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2021 NBA Playoffs

Machinator

By Machinator
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ztejas

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1 minute ago, aggie08 said:

Oh, I'm a huge Curry guy. But KD is a bad dude in any offense with any teammates. He could make scoring look easy with you, me, Derka, and Wulaw as teammates.

My freshman year roommate who's originally from South Korea used to call me "White KD" when we would play pickup because I was tall and skinny and wore KDs and had really long strides to the basket. 

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BigOrange1

BigOrange1 6441

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it'd be nice if giannis finally started to catch some shit nationally rather than continually being the golden child despite accomplishing nothing in the postseason.  i thought it'd finally happen after they got their ass beat by the heat last year but he by in large avoided any real lingering criticism.  

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Patrick Bateman

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5 minutes ago, BigOrange1 said:

it'd be nice if giannis finally started to catch some shit nationally rather than continually being the golden child despite accomplishing nothing in the postseason.  i thought it'd finally happen after they got their ass beat by the heat last year but he by in large avoided any real lingering criticism.  

I think it's coming especially with his FT shooting deficiency, but wasn't Jrue Holiday supposed to be the difference maker?  Some bad, clutch dude who could shut down an opponent's best guard?  And Middleton has been sort of invisible too.

 

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Machinator

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1 minute ago, Patrick Bateman said:

I think it's coming especially with his FT shooting deficiency, but wasn't Jrue Holiday supposed to be the difference maker?  Some bad, clutch dude who could shut down an opponent's best guard?  And Middleton has been sort of invisible too.

 

Middleton has been visible in a very bad way.

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ztejas

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Just now, conVINCEd said:

KD seems like he has the eye of the tiger right now.  A combination of focus, determination, and a chip on his shoulder.  I’m going to check the gambling sites and see what the odds are on the Nets winning the title.

Very high. Vegas isn't stupid. I've noticed this about KD for weeks. After tonight they are probably +150 to win it all. 

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aggie08

aggie08 21504

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10 minutes ago, Machinator said:

Middleton has been visible in a very bad way.

As much as it pains me, I've been against the sentiment that "You're Milwaukee. You have to max him out. Who else are you going to get?" from day 1. No, you don't pay a dude who's made 2 Eastern Conference All-Star teams and zero All-NBA teams 40M fucking dollars. Small market or not.

I guess you could argue that signing him ensured that Giannis re-upped, but he's just not that dude.

Edited by aggie08
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ztejas

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3 minutes ago, aggie08 said:

As much as it pains me, I've been against the sentiment that "You're Milwaukee. You have to max him out. Who else are you going to get?" from day 1. No, you don't pay a dude who's made 2 Eastern Conference All-Star teams and zero All-NBA teams 40M fucking dollars. Small market or not.

I guess you could argue that signing him ensured that Giannis re-upped, but he's just not that dude.

Giannis just isn't at the KD level and the level LeBron was at the past decade. I'm going to keep repeating this stat: in years in which KD and LeBron were both healthy for the playoffs since 2011 - only one team has won a championship without either of them on their team - the 2014 Spurs. 

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conVINCEd

conVINCEd 21469

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2 minutes ago, ztejas said:

Giannis just isn't at the KD level and the level LeBron was at the past decade. I'm going to keep repeating this stat: in years in which KD and LeBron were both healthy for the playoffs since 2011 - only one team has won a championship without either of them on their team - the 2014 Spurs. 

GS won one without either of them.

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ztejas

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9 minutes ago, conVINCEd said:

GS won one without either of them.

Durant was hurt and OKC missed the playoffs that year. I'm saying years where Durant and LeBron were BOTH healthy in the playoffs. And those years are:

2012 - LeBron wins (Durant Finals)

2013 - LeBron wins

2014 - Spurs win 

2016- LeBron wins

2017 - Durant wins (LeBron Finals)

2018 - Durant wins (LeBron Finals)

2020 Durant wasn't healthy but LeBron won for good measure. And it only reinforces the point. 

Oh - and now 2021 - I think you see where I'm going with this. 

The odds of even making the Finals without one of those guys over the past 10 years has been slim. 

Edited by ztejas
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ztejas

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2 minutes ago, conVINCEd said:

My bad.  Forgot that was the year KD was hurt.

They probably would have won if he wasn't. That year was wide open - much more so than 2016.

In fact - The game that Durant got hurt in that year with the Jones fracture he had already put up 30 points in the first half agaaaaainst... the Warriors. 

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aggie08

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4 minutes ago, ztejas said:

Durant was hurt and OKC missed the playoffs that year. I'm saying years where Durant and LeBron were BOTH healthy in the playoffs. And those years are:

2012 - LeBron wins (Durant Finals)

2013 - LeBron wins

2014 - Spurs win 

2016- LeBron wins

2017 - Durant wins (LeBron Finals)

2018 - Durant wins (LeBron Finals)

2020 Durant wasn't healthy but LeBron won for good measure. And it only reinforces the point. 

The odds of even making the Finals without one of those guys over the past 10 years has been slim. 

