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ReasonablySober wrote:The most astonishing thing to me about Wemby is that he doesn't foul. I thought that would be the big issue with him coming into the league.

But nope, averages 2.7 fouls per 36. A tiny number for a big man, especially one who contests like he does. Giannis have never been below 3.0.

Wonder how many of Giannis though were offensive fouls, more so a few years ago

Watching Tatum iso every important possession can be so painful

Mike Breen is a full on Knicks homer on MSG. I don't mind it at all I just find it funny.

Uh oh, Chet.

SupremeHustle wrote:Uh oh, Chet.

Watching on LP, it looked bad but he was in on the last play.

Another last second loss for the Knicks. That's a shame.

As much as we're trying to give up the 2nd seed right now, Cleveland and NY just keep falling over as well.

Looking like heat will get 7th. Honestly a good thing for us I think. If we can get past them it’ll give us a lot of confidence for a deep run.

Plossum wrote:Looking like heat will get 7th. Honestly a good thing for us I think. If we can get past them it’ll give us a lot of confidence for a deep run.

The Heat are only a half game back of the Pacers for the 6th seed. They play each other Sunday, winner gets the tie breaker.

They're 2 games back of the Magic for the 5th seed and the heat own that tie breaker. It's unlikely they catch them but the heat have been trending up and the Magic are trending down so you never know. The Bucks could be a big deciding factor since we play the Magic two more times to end the season. Do the Bucks rest their starters if the 2 seed is locked up or try and win to bump the Heat up to the 5 seed? Let Boston deal with them in the 2nd round instead of us.

Would love if the Knicks and Heat finished as the 4th and 5th seeds and the sixers (assuming embiid is back) get the 8th seed. Imo those are going to be the 3 toughest teams besides Boston so it would set up nicely if the Bucks didn't have to deal with any of them until the ECF.

Isocleas2 wrote:

Plossum wrote:Looking like heat will get 7th. Honestly a good thing for us I think. If we can get past them it’ll give us a lot of confidence for a deep run.

The Heat are only a half game back of the Pacers for the 6th seed. They play each other Sunday, winner gets the tie breaker.

They're 2 games back of the Magic for the 5th seed and the heat own that tie breaker. It's unlikely they catch them but the heat have been trending up and the Magic are trending down so you never know. The Bucks could be a big deciding factor since we play the Magic two more times to end the season. Do the Bucks rest their starters if the 2 seed is locked up or try and win to bump the Heat up to the 5 seed? Let Boston deal with them in the 2nd round instead of us.

Would love if the Knicks and Heat finished as the 4th and 5th seeds and the sixers (assuming embiid is back) get the 8th seed. Imo those are going to be the 3 toughest teams besides Boston so it would set up nicely if the Bucks didn't have to deal with any of them until the ECF.

I think the bucks just play their game and don't try and duck anyone.

But I agree the heat end up with 46/47 wins. They are at 41 Ws and have the raptors twice, hawks once and pacers.

That's 4 wins, plus will beat one of 76ers/knkcks/rockets.

Pacers end up probably with a similar 46/47 record and Orlando probably gets 4-5 more wins (with us beating them twice) putting them at 47/48.

So I think the heat at finish 6th. Have a chance at 5th, still could stay at 7th but playoff Jimmy could wake up this last 2 weeks of April and get them a 6th seed.

Plossum wrote:Looking like heat will get 7th. Honestly a good thing for us I think. If we can get past them it’ll give us a lot of confidence for a deep run.

7th seed still has to beat the 8th seed in the play in to maintain the 7th seed. This is why I kept saying we should be actively trying to lose to drop to 3rd. At 2nd were playing Heat, 76ers or Pacers. At 3rd it would likely be Pacers, Magic or Heat.

