New Album & The Beginning of Basketball Season
- Thread starter Ron Party
- Start date
As I said earlier - another bloodbath. I saw the writing on the wall after the first 2 games. Tonight, the spirit of the Celtics players were totally broken and I didn't even watch a single second of the game. I just looked at the ESPN scoreboard twice, and the 2nd time, Heat was up by double digits. I want to throw in the towel and give the Heat the EC trophy. And I saw Vincent on the scoreboard. 29 points. Undrafted player earning a little more than the veteran's minimum. You can't beat a team with such talents. Denver if they finish will be in for some ride. This game is about shooting, always have been really, and having 8 snipers in your team really is a big weapon. The given here is the superb coaching, and a solid 2-man core in Butler and Bam. Miami has an unorthodox playoff team, and as long as they're winning, that's all they care. To me the first omen was eliminating the Bucks, who were playing superb ball, hence the best record in the NBA. Miami just proved it was no fluke, beating the number 2 overall seed as well. On to the next coaching search, and I agree with you, Steve, Monty would be a good fit.
I wonder if any of the experts in the talk shows can explain the strategy of Spo benching Duncan Robinson the entire regular season , with a $17m salary. And then unleashing him for the playoffs. And coaches always use the so called starter and bench player rotation. Duncan was a zero for 82 games and still comes in to jell. And how.
Load management with a twist.
Load management with a twist.
All NBA teams have players capable of doing what Miami has done. But they don't.
As Barkley said over the weekend, all NBA players can play.
It's an impossible league to get in to. Hard to stay in.
What all 29 teams would love to know, is how you get your rotation of nine (11 if you count Herro and Oladipo) to play like this. No one superhero. Little bits here and there, with maybe one player landing on a big spark and firing.
Huge kudos to Butler, Adebayo and Coach Spoelstra for creating this.
This is also a case of Miami getting significantly better through the playoffs.
I secretly wondered if Miami lost the 7/8 game on purpose.
If they had won v Atlanta, I believe Boston would most probably have beaten them in the first round.
This Heat team is now a different beast.
And with all their surprises in the last six weeks, I'm expecting more in the NBA Finals.
As Barkley said over the weekend, all NBA players can play.
It's an impossible league to get in to. Hard to stay in.
What all 29 teams would love to know, is how you get your rotation of nine (11 if you count Herro and Oladipo) to play like this. No one superhero. Little bits here and there, with maybe one player landing on a big spark and firing.
Huge kudos to Butler, Adebayo and Coach Spoelstra for creating this.
This is also a case of Miami getting significantly better through the playoffs.
I secretly wondered if Miami lost the 7/8 game on purpose.
If they had won v Atlanta, I believe Boston would most probably have beaten them in the first round.
This Heat team is now a different beast.
And with all their surprises in the last six weeks, I'm expecting more in the NBA Finals.
That's quite true. But how do you deal with 7 undrafted players playing at this level. I have no recollection of any team that won a title with such roster. I've mentioned Riley had a couple of D league players who went to the finals but lost to Houston.
These undrafted players seem to have more to prove mentally. Meaning a fat contract extension.
Miami beat an 'intact and healthy' Bucks team that was a champion just 2 years ago. And a very good coach in Budenholzer. And with a Brooke Lopez who ended the regular season playing his best basketball ever. I am thinking that Spo has mastered the 'defending their superstar' tactic, in beating both the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds. That is no easy task. If you ask GMs who they would take, Giannis/Lopez or Butler/ Bam, I would guess more would take Giannis/Lopez, disregarding the success of the Heat in these playoffs. And I don't think that any contenders would take in Kevin Love, but he has fit the Heat's need for another power forward, and he can shoot 3s. His quarterback touchdown passes has been a hallmark in the playoffs. But I'm thinking that had Herro and Ola been in the rotation, Vincent and Strus would not be starting or having a lot of playing time. And maybe the synergy would have been this good. This team somehow reminds me of the 2011 Dallas title team. with Barea and Jason Terry hitting no matter who guards them. If Denver advances, I'm eager to see how Spo stops Murray, Jokic, Porter and Pope. That will be very interesting. And if ever the Lakers advance, the story line will be Riley getting his 'revenge' against LeBron, which he failed to do in the bubble series. Take your pick.
