NBA Regular Season & Playoffs 2018-19 Thread

Legion. · 19-05-2019 2:45pm

Hitch2222 wrote: »

It's phenomenal progression, similar scenario to Oladipo, just needs the right situation to shine really. I don't know where I'd rank him in terms of prospects tbh, not a sure-fire all star calibre player imo but maybe he will.
I'm a fan of OG too, I was following a blog a while back, I'll have to root it out but the guy using his ranking system had OG a top 5 pick in his draft projections.

It's a pity you guys don't have the cap space if you lose Kawhi, I think Klay would consider a good team where he's the alpha on because i assume GSW can't/won't offer him the max if KD resigns and according to his dad, it's the only number they want to hear about.

I think barring injury hes an all-star lock going forward. Think he is only gonna get better from here in his first year as a starter. OG was one of those that would have been a lock for the high lottery but for an ACL injury which teams were worried about. Many thought he wouldn't even play his rookie year. Hes had an awful season though, losing his Dad as well as various injuries and now appendicitis on the eve of the playoffs. We could have definitely used him in the Philly series and even more now.

Not having much cap space if Kawhi goes is a shame but its also to be expected really, if you're going to go all in then really double down. I think Kawhi is staying put anyway.

Hitch2222 · 19-05-2019 2:57pm

Legion. wrote: »

I think barring injury hes an all-star lock going forward. Think he is only gonna get better from here in his first year as a starter. OG was one of those that would have been a lock for the high lottery but for an ACL injury which teams were worried about. Many thought he wouldn't even play his rookie year. Hes had an awful season though, losing his Dad as well as various injuries and now appendicitis on the eve of the playoffs. We could have definitely used him in the Philly series and even more now.

Not having much cap space if Kawhi goes is a shame but its also to be expected really, if you're going to go all in then really double down. I think Kawhi is staying put anyway.

Last week if I was asked I'd say yes, if asked today it's a no.

I think given the age + salaries of Gasol & Lowry, demise of Ibaka over the years-bit of renaissance tbf- I think the timeline doesn't quite suit him.
He sees the Bucks and 76ers with a better trajectory imo.

You're clearly more clued in to what's going on with them but if KD leaves, Lakers get nobody and Rockets don't get a little better then a Clippers lead Kawhi team with a little extra help starts looking like a decent situation. LA is where he wants to be, I bet if PG13 had a do over he would have went to LA.

Legion. · 19-05-2019 3:10pm

Hitch2222 wrote: »

Last week if I was asked I'd say yes, if asked today it's a no.

I think given the age + salaries of Gasol & Lowry, demise of Ibaka over the years-bit of renaissance tbf- I think the timeline doesn't quite suit him.
He sees the Bucks and 76ers with a better trajectory imo.

You're clearly more clued in to what's going on with them but if KD leaves, Lakers get nobody and Rockets don't get a little better then a Clippers lead Kawhi team with a little extra help starts looking like a decent situation. LA is where he wants to be, I bet if PG13 had a do over he would have went to LA.

Totally understand this viewpoint. I don't agree but I'm not going to chew anyone out for it. I just think after next year Lowry (30m), Ibaka (21m), Gasol (25?) FVV (10) come off the books. Dunno who we'd be getting but that level of flexibility + Masai is something I'm willing to bet on.

Hitch2222 · 19-05-2019 3:22pm

Legion. wrote: »

Totally understand this viewpoint. I don't agree but I'm not going to chew anyone out for it. I just think after next year Lowry (30m), Ibaka (21m), Gasol (25?) FVV (10) come off the books. Dunno who we'd be getting but that level of flexibility + Masai is something I'm willing to bet on.

ButtersSuki · 19-05-2019 6:54pm

For anyone who might be interested, there's an interview with Susan Moran (only Irish woman to play in the WNBA - 1 season) on Off The Ball's podcast show this week.

ButtersSuki · 19-05-2019 7:11pm

Legion. wrote: »

If Kawhi leaves I think it'll be a retool. Build around Siakam. Ibaka, Lowry and Gasol are all up next year. Given recent success and growth in stature I think they'll fancy themselves as a good FA destination going forward.

