2018 NBA Post Season

[BBTV]

8 hours ago, OaklandIsBack said:

 

 

Yeah, and if the league office wasn’t trying to make a point about tanking and rigged the whole series against the Sixers, it could have been different. There were like 1,230 fouls against Boston that weren’t called, and the sixers didn’t foul once yet got called for a couple. They also had like 4 or 5 threes that were called twos just because guys had like an inch or two of their feet across the line. Boston had to cheat, and it was still close. 

 

8 hours ago, who do you think said:

Embiid is pathetic. More than happy to talk his inane brand of bull**** when he's winning, when he loses he scurries off to the locker room the instant the clock hits 0. Let the tears flow, you clown.

 

Crisis averted for Boston

 

In all seriousness, Embiid is one of the “good guys” in the NBA, and have not only the Celtics but also their fans tons of props after the game. It’s legitimately REALLY hard to hate a guy like him. 

 

 

[BBTV]

7 hours ago, rams80 said:

Per the terms of "the Process" this season was a waste for Philly.

 

Good job, good effort.

 

That’s how some are taking it, but I have to disagree - for now. Embiid is basically a rookie, as he’s played barely a full seasons worth of games, Simmons was a legit rookie who should improve (though if you can’t shoot you can’t shoot) and Fultz... well, looks like Coangelo got fleeced there. 

 

Gotta give it another season and see if Coangelo can complement those two, and if they can find a way to mask Simmons deficiencies. 

 

Simmons was -63, whole T.J. O’Connell was +42. That kinda says something. 

[Digby]

What struck me about Simmons specifically, and the Sixers in general, is that they were tripping themselves up because they weren't really playing fundamentally sound basketball. Which kind of surprises because I think Brown is a good coach, and I don't know if that's a ~Process~ side effect or what. But the flashy athleticism that served them well in the regular season got short-circuited by the Celtics D, and that seems like it sparked a feedback loop of panic play. As soon as adversity cropped up they started sailing passes to the first row or hucking up awful shots when better plays were available. To me much of the series came down to the Celtics having zero margin of error considering they have like 7 guys, and they navigated that successfully, while pouncing when Phila didn't.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

Their 16 wins in a row only included that one quality win over the Cavs, where they almost lost a 30-point lead. Winning a bunch of games over the  tanking Hawks, Mavs and Hornets turned out to be a mirage.

 

Though they were definitely impressive over Miami. So who knows. Sometimes young guys run out of gas. They'll be better next year.

[Bruins]

6 hours ago, BringBackTheVet said:

 

Yeah, and if the league office wasn’t trying to make a point about tanking and rigged the whole series against the Sixers, it could have been different. There were like 1,230 fouls against Boston that weren’t called, and the sixers didn’t foul once yet got called for a couple. They also had like 4 or 5 threes that were called twos just because guys had like an inch or two of their feet across the line. Boston had to cheat, and it was still close. 

 

Please stop. You just said in one paragraph that all of a sudden the league loves the Celtics, the Sixers didn't foul once during the series, that Boston somehow cheated or paid off the refs or something their way to a bogus 5 game series win, and that the officials should have given Philly 4 3s that were admittedly 2s just because. If you have to change the rules to win a series you were favored in, you probably have problems. This was not the Sixers year. Accept that Boston was a terrible matchup for them, and they didn't play nearly as well as they should have, but please stop this.

[OaklandIsBack]

I think he might have been joking

[DG_ThenNowForever]

Beautiful:

 

https://deadspin.com/the-philadelphia-76ers-should-blow-up-the-team-and-not-1825082317

 

