"Around the NBA": 2020-21 Season Thread

[HardenGoat]

CP3 is going to dissect the bucks. He is comparable to Harden with setting the table and elevating his team. Bucks don’t have that. With a healthy Harden we will be unstoppable as long as we fix our center situation.

He is better than Harden as a playmaker, Harden holds the ball too much and settles for 3's. Bucks have no answer for Paul's mid range at all, and then you have Devin Booker as his partner which makes it unstoppable. Nash didn't prepare the Nets to attack the Bucks defence properly, there was too much settling.

Harden had a grade 2 strain. He was healthy during the Celtics series.

[Pablo Escobar]

I look at Monty Williams and I look at Steve Nash and I wonder why the Nets chose mediocrity as far as coaching goes.

Cause of the guy in your display pic

[gigantes]

Delicious.

https://streamable.com/953rkd

Ah cheer up, Bucks. You made the finals, didn't you?

[gigantes]

https://streamable.com/e5ryv6

"AND WHAT'S UP WITH THIS WEAK CHAIR PADDING?!"

* angrily slaps chair*

[Paradise]

I look at Monty Williams and I look at Steve Nash and I wonder why the Nets chose mediocrity as far as coaching goes.

Cause of the guy in your display pic

I don’t buy that. I think Kevin wanted Nash in this organization but he didn’t have to be the head coach. That’s squarely on Sean Marks.

[Claud]

I'm still not over our game 7 loss.. I really though KD had won it.

It's cool to see smaller market teams in the finals, but lowkey the playoffs have been weak af overall.

[DarkXaero]

I look at Monty Williams and I look at Steve Nash and I wonder why the Nets chose mediocrity as far as coaching goes.

Steve Nash had a more convincing 2-0 lead on the Bucks, relax.

[MrDollarBills]

I look at Monty Williams and I look at Steve Nash and I wonder why the Nets chose mediocrity as far as coaching goes.

Steve Nash had a more convincing 2-0 lead on the Bucks, relax.

Watch on YouTube

[DarkXaero]

I look at Monty Williams and I look at Steve Nash and I wonder why the Nets chose mediocrity as far as coaching goes.

Steve Nash had a more convincing 2-0 lead on the Bucks, relax.

Watch on YouTube

That's cool and all, but Nash supposedly excels at stuff like that as well. And it's not like Ayton did much last night anyways

[NyCeEvO]

I'm still not over our game 7 loss.. I really though KD had won it.

It's cool to see smaller market teams in the finals, but lowkey the playoffs have been weak af overall.

The playoffs have been lackluster due to injuries to star players, not because of small markets. I love the fact that CP3 might actually win a ring and get the long overdue respect that he deserves (even during this injury-riddled postseason).

I also hate that the media incessantly pushes for stars to go to LA or NYC and in particular the Lakers and the Knicks. You cannot have a healthy league if the other 28 teams are essentially the farm system for the Lakers. Having variety is a good thing, and the league should embrace it.

[gigantes]

On the fans collectively counting to 10+ during his free throw prep routine

GIANNIS ANTETOKOUNMPO: “No, it hasn’t come to an end, and I think it’s something that’s going to follow me for the rest of my career. So, I’ve just got to embrace it and have fun with it. But at the end of the day I’m just focusing on my routine, my technique, my body, and as I said, it’s not going to stop, so I just have to learn to live with it.”

On whether he hears them, or block them out

GIANNIS ANTETOKOUNMPO: “Of course, 20,000 people yelling, “one, two, three, four,” you notice that. But as I said, like I’ve learned to embrace it. Like I know it’s not going to stop. You know, at the end of the day when it keeps going, like it fades away. You know, there’s times that the first free throw I hear it but the fifth one, sixth one, I’m not hearing no more and I’m just focusing on what I’ve got to do and my routine.

https://www.brightsideofthesun.com/2021/7/7/22566809/bucks-possible-adjustments-for-game-2-and-how-giannis-handles-the-free-throw-chants”

Yeap... just the fans being mean to you for no particular reason, Giannis. Way to go, tuning them out.

.

Zoiks, it feels like the last finals game was weeks ago. I hope the Suns can overcome the loss of two forwards and hopefully wrap this baby up tomorrow. For all intensive purposes, that is!

[Prokorov]

I look at Monty Williams and I look at Steve Nash and I wonder why the Nets chose mediocrity as far as coaching goes.

Steve Nash had a more convincing 2-0 lead on the Bucks, relax.

no... Kyrie/KD had a convicing 2-0 lead.

Nash was terrible in games 1 and 2 as well.

Having super elite players dominate dispite your incompetence doesnt mean good coaching.

Nash is the worst coach in league history and it isnt even remotely close. He only has a job because of marks.

Marks should be removed for giving his incompetant, unqualified, white buddy a job over dozens of more qualified minorities/women

F marks he can go to hell

[DarkXaero]

I look at Monty Williams and I look at Steve Nash and I wonder why the Nets chose mediocrity as far as coaching goes.

Steve Nash had a more convincing 2-0 lead on the Bucks, relax.

no... Kyrie/KD had a convicing 2-0 lead.

Nash was terrible in games 1 and 2 as well.

Having super elite players dominate dispite your incompetence doesnt mean good coaching.

Nash is the worst coach in league history and it isnt even remotely close. He only has a job because of marks.