I agree on oner level - Toronto is a great city. I have a brother living there who's now a Canadian citizen who loves it and will likely never leave. The problem many American players have however, is it's in Canada - stating the obvious I know but that is a huge problem for them to overcome from a psychological/mental perspective. For many American players, no matter how cool Toronto is, it's not New York/LA/or even lots of other cities and may as well be Hicksville, Alabama as far as they're concerned. They're insular and not worldly wise, many have never been outside of the US except on short trips to play ball and have no experience living abroad. Whilst we'd likely view living in Canada as pretty much the same as living in the US, to some of them it must seem like Mars. If you see how Canada is portrayed on American TV shows it's somewhat understandable. And the weather is an issue for many of them - this point has been touched on by many players, going back as far as McGrady, Carter etc. and up to Lowry, DeRozan and more in between. I heard someone say on some pod some time back there's a reason Drake lives in Calabasas - players see this and rightly or wrongly (wrongly IMO) make calls based on this.

And the differing tax rate is also an issue I've heard discussed as an obstacle. Then you hear players complain about always having to go through customs both ways for away games etc. - these things all add up. There's a quote attributed to Ian Rush from when he played for Juventus where he says "it's like a different country" and I think that's the nub of the issue for many.

I heard Ujiri on a pod earlier this year and he admitted that location was an issue. Once they got guys there, they felt they had a shot at keeping them but he was clear that he knew it's a problem getting players to even consider it as most/many dismiss it as a possible destination outright without even giving it a chance. Take Leonard for example; I don't believe that he'd have gone there willingly (despite how well it's turned out) had he other options. They'll have real difficulty changing this mindset.

Carcharodon · 20-05-2019 2:06am

Toronto doing their utmost to throw this away, finish this already. Leonard looks like he is playing hurt also,.

kmart6 · 20-05-2019 6:30am

For some reason I stayed up watching the game last night. Good win for Toronto to get them into it but couldn't help feel like the Bucks were extremely disorganised in their play, no real structure or something. Thought the refs were letting Toronto away with a lot of contact on Giannis. Considering the foul trouble that Toronto got into too I have no idea why the Bucks didn't attack Gasol more, he got his 5th with around 5 minutes to go in the 4th and they must have only drove at him 2 or 3 times.

Hitch2222 · 20-05-2019 6:38am

Rebounding will be one of the primary factors for Toronto as a team to overcome.
They're a low-mid level rebounding team while the Bucks are 1st in traditional & 2nd in advanced rebounding rate in regular season.
That coupled with Bucks rebounding 53.7 per game while the closest were the 76ers at 48.5 with Toronto down at 42.9. This is a huge factor in tight games, teams generally shoot a lower% in the post season so this ability to get rebounds becomes hugely important.

The difference between Raptors & Bucks at home was the ease of the victory. The Bucks blew past them at home while the Raptors put in another huge hard performance. It's a hard pace to maintain especially against the freshest team in the playoffs.

ButtersSuki · 20-05-2019 8:22am

Watched the highlights earlier this morning. Giannis getting away with travelling again, some really obvious no calls too where several Toronto players can be seen gesticulating wildly afterwards. It takes away from the games for me tbh.

The Bucks are weird. When you see them play badly (like say Game 1 of the Boston series), they can look disorganised and poorly coached, with little by way of options. However, when they click they can look very good. I’d agree with the previous poster (think it was Hitch) who alluded to the ease of Bucks wins v difficulty of those of the Raptors; and with homecourt that puts the Bucks in a really strong position. I can see them taking Game 4 tbh and finishing it at home.

kmart6 · 20-05-2019 10:29am

ButtersSuki wrote: »

Watched the highlights earlier this morning. Giannis getting away with travelling again

Giannis got called a couple of times. Kwahi got away with a pretty big double dribble on that dunk to put them up by 4 I think it was with under 2 minutes left and Brogdon was calling for it straight away, took TNT several minutes to catch it. Was actually painful listening to TNT for the duration.

Hitch2222 · 20-05-2019 12:20pm

kmart6 wrote: »

Giannis got called a couple of times. Kwahi got away with a pretty big double dribble on that dunk to put them up by 4 I think it was with under 2 minutes left and Brogdon was calling for it straight away, took TNT several minutes to catch it. Was actually painful listening to TNT for the duration.

