eat corn 3 meals a day.

[god shammgod]

He’s had a couple really good 3 point shooting games. Game 1 & game 6. I think yesterday he only made 1 basket that wasn’t a 3. But for the whole playoffs he’s only shooting 33 percent. I would say he’s marginally better overall. But he’s shown up big a couple times in the finals. Credit to him for that.

He's their 3rd leading scorer in the finals right now


The franchise messed up letting him & Grimes go for nothing, especially with how much people whined about not having a bench. Well, we had one. I could see if we got something back for him that helps us now, but we didn't, those 2nds aren't helping us anytime soon.

it wasn't like they refused 1st rounders for them. they couldn't get them. and this franchise doesn't even want to pay for a 1st rounder to be honest. they actively traded away some for worse picks for financial reasons. the nba has created a situation where the only way you can have a deep team is if you have a number of cheap contracts. okc and indy won't be able to keep all these pieces. the bill is gonna come due for them too.

[NoDopeOnSundays]

He’s had a couple really good 3 point shooting games. Game 1 & game 6. I think yesterday he only made 1 basket that wasn’t a 3. But for the whole playoffs he’s only shooting 33 percent. I would say he’s marginally better overall. But he’s shown up big a couple times in the finals. Credit to him for that.

He's their 3rd leading scorer in the finals right now


The franchise messed up letting him & Grimes go for nothing, especially with how much people whined about not having a bench. Well, we had one. I could see if we got something back for him that helps us now, but we didn't, those 2nds aren't helping us anytime soon.

it wasn't like they refused 1st rounders for them. they couldn't get them. and this franchise doesn't even want to pay for a 1st rounder to be honest. they actively traded away some for worse picks for financial reasons. the nba has created a situation where the only way you can have a deep team is if you have a number of cheap contracts. okc and indy won't be able to keep all these pieces. the bill is gonna come due for them too.

We would have been in the finals with both, and a very beatable OKC team. The apron will hurt you 1-2 years into it, we would probably lose Grimes this summer if we had him, but we'd have a better chance at the title. They would have found a way to sign Donte with Obi still on the roster if they had to.

The fact is the coach didn't know how to deploy either player, the way they use Obi is not how we used him, he's in constant small lineups which was against the laws of nature here, and his nonstop screening in those lineups is leading to open threes. I'll cut them some slack on Grimes, since he's bounced around, but we gave up on two first round picks, one of which was a lottery pick entirely too early.

[RHODEY]

If you dont give your players consistent minutes you will never know if theyre good. Thats the point. Thibs didnt give those guys any real time on the bench. We've covered this all season. In these modern times of NBA ball you have no choice but to play guys and if you dont trust them -well you need to find new guys. and you need to do it by december.

Mitch, Shamet and Precious were injured to begin the season so they could not get consistent minutes. Payne got regular minutes and he still sucks, so that didnt work for him. Only the kids did not play much. We realistically dont have anybody on the bench as good as Obi, TJ or Mathurin. It may take the kids years to reach that level if they ever do, not a couple of months.

I can tell you didn't watch every game. I may have missed 2-3 full games. Yes they were injured but Mitch was the only one you mentioned that got consistent minutes. Even Payne's minutes weren't consistent. Payne had some bad games but never got the consistent minutes he deserved. And Payne had MORE games where he single handedly came in and contributed as a winning player.

For what he costs Payne was solid. A great spark plug when he's on, but when he's was not he gave us nothing else...not even playmaking... and playing him hurt us in the post season. Overall the bench needs an upgrade imo. I personally dont care how it happens...a combination of playing the rooks more and/or swinging upside for the right vet min or MLE contract. Overall it may take or bit, but it actually might not.

[RHODEY]

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[Fat Kat]

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[TheGreenArrow]

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Lmaooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[TKKnicks1]

Tickets are going for $1500 a piece in the nosebleeds for game 7. This is in OKC! Who the hell can afford that in OKC? Sometimes the game just feels so rigged. At the end of the day we all just puppets and the top 1% be pulling the strings.

I doubt a lot of people are paying that price. You are looking at the secondary market prices. This is not the price season ticket holders paid for sure. Not sure how it has anything to do with your point about games being rigged or top 1 percent.

I've been watching the NBA for nearly 30 years so I'm not gonna go complete gung ho on the rigged conspiracy but you gotta admit the past several years there has been a lot of things that have happened in games / playoff series that make you wonder if there is more to play here.

NBA ratings are down across the board. The finals ratings have been the worse since the COVID season. What better way to make up for lost revenue than forcing this series to 7 games and charging extraordinary amounts to get into the arena? Thunder looked like they were throwing game 6 like they weren't even interested in winning their first ever championship. I know it's far fetch but just makes you wonder.

On top of all this you have sports betting that is at an all time high in the NBA. Every damn commercial is either Draft Kings or FanDuel. Wherever there is money involved, you got the top 1% pulling strings.

Don't even get me started on the phantom whistles from the refs or no calls or the famous Scott Foster reputation of being an extender. All makes you wonder if someone is purposely behind this.

I'm just saying its naive to think where there are billions of dollars involved that there isn't some outside force controlling things, if even a little.

[seren]

Tickets are going for $1500 a piece in the nosebleeds for game 7. This is in OKC! Who the hell can afford that in OKC? Sometimes the game just feels so rigged. At the end of the day we all just puppets and the top 1% be pulling the strings.

I doubt a lot of people are paying that price. You are looking at the secondary market prices. This is not the price season ticket holders paid for sure. Not sure how it has anything to do with your point about games being rigged or top 1 percent.