You can also say that no team has beat Durant in the playoffs since 2016. Which 1) Shows how dominant he's become, and 2) Highlights how unfortunate it is that he's missed 3 playoffs in his career.

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ztejas

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2 minutes ago, longhornmatt said:

Durant is clearly the best player in the league when everyone is going hard, and Kawhi is probably second. 

Great post btw - I'd rep it twice. But on this particular point - I'm not sure Kawhi is for sure 2nd. Luka and Jokic are right there with him. 

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ztejas

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1 minute ago, Llogg said:

Biggest surprise of these playoffs for me has been finding out that Cameron Payne evolved into a serviceable NBA player. I thought he was going to be out of the league in about three years when he was at OKC.

He had promise coming into the league but for most of his career has been a bottom of the roster, G League type guy. And then I realize he's like not a bad 6th man. 

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hobbes2702

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37 minutes ago, BigOrange1 said:

it'd be nice if giannis finally started to catch some shit nationally rather than continually being the golden child despite accomplishing nothing in the postseason.  i thought it'd finally happen after they got their ass beat by the heat last year but he by in large avoided any real lingering criticism.  

At some point the Bucks need to assess what he actually is as a player. I’m not 100% sure what that is though. I think he could be the “best” player on a title team but he can’t be the teams number 1 offensive option I don’t think. 
That said he might come out and dominate the rest of this series, but I doubt it.
Still there’s not a player I would rather watch in person than Giannis. 

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ztejas

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7 minutes ago, hobbes2702 said:

At some point the Bucks need to assess what he actually is as a player. I’m not 100% sure what that is though. I think he could be the “best” player on a title team but he can’t be the teams number 1 offensive option I don’t think. 
That said he might come out and dominate the rest of this series, but I doubt it.
Still there’s not a player I would rather watch in person than Giannis. 

Swap KD and Giannis and Milwaukee wins this series. 

There's your answer.

Sorry - that maybe wasn't super clear. What I mean is whatever Giannis is it doesn't matter this year. The team that has Durant is going to win. That doesn't mean Giannis can't be a #1 on a title winner - it just means he isn't going to be this year. 

Edited by ztejas
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staboner

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some good discussion on here.

been sour on the the greek freak in the playoffs for some time. no idea what to do to get him the right team. 

you need an elite iso player to win championships in the playoffs along with strong support everywhere else. lebron, kd, harden, doncic, etc. nets have fucking two of them and a potentail third in irving here and there. 

KD is a monster. never expected this level of agility and defense to come from him this late in his career. looking back at his higlights here it never showed that much, which is weird. or at least i never saw it here. sure he had his moments but his handles were not near as tight as they are now at 32 years old. was always a lethal shooter. him getting injured is the only way they don't win it all IMO. harden and irving are expendable in that regard, but probably not both at the same time. 

 

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immortal13

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21 minutes ago, staboner said:

some good discussion on here.

been sour on the the greek freak in the playoffs for some time. no idea what to do to get him the right team. 

you need an elite iso player to win championships in the playoffs along with strong support everywhere else. lebron, kd, harden, doncic, etc. nets have fucking two of them and a potentail third in irving here and there. 

KD is a monster. never expected this level of agility and defense to come from him this late in his career. looking back at his higlights here it never showed that much, which is weird. or at least i never saw it here. sure he had his moments but his handles were not near as tight as they are now at 32 years old. was always a lethal shooter. him getting injured is the only way they don't win it all IMO. harden and irving are expendable in that regard, but probably not both at the same time. 

 

The Nets have 3. Kyrie has to be considered an elite iso player

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Mole

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On the Giannis thing, he’s 26. At that age, neither KD nor LBJ had won a title and there were questions about their greatness and ability to lead a team to the title. Same with MJ before them.

Winning an NBA title as a young player is really, really hard, even for the best players of their generations. We call into question their ability to do something just as they’re figuring out how to do it. The playoffs are a crazy puzzle.
 

I suspect that in 10 years, the next rising young superstar will be compared unfavorably to Giannis for their inability to lead a team to titles. Or Giannis will be this generation’s hopefully less statutory rapisty Karl Malone.

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ztejas

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5 minutes ago, Mole said:

On the Giannis thing, he’s 26. At that age, neither KD nor LBJ had won a title and there were questions about their greatness and ability to lead a team to the title.

Both LeBron and KD were better players at 26 than Giannis is.

And they were both already far more accomplished in the playoffs. 

Edited by ztejas
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