Around the NBA - non Heat related discussion!

[3ammy3uck3ts]

Jokic gets everyone man. He averaged 30, 14 and 7 against the Heat in the Finals.

Now hes averaging 30, 10 and 9 against the greatest defensive player of his era.

CHILL

[DayofMourning]

Jokic gets everyone man. He averaged 30, 14 and 7 against the Heat in the Finals.

Now hes averaging 30, 10 and 9 against the greatest defensive player of his era.

CHILL

Lmao. I left that bait for u buddy!

[powerball1373]

Lol fkn Celtics got to play Cavs without DBish, Jarrett Allen, and Caris LeVert today. How much help do they need?????

[GopherIt!]

I don’t hate on Rudy for Joker cooking him. Joker is the best. When the lights shine brightest he makes any of his defenders look bad. Joker vs anyone one-on-one is a bad match up.

Also, what makes Rudy elite is his team D. His man D is solid vs 95% of the league. Joker however, is heavier, stronger and quicker w elite decision making. All-time greatness in our presence.

My biggest concern w the pups all season has been the 18th ranked offense. The last three games are a testament to this. If Ant ain’t going off they can’t win in the playoffs. Also Ant’s playmaking is still a work in progress. Finch/TC need to add shooting and improve the offensive flow.

Getting this close and losing sucks but it beats the hell out of 30+ years of a **** product. We comin’ bishes.

If we want to speak on general trends that we should assume to be true and thus influence future perspective:

1) Jokic vs anyone one-on-one is a bad match up

2) Rudy Gobert's defensive weaknesses are consistently exploitable in the more competitive rounds of playoff basketball thus rendering him anywhere from neutral to a liability when it matters most

These 2 things are known to be true.

Not my DPOY.

DPOY/MVP are r.s. awards. Wolves won 56 & had by far #1 D. MN players all credit Rudy for the huge improvement.

They swept Vegas favored 49W Suns.

would have bet on T-Pups to win 7g series vs anyone except Denver.

Offense > defense (in modern NBA)
MVP > DPOY.

Rudy’s not a fraud imo. Joker is playing at a near ATG HoF level.

Just my 2 cents. We can agree to disagree.

[Bishop45]

Surprised OKC still playing Giddey

[powerball1373]

Guess neither of the young teams were ready for the big stage. Oh well, it's strictly fk Boston now.

[IceColdCubano]

Guess neither of the young teams were ready for the big stage. Oh well, it's strictly fk Boston now.

Everyone thought this was the year the young guns take over, naw they getting close, but not there yet, moving forward its going to get harder and harder to knock them down, OKC, T-Wolves, SGA & Ant are some serious talents.

[marson]

Guess neither of the young teams were ready for the big stage. Oh well, it's strictly fk Boston now.

seriously, f that team. Can't stand Derrick white and Jaylen Brown's punchable face. Add Tatum to that list.

[AirP.]

Read on Twitter

[Bishop45]

Guess neither of the young teams were ready for the big stage. Oh well, it's strictly fk Boston now.

Everyone thought this was the year the young guns take over, naw they getting close, but not there yet, moving forward its going to get harder and harder to knock them down, OKC, T-Wolves, SGA & Ant are some serious talents.

Young teams don't win-- though Nuggets are close to average age

[powerball1373]

I don’t hate on Rudy for Joker cooking him. Joker is the best. When the lights shine brightest he makes any of his defenders look bad. Joker vs anyone one-on-one is a bad match up.

Also, what makes Rudy elite is his team D. His man D is solid vs 95% of the league. Joker however, is heavier, stronger and quicker w elite decision making. All-time greatness in our presence.

My biggest concern w the pups all season has been the 18th ranked offense. The last three games are a testament to this. If Ant ain’t going off they can’t win in the playoffs. Also Ant’s playmaking is still a work in progress. Finch/TC need to add shooting and improve the offensive flow.

Getting this close and losing sucks but it beats the hell out of 30+ years of a **** product. We comin’ bishes.

