OT: NBA Playoffs are wild this year
Not sure id call it insane
Lakers are a 7 seed, lebron looks like the shortened offseason is wearing on him, Davis can’t stay healthy
Brooklyn has way too much talent to lose. There are a handful of potential contenders but it seems like an easier prediction than most year
I’d love to see the young Suns take down the Lakers. Just think if the Lakers didn’t have Andre Drummond playing for them right now, they’d be done.
The NBA needs to discontinue the ability of a cut player to be able to join any team he wants at little cost.
Andre Drummond is terrible. The Lakers would be better off playing Gasol
The NBA already has a waiver system, so anybody could have picked up Drummond if they wanted to before he cleared waivers. They didn't. Lakers got him.
Yes, but if you claim them off waivers, you have to absorb their contract. The current system is a warped free market, where bad teams end up just paying guys to go away, so they can then be stashed on contenders for whatever dubious bench role that team has in mind. But those guys would never willingly sign for these new vet minimums.
True, but what is the alternative? If contracts become voidable, then players lose some control, which will never fly with the NBAPA, and not sure, as fans, we want teams to have *that* much control/flexibility to begin with.
I'm not sure the pros of other alternatives outweigh the cons either, but maybe there is a good scenario waiting to be brought up.
Either way, it's not as if contenders are signing huge stars to begin with on these deals. Is Andre Drummond going to push the Lakers over the hump? Probably not, but he could help. He is also supremely overpriced at market rate to begin with.
I don't think it's that much of a problem personally, especially when we consider that fans want to see the absolute best product on the court anyway, so wouldn't we want to see the best teams with the best players duking it out in the playoffs instead of watching some of those guys half-ass it until the regular season ends or ruin their careers carrying too much of the load on a subpar team?
You can say “true” with regard to the contract being absorbed and also say “anyone could have claimed him”. Only teams that had $28.75 million in cap room or in a single trade exception could have claimed him, which included a list of exactly zero teams. The post-deadline buyout system is a problem for the NBA, and it needs to be fixed in the future.
But is it? I think it's over hyped. When's the last time a post deadline buyout actually swung the playoffs? I can't think of the time. Drummond sucks and they should be playing Gasol. How is that helping three team?
As a Suns fan in the AZ you are so right on Drummond. He has had a great series, terrorizing on the boards and put backs, and without them they would not be in it. To be honest I wish we had Drummond coming off the bench for the Suns, instead of to be playing against him.
Healthy Davis is who we thought he was but Drummond has been the X-factor that has kept this a series. With CP3 looking healthy again it should be a great final 3 game.s
How are the Lakers a 7 seed? No Davis all year?
Injuries to Davis - 36 games and Lebron - 27 games equated to the 7 seed.
I think Nets have to be the favorite to win it all, but wouldn't be shocked if Bucks take the series -- they match up as well as anyone with Jrue and Giannis, and if they get hot, they can keep pace.
As far as the Knicks/Hawks series goes, all due respect to how well Trae's played offensively, but the Knicks have been absolutely awful. Randle has probably cost himself tens of millions with this performance, and it's inexplicable how little they've done to exploit Trae on the other end. As much as Randle's been exposed, I think we're also seeing Thibs as a guy who tops out at getting guys to give max effort in the regular season. Terrible coaching performance in this series.
As a long suffering Knicks fan, you're probably right. Part of me thinks that Randle is worn out from logging incredible minutes all season, and there just isn't enough talent elsewhere on the roster. 3 of the 5 starting spots are bottom half of the league and the depth is non existent or unproven. This team is indeed maxed out and it got us to a 4 seed at least.
Playoffs as a whole though, most of the games I've seen haven't been all that close... I guess it's just first round things (which I preferred the old 5 game format). The fan behavior issue is taking away a lot from it unfortunately. The play-in mini tournament was cool
Yesterday there was a period of time in which they couldn't even get a shot up, let alone hit one. There's really not a lot of imagination to the offense unfortunately. And Thibodeau is supposed to be known for his defense but they can't figure out how to stay in front of Trae Young and Gaillinari and Bogdanovich seem to hit every goddamn shot.
Thibodeau is also known for getting his teams to overperform in the regular season and underperform in the playoffs by playing his best players insane minutes in relatively meaningless games. I think Randle and RJ Barrett are #1/#2 in total minutes played this year.
Trae Young has benefitted from the Knicks having one good defensive guard (Frankie Smokes) and not playing him (because he isn’t very good). Young is garbage on defense and way overrated as a shooter. He is going to have a very difficult time in the half court against the Bucks or Sixers with their excellent defenders. The Knicks are playing like a throwback team and without a stellar lead guard they look lost in the more intense setting of the playoffs.