Marks should be removed for giving his incompetant, unqualified, white buddy a job over dozens of more qualified minorities/women

F marks he can go to hell

Spare me the childish rants, I've had enough of them for a long time now.

[therealbig3]

RealGM head coaches still whining about Nash after his team still almost won a game 7 despite being decimated by injuries.

Y’all need to give it a break. If we didn’t get hurt, Nash would be up 2-0 on Monty Williams right now. He was running circles around Budenholzer until 2 of his top 3 players got hurt and Joe Harris was a complete no show the entire series outside of game 1. Dude was playing Mike James in playoff games, like come on.

I get it, we’re all mad that we lost, and there were like a billion different things that if they went differently, we could have won despite what we were dealing with, but the same could be said for Milwaukee in that case too. If Middleton and Jrue didn’t play so freaking bad for most of game 7, we’re not even in a position to win, so all of these adjustments we keep asking for don’t even matter.

And anyway, Durant likely tears his Achilles or ACL or something if he had to keep playing the minutes he did even if we got past Milwaukee, and Harden likely tears his hamstring. It was unsustainable, a heroic loss in game 7 was a blessing in disguise imo. Clearly showed us to be the best team when healthy, but we didn’t risk long term injury to anyone.

Anyway, I’m just so meh about either of these teams. Suns are good, but they didn’t play a single healthy opponent. Milwaukee is a pretender that benefitted from our injuries and Philly’s chokejob. Now’s about the time that Giannis recklessly undercuts Chris Paul and knocks him out of the series, otherwise Milwaukee stays getting beat by any half decent team.

[gigantes]

RealGM head coaches still whining about Nash after his team still almost won a game 7 despite being decimated by injuries...

I agree with this to an extent, but as many have pointed out previously, there were critical adjustments that could or should have been made across late RS and PO games, yet Nash seemed to whiff on a lot of that stuff. The devil is in the details of course, across various posts and threads. You know what I mean if you're familiar.

Nash being a HOF PG & high-BBIQ guy with a full coaching season under his belt, I would naturally assume that Marks and most of us fans expected him to be better at this stuff by the postseason. And since I don't get the sense that Marks in particular is a 'meddling GM' (in my mind he's too canny to fall in that stuff), I have to think privately that he's borderline fuming about his choice of Nash, the condensed NBA season, and perhaps a couple players who didn't always show up, some literally and some figuratively.

Also as I've said before, it's almost crystal clear to me that Nash drastically overplayed Harris all playoffs, leading him to perform nicely during the postseason until he finally hit the wall in game three of the Bucks series. Most fans are giving Nash a huge break on that stuff and irrationally blaming the always hard-working Harris, but I'm not.

At the same time, Nash (and the coaching staff) probably did a better job than fans are giving him credit for. Like you're saying, I think. I think Marks also deserves some scrutiny for not finding more dogs & defenders to compliment the offensive firepower. And I'm still borderline-baffled how we had to part with Fro on top of giving up a king's ransom for Harden nearing the end of his prime, particularly with the Rockets being in a pretty awkward position, trading-wise.

If there's one positive in all that I guess, it's that Philly (IIRC) didn't want to part with Ben Simmons in a Harden trade, but 20/20 says they would have done it in a heartbeat. Lunatic Fertitta issues aside.

At the same time, if you're calling for Marks' head, even given the Nash hiring, you're just not being rational IMO. To me you're moreso a typical sports fan who chronically thinks they know best... totally uncaring and non-appreciative how very far your team came in a short period of time... only lusting after championships and never f-cking happy with anything short of that.

[ecuhus1981]

^
I agree, g. I have been disappointed with Nash this season, but I wouldn't expect many NBA head coaches to pull out a series win with so many players dropping like flies.

I hate to give credence to national pundits, because they literally do not know our team. But they are right: karma seems to have caught up to us. Maybe injuries, COVID suspensions and AWOL episodes were inevitable. Maybe insignificant Twitter wars and unsolicited verbal assaults on media members was somehow necessary. Maybe none of that stuff even affected the locker room. Who knows. From an outsider's perspective, it feels like our team suffered the most from self-inflicted wounds.

[gigantes]

RealGM head coaches still whining about Nash after his team still almost won a game 7 despite being decimated by injuries...

Now let's hear your take...?

[DarkXaero]

And just like that, Suns get blown out by Bucks in Milwaukee. Nets were better than Suns over first 3 games of that series, and its not even debatable.

[therealbig3]

RealGM head coaches still whining about Nash after his team still almost won a game 7 despite being decimated by injuries...

Now let's hear your take...?

My take stays the same. It's still 2-1 Suns, and this was a must win for the Bucks. Still not impressed with the Bucks at all.

And in relation to Nash, the Nets dominated the Bucks through 3 games, and certainly didn't get blown out like Monty Williams did tonight.

[Prokorov]

Steve Nash had a more convincing 2-0 lead on the Bucks, relax.

no... Kyrie/KD had a convicing 2-0 lead.

Nash was terrible in games 1 and 2 as well.

Having super elite players dominate dispite your incompetence doesnt mean good coaching.

Nash is the worst coach in league history and it isnt even remotely close. He only has a job because of marks.

Marks should be removed for giving his incompetant, unqualified, white buddy a job over dozens of more qualified minorities/women

F marks he can go to hell

Spare me the childish rants, I've had enough of them for a long time now.

no one is forcing you to read them.