It's the typical narrative when effective players get away with travelling calls. My intuitive opinion on it is that in the event that a player such as Giannis travels, the result of him travelling leaves him in a far more advantageous position that most other players due to his ability, long strides etc.
It's not that Giannis travels more as proportion of time spent dribbling or that Giannis has more calls glossed over, it's simply a case that when he does it, it results in good things for his team than if any random player does it.
It's the salience of the result not much else.

Carcharodon · 20-05-2019 3:20pm

I thought the game was terrible, so many bad shots and bad decisions. That may sound rich coming from a Warriors fan but I think the Warriors st their best would pass pass pass and then shoot, it just seems to be pull up 3s or first shot available by teams now. Something will have to give soon, a team will figure out a better system
I was a bit shocked at how Gasol was used on offense, nearly just resigned to perimeter shooter, crazy for a player of his ability in and around the post

ButtersSuki · 20-05-2019 6:34pm

Hitch2222 wrote: »

It's the typical narrative when effective players get away with travelling calls. My intuitive opinion on it is that in the event that a player such as Giannis travels, the result of him travelling leaves him in a far more advantageous position that most other players due to his ability, long strides etc.
It's not that Giannis travels more as proportion of time spent dribbling or that Giannis has more calls glossed over, it's simply a case that when he does it, it results in good things for his team than if any random player does it.
It's the salience of the result not much else.

Honestly not disagreeing with you for the sake of it, but I do think this feeds into the superstar calls (or no calls) narrative. I've been giving out about travelling consistently for years - and I don't care who does it. Call me old school but travelling at any level annoys me. What annoys me even more is when a clear and very obvious travel is allowed to go by the officials in meaningful Play Off games where one basket can decide a game or a series. And then you have the NBA rewarding the same plays even further by including them in the play(s) of the night etc.

Scottie Pippen was talking about Giannis' travelling recently (by recently I mean in the last month-6 weeks) on The Jump. It was referred to on Windhorst's Pod recently too amongst others. He's (Giannis) particularly prone to it on fast breaks - both at the initial gather or when it comes to the 2 step motion after pick up - sometimes he travels twice in the same play sequence. This is not an anti-Giannis things, I'd say it about anyone - and have done.

ButtersSuki · 20-05-2019 6:35pm

Carcharodon wrote: »

I thought the game was terrible, so many bad shots and bad decisions. That may sound rich coming from a Warriors fan but I think the Warriors st their best would pass pass pass and then shoot, it just seems to be pull up 3s or first shot available by teams now. Something will have to give soon, a team will figure out a better system
I was a bit shocked at how Gasol was used on offense, nearly just resigned to perimeter shooter, crazy for a player of his ability in and around the post

Someone online called it the worst Overtime Game in Play Off history. High praise! I have it recorded, don't think I'll watch it now.....

ButtersSuki · 20-05-2019 6:36pm

kmart6 wrote: »

Giannis got called a couple of times. Kwahi got away with a pretty big double dribble on that dunk to put them up by 4 I think it was with under 2 minutes left and Brogdon was calling for it straight away, took TNT several minutes to catch it. Was actually painful listening to TNT for the duration.

Only watched the highlights as I said but glad to hear they picked up on some of them at least.

Hitch2222 · 20-05-2019 6:44pm

ButtersSuki wrote: »

Honestly not disagreeing with you for the sake of it, but I do think this feeds into the superstar calls (or no calls) narrative. I've been giving out about travelling consistently for years - and I don't care who does it. Call me old school but travelling at any level annoys me. What annoys me even more is when a clear and very obvious travel is allowed to go by the officials in meaningful Play Off games where one basket can decide a game or a series. And then you have the NBA rewarding the same plays even further by including them in the play(s) of the night etc.

Scottie Pippen was talking about Giannis' travelling recently (by recently I mean in the last month-6 weeks) on The Jump. It was referred to on Windhorst's Pod recently too amongst others. He's (Giannis) particularly prone to it on fast breaks - both at the initial gather or when it comes to the 2 step motion after pick up - sometimes he travels twice in the same play sequence. This is not an anti-Giannis things, I'd say it about anyone - and have done.

