2023-24 Around the NBA Thread

[Ronin]

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[ajcardfan]

Stumbled onto the Spurs and Nuggets and Spurs win with a buzzer beater after a massive comeback from 23 down. It was a really fun game to see the 4th qtr of.

 

[GatorAZ]

Denver is now the 3 seed.

 

[Cheesebeef]

Embiid being back and ready to roll makes the East a little more intersting, especially if Giannis is injured. They’re the only ones who might be able to give Boston a run if Embiid can actually keep staying healthy.

 

[Chaplin]

Embiid being back and ready to roll makes the East a little more intersting, especially if Giannis is injured. They’re the only ones who might be able to give Boston a run if Embiid can actually keep staying healthy.

Embiid hurt his knee tonight.

Edit: my bad he came back

 

[Cheesebeef]

Embiid hurt his knee tonight.

Edit: my bad he came back

Eh… you can probably just save that post for a couple weeks from now when it inevitably happens again.

 

[Lorenzo]

I don't know if Embid's injury is related to his prior one. but one has to worry about rushing these guys back. Same with Giannis, what you don't want to see is a guy rush back and blow out a knee or an achilles. I would consider putting those guys on the shelf for the year if there is the slightest potential for a smaller injury turning into a severe injury.

 

[95pro]

I don't know if Embid's injury is related to his prior one. but one has to worry about rushing these guys back. Same with Giannis, what you don't want to see is a guy rush back and blow out a knee or an achilles. I would consider putting those guys on the shelf for the year if there is the slightest potential for a smaller injury turning into a severe injury.

I don’t think that’s it with him. He’s just due every year for an injury. Prior to his nba career most thought he was a huge gamble.

 

[Ronin]

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[Ronin]

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[Ronin]

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[Yuma]

They were talking on ESPN how Atlanta may have exposed the Celtics. They played them really physical and the Celtics couldn't handle it. They may have stumbled onto the blue print for playing the Celtics.

 

[Phrazbit]

Milwaukee ends up 49-33 after starting the season 30-13. They went 17-19 with Doc as the coach.

The firing of Adrian Griffin is probably the most baffling coach canning I can ever recall.

The narrative that was put out there at the time was the team wasn't playing good enough defense... 43 games into his first year and on a 60 win pace. Insane. There had to have been more going on. Some behind the scenes blow up or Doc Rivers (who was a consultant at the time) pulled an all-time hatchet job.

Pacers over Bucks in 4, BTW.

 

[Cheesebeef]

Milwaukee ends up 49-33 after starting the season 30-13. They went 17-19 with Doc as the coach.

The firing of Adrian Griffin is probably the most baffling coach canning I can ever recall.

The narrative that was put out there at the time was the team wasn't playing good enough defense... 43 games into his first year and on a 60 win pace. Insane. There had to have been more going on. Some behind the scenes blow up or Doc Rivers (who was a consultant at the time) pulled an all-time hatchet job.

Pacers over Bucks in 4, BTW.

Knowing that every Bucks team in recent memory have been total pretenders in the playoffs and now this season… except against us in the Finals… makes that loss sting all much more in retrospect. Especially because of how badly WE choked that title away.

 

[Hoop Head]

They were talking on ESPN how Atlanta may have exposed the Celtics. They played them really physical and the Celtics couldn't handle it. They may have stumbled onto the blue print for playing the Celtics.

That little to discuss that the talking heads think a game Boston didn't need to win exposed them? Teams have gotten physical with them before with little to no success. Their roster is versatile and can play any style. Turning Smart into Jrue Holiday and Grant Williams and Patrick Williams into Porzingis has been huge for them. They were a contender who legitimately upgraded their weaknesses. They can play fast, slow, inside, out, physical, or finesse. Provided they stay healthy they will steamroll to the finals. Denver might give them some problems but this title is Boston's to lose.

 

[Hoop Head]

Milwaukee ends up 49-33 after starting the season 30-13. They went 17-19 with Doc as the coach.

The firing of Adrian Griffin is probably the most baffling coach canning I can ever recall.

The narrative that was put out there at the time was the team wasn't playing good enough defense... 43 games into his first year and on a 60 win pace. Insane. There had to have been more going on. Some behind the scenes blow up or Doc Rivers (who was a consultant at the time) pulled an all-time hatchet job.

Pacers over Bucks in 4, BTW.

ESPN had a piece up not long after Doc took over and it described how Lopez was largely ineffective under Griffin's time and Dame was also getting cooked more. This was like a half dozen games into Doc's run and while the offense was improving under Doc the defense went back to what they'd been running under Budenholzer. Giannis was basically placed in Lopez's role as a rim protector and shot blocker, which he didn't mind but the defense was centered on him being the catch all backstop that Lopez kind of was before. The advanced stats were interesting.

