Rivers in tears in the press conference after the game. Really small consolation but he won a ton of respect tonight.
General Playoff Thread: The Long 2nd Season
- Thread starter ElUno20
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Each of the past two years we've seen Austin Rivers have career defining breakthrough post-season moments. There aren't a lot of players who do this once much less twice.....and by the age of 23. I didn't like Rivers game at all coming out of Duke......much like Redick, he's worked himself into having a long NBA career.
Spurs would have to get rid of Danny Green, Boris Diaw, and Tim Duncan would have to decline his option. Not likely.
I mean - Durant is almost certainly out. The question is how do the Celtics get into the running.
Agreed. All hinges on lottery. Aldridge and Leonard are a combined 27-35. Insane.
OKC just doesn't have the horses. That said, don't crown the Spurs just yet. Lots of smoke around an earlier than expected Curry return. The Warriors won the season series between the two.
Regular season games don't mean much when you're talking about the Spurs. I think we'll all be treated to an epic 7 game series with the Spurs taking it in 7. Wish we could just fast forward to the WCF.
Spurs punted the first meeting at Golden State but they really went for it for their home game and Curry ripped them a new one ending a few Spurs winning streaks. The Dubs were the better team this year when healthy. The big question is will Cury get healthy again.
Dragic has a pretty game when he has it going on. Just a fabulous 1st Half performance to lead the Heat.
They missed Diaw in that game, but while Duncan was out he isn't going to play much in a series against the Warriors anyway.
Or the Warriors and Spurs are both just really, really good. There's a good argument that they're both all-time top ~10 teams.
Yeah, I didn't mean it to take away from gsw or sas. They're historically great but the rest of the league is pretty average. The blazers were a 5 seed and they are incredibly average.
Straight up fact. The league does not impress me this year but Spurs and Dubs are both terrific.
If the Spurs can land Durant they certainly won't let Green and Diaw to stand in the way. Salary cap maneuvering can easily be achieved if this is the direction they want to go with plenty of teams with excess cap space to take on Green or Diaw's contracts.
Only signed for 1 more year for $7M. I think plenty of playoff teams would sign up for that contract.
I know Durant is essentially a wing but can he and Aldrige play together, especially as the two age? A good team with a fast, small line-up seems like it could take advantage of those two on the court at the same time. On the other hand, if any team can create a scheme that works for those two, its San Antonio.
Frankly, if '86 trots out all of the old guard, shows Durant the hardware and tells him he could be yet another great to win in Celtic green, he has a shot. Of course it depends on whether KD wants to win as a leader or a role player. If he joins the Spurs or Golden State, he simply won't get the credit he would if he did it in OKC or even Boston.
Frankly, if '86 trots out all of the old guard, shows Durant the hardware and tells him he could be yet another great to win in Celtic green, he has a shot. Of course it depends on whether KD wants to win as a leader or a role player. If he joins the Spurs or Golden State, he simply won't get the credit he would if he did it in OKC or even Boston.
How would a small team ever stop Aldridge and Durant on the other end? They could certainly play the 4 and 5 in a smallball lineup at times and would also force other teams to adjust to them as opposed to vice versa.
I mean we just started playoff games with Amir Johnson and Jonas Jerebko at the 4/5......I'm sure Popovich could figure out how to utilize Aldridge and Durant.
I lived in Charlotte prior to him going to the Spurs, saw many Bobcat games, and this isn't true at all.
His numbers were pretty much the same with the difference being his ROLE on a team that started Kwame Brown with a hugely overrated in-his-prime Gerald Wallace as its best player as opposed to one with Aldridge and Leonard. Any role player is going to look like a better fit on a 60-win team than on a 35-win one.
Diaw doesn't have any trade value now either at his age. He doesn't have to though.....the point is that the Spurs can easily move his contract for a 2nd round pick with so many teams able to take on contracts for a rotation player.
Love will be fine. That was just a tough hit. Probably sore but I can't imagine that was anything serious.
I wouldn't be surprised if Manu's well deserved reputation as a premier thespian worked against them.
From Thunder blogger, Royce Young:
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Royce Young @royceyoung 5m5 minutes agoI bet Dion Waiters yelled and-1 while he was pushing off. That's why the ref didn't call it.