NBA season 2018/19
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@barbarian said in NBA season 2018/19:
@ACT-Crusader said in NBA season 2018/19:
Lou Williams, Mr 4th Quarter - a pro scorer that averages 20 off the bench. The Man.
Just as an aside, I find the whole 'starters vs bench' thing completely pointless in the NBA. There is no real relevance to who starts the game, but who finishes the game is everything.
Lou Williams is a case in point. Yeah he's not out for the opening tip but you know he'll be out there in crunch time.
Coaches approach it quite differently when it comes to starting unit and then having the right combos in that second unit.
A coach like Doc Rivers will play 9, sometimes 10 guys in the first quarter and then have his finishers. That has been up and down who those finishers are since the trades, but two bench guys in Lou and Montrezl are there with Gall. They have Shamet the rookie being a go to scorer so he’s demanding playing time at the end.
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@mariner4life said in NBA season 2018/19:
Upset day. Rockets just got over the Hornets. Then Wizards beat the Nets, Hawks beat the T-wolves, Heat beat the Warriors, and the Bulls beat the Grizzlies. Mavs leading the Pacers deep in to the 4th as well. Imagine what that multi would have paid?
Upset of the season yesterday as my Suns beat the Bucks. We also beat the Lakers a few days ago. Three wins out of the last four games after dropping close to 20 in a row.
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@shark said in NBA season 2018/19:
@mariner4life said in NBA season 2018/19:
Upset day. Rockets just got over the Hornets. Then Wizards beat the Nets, Hawks beat the T-wolves, Heat beat the Warriors, and the Bulls beat the Grizzlies. Mavs leading the Pacers deep in to the 4th as well. Imagine what that multi would have paid?
Upset of the season yesterday as my Suns beat the Bucks. We also beat the Lakers a few days ago. Three wins out of the last four games after dropping close to 20 in a row.
it's weird, it's like Zion Williamson got hurt, so all the tanking teams started trying again.
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With the new draft lottery odds, there aren't really incentives to tank super hard. As long as you're in the bottom three teams it's all good.
The Suns are still firmly in that mix, with the Knicks, Cavs and Bulls. Still four wins back of the Bulls so they can always hit the brakes if they get to that point.
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So the best laid plans of the two most storied NBA franchises are going a little awry. I don't know why the other teams are so jealous these days, the C's haven't won since 2008 and LA haven't since 2010. Now if LA end up in the lottery and snare the #1 pick in the draft then they can call foul
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@mariner4life said in NBA season 2018/19:
@shark said in NBA season 2018/19:
@mariner4life said in NBA season 2018/19:
Upset day. Rockets just got over the Hornets. Then Wizards beat the Nets, Hawks beat the T-wolves, Heat beat the Warriors, and the Bulls beat the Grizzlies. Mavs leading the Pacers deep in to the 4th as well. Imagine what that multi would have paid?
Upset of the season yesterday as my Suns beat the Bucks. We also beat the Lakers a few days ago. Three wins out of the last four games after dropping close to 20 in a row.
it's weird, it's like Zion Williamson got hurt, so all the tanking teams started trying again.
The Suns wouldn't pick him anyway. They seem to have a policy of not selecting the most NBA ready player.
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I just can't help being a c*nt feeling good about Lebron failing at the Lakers.
He's reached the point of telling people he's the Goat now. He's thrown a team of good young players under a bus and he doesn't play fucken defence!
Watching Kuzma shove him towards a defender on a switch was both awesome and sad. It highlights Kuzma's urgency on D while also highlighting the complete lack of respect for the games biggest star and Kuzma's team leader.
The Lakers are a horror show much like my Thunder currently. Adams is either injured or he hit his ceiling 2 months ago and is on the way down. He's still doing his rebound thing but his one on one defence is really becoming an issue. Heads the league for perimeter shots contested for all centres. He also leads the league in steals in his position and if he keeps up the current 2 per game he could realistically bolt into all defense 2nd team, seriously. But his shot-blocking and post defence is not what it was this time last year. It's bad. Really bad.
Westbrook is determined to shoot his way out of a shooting funk and with any other player that's a good thing. With Russ it means lots of near misses and straight up bricks.
PG has been injured so he gets a pass. Grant has flashes of brilliance and then goes quiet for 4 games. Morris seemed like a good addition and he needs to be cut slack for being out since December. He needs to be hitting shots and getting stops from now though. The supporting cast/2nd unit is a problem. We have a lot of guys who are too sporadic in their output a lot of low intensity guys and a lot of young dumb guys.
Probably the biggest problem with the thunder is the coaching. They have no identity in offense, there's no "Thunder" ball. aside from helter skelter get it to PG ball. Donovan has not given them an identity as a team. They're a bunch of individuals he can barely get to run in the same direction and their seeding to this point has flattered to deceive.
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You can get away with a lot in the regular season. But when you get to the playoffs, if you don't have any plan other than 'take your man one on one', things get tough. Adams has soft hands and is very good around the basket. But he has a pass to Russ first mentality, even on the offensive glass when he should ram it back
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@canefan he’s actually losing his touch to an extent. Fumbles a lot more than he used to and needs to dunk not finger roll.
I think he’s got serious problems with either his back, knees or ankles because I can’t remember the last time he had a highlight reel dunk. He used to have at least one a week.
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So, we're going to have to wait for those big offensive numbers then?
😁
In his defense I read a stat that he plays way more than any other big in the comp, so there is a chance he is just fucked after approx 400 regular season games. Only another 150 games to get right for playoffs.
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Warriors torched today. Turns out you can't continually give up huge leads at the start and just run the opposition down. Especially when one of your 3 scorers is resting.
Looking a lot like they won't have home court come finals.
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@mariner4life the post All-Star break results have been quite interesting. Memphis beating the Blazers, OKC getting done against a very inconsistent Wolves, before today the Celts were 1-5, Lakers stinking the house out, Suns winning, Bulls and Hawks playing out one of the more exciting games of the season.
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@mariner4life said in NBA season 2018/19:
Warriors torched today. Turns out you can't continually give up huge leads at the start and just run the opposition down. Especially when one of your 3 scorers is resting.
Looking a lot like they won't have home court come finals.
The East will be an absolute lottery so the Warriors could easily face a lower seeded team in the finals.
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@ACT-Crusader said in NBA season 2018/19:
@mariner4life the post All-Star break results have been quite interesting. Memphis beating the Blazers, OKC getting done against a very inconsistent Wolves, before today the Celts were 1-5, Lakers stinking the house out, Suns winning, Bulls and Hawks playing out one of the more exciting games of the season.
yea, i have noticed that actually, picking winners every day is absolutely impossible.
The Rockets are looking more and more solid though.
As Shark said, the playoffs in the East are going to be a bloodbath, and i could see any one of about 5 teams emerging Conference champions.
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I've been watching the Sixers a bit lately, and it wouldn't shock me to see them get as far as the Confernce Finals, maybe further.
Tobias Harris is really good, Butler is an alpha dog who can take over games in the last five minutes (they needed that last year), Embiid controls the post as well as any big in the league and Simmons is arguably in career best form right now.
Add to that Redick, and some useful bench contributers and that's a team as good as any in the East.
The key for them will be avoiding the Celtics for as long as possible. It's crucial they get over the Pacers and into third.
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@mariner4life yeah those 30/10 predictions were more than a little delusional
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@barbarian career-best form? But isn't he a rookie?
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@raznomore said in NBA season 2018/19:
@barbarian career-best form? But isn't he a rookie?
In his second season now.
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@barbarian well actually it's his 3rd...