Lakers aren't in trouble. We'll see vintage LeBron in these next couple games. He will pull his supporting cast to a first round victory. AD should be back for round 2.
The East will be more interesting than expected.
Usually I would agree, but I am not as sure this year. LeBron is already looking a bit tired, and if his ankle is holding him back/he re-aggravates it, that could mean an early exit for the Lakers.
I thought The King looked pretty good yesterday. His best quarter was the 4th when he started leading the comeback. It fell short, but now that he'll be going into the game with a Cape mentality, we should see a dominant performance that wills his team to victory. LeBron has had a tremendous career, and I still think his biggest accomplishments (aside from The Block and that series) is taking that first ('07) and last ('18) Cavaliers teams to the Finals. He was everything on those teams. That Game 5 ECF vs the Pistons made me a Witness, and I'll believe until he retires.
Totally agree, and I'm not trying to knock James. I think he gets discounted too much by some Pistons fans.
I would actually add 2015 as an accomplishment for Bron. The fact the Cavs didn't get swept in the finals that year is an achievement in itself, let alone that LeBron somehow extended the series to a sixth game, and he got absolutely robbed of the Finals MVP even though the Cavs lost the series 4-2. He was an absolute monster in that series and the Cavs (down Kyrie and Love) had no business taking a game away from the Warriors that year.
In that finals series Lebron average 35.8/13.3/8.8.
Insane. Stats the following year.
29.7/11.3/8.9 with Kyrie & Love. He also average 2.5 steals & 2.3 blocks per game. If i remember correctly he is the only player in history to lead a final series in all 5 categories.
As impartial as a Suns fan can be, we beat them at full strength to start the series and while Lebron can have stretches I don’t think he can carry a game. He does look tired, and if CP3 is a go (half the 1st game and in the 4th), we have been able to handle the Lebron tornado.
"Wild" would be another Malice at the Palace type-event, which seems increasingly likely.
As for the on-court issues, I'm hoping for a Milwaukee-Utah finals.
Apparently no more wild than the NHL Playoffs.
Displaced Portland-native here in Kansas. Go Blazers! I have absolutely no hope, and yet here I am.
I'm rooting for the blazers too
Dame is my guy!
There have been a few really good games, but nothing has happened so far to call it “wild”
Lakers have a ton of injuries and are a 7 seed versus 2 in Phoenix. Nothing crazy about that.
an empty water bottle is now a deadly weapon???
Boston police have given into the woke bullshit of Kylie Irving.
A water bottle is a deadly weapon but a tazer at a cop isn't? a knife at another girl throat isn't a deadly weapon to lebron but a water bottle is?
This is what our world is coming too.
Huh, I too don't think that fans should continue to be allowed to spit on, touch, and throw things at NBA players. Who knew that made me woke, there are a lot of people that would be very surprised by this development.
yeah but assault with a deadly weapon felony??? for a water bottle?
people who have thrown Molotov's at the police get less time than this guy would get for a water bottle.
Two wrongs still don't make a right, despite many people now thinking they do.
Not wild at all. Aside from luka going crazy those first two games everything else is playing out as expected.
Brooklyn. Where's the hype?
I think this is wild:
Y’all should avoid Thornville, Ohio August 19-21, and every other day of the year.
As a born-and-raised Wisconsinite I thought the Bucks looked very good. Better as a 3 seed than last year's team ever looked as a 1.
As an adopted Massachusettsian I would like people (person) to not throw things and validate every bad stereotype about this city's sports fans.
The NBA is a business, and having the Lakers play the Nets will make the NBA, networks, and sponsors A LOT of money. But along the way, they need a little drama. Not saying it's scripted but seems more times than not it plays out like it a WWE storyline.
Vince McMahon wrote a helluva script this year!
Ben Simmons is the worst shooter I’ve ever seen.
ABL - anybody but LeBron. Don’t even watch NBA to know enough about what’s going on but... ABL.
You won't find the crew around these parts, but there is probably an "anybody but Brady" group equally as big as the ABL group.
Bigger
Lebron is hard to root for. Phenomenal talent, one of the all time greats, but the traveling and the flopping throughout his career have kept him in the 5-10 range in all time greats for me. Can't remember Larry Bird, Magic, MJ, Oscar Robertson, Wilt or Russell play acting the way Lebron has done through the years. Still remember those Pacer series, where the guy was throwing himself all over the place and getting bailed out by the refs, time and time again. It's hard to watch a sport like the NBA where you know going into it that you are watching entertainment disguised as basketball, and the whistle will always favor the "great players".