MickeyDavis wrote:Can't get hung up on seeding. We did that dance 2 years ago to avoid the Nets in round 1 and then had game 7 in Boston in round 2. It's more important to play well and win games down the stretch rather than try to avoid teams we're "scared" of in round 1

Last game of the season. The #2 seed was ours but we sat our starters against the Cavs because we were afraid of the Nets (we were the defending champs but still afraid). Celtics played their starters and took the #2 seed. Celtics swept the big bad Nets and then had home court against us in round 2. If we head down the stretch afraid to play certain teams then we have no chance at another championship anyway.

I want to finally get the Giannis/Embiid duel in the first round, Heat in the second for revenge and Boston to cap off the East. Win against Denver too. All the entertainment.

MickeyDavis wrote:

MickeyDavis wrote:Can't get hung up on seeding. We did that dance 2 years ago to avoid the Nets in round 1 and then had game 7 in Boston in round 2. It's more important to play well and win games down the stretch rather than try to avoid teams we're "scared" of in round 1

Last game of the season. The #2 seed was ours but we sat our starters against the Cavs because we were afraid of the Nets (we were the defending champs but still afraid). Celtics played their starters and took the #2 seed. Celtics swept the big bad Nets and then had home court against us in round 2. If we head down the stretch afraid to play certain teams then we have no chance at another championship anyway.

Yeah, I don't think there is any point of being "afraid" of anyone, but at the same time I would definitely rather not play the sixers. Embiid is a Top3 player and could be fully rested at that point. I think it is very clear that Sixers team is not an average 7th seed and would be like playing a traditional 2nd/3rd round opponent. It's not a "if you are afraid of the Heat, we have no shot at a ring anyways" type series but more of "They are damn good team and even if we are better we probably only win 6-7 of 10 series against them" type team so why take the chance.

I'm not really confident with any of the playoffs match ups really, I could see almost any of them giving the Bucks a run for their money. 7th or 8th you might luck out with Atlanta or Chicago I guess if they both leapfrogged into the playoffs but unlikely.

The Embiid situation is interesting certainly. Even when healthy he's never in good shape so we'll see how he is after the long layoff.

AussieBuck wrote:I want to finally get the Giannis/Embiid duel in the first round, Heat in the second for revenge and Boston to cap off the East. Win against Denver too. All the entertainment.

Glad I'm not alone.

Also, lol at the Spurs failing Wemby talk.

Way too early to talk about any of the 4-8 seeding too. Miami has a pretty brutal stretch the next 6-games against teams that'll also be going all out for seeding purposes (Knicks, B2B with Philly and Houston, Pacers, B2B with Hawks and Mavericks) before getting Toronto twice at home to close out the season. Orlando, Philly, and Indiana all have tie-breakers over them as well.

You're not supposed to lose more games after drafting an instant All-NBA talent. They **** up.

ReasonablySober wrote:You're not supposed to lose more games after drafting an instant All-NBA talent. They **** up.

On the opposite end, we have seen teams **** up by becoming decent too soon. I don't think anyone will care that the Spurs won 20 games instead of 35 games in July when they have the draft rights to either Risacher, Topic or Sarr; cap space, possibly the 7th pick from the Raptors; 3 firsts in 2025; the bird rights to mamu; a swap with the Hawks in 2026; Vassell/Johnson locked up in their prime, etc.

They kept Wemby healthy as he adapted to the NBA game limiting his minutes and gave him rests days instead of winning games and got a big asset.

I wonder if Sarr could play along side Wemby:

Sarr
Wemby
Johnson
Vassell
Trae (Say for 4 firsts and give back the swaps - Don't like Trae but think he would be a good fit there)

Or another 200 ways you could build around Wemby with that many assets. They could be a contender next year.

Tatum a few years back talked about how after a long/physical series against the Raptors the team was just exhausted by the time they played the heat and then subsequently lost to them. That's my concern for the Bucks, they're an old team and if they have a difficult couple of series (Philly + NY/Miami) they may not have enough left in the tank for Boston. Give me the easiest path to ECF all day.