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by **Arlos** » Mon Jun 15, 2015 12:06 am

So, oh great Basketball Sages.

Thoughts on the finals at this point?

by **Jay** » Mon Jun 15, 2015 6:17 am

Curry is the best shooter I've ever seen. Lebron is a monster and easily the best and most complete player in the NBA. Cavs have some good defense and Shumpert isn't doing too bad containing Klay but Curry can't be stopped now. They are solely relying on Lebron for offense it seems and if Mosgov doesn't play, Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala are gonna be able to work the inside which makes the Warriors the most ridiculous offensive team. Lebron and Curry can't really be stopped at this point since Curry downloaded Dellavedova so it's about containing the back court for both teams and for the Warrior's it's about forcing the workload onto Lebron. Lebron is responding beautifully but the Warriors D is containing the Cavs backcourt now and the Cavs look too tired or injured or simply have players who can only work one side of the ball (defense mainly).

What I'm curious about though is why they don't put in JR Smith over Shumpert. JR plays comparable defense and is much stronger offensively.

by **Zanchief** » Mon Jun 15, 2015 8:00 am

Minus their superstar this Cleveland team is the worst I've ever seen in the finals. Take AI out of that 01 Philly team and it's close, but this one is still worse. Unbelievable what he's been able to do. It's just crazy. He's going to lose though, and that makes me happy. Happy for Curry. Here's an interesting article that puts the series into a bit of a political setting.

http://www.thenation.com/blog/209577/two-roads-politics-david-blatt-and-passion-steve-kerrs-father#

by **Jay** » Mon Jun 15, 2015 12:37 pm

You think this team is worse than 06-07 Cavs? San Antonio stomped a mudhole in that ass.

by **Zanchief** » Mon Jun 15, 2015 1:34 pm

I do think they're worse.

Top to bottom without LeBron what do they have? Thompson? Mozgov? Dellavadova? That's your best. 06-07 had Ilgauskas, Larry Hughes, Donyell Marshall, Drew Gooden, Daniel Gibson, Verajao was actually playing. That's a bad team but compared to the cavs this year, I'd take of the 07 cavs.

Lets focus on Curry though, because I agree he's the best shooter ever. The way he shoots threes is crazy. He shoots the shots Iverson shouldn't have been taking and makes them at such an efficient rate is amazing. Most of the best shooters ever were pretty much standstill jump shooters. This guy shoots from anywhere. He's unbelievable.

by **Jay** » Mon Jun 15, 2015 3:32 pm

He's comfortable shooting those shots from positions that great defenders put you in. What the hell do you do about that? How do you mess with a guy who can shoot off the catch, dribble and can take it inside. Every fake he does is 100% believable because he can shoot from anywhere. That must be terrifying to a defender.

by **Zanchief** » Mon Jun 15, 2015 3:51 pm

Yep, he has off nights (rarely) but I feel this is more shooting slump then defense. How can you defend a guy that runs up to the three point line in transition and shoots it in your face at a 40% rate.

by **Jay** » Mon Jun 15, 2015 4:17 pm

Zanchief wrote:I do think they're worse.

Top to bottom without LeBron what do they have? Thompson? Mozgov? Dellavadova? That's your best. 06-07 had Ilgauskas, Larry Hughes, Donyell Marshall, Drew Gooden, Daniel Gibson, Verajao was actually playing. That's a bad team but compared to the cavs this year, I'd take of the 07 cavs.

Lets focus on Curry though, because I agree he's the best shooter ever. The way he shoots threes is crazy. He shoots the shots Iverson shouldn't have been taking and makes them at such an efficient rate is amazing. Most of the best shooters ever were pretty much standstill jump shooters. This guy shoots from anywhere. He's unbelievable.

Also yeah I guess I can see your point. The difference in this team who can take a couple of games off of GSW is that Lebron is infinitely better than he was back then but at least then he had some support to make up for the experience he's gained up until now.

by **Arlos** » Tue Jun 16, 2015 10:32 pm

Aaand the Warriors win their first Championship in 40 years. Awesome.

