East Conference Playoffs Thread

[Lipoli390]

I don't really follow the other games much. But just looking at what Brown has done in the Miami series:

Game 1: 1 of 6 on 3 pointers. Only 1 point from free throws and 6 turnovers.
Game 2: 1 of 7 on 3 pointers. Only 1 point from free throws. 2 turnovers.
Game 3: 0 of 7 on 3 pointers. Zero free throws. 3 turnovers.

Those are not great numbers. Doesn't mean he's a bad player. Just means he's not having an efficient series and I assume why his VORP isn't great.

Yeah, these three games against Miami have definitely impacted his overall numbers.

I didn’t realize his numbers against Miami were that bad. He certainly failed to meet the moment as did Tatum. They are definitely an underachieving group of players this season.

[kekgeek]

I don't really follow the other games much. But just looking at what Brown has done in the Miami series:

Game 1: 1 of 6 on 3 pointers. Only 1 point from free throws and 6 turnovers.
Game 2: 1 of 7 on 3 pointers. Only 1 point from free throws. 2 turnovers.
Game 3: 0 of 7 on 3 pointers. Zero free throws. 3 turnovers.

Those are not great numbers. Doesn't mean he's a bad player. Just means he's not having an efficient series and I assume why his VORP isn't great.

Yeah, these three games against Miami have definitely impacted his overall numbers.

I didn’t realize his numbers against Miami were that bad. He certainly failed to meet the moment as did Tatum. They are definitely an underachieving group of players this season.

The issue with brown is he can not dribble. By far his biggest weakness. He’s a stud but really good teams these last few playoffs have really exploited that weakness. I like brown, don’t know if I like him at the super max

[Lipoli390]

Eventually cream rises to the top. In basketball, talent almost always comes out on top in the end. Miami will still have a 3-2 series lead after tonight’s game and they’ll be headed back to Miami where the home crowd could spur the Heat on to a series clinching victory. But I don’t think that’s likely. Boston is so much more talented than Miami.

I’m looking forward to a Denver-Boston finals. That will be fun to watch.

[BloopOracle]

I would get an immense amount of satisfaction watching the Heat blow this. That would haunt Jimmy for the rest of his career, no more "dawg", no more weird fanfiction making him out to be a demigod. His legacy would be a historic choker right or wrong, Lord please let this happen

[Lipoli390]

I thought the following analysis from ESPN was interesting:

In Game 1 of this series, Adebayo scored 20 points with five assists. In Game 2 he was even better, pouring in 22 points, grabbing 17 rebounds and dishing 9 assists. He had 15 defensive rebounds in that game, repeatedly picking the ball off the rim and racing to the other end to start the offense, trademark plays that show why he's so valued for his versatility.

But Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla has shelved his "double big" lineup and moved Robert Williams III to the bench, and his team, smaller and quicker, has used that package to move more active defenders in front of Adebayo to cut off his playmaking options.

And for the past three games, and especially the Boston wins in Games 4 and 5, Adebayo has been forced into dribbling more, turning the ball over and assisting less.

The result: just 13 points a game, with 10 turnovers combined in Games 4 and 5, as the Heat's offense failed to break 100 points in both losses.

Some takeaways from this analysis:

1. While everyone rightly talks about Jimmy Butler as the star who has propelled the Heat forward in spite of a lack of great overall talent, we shouldn’t overlook the prowess and importance of Bam Adebayo.

2. Versatile scoring bigs can be and often are among the top two players on championship contenders as we’ve seen with Bam as discussed in this article, but also Jokic and Embiid.

3. Bigs can be neutralized by small-ball in today’s NBA as this article illustrates has happened the last two games of the Miami series.

Since I’m always looking for some insight into the Wolves situation, I think what we’ve seen in the playoffs underscores the fact that KAT is the type of big who can fit well as a top 2 player on a championship caliber team. On the other hand, as we’ve seen with Embiid and Bam, it’s a small-ball League and, unless your big is the other-worldly Jokic, you need need to build primarily around athletic, skilled players especially as your #1. Miami has Butler as their #1. Boston has Tatum, Brown and Smart as they’re #1, 2 and 3 in that order. Of course, Denver has Jokic, but he’s a freak. And lest we forget, Murray was huge for the Nuggets in the LA series and the Nuggets got nowhere in the playoffs with Jokic the prior two years without Murray.