If we want to speak on general trends that we should assume to be true and thus influence future perspective:

1) Jokic vs anyone one-on-one is a bad match up

2) Rudy Gobert's defensive weaknesses are consistently exploitable in the more competitive rounds of playoff basketball thus rendering him anywhere from neutral to a liability when it matters most

These 2 things are known to be true.

Not my DPOY.

DPOY/MVP are r.s. awards. Wolves won 56 & had by far #1 D. MN players all credit Rudy for the huge improvement.

They swept Vegas favored 49W Suns.

would have bet on T-Pups to win 7g series vs anyone except Denver.

Offense > defense (in modern NBA)
MVP > DPOY.

Rudy’s not a fraud imo. Joker is playing at a near ATG HoF level.

Just my 2 cents. We can agree to disagree.

Rudy isn't a fraud but unfortunately he's shown that he can be played off the floor in the postseason. I also agree that there's nothing anyone could have done against Jokic last night, but if that's the case, you might as well have someone out there that can provide offense. Don't think it's a coincidence that the Wolves best game was the one he missed.

Hoping the Wolves can nut up and take it to a Game 7, though I doubt it happens.

[Wiltside]

Surprised OKC still playing Giddey

Seems pretty clear there’s going to be a trade this offseason. Giddey needs to become a better shooter though, can’t be Ben Simmons sans the elite athleticism out there.

Perhaps Giddey and picks for Darius Garland could be a good fit for both sides.

[RexBoyWonder]

Surprised OKC still playing Giddey

Seems pretty clear there’s going to be a trade this offseason. Giddey needs to become a better shooter though, can’t be Ben Simmons sans the elite athleticism out there.

Perhaps Giddey and picks for Darius Garland could be a good fit for both sides.

OKC need to go hard after Markkanen, a great scoring big with a deadly 3 ball.

They have the picks to get 98% of the players in the league if they choose to go all in.

[contract]

If we want to speak on general trends that we should assume to be true and thus influence future perspective:

1) Jokic vs anyone one-on-one is a bad match up

2) Rudy Gobert's defensive weaknesses are consistently exploitable in the more competitive rounds of playoff basketball thus rendering him anywhere from neutral to a liability when it matters most

These 2 things are known to be true.

Not my DPOY.

DPOY/MVP are r.s. awards. Wolves won 56 & had by far #1 D. MN players all credit Rudy for the huge improvement.

They swept Vegas favored 49W Suns.

would have bet on T-Pups to win 7g series vs anyone except Denver.

Offense > defense (in modern NBA)
MVP > DPOY.

Rudy’s not a fraud imo. Joker is playing at a near ATG HoF level.

Just my 2 cents. We can agree to disagree.

Rudy isn't a fraud but unfortunately he's shown that he can be played off the floor in the postseason. I also agree that there's nothing anyone could have done against Jokic last night, but if that's the case, you might as well have someone out there that can provide offense. Don't think it's a coincidence that the Wolves best game was the one he missed.

Hoping the Wolves can nut up and take it to a Game 7, though I doubt it happens.

You don't win with man defense, you win with team defense. It doesn't matter if Jokic goes off for 60, the key is keeping his teammates from playing effectively enough to win. I'd much rather have Jokic score 50 a game than average 9 assists. Trying to stop an all time great is usually a fool's errand. Stop everyone else instead.

[powerball1373]

Surprised OKC still playing Giddey

Seems pretty clear there’s going to be a trade this offseason. Giddey needs to become a better shooter though, can’t be Ben Simmons sans the elite athleticism out there.

Perhaps Giddey and picks for Darius Garland could be a good fit for both sides.

OKC need to go hard after Markkanen, a great scoring big with a deadly 3 ball.

They have the picks to get 98% of the players in the league if they choose to go all in.

I hadn't that of that but man does that make perfect sense.

1. If you're gonna take a white guy from the Jazz, they need to get one in return.

2. There's not a single city in the league that would be as accepting of Giddey's off-the-court proclivities as Utah.

[powerball1373]

DPOY/MVP are r.s. awards. Wolves won 56 & had by far #1 D. MN players all credit Rudy for the huge improvement.

They swept Vegas favored 49W Suns.

would have bet on T-Pups to win 7g series vs anyone except Denver.

Offense > defense (in modern NBA)
MVP > DPOY.

