2019-20 NBA Season Discussion

AdagioPace · Post #2841 » by **AdagioPace** » Sat Sep 5, 2020 10:08 am

the Regular Bubble is not a "season". Let's say that they're continuing the trend started in the few bubble games and that recent games should have been more indicative than October games.
Having said that, I don't think people would have been ready to write off the entire autumnal/winter season because of few underwhelming bubble games. They play the same style with the same players after all and the "warming up" transition period could have been an excuse one month ago.

Dupp · Post #2842 » by **Dupp** » Sat Sep 5, 2020 10:12 am

Still fighting that SRS fight I see. Proven wrong about the regular season yet again and won’t even respond in the right thread. Vintage.

Post #2843 » by **Fadeaway_J** » Sat Sep 5, 2020 12:15 pm

70sFan wrote:I think I agree - Lakers perimeter defenders are not good enough to stay in front of Harden, so they need rim protection. Just defend corner threes and protect the paint, Houston is a bad team from non-corner threes.

Offensively, they need a better job of finding Davis inside. He actually had decent game and his size should be utilized better.

There is no way that Lakers will compete with Houston if they decide to play small.

Definitely not if Kuzma is as awful as he was last night. Also I'm still mystified as to why Markieff Morris is so solidified in the rotation.

yoyoboy · Post #2844 » by **yoyoboy** » Sat Sep 5, 2020 12:30 pm

How many times have both #1 seeds failed to make the Conference Finals? I would imagine not many but that’s definitely in play this year.

E-Balla · Post #2845 » by **E-Balla** » Sat Sep 5, 2020 12:37 pm

Bud is a seriously terrible coach in the playoffs.

1. He's clearly never heard of a playoff rotation.

2. He put a 7 footer on Jimmy Butler in the 4th quarter when Wes Matthews was defending him well completely destroying the defensive scheme just to appease people saying Giannis should be guarding Jimmy (when anyone with a brain that watches both play knows Giannis can't guard him).

70sFan · Post #2846 » by **70sFan** » Sat Sep 5, 2020 12:48 pm

What do you think about Lopez offense? I think his clearly underutilized in his role. He could really hurt Miami's lack of size and he usually scores every time he decides to.

HeartBreakKid · Post #2847 » by **HeartBreakKid** » Sat Sep 5, 2020 12:52 pm

I honestly think Brook Lopez is the second best player on the team and is better than Khris Middleton. Lopez has kind of been treated unfairly and basically bullied by fans and the media for a lot of his career, but he was always good and a much better defender than his reputation suggested.

70sFan · Post #2848 » by **70sFan** » Sat Sep 5, 2020 1:21 pm

HeartBreakKid wrote:I honestly think Brook Lopez is the second best player on the team and is better than Khris Middleton. Lopez has kind of been treated unfairly and basically bullied by fans and the media for a lot of his career, but he was always good and a much better defender than his reputation suggested.

I agree and it's despite him beng treated like a roleplayer by coach and fans. Brook is just damn good basketball player.

Post #2849 » by **Fadeaway_J** » Sat Sep 5, 2020 1:52 pm

E-Balla wrote:Bud is a seriously terrible coach in the playoffs.

1. He's clearly never heard of a playoff rotation.

2. He put a 7 footer on Jimmy Butler in the 4th quarter when Wes Matthews was defending him well completely destroying the defensive scheme just to appease people saying Giannis should be guarding Jimmy (when anyone with a brain that watches both play knows Giannis can't guard him).

The Matthews thing is almost more ridiculous than Giannis's minutes. He's rolling with guys like Connaughton and DiVincenzo when Matthews is literally their only viable defender on Butler. Then he tries his 7-foot PF (and best help defender) and expects him to get around a bunch of high screens and keep contact with Butler? Baffling.

Bergmaniac · Post #2850 » by **Bergmaniac** » Sat Sep 5, 2020 2:53 pm

No, because the pandemic break was so long this is essentially a new season and the Bucks have struggled throughout the bubble.