I don't buy that to the same degree that others do but even assume for a moment I do, imo that's not what occurring here.
As you can see from what I said, I believe the salience of the issue which appears to be amongst superstars is due to 3 reasons

1. The have a disproportionate amount of the ball ergo the sheer volume of situations where they might travel increases so they simply travel more.
If lesser players had the ball that often they'd travel that much and get called as often.

2. The result from travelling by superstar players is far more likely to result in a favourable outcome for their team because they're simply better players so an advantage arises from travelling they capitalise resulting in the issue of travelling being discussed more often

3. The amount of coverage that a travel Giannis/LBJ/Kawhi/KD gets is exponentially greater than that of a lesser player so it's simply more salient to us.

Largely I don't have much of an opinion on superstar calls but I do think it's wrong to assume that's the driver of missed calls and not simply the maths.

Hitch2222 · 20-05-2019 6:48pm

Just to say I'm happy to be wrong on the above if the stats said that Giannis or whatever other superstar got away with more travels as a proportion of their time on the ball than any other player.
No problem holding my hands up if that exists.

ButtersSuki · 20-05-2019 7:12pm

Hitch2222 wrote: »

Just to say I'm happy to be wrong on the above if the stats said that Giannis or whatever other superstar got away with more travels as a proportion of their time on the ball than any other player.
No problem holding my hands up if that exists.

I understand what you're saying re. salience and I accept some of that.

Someone did a piece on LeBron (and Kobe from memory) and travels a few years back and it was statistically significant. I'll have a look later, about to walk the dogs now.

Let me put it this way - I think what's so bad about the Giannis ones is they are so blatant and so obvious - possibly as a result of him being so tall I guess you could say. When other players get away with it sometimes they're not as obvious to the untrained or even the trained eye because they're not covering so much ground in a straight line. A lot of Harden's uncalled travels for example are from small step lateral movements in traffic or closely guarded when the ref is watching for body contact or hand contact in the act of shooting rather than footwork. Giannis is regularly travelling in complete open court and unguarded situations and these are easy calls to make as the refs have unobstructed views.

Did you even get a chance to listen to the Michael Lewis podcast in NBA refereeing btw? I do think you'd like it.

Blinky Plebum · 20-05-2019 7:33pm

Am I the only one that finds Drake at Raptors games incredibly annoying and wishes one of the players would thump him some time.

Can;t he just sit down and watch the game like the rest of the fans courtside instead of leaning against the advertising hoarding for a decent part of the game.

ButtersSuki · 20-05-2019 8:14pm

Blinky Plebum wrote: »

Am I the only one that finds Drake incredibly annoying

FYP.

And “no”.

ButtersSuki · 20-05-2019 9:28pm

Oh lol at Lakers imploding even further with Magic today. Honestly they're a laughing stock at this stage, so bad they make the Knicks look like a well run organisation by comparison.

Carcharodon · 21-05-2019 1:19am

Portland should win this handy enough tonight unless Warriors enter death mode

kmart6 · 21-05-2019 2:44am

Curry just hates layups these days!

DaveyDave · 21-05-2019 2:55am

Is there much use having the League Pass for the Summer? I cancelled my Spurs sub after they got booted out.

Also have the league pass annual prices changed? I had the one team pass for €10.99 a month as I didn't want to spend €20, and it's showing €35 for the all teams, annual pass? Is that just until the finals?

kmart6 · 21-05-2019 3:14am

Yikes, the refs have got very whistle happy on the Warriors in the last few minutes, guess we're getting a game 5.

Terrible last shot by Lillard.

kmart6 · 21-05-2019 4:15am

ButtersSuki wrote: »

Oh lol at Lakers imploding even further with Magic today. Honestly they're a laughing stock at this stage, so bad they make the Knicks look like a well run organisation by comparison.

Magic with his own agenda IMO

https://twitter.com/ramonashelburne/status/1130629015369240576

Carcharodon · 21-05-2019 5:14am

Damn you Portland, you could of at least of given me one more home game, they huffed and they puffed all series but to no avail

LuckyLloyd · 21-05-2019 5:42am

Houston was the series. Plenty of time now for GS to rest up and get KD and Iggy healthy before they romp the finals.

