Everything Derozan

[Shaolin Fantastic]

I will call for Casey's head if we get knocked out by them though, good God that would be annoying. Just watched United get played off the park by City the other day. Can't have both my teams getting smacked around by rivals.

[Nilanka]

They don't have shit. If you win 55-60 odd games like they're probably going to, you don't get to say "b-b-b-but Hayward was out". I mean it's a valid excuse but it's irrelevant in the context of the media narrative this season. The media is talking about them being a threat to the Cavs without Hayward, so stomping little Toronto should be no problem right?

Hey, I agree with you. I'm just saying I won't be surprised when we hear the "but we didn't have Gordon" excuse.

[KeonClark]

But without Hayward, the Celtics have a built-in excuse, no matter how they get eliminated.

Boston would whine for awhile but wins and losses are all that last in the history books

The bad boy pistons back to back had the first one gifted by a magic johnson Injury but 0% of people call that a fake win

[LJ2]

We've gone from being Top 10 in ISO's the past couple of years to 24th, tied with GSW at 6.1%. Oddly (or maybe not) of the 7 teams that run the most ISO this season, 3 of them are the Rockets, Cavs and Celtics.

Don't you start, God damn it!

Besides, GSW were the champs last time I checked.

[Deems]

We've gone from being Top 10 in ISO's the past couple of years to 24th, tied with GSW at 6.1%. Oddly (or maybe not) of the 7 teams that run the most ISO this season, 3 of them are the Rockets, Cavs and Celtics.

When you got Harden, Lebron, and Kyrie.. who else would you want to dominate the ball? Never had a problem with ISO offenses, it's more so we never had a superstar that can dominate it. GSW was primarily iso with Mark Jackson, which as we all know didn't fit their personnel.

[Nilanka]

Boston would whine for awhile but wins and losses are all that last in the history books

The bad boy pistons back to back had the first one gifted by a magic johnson Injury but 0% of people call that a fake win

Only because twitter didn't exist back then

[3inthekeon]

Don't you start, God damn it!

Besides, GSW were the champs last time I checked.

2 years ago the Cavs won the ship with 13.8% ISO in the playoffs. Only team of the 16 PO teams that ran more was the Grizz at 13.9%.

Not trying to start anything, just saying Weltman was right, even though it wasn't him that did the research it was some analytics guy(s). He just said it to the media. It actually just part of his master plan

Step 1) say it out loud to have his name attached.
Step 2) get called an idiot by fanbase
Step 3) Magic decision makers pick up on all the idiot comments and think "this is the type of guy we want running our team".
Step 4) Get Magic President job complete with 4 free rides each week at Disney World.

[Shaolin Fantastic]

Teams that win titles DO tend to run a lot of isolation, Weltman was right about that. The Warriors and 2014 Spurs are an anomaly, they are not the rule.

The limiting reagent though is SUPERSTARS, generational talents who you want to have the ball in their hands creating something every trip down.

The only way to do it without superstars is to have a perfect system on O and D and a lot of luck.

[Shaolin Fantastic]

When you have guys like Shaq, MJ, LeBron it doesn't even really make sense to have an egalitarian offense. Yes you should still move the ball, but you want those guys handling it because they are so dominant. It's almost a waste to have them just be a cog in the machine rather than completely running the show.

Can you imagine telling Shaq, who's capable of like 40-20 on 60% FG in the finals, "Hey we're gonna try to swing it and get Rick Fox more open looks". Umm, no. Give it to Shaq, let him dominate.

It's not quite that simple because defenses are more sophisticated now, but iso ball does make sense with certain players. Just not ours really.

[S.R.]

Teams that win titles DO tend to run a lot of isolation, Weltman was right about that day. The Warriors and 2014 Spurs are an anomaly, they are not the rule.

The limiting reagent though is SUPERSTARS, generational talents who you want to have the ball in their hands creating something every trip down.

The only way to do it without superstars is to have a perfect system on O and D and a lot of luck.

Definitely. DD and Lowry have plenty to do without also trying to combine for 50+ ppg. Take a bit of that scoring pressure off of them and you get Lowry with career high rebounds, leading the lead with charges drawn by a mile, and DeRozan career high in assists. Very promising and the scoring is still there, it's just coming from other guys.

The playoffs when teams clamp down on D will be revealing. Will the ball still move and will the role players still make shots? I think yes and yes. I don't think this team has supporting guys with the fragility of a Ross or Patterson.

[3inthekeon]

Our passing seems less about swinging the ball around, but more creating off drives. DD a few years ago was awful at getting caught in the air when he got cut off and trying to make some wild pass. Now he's about as good as anyone at actually finding open teammates in that situation.

[S.R.]

Our passing seems less about swinging the ball around, but more creating off drives. DD a few years ago was awful at getting caught in the air when he got cut off and trying to make some wild pass. Now he's about as good as anyone at actually finding open teammates in that situation.

The movement on the floor looks a lot better. E.g. DD mid-drive hitting OG on a baseline cut to the basket - a huge frustration with previous ISO play (including JV's post ups) was watching everyone else stand around and NOT MOVE. Post ups and drives can both create open shots, but only if there's off-ball action (or if you're picking apart a double).

[The Great One]

Lakers are going to retire Kobe's #8 and #24 tonight. Since DeMar loves Kobe so much maybe it's time for him to change his number too.

[GinobilisBaldSpot]

I'll just leave this here.

[SkywalkerAC]