Dr Positivity · Post #2851 » by **Dr Positivity** » Sat Sep 5, 2020 3:34 pm

Warriors/Bullets

Post #2852 » by **og15** » Sat Sep 5, 2020 3:38 pm

freethedevil wrote:Can't really respond to bumps in the general board, so, imma just say here i dont really think it makes much sense to conclude the "rs oensn't matter" when the bucks terrible regular season in the bubble pretty strongly correlates with thier playoffs here.

So takes like "srs doesn't matter", regular season is meaningless only really hold up if you cherrypick.

I'm trying to understand the argument. Is it that 8 games in the bubble in which two were without Giannis and one of the losses with Giannis, he played 16 minutes, and one of the wins, he played 10 minutes are more representative than the whole season? Or?

What about the 5 games vs Orlando? They lost game 1 and then proceeded to win the next 4 games by an average of around 15 points, and Giannis averaged 31/16/6 on the series.

SRS isn't irrelevant, but when one thinks SRS is the be all / end all, or simply any statistic is taken to that level of power, they are missing part of how the sport works.

Odinn21 · Post #2853 » by **Odinn21** » Sat Sep 5, 2020 3:40 pm

Eddy_JukeZ wrote:Mavs sweeping the Lakers in 2011 was pretty shocking too at the time.

Obviously with hindsight now, they were the better team and had the best player in the series.

Sometimes hindsight can be overlooking though.

Everyone knew how good the Lakers could be. Waited for them to perform like they did in in the previous 3 seasons. And they did right after the All-Star break. Went 17-1 and 2-0 against the Mavs in that span, posted +11.0 NRtg in those 18 games. Then they slowed down to finish the season without health issues. They just couldn't switch back on in the playoffs.

IMO, the reality falls somewhere between the hype at the time and the current perception about them. Though they underachieved massively. No doubt about that.

No-more-rings · Post #2854 » by **No-more-rings** » Sat Sep 5, 2020 3:40 pm

Probably.

Post #2855 » by **PaulieWal** » Sat Sep 5, 2020 3:40 pm

This doesn't warrant a thread on its own. Merging with the general NBA season thread.

Basileus777 · Post #2856 » by **Basileus777** » Sat Sep 5, 2020 3:56 pm

Dr Positivity · Post #2857 » by **Dr Positivity** » Sat Sep 5, 2020 4:22 pm

I can't believe Giannis scored 29.5 pts in 30.4 minutes this year. It just seems like too many points for a flawed scorer.

E-Balla · Post #2858 » by **E-Balla** » Sat Sep 5, 2020 4:47 pm

70sFan wrote:What do you think about Lopez offense? I think his clearly underutilized in his role. He could really hurt Miami's lack of size and he usually scores every time he decides to.

He's averaging 20 a game with no touches. 79 TS%.

And Middleton is playing great too. Honestly Giannis is playing bad (because he's 7 feet tall but they never give him touches inside the 3 point line for some reason) and Donte/Pat/Marvin are playing bad but they really shouldn't even be on the floor.

Like it's the playoffs. Spo barely got Iggy, Olynyk, and Nunn on the floor and all 3 of them are very very good players, 2 with tons of playoff experience (the other 2nd in ROY voting). Why are Donte/Pat/Marvin playing more than them when they aren't nearly as good?

therealbig3 · Post #2859 » by **therealbig3** » Sat Sep 5, 2020 6:14 pm

SRS has historically correlated pretty well with playoff performance, but it's obviously just one number, and matchups also play a huge role which you can't just look at a number to determine how those will play out. Otherwise, we should just determine the champion based on SRS every year.

SRS is an improvement over team record for sure, correlates a lot better, but it's just that: a correlation. The Bucks having the best SRS in the league has done absolutely nothing for them the last 2 seasons.

Post #2860 » by **PaulieWal** » Sat Sep 5, 2020 7:25 pm

I think the issue is this team is basically like the 09-10 Cavs where Giannis is a lot worse than LeBron in the PS and the cast is better than what the Cavs had but it basically evens out and this team can be game planned for. Coaching is also a huge disadvantage for them in the PS when you have Mr. Spreadsheets on the bench refusing to change his formula and just wants to copy/paste what worked in the RS. It works beautifully in the RS but in the PS he's a bottom tier coach just like Mike Brown.

The only thing surprising is that they are flaming out this spectacularly.