ButtersSuki · 21-05-2019 7:36am

kmart6 wrote: »

Magic with his own agenda IMO

https://twitter.com/ramonashelburne/status/1130629015369240576

Magic can’t gelp himself. He has to be the centre of attention most of the time. He’s handled this whole thing terribly and as usual with Magic thinks he can fake smile his way out of it. It was hard to make this any worse than it already was but he has managed to do just that.

Hitch2222 · 21-05-2019 8:03am

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Houston was the series. Plenty of time now for GS to rest up and get KD and Iggy healthy before they romp the finals.

The Bucks have grown on me as time has passed. It worries me a tad when a chunk of scoring needs to come from the bench but we'll assume Giannis just had an off night.
That said with KD&Iggie back, it's a 4-1 or 4-2 scenario because they nullify Giannis so the Bucks need to win in Toronto and get this done in 5.
That gives them the best chance to meet a weakened GSW for maybe 1 or 2 games and perhaps get ahead.
They have homecourt in the first game so they could get 2-0 up and then we have a race to 4.
There still could be some drama yet.

kmart6 · 21-05-2019 10:33am

:p:p:p

https://twitter.com/Rjeff24/status/1129212628017061895

https://twitter.com/Rjeff24/status/1129934793263800325

https://twitter.com/Rjeff24/status/1130667875126173696

K.O.Kiki · 21-05-2019 12:08pm

Steph Curry this series: 36.5 PPG on 66.3% TS (42.6% 3PT, 30/32 FT), 8.3 APG

And yet he'll still have people thinking he's not the best PG in the league.

Hitch2222 · 21-05-2019 12:28pm

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Steph Curry this series: 36.5 PPG on 66.3% TS (42.6% 3PT, 30/32 FT), 8.3 APG

And yet he'll still have people thinking he's not the best PG in the league.

He's been great, no doubts about it and I'm not being unnecessarily critical because you can't argue with those numbers but of any team in the final 8 across both conferences is there a more auspicious situation for him than be guarded by Seth Curry, Lillard or McCollum?
They're all pretty bad regular season defenders and break even at best in the playoffs.

I still think they beat pretty much anyone based on that performance but he had relatively easy time of it.

Compare that group to any one of these and it's fair to say he crushed the weakest combo, he can only beat what's put in front of him and he did it incredibly well.

Bledsoe, Hill, Brogdan
Simmons, Butler
Smart, Kyrie, Rozier
Lowry, Green, VanFleet, maybe Kawhi
Murray, Harris, Beasley
CP3, Harden, Tucker, Gordon

Carcharodon · 21-05-2019 6:00pm

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Steph Curry this series: 36.5 PPG on 66.3% TS (42.6% 3PT, 30/32 FT), 8.3 APG

And yet he'll still have people thinking he's not the best PG in the league.

I think time and history will be Curry’s greatest friend, not only will people see how he changed a franchise, they will see how he changed the game in general (I know the game was heading that way anyway but he was at the forefront)
It’s easy to pick holes in his game or any players game, that’s just the nature of the times we live in, people gravitate to certain players and it’s that player vs another player as in who is better, nonsense
I saw someone on Twitter post about the Warriors 5 straight finals appearances yesterday, it quickly turned into people saying LeBron has done better or some ridiculous not relevant argument

Hitch2222 · 21-05-2019 8:20pm

Carcharodon wrote: »

I think time and history will be Curry’s greatest friend, not only will people see how he changed a franchise, they will see how he changed the game in general (I know the game was heading that way anyway but he was at the forefront)
It’s easy to pick holes in his game or any players game, that’s just the nature of the times we live in, people gravitate to certain players and it’s that player vs another player as in who is better, nonsense
I saw someone on Twitter post about the Warriors 5 straight finals appearances yesterday, it quickly turned into people saying LeBron has done better or some ridiculous not relevant argument

Curry is the person who's influence as you say will be transcendent.
Similar scenario to Iverson where his influence goes beyond his play on the court.