Rudy’s not a fraud imo. Joker is playing at a near ATG HoF level.

Just my 2 cents. We can agree to disagree.

Rudy isn't a fraud but unfortunately he's shown that he can be played off the floor in the postseason. I also agree that there's nothing anyone could have done against Jokic last night, but if that's the case, you might as well have someone out there that can provide offense. Don't think it's a coincidence that the Wolves best game was the one he missed.

Hoping the Wolves can nut up and take it to a Game 7, though I doubt it happens.

You don't win with man defense, you win with team defense. It doesn't matter if Jokic goes off for 60, the key is keeping his teammates from playing effectively enough to win. I'd much rather have Jokic score 50 a game than average 9 assists. Trying to stop an all time great is usually a fool's errand. Stop everyone else instead.

Yep exactly. I don't remember if it was Steve Kerr or Draymond (maybe both), but they said the Warriors entire strategy with him was limiting his assists. Points didn't matter.

[powerball1373]

Speaking of big goofy whites, is anyone else kinda surprised at how bad Chit Holmgren has been? I get that he's still super young and this is effectively his rookie season, but he looks much worse than I could have imagined.

[greg4012]

I don’t hate on Rudy for Joker cooking him. Joker is the best. When the lights shine brightest he makes any of his defenders look bad. Joker vs anyone one-on-one is a bad match up.

Also, what makes Rudy elite is his team D. His man D is solid vs 95% of the league. Joker however, is heavier, stronger and quicker w elite decision making. All-time greatness in our presence.

My biggest concern w the pups all season has been the 18th ranked offense. The last three games are a testament to this. If Ant ain’t going off they can’t win in the playoffs. Also Ant’s playmaking is still a work in progress. Finch/TC need to add shooting and improve the offensive flow.

Getting this close and losing sucks but it beats the hell out of 30+ years of a **** product. We comin’ bishes.

If we want to speak on general trends that we should assume to be true and thus influence future perspective:

1) Jokic vs anyone one-on-one is a bad match up

2) Rudy Gobert's defensive weaknesses are consistently exploitable in the more competitive rounds of playoff basketball thus rendering him anywhere from neutral to a liability when it matters most

These 2 things are known to be true.

Not my DPOY.

DPOY/MVP are r.s. awards. Wolves won 56 & had by far #1 D. MN players all credit Rudy for the huge improvement.

They swept Vegas favored 49W Suns.

would have bet on T-Pups to win 7g series vs anyone except Denver.

Offense > defense (in modern NBA)
MVP > DPOY.

Rudy’s not a fraud imo. Joker is playing at a near ATG HoF level.

Just my 2 cents. We can agree to disagree.

Happy to disagree and provide some context as to why.

DPOY is a regular season award. Rudy Gobert is an elite regular season defender, and I'm not campaigning against all his awards. I'm highlighting that Bam deserved it over him this season. And by tracking metrics (and eye test) and not just looking at Minny having the top defense and Rudy had blocks, it's quite apparent that Bam was the more impactful defender in the regular season.

Read on Twitter

Minny had the top defense and that's great. Minny basically had 5 positive defenders on the floor at all times and was trotting out a frontcourt rotation consisting of Jaden McDaniels, Gobert, Reid, Towns, and ANderson without having any weak defenders in the back court. Rudy got too much of the credit for the entire team being great on defense.

Additionally, while the DPOY award is a regular season award, if a player consistently reveals their limitations in the most competitive (and important) versions of the game that absolutely should influence the narrative and assessing of the award. As we all know the DPOY is actually an award driven largely by narrative (unfortunately).

So, I'm not gonna stop contributing my tiny morsels of information to shape narrative.

[greg4012]

One of the biggest things OKC is missing in their lineup is people movers. They don't have strong dudes that can box out, create space on offense with screening, etc. Basically just Dort? It can come from any and every position, but obviously it would be best to get a frontcourt partner with Chet. Ideally they get someone that is mutli-faceted while doing the dirty work. Extremely underrated component of roster makeup.

I'm sure they're aware and will be digging into their war chest to rectify this.

[DayofMourning]

Conley about hit that. Dang.