2020 End of Season / Playoffs

[golden]

Butler is about to sweep the team that swept the Sixers lol. Why did the Sixers let Butler go anyway?

Butler wasn't staying. He hated Simmons and Brett Brown. Even so, the Sixers never offered the full 5 year max that they could have, which probably sealed the deal.

[slaw]

Boston hasn't looked as sharp over the full 48 these first 2 games as they did vs Toronto. Did Toronto make Boston's defence look better than it is or is Boston gassed after a tough Toronto series?

Running into some multi-day breaks between games now and that may help Boston, I think.

Miami made two key adjustments in game 2. The first was the zone defense but the one I'd like to point out, yet again, is that they actually used their athletic big man in screen and roll. And scored 37 points in the third quarter. Celts had no answer for the action, were terrified of Adebayo behind the defense and Miami got easy looks at the rim and it softened up Boston's perimeter d, opening up driving lanes all over the floor. Why the fuck Nurse couldn't figure that out in 7 games and it took Spoelstra one half (after Boston locked Miami in game 2 in the second quarter) is beyond me. And don't give me personnel excuses. Jae Crowder was running it with Adebayo! Both adjustments led to lots of easy baskets, something the Raps could never get against Boston.

I don't think Boston is fatigued - they are just being outplayed.

[golden]

Miami made two key adjustments in game 2. The first was the zone defense but the one I'd like to point out, yet again, is that they actually used their athletic big man in screen and roll. And scored 37 points in the third quarter. Celts had no answer for the action, were terrified of Adebayo behind the defense and Miami got easy looks at the rim and it softened up Boston's perimeter d, opening up driving lanes all over the floor. Why the fuck Nurse couldn't figure that out in 7 games and it took Spoelstra one half (after Boston locked Miami in game 2 in the second quarter) is beyond me. And don't give me personnel excuses. Jae Crowder was running it with Adebayo! Both adjustments led to lots of easy baskets, something the Raps could never get against Boston.

I don't think Boston is fatigued - they are just being outplayed.

Kyle and Fred wanted to play keep away and Nurse let them. Being a player's coach has it's pros and cons.

Umpteen bloggers posted about Lowry-Siakam PnR being our ace-in-the-hole, months before the playoffs. But we hardly ran that action.

[slaw]

Kyle and Fred wanted to play keep away and Nurse let them. Being a player's coach has it's pros and cons.

Umpteen bloggers posted about Lowry-Siakam PnR being our ace-in-the-hole, months before the playoffs. But we hardly ran that action.

I find that hard to swallow. Has anyone actually asked Nurse about this? Not the Doug Smiths of the world but a Murphy or Koreen?

[planetmars]

[G__Deane]

Butler is about to sweep the team that swept the Sixers lol. Why did the Sixers let Butler go anyway?

Butler wasn't staying to play with guys who have a weak work ethic as I recall. They didn't "let him go" he walked

[MixxAOR]

Kyrie defenders ripping Celtics on twitter is hilarious to me

[inthepaint]

Kyrie defenders ripping Celtics on twitter is hilarious to me

Kyrie didn't really work in Boston; they seem to have fit a lot better with Kemba.

I still find it hard to believe that Boston got Kemba via sign & trade and all they needed to give up was Rozier and a protected 2nd round pick. That was a massive upgrade for Boston. I know it wasn't working in Charlotte with Kemba, but him being their franchise player I thought there would be a better return.

Those kind of moves make me think we could theoretically move FVV (who I feel is better than Rozier) + a pick for a high caliber player on the level of Kemba.

For example, which of these trades would be harder to pull it off:

1. Rozier + protected 2nd rounder for 4x all start Kemba Walker

2. FVV + Norm + 1st round pick for 2x all star Bradley Beal

I think #1 would be a lot harder to pull it off but it's the one that actually happened. Not sure about everyone else but as much as I like Fred & Norm I'd go for trade #2. Wizards would be getting two rotation players from a championship roster, for a Bradley Beal that (albeit awesome) wasn't taking them anywhere even with John Wall. Looks like a win for both teams.

[slaw]

Walker was a free agent and agreed to a sign-and-trade, though. Beal has 3 years (?) left on his current deal. Very different scenarios.

[planetmars]

Butler was a sign and trade too, in a 4 team trade no less. Philly got Josh Richardson out of it. Usually when you are involved in a sign and trade.. the team receiving the free agent is usually not giving up much. Because in most cases the team receiving the free agent could have received them without the trade. They have most of the leverage in negotiations.

[The Great One]

It's getting ridiculous! lmao.

[inthepaint]

Walker was a free agent and agreed to a sign-and-trade, though. Beal has 3 years (?) left on his current deal. Very different scenarios.