Quote

After half a decade under head coach Brett Brown and four years and two contracts into the career of star center Joel Embiid—the team’s only All-Star—the Philadelphia 76ers and their fans face a moment of reckoning. It’s a painful one, but it won’t get any less painful if we ignore it. The facts are what they are, and they are plain to see—this iteration of the Sixers doesn’t have what it takes to get out of the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs. For years, long-sighted NBA fans and observers have used the Atlanta Hawks as a shorthand for the “playoff treadmill”—excellent regular seasons followed by short playoff stays, with nothing like progress in sight. Philadelphia’s just-concluded 52-30 regular season and 5-5 playoff exit was sparked by two literal Atlanta Hawks, Marco Belinelli and Ersan Ilyasova. Guys like Belinelli, Ilyasova, and J.J. Redick aren’t getting any younger, and we now have proof that relying on them at their absolute best just gets you a 4-1 loss in the second round of the NBA playoffs—the worst possible outcome in sports. The Sixers and everyone who cares about them can wish and hope that somehow it will be different next time, or they could be brave enough to look the facts in the face. If they do that, they’ll admit that it’s time to blow up the roster and look to the future.

 

It goes on. It's all tongue in cheek, but I love it.

[BBTV]

3 hours ago, DG_Now said:

Beautiful:

 

https://deadspin.com/the-philadelphia-76ers-should-blow-up-the-team-and-not-1825082317

 

 

It goes on. It's all tongue in cheek, but I love it.

 

I started typing a response before reading all of it, then got a good laugh.  I know that wasn't serious, but I'm not sure how anyone can call The Process a failure just yet, considering this was the teams' first run, and was lead by a real rookie and essentially a rookie.  In the little bit that I actually watched this year, Simmons looked simultaneously like the best player ever and the worst.  He gets all these triple doubles, highlight reel drives to the rim, but then either doesn't want to take a jump shot or simply can't make one, and often can't even make easy lay-ups.  Maybe it's in his head, I'm not sure - did he suck at shooting in college too?

 

 

3 hours ago, Bruins said:

Please stop. You just said in one paragraph that all of a sudden the league loves the Celtics, the Sixers didn't foul once during the series, that Boston somehow cheated or paid off the refs or something their way to a bogus 5 game series win, and that the officials should have given Philly 4 3s that were admittedly 2s just because. If you have to change the rules to win a series you were favored in, you probably have problems. This was not the Sixers year. Accept that Boston was a terrible matchup for them, and they didn't play nearly as well as they should have, but please stop this.

 

If you watch the way the Celtics repeatedly got turnovers on the Sixers' in bounds passes, you can see that in each case, the ball didn't bounce the way it's supposed to, which leads me to believe that they were taking a que from their neighbors and deflating the balls that the Sixers used for in-bounding.  If you take off your blinders, you'll see what the rest of the country saw - how it was so convenient that the refs were "distracted" while the Celtics did all their typical dirty stuff.  That series was only slightly more legitimate than WWE.

[Bruins]

7 minutes ago, BringBackTheVet said:

If you watch the way the Celtics repeatedly got turnovers on the Sixers' in bounds passes, you can see that in each case, the ball didn't bounce the way it's supposed to, which leads me to believe that they were taking a que from their neighbors and deflating the balls that the Sixers used for in-bounding.  If you take off your blinders, you'll see what the rest of the country saw - how it was so convenient that the refs were "distracted" while the Celtics did all their typical dirty stuff.  That series was only slightly more legitimate than WWE.

 

Okay, haha you got me . I... I think.

[BBTV]

For any Boston fan telling Embiid to "eat a dick"...

 

... you really need to go out of your way to dislike this guy.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

He's come a long way from hanging out in his hotel room drinking Shirley Temples.

1 hour ago, BringBackTheVet said:

 

I started typing a response before reading all of it, then got a good laugh.  I know that wasn't serious, but I'm not sure how anyone can call The Process a failure just yet, considering this was the teams' first run, and was lead by a real rookie and essentially a rookie.  In the little bit that I actually watched this year, Simmons looked simultaneously like the best player ever and the worst.  He gets all these triple doubles, highlight reel drives to the rim, but then either doesn't want to take a jump shot or simply can't make one, and often can't even make easy lay-ups.  Maybe it's in his head, I'm not sure - did he suck at shooting in college too?

 

The comments in the story are brilliant. So many Sixers fans don't get jokes.

 

This was always the risk of the Process. Yes, you can swing for the fences, but if you strike out it really was all for nothing. Embiid might be a generational talent, or he could be injured forever. Their two #1 point guards can't reliably shoot. But they can also learn!

