Everything Playoffs-2021

[slaw]

Jazz still haven’t figured out how to counter Clippers small ball. Gobert’s impact is reduced on defense and he doesn’t have any post game to punish the Clippers on offense. Boban was more effective, tbh. Limitations really get exposed in the playoffs.

Jazz are a pick and roll team but can’t make that work when LA switches everything. Utah sorely misses a veteran ball handler like Conley who could still create opportunities in those situations. Snyder is an excellent coach but Joe Engles is his secondary playmaker right now.....

[slaw]

I just want to thank the Clips for making me a lot of money lol. They're doing it again this series. The Jazz might not win another game this series.

LFG!

Stop lying. You don’t have any money on anyone.

[G__Deane]

Donovan Mitchell is not on the injury report so looks like he is going to go against the Clips tonight....
The Jazz are pretty consistent .. The Clips are anything but

The Hawks are up against it tonight....
Lose and they are forked. They won't take 3 straight from the Hinkies.
But they are at home and Trae Young gets as many calls as Embiid does.

Jazz and Hawks win tonight.

1 for 2 still earns you a heft contract

[golden]

Jazz are a pick and roll team but can’t make that work when LA switches everything. Utah sorely misses a veteran ball handler like Conley who could still create opportunities in those situations. Snyder is an excellent coach but Joe Engles is his secondary playmaker right now.....

Conley would still have similar problems creating shots as Mitchell. Clippers switching everything, means they have a 6'7" to 6'9" guy contesting a 6ft guard on almost every possession - same problem the Raptors had with the Celtics in the bubble. Gobert also kills spacing and isn't a post-up threat either.

[slaw]

Conley would still have similar problems creating shots as Mitchell. Clippers switching everything, means they have a 6'7" to 6'9" guy contesting a 6ft guard on almost every possession - same problem the Raptors had with the Celtics in the bubble. Gobert also kills spacing and isn't a post-up threat either.

Right but he's better at it than Joe Engles and now you have Mitchell off-ball and the defense has to pay to attention to both. Not having Conley hurts the Jazz.

[Demographic Shift]

1 for 2 still earns you a heft contract

I lose the vig.

[The Great One]

The Jazz have no answer to the Clips small ball lineup. Gobert is a great player but if he's not going to dominate inside defensively then he shouldn't be getting much mins. Favors is another one. He should definitely not get any more mins in this series.

This series also shows why teams shouldn't invest much on the C position. You don't need a great C to be a contender. As great as Gobert is, you can neutralize him if you go small. Heck, look at the Sixers/Hawks series. That series is now tied. One team has Embiid as their best player, the other has Trae Young.

[KeonClark]

Cancel culture comes for everyone, eventually. Even the greatest entertainers? ESPECIALLY the greatest entertainers

[G__Deane]

Cancel culture comes for everyone, eventually. Even the greatest entertainers? ESPECIALLY the greatest entertainers

Charles for Prime Minister ....

[bertarapsfan]

Cancel culture comes for everyone, eventually. Even the greatest entertainers? ESPECIALLY the greatest entertainers

I think charles is one of the few people who is "uncancelable" Dude is hilarious, everyone knows he is hilarous, TNT wouldn't be the same without him. Chuck can pretty much say whatever he wants and wont lose his auidence. He isn't a role model he already told everyone that

[KeonClark]

I think charles is one of the few people who is "uncancelable" Dude is hilarious, everyone knows he is hilarous, TNT wouldn't be the same without him. Chuck can pretty much say whatever he wants and wont lose his auidence. He isn't a role model he already told everyone that

Well, hes being censored from doing the "big ol san Antonio women bit", because 15 years into it, one lady wrote a letter.

[S.R.]

Literally no one has said anything contrary to this. The entire analytics movement has been about funneling those necessary midrange looks to the very best players who are actually capable of making them, rather than the preponderance of role players shooting 35% on long twos that used to be the norm.