:arms:

by **Reynaldo** » Wed Jun 17, 2015 7:20 am

Glad to see Curry win. As a shareholder of Under Armour stock, their sponsored athletes are having a great year (Brady, Spieth and now Curry).

by **Jay** » Wed Jun 17, 2015 9:42 am

The best player in the NBA is 2-4 in the finals, but has been in the finals for 5 consecutive years now.

by **Arlos** » Wed Jun 17, 2015 11:35 am

Yeah, but 2 of those losses you can't even remotely pin on him. His first one with Cleveland, and CERTAINLY this one. He just had the best finals, numbers-wise, anyone has ever had, period. His teammates were something like 0 for 21 when he wasn't on the floor in the last game. He's in no way the reason they lost, and is indeed the only reason they were even remotely competitive in the first place. Can you imagine how badly Cleveland would have been blown out if it was him that broke his kneecap in game 1, and not Irving?

by **Zanchief** » Wed Jun 17, 2015 1:07 pm

If they get Love back (or spend on someone else to replace him) get Verajao back, get Irving back, they will be a force, especially now that those role players have had so much experience. Mozgov will be huge for them, but if Thompson wants "near max money" they let him walk and roll with Verajao and filler. Plenty of young 4s who can rebound and defend in the league.

by **Jay** » Fri Jun 19, 2015 12:32 am

I don't remember the last time Varejao played a full season and he's coming off an achilles. You can't really expect much from him. Do the Cavs need to do much? I think Love, James and Irving need A LITTLE more time together. Mosgov has yet to "emerge" but he's looking solid. Tristan Thomas getting max money is laughable but he's legit. The Cavs bench is looking weak though. The starters seem fine as they are to me as long as they stay healthy.

by **Zanchief** » Fri Jun 19, 2015 6:35 am

Easy to build a bench with a guy like LeBron on the team. Plenty of people willing to take less money to play for him, unfortunately. He needs to stop playing GM though. He guys, like James Jones and Mike Miller are bad and he needs to stop bringing them along everywhere he goes. Let the GM do his job, LeBron.

I'm not really sold on Thompson. He's a very good rebounder. The league has plenty of them though. He's a pretty good defender, but still makes a lot of mistakes. He's also a terrible free throw shooter. For the price he's asking I let him walk easily. He signed with LeBron's agent though so the Cavs may have zero leverage if LeBron wants him to stay. These are the problems the Cavs are going to have moving forward.

by **Jay** » Fri Jun 19, 2015 11:55 am

They should drop Thompson and Haywood and get a facilitator and some more bench depth in another guard or SF. I would love it if they got Rondo. I have a silly bias towards the guy though. Truthfully he hasn't been the same since his knee injury but I still feel he has great play left in him and Lebron can contain his attitude.

by **Zanchief** » Fri Jun 19, 2015 12:14 pm

I kind of hate him (Rondo) mostly because I hate Boston, but I don't deny his talent. I hope he bounces back, to be honest. I love how Dallas handled him though. That's a pro team to take in a gamble headcase and ask him to the toe the line and when he didn't they sat his ass down. You don't see that much anymore.

by **Jay** » Fri Jun 19, 2015 8:19 pm

You can thank your man Mark Cuban for that.

by **vonkaar** » Mon Jun 22, 2015 9:23 am

Sort of... I mean, you can "thank" Cuban for pulling the trade but Rick Carlisle was really the disciplinarian.

hi all

My playoff cliff notes:

Starting with the Southwest:

Fuck Houston. Seriously, those are some seriously fair-weather fans and they were terrible, shitty fans all year long. They flipped the fuck out on Parsons for... what? Taking a ridiculously superior offer that Houston wouldn't match? Get angry that he didn't show loyalty to some random city that happened to draft you and pay you rookie dollars for 3 years, while never escaping the first round. Yeah! HATRED. But also, I fucking hate The Beard© and.. just.. that city fucking sucks. Fuck they.

SAS - Timmie will retire when he feels his shoes have been filled. Short term that's Lamarcus Aldridge. Long term that's Anthony freaking Davis. I believe that Pop staying around is entirely based on his beloved son.

