2018 Playoffs Thread

[Cheesebeef]

BRING ON THE DRAFT!

 

[Hoop Head]

FWIW Stephen A Smith is doubling down that he thinks Durant will leave. I don't know one way or the other but I've been saying for 2 years I fully expect the Warriors to have Allonzo Trier on the roster next year because he is Durant's "adopted little brother" and they will want to do anything they can to keep Durant happy.

That said, if CP3 doesn't get hurt the Warriors likely aren't even here so I don't get the idea that they're invincible for several more years if they don't break up.

They're invincible for another few years because even though the Rockets were close, the Rockets window is closing. The gap between the Warriors and other teams grows more. Paul is another year older, that doesn't help them. The Rockets may lose Capella also, if they don't they may need to free up money elsewhere. Who knows how they look next year though.

The Warriors know how important that is now and I think they push for it next year. Had Paul not been hurt, the Rockets may have been favorites and homecourt was a part of that. I think they push for homecourt next year if they stay together.

San Antonio may lose Kawhi, even if they don't, I don't think they can beat the Warriors next year. They're too old elsewhere on their roster with Pau and Aldridge. Who knows if Parker stays or Manu does, even Pop is a bit of a question mark.

Who else can challenge them? OKC? If they lose Paul George then they're out. The Pelicans might lose Cousins, which could hurt and even though he wasn't with them in the playoffs who knows if they make the playoffs without Cousins or if AD asks out. Minnesota has issues with KAT. The Jazz will be better but they're pretty much the only playoff team in the West who should be better than this year.

 

[Cheesebeef]

FWIW Stephen A Smith is doubling down that he thinks Durant will leave. I don't know one way or the other but I've been saying for 2 years I fully expect the Warriors to have Allonzo Trier on the roster next year because he is Durant's "adopted little brother" and they will want to do anything they can to keep Durant happy.

That said, if CP3 doesn't get hurt the Warriors likely aren't even here so I don't get the idea that they're invincible for several more years if they don't break up.

Durant ain't leaving. That's just non-sense from Steven A. Where the hell is he gonna go?

 

[pokerface]

BRING ON THE DRAFT!

SUNS R #1

 

[Cheesebeef]

I'd REALLY like to see this mean-mugging Warriors team actually beat someone worthy who's HEALTHY.

that's literally never happened during their runs.

Title #1 they struggled to put away a Cavs team without Kyrie AND Love beating them in 6.
Title #2, they took out an MVP Candidate down 25 in Game 1.
Title #3, they were down 3-2 before the Rockets lost CP3, their leader.

They've got all the talent in the world, but just once I'd like to see them actually beat their toughest foe when they're not a MASH unit. Jordan's Bulls never got that lucky. They never got the luck of injuries during their runs which is what's always made their runs so damn impressive.

The Lakers, Blazers, Suns, Sonics and Jazz were always healthy and put down in 6 or less and even they're tougher ECF they made mince meat of totally healthy Shaq/Penny teams and every Knick team that tried to stand in their way.

 

[Hoop Head]

The Warriors did beat the Thunder, who had a 3-1 lead on them before they collapsed. They were healthy also. That's often forgotten since they fell apart against the Cavs in the finals that year.

 

[LoyaltyisaCurse]

Yeeeeeeaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!

@Russ Smith

 

[LoyaltyisaCurse]

I'd REALLY like to see this mean-mugging Warriors team actually beat someone worthy who's HEALTHY.

that's literally never happened during their runs.

Title #1 they struggled to put away a Cavs team without Kyrie AND Love beating them in 6.
Title #2, they took out an MVP Candidate down 25 in Game 1.
Title #3, they were down 3-2 before the Rockets lost CP3, their leader.

They've got all the talent in the world, but just once I'd like to see them actually beat their toughest foe when they're not a MASH unit. Jordan's Bulls never got that lucky. They never got the luck of injuries during their runs which is what's always made their runs so damn impressive.

The Lakers, Blazers, Suns, Sonics and Jazz were always healthy and put down in 6 or less and even they're tougher ECF they made mince meat of totally healthy Shaq/Penny teams and every Knick team that tried to stand in their way.

lol sour grapes. Dubsweren't healthy either.

 

[Finito]

I was never quite clear why the Cavaliers did not trade Lebron this past season from a team standpoint and from Lebron's standpoint. It's a credit to him the Cavaliers made it this far. Both sides would have benefited from such a move.

He has a no trade clause

 

[HeHasRosen]

Is it crazy to think that CP3's hamstring might have saved this team? If he's in and they win, this team is NOT considered a dynasty. Now they will be and people will forget all about that series.

I can almost guarantee Lebron's only goal is to get a team to knock the warriors off. And apparently LBJ played games 2, 3 and 4 with a broken hand. If that's true the man is re friggin diculous.

