ATL - Ham Slamwich to the Lakers

[BigO]

To those who predicted a short series dominated by Golden State, I hope you've come to your senses. This wasn't one of Boston's better defensive games and they still won. They did hold the Warriors to 16 points in the fourth quarter, when it counted.

As to Tatum's value, no way he is currently in the top 5 (10 or11 is about right). Because of what Boston is doing, people are trying to anoint the Celtics savior. But Boston is successful mainly because of their defense, not their offense. They are one of the few teams not driven by superstars. Good coaching and really good switchable defenders is their strength.

The entirety of this post is fairly insufferable, particularly after Boston scored 40 in the last quarter.

If insufferable means "totally accurate", I agree.

[Dick Tate]

2) We wasted another year of Giannis being God-like. There was no dominant team, as things have played out, and it was all there for the taking.

I wouldn't say wasted but yeah, the years where there is no other dominant team aren't going to grow on trees.

[thomchatt3rton]

Would the Celtics be where they are right now without the Derrick White trade? Serious question. What a great margins move.


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[4xBuck]

1) Bucks win... If Bud made the most basic of adjustments
2) We wasted another year of Giannis being God-like.

Ridiculous... There wasn't a basic adjustment to help in the four substantial loses and it was anything but a wasted season. Bucks hit with some post season bad luck with injuries just like the Packers the last two seasons. It happens.

[Daver]

Wouldof couldof shouldof i know but the bucks tank the last game to fall to 3 so they can have it easy.Their reward was midds getting hurt against the bulls.Be careful what you wish for maybe another scenario(another team) he stays healthy n the bucks have HC n maybe are still playing all hindsight i know

[paulpressey25]

Would the Celtics be where they are right now without the Derrick White trade? Serious question. What a great margins move.


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They won the title at the trade deadline. Just like the Bucks last year with PJ and the Raptors in 2019 with Gasol.

[RiotPunch]

LA media seems pretty excited about the Ham hire.

[WeekapaugGroove]

1) Bucks win... If Bud made the most basic of adjustments
2) We wasted another year of Giannis being God-like.

Ridiculous... There wasn't a basic adjustment to help in the four substantial loses and it was anything but a wasted season. Bucks hit with some post season bad luck with injuries just like the Packers the last two seasons. It happens.

Not saying Bud doesn't deserve any criticism but the 'adjustments' thing is an epidemic with NBA fans. I swear you check these boards and a large number of the fans blame lack of adjustments for every loss their team takes.

I think part of it is we have so much coverage of sports parsing and analyzing every detail people are less accepting of the pure randomness of sports. Sometimes games/series come down to random dumb **** like someone getting hot or going cold, a ball taking a weird bounce, someone slipping and there isn't some grand reason for what happened.




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[WeekapaugGroove]

Would the Celtics be where they are right now without the Derrick White trade? Serious question. What a great margins move.


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They won the title at the trade deadline. Just like the Bucks last year with PJ and the Raptors in 2019 with Gasol.

And the funny part about that is Boston fans were hating the **** out of that trade up until about 2 weeks ago when his shots started to actually go in.

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[Badgerlander]

Came in feeling this series was a toss-up, obv slight lean to Boston with their 1 game advantage now. We'll see what happens (Ws could win the next 4, w/e), but I think people have to come to terms with the fact that this Ws team, with a much older Curry, post-injury Klay, and a diminished supporting cast -- all still good, but just less so -- is categorically different from the steamroller that flattened the league half a decade ago. This is an ordinary very good team on the same plateau as the rest of the league's very good teams.

I felt like the Warriors should be favored, they were the best team in the league until Draymond got hurt. When I looked at the individual matchups though I didn’t see anything favorable for the dubs aside from Steph being the best player in the series. I felt like the Bucks could have beaten the Celtics with better rotation and coaching decisions and I feel like the dubs have one of the best staffs in the league but it seems the Celtics have the better players 2-8.

[BigO]

1) Bucks win... If Bud made the most basic of adjustments
2) We wasted another year of Giannis being God-like.

Ridiculous... There wasn't a basic adjustment to help in the four substantial loses and it was anything but a wasted season. Bucks hit with some post season bad luck with injuries just like the Packers the last two seasons. It happens.

Saying it was a wasted year is too strong. I meant it was a wasted opportunity. But blaming the Packers and Bucks losses on injuries is too easy and a lazy analysis.

Giving teams consistently open threes is a trademark of Bud's particular drop defense. As I've detailed before, with relevant facts, there wasn't an obvious answer on offense to combat the loss of Middleton so I don't blame Bud for that.

I have detailed, though, what he could have done on defense in the series. The Celtics, in their victories against the Bucks, shot over 41% from three. In the playoffs, where it's a half court game and scores are generally lower than the regular season, you need to do better than that and there were specific and obvious moves that should have been made.

And yes, veteran coaches can be stubborn and make really bad decisions, just like anyone else in positions of authority.

But I think Bud and Horst will make the same mistake that you do, which is there's no need to change anything.