What it seemed though is under Griffin was over exerting Giannis on D, making him the sort of star on a high school team who makes everyone else look better by having him cover their weaknesses. That plus the lack of offensive success and refusal to lean into a Dame/Giannis 2 man game ended up costing him. It didn't blame Giannis, said he was happy, and didn't point fingers at Dame either. Seemed like it was only stating the role players and Lopez were upset with Griffin, which I doubt caused the change but I could see Doc sort of uniting the team outside of Giannis to help push Griffin out. Using Lopez as an in, since his stats were way down across the board.

 

[Yuma]

That little to discuss that the talking heads think a game Boston didn't need to win exposed them? Teams have gotten physical with them before with little to no success. Their roster is versatile and can play any style. Turning Smart into Jrue Holiday and Grant Williams and Patrick Williams into Porzingis has been huge for them. They were a contender who legitimately upgraded their weaknesses. They can play fast, slow, inside, out, physical, or finesse. Provided they stay healthy they will steamroll to the finals. Denver might give them some problems but this title is Boston's to lose.

They were saying it was 2 games back to back way back in March. Not recently. Not sure how how those games weren't needed to win. Just relaying what ESPN guys, some who were former NBA players, were discussing. IF there is a way to beat them, they think that's it.

 

[Hoop Head]

They were saying it was 2 games back to back way back in March. Not recently. Not sure how how those games weren't needed to win. Just relaying what ESPN guys, some who were former NBA players, were discussing. IF there is a way to beat them, they think that's it.

Ok, I didn't look up the Celtics schedule and assumed the Hawks wins were recent. I guess if they happened a month ago though then the Celtics would have seen a lot more physicality afterwards and their record didn't show a drop. So either other teams ignored those games as an outlier or they tried to get physical unsuccessfully. I think being further back into the season shows that it was more of a bad matchup for the Celtics, for whatever reason. You can't always easily pinpoint why it's a bad matchup. See the Suns vs Spurs this season where the Spurs went 3-1 against us, 1 win without Wemby. It's hard to say specifically why they had our number but they did.

 

[95pro]

Milwaukee ends up 49-33 after starting the season 30-13. They went 17-19 with Doc as the coach.

The firing of Adrian Griffin is probably the most baffling coach canning I can ever recall.

The narrative that was put out there at the time was the team wasn't playing good enough defense... 43 games into his first year and on a 60 win pace. Insane. There had to have been more going on. Some behind the scenes blow up or Doc Rivers (who was a consultant at the time) pulled an all-time hatchet job.

Pacers over Bucks in 4, BTW.

I heard it was because he wasn’t playing Thanasis, so Giannis is calling the shots thinking his brother is Thanos.

 

[Hoop Head]

Here's the ESPN+ article on Griffin being fired and what lead to it. Worth reading for additional insight, especially with the power of hindsight.

Inside the tension and struggles that led to Adrian Griffin's firing in Milwaukee

After a much-lauded hiring, Adrian Griffin spent less than eight months as the Bucks' head coach. So what went so wrong, so fast?

www.espn.com

 

[Covert Rain]

Ready for the playoffs to get started.

 

[Russ Smith]

No idea what to expect tonight. Won't surprise me if the Warriors win both play ins and upset the 1 seed, won't surprise me if they lose tonight and go home.

Not having GP2 tonight is a big deal because he's one of the few guys on the roster who can somewhat defend Fox, but Sac doesn't have Monk who's been a huge factor when the Kings beat the W's.

I've said all year I don't think the Warriors are a contender and still don't. they played great down the stretch, the new lineup with TJD at the 5 has been a game changer, it allows Draymond to play free safety not have to be the anchor rim protector. The problem is it means Kuminga off the bench, that's worked now because Kuminga is dealing with knee tendinitis, but assuming he gets healthy the long term is IMO going to be him starting and Wiggins getting traded next year if possible.

Also can't be said enough 2 huge keys to the Warriors this year are TJD and Podz, both rookies about to play in the biggest game of their lives. I kind of feel like if the Warriors win tonight Looney will be a key, my gut tells me Sabonis will get TJD in foul trouble and the W's will need Loon.

 

[RON_IN_OC]

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[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

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Yeeeowtch

 

[Hoop Head]

Nuggets vs Lakers WCF rematch in round 1. I'd guess another sweep for Denver.

Warriors done, the Kings play the Pelicans for the 8th seed. I'd guess the Kings win. They're a tougher matchup for the Thunder, imo. OKC still wins but probably 6 games. I'd say 5 for OKC if the Pelicans make it.