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About 30 days to go till the ASG break. The once unofficial half way mark of the NBA season the ASG weekend kicks off with about 65% of the schedule in the books. When teams emerge from the NBA's equivalent of reading week whats going to happen ?
A) The Tank Brigade will shed any semblance of competitiveness and they will begin to circle must lose games on the schedule. Atlanta, Bulls, Knicks, the Suns, nd the Cavs are in full on tank... Who joins them ? The Pistons ? The Heat ? The WHiz... The Magic ? The Hornets ?. It all hinges on if they think they can make the post season.
Its just Uber competitive in the West so my guess is outside of Dallas it appears on one is going to take a knee outside of Phoenix .. who as an organization are on their knees so often they are devout church go-ers or hookers. .
B) To paraphrase and steal from Pinocchio... The Hinkies are going to find out if they are real boys or not with 12 of their 13 games against plus 500 teams and of those 13 games 11 of them against playoff teams. We should have an idea then if the Hinkes can run with the big dogs. After a small eruption Mount Butler seems to have gone dormant... if the Hinks choke and limp into the ASG break I expect mount butler to make life tough in Philly and the Hinkies to finish at best 4th.
C)The Lakers are pretty much crap without Lebron. From 4th to out of the playoffs in two weeks as LBJ gets ready to return from injury... I thought no way they make the playoffs at the beginning of the year... then watched Lebron drag these guys to a playoff spot.... and now with him out and the Lakers having to battle with the likes of Utah and the Clips for 8th have flopped yet again and now I don't think they make the playoffs. From my cheap seat to change thier trajectory the Lakers need to make a trade. In an equally bold seat of the pants call I think the guy on the block is Lonzo Ball. Why him ? Because with Lebron you don't need a good ball handler and a passer when with Lebron you have the best. There are a few teams that can use a good ballhandling lead guard. Cya Lonzo.
D)The Celtics have scuffled through 40 plus games. Thats a lot of points on the trend line. Believing something will miraculously change is just a lousy strategy. The Celtics are either going to make a change via trade or fire the coach to jump start them or they are likely to continue on this trend... Trader Danny is on the clock. Hope Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart are renters as they are the most likely to go.
E)How good is James Harden ? Have to think he is really really good as Harden without Paul and in spurts Capella and Gordon has dragged a pretty non descript Rocket team to spitting distance of homecourt after a horrific start. Its no mystery what Hardens is going to do... stopping it however is a differnet matter entirely. Fear the Beard.
F)Do the Clippers have enough to stay in the playoffs ? They started out great but have skidded ... One of the LA teams isn't going to make the playoffs. This team doesn't have Lebron.
G)The best and quietest team in the NBA remains the Indiana Pacers.... nobody wants to see these guys in round 2.
H)The Nuggets are a really really good team.. unfortunately they have the Golden State Warriors in the conference who play the same style as the Nuggets do .,.. just a lot better. Post ASG the champs move to 4th gear that sees GSW will finish 1st in the West.
I)The Bucks are not going to fade away this year. While they don't have much in the way of secondary scoring if the 3 ball is not falling they still have the Alphabet. Its going to take a coaching genius to make Giannas into a shooter. Plans are, as we speak , being worked out at the Bio Steel Centre for use in May.Last edited by Demographic Shift; Wed Jan 16, 2019, 04:04 PM.There's no such thing as a 2nd round bust.
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Where we finish is less important than matchups and seeding. If Boston finishes 4/5 seed we should aim to be 2/3. If Celtics finish 2/3 we should aim to tins 1st. Avoiding potential Celtic playoff matchup until conference finals is key to reaching NBA finals.
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psrs1 wrote: View PostWhere we finish is less important than matchups and seeding. If Boston finishes 4/5 seed we should aim to be 2/3. If Celtics finish 2/3 we should aim to tins 1st. Avoiding potential Celtic playoff matchup until conference finals is key to reaching NBA finals.
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psrs1 wrote: View PostWhere we finish is less important than matchups and seeding. If Boston finishes 4/5 seed we should aim to be 2/3. If Celtics finish 2/3 we should aim to tins 1st. Avoiding potential Celtic playoff matchup until conference finals is key to reaching NBA finals.
Barring any major events we should get a relatively easy matchup on the first round (Heat/Hornets/Pistons/Nets/Wizards/Magic), and then will either play Philly/Boston/Bucks on the second round and on the ECF if we make it. I think that will happen regardless of the seeding. Those 3 teams are all very dangerous and getting home court over them would be key, but if we really wanna make the finals, we can't really be scared/try to avoid any of them, we'll have to play 2 out of these 3 no matter what if we make it to the ECF.Last edited by inthepaint; Fri Jan 25, 2019, 01:47 AM.
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inthepaint wrote: View PostWell, not sure the side of the bracket we're on matters much. I mean, with Oladipo out, the playoff picture gets more defined now with a clear top 4, and they'll play each other on the second round no matter what.