Sure, but so is the return. Wizs & Hornets are/were in the same tier, and similar predicament: having a lone star player that's barely taking them into the playoffs and no real path/assets to grow the team. Pound-for-pound Beal and Kemba are around the same caliber.

Kemba being a free agent and walking for nothing was a risk for Charlotte so they took a lesser return in order to not lose him for nothing (Rozier + 2nd rounder)

Beal having more time on his deal makes him more valuable, so the return would have to be higher (like FVV+Norm+1st, which is a lot higher than Rozier+2nd). Guess it depends how long the Wizs want to keep trying with a banged up Wall and Beal, but they haven't been successful. Beal is at his peak, yielding the highest return to kickstart a proper rebuild for them. If I had the chance to get 2 championship rotation players (at about the same age as Beal) plus a FRP for a player that hasn't taken the team anywhere in the prior 8 years, I'd consider.

From the Raptors standpoint, I feel it wouldn't even have to be necessarily Beal. If we give ~20M to Fred and combine that with Norm's 10M, those are great blue chip assets (still with some championship shine), combining for ~30M that could be packaged with a pick and moved at the trade deadline for an all-star caliber player. If it is Beal though, we would end up with a heck of roster :

PG: Lowry - TD
SG: Beal - Thomas (that's probably the most firepower we'd have out of the SG slot in 25 yrs)
SF: OG - Paul Watson
PF - Siakam - Paul Reed (that'd be my draftee, looks to be a big sleeper on this draft)
C - Ibaka - Boucher- Dewan (to guard the bruisers)

I know all eyes are in the summer 2021 free agency but if by the next trade deadline things don't look promising in FA (eg. Giannis extending and talking about staying in Milwaukee, Oladipo banged up or no longer good etc..), then I think you could look a Fred & Norm as great blue chip players not far removed from the championship that could net you an all-star caliber player.

[S.R.]

It's getting ridiculous! lmao.

ffs the Heat have 3 titles in 32 years and 2 of them are because Lebron wanted to be Superfriendz at the beach.

NBA has a bad recency bias problem but for a pretty-good-but-not-great team a couple games into the 3rd round, this is nuts.

[The Great One]

ffs the Heat have 3 titles in 32 years and 2 of them are because Lebron wanted to be Superfriendz at the beach.

NBA has a bad recency bias problem but for a pretty-good-but-not-great team a couple games into the 3rd round, this is nuts.

The Heat before this year hadn’t made the conference finals since 2014. They were good from 2010 to 2014 because of LeBron. Before LeBron? they were a middle of the pack team. Heat culture!

[G__Deane]

Sure, but so is the return. Wizs & Hornets are/were in the same tier, and similar predicament: having a lone star player that's barely taking them into the playoffs and no real path/assets to grow the team. Pound-for-pound Beal and Kemba are around the same caliber.

Kemba being a free agent and walking for nothing was a risk for Charlotte so they took a lesser return in order to not lose him for nothing (Rozier + 2nd rounder)

Beal having more time on his deal makes him more valuable, so the return would have to be higher (like FVV+Norm+1st, which is a lot higher than Rozier+2nd). Guess it depends how long the Wizs want to keep trying with a banged up Wall and Beal, but they haven't been successful. Beal is at his peak, yielding the highest return to kickstart a proper rebuild for them. If I had the chance to get 2 championship rotation players (at about the same age as Beal) plus a FRP for a player that hasn't taken the team anywhere in the prior 8 years, I'd consider.

From the Raptors standpoint, I feel it wouldn't even have to be necessarily Beal. If we give ~20M to Fred and combine that with Norm's 10M, those are great blue chip assets (still with some championship shine), combining for ~30M that could be packaged with a pick and moved at the trade deadline for an all-star caliber player. If it is Beal though, we would end up with a heck of roster :

PG: Lowry - TD
SG: Beal - Thomas (that's probably the most firepower we'd have out of the SG slot in 25 yrs)
SF: OG - Paul Watson
PF - Siakam - Paul Reed (that'd be my draftee, looks to be a big sleeper on this draft)
C - Ibaka - Boucher- Dewan (to guard the bruisers)

I know all eyes are in the summer 2021 free agency but if by the next trade deadline things don't look promising in FA (eg. Giannis extending and talking about staying in Milwaukee, Oladipo banged up or no longer good etc..), then I think you could look a Fred & Norm as great blue chip players not far removed from the championship that could net you an all-star caliber player.

I think they need another all star caliber player here now to pair with Kyle, Siakam and OG to even attract a Giannis. Siakam OG and Beal might just do it (assuming Pascal puts in another strong season)