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Re: West Conference playoff thread
Posted: Fri May 19, 2023 7:28 am
by Monster
Q-is-here wrote: ↑Thu May 18, 2023 9:28 pm
Lipoli390 wrote: ↑Thu May 18, 2023 9:08 pm
After watching the first half of the Nuggets-Lakers game tonight, I’ve come away with two broad conclusions. First, there’s a good chance the Lakers and Heat both end up in this year’s NBA finals. Second, there are no great teams in the NBA this year.
The idea of a Lakers-Heat finals is weird. The Lakers finished 7th, only 4 games over .500. The Heat finished in 8th place, 6 games over .500. Yet, here they are playing in their respective conference finals and looking like they could win. The Nuggets and Celtics are clearly the two most talented teams of the four remaining. But they are both flawed. I think the problem with the Celtics is part coaching and part the youth of their two top players - Tatum and Brown. The Nuggets seem too dependent on Jokic. Murray, Porter and Gordon are very good, but not good enough to combine with Jokic to form a great team. One thing I’ve noticed with Denver is that they don’t have a guard or wing who is really good at breaking down defenses and scoring on dribble penetration in the half court.
It’s good that these matchups are so competitive. But it’s disappointing that the League doesn’t have any truly great teams.
I think the talent and coaching is as good as ever and therefore it's really hard for a team to just lap everyone.
I personally like that there isn’t just 1 or 2 great teams. It makes things more compelling. Who is actually gonna win? All teams have flaws and again the league this year is also REALLY deep with talent.
In the Boston Heat series even if Boston’s coach ends up being as good as Spo (that would be impressive) he isn’t right now. Spo has years of playoff coaching experience so that’s a distinct advantage for Miami.
As for lower seed teams making it to the finals it’s not that shocking for this season. If GS had won the title it wouldn’t have been THAT surprising. It’s basically the same team as last year they just didn’t get back on track because of injuries Wiggins being out for months and Payton integrated later in the season. Plus they just didn’t find themselves this season. The league is hard even for that team. The Lakers always had talent and they added more (or at least talent that likely fit better) before the trade deadline. I thought the Heat were a team that could make a run. The Clippers had talent too. There also so many teams with injury concerns which could change how things fell. I remember last year sayijg the team/s that played as a team were the ones that could win it all. Probably the same type of thing this year. Lots of teams that made the playoffs had the talent.
Re: West Conference playoff thread
Posted: Fri May 19, 2023 8:20 am
by Wolvesfan21
I can't believe how much we got for DLO!
The Lakers keep benching him because he sucks on defense and sucks on offense.
LeBron can't do it all. Not at that altitude for sure and age 38.
Re: West Conference playoff thread
Posted: Fri May 19, 2023 8:28 am
by Wolvesfan21
Monster wrote: ↑Fri May 19, 2023 7:28 am
Q-is-here wrote: ↑Thu May 18, 2023 9:28 pm
Lipoli390 wrote: ↑Thu May 18, 2023 9:08 pm
After watching the first half of the Nuggets-Lakers game tonight, I’ve come away with two broad conclusions. First, there’s a good chance the Lakers and Heat both end up in this year’s NBA finals. Second, there are no great teams in the NBA this year.
The idea of a Lakers-Heat finals is weird. The Lakers finished 7th, only 4 games over .500. The Heat finished in 8th place, 6 games over .500. Yet, here they are playing in their respective conference finals and looking like they could win. The Nuggets and Celtics are clearly the two most talented teams of the four remaining. But they are both flawed. I think the problem with the Celtics is part coaching and part the youth of their two top players - Tatum and Brown. The Nuggets seem too dependent on Jokic. Murray, Porter and Gordon are very good, but not good enough to combine with Jokic to form a great team. One thing I’ve noticed with Denver is that they don’t have a guard or wing who is really good at breaking down defenses and scoring on dribble penetration in the half court.
It’s good that these matchups are so competitive. But it’s disappointing that the League doesn’t have any truly great teams.
I think the talent and coaching is as good as ever and therefore it's really hard for a team to just lap everyone.
