Asterisks over title wins and putting down a team for losing in game 7 of the Nba finals is just utterly bizarre
NBA 2016-17
- Thread starter ArmchairCritic
- Start date
The second and third best player of the opponents didn't play, and when they played next season, Warriors lost. So yep, I think that for a lot of people there is an asterisk there.
The other thing is that had Warriors won last season, that team would have been in any discussion about the best team ever. But they didn't, so the record of the season while impressive, doesn't mean much when you don't get the ring in the end.
The other thing about is that Curry while being chosen MVP on merit on the last two season, he didn't play that good in either of finals. Andre Iguadala (who wasn't even starting) got chosen MVP on the first final, and Draymond Green would have got the award had Warriors won the final. Curry needs to step up when it matters most, because destroying shitty teams in regular season won't put him in the discussion for the best players of all time.
Lets see how things go now that they have a team that has unprecedented quality with two of the players being probably in top 3, and two others in top 10-15.
You're probably right. He might be the greatest coach ever, but yep, the style how he played with Bulls and Lakers is the contrary of this Warriors team.
An asterisk on a title for someone who averaged 8.6 mpg in the games he did play in the finals, aight.
What a match between Celtics and Cavaliers. Irving is proving to be almost as important as LeBron this season.
As a side note, has there ever been e center with Love's shooting ability?
As a side note, has there ever been e center with Love's shooting ability?
Half accurate. Yes, he was bad but Durant was just as much (if not more) to blame for losing that series.
Going to the Rockets vs Clippere game in 2 hours, so excited
The Bulls tricked us for a little while but, they are about as bad as people expected them to be this season. And the Rondo situation has blown up in a predictable fashion.
Man, I fecking love watching the Rockets.
He's not a center himself though.
fecking great isn't it? Harden with a historic night, 53 points, 16 rebound, 17 assists, first player ever to have such numbers.
What a performance from Harden! An another unanimous MVP?
This year is def between him and Wetbrook, it'll be interesting.
When was the last time the MVP was awarded to someone whose team didn't finish in the top 2?
My money's still firmly on KD.
My money's still firmly on KD.
Cannot see Westbrook being there. No player who plays for a team that hasn't finished on top 2 in its conference hasn't won MVP since the eighties, IIRC. To be fair, Harden won't finish in top 2 too, but will finish in third place with a very good record, while Westbrook will finish somewhere between 4th and 7th position.
I think that Harden is favorite, with Kawhi Leonard being in the race too. Durant has no chance, the story is quite negative for him (if you can't beat them, join them) and his stats will decrease because of the team he plays, Curry has the voting fatigue and the stats will decrease because of Durant, and Lebron saves the energy for the playoff.
If Rockets finish in second position, it is for sure Harden. If not, it is either him or Leonard.
Clips have been really unlucky with the injuries, they're easily the third best team in the west on paper. Still the top 2 are set in stone.
Loving this Jazz team, that defense of Gobert and Favors is simply incredible and they'd be a really tough nut to crack come playoffs.
Loving this Jazz team, that defense of Gobert and Favors is simply incredible and they'd be a really tough nut to crack come playoffs.
CJ with 43 points last night, nearly half of all points Portland got in a win at Minnesota. It's crazy how good at shooting he is. Still, him and Lillard will not work defensively. If Blazers can get Cousins for him (or even Lillard but he looks untouchable) it has to at least be considered.
Giannis with a monster night at Bulls two days ago. I have to say I am growing a serious like for this Milwaukee team, Brogdon looks a real talent and both Parker and Antetokounmpo are fantastic. Probably my favorite team in the East right now along with Raptors.
Giannis with a monster night at Bulls two days ago. I have to say I am growing a serious like for this Milwaukee team, Brogdon looks a real talent and both Parker and Antetokounmpo are fantastic. Probably my favorite team in the East right now along with Raptors.
Giannis has been a monster for most of the season, LeBron-esque combo of size and ball handling.
Giannis is going to be a superstar, for sure. A future top 10 player in the league.
Easily. On current form he's probably been a top 10 player this season (top 20 easily). Will be a franchise player for Bucks, as much as I love CJ, I wish Portland would have drafted Giannis before him (McCollum was drafted at 9 or 10, Giannis was 15).
Yep. Seeing him play yesterday, he's really terrific. And when he plays PG, he's virtually unstoppable. Poor other PG, how do you defend against a player 20cm taller than you who is still as athletic as any other player.
Talking about his rival yesterday, I really don't like Mr. Triple Double as a player. For all his stats, he shits himself when it matters most. Yesterday he did a stupid turnover in the last seconds when they were chasing Bucks by two points.
