God no.
NBA 2019-2020
- Thread starter altodevil
- Start date
God no.
Ty Lue was the assistant there already and he's been linked with a few jobs, I was never sure of how good he was at Cleveland but he's a coach with a link to the team and he's won a championship so I would imagine he's the favourite. Sam Cassell who is another assistant at the Clippers will be linked and I hope that Nate McMillan gets a job, he was unlucky to lose his job in Indiana having done good work. Plus there's other assistant coaches around the league like Becky Hammon or Ime Udoka who will surely get a head coaching job at some stage but maybe not immediately at a side that is in win-now mode.
Yeah.... I did not get the impression that he coached them well. Granted, I can only tell from his pressers and the games I've been watching. It's also not so much that they lost against, but rather how. Leading 3-1, you expect a good coach to bring that home.
As a Laker fan myself I have been so happy to see how LeBron has taken this franchise back from the blackness of the abyss it has been in over the last years. He seems to have a point to prove and I wouldn´t bet against him holding the trophy once again. Don´t care what people say about him he is a one off player and will become more of a legend when he retires.
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Knowing absolutely nothing about the coaches in the league, I always found the snippets we got to see of Doc's team talks in the bubble completely cringeworthy. Didn't seem to be saying anything useful and wasn't especially charismatic either. "Let's go... more... let's defend and... attack. Let's... focus." Cheers Doc.
Was a slightly better version of those clips we saw of Giggs when he was interim manager at United.
Same. I'm the kind of fan the 'real' fans hate. I had a passing interest in basketball and watched them a couple of times in LA at the back end of Kobe's time and from then on started following them. I felt like a 90s Liverpool fan as they've been useless ever since. It's nice to see them back to winning ways (not Liverpool).
That’s just the bits they show on tv. They never broadcast any tactical stuff, so that’s what’s left. It’s more or less the same for every coach.
I know, but it just seemed particularly mind-numbing stuff with Doc. I thought that more than I did with any of the other coaches that we've seen in a similar way through the play-offs.
Yeah they won't hire a newbie coach for the role now. McMillan hasn't done much in the playoffs and been fired by Indiana, not a good candidate. I think it will be either Lue or Cassell. D'Antoni is not a good fit, he had been linked with Philadelphia but apparently they are now looking at Doc too. This year has probably the best job openings in this century: Philadelphia, Houston, Clippers, New Orleans must all be very appealing jobs, Bulls and Nets have just hired Donovan and Nash, Indiana and OKC are not terrible and have openings too. Pretty sure Doc gets one of those jobs too (Houston?).
I feel like it may be a very strong year on the trade market too, with free agency being rather poor and many teams feeling they must be pretty close to contending, and non-contending teams having some valuable assets like Paul, Oladipo, Beal.
Heat would have to shoot lights out to have a chance here, though they have the personnel to actually do that with Dragic, Robinson and Herro (to an extent Crowder if he can maintain his form). This could be similar to Heat v Mavericks in 2011. I guess Lakers in 5 or 6 though.
I fear for NBA Finals Jimmy Butler though. He's so intense even in regular season, has upped his intensity even more in these playoffs and now it's the biggest stage of all so I fear he might kill somebody.
Lakers have the two best players on the floor, heat have the next 4/5, it’s going to 6/7
herro is incredible, next year when he’s a more important piece. He’ll probably start at PG he’ll average 20/25 for the season
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Crowder's shooting form was absolutely abysmal in the conference finals ever since game 1 he shat from the 3 pt line, and missed some crucial looks which could have cost the heat dearly. If anything he has to massively improve on that front because him shooting well gives miami a good extra weapon from range.
His 3P shooting stats.
Game 1: 5-9
Game 2: 3-10
Game 3: 2-10
Game 4: 1-7
Game 5: 0-6
Game 6: 1-5
Combined 7-38 in last 5 games.
I probably remember him shooting well from previous games. He’s always been a super streaky shooter so not surprised by those numbers really.Crowder's shooting form was absolutely abysmal in the conference finals ever since game 1 he shat from the 3 pt line, and missed some crucial looks which could have cost the heat dearly. If anything he has to massively improve on that front because him shooting well gives miami a good extra weapon from range.
His 3P shooting stats.
Game 1: 5-9
Game 2: 3-10
Game 3: 2-10
Game 4: 1-7
Game 5: 0-6
Game 6: 1-5
Combined 7-38 in last 5 games.
