General Playoff Thread: The Long 2nd Season
- Thread starter ElUno20
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The Clippers are going to be tougher to beat with no Curry but its doable. Golden State will need guys like Iguodala, Livingston, Speights and Clark to all step up.
“@DanWoikeSports: Chris Paul has a third metacarpal fracture on his right hand and will not return”
“@ArashMarkazi: The third metacarpal connects the middle finger to the wrist.”
Meanwhile this Portland team and Dame are really easy to love. Stotts is doing.a lot with a little here.
Sooooooo......I'm thinking we can cross Dallas off the list of potential Durant landing spots. LOL.
CP3's injury is a lucky "break" for the Warriors, especially if that series goes 7--it could extend another week, eating up half the time until Curry's reevaluation and then the Warriors get a Blazers team they might not need Curry to beat or a Clippers team without CP3.
Arash Markazi @ArashMarkazi 19s20 seconds ago
Chris Paul and Blake Griffin are out for the rest of the playoffs.
Chris Paul and Blake Griffin are out for the rest of the playoffs.
People are sleeping on the Blazers here. They are now in a position to beat the Clippers and if Curry is unable to come back for the next round its not impossible to see them knocking Golden State off in seven.
The real winners here are the Spurs. They are resting while the rest of the field limps through the first round.
The real winners here are the Spurs. They are resting while the rest of the field limps through the first round.
Have to think they strongly consider breaking up that core, question becomes how to do that without a full teardown which they aren't doing.
Have to think what they want is to move Blake in a 3 team deal that gets them a vet star from a team that wants to rebuild (Melo, Butler)
Have to think what they want is to move Blake in a 3 team deal that gets them a vet star from a team that wants to rebuild (Melo, Butler)
Assuming CLE doesn't win the title again, who says no to a Paul for Kyrie deal? I feel like that makes sense both ways, gives the Clippers a younger core and gives LeBron a better PG for the next couple of years, and of course Paul is one of his best buddies while he and Kyrie don't seem to get along at all.
Well, except for the fact that they now have to face OKC (who has always made their lives difficult) where the Ws (if they get past Houston) get to face the young Blazers or decimated Clippers.
I agree that the Blazers will be no cakewalk, especially with Curry likely missing at least a couple games, but they're almost certainly an easier draw than a healthy Clips would have been. The Clips are the last team to knock the Ws out of the playoffs; hate the Ws and always seem to get up for them; and this season had big leads on them in the 4th quarter in a couple of games. Even playing much of this year without Blake, they finished #6 in the league in offense and a surprisingly excellent #4 in defense. Last year with the same roster they were #1 in offense (a hair ahead of GS). And anecdotally, their bench, a sore spot in recent years, was starting to pick things up late in the season (with Rivers and Aldrich in particular starting to look like legit NBA rotation players). Put that all together with good health and you have a legit outside title contender, imho.
The young Blazers, by contrast, were #7 in offense and #20 in defense, which is basically Houston Rockets level. They're also down a fairly key rotation player in Meyers Leonard.
Just an unbelievable gut punch for Clips Nation, and I say that with no joy or schadenfreude. They had literally less than a half-day window of hope after the Curry MRI came out that this might finally be the year CP3 and the team could break through to WC Finals, or maybe beyond -- before the cruel hoops gods cut down not one but both of their franchise players in the same freaking game. A truly terrible blow for CP3 (a perennially elite player who deserves better), Clips fans, and really all basketball fans, who have been deprived of what could have been an epic Warriors-Clippers showdown with both teams at full strength.
Amazing 4th Quarter by the Raptors. I had gone out scootering with my son around the block, only to find Toronto leading when I came back.
So... Has Kent Bazemore earned his max contract now this offseason now?
He is three years older than Harrison Barnes, but Barnes is going to get one. I think I would much rather have Bazemore than Barnes.
He is three years older than Harrison Barnes, but Barnes is going to get one. I think I would much rather have Bazemore than Barnes.
The refs really let Wade do whatever he wants. How as that not a goaltend?
EDIT: Good for C.Lee- despite the bad call gets a big rebound and nails a huge 3.
EDIT: Good for C.Lee- despite the bad call gets a big rebound and nails a huge 3.
Wade gets legally blocked, turns back on play to go apeshit on ref, doesn't get called for a tech. He's the worst. Oh and TNT refuses to show his un-sportsmanship. Can't damage his good rep.
Was that Dwayne Wade's Floptastic reputation finally catching up with him? Couldn't have happened to a nicer ball puncher.
I don't know about legally blocked but this is why coaches don't draw up plays at the end of the game going to the rim. They simply don't get any calls and the overly aggressive defense make it extremely difficult to score knowing they can clobber the penetrator without being concerned of a whistle.
Had this play occurred during the normal course of the game you could have had your pick as to who the foul was called on......Zeller came from across the lane jumping into Wade and hammering him to the ground with his lower body as Lee nearly took Wade's arm off at the elbow.
Dwight Howard did what I thought was impossible. He had 11 offensive rebounds, a steal, and no turnovers... and a -30 plus-minus.
For his trouble he'll earn roughly $30m or so next year on the free market.
Which brings up an interesting point of the game changing to dribble penetrating guards and 3-point shooting.......while the value of traditional 5's like Howard, Ezeli, and Biyombo will still be as high as ever. It's like the best of both worlds. Everyone gets paid!
I wouldn't want him for what he'll get paid, but Howard is still good. He got absolutely frozen out on offense by Harden and the zero effort the rest of the team puts in on D hung him out to dry.
Watch early season games, he was playing great and put in a ton of effort. Then he realized that the team was going nowhere and Harden was stabbing him in the back with the coach and management so he put it on cruise control.
Watch early season games, he was playing great and put in a ton of effort. Then he realized that the team was going nowhere and Harden was stabbing him in the back with the coach and management so he put it on cruise control.
Very true. Also true that the game is evolving away from his strengths. Very tough FA call.
Barnes has had plenty of opportunities this year to show what he can do when Curry or Klay have been out, and he's really done very little to suggest he's a max-deal type of player. That said, the league is awash in money, so someone will pay him.
Good centers, especially 5s who can protect the rim, are still valuable. The guys whose stock have really dropped are not the 5s but the traditional 4s.
The problem with Howard is that he turned 30 this year and his game has always been about his freakish athleticism. He really peaked at age 24-25. It's not the sort of game that projects to age very well once he physcial abilities decline (which has already started). He could still be a valuable player on the right team for a few years but he's going to want a max deal and it's doubtful he can deliver value on that sort of contract, especially in years 3-4. And since he's 10+ year vet, a max deal is 35% of the cap -- who's going to want to tie up that much of their cap for four years in a downslope player with a history of moodiness?
The problem with Howard is that he turned 30 this year and his game has always been about his freakish athleticism. He really peaked at age 24-25. It's not the sort of game that projects to age very well once he physcial abilities decline (which has already started). He could still be a valuable player on the right team for a few years but he's going to want a max deal and it's doubtful he can deliver value on that sort of contract, especially in years 3-4. And since he's 10+ year vet, a max deal is 35% of the cap -- who's going to want to tie up that much of their cap for four years in a downslope player with a history of moodiness?
The problem with Dwight is not basketball. If he was told to just protect the rim and rebound like crazy (which does still have value in the league) he'd still pout and stab his coach in the back for not being a focal point of the offense. The whole league knows it but some team will still be dumb enough to overpay.
It was more of Wade's 3 ridiculously difficult shots in the final two minutes that sealed the game. What a fuckin performance!!