1 more thing. I predict a Suns Warriors Playoff series rd1. 1 Dubs vs 8 Suns.

 

[LoyaltyisaCurse]

Nick Young “I went from getting snitched on to putting a ring on”

 

[Mainstreet]

He has a no trade clause

Likely Lebron could have waived the no trade clause if he so desired.

 

[AzStevenCal]

Likely Lebron could have waived the no trade clause if he so desired.

Sure but Lebron didn't want to. It's been a topic of discussion the past 18 months and the "insiders" keep saying he's unwilling to be traded anywhere.

 

[Mainstreet]

Sure but Lebron didn't want to. It's been a topic of discussion the past 18 months and the "insiders" keep saying he's unwilling to be traded anywhere.

And I've probably been saying for the past 18 months it didn't make much sense for Lebron and Cleveland. Now Lebron likely moves on.

 

[Russ Smith]

Take with a grain of salt but I was watching the local Warriors "Outsiders" show last night on Comcast and they were talking about the Houston series and how unfortunate it was that both Iggy and Paul got hurt and "tainted" the outcome.

They then said that both Draymond and Kerr were telling people that "we had figured Houston out" and felt quite confident they would have beaten Houston even with CP3 playing. I know Draymond said it after the game 5 loss and I speculated at the time he was talking about the fairly obvious tactic the last 2 games of attacking Harden on defense repeatedly but I have no idea if that's what he and Kerr meant by figured out. Kerr is usually pretty close to the vest, I knew Draymond had said it, i was unaware Kerr had too. assuming what they said is true, I really wonder now what it is they thought they figured out.

I certainly didn't get the impression watching that series that they had some magic pill to beat Houston, basically I felt if Paul had been healthy, Houston would have won.

 

[Hoop Head]

Take with a grain of salt but I was watching the local Warriors "Outsiders" show last night on Comcast and they were talking about the Houston series and how unfortunate it was that both Iggy and Paul got hurt and "tainted" the outcome.

They then said that both Draymond and Kerr were telling people that "we had figured Houston out" and felt quite confident they would have beaten Houston even with CP3 playing. I know Draymond said it after the game 5 loss and I speculated at the time he was talking about the fairly obvious tactic the last 2 games of attacking Harden on defense repeatedly but I have no idea if that's what he and Kerr meant by figured out. Kerr is usually pretty close to the vest, I knew Draymond had said it, i was unaware Kerr had too. assuming what they said is true, I really wonder now what it is they thought they figured out.

I certainly didn't get the impression watching that series that they had some magic pill to beat Houston, basically I felt if Paul had been healthy, Houston would have won.

I think that comment was made to rattle Houston more than any sort of discovery Green or Kerr made. Kerr should have known how to beat them, wear them down, D'Antoni's lack of a deep rotation makes it easy to wear down their stars and ultimately surpass them in a 7 game series. The longer the Warriors could keep the series going the worse the Rockets looked.

 

[Russ Smith]

I think that comment was made to rattle Houston more than any sort of discovery Green or Kerr made. Kerr should have known how to beat them, wear them down, D'Antoni's lack of a deep rotation makes it easy to wear down their stars and ultimately surpass them in a 7 game series. The longer the Warriors could keep the series going the worse the Rockets looked.

I got the impression they were saying Kerr said it after the series. I know Draymond said it after game 5, not sure when Kerr did though.

I felt with CP3, Houston wins. To be clear though, I think with Iggy playing too, it's a tossup. We saw again how valuable he was at the end of the Cavs series when he got to play again.

 

[Mainstreet]

I got the impression they were saying Kerr said it after the series. I know Draymond said it after game 5, not sure when Kerr did though.

I felt with CP3, Houston wins. To be clear though, I think with Iggy playing too, it's a tossup. We saw again how valuable he was at the end of the Cavs series when he got to play again.

JMHO, but I think the Warriors still win even with CP3 playing. It was 3 on 2 as I view it.

 

[Cheesebeef]

@Russ Smith @LoyaltyisaCurse

Does it ever bother rooting for some of the complete punk ******* on your club?

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/draymond-green-rejects-tristan-thompson-160002571.html

Man... I would love to win titles for like y'all but to root for just complete punk *******/cheap shot artists like KD (it's tougher to play with all this talent than what LeBron does) and Draymond would turn my stomach.

Have some class for cripes sake.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

@Russ Smith @LoyaltyisaCurse

Does it ever bother rooting for some of the complete punk ******* on your club?

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/draymond-green-rejects-tristan-thompson-160002571.html

Man... I would love to win titles for like y'all but to root for just complete punk *******/cheap shot artists like KD (it's tougher to play with all this talent than what LeBron does) and Draymond would turn my stomach.