Didn't he actually cost them twice in that dying minutes? I think he had a missed three before eventually missing opportunity to tie the game because he just ran straight into the traffic.
Bucks are 17-16. Hope they make playoffs this year, Middleton will be back around March/April and they could become a serious threat. I like that Giannis plays pretty much all positions, I think he will be a small forward in the future but a bit more of a point forward than you classic small forward. It's sort of good for the rest of the league that he does not have a 3-point shot (he's only shooting 29% this season and much less before) because he'd be literally unstoppable with his passing, athleticism, dunking and creativity.
Some monster performances this year, MVP will not be straightforward like it was last year. Shame nobody from Portland will even be in the running (nor will anybody make All-Star game, Lillard had a chance but point guard area is too crowded in the West, Curry and Westbrook are virtually locks and you have Harden, Paul also playing there).
Yeah point forward would be the most suited for him.
BTW January 15th cannot come soon enough, if there was one trade that made absolutely perfect sense for both teams involved it's Crabbe for Noel. 76ers get a reliable shooter who could develop into something better and can play two positions they're pretty poor in, Blazers get a center who they desperately need and improve their defense. Do it, Olshey.
Lopez and Vucevic have also been linked and while I like the fact that they would bring inside scoring, they would not help the defense one bit and defense has been our biggest issue. You have to somehow compensate for the lack of effort/skill from Lillard and CJ and you cannot do that when Plumlee is your center (as much as I like him for his playmaking ability, rebounding and improved scoring this season). Plumlee will be tried at PF if that trade happens IMO.
Olshey must be pretty terrified of not being able to make a trade as we'll be heavily in luxury tax territory next year with CJ going up to $25M. Even if we do Crabbe for Noel, we still have to somehow get rid of some deadwood like Meyers and even then we still won't be able to pay both Plumlee and Noel in the Summer when they are up for renewals. Crabbe has to go immediately, we cannot afford to be spending $18M on him and almost $90M on our entire backcourt (Lillard, McCollum, Crabbe and Turner) next year.
The contracts handed out this year were truly bizarre. Only Harkless is giving value at $10M a year, Turner has not been close to being a $17M player, ditto Crabbe at $17M (unless he is traded for Noel and therefore treated as an asset, I do not understand the decision to match Nets) and don't even get me started on Meyers Leonard.
Lopez and Vucevic have also been linked and while I like the fact that they would bring inside scoring, they would not help the defense one bit and defense has been our biggest issue. You have to somehow compensate for the lack of effort/skill from Lillard and CJ and you cannot do that when Plumlee is your center (as much as I like him for his playmaking ability, rebounding and improved scoring this season). Plumlee will be tried at PF if that trade happens IMO.
Olshey must be pretty terrified of not being able to make a trade as we'll be heavily in luxury tax territory next year with CJ going up to $25M. Even if we do Crabbe for Noel, we still have to somehow get rid of some deadwood like Meyers and even then we still won't be able to pay both Plumlee and Noel in the Summer when they are up for renewals. Crabbe has to go immediately, we cannot afford to be spending $18M on him and almost $90M on our entire backcourt (Lillard, McCollum, Crabbe and Turner) next year.
The contracts handed out this year were truly bizarre. Only Harkless is giving value at $10M a year, Turner has not been close to being a $17M player, ditto Crabbe at $17M (unless he is traded for Noel and therefore treated as an asset, I do not understand the decision to match Nets) and don't even get me started on Meyers Leonard.
His progress has been insane, I wouldn't be surprised to see him adding three pointers in his arsenal. And then the rest of the league will suffer.
Small forward probably makes most sense for him, but I wouldn't be surprised if he continues in Magic Johnson's role. He has all the tools for it.
All depends on who they can get at point guard. I think as a team they are set at both forward positions for many, many years with Giannis and Jabari, I like what Henson offers at center - no nonsense approach, very good defense and improved offense this season, and Middleton is great at shooting guard (though he also plays well at SF from what I remember).
They lack that fifth man IMO, I like Dellavedova but he's a back up guard IMO, and a good one. They did not manage to draft Jamal Murray or Kris Dunn in the Summer, and did not get a big free agent because they were not available. Brogdon however was a complete steal as a second rounder, he's probably top 5 rookies this year (not that he has much competition as this rookie class is nowhere near last years), I think of him more as a shooting guard than point guard but he's been growing into PG role lately. Maybe he'll be the future there. I wonder where Thon Maker will eventually end, in theory he's got all the tools to make it but I've not seen him much this season. They've been shopping Monroe for a while too, maybe they'll somehow manage to land a good point guard for him - would Miami consider Monroe + first round pick for Dragic for example?
