2018 NBA Post Season

[ozzyman314]

Since no one as brought it up yet, The NBA Awards. 

 

Kia NBA Most Valuable Player
Anthony Davis, New Orleans Pelicans
James Harden, Houston Rockets
LeBron James, Cleveland Cavaliers

Kia NBA Rookie of the Year
Donovan Mitchell, Utah Jazz
Ben Simmons, Philadelphia 76ers
Jayson Tatum, Boston Celtics

Kia NBA Sixth Man Award
Eric Gordon, Houston Rockets
Fred VanVleet, Toronto Raptors
Lou Williams, LA Clippers

Kia NBA Defensive Player of the Year
Anthony Davis, New Orleans Pelicans
Joel Embiid, Philadelphia 76ers
Rudy Gobert, Utah Jazz

Kia NBA Most Improved Player
Clint Capela, Houston Rockets
Spencer Dinwiddie, Brooklyn Nets
Victor Oladipo, Indiana Pacers

NBA Coach of the Year
Dwane Casey, Toronto Raptors
Quin Snyder, Utah Jazz
Brad Stevens, Boston Celtics

 

 

MVP will probably be James (just because).  But I think Harden deserves it. 

Sophomore Ben Simmons will win Rookie of The Year

I think most can agree Brad Stevens deserves Coach of The Year, but I can see the argument for Quin.

Spoiler

LMAO If Casey won though  

 

The Rest IDK. 

[truepg]

The absence of Nikola Jokic on the most improved list has me really wondering.

[truepg]

5 minutes ago, Kaz said:

Doesn’t matter much because Dipo has that award in the bag

 

His phenomenal season could've at least been aknowledged. It was clearly superior to Capela's and Dinwiddie's.

[dfwabel]

13 minutes ago, truepg said:

 

His phenomenal season could've at least been aknowledged. It was clearly superior to Capela's and Dinwiddie's.

He finished 2nd last season.

 

He cannot "improve" enough to garner the award 12 months later.

[Digby]

Statistically it's difficult to make the case that Jokic's year-over-year improvement met or surpassed the three actual nominees. Nothing against Jokic, but the award criteria is what it is. (Really, it's Capela and Oladipo's, even Dinwiddie is a tier behind on that.)

[truepg]

4 minutes ago, dfwabel said:

He finished 2nd last season.

 

He cannot "improve" enough to garner the award 12 months later.

 

Ok, forgot that. It was this season, though, that ultimately put him on the radar for me and brought him into All-Star conversation.

[The Six]

Which comes out first, Infinity War Part 2 or the next NBA playoff game?

[BBTV]

On 5/18/2018 at 12:31 AM, ozzyman314 said:

 

Sophomore Ben Simmons will win Rookie of The Year

 

I really don't understand this argument.  I get that being around an NBA team does benefit you, and a lot of things might not be as new to you and as difficult to adjust to as they are for a true rookie, but it's not like he was even full-speed practicing, let alone playing in actual competitive situations until this year, so the "sophomore" thing just doesn't apply.  

 

I'm not sure what the limits are for "rookie" status, but in MLB you can play a couple of months and still be a rookie next year, in which case I'd understand the objection.  Not in this case though, since he never set foot on an NBA court until this year - and was still 19 or 20 when he did so.

 

I think you're just upset that he made your beloved Celtics look silly and confused as he dominated them every which way possible in that series.  #TrustTheProcess

[Digby]

1 hour ago, Kaz said:

He did not make the jump this season that Capela did though.  Last year was his breakout year; this year was just incremental improvement building off of that year - which isn't what the award is for. 

 

Dinwiddle seems to be just be there to fill a spot compared to Capela and Oladipo; I admit I wasn't following Nets games very closely this year but he seemed to be more of a mere beneficiary of extended touches when Lin and DLo (and even RHJ at times) were out than a revitalized player.

 

Nah you're right, Dinwiddie certainly took a step but it does seem arbitrary; that third spot may as well have gone to Andre Drummond or Jaylen Brown or hell, Dwight Powell. 

 

I don't really think the "finalist" thing is necessary for these awards. It's just a silly way to wring more drama and content out of it, but they've certainly gone into overdrive on those points for the NBA Awards in recent years, so I'm not surprised.

[ozzyman314]

Lebron bringing The Celtics back down to Earth. 

Like anyone really expected The Celtics to sweep though. 

[DG_ThenNowForever]

27 minutes ago, ozzyman314 said:

Lebron bringing The Celtics back down to Earth. 

Like anyone really expected The Celtics to sweep though. 

 

The Cavs continue to show LeBron is not enough. LeBron + shooters only works if the other guys make their shots.