Barring any major events we should get a relatively easy matchup on the first round Heat/Hornets/Pistons/Nets/Wizards/Magic), and then will either play Philly/Boston/Bucks on the second round and on the ECF if we make it. I think that will happen regardless of the seeding. Those 3 teams are all very dangerous and getting home court over them would be key, but if we really wanna make the finals, we can't really be scared/try to avoid any of them, we'll have to play 2 out of these 3 no matter what if we make it to the ECF.
Yeah i can't see the raps being pushed hard in the first round if they finish anywhere in the 1 to 3 slots....
After round 1.... well its the playoffs and the top 8 teams in the league are left on both sides of the conferences as upsets are rare in the NBA compared to the NHL and NFL. So its going to be as it should be..... you have to beat the best teams to advance.
I like the raps chances to get out of the East...
The Hinkies... Leonard asphyxiated Simmons in the two games to date.. He picked up 19 points and turned it over 18 times. Ouch. After him Philly doesn't have much in the way of ball handlers. Sure Jimmy can bring it up.. but that means Embiid becomes the second option. And they still turn it over a lot. Embiid is a pantload..but he crumpled like an empty chip bag last year when Boston amped up the pressure on him and made him run. Joel will win twitter troll of the year but thats the extent of his winning this year.
The Chowders... Enigmatic. Just like Raps fans fear an injury to Leonard its much the same in Lobsterville. If Kyrie Irving.. who is very brittle... is not running on all cylinders in the playoffs the Chowder offense will stagnate. The Chowders still bring it every night on the defensive side of the court and that makes a tough out .... I hope this is the ECF and it will go 6 or 7... and I can open up that 21 year old El Dorado in celebration.
The Bucks.... Putting up great numbers so far... Coach Bud has them playing vintage 60 win Atlanta Hawks ball. They are 50/50 to win the conference regular season title and get home court straight through the playoffs. They have the best or second best player in the east. They have good guards. They have a widebody aircraft carrier centre in Lopez. The gaps in the Bucks run to world domination are... Coach Bud teams tend to fizzle in the playoffs when the game changes and Giannas is the doppelganger of Simmons for outside shooting. Given the full resources of the coaching staff can be focused on making Giannas a shooter rather than a driver the Bucks best offensive weapon will be working incredibly hard for points. After the Alphabet scoring will fall to Bledsoe who caved last year against Rozier and Middleton who hasn't been out of the 1st round. For the Bucks in the playoffs.. its #Provem
Sadly the Pacers hopes went out the door with the injury to Olidipo. They might hang on to 4th but more likely 5th is their final seeding. Still.. they have enough bite with Sabonis/Turner and Thad Young to take a lot of energy out of whoever finishes 4th in round 1. This should be the focus series in the East .. 4 vs 5... but some high dome in Bristol will want to cover the Heat if they squeak into the playoffs and Dwayne Wades final ride. That and schedule the Raps in for the 12:30 or 5:30 saturday start time.Last edited by Demographic Shift; Fri Jan 25, 2019, 03:59 PM.There's no such thing as a 2nd round bust.
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inthepaint wrote: View PostMan, It's January 26th and Cleveland hasn't won 10 games yet (out of the 50 they played). I knew they'd be bad after Bron left but to go from an NBA finals to this, in one season, wow.There's no such thing as a 2nd round bust.
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Demographic Shift wrote: View PostYeah.. they just folded up camp and called it quits about 5 or 6 games in. When they put Love on the IR and "suggested" he have that surgery and then to take his time getting back was amazing because it was so short a time into the season. Not even 10 games and they threw in the towel.
It was a legitimate injury for a guy who is always injured.
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Scraptor wrote: View PostIt is pretty ridiculous to insinuate that surgery was a tanking move. If they wanted to straight up tank, then why sign him to that massive deal? And if they just wanted to sign him to use as a trade piece, why make him get surgery so that his trade value gets crushed? He may not even be back before the trade deadline.
It was a legitimate injury for a guy who is always injured.
Loves contract is a sunk cost.. they owe it anyway....and this year they are out from under the heavy luxury tax pressure they were under last year.... The Cavs were a fringe playoff team with Love..and with being a mid pack team comes with a mid round pick. Odds are the pick isn't an impact player. Yes it happens but its more likely your mid round pick is a bench rotation player.
Now with Love out ... the Cavs lead the tank brigade in what is shaping up as 3 or 4 top heavy draft. With an impact player available to them.... like Barrett or Williamson ...its a better outcome when your retooling post Lebron to get a crack at a top 3 pick. It lets them sell hope for the future and actually have some.
I don't believe in random. Cogent choice to encourage Love to have the surgery he would need at some point in time right now. Love has enough of a resume that teams know what a healthy Kevin Love can do for them and Kevin Love might be happier than the Cavs org to have a clean bill of health going forward.
The year was a transition year anyway so may as well get him healthy to either keep him or trade him and pick up a top 3 or 4 pick along the way. As I said.. I don't believe in random.Last edited by Demographic Shift; Sat Jan 26, 2019, 07:50 PM.There's no such thing as a 2nd round bust.
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psrs1 wrote: View PostGoal is to avoid Celtics if at all possible.
It's silly. We wanna win the East, we should plan on beating everyone else in it.
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