I've been watching the NBA for nearly 30 years so I'm not gonna go complete gung ho on the rigged conspiracy but you gotta admit the past several years there has been a lot of things that have happened in games / playoff series that make you wonder if there is more to play here.

NBA ratings are down across the board. The finals ratings have been the worse since the COVID season. What better way to make up for lost revenue than forcing this series to 7 games and charging extraordinary amounts to get into the arena? Thunder looked like they were throwing game 6 like they weren't even interested in winning their first ever championship. I know it's far fetch but just makes you wonder.

On top of all this you have sports betting that is at an all time high in the NBA. Every damn commercial is either Draft Kings or FanDuel. Wherever there is money involved, you got the top 1% pulling strings.

Don't even get me started on the phantom whistles from the refs or no calls or the famous Scott Foster reputation of being an extender. All makes you wonder if someone is purposely behind this.

I'm just saying its naive to think where there are billions of dollars involved that there isn't some outside force controlling things, if even a little.

Okay so there are different issues you are talking about. What I am saying is the $2K price is not the typical fan’s experience who will be in the arena on Sunday.

Regarding betting, there have been big swings this playoffs. We were involved in 4 of them coming back three times down 20 points while losing one when we were ahead 14 points in the last 3 minutes. I agree with you some of these big swings may have something to do with betting. People are allowed to live bet on anything including point spreads, three points made in a quarter, rebounds etc. Is it possible that for instance Boston players were involved in some kind of betting which made them take all those three point shots when they didn’t need it or Knicks players wanting to keep a certain spread but it ended up blowing in their face? I think it is.

Now intentionally losing games or assigning a specific ref to stretch a series is a totally different ball game. Is it possible? Sure. If it is happening, is it something new? Very unlikely. We have watched series in the past that went to 7 games while each game was completely uncompetitive. Detroit - San Antonio final was way worse than this one and that was 20 years ago.

[Fat Kat]

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[3toheadmelo]

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Masai in 2025

[Jalen Bluntson]

He's their 3rd leading scorer in the finals right now


The franchise messed up letting him & Grimes go for nothing, especially with how much people whined about not having a bench. Well, we had one. I could see if we got something back for him that helps us now, but we didn't, those 2nds aren't helping us anytime soon.

it wasn't like they refused 1st rounders for them. they couldn't get them. and this franchise doesn't even want to pay for a 1st rounder to be honest. they actively traded away some for worse picks for financial reasons. the nba has created a situation where the only way you can have a deep team is if you have a number of cheap contracts. okc and indy won't be able to keep all these pieces. the bill is gonna come due for them too.

We would have been in the finals with both, and a very beatable OKC team. The apron will hurt you 1-2 years into it, we would probably lose Grimes this summer if we had him, but we'd have a better chance at the title. They would have found a way to sign Donte with Obi still on the roster if they had to.

The fact is the coach didn't know how to deploy either player, the way they use Obi is not how we used him, he's in constant small lineups which was against the laws of nature here, and his nonstop screening in those lineups is leading to open threes. I'll cut them some slack on Grimes, since he's bounced around, but we gave up on two first round picks, one of which was a lottery pick entirely too early.

The apron only hurts if you go over it for 4 straight years. Then there's a pick freeze. The trade restrictions are the other problem but, signing our own players doesn't matter. We can go over the apron next year and when all of these contracts are up they will be under the apron most likely.

Thibs was a moron when it came to the bench. Not debatable. It cost him his job. Glad he's gone.

[Gravy]

Tickets are going for $1500 a piece in the nosebleeds for game 7. This is in OKC! Who the hell can afford that in OKC? Sometimes the game just feels so rigged. At the end of the day we all just puppets and the top 1% be pulling the strings.

I doubt a lot of people are paying that price. You are looking at the secondary market prices. This is not the price season ticket holders paid for sure. Not sure how it has anything to do with your point about games being rigged or top 1 percent.

I've been watching the NBA for nearly 30 years so I'm not gonna go complete gung ho on the rigged conspiracy but you gotta admit the past several years there has been a lot of things that have happened in games / playoff series that make you wonder if there is more to play here.

NBA ratings are down across the board. The finals ratings have been the worse since the COVID season. What better way to make up for lost revenue than forcing this series to 7 games and charging extraordinary amounts to get into the arena? Thunder looked like they were throwing game 6 like they weren't even interested in winning their first ever championship. I know it's far fetch but just makes you wonder.

On top of all this you have sports betting that is at an all time high in the NBA. Every damn commercial is either Draft Kings or FanDuel. Wherever there is money involved, you got the top 1% pulling strings.

Don't even get me started on the phantom whistles from the refs or no calls or the famous Scott Foster reputation of being an extender. All makes you wonder if someone is purposely behind this.

I'm just saying its naive to think where there are billions of dollars involved that there isn't some outside force controlling things, if even a little.

The outside force should have made Haliburton's shot in Game 1 bounce off the rim to put the Knicks in the finals for better ratings

[LookToShoot]

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Tiven is just as bad and he’s officiating tonight’s game.

[NoDopeOnSundays]

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[FrozenEnvelope]

KD is going to ruin another team.

[H_20]

Rockets just went backwards.

[3toheadmelo]

Wow they took on Jalen Green. Does that mean Booker is available?

[NoDopeOnSundays]

Wow they took on Jalen Green. Does that mean Booker is available?

They should, but they'll probably hold onto him entirely too long.