NBA Regular Season & Playoffs 2018-19 Thread

K.O.Kiki

Hitch2222 wrote: »

Come now Paully, let's start giving Pax some credit. I'm pretty sure I knew 3 players who took to the court for the Bulls last night.
He's trying to get you there.

It's ok, they'll be forced to tank now.

https://twitter.com/chicagobulls/status/1111092984873926656

Osmosis Jones

Hitch2222 wrote: »

Come now Paully, let's start giving Pax some credit. I'm pretty sure I knew 3 players who took to the court for the Bulls last night.
He's trying to get you there.

I didn't see the game but Portland are missing their second and third best players, Lillard had his lowest scoring game since 2016 and the Blazers still won by 20 points so the tank seems to be going well to me

Hitch2222

I see Exum out again with another knee injury. I'm such a fab his potential but it's continuing to look bleaker for him.

DaveyDave

bot43 wrote: »

Just announced Bucks V Charlotte for NBA Paris game in January.

Wonder does this mean no London game this time?

Id like to see Giannis again.

Sounds like a good excuse for me to go Paris for my birthday. I wonder how expensive tickets will be...

K.O.Kiki

Final tie-breaker between Dirk & Flash

Osmosis Jones

Not sure how it would work but just had a thought that with Nurkic out for probably over a year expect the Blazers to push hard for Boogie this off-season.

kmart6

Saw Cousins singing Lillard's praises so I'm sure that will help stir rumours on it. They don't seem to have much cap space available next season but do afterwards so could structure something.

chopperbyrne

With Orlando losing, and Miami winning, their positions have flipped again.

Hitch2222

Just gonna leave this here:

Blake Griffin is third in the league in made step-back 3s, behind only James Harden and Luka Doncic. Craziness.

36% from deep on 7 attempts per game

K.O.Kiki

Warriors gonna be in trouble after the amount of flak they gave the refs vs Wolves.

Granted the players are rightly frustrated.

Osmosis Jones

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Warriors gonna be in trouble after the amount of flak they gave the refs vs Wolves.

Granted the players are rightly frustrated.

You knew the refs would give it to the Wolves once Curry taunted the refs after scoring late. Tbh I'm surprised he didn't get a T right there.

Hitch2222

I watched the Duke game last night and they got out of jail once again.

The more I watch Zion play against elite competition the more I question the hype.
His highlights are insane and he has incredible star power but I wonder if we're looking at someone who will be an all star but not a great player or winner.
Perhaps in the Melo/Blake mode.

Incredibly impressed by Barrett though, I missed the first pass in real time but I caught the 2nd one and it really was great passing out of the trap with such composure.

You can never take Barrett No1 because commercially Zion is worth too much but if you really just wanted the player to build around it's RJ for me.

FrankieFeeler

Michigan State beat Duke.

The NCAA tournament this weekend has been brilliant, it's one of the worlds greatest sporting events ,hopefully the final four is as good as this weekend was.

Hitch2222

Gonzago has been my pick all along, they're simply an excellently well coached balanced team.

I want to see Auburn win though to watch Charles lap it up

FrankieFeeler

Hitch2222 wrote: »

Gonzago has been my pick all along, they're simply an excellently well coached balanced team.

I want to see Auburn win though to watch Charles lap it up

I thought they were going to win the whole thing to but Texas Tech really pressurised them on Saturday, they look like a horrible team to have to play.Should be a great battle between Texas Tech and Michigan State in the final 4.

Auburn v Virgina should be an interesting matchup due to the clash of styles.

Performance of the weekend has to be Carsen Edwards for Purdue, some of the shooting from him was simply ridiculous.I wonder will he have much of an NBA career as he seems to be very small and commentators were indicating that his listed height of 6ft1 is an exagerration and he's more like 5ft10.

Angliru

Can't believe how scattered Duke were on offence. So many times it just seemed to be a case of "give the ball to Zion and hope for the best". Zion tried his best but his recklessness and need to do it all himself is a small cause for concern. Barrett and Reddish could be multiple All Star level or complete busts...does anyone else get a smell of Andrew Wiggins off Barrett? Reddish is still my pick for best from this draft, I feel he's been shafted by Coach K this year. Only obstacle for him is the mental side, I think he's very vulnerable there. Tre Jones will be a fine pick up in the draft, gives his all every second.

Osmosis Jones

Really interesting set of fixtures tonight on the bottom of the table, the worst 4 teams all play each other:

Suns vs Cavs
Knicks vs Bulls

2 games of 4 teams trying to lose as hard as they can.

Hitch2222

Angliru wrote: »

Can't believe how scattered Duke were on offence. So many times it just seemed to be a case of "give the ball to Zion and hope for the best". Zion tried his best but his recklessness and need to do it all himself is a small cause for concern. Barrett and Reddish could be multiple All Star level or complete busts...does anyone else get a smell of Andrew Wiggins off Barrett? Reddish is still my pick for best from this draft, I feel he's been shafted by Coach K this year. Only obstacle for him is the mental side, I think he's very vulnerable there. Tre Jones will be a fine pick up in the draft, gives his all every second.