Have some class for cripes sake.

Why did you have to call out Russ and Loyalty for this? They don’t control the players. And you KNOW we would root for the suns if they had this collection of warriors and brought us rings. Just post the article and bitch about KD and draymond. Why call out posters?

 

[LoyaltyisaCurse]

@Russ Smith @LoyaltyisaCurse

Does it ever bother rooting for some of the complete punk ******* on your club?

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/draymond-green-rejects-tristan-thompson-160002571.html

Man... I would love to win titles for like y'all but to root for just complete punk *******/cheap shot artists like KD (it's tougher to play with all this talent than what LeBron does) and Draymond would turn my stomach.

Have some class for cripes sake.

Not when it's a bitch like Tristan Thompson.

 

[Russ Smith]

@Russ Smith @LoyaltyisaCurse

Does it ever bother rooting for some of the complete punk ******* on your club?

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/draymond-green-rejects-tristan-thompson-160002571.html

Man... I would love to win titles for like y'all but to root for just complete punk *******/cheap shot artists like KD (it's tougher to play with all this talent than what LeBron does) and Draymond would turn my stomach.

Have some class for cripes sake.

I don't like Draymond's dirty stuff, I called him out in both the Rockets and Cavs series for dumb plays. I don't mind at all what he said about Tristan Thompson, if you saw the dustup they had, which again I blamed on Draymond for taunting LeBron on the foulline, Thompson very clearly invited Draymond to follow him into the lockerroom so they could fight. One of the guys who does the Warriors postgame show so they could hear Thompson yelling at Green "come get some" and then they heard Green tell him to meet me outside. So that story reported the Green comment about going outside, but not the Thompson comments about the lockerroom. That's the reality with Draymond he has done so much of this nonsense that now he can get into a situation like that and they're only going to report him, not the other player.

I'm not sure who the punk ******* on the Warriors are. If you recall the reason Draymond trolled LeBron at the celebration was LeBron trolled the Warriors 2 years ago wearing the "Ultimate Warrior" tshirt at the Cavs celebration. I figure LeBron is a big enough man to take it after dishing it out and I'm unaware of him complaining. I pointed out it then, Draymond and LeBron actually are in business together in a couple of things, they may get after each other on the court, but they like each other off the court. I think that's clearly not true of Green and Thompson, they appear to strongly dislike each other.

I waited 40 years for another title, 3 in 4 years has been fun. Durant clearly put the team over the top, and that's why they got him, they were a better regular season team without him, but they got him for the playoffs. The team was in consecutive finals with a roster that was largely homegrown, either drafted or traded for with guys they drafted. I saw Barkley complaining about how the Warriors were built during the finals and I wanted to ask him are you even aware the first 2 years they were about the most home grown team in the league? Because of the way they built the roster, it allowed them to use the rules to get Durant. People can blame Durant for signing with a 73 win team that's fine, to each their own, but faulting the Warriors for signing him is silly IMO, they used the rules. As a UCLA fan I see Lakers fans on UCLA boards constantly complaining about how the Warriors built the roster, none of them seemed to have an issue with Wilt, Kareem and Shaq all playing for the Lakers without being drafted by the Lakers. I've never seen a Celtics fan complain about how they got Larry Bird(forced a rules change). The Celtics went out and got Allen and Garnett to win a title. LeBron then took his talents to South Beach to win titles and then timed his return to cleveland so he could play with Kyrie and so Cleveland would finally agree to trade Wiggins for Love. So I don't have an issue with them, within the rules, acquiring Durant.

They didn't tank to build the roster, they didn't tamper with other players, they just had a perfect scenario where Curry was still underpaid and they were able to let Barnes and Bogut go to clear enough cap room to get Durant(along with Ezeli and Speights and some others). It was a very well built roster, they found a perfect role for Livingston, made a great trade for Iggy and again a perfect role for him. The Warriors built their roster the way you're supposed to build an NBA roster IMO.

 

[Phrazbit]

@Russ Smith @LoyaltyisaCurse

Does it ever bother rooting for some of the complete punk ******* on your club?

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/draymond-green-rejects-tristan-thompson-160002571.html

Man... I would love to win titles for like y'all but to root for just complete punk *******/cheap shot artists like KD (it's tougher to play with all this talent than what LeBron does) and Draymond would turn my stomach.

Have some class for cripes sake.

How did you feel about Dockett when he was on the Cards?

Personally, I found him hard to cheer for, he was a cheap shot artist and an a-hole, but I know he was beloved by much of the fan base.

 

[pokerface]

What is this? Some dumping ground thread now?

 

[Western Font]

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I’m always reminded of he old Method Man commercial about Reggie and Mourning.