I personally like that there isn’t just 1 or 2 great teams. It makes things more compelling. Who is actually gonna win? All teams have flaws and again the league this year is also REALLY deep with talent.
In the Boston Heat series even if Boston’s coach ends up being as good as Spo (that would be impressive) he isn’t right now. Spo has years of playoff coaching experience so that’s a distinct advantage for Miami.
As for lower seed teams making it to the finals it’s not that shocking for this season. If GS had won the title it wouldn’t have been THAT surprising. It’s basically the same team as last year they just didn’t get back on track because of injuries Wiggins being out for months and Payton integrated later in the season. Plus they just didn’t find themselves this season. The league is hard even for that team. The Lakers always had talent and they added more (or at least talent that likely fit better) before the trade deadline. I thought the Heat were a team that could make a run. The Clippers had talent too. There also so many teams with injury concerns which could change how things fell. I remember last year sayijg the team/s that played as a team were the ones that could win it all. Probably the same type of thing this year. Lots of teams that made the playoffs had the talent.
Most teams don't play the regular season with max effort. Load management is certainly skewing many teams records. Especially teams like GSW who regularly sat out games with there older players. I don't think records matter as much as they use to.
Load management is smart too. You want your guys healthy going into the playoffs. The playoffs themselves last a long time. The key is making sure you get to the playoffs in the first place, then getting home court, but most of all healthy.
Re: West Conference playoff thread
Posted: Fri May 19, 2023 9:21 am
by Q-is-here
Wolvesfan21 wrote: ↑Fri May 19, 2023 8:20 am
I can't believe how much we got for DLO!
The Lakers keep benching him because he sucks on defense and sucks on offense.
LeBron can't do it all. Not at that altitude for sure and age 38.
Yeah, DLO has been bad and they really need him to play better. They've been able to get away with his uneven performances up to this point, but he's been a real liability in these first two games against Denver.
Re: West Conference playoff thread
Posted: Fri May 19, 2023 10:25 am
by Monster
Q-is-here wrote: ↑Fri May 19, 2023 9:21 am
Wolvesfan21 wrote: ↑Fri May 19, 2023 8:20 am
I can't believe how much we got for DLO!
The Lakers keep benching him because he sucks on defense and sucks on offense.
LeBron can't do it all. Not at that altitude for sure and age 38.
Yeah, DLO has been bad and they really need him to play better. They've been able to get away with his uneven performances up to this point, but he's been a real liability in these first two games against Denver.
I haven’t been watching the Lakers in the playoffs much but basic stats showed Russell to at worst be solid on the whole before this series. Lip brought up a very good point about his lake of consistency. I think it depends on what your expectations are for him. He doesn’t have to be amazing most of the time (although he is a threat to go off in a game) just fill in offensively and that’s something he can do. Idk how bad his D Ian or isn’t having not watched games. I think if I remember right Schroeder has also struggled offensively too. That’s not good.
Meanwhile Vanderbilt hasn’t played much in this series. I saw Draymond said in a video that they should put Vanderbilt on Murray. It’s interesting that his impact has been mostly minimized.
Oh and Beasley…the only way he is getting his 16.5 million team option picked up is if he is a salary match in a trade. He can be a useful or even valuable player to some extent for a team but he simply isn’t worth that much.
Troy Brown Jr is a guy I would be interested in FA as a depth guy for cheap but obviously not a top priority. I didn’t realize he took so few shots but still it would be nice to have a combo forward sized depth guy and he is still fairly young.
Re: West Conference playoff thread
Posted: Fri May 19, 2023 10:29 am
by AbeVigodaLive
For FNG and other +/- maestros...
D. Russell has played 59 minutes for LAL vs. Denver.
The team is -41 in those minutes.
The team is +30 in the 37 minutes that he's been on the bench.
Somewhere, Cam is feverishly typing up a long explanation, and debating whether to post it or not.
Re: West Conference playoff thread
Posted: Fri May 19, 2023 10:59 am
by FNG
AbeVigodaLive wrote: ↑Fri May 19, 2023 10:29 am
For FNG and other +/- maestros...
D. Russell has played 59 minutes for LAL vs. Denver.
The team is -41 in those minutes.