Note that none of the teams that advanced beyond the first round this year have, as one of their top 3 players, a big who can’t score more than a foot from the rim or reliably catch the ball. Note also that none of them has two starting bigs who can’t guard in space. OK, somehow I’ve managed to bring this back to Rudy Gobert and the Rudy/KAT dilemma. Shocking.

There’s no debating the fact that the Gobert deal was a terrible one for the Wolves. But I’ve tried to put the deal out of my mind and focus on Gobert the player. The deal was terrible, but Rudy Gobert is a good player. And I’ve written several times that I’d be content bringing back both Rudy and KAT for at least another season. However, the more I watch these playoff games and reflect on the Wolves situation the more I’m convinced that one of them has to go if we want the Wolves to be a true championship contender with Ant as our #1 and probably Jaden as our #2 or 3 in a couple years. As to which one of them should be traded, I continue to believe it should be Gobert.

None of the teams that advanced past the first round this year have a max player like Rudy. It just doesn’t work in today’s game. In fact, as successful as the Jazz were with Rudy in several regular seasons, he was widely regarded as a problem for them in their post-seasons. I recognize that the Wolves would have to trade KAT if we’re going to get valuable assets in return. Therein lies the dilemma in my view. Trade Gobert for salary relief, a marginal rotation player and one future pick or trade KAT for a player like Quickley and a lot of future draft assets. If you believe this team can be a contender with Ant, Jaden, KAT and Slo Mo along with some additions using full salary-cap exceptions, then it makes sense to trade Rudy. If not, then trading KAT is the way to go.

[Monster]

Lip you have a well thought out post but I have some thoughts.

1. Williams came off the bench in Game 3 where Miami drubbed the Celtics. In addition Williams is basically playing pretty similar minutes to when he was starting.

2. You make a good point about Bam possibly being underrated as a factor in the Heat’s success. He is sort of the modern center team would like to have. We also talked about him not being a true #2 guy and from my observations from the past in the playoffs he isn’t consistent. It’s possible he just didn’t play as well in a couple games.

3. Boston has a number of good perimeter players as good as Robert Williams is you could argue some of those guys MIGHT be just as good or better than him. In addition Miami plays small too it shouldn’t be a big surprise that both teams are playing small.

4. Let’s recognize that whether it’s regular season or playoffs Gobert does bring value on offense as teams account for him based on the fact that he draws fouls. He is going to be compared more to a guy like Robert Williams that say Embiid but I just want to point out that Gobert is more of a factor/threat/asset offensively than Williams at this point.

5. Just because Embiid didn’t advance farther doesn’t mean centers can be neutralized etc. I thought the 6ers had championship talent on that roster but I certainly wasn’t surprised to see them lose before the ECF and certainly not to the Celtics who are also a good team. It never left line the Sixers totally got on track this season for more than a handful of games. That could be said for most teams this year. Should there be questions about 2 bigs being able to make it to the Finals? Absolutely and you broke that down well.

6. Ultimately you want to be able to put the most talent on the floor as possible but it also matters a great deal of that talent plays well together and of course matchups still matter. Depth can still matter in the playoffs. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see much of the Wolves full group playing together this year or playing well together and we didn’t have anywhere near the full group in the playoffs against Denver.

I’m not all in on this group as it sits now and I’m not against making a significant trade either. What I’m probably most interested in seeing is if Connelly can find a way to improve the roster especially at the guard position so the Wolves are a better team both in the regular season and in the playoffs. A couple of solid additions to this roster (maybe even some young players stepping up) while bringing back guys like Naz and NAW could add up to a significant improvement. Also can the guys on the roster get on the same page and play well together? I think there were signs of that later in the season after a rough start. That’s on the players and the coaching staff especially Finch. I think it’s a roster of good dudes and I have reasonable (but not complete) confidence in Finch in getting this to happen. It’s probably not going to be a thrilling offseason but some worthwhile things could happen.

[BloopOracle]

Tatum is punking Butler this first half, generational slander is starting to bubble

[BloopOracle]

Jimmy is 2-16 heading into the 4th, this might be the first time I've ever seen him actually play scared

[Coolbreeze44]

It's hard to play with your hands around your throat, isn't it Jimmy?

[BloopOracle]

PEAK cinema, if you are a Jimmy Butler hater this is your magnum opus