Sixers are going to get Doc, aren't they
Crowder's shooting form was absolutely abysmal in the conference finals ever since game 1 he shat from the 3 pt line, and missed some crucial looks which could have cost the heat dearly. If anything he has to massively improve on that front because him shooting well gives miami a good extra weapon from range.
His 3P shooting stats.
Game 1: 5-9
Game 2: 3-10
Game 3: 2-10
Game 4: 1-7
Game 5: 0-6
Game 6: 1-5
Combined 7-38 in last 5 games.
I knew that would happen after G1. As a Boston fan I was glad to see him play so well in G1 because I knew he'd start chucking shots up and it was unsustainable and sure enough...
Getting more nervous by the minute now and it's still fecking 17 hours until kick-off
Getting more nervous by the minute now and it's still fecking 17 hours until kick-off
heat in 6
Lakers in 5, again. Hope Miami win.
What in the world is that abomination. Yikes.
I don't normally watch NBA, but I'm trying to get into it as it's now on live over here. Can someone explain to me how the Lakers went from not even making the playoffs last year to being the favourites this year?
Last year: no Anthony Davis, LeBron injured for quite a bit
This year: LeBron fit and added Anthony Davis (a top 5 player in the league), combined with the fact that Milwaukee and the Clippers choked in the playoffs. The Lakers weren't favorites for the title going into the bubble in July.
The LAkers traded most of their young core for Anthony Davis last year. One of the best big men, maybe the 5th best player overall in the NBA. Pairing him with Lebron creates a fantastic duo that is really hard to defend against.
5th best player? Who's better? Unless you're counting KD and Curry?
Which for the record i don't think Steph is better than AD, but i can understand people thinking he is
Which for the record i don't think Steph is better than AD, but i can understand people thinking he is
4 of Giannis, KD, Kawhi, Luka, Harden, Curry I’d guess..... or you can just take out Curry-KD.
Don’t completely agree, but theres consensus top 5 players at the mo plus AD.
Don’t completely agree, but theres consensus top 5 players at the mo plus AD.
He's a consensus top 5 player but top 3 at best. You won't find many people placing him above LeBron and Giannis. Arguably around Kawhi territory, and better than Luka imo.
Harden doesn't belong in these kind of discussions to me.
Harden doesn't belong in these kind of discussions to me.
LeBron, Giannis, Kawhi, KD, Steph, Harden and then there's AD and Luka.
I saw James Harden literally carrying a team with everybody being injured to a playoff spot while AD couldn't get his team even close to 0.500 and then he quit and ask for a trade. So I know who is a better individual player. This Lakers team is LeBron's team. AD is great but there are better players than him in the league.
I saw James Harden literally carrying a team with everybody being injured to a playoff spot while AD couldn't get his team even close to 0.500 and then he quit and ask for a trade. So I know who is a better individual player. This Lakers team is LeBron's team. AD is great but there are better players than him in the league.
I've seen Anthony Davis literally playing all-NBA level defense and then I've seen Harden play defense. So I know who is a better individual player.
See? Works both ways.
It works but it depends on how you view the game. For me what is important is how much you can impact the game, some players impact the game with offense, some do with defense and some do with both. I don't care if you don't play defense as long as you impact the game in a way that your team can win. James Harden with no defense was in a playoff spot and AD with his All NBA defense was below the mighty Timberwolves.
I understand if you want to do the defense and offense checkbox, but it's not how I view it.
Fair enough. To me a B+ player on offense and A player on defense will always be a better all-around basketball player than an A+ and C one.
If you're talking about "impacting a game" or "guiding your team to a W", you could make a case for Bryant being a top 5 player all-time for example. That's not how it works when ranking players for me.
And being in a playoff spot doesn't matter much to me, vice versa. It's what you do in the playoffs that counts and Harden hasn't been able to get his team far enough (bar 2018 arguably but he played with another HOF'er back then). His game might work in the regular season but we haven't seen that in the playoffs so far, and I doubt it will ever come to that.
I'd rather have Jokic than Davis
I think it's close. I'd probably just about have Jokic as well but AD is a great defender.