The team is +30 in the 37 minutes that he's been on the bench.
Somewhere, Cam is feverishly typing up a long explanation, and debating whether to post it or not.
In all fairness to DLo, context matters...some of those 59 minutes he was hampered by having to play with bums like AD and LeBron.
All kidding aside, I thought the flagrant call against DLo on Murray in the first quarter was BS. I actually was impressed that DLo tried to contest Marray's breakaway layup...didn't see physical defensive plays like that much during the past three years.
Re: West Conference playoff thread
Posted: Fri May 19, 2023 12:25 pm
by Q-is-here
Monster wrote: ↑Fri May 19, 2023 10:25 am
Q-is-here wrote: ↑Fri May 19, 2023 9:21 am
Wolvesfan21 wrote: ↑Fri May 19, 2023 8:20 am
I can't believe how much we got for DLO!
The Lakers keep benching him because he sucks on defense and sucks on offense.
LeBron can't do it all. Not at that altitude for sure and age 38.
Yeah, DLO has been bad and they really need him to play better. They've been able to get away with his uneven performances up to this point, but he's been a real liability in these first two games against Denver.
I haven’t been watching the Lakers in the playoffs much but basic stats showed Russell to at worst be solid on the whole before this series. Lip brought up a very good point about his lake of consistency. I think it depends on what your expectations are for him. He doesn’t have to be amazing most of the time (although he is a threat to go off in a game) just fill in offensively and that’s something he can do. Idk how bad his D Ian or isn’t having not watched games. I think if I remember right Schroeder has also struggled offensively too. That’s not good.
Meanwhile Vanderbilt hasn’t played much in this series. I saw Draymond said in a video that they should put Vanderbilt on Murray. It’s interesting that his impact has been mostly minimized.
Oh and Beasley…the only way he is getting his 16.5 million team option picked up is if he is a salary match in a trade. He can be a useful or even valuable player to some extent for a team but he simply isn’t worth that much.
Troy Brown Jr is a guy I would be interested in FA as a depth guy for cheap but obviously not a top priority. I didn’t realize he took so few shots but still it would be nice to have a combo forward sized depth guy and he is still fairly young.
That's right Monster. In the Memphis and Golden State series, DLO wasn't great by any stretch, but he did have a few very good games and it seemed like the Lakers always had someone else step up when he wasn't on. But he's had two lackluster games in Denver and they really can't keep counting on someone off the bench like Walker IV or Schroder to pick up the slack.
Re: West Conference playoff thread
Posted: Fri May 19, 2023 4:54 pm
by Coolbreeze44
BloopOracle wrote: ↑Thu May 18, 2023 10:37 pm
D'Angelo Russell's first two Western conference final games
9.0 PPG
43.4% TS
36.8% FG
12.5% 3PT
-41
I might have said at some point that he was exploitable in the playoffs. No surprise here.
Re: West Conference playoff thread
Posted: Fri May 19, 2023 5:57 pm
by KG4Ever
AbeVigodaLive wrote: ↑Fri May 19, 2023 10:29 am
For FNG and other +/- maestros...
D. Russell has played 59 minutes for LAL vs. Denver.
The team is -41 in those minutes.
The team is +30 in the 37 minutes that he's been on the bench.
Somewhere, Cam is feverishly typing up a long explanation, and debating whether to post it or not.
You are correct. Cam tweeted three posts on Twitter about DLO under moniker @Camden_Cash in past 24 hours:
During Game:
1) D-Lo could make four or five of those in a row with Michael Porter trailing him.
Post game:
2) Additionally, traditional plus-minus is a lineup statistic — not an accurate representation of an individual’s performance. People don’t use it correctly. (After retweeting:
Have already seen some people using DLo’s +/- tonight and it was entirely not reflective. He was on the court for the Nuggets 4th quarter run which had nothing to do with him Bron launching 3’s and Murray hitting shots.
3) D’Angelo Russell hasn’t been good through the first two games of this series, but if the Lakers go away from him and bury him on the bench they won’t beat the Nuggets and advance. Keep D-Lo in the mix. Find a way to get him in rhythm. Los Angeles needs him to get right.