Steph has been a catalyst for a shift in the style of the play on the court while Iverson was the driving force for changes in the NBAs social fabric.

Iggie has high praise tbf: Business Insider: Andre Iguodala says he thinks Stephen Curry is the second-best NBA player ever.
https://www.businessinsider.com/steph-curry-second-best-nba-player-ever-andre-iguodala-2019-5

On an unrelated note, Trae, Luka, Ayton, Bagley & Jackson Jr make ROY 1st team, picks 1-5.

The last time this happened

1984-85 -- a class consisting of Hakeem Olajuwon, Sam Bowie, Michael Jordan, Sam Perkins and Charles Barkley.

ButtersSuki · 21-05-2019 8:58pm

Somewhat under the radar and a name I suspect not well known in these parts is Trajan Langdon joins the Pelicans Management team from the Nets. One of the best American players in Euroleague (Final Four MVP 2008) and I guy I saw play in the flesh numerous times. Lights out shooter, but a little undersized for his generation at 6'4" - it would have been interesting to see how a guy like him would have fared had he say been 10-15 years younger in the smaller, quicker modern NBA. He and Theo Papoloukas made up an insanely talented backcourt, between them alternating MVPs in 2006 and 2008 Euroleague championships with CSKA. Papaloukas is one of my all time favourite players btw, I've mentioned him a few times on here before - could easily have gone NBA but was living his own dreams in Moscow. Worth a google/youtube......

Blinky Plebum · 21-05-2019 9:16pm

ButtersSuki wrote: »

Somewhat under the radar and a name I suspect not well known in these parts is Trajan Langdon joins the Pelicans Management team from the Nets. One of the best American players in Euroleague (Final Four MVP 2008) and I guy I saw play in the flesh numerous times. Lights out shooter, but a little undersized for his generation at 6'4" - it would have been interesting to see how a guy like him would have fared had he say been 10-15 years younger in the smaller, quicker modern NBA. He and Theo Papoloukas made up an insanely talented backcourt, between them alternating MVPs in 2006 and 2008 Euroleague championships with CSKA. Papaloukas is one of my all time favourite players btw, I've mentioned him a few times on here before - could easily have gone NBA but was living his own dreams in Moscow. Worth a google/youtube......

Why does the Euroleague get almost zero media coverage on UK or Irish TV.

I haven't seen any of it in years and when it was on it's was purely as filler material and never advertised.

You'd think with the fact that it's a really high level of competition and that a large amount of teams are spinoffs from top level european soccer teams it would be easy enough to market to fans with the games being on at a reasonable hour unlike the NBA.

simongurnick · 22-05-2019 2:56am

Dominant team performance from the raptors. Best of 3 now...bring it.

Hoboo · 22-05-2019 2:59am

After watching the gsw game 4, without KD, which is looking more likely with recent reports, whoever wins east I think could win it. Hopefully TR.

simongurnick · 22-05-2019 3:08am

Hoboo wrote: »

After watching the gsw game 4, without KD, which is looking more likely with recent reports, whoever wins east I think could win it. Hopefully TR.

I hope so mate! Nice thing tonight was kawhi didnt have to carry things

shamrock55 · 22-05-2019 1:56pm

What was that muppet drake up to last night prancing up and down the courtside, how is he even aloud to do that, side by side with nick nurse

shamrock55 · 22-05-2019 1:58pm

Kawai leonards ankle ain't looking too good either, we have no chance if he's not fit

Hoboo · 22-05-2019 2:07pm

shamrock55 wrote: »

What was that muppet drake up to last night prancing up and down the courtside, how is he even aloud to do that, side by side with nick nurse

It's mental, can't even work out where his actual seat it. Chest bumping players coming off the court, trying to be like Jack Nicholson or Spike Lee talking $hite to players. Should be told to sit tf down.

kmart6 · 22-05-2019 2:09pm

shamrock55 wrote: »

What was that muppet drake up to last night prancing up and down the courtside, how is he even aloud to do that, side by side with nick nurse

It's every game, not just last night. Franchise could be blamed for having him so heavily involved.

