Around the NBA: Playoff Edition #2

[GetBuLLish]

Aldridge is soooo lame. So mentally weak.

[the ultimates]

I've always thought how people defined parity in sports as wrong. You can't measure it with how many different teams have won titles in the history of the league or over a certain length of time. Many of the teams that skew those number the Celtics, Canadiens, Yankees did so without the threat of free agency. For me parity is looking and saying how many teams could legitimately win a title before the start of the season and see who climbs into that group or falls out of it.

This season it was only three teams Cavs, Warriors and Spurs. There was nobody else who I thought could raise their level of play and beat those teams in a seven game series. I don't want to be that guy but the east when the Bulls were ascending and eventually reached the summit would dog walk its counterparts of today. Take the Bulls and Cavs out of it. The Dominique Wilkins Hawks teams would tar and feather their Atlanta counterpart today. Does anybody honestly think Boston, Toronto and Washington would wins series against those 90's Pacers, Knicks and Heat teams?

[RedBulls23]

Warriors get lackadaisical. That's why they lost in the finals last year.

[Mk0]

Aldridge is so soft. Good lord.

[MrSparkle]

Man SAS drafts and develops so well. 12-deep

[Minalt]

Man SAS drafts and develops so well. 12-deep

They play fundamental basketball as a team. They can just plug people in that are willing to play within the system and they deliver because of it. The system enhances the players.

[RedBulls23]

Watch Murry develop into a star for the Spurs.

[LikeABosh]

you're really twisting logic into a pretzel

saying that thompson is not a great player and that their competition in the playoffs has been soft have nothing to do with each other other than that they both explain the results that we see.

great teams don't coast to 50 win seasons in a weak conference, and teams with 4 great players (including one of the best to ever play the game) don't end up with 50 wins

how does the best player on the planet (arguably) play alongside 3 studs and they're not torching the league?

A: he doesn't play alongside 3 studs

This was your question. You brought up the point of not torching the league means he's not playing with 3 studs. Not that I would call Thompson a stud, but I get it. Apparently, if you're only torching the playoffs then it's an issue of competition and has nothing to do with Thompson being any good. If he was good, they'd torch the regular season too which is filled with even weaker teams. That's the point your making I guess

And coasting is just that. That's why we use that word. Great teams taking it easy in the regular season

so...they intentionally left out superior defensive sets, and yet they all expressed frustration with their defense toward the end of the regular season. acting?

why didn't they intentionally lose more games LAST season?

Lol Why intentionally? I don't know dude. Maybe they decided to use specific sets more frequently depending on the playoff match ups? They haven't been running the same **** they did in the regular season. Don't tell me they do. And the frustration was more about effort than anything else (especially in the open court)

You'd have to be pretty dense to think 51 wins is indicative of how good the Cavs really are. Why doesn't this simple win/loss rating work with Boston? They're clearly the better team with 53 wins, right?

[OldSchoolNoBull]

So the Warriors and Cavs both haven't lost a game yet in the playoffs. Anyone think either one can go 16-0?

[kyrv]

Aldridge is soooo lame. So mentally weak.

Probably why Skiles preferred Tyrus, project though he was.

[Southpaw]

Booooriiing NBA playoffs boooriiing

FTFY

[tunit213]

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2710878-danny-ainge-reportedly-tried-to-trade-isaiah-thomas-last-season-for-lottery-pick

[Southpaw]

^Danny Ainge back at it again lol

[kyrv]

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2710878-danny-ainge-reportedly-tried-to-trade-isaiah-thomas-last-season-for-lottery-pick

Misleading article titles for the loss.

[dice]

you're really twisting logic into a pretzel

saying that thompson is not a great player and that their competition in the playoffs has been soft have nothing to do with each other other than that they both explain the results that we see.

great teams don't coast to 50 win seasons in a weak conference, and teams with 4 great players (including one of the best to ever play the game) don't end up with 50 wins

how does the best player on the planet (arguably) play alongside 3 studs and they're not torching the league?

A: he doesn't play alongside 3 studs

This was your question. You brought up the point of not torching the league means he's not playing with 3 studs

yes. and he's NOT! which is strictly a critique of tristan thompson

Apparently, if you're only torching the playoffs then it's an issue of competition and has nothing to do with Thompson being any good. If he was good, they'd torch the regular season too which is filled with even weaker teams. That's the point your making I guess

you're having a logic disconnect here. i'm saying that if they were that great they would have crushed the east in the regular season as well. a string of a few good games (which is what they've had in the playoffs) does not cancel out much of the suckage they displayed toward the end of the regular season

And coasting is just that. That's why we use that word. Great teams taking it easy in the regular season

that's not how i was using the word. i was using it as "crushing the competition." the way it is used when a team blows out another, for example ("the cavs went up 19 late in the 3rd and coasted to victory"). when they're so far ahead they don't HAVE to put forth any more effort. that was not the cavs in the regular season

so...they intentionally left out superior defensive sets, and yet they all expressed frustration with their defense toward the end of the regular season. acting?

why didn't they intentionally lose more games LAST season?