I think a couple things have happened:
- Some people still think analytics = dumb, ruining basketball, and are looking for strawmen to knock down
- Extreme examples like Houston really stuck in peoples minds and became sort of a stereotype for analytics, even when they were doing things that were just Houston and not necessarily analytics fed, that sort of nuance gets washed out
- Analytics has been flattened out to "layups and 3's" and there hasn't been a nuanced enough general discussion and maybe it hasn't been loud enough that any high percentage shot or good PPP shot is a good shot, no matter where it's from on the floor? Maybe conversation like this helps more people realize that.
- The game is evolving all the time, and as offences honed in on layups and 3's, it takes defences a couple years to really shift and try to systemically take away layups and 3's, that now creates openings (and potentially increases the efficiency of) gaps in the defence, e.g. the midrange, as we all saw with Kawhi so easily picking his elbow spots on the Raptors playoff run. Nobody collapsed in on him at the elbow like entire defences collapse on drives. Increasingly, this becomes a better shot. If there's any kind of uptake where more guys like CP3 and Kawhi make use of that shot, defences may have to shift again. Or it remains a shot that only a few guys can take at a high enough efficiency to make it worth their while, and it continues to be an exploitable crease in NBA defences.

Interestingly, I think a lot of the good young scorers we're seeing emerge are good from all over the floor. Don't have stats in front of me, but Trae, Mitchell, Murray, Morant, etc. all have good pull up games, floaters, etc. They aren't just taking 3's and layups.

[Demographic Shift]

So James Harden is going to be available tonight. He is listed as questionable on the official 5:30 NBA injury report.
Being available and playing at an all star level are two different things.

Still the pressure is on the Bucks to take this one.
I don't see the Bucks being able to take two in a row from the Nets but I can see a healthy Durant and one of Irving and/or Harden at 80% with improving health being able to take two in row from the Bucks.

As game as Harden is I see him as playing injured not hurt... Bucks prevail.

[KeonClark]

I think a couple things have happened:
- Some people still think analytics = dumb, ruining basketball, and are looking for strawmen to knock down
- Extreme examples like Houston really stuck in peoples minds and became sort of a stereotype for analytics, even when they were doing things that were just Houston and not necessarily analytics fed, that sort of nuance gets washed out
- Analytics has been flattened out to "layups and 3's" and there hasn't been a nuanced enough general discussion and maybe it hasn't been loud enough that any high percentage shot or good PPP shot is a good shot, no matter where it's from on the floor? Maybe conversation like this helps more people realize that.
- The game is evolving all the time, and as offences honed in on layups and 3's, it takes defences a couple years to really shift and try to systemically take away layups and 3's, that now creates openings (and potentially increases the efficiency of) gaps in the defence, e.g. the midrange, as we all saw with Kawhi so easily picking his elbow spots on the Raptors playoff run. Nobody collapsed in on him at the elbow like entire defences collapse on drives. Increasingly, this becomes a better shot. If there's any kind of uptake where more guys like CP3 and Kawhi make use of that shot, defences may have to shift again. Or it remains a shot that only a few guys can take at a high enough efficiency to make it worth their while, and it continues to be an exploitable crease in NBA defences.

Interestingly, I think a lot of the good young scorers we're seeing emerge are good from all over the floor. Don't have stats in front of me, but Trae, Mitchell, Murray, Morant, etc. all have good pull up games, floaters, etc. They aren't just taking 3's and layups.

Seems a lot of the dominant ball handlers will pull up midrange. But the role players all have one job, and thats flair to the arc. It can start to look very vanilla, and resulted in this:

[magoon]

The Jazz have no answer to the Clips small ball lineup. Gobert is a great player but if he's not going to dominate inside defensively then he shouldn't be getting much mins.

Actually they do, and they did it for part of game 4 and then stopped for whatever reason: it's "give the ball to Gobert." If the Clips go small they don't really have anybody who can stop him, and he's a good enough post/rim scorer and free throw shooter that he can produce from that position and get a lot of the other team in foul trouble. The moment they put Zubac on the floor to counter him, Utah can go back to their standard attack.

This series also shows why teams shouldn't invest much on the C position. You don't need a great C to be a contender. As great as Gobert is, you can neutralize him if you go small. Heck, look at the Sixers/Hawks series. That series is now tied. One team has Embiid as their best player, the other has Trae Young.

You understand that the Hawks are going to lose this series, right? The Sixers wins have been blowouts and the Hawks wins have been squeakers.