NBA Playoff Thread
by Michael Levin on May 3, 2011 7:16 AM PDT
in 2011 NBA Playoffs
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It's been almost a week, and the Sixers have yet to resurrect themselves into the playoff race. I'm not sure if anyone's surprised by this, but hey -- you never know. As you have probably noted, it's been rather dead on LB the past few days. That end of season hangover is lingering for all of us and it's tough to muster up that will power and hard apple cider it takes to write something on this B.
So instead, I'll let you guys duke it out. There's a whole rest of the playoffs going on and you probably want to talk about it with some of your closest and faceless friends. That's why we're here! So without any more excuses, here is your Tuesday playoff thread.
7:00 - Boston vs. Miami (1-0) - Celtics Blog vs. Peninsula Is Mightier
9:30 - Memphis (1-0) vs. Oklahoma City - Straight Outta Vancouver vs. Welcome to Loud City
Have at it, hosses. I miss Sixers.
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For anyone who watched the painful Flyers game last night… JVR’s emergence into a potential NHL superstar made me think of Evan Turner and a possible sophomore breakout. Hey they were both 2nd overall picks, and traded team swag during their concurrent playoff runs.
in conclusion JVR=ET
Sold.
Liberty Ballers / Ridiculous Upside / SBN Philly / Twitter
The Artist Formerly Known As The Artist Formerly Known As Michael Bourn
by Michael Levin on May 3, 2011 9:31 AM PDT up reply actions
don't care about the playoffs now
that my two teams are gone it’d be nice to see memphis and ATL make it cuz that would really piss off stern since there would be no big market team making it
I look at the teams in the second round and how the majority of them are that much better built(personel wise) than ours.
For example, Memphis. They have such size in Zach Randolph(who really has turned a corner) and Marc Gasol . They have a true wing man in Rudy Gay, OJ Mayo is their Lou Williams off the bench. Mike Conley will never be a star anything, but he’s a solid starter.
I dare say the only thing we have on Memphis is Jrue Holiday, that’s it! Or you look at OKC, for those who say “why build through the draft?” That’s why, they sucked for quite some time but there was no ill-patience on Presti’s part, Durant, Westbrook and hopefully Harden becomes that third piece for them. Perkins defensively on the interior.
Or how about the Mavericks? Sure Jason Kidd lost a step and a half, but when a step and a half-less Jason Kidd is a better PG than Devin Harris, that shows you they made the right decision. Dirk is Dirk, but acquiring Chandler/Haywood on the interior means they can bang with the Lakers in this season.
And while I still believe the Hawks to be one of the weaker 4th-5th seeds constantly to ever make a playoffs, at least they have a theory with their roster, an idea.
Compared to these teams, we’re like a chicken without it’s head running around! Can you honestly say the Sixers have an identity and I don’t mean “working hard”, is there any one strength on this basketball team outside of Jrue Holiday!?
Rebuild, please Mr.Thorn
OKC also got very lucky with Durant. I doubt ET ever gets to his level (Yes, I think he will improve but never to the quality of player Durant is).
You can build through the draft but it also takes luck.
Previous #2 picks
- ET-Thabeet-Beasley-Durant-Aldridge-Marvin Williams-Okafor-Milicic.
Are there good players on there? Sure but only 2 superstars (Durant and Aldridge). It’s easy to say, look at OKC, that’s why you build through the draft but fact is, they got lucky by getting the best player in the draft with the #2 pick. That is not going to happen every year.
This team does not need to be rebuild it just needs a clear strategy. We are a few pieces away from making a run in the next 2 years if the team makes the right decisions. Or, they could go the other way and try to trade Iguodala and Brand and build around the young core.
Staying put will leave the team middling for the next few years. Hopefully that won’t happen.
I mean, let’s get real here. Last year, the sentiment was “This is the same team that made the playoffs the year before, no reason they shouldn’t make the playoffs.”. And they did. So, what really changed? Doug Collins? Hell, we could’ve brought Cheeks back and STILL have made the playoffs.
There’s no difference between last year and this year, sans a couple of bench players and no Green/Dalembert. Oh wow, such a transformed team!(I’m being sarcastic)
If you wanna be REALLY technical, we had our first winning year in about seven or so years. But again, only technically. We’re no different from when we were 27-55. We need to make the same decisions, either find a way to take a step forward(and seeing as we have a lack of salary flexibility I don’t see how that’s getting done) or take one step back, two steps forward.
i just have to disagree with the idea that the team is the same
you’re looking at a team with a similar outcome [4-1], but the situation was entirely different with the last appearance. the playoff field wasn’t as strong as this year’s.
back then dwight changed the entire game defensively, like he always does, and pietrus was a good wing defender, but other than that the magic team had nothing on the heat team we just faced. the level of play in these playoffs has just been roundly higher. it is my opinion that there’s no stronger perimiter defensive lineup then bron wade and chalmers.
our 6ers fought hard [which is commendable being as the main focus for this team has been the young guys] and we CANNOT overlook the importance of instilling winning instinct in young players. fighting for the playoffs and fighting for the heat did immeasurable good for the career arc of jrue, thad, and in the end, turner.