Interesting team to say the least.
They lack that fifth man IMO, I like Dellavedova but he's a back up guard IMO, and a good one. They did not manage to draft Jamal Murray or Kris Dunn in the Summer, and did not get a big free agent because they were not available. Brogdon however was a complete steal as a second rounder, he's probably top 5 rookies this year (not that he has much competition as this rookie class is nowhere near last years), I think of him more as a shooting guard than point guard but he's been growing into PG role lately. Maybe he'll be the future there. I wonder where Thon Maker will eventually end, in theory he's got all the tools to make it but I've not seen him much this season. They've been shopping Monroe for a while too, maybe they'll somehow manage to land a good point guard for him - would Miami consider Monroe + first round pick for Dragic for example?
Interesting team to say the least.
Warriors. Imagine being in Portlaind shoes, and within 2 minutes, Warriors scoring 4 three pointers from four attempts, each one by a different player. Surely, psychologically it would be a bad feeling.
Kudos to them for giving a match to Warriors though, but when both KD and Curry are on form, you just cannot defeat them.
Kudos to them for giving a match to Warriors though, but when both KD and Curry are on form, you just cannot defeat them.
Durant's season stats are 25+PPG and ~60%FG (along with his regulat 40% from 3pt). That's the highest FG% he's had in his career. What a fecking incredible scoring machine.
A bit lower than that (.53FG with .395 from 3pt and .86 from free throws). He likely is not going to join the .4 .5 .9 club, but be very near it.
What is more amazing is that he leads Warriors in rebounds too with 8.6 rebounds per match. He's on top 30 on assists on the league (third in his team after Green and Curry), and is on thirteenth position in the league when it comes to blocks! So, he is leading the best team in NBA in points, rebounds and blocks, while also having good assist stats.
For comparison, James is scoring slightly less points than him with a lower accuracy on all 3pt, 2pt and free throws, is making less rebounds than him, and less blocks than him, while being better at assists and steals.
Still think that Harden should win the MVP considering that he is doing miracles for a shit team, but Durant should be considered too. At the moment, my top 3 for MVP (in order) would be Harden, Kawli and Durant with essentially nothing to separate Leonard and Durant.
Our season is in free fall (Knicks). We need Porzingis back ASAP.
I mean the effective field goal% obviously, it's 0.594, and his highest in his career. 0.53 is a lot lower than 0.60, no one would round it off there.
Even if he has lesser points per game (not by much) he's having a better season that last, and that is likely to continue.
James' role for the Cavs couldn't be more different to that of KD. He's their main playmaker, before anything else. Also he doesn't really give a shit about the regular season. He could have won the 5th to match MJ if he wanted but it doesn't really matter to him, or anyone else really. I'm waiting for the playoffs myself.
Sure, James always conserves energy for the playoff. However, I think that this might have been his last chance for a season MVP and to equal Jordan's. Still, it would have been difficult with the form that Harden is showing.
On other news, Giannis was fantastic again, scoring a winning 2 pointer in the last second of the match. It is a big thing to say, but he might reach James level. He has all the tools. For a man of his size, he has brilliant skills on the ball, is incredibly athletic, has a high basketball IQ and is becoming a good defender. The only thing he lacks is three pointers, but he is still just 22.
When the current generation of superstars slow down, him and Davis will be the best players in the NBA. It is known!
It can happen to everyone, but it happens too often to him.
There is no way that he should be in discussion for MVP.
There is no way that he should be in discussion for MVP.
You are doubting Mr Triple Double again. Go away.
Love how sometimes he's just taking shots from terrible, terrible positions not even looking for someone to pass to.
Love how sometimes he's just taking shots from terrible, terrible positions not even looking for someone to pass to.
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Amazing game from Portland today at Oracle. Against any other team I think they would have won imo.
This is why Durant left....
It's incredible that no manager seems to able to tell him that he must not take any threes unless he's wide open. A career 30% shooter taking nearly 6 attempts per game from beyond the arc.
Yeah Portland are picking up some decentish form. Wins against Sacramento and Minnesota and now this close game against Warriors. Hoping for a nice win over Lakers tonight but 8th seed is still the best we can do and I am actually pretty sure we would be better off with a lottery pick than losing 4-0 to GSW in the first round.
It's incredible that no manager seems to able to tell him that he must not take any threes unless he's wide open. A career 30% shooter taking nearly 6 attempts per game from beyond the arc.
He will never get MVP without a very high PPG as his team will not even be top 4 in the conference so he has to compensate with high PPG, so naturally these 25-35 shots a game have to happen often. Even the whole team is organized in such way that he can get as many rebounds and shots as possible.