Warriors will cruise to the title as long as their best 5-6 players are healthy.
NBA 2018-2019
- Thread starter altodevil
- Start date
Otto to the blazers is a good shout actually. Yeah his contract sucks but you guys are at that Limbo where you either try to go for it with the current core or blow it up. Question is which assets would you give up for him?
Only if that one is Steph. And even then, in playoffs, they have done fine without him. In 2017 without KD, they destroyed Blazers and Jazz.
I don't think that Klay and Green are super important. Obviously, Klay can suddenly go nuclear and score 50 points in 30 minutes, but he also has many bad performances in the playoff stage.
I wouldn’t be so sure. They struggled at full health against the Rockets last season with CP3 sidelined for half the games of the WCF. They’re still heavy favourites but it’s not a sure thing as it had been previous seasons. The top teams in the East I think would match up pretty well against them.
I'd give them Aminu (expiring) + Harkless + 2019 first round pick. They will shed salary this year already and from next year they will be saving $15million a year + have a young player from the draft. We'd need to add another player as salaries won't match but it could be Swanigan or any of the scrubs who are not getting playing time. Aminu is our starting 4 but I think Porter could play at the 4, we still have Collins on the bench and we could run some other lineups with Layman at 4 too. Aminu isn't really a power forward and he's not that good either.
We could also give them Meyers instead of Aminu but his contract carries into the next year and he has actually been all right as a stretch big this season.
Yeah probably. But they won't have an easier finals matchup than the one they had last year, not even close. Any team that makes it out of the East this year will give them a much harder time than Cavs last year.
They beat 8th seed Portland who were playing without a center for the entire series. Jazz were also not that great and coming off a 7-game series against Clippers. Also the West is much more stacked this year, I think if KD goes down they will struggle too. Any of the big 4 goes down and the replacement they need to bring off the bench is a billion times worse and it does matter because they play as a collective, even Thompson not being there hurts them because it reduces the number of open shots they get, and if Green goes back it hurts playmaking.
True, but I don't see any team better than the Houston side from last season.
Yeah me neither. A couple of them could get there with 1 trade though. If any of Raptors, Bucks and Sixers made a deal for Beal without giving up any of their major players they could get there and cause a match up nightmare. E.g. if Bucks traded Brogdon, Snell and Della plus picks for Beal, they are up there. If Sixers dealt Chandler, Fultz and a collection of picks, or if Raptors offered some of their second unit players and picks. I think Beal is the ultimate prize in the trade market currently, could be another player in 2 months. I think there are definitely some teams who are 1 piece away and those teams could be aggressive in the next few weeks.
Would take a flying Dubs vs Beal in any of those teams. Beal, Simmons, Embiid, and Butler looks pretty good and will have 4 all-stars too, but it ain't on Dubs level.
As Klay said, the only people who can beat them are themselves. Green and Durant seem to have been doing a pretty good job at it.
As Klay said, the only people who can beat them are themselves. Green and Durant seem to have been doing a pretty good job at it.
If healthy, the Warriors will sweep the Finals.
I can put $1k that they won’t.
I don’t know. Matchups are important. If you have good defenders and a strong big player who can cause problems in the paint, you could really do well against the Warriors. Remember how Spurs were hammering them before they injured Kawhi, it was this thing I am talking about - they would have probably still won the series but lost that game because of matchup issues.
Warriors have a glaring hole at center which will create issues with rim protection too. Giannis would have a field day there.
They will probably win the league but it won’t be that easy.
I doubt it. Boogie Cousins will be ready for playoffs, and KD, Green and Iggy should be able to deal with Giannis. Will Giannis be able to deal with KD though? Hard to know, but unlikely.
What? Giannis is an incredible defender, probably the best in the league. KD is great but he would be up against the best defender in his position.
You can’t have all of them dealing with Giannis though because the remaining 4 players on Bucks team are good shooters and you need to pay attention to them too.
I think Cousins won’t help them at all. I doubt he will be anywhere near his best and I don’t think his playing style suits them at all. He’s a huge distraction too.
Warriors have played one good team in the playoffs last season, Rockets. They struggled a lot in that series. They found it easy against Pelicans, Spurs and Cavs as those were simply not very good teams.
They are the best team in the league and make the whole league boring in the end but they are not really invincible. They would have lost to Rockets last season if CP3 hadn’t got injured or even if Rockets did not go on that astonishing run of 27 missed threes in a row. They hit 4 or 5 of them, which would still be beyond appalling and they would have actually won that game 7. I don’t know why there’s perception that Warriors just steamrolled through teams last year.
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One thing that hasn't changed in the NBA is that shooters seem to struggle deep into the playoffs, those 3s just seem to stop going in. Either way, when you play GS you have to either let Steph or KD essentially play 1 on 1 which is just death. And if you run a defense that switches everything, they will get a matchup they like.
Klay had some poor offensive performances in playoffs, but bad performances? Don't think so. The guy is one of the best perimeter defenders in the league, and his defence was always great in playoffs. Dubs were also missing Iguodala against Rockets. Yeah yeah, Iggy is their 5th best player, but he is a key player nontheless. If everybody stays fit the dubs beat the rockets in 5. Or if instead of Paul for the last 2 games the rockets lost PJ Tucker, the Dubs would have crushed them in those 2 games. PJ was the single most important key of the rockets D against the dubs, Capela was a non factor most of the series, and it was that defence that made the rockets competitive against GS
And i think the Bucs and Raptors have a legitimate shot at the Warriors in the finals
And i think the Bucs and Raptors have a legitimate shot at the Warriors in the finals
How good is Doncic gonna be in a few years?