Angliru · 22-05-2019 3:19pm

I'll be so happy if the winner comes from the East but considering it looks like this'll go to game 7 it is hard to look past a GSW drubbing with such an extensive rest and playing so well without Durant with him and Boogie due back. Kerr made a great call playing Curry for so long, risk paid off handsomely. I'd love for Giannis to get his ring so he can fully kick on as the best player in the world but Kawhi and the Raptors winning would be such a fantastic story...plus Kawhi is my favourite player in the league so I'd have to side with them.

ButtersSuki · 22-05-2019 4:30pm

shamrock55 wrote: »

What was that muppet drake up to last night prancing up and down the courtside, how is he even aloud to do that, side by side with nick nurse

Hoboo wrote: »

It's mental, can't even work out where his actual seat it. Chest bumping players coming off the court, trying to be like Jack Nicholson or Spike Lee talking $hite to players. Should be told to sit tf down.

kmart6 wrote: »

It's every game, not just last night. Franchise could be blamed for having him so heavily involved.

He's actually as team ambassador and - and I promise I'm not making this up - they even gave him his own locker in the locker room at the start of the season, though I'm not sure if it's still there. Was relatively widely-reported at the time:

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2809118-raptors-appear-to-give-demar-derozans-old-locker-to-rapper-drake

To the game itself; I didn't see it TBH but I fully expected the Bucks to win and close the series in 5. As I said recently when the Bucks are good they can look great, but when it doesn't click they can look devoid of ideas. Unlikely I'll get to watch anything but highlights but GS must be loving the extra rest they're getting through having this series extend itself.

BTW, Kevin O'Connor gave some very interesting stats on Warriors with Curry and Durant v Warriors with Curry no Durant v Warriors with no Curry but with Durant on . the Ringer NBA Show. From memory - and these were all 2,000minute+ samples per 100 Possessions with both they were 116, Curry only 113 and Durant only 103. Thought it was interesting.

Hitch2222 · 22-05-2019 4:39pm

ButtersSuki wrote: »

BTW, Kevin O'Connor gave some very interesting stats on Warriors with Curry and Durant v Warriors with Curry no Durant v Warriors with no Curry but with Durant on . the Ringer NBA Show. From memory - and these were all 2,000minute+ samples per 100 Possessions with both they were 116, Curry only 113 and Durant only 103. Thought it was interesting.

Hmmm I'd be curious to see those numbers. Can you share the show/article?

If that's true that's cool, I'd be just curious how it's so different from the 4 player rotations from NBA stats I shared previously which had KDs offensive rating much closer to Steph.

ButtersSuki · 22-05-2019 4:44pm

Hitch2222 wrote: »

Hmmm I'd be curious to see those numbers. Can you share the show/article?

If that's true that's cool, I'd be just curious how it's so different from the 4 player rotations from NBA stats I shared previously which had KDs offensive rating much closer to Steph.

15minute (or so) mark in on yesterday's Ringer NBA Show - "the mismatch" version with Chris Vernon. Not making them up! Assume there's an accompanying article (O'Connor almost always doubles up) on theringer.com but I haven't checked as I'm travelling at the moment and haven't had a chance to look.

Again, to be clear, I'm not saying Curry is better than Durant or they're better off without him but I'm pretty sure i have the numbers correct from memory. Happy to be corrected if I'm misquoting or inaccurate.

Hitch2222 · 22-05-2019 4:52pm

ButtersSuki wrote: »

15minute (or so) mark in on yesterday's Ringer NBA Show - "the mismatch" version with Chris Vernon. Not making them up! Assume there's an accompanying article (O'Connor almost always doubles up) on theringer.com but I haven't checked as I'm travelling at the moment and haven't had a chance to look.

Again, to be clear, I'm not saying Curry is better than Durant or they're better off without him but I'm pretty sure i have the numbers correct from memory. Happy to be corrected if I'm misquoting or inaccurate.

Not for a moment thinking you are making them up, if it's a misquote, it's a misquote, it probably isnt, as we agreed a million ways to dice the numbers, just curious is all.

Originally thought maybe KD closes the gap defensively & Steph widens it offensively, only curious because the offensive discrepancy for KD is like 14-15 pts so seems big is all, never going to match but didn't think it would be so wide

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