 

Philly is behind only Boston as having the best young core in the game. But, at this point, I'd take Boston's upside over Philly's. The Celtics' coach is better and their GM did a Better Process without nuking four seasons away.

[Sport]

You sold tickets and got the fanbase excited and lost in the second round like a bunch of idiots. Meanwhile the Suns and Grizzlies wisely took the season off and will draft future hall of fame players at the top of the draft. Ignored your own rules. Huge mistake, Sixers. 

[BBTV]

18 minutes ago, DG_Now said:

Philly is behind only Boston as having the best young core in the game. But, at this point, I'd take Boston's upside over Philly's. The Celtics' coach is better and their GM did a Better Process without nuking four seasons away.

 

Ironically, that actually validates The Process.  He's like the LeBron of GMs, and it's just not realistic to be able to hire anyone that can duplicate that.  Since the best you can do is "above average", you need to give that "above average" guy as many picks as possible because he'll inevitably screw one or two up (or they just get hurt or don't pan out for whatever reason.)

 

The presence of a GM like Ainge was part of the reason The Process was necessary.  It was the only way.  Now the team is a legit East finalist contender for as long as they stay healthy, and that was the point - contend at the very top, not battle for 6th or 7th seed every year.

[BBTV]

5 minutes ago, McCarthy said:

You sold tickets and got the fanbase excited and lost in the second round like a bunch of idiots. Meanwhile the Suns and Grizzlies wisely took the season off and will draft future hall of fame players at the top of the draft. Ignored your own rules. Huge mistake, Sixers. 

 

Yeah, I'm inclined to agree that they went for it a bit too soon.  If I was running the team, Embiid would have gotten the most ironic DUI ever and have been "suspended" for the season, Simmons would have needed another year to get over his foot injury, Fultz would have been committed, and I'd've gone for another top pick.  Then go for it.

[Sport]

1 minute ago, BringBackTheVet said:

 

Yeah, I'm inclined to agree that they went for it a bit too soon.  If I was running the team, Embiid would have gotten the most ironic DUI ever and have been "suspended" for the season, Simmons would have needed another year to get over his foot injury, Fultz would have been committed, and I'd've gone for another top pick.  Then go for it.

You're the Atlanta Hawks of the early part of this decade now. The worst outcome possible of the process. Yikes. 

 

 

[ozzyman314]

42 minutes ago, DG_Now said:

Philly is behind only Boston as having the best young core in the game. But, at this point, I'd take Boston's upside over Philly's. The Celtics' coach is better and their GM did a Better Process without nuking four seasons away.

Most of that is thanks to Ainge absolutely fleecing Bryan Colangelo & Vlade Divac. 

The Big 3 Breakup alone almost completely saved them from having to tank. 

 

Any GM would love to get away with the highway robbery Danny Ainge did. 

[DG_ThenNowForever]

No, the Ainge boom came from the Pierce and Garnett trade to Billy King.Three first-round picks for three old-ass players is probably the best haul in NBA history.

[ozzyman314]

Right, IDK why I confused Vlade Divac with Billy King. 

 

But Yeah, The haul Ainge got for The Big 3 break up was just a complete steal. Celtics didn't even have to tank thanks to that.  

 

[FiddySicks]

1 hour ago, DG_Now said:

No, the Ainge boom came from the Pierce and Garnett trade to Billy King.Three first-round picks for three old-ass players is probably the best haul in NBA history.

 

They were talking about this on Lebatard today with Amin Elhassan and he was basically saying the same thing. The way the Celtics have compiled draft picks over the last few years should scare the crap out of the rest of the league.

 

[ozzyman314]

4 minutes ago, Bucfan56 said:

 

They were talking about this on Lebatard today with Amin Elhassan and he was basically saying the same thing. The way the Celtics have compiled draft picks over the last few years should scare the crap out of the rest of the league.

 

Thanks to The 76ers, The will also have a Top 5 pick in either this year's or Next Year's draft too.

Depending on where The Lakers' pick lands.