Draft selection is a bit of a 'crap shoot' to some degree.
Diamonds in the rough like Giannis and Jokic do come along. Even Jimmy.
In the second round of the draft you are lucky to find a rotation player that breaks the top 10 of your team.
My Spurs have been one of the best in finding talent that is latent.
Theirs is a whole system that finds, tracks, recognises potential, selects/trades for, and develops players.
What was Pop's main focus this year? To develop these young men so they end up with a contract and NBA career.
(And perhaps a high draft pick).
But true, not often do undrafted players have such an impact.
Here are the last 10 number 1 draft picks.
Banchero
Cade Cunningham
Anthony Edwards
Zion
Ayton
Fultz
Ben Simmons
Karl Towns
Wiggins
Bennett
Save for the first 3 who are still very new in the league, the rest (with the exception of Wiggins) can be considered busts, and big busts and you can have your choice for the biggest bust. ( Mine is Simmons)
Banchero
Cade Cunningham
Anthony Edwards
Zion
Ayton
Fultz
Ben Simmons
Karl Towns
Wiggins
Bennett
Save for the first 3 who are still very new in the league, the rest (with the exception of Wiggins) can be considered busts, and big busts and you can have your choice for the biggest bust. ( Mine is Simmons)
And now my take on Tatum. I'm happy for him that he got into the first team. But just like the MVP, the stats came from the regular season. Entertaining the season ticket holders, sell apparel, sell shoes, etc. What is happening to him come playoff time is that he is severely pressured, and can only burst out of it by feeling his rhythm with his THREE BALLS. That has always been my caveat on his play. I've mentioned it before, he gets rattled in crunch time and makes a lot of turnovers. Spo ordered a zone to double time him and he can't even make a FG attempt in the 4th for games 2 and 3. That is the problem with the 'stars' today, lots of show (Ja Morant, literally) but can't carry the team with money shots when it mattered. In this regard, my idol barometer is Larry Bird. Sophomore and he took the winning shot against Philly in game 7 after his own rebound and drive and stop and pop. And he would do the same in Game 4 with Boston down 1-2, making that fadeaway shot over Magic after an intense jockeying for position in the low post. He was the first I saw with this killer instinct. Magic came a year after with his revenge baby sky hook to kill the Celtics at the Garden. And so I am concluding that I do not see anything like that happen to Jason Tatum.
Portland had the Blazermania championship team, which to me was the first series I saw wherein one man, one leader, named Bill Walton , willed his way to beat the Sixers team that were considered to be a super 5 plus 2 on the bench. Dr. J, Doug Collins, Caldwell Jones, Henry Bibby, and George McGinnis. Chocolate thunder Dawkins and World Free came off the bench. They drafted Sam Bowie before Michael Jordan in 1984. And fast forward to 2007 Greg Oden. Indeed a sorry turn of events.
Different team, system, coach can sometimes help the likes of Taytum.
Recently, Wiggins, Bridges, Markkanen showed what that can do.
Recently, Wiggins, Bridges, Markkanen showed what that can do.
Chris Paul or Kyrie?
us.yahoo.com
Windhorst: ‘Kyrie [Irving] is ready to come to the Lakers’
Are the Lakers going to go after Kyrie Irving yet again, and does Irving still want to join the Purple and Gold?
us.yahoo.com
Perhaps the shape of things to come started even before the beginning of this season, where coach Ime Udoka was suspended by the Celtics for having improper sexual relations with a Celtic staff member. I don't recall this to have ever happened to an NBA coach, who had just guided his team to the NBA Finals months before, as a rookie coach. Mazulla did very well in the regular season, as shown by the win loss record, but struggled greatly in the playoffs. It was almost like the players didn't want to fight and win for him. It was more like he's wanting the players to win for him, like a street ballgame.
I just read a fan comment saying the moment Mazulla threw that clipboard on the floor in front of the players in Game 2, the players lost respect for him and didn't want to play hard for him. Real issues. Brad should address it and better, do the firing quick.
@jerrybj
As a coach, is this a logical assessment?
@jerrybj
As a coach, is this a logical assessment?
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