He's going to average in the 20-9-8 region for most of the next decade. If he were more explosive he'd have been a better version of Ben Simmons. As it is, he's going to be in the same ballpark
Or to frame it better: he's going to be the second best european player in NBA history
He's amazing. The best thing about him is that he literally plays like a 30-year old experienced pro, it's so easy to forget he's not even 20 yet.
Awful. This team is going nowhere.
What a night anyway, Bucks lost to Suns at home and Sixers lost to Cavs - also at home. Knicks beat Pelicans too.
What a night anyway, Bucks lost to Suns at home and Sixers lost to Cavs - also at home. Knicks beat Pelicans too.
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No, it’s a trend, it’s killing me and I will definitely get myself fooled again in the future. They win a few games in a row, then come up against a good team and get spanked and take weeks to recover. This Warriors team without Draymond and Curry was completely bearable and there’s absolutely no excuse for losing to them by 28 points. No defense, no passing, just awful. I woke up for this shit in the middle of the night too.you were hyped on them last week! Probably just an off-game. I'm sure they'l be fine.
They’ll win 46-48 games again, bump into any half decent team in the playoffs and lose 4-2 at best and get swept at worst. Front office is not willing to many any significant changes to the roster either so we are locked into this core for the next 2 years before Turner, Harkless and Meyers expire. Basically the definition of NBA purgatory, not bad enough to have good picks but not good enough to compete. It’s not even like we will have cap space to do anything either, we will pay tax for this team.
Doncic has the advantage of being able to shoot, and that means a lot in the playoffs. Think that he'll become a better player than Simmons.
About being the second best ever European player, very possible but Pau Gasol was really really good, and I see Doncic reaching Gasol/Parker level. Hard to see someone reaching Dirk's level.
@Revan Giannis is going to be the best ever european. I think Doncic should reach Dirk's level. If the rules keep changing in the offence's favour, i can see him becoming better than Dirk
Shit, totally forgot about him. Though agree, Giannis is incredible, he has a very good shot at becoming the greatest European player ever, and only the second European player to win a MVP award.
Doncic above Nowitzki? I really don't see it, but he is just 20 so everything can happen. I see him being a top 5 European player but not Giannis/Nowitzki level.
Good win last night. Bit fortunate to be honest. As an aside, it was pointed out during the telecast that this is the first time since 1979 that the Dubs have played the Kings and they've both had a winning record. 
I'm sure this will be me in a few weeks
Haha lets see. Was listening to a podcast recently where they quoted some of Memphis defensive stats. They were obviously very impressive but also totally unsustainable over a longer period of time. On the other hand Conley was shooting badly at the beginning of season and he’s been lights out recently, and some of the injured players are about to return. I mean Wayne Selden was playing power forward off the bench. What is even the starting lineup when everyone is fit and who plays at 2?
I think Memphis will make the playoffs or barely miss out and will convey the pick to Celtics this year. It’s good in a way because if you want to then rebuild you won’t have the Kings situation where you may have a good young team but no pick in the same year.
I like Jaren Jackson Jr a lot. Think he’s going to be tremendous. I’ve opened up a save on 2K with your guys and it’s actually plenty fun. Lost tonight’s game to the Knicks 98-96 then traded for Otto Porter and beat the Raptors.
Kuzma
What a pathetic performance by the Lakers tonight. I finally sat down and watched a full game since I had enough of football for the weekend, and they come up with this. Feck it, a depressing weekend this was.
Same here, or rather in the playoffs.
Orlando have a good team, I thought it was an entertaining game, they almost pulled off the comeback but were just a few stops short on the defensive end. Lakers will be fine, no one is really running away in the West, they look good for a top 4 seed.
this one is on Luke . orlando in penalty for the last 7 minutes , tied game , and we let kcp trow brick 3s .
Orlando are a solid team, but the Lakers were pretty bad. They started off very good, and then faded out till they fell apart in the 3rd quarter. And even in that better first half they had something like 13-14 turnovers. In the second half they struggled to score, everything was so forced and there was some pathetic shooting on show.
The turnovers we are forcing are unsustainable, and that will put more pressure on our offense to generate points. If Conley and Gasol have off nights, we don't have the 3rd option apart from Jackson to bring us home, unless someone randomly gets hot.
But the defense is for real. We may get beat, but we will slow the game down and make the other team work for every point. Preferably in a half-court setting. We want the refs to swallow their whistle, we suffer when the refs call every half brush as a foul.
Right now, starting 5 is:
Conley
Temple (he's cooled down on the offensive end recently, with some dumb turnovers bringing the ball out or in isolations)
Anderson (great defender, decent shooter, great at cutting to the rim)
Jaren "Blocboy J3" Jackson Jr (has a great 3 shot on him. Excellent in the paint on both ends. Getting better at defending without fouling. Reminds me of Z-Bo)
Gasol
Our bench is passable. Dillon Brooks is out with a knee sprain until the end of the year. Him coming back will boost our playoff chances. Rumors are we'll get Joakim Noah to provide rim protection and give Gasol more rest time on the bench.
Chandler Parsons is dead to me.
It has started.
We are worse though.
See?
Against the bum ass Knicks. We would have won against the Clippers if Conley didn't foul out. 2 avoidable losses. And we play Toronto next.It's a fool's game predicting who will make the playoffs this season with absolute certainty (apart from the Warriors).
Beastbrook is 9/51 from 3 this season
Beastbrook is 9/51 from 3 this season
He's going all in for another MVP, obviously.
Beastbrook is 9/51 from 3 this season
I'm surprised he's only shot 51 3's this season.