 

Also, you can't discount that the Boston arena has become murder for road teams. If I were Boston, I'd be happy to have at least one more home game, and then maybe two.

[ozzyman314]

2 minutes ago, DG_Now said:

 

The Cavs continue to show LeBron is not enough. LeBron + shooters only works if the other guys make their shots.

 

Also, you can't discount that the Boston arena has become murder for road teams. If I were Boston, I'd be happy to have at least one more home game, and then maybe two.

Likewise Celtics are now 1-5 on the road in The Playoffs. 

Homecourt really has been the difference for Them. 

 

This is really just a reverse of Game 1. Celtics played pretty damn bad while everything just seemed to work for The Cavs. 

Lebron really needs to go all out on both offense & defense to win. Even then that won't work unless even he gets some help.

 

 

[Unocal]

Cavs may be long in the tooth, but they still have bite.

[Unocal]

14 minutes ago, Kaz said:

It wasn't even LeBron going ballistic though; no one on the Cavs was missing shots and the Celtics couldn't buy a bucket.

 

Games 2 and 3 really highlighted that the Cavs need their shooters to be on point to win, even if LeBron goes off.

 

The margin for error is thin, as we saw in games 1-2-3 as well as the Indiana series.

[Unocal]

25 minutes ago, ozzyman314 said:

Likewise Celtics are now 1-5 on the road in The Playoffs. 

Homecourt really has been the difference for Them. 

 

This is really just a reverse of Game 1. Celtics played pretty damn bad while everything just seemed to work for The Cavs. 

Lebron really needs to go all out on both offense & defense to win. Even then that won't work unless even he gets some help.

 

 

 

But I don’t think the Cavs are better than Milwaukee/Philly.

[Krz]

Can Lebron do this? Honestly I wouldn’t be surprised, and I kinda hope he does. 

[who do you think]

To say that that was a case of the Cavs making shots and the Celtics not making shots, that oversimplifies what happened and honestly gives too much credit to the Celtics. They played a ****ing horrible game. Cleveland making shots may have been how the game started, but once things started to get out of hand, Smart/Morris/Rozier helped the Cavs stretch the lead by taking (and missing) their usual ill-advised early shots and the entire team was truly awful on defense. I lost count of how many times the Cavs got an easy cut to the basket for a clean dunk while all Celtic defenders just sat around all doing the Confused Travolta. The Cavs smothered Horford and nobody else stepped up. Boston played like a team that had their 2-0 lead and didn't see any real reason to break their asses for a win. Cleveland gave much more effort and was the hungrier team. By a mile.

[Unocal]

The question is how hungry will Cleveland be going forward?

 

the narrative is that the Celtics are the hungrier team and that the Cavs are an entitled aging champion.

 

 Cleveland  knows the clock is ticking: oldest team in the league, uncertain future, trying to stave off the inevitable (I can’t see them bringing back the whole band back together next year).

 

When you are trying to stave off Father Time, the Cavs play desperate knowing they want to squeeze out 1 more Finals run.

 

where the hell was this effort in the 2nd half of game 2?

 

do the Cavs play when they want to play?

[DG_ThenNowForever]

6 hours ago, who do you think said:

To say that that was a case of the Cavs making shots and the Celtics not making shots, that oversimplifies what happened and honestly gives too much credit to the Celtics. They played a ****ing horrible game. Cleveland making shots may have been how the game started, but once things started to get out of hand, Smart/Morris/Rozier helped the Cavs stretch the lead by taking (and missing) their usual ill-advised early shots and the entire team was truly awful on defense. I lost count of how many times the Cavs got an easy cut to the basket for a clean dunk while all Celtic defenders just sat around all doing the Confused Travolta. The Cavs smothered Horford and nobody else stepped up. Boston played like a team that had their 2-0 lead and didn't see any real reason to break their asses for a win. Cleveland gave much more effort and was the hungrier team. By a mile.

 

It's kind of like the whole "establish the run" deal in football, isn't it? If you're not hitting outside shots, the defense doesn't have to respect you, and can clog the interior more. They close off the easier options in favor of LeBron going 3-23 from three and JR Smith doing god knows what.

 

What did happen last night, however, was the Celtics looked like a team without its best player and had no one to fix things when it went wrong.

 

(Also, sidenote, I hate when I keep reading the Celtics have been without their two best players all season. Yes, Irving is a great, top 7 player in the league. But Hayward? I think we'd need to see more than six minutes to determine how he fits in Boston's system. Presumably well, of course, but the Jazz didn't seem to miss him.)

[DG_ThenNowForever]

The Warriors are playing an interesting type of defense where they're allowing easy layups that they somehow know Houston is going to miss. 11 so far!