Around The NBA: 2019-20 RESTART

[Leslie Forman]

Nah. It wasn’t just Porter hurt. Lauri. WCJ. Hutch. Dunn. Val. Gafford.

If anything this speaks to our talent being underestimated considering the Boylen effect.

I don't know what people's expectations are, but the way they shovel blame onto Boylen, I would have to think that most people think this team will win 45+ games next year. Nearly every player on the team is apparently two pegs worse than they would be otherwise only because of Boylen. That literally seems to be the opinion of many people, and I'm just not buying it.

Yup.

[MrSparkle]

Coby, Carter, Dunn, Valentine, Hutchinson, Gafford are who they were. Regardless of a coach, they either have irreparable games or they need to work really hard to repair their flaws and become good NBA players.

Otto is considerably better when healthy. If coasting and resting this season brings him back next year, that's a big boost regardless of Boylen.

Zach is who he is. A dichotomy of good and bad.

However, Lauri, Thad, Coby's use as a PG are the biggest changes/fixes that a coach might make. And 3 very big pieces. Sato too, though he performed very poorly anyway.

[Chi town]

Nah. It wasn’t just Porter hurt. Lauri. WCJ. Hutch. Dunn. Val. Gafford.

If anything this speaks to our talent being underestimated considering the Boylen effect.

I don't know what people's expectations are, but the way they shovel blame onto Boylen, I would have to think that most people think this team will win 45+ games next year. Nearly every player on the team is apparently two pegs worse than they would be otherwise only because of Boylen. That literally seems to be the opinion of many people, and I'm just not buying it.

Yup.

We don’t and won’t know because we won’t have Boylen and the roster will look different. Otto and Lauri in contract years too.

[MGB8]

Very questionable free throw disparities favoring certain teams....

Not sure the NBA is much better than the WWE.

[BigUps]

Nurcic needs to up the conditioning. Hurting his team late and most looks like its because he was just gassed.

[MrSparkle]

I get that the Blazers are probably exhausted. They’re smaller with less depth. I’m surprised this game was so close until the last few min. Lakers pretty much are winning by sheer virtue of having size advantage. Lebron with a big night, but man... if Portland had Harkless and Aminu or somebody of that sort, I think POR would’ve creamed LAL.

They just look oversized and overwhelmed. Doesn’t help that Nurkic their primary big keeps getting in foul trouble. He looks particularly exhausted having to log big minutes against a deeper Laker rotation.

Gonna be fascinating watching them chase Harden and Co. though. I don’t think Lakers have the legs.

[kodo]

Lebron had almost as many FTs (17) as the entire Blazers team (19).

Blazers definitely miss Rodney Hood, he was huge for them in last season's playoffs against Denver. Their bench wings just aren't getting much done.

[othawhitemeat]

Very questionable free throw disparities favoring certain teams....

Not sure the NBA is much better than the WWE.

I thought this was getting cleaned up in the last year but apparently its not. Between Heat and Lakers, it is starting to be controlled again. The NBA for sure wants the Lakers and Clippers after seeing how those series have been officiated. Kristaps tossed first game and crappy calls in game 3. Yesterday Lakers were mauling Blazers. At one point the Lakers had 41 free throws compared to Blazers 8. I mean at the half they had 36 free throws and the only reason they were not down 15 was because of this even though they only made like half of them.

[kodo]

Miami shoots 52 free throws.

For comparison, in the 98 Finals last game, even with MJ, the Bulls as a team attempted 19 total free throws.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/29719737/pacers-nate-mcmillan-irked-heat-taking-ridiculous-52-free-throws

A major factor in the defeat was that the Heat went to the free throw line a staggering 52 times, including 20 trips for Heat forward Jimmy Butler alone. The Pacers went 28 times.

"I can't explain that," Pacers coach Nate McMillan said after the game. "I mean, 52 free throws is ridiculous. They had 24 at the half, Butler shoots 20 of them ... this is the playoffs, and I thought some of those calls were ... I can't explain it."

I get as a product the NBA doesn't want to go back to the 90s, but turning it into a game of HORSE isn't entertaining either. I'd prefer low post play if the alternative is watching free throws and commercials for most of the game.

[Andi Obst]

Going to be a really interesting offseason for Philly. Brett Brown is gone, that's for sure. But how do you fix this mess of a roster? You can't seriously let Elton Brand continue with this, can you?

Also, Udoka is free now...