Lol Why intentionally? I don't know dude. Maybe they decided to use specific sets more frequently depending on the playoff match ups? They haven't been running the same **** they did in the regular season. Don't tell me they do

don't tell me they've drastically changed their defense. the burden of proof is on you to show me something has significantly changed. i've heard no such analysis

guess what? their defense wasn't any good the first 6 games of the playoffs either. then lowry got injured. if you wanna say they've played amazing defense in 2 games against boston, have at it. but don't claim that they suddenly decided to flip the playoff switch or some such nonsense

And the frustration was more about effort than anything else (especially in the open court)

that may be. but your suggestion is that the team wasn't listening to the coach or lebron when they expressed that frustration, but now suddenly they are

You'd have to be pretty dense to think 51 wins is indicative of how good the Cavs really are. Why doesn't this simple win/loss rating work with Boston? They're clearly the better team with 53 wins, right?

i never suggested either. don't distort my argument to puff up your own flat one

if you'd like to go back and read what i actually DID say (multiple times!), it was that no great team squeaks out 50 regular season wins (barring major injury issues). none. not in the history of the game. which is not to say they're a typical 50 win team. they're certainly better than that. just not so much better as to be great

[LikeABosh]

you're having a logic disconnect here. i'm saying that if they were that great they would have crushed the east in the regular season as well. a string of a few good games (which is what they've had in the playoffs) does not cancel out much of the suckage they displayed toward the end of the regular season

Lol a string of good games. You mean like 80% of the entire playoffs? 10 wins is kind of big when judging a team when you only need 16 wins to prove you're the best in the league. It's more important than any number of regular seasons games, but you seem to think the regular season says more about the team as the playoffs do.

don't tell me they've drastically changed their defense. the burden of proof is on you to show me something has significantly changed. i've heard no such analysis

guess what? their defense wasn't any good the first 6 games of the playoffs either. then lowry got injured. if you wanna say they've played amazing defense in 2 games against boston, have at it. but don't claim that they suddenly decided to flip the playoff switch or some such nonsense

Then burden is also on you to actually watch the games and be able to compare it to how Cavs were playing defense before you can say "Same ol Cavs, just weak competition". Lazy on your part to say it's just on me. The competition is weak relative to the playoffs, but still stronger than what they faced against most teams in the RS. Obviously something is different. Effort is a big part along with more consistent schemes. You best start believing in the playoff switch too though. It's real

The biggest thing I've noticed is how they defend the PnR. I've seen a lot more blitzing (especially on PG and Derozan) that I didn't see in the RS. They've done a great job getting the ball out of the star's hands. Lebron is also coming off those blitzes and recovering to the weakside shooter instead of staying on the ball handler or his original assignment. This means the much quicker Lebron is closing out on the open man instead of what was normally the slow footed Kevin Love. I think those two things alone have made a huge difference

that may be. but your suggestion is that the team wasn't listening to the coach or lebron when they expressed that frustration, but now suddenly they are

No, that's not what I'm saying at all. Unless you think not listening and being lazy always go hand-in-hand

if you'd like to go back and read what i actually DID say (multiple times!), it was that no great team squeaks out 50 regular season wins (barring major injury issues). none. not in the history of the game. which is not to say they're a typical 50 win team. they're certainly better than that. just not so much better as to be great

Well, now you're just making things worse. You should know the history of the league well enough to not say that. Is there some cutoff in RS wins that disqualifies a team from being great? Not really if they make the playoffs! Because I can list a few examples of great teams winning a relatively small amount games in the RS. The best example being the 95 rockets. 47 wins after winning the championship. No major injuries except they didn't add Drexler til later in the year (didn't win with him in 94 anyways). They were totally a great team that kicked ass in the postseason which ended with a sweep of Shaq without HCA.

You need to explain this thing to me because I'm lost. The Cavs aren't good enough to be a 60 win team in your opinion, but they're better than 51 wins. How many wins would make them a great team? Are they in some goldilocks zone of 52-55 possible wins where they're pretty good, but not championship worthy? It's just bizarre how much weight you're gonna put into a difference of 4 or 5 wins at that point. I don't get it unless you're speaking only in terms of historical significance. Idk why though. When I'm talking about great teams, I'm comparing to this current era or decade

[hellenicbull]

i don't get this mindset AT. ALL. the celtics are small potatoes and hardly unlikable. why wouldn't you want the cavs to be challenged? unless you're a lebron fanboy, that is

I just don't like the Celtics plain and simple.

going back how far?

The Larry Bird days. Now don't get me wrong I respected the hell out of that team, but I always favored Magic Johnson's Lakers
over them during the dynasty years. When the Bulls got Jordan I knew the basketball crown would be ours for years. This year's
Celtics were a Rajon Rondo injury away from from losing in the first round, so that ignited my hate for them again . Anyway, I hope. I.T. recovers soon, it would not surprise me if Ainge throws him under the bus for Fultz eventually.

[stilldropin20]

Man SAS drafts and develops so well. 12-deep

They play fundamental basketball as a team. They can just plug people in that are willing to play within the system and they deliver because of it. The system enhances the players.

exactly. thats why the bulls must develop a system. and more importantly sign or trade for "stars" that will play for the system and opposed to hijack the system. when the "star" buys in, role players must buy in. when the whole team buys in the sum is much greater than the parts. synergy occurs. see game 1 and 2 against Boston.

oh, and for the small sample size crowd. the playoffs are where everything matters. maybe where the ONLY thing matter. and by virtue are always a small size on a year by year basis.

11 (just a mere eleven) "good" games every year gets a team to at least games 7 of the conference finals. think about that.

[RedBulls23]

The Celtics and the Spurs should just throw in the white flag so the finals can get started.

These next few conference finals games are essentially as relevant as preseason games at this point. Especially now that Kawhi very likely won't play game 4.

[DuckIII]

So the Warriors and Cavs both haven't lost a game yet in the playoffs. Anyone think either one can go 16-0?

Though unlikely, it's at least possible that the Warriors can do it.