but what is most telling is that the guys that could be looked at as a part of the young core, [jrue, thad, imo ET, and lou] played REAL basketball. rather than flying around and trying to run all possessions on a magic team that clearly didn’t care much about us, these guys worked screens, back door cuts, smooth interior passing, and muscled their way to open looks against a team history will probably remember as championship caliber.
there’s one DRASTICALLY different aspect that i took away from it all. and that is that when the games counted, when wade and james were relentlessly attacking on defense and offense, when the heat role players were chipping in, jrue holiday and evan turner defended, they got steals, they played chippy, and above all else, they LIVED in the paint. not all of those shots fell, but they worked their way into the heart of one of the best defensive teams in the league, the one place you can do the most damage as a playmaker.
to me, that is a sign that things have changed, and that the future has opened up.
Memphis has been impressive. Win their first ever playoff game and now they’re rolling. I dont think they pass the Thunder but you have to say that this is the most sucessful season in franchise history.
I'm tired of hearing about money, money, money, money, money. I just want to play the game, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok---Shaquille O'Neal
How would you think Rose and Westbrook would perform if their situations were reversed?
I think Westbrook is forcing things on OKC because he see’s all of the positive press rose gets. But that “Boss” style works better for the Bulls than for OKC.
It works because the Bulls don’t have a player like Durant.
Westbrook is the type of high usage guards who wants (and needs?) the ball to be effective.
Here are the guards (note some SGs had to be sprinkled in) for this season sorted by usage.
The relationship between Durant and Westbrook is probably a top 5 storyline for me over the next few years. If they stay together, they can be the best duo in the league. They both need the ball though and it remains to be seen whether they can both be happy as they continue to improve as players.
Yeah, Westbrook and Rose are playing similar styles. But having Durant and that style PG seems a bit of a mismatch.
But if they both are willing to give a little, than their is more than enough talent to make it work. But I’m not sure Westbrook is willing to give. I guess we will have to see how it plays out.
Yeah that is definitely the biggest question. With so many young PGs becoming these types of high usage scoring stars, it will be interesting to see if Westbrook leans that way, taking away some shots that Durant should be taking or whether he takes second chair for the good of the team?
He will keep getting compared to Rose, etc and it will be intrigiuing to see how it goes in these playoffs and over the course of the next few seasons.
But Rose should be playing that way because the team needs him to be. OKC needs Westbrook to play at about 80% of what Rose does, but he wants to be the same player.
I’d also argue that Jrue at times this year has played that way. Maybe not so much of a slashing guard. But when he does slash, he does it very effectively. What makes Jrue so awesome is his mid-range/3pt jump shot. Which only Derrick Rose really has out of all of the new combo guards in the league.
If Jrue becomes more of a slasher next year, look out! There’s your #2 option
The Flyers don’t have a true superstar, but they’ve got a lot of talented guys. Hopefully Turner gets up there. Then you’ve got Young. Turner HAS to develop a jumper though, because otherwise, the only perimeter players we have are Holiday/Meeks and Meeks should be coming off the bench.
I know Rose gets all the credit, but where would the Bulls be without Joakim Noah? Noah is the very reason you don’t look down on “prospects”, when Noah came into the draft all he was was an energy big. I know people were talking about him like a top-pick but I’m like “What are you, crazy?” but Noah has done an outstanding job improving his game. Then again, he also had for a year Ben Wallace to learn from.
That was maybe one of the things that was unfortunate with the Daly situation.I believe we traded Motombo before we acquired Daly right? Who did Daly have to learn from, Marc Jackson? Veteran leadership is important, you’ve gotta strike a balance between vets and kids.
Sixers showed more heart than the Celtics so far
Watching Miami vs. Boston, I don’t see a lot of hustle or defense from Boston. They are getting dominated from the first quarter, wire to wire. Whereas with the Sixers I felt like we pushed Miami to the limit in 4 out of 5 games.
Just makes me more proud of the 2010-2011 team, and angry that we didn’t finish our business at the end of the regular season so we could draw the Celtics.
Playoffs, ppfftttt!
I don’t wanna talk about other teams untill there is only two left. Right now I wanna talk about draft prospects,people here need to get on the Lucas Nogueira bandwagon, or talk about the potential rammifications of a lockout.
Wouldn’t it be good to see Brand leading an unofficial Sixers preseason camp, similar to what Drew Brees has done with many of the Saints players.
I’d like to know who other people think the Sixers oncourt leader/s are. Obviously Jrue and Evan are our future, but currently which Sixers player/s gets in the other guys ears, is the vocal team leader.
I was just thinking about that, how I could see Brand getting at least the young guys together for some practice/workout sessions in the event of a lockout. I can’t see Iggy doing that himself, but I think if Brand precipitated something like that, Iggy would jump in and help out.
Hopefully they get it together before a lockout, but if they don’t, let’s hope that some of those vets do something to hold this squad together.
by The Crooked Man on May 4, 2011 6:04 AM PDT up reply actions
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