If there was only one change I could make it would be to get Bud off his religious devotion to the drop defense. After that, I would be looking for more switchable players on defense. I think, as the reliance on the three point shot continues to grow, those teams that can switch without too many mismatches (like the Celtics) will have the upper hand.

[BigO]

1) Bucks win... If Bud made the most basic of adjustments
2) We wasted another year of Giannis being God-like.

Ridiculous... There wasn't a basic adjustment to help in the four substantial loses and it was anything but a wasted season. Bucks hit with some post season bad luck with injuries just like the Packers the last two seasons. It happens.

Not saying Bud doesn't deserve any criticism but the 'adjustments' thing is an epidemic with NBA fans. I swear you check these boards and a large number of the fans blame lack of adjustments for every loss their team takes.

I think part of it is we have so much coverage of sports parsing and analyzing every detail people are less accepting of the pure randomness of sports. Sometimes games/series come down to random dumb **** like someone getting hot or going cold, a ball taking a weird bounce, someone slipping and there isn't some grand reason for what happened.




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Of course, both you and 4xBuck deleted half of my sentence, which stated that the Bucks would have won if KM played OR if Bud made adjustments. But all is good.

I try to analyze and you try not to. That's ok. I already stated that I didn't think Bud had that many offensive adjustments to make against the Celtics really good defense. So no, I don't think lack of offensive adjustments were the problem.

So you and others can go ahead and believe random dumb stuff decides series. And Boston's defense just randomly has been good. They've been incredibly lucky I guess . Not saying I'm right but I sure know that the "random" theory isn't. Now if the Bucks lost because the Celtics hit a couple of half court shots to win their games, now you're talking some random stuff.

[thomchatt3rton]

Would the Celtics be where they are right now without the Derrick White trade? Serious question. What a great margins move.


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They won the title at the trade deadline. Just like the Bucks last year with PJ and the Raptors in 2019 with Gasol.

Well they haven’t won it yet, but yeah. They would not be here without him.

I didn’t know that they gave up a first AND a future swap for him, nor did I know he makes more than Smart does lol. So it was a bigger move than I thought it was. Still great impact for the price.


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[Baddy Chuck]

Wouldof couldof shouldof i know but the bucks tank the last game to fall to 3 so they can have it easy.Their reward was midds getting hurt against the bulls.Be careful what you wish for maybe another scenario(another team) he stays healthy n the bucks have HC n maybe are still playing all hindsight i know

My favorite part of this narrative is where people fail to point out how the game before we "tanked to play Chicago" Boston sat Tatum and Horford to "tank to play Chicago" and then when they realized there was a chance they'd match up with Toronto and Brown/Horford couldn't play because they wouldn't get a shot they went all out in the last game of the season against Memphis resting all their players.

[Plossum]

So BigO thinks he know more about coaching an NBA team than an actual NBA title winning coach?

That’ll do me.

[rilamann]

Would the Celtics be where they are right now without the Derrick White trade? Serious question. What a great margins move.


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They won the title at the trade deadline. Just like the Bucks last year with PJ and the Raptors in 2019 with Gasol.

Last season we traded 2 non rotation players for a major contributor who we don't win the title without.

This season we traded a rotation player for a guy who looks like he can no longer physically run and jump.

Winning the trade deadline is underrated.

[rilamann]

I still disagree with those who think it would have been a lock that we beat Boston if we had Khris. Obviously you can make a strong argument we win with Khris, but I don't think it would have been a slam dunk.

Based on what I seen from Khris between October of 2021 and April of 2022, I wouldn't have been shocked if Boston's defense forced him into a miserable series. Middleton wasn't quite the same guy in 2022 that he was in 2021. Maybe he had nagging injuries, maybe it was fatigue from an incredibly short off-season, maybe he's slowing down due to age. I don't know, but he wasn't the same guy from the previous season.

2021 version of Khris? Then I would say it's probably a slam dunk that we beat Boston if we had that version of Khris.

[Plossum]

Wonder what to go with Lonzo's knee is. Reports saying he won't be ready for opening night

[BigO]

So BigO thinks he know more about coaching an NBA team than an actual NBA title winning coach?

That’ll do me.

And you think guys like Bud, Mike McCarthy, Mike Ditka, and any other coach who won a title are beyond criticism. You're quite the independent thinker.

[Mtsportsfan]

Look, Boston deserves the lion's share of credit for how they've defended this postseason. They're an elite defensive team with multiple great defenders. But I do enjoy mocking this idea that 3PT defense is something that you can control, when the data over the past several years now has shown that it's not really a thing.

To be a great NBA defense in 2022, you have to control what you can (limiting paint points, contest without fouling), but no defense can cover everything with modern offensive rules, so you basically just have to live with teams taking certain shots. 3PT variance is a thing whether people like it or not, and the idea that you can really heavily influence it outside of running guys off the line, has a very "energy and effort" feel to it.

Totally agree , give Boston credit though , their close outs are fast and under control for the most part , while ours seemed late with many fly bys.