Also... I'm the biggest Davis fan outside of Louisiana. Holy fucking shit. I've been a Mavs/NBA fan since 89/90 and I've never seen anything like this.

I truly didn't give GS much care until they mauled Memphis. Yeah yeah, great shooting, decent defense... but I just saw them as a Nate MacMillan era (coached) Supersonics. I didn't buy into them. Memphis, however, scared the hell out of me. I honestly thought that they were superior to GS, and maybe with a healthy Conley, they would have been. However, GS blew them up. C'est la vie.

Dallas. Shrug. We're at the end of the Dirk epoch, and it's time to ACTUALLY rebuild. We're in a good spot for that because there's only like 4 players on the roster, and a lot of great talent out there. It's sad... and it's time. Dirk will likely play for another 2-3 years and he'll be a solid role player and locker-room leader. But he can't be the #1 or even #2 guy anymore. What a run though!

Rest of the west:

GSW - Go Golden State. Y'all won in an offense-first method that, for once, didn't drive me fucking crazy. I'm talking about the Dwayne Wade / James Harden / Russell Westbrook method of driving recklessly into the lane, hopefully drawing a foul, and then shooting 20+ free-throws a game. Yay! Harden scored 33! What a heroic performance! Ugh, he was 19/20 from charity. WHO FINDS THIS FUN??? People call Dwayne Wade the 3rd best SG of all time completely based on this method. Shoot the fucking ball. Play like Curry! Shoot it 8' outside of the 3-point line, totally contested with the confidence and swagger of a 10' open jumper. Money. This was fun to watch from start to finish. I'll take a pair of solid defenses battling it out any day. But the new 'offense' of the players I listed above (among others) is ruining the game for me. More GS please.

LAL - LOL x11ty

POR - shrug. They're like a 2002 Mavs' squad. Potential, but their best players will all leave before putting something serious together. And they don't have an uber-loyal German to build around.

LAC - smoke and mirrors. I don't buy them for a second, nor do I care.

The rest: don't care. MIN, DEN, PHO, LAC, SAC. Yaaaaaaaaaawn and not going anywhere anyway.

The East:

Cavs were up 2-1 and seriously could have been 3-0 without most of their starting roster. I'm NOT taking anything away from GSW here because they truly deserved the championship. However, that simple fact is a terrifying testament to the power of the King. Dellavadaofovauaaea? WHO? Whatever... I don't really have any care either way for who won that. But I was utterly blown away by Lebron's performance.

Atlanta - slightly more legit than LAC, but just as much don't-care.

Miami - LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLZ :badrazz:

Chicago - I hate watching the Grant Hill story repeat itself in Derrick Rose. so... much... talent...

Toronto - that first round was tough. Y'all were the better team but HOLY SHIT they imploded.

Philly - my sleeper pick for continuing to do nothing.

Boston / NYK / Brooklyn - no hope, no chance, no care.

umm... there are other teams in the Leastern conference? Go Wizards? Hooray Magic!? Yay for Milw...

actually, that Greek kid at Milwaukee is kind of amazing. I swear I watched him:

Get the ball at half court, nearly standing still.
Recognize his lane was open
Take 3 steps (from HALFCOURT)
Score a lay-up.

Does he have a 60" inseam? How does he do that? Cool game and I'm keeping my eye on him. I'm never going to learn how to pronounce or spell his last name though. I give up.

by **Zanchief** » Mon Jun 22, 2015 1:00 pm

I'd rather we just not talk about the playoffs. It was a gong show. It's turned most Raps fans into full blown tankers.

Houston. Fuck those guys. Look at that hit on Thompson. That's a dirty team. No class. I hate them.

I agree with the clippers. They just seem like pretenders to me.

by **Jay** » Wed Jun 24, 2015 4:42 pm

Oh wow. Love opted out. I've heard he didn't have the best relationship with Lebron and that the players don't really respect Blatt. I wonder where he's going.

With Mosgov and Thompson being big dudes, there's room for a pure PG in the starting lineup.