I understand it but I don't add up offense and defense to see who's better. Steph Curry had the greatest singular season in history of regular season without playing defense. Now LeBron plays great defense for the Lakers but back in 2018 he carried the Cavs to the finals without playing that much defense and it was arguably his greatest playoff run or at worst top 3. So I think there are a lot of ways to impact the game even if you don't play defense.
As for Kobe a lot of people have him top 5 specially ex players. He's not on my top 5 but he's at worst a top 10-12 player all time. And all the players that you can have an argue to put above him are proven winners. It's not like they didn't win and Kobe did.
And I agree with you, playoff performance matters. Harden's playoff performances are the reason that I don't have him above Steph and I think I'm ready to put Luka and AD above him next year. So it's kind of out of respect that I have him 6th for now. And to be honest AD does not have a playoff record that you can say yeah he's top 5 either. Definitely not with the Pelicans and he's having a great run as a Laker but he's having the luxury of playing with the best player. That allows him to have a great great performance and then next game have 2 rebounds. See, not all that consistent. LeBron is the reason they are in the finals. And I know that AD might actually win FMVP over LeBron but it's still LeBron's team. I'm ready to put AD ahead of Harden and even top 5, but I need to see more of what he's doing now next year.
Was literally a few days back when the entire internet was jumping on LeBron calling him being carried and saved by AD when he went scoreless in the final quarter.
People are flip flopping hard with pushing their own narratives on this Lakers run with basic talk on whether it's Bron or ad or ad or Bron completely ignoring what the entire roster has been doing.
So what? I didn't do it. I never said it. You can't judge my opinion based on what other people on the internet say. It's my opinion.
I don't think there's a clear cut best player in the league and the reason for that is exactly what you mentioned. They all have good games and bad games. That's why I rank my top 5 based on their last performance because I don't think none of them are head and shoulders above the others. There's a line in Sopranos "you're as good as your last envelope" and that's how I rank my top 5. LeBron as great as he is, is not the undisputed best player no matter what anymore , but he's definitely not being carried by Anthony Davis. There's just no way.
genuinely made me laugh.He's not but neither is he having a free ride getting to do all he wants because he has Bron like you think when in reality it has been him who has pulled this team through in tough moments especially when Bron failed to do so spectacularly.
Nuggets would be 2-1 up in the conference finals if it wasn't for AD getting them past the line when Bron was busy stinking the place with bricks and being a turnover machine and even chickening out of the final play which was drawn for him. That's a potential knockout blow.
I love Bron and would love him to go on and win this ring and further his legacy but anyone saying AD has been getting an easy time because he has Bron on this Lakers roster is absolute bs unrelated to how this Lakers run has actually panned out. His impact on both ends of the court has been as important as anything Bron has done this playoffs, if not more.
It isn't mutually exclusive though. AD benefits from playing for the lakers in a way no other team can help a player.
I just said he's having a great playoff run as a Laker, I said he might even win the FMVP over LeBron, and I said I'm willing to put him top 5 if he continues to do what he's doing now next year. How do you get free ride out of these lines exactly?
I said he's having the luxury of playing with the best player in the world which he has. That is just what is. The other player in the conversation is playing with mighty Russell Westbrook. Unless you want to compare Westbrook to LeBron I don't see any point in this conversation.
I literally specifically cited the exact game events of a conference finals game where Bron did exactly what you'd expect from a bad Westbrook show but you can't seem to move past the best player in the world nothing else matters stuff. Watch what's actually happening in the matches Lakers have played.
Poor Harden - let's ignore the fact he's gone out almost every time to a team superior to his, but he's a playoff failure. They were a Paul injury away from overthrowing the crazy ass fully fit overpowered Dubs, why does he not credit for leading that.... because he did, his and Pauls intensity to want to beat them upped the level of all around him, yes he didn't shoot well at times, but what a crazy attempt at taking them down it was. LeBron got angry at his teammates and they demotivated by it - then f'd off to Lakers. Harden's never been on a favourite, and he's mostly the reason the Rockets have had runs.
Harden's great. But this Westbrook thing has ran it's course, maybe so has his time in Houston.... maybe not. Team him up with Giannis....
People put waaaaaaaay too much emphasis on playoffs in America, it's silly. Why even have a season anymore?
Harden's great. But this Westbrook thing has ran it's course, maybe so has his time in Houston.... maybe not. Team him up with Giannis....
People put waaaaaaaay too much emphasis on playoffs in America, it's silly. Why even have a season anymore?