[Leslie Forman]

Miami shoots 52 free throws.

For comparison, in the 98 Finals last game, even with MJ, the Bulls as a team attempted 19 total free throws.

So what? Yesterday Milwaukee shot 17 free throws against Orlando, who shot 14.

People always whine about these individual FTA outlier games as if they matter. They've always happened. The league is currently averaging 24.8 FTAs in the playoffs right now. In 1998? 27.2. And it was actually even worse than that when you look at FTr - this year? .286. '98? .366.

[Chi town]

Going to be a really interesting offseason for Philly. Brett Brown is gone, that's for sure. But how do you fix this mess of a roster? You can't seriously let Elton Brand continue with this, can you?

Also, Udoka is free now...

Elton Brand sure did mess up. I don't think Embiid and Simmons can coexist and they can't do anything with the Horford and Harris contracts without attaching one of them.

Only way fwd for Philly IMO is trading Embiid and Harris. Horford is basically untradable. Play Simmons at PF and Horford at C. Get 3 shooters and expirings in the trade of Embiid and Harris.

[Leslie Forman]

For everyone calling Thibs a dinosaur who caused Derrick Rose's injuries, boy wonder Brad Stevens just finished a 4-0 series game with Walker/Brown/Tatum all on the floor even though they were winning by 12 with a minute to go…

[Andi Obst]

2 minutes into the Mavs Clippers game and I'm muting this. The fact that Mark Jackson is still allowed to do this is just absolutely pathetic.

[Andi Obst]

Going to be a really interesting offseason for Philly. Brett Brown is gone, that's for sure. But how do you fix this mess of a roster? You can't seriously let Elton Brand continue with this, can you?

Also, Udoka is free now...

Elton Brand sure did mess up. I don't think Embiid and Simmons can coexist and they can't do anything with the Horford and Harris contracts without attaching one of them.

Only way fwd for Philly IMO is trading Embiid and Harris. Horford is basically untradable. Play Simmons at PF and Horford at C. Get 3 shooters and expirings in the trade of Embiid and Harris.

Embiid is by far their best player, though. I would look into acquiring Chris Paul for sure. If you add enough picks, maybe the Thunder take Horford or Harris.

[MrSparkle]

Going to be a really interesting offseason for Philly. Brett Brown is gone, that's for sure. But how do you fix this mess of a roster? You can't seriously let Elton Brand continue with this, can you?

Also, Udoka is free now...

Well, Brand did a great job reminding everybody how not to build a team. 1 star ball-handler is not enough to contend, period. Geez, even TJ McConnell would've been nice. Having 3 maxes invested in big men is idiotic (I consider Tobias a PF). Jimmy and Embiid could've perhaps made the finals with Simmons down.

I see the allure of keeping the stars and continuing to balloon their salary cap, but IMO they need to move one of the stars. Jimmy was "the one" for a quick contend window with Embiid - with that lane closed, I'd sooner move Embiid, cause I don't see how they get a veteran star on that level with their remaining assets. They need to move one of them with Horford or Harris, IMO. The only scenario I could've seen, Simmons/Horford for Beal/Wall. But with that knee injury, I don't even see Simmons having strong value.

Another reminder; don't mess with Riley's trade bait. Josh Richardson is a serviceable role-player, but Miami made him look like a little more -kinda like he was gonna bring 80% of what Jimmy brought to the table. Well, he brings about 20%. That's the difference between a high-usage star and a role-player.

[MrSparkle]

I feel like competing hard with an understaffed roster is a recipe for injuries?

Bummer that Lillard, Luka, T. Harris (especially...ouch) all went down for their already short-depth teams.

[kodo]

People always whine about these individual FTA outlier games as if they matter.

"Outlier" is a term that is only used in large data sets, this isn't a large data set. This is the playoffs. Every game matters, there are no "outlier" games. If this game is actually an "outlier," than the results should be thrown out, that's not going to happen.

Nobody is complaining about how this one game is going to affect the aggregate stats of an entire season. They're complaining that bad officiating in one game has effectively ended a series, barring a comeback from 0-3.

[Shill]

Bummer that Lillard, Luka, T. Harris (especially...ouch) all went down for their already short-depth teams.

Luka appears to be just fine today.

[MrSparkle]

Bummer that Lillard, Luka, T. Harris (especially...ouch) all went down for their already short-depth teams.

Luka appears to be just fine today.

Indeed. He’s having an amazing game. Did start the night limping.