I think Barrett will be the best in the draft, I get the Wiggins reservations but he's had Nash around him for a long time so I suspect that his influence has been substantial.
Wiggins has never passed the way Barrett does, I see him as a more athletic D'Angelo Russell with a hint of Harden/DeRozan.

Big fan of Coby White too, I thought he was excellent at times. Rui Haichumura is one of the more polarizing players for me. Struggled with language barrier, less time playing top level competition till he reached college but a tad older. He's boom or bust for me. Ideal pick for Atlanta if they end up with their 2 picks in the 4-7 range

For Forks Sake

Angliru wrote: »

Can't believe how scattered Duke were on offence. So many times it just seemed to be a case of "give the ball to Zion and hope for the best". Zion tried his best but his recklessness and need to do it all himself is a small cause for concern. Barrett and Reddish could be multiple All Star level or complete busts...does anyone else get a smell of Andrew Wiggins off Barrett? Reddish is still my pick for best from this draft, I feel he's been shafted by Coach K this year. Only obstacle for him is the mental side, I think he's very vulnerable there. Tre Jones will be a fine pick up in the draft, gives his all every second.

Zion is what he is, used properly he'll be a standout player, I would have reservations about what condition his knees will be in by the time he's 25.

Barrett is a very good all rounder, his main weakness is some suspect decision making, especially down the stretch.

Reddish of the three of them has really damaged his draft stock, his general attitude and performances through the tournament were below par (whether that was down to the injury I don't know.) He went missing most of the game yesterday when Barrett and Zion were crying out for someone to step up and take the load off them.

Agreed on Jones, he has the makings of a really useful player, leaves it all on the court.

Angliru

Think Hachimura has bust written all over him. Think he'll really struggle to get going in the NBA coming up against athletic players.

For Forks Sake

Osmosis Jones wrote: »

Really interesting set of fixtures tonight on the bottom of the table, the worst 4 teams all play each other:

Suns vs Cavs
Knicks vs Bulls

2 games of 4 teams trying to lose as hard as they can.

4/OT in each game. Final score 59-58

K.O.Kiki

So Russ finishes with a Double-Triple-Double (20+ points/rebounds/assists), and his third-straight Triple-Double season.

OKC unlikely to reach the finals though.

kmart6

I'm very meh about Westbrook and these triple doubles, so much of it is stat padding takes away from it IMO.

Osmosis Jones

Averaging the triple double is impressive, ridiculously impressive, and a 20/20/20 game even more so, but yeah he's honestly been pretty bad this year, he's shot the team out of so many games and he's lucky PG went on that mad MVP-level run for a few months. With PG kind of falling apart since the ASG too they might not even make it out of the first round.

LuckyLloyd

So we ooh and ahhh over big points totals or three point shooting records but are dismissing 20 / 20 / 20? Personally find big rebound / assist numbers far more impressive than pure points.

The bottom line is you can denigrate any regular season achievement because of soft defence, teams tanking, etc. Either they all matter or none of them matter.

Hitch2222

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

So we ooh and ahhh over big points totals or three point shooting records but are dismissing 20 / 20 / 20? Personally find big rebound / assist numbers far more impressive than pure points.

The bottom line is you can denigrate any regular season achievement. Either some of them matter or none of them matter.

My default thoughts on Westbrooks numbers are that although I don't think he fully utilises his talents for the best of the team, I also don't think it's due to selfishness but rather understanding what's best for his team at times.

His numbers are unbelievable and anyone who tries to say well KD, LBJ, Steph etc could do that of they wanted to is not a good argument.
There has been enough super talented guys in the NBA who were selfish enough to try and do what Westbrook has done but they simply couldn't.

I don't think he should have won his MVP as I value 7 or 8 wins more than 2 rebounds and I don't buy his team was worse than Harden's but dismissing his achievements because he's selfish is ridiculous.
Maybe he is a tad selfish but guess what, lots of players are incredibly selfish and they've never done what he has done.

Hitch2222

Great video detailing the evolution of stats in the NBA, unreal how much travelling and dribbling especially has evolved

Angliru

That YT channel is absolutely quality, think I came across it when he did a video on Doncic and have been hooked since.

Morrison J

Is it just me or is this season dragging a bit? I'm ready for the play offs to start tomorrow tbh.

The only interesting thing at the moment is the MVP race. Big marker laid down by Giannis tonight. Some performance.

Osmosis Jones

Morrison J wrote: »

Is it just me or is this season dragging a bit? I'm ready for the play offs to start tomorrow tbh.

The only interesting thing at the moment is the MVP race. Big marker laid down by Giannis tonight. Some performance.

Past couple years have, we go in knowing the Warriors are going to win it, there's just not a lot of suspense. Last year at least had things like the ROY candidates all making the playoffs too. I'm still enjoying watching my team, and was somewhat hopeful right up until Nurkic broke his leg, but I think everyone's just waiting for the summer hoping KD leaves and we get a few more legit contenders.