Draft Pick Watch

[slinslin]

Can we please stop winning now except against the Lakers?

We are now tied with Toronto for #6 at 16 wins and overtook Orlando and New Orleans..

 

[Neo]

Can we please stop winning now except against the Lakers?

We are now tied with Toronto for #6 at 16 wins and overtook Orlando and New Orleans..

What should they do, quit trying? We have mediocre talent so we are going to beat bad teams a fair amount of the time and occasionally beat a good team. If every team that knew it was not going to make the playoffs just gave up an intentionally lost all of its games, the NBA would be almost unwatchable.

 

[95pro]

What should they do, quit trying? We have mediocre talent so we are going to beat bad teams a fair amount of the time and occasionally beat a good team. If every team that knew it was not going to make the playoffs just gave up an intentionally lost all of its games, the NBA would be almost unwatchable.

Oh you know what he means...

The semantics/rhetorical/literal ******** on this board is annoying

 

[elindholm]

Hollinger has the Lakers at 29% to make the playoffs after their loss to the Suns.

 

[ASUCHRIS]

If every team that knew it was not going to make the playoffs just gave up an intentionally lost all of its games, the NBA would be almost unwatchable.

I certainly don't want to be intentionally be losing games. That said, I'd also like to see Beasley/Johnson/Morris/Marshall get as many minutes as possible to see if we have anything with any of them.

Two birds/one stone.

 

[AzStevenCal]

I certainly don't want to be intentionally be losing games. That said, I'd also like to see Beasley/Johnson/Morris/Marshall get as many minutes as possible to see if we have anything with any of them.

Two birds/one stone.

Yep, I don't believe in tanking but I do believe in playing for the future. I've been all for giving our younger players as much time as possible to either develop or fail. It's a fine line as you don't want to devalue your other players but it's a line Gentry should have tried to straddle and didn't. Hopefully, Hunter will.

Steve

 

[JCSunsfan]

Yep, I don't believe in tanking but I do believe in playing for the future. I've been all for giving our younger players as much time as possible to either develop or fail. It's a fine line as you don't want to devalue your other players but it's a line Gentry should have tried to straddle and didn't. Hopefully, Hunter will.

Steve

You do not ask the players on the floor to play poorly, but you do have control over which players get minutes. The goal is a championship. You do what you have to do to get to that goal.

 

[Errntknght]

Hollinger has the Lakers at 29% to make the playoffs after their loss to the Suns.

Hmmmm. I'd expect lower if Howard was done for the year... and higher if he wasn't. Did he elaborate?

 

[Neo]

Hmmmm. I'd expect lower if Howard was done for the year... and higher if he wasn't. Did he elaborate?

There is no elaboration for individual standing with the Hollinger Playoff Odds. It takes the Hollinger Power Rankings (computer generated) and runs the remaining games through thousands of simulations to generate final standings. The aggregated results are the playoff odds. So it does not take into account Howard's injury, or any other non-statistical factor.

 

[SirStefan32]

Hollinger is like a turd that just won't flush. I thought he took a front-office job with the Grizzlies?

 

[Errntknght]

Thanks, Neo

 

[JCSunsfan]

The Lakers are sure going to take this down to the wire.

 

[Errntknght]

Go Nets! They're at home which is big but they are 7-9 against WC teams. It would be an important win for the Lakers as Miami is the only other tough opponent on this seven game roadtrip. If they go 4-3 for the trip thats a boost since they'd won only 25% of their road games prior to it, but 5-2 is, of course, a huge boost.

 

[JCSunsfan]

This next stretch for the Lakers will tell us alot about the Laker's pick.

They have a home stand: Miami, Phoenix, Clippers, Boston, Portland
Then: @Dallas, @Denver

They could easily go 1-6 in that stretch, but probably more like 3-4 because of the home games.

 

[Errntknght]

The Miami game is in Miami. Tied at 58 at the five minute mark of the third Q.

 

[Errntknght]

1-6 is a fantasy... 6-1 is somewhat more likely than that. I expect 4-3 with losses to Miami, Clips and Denver. Well, maybe a fantasy is a little too strong the way they have been all over the map this year. But Boston is 8-14 on the road, Portland 8-17 and us at 5-22, hard to imagine them losing two out of those three alone.

Miami up 78-73 at the end of the third.

 

[sunsfan88]

I can see the Lakers going on a 7 game losing streak if we can beat em on Tuesday.

 

[Phrazbit]

At the current pace ~44 wins is going to qualify for the 8th seed. For the Lakers to hit that mark they need to go 20-10 the rest of the way, and obviously two of the Houston, Utah, Portand group to play worse than ~16-14.

A 2-5 run over these next 7 would bury them. But I think 3-4 or 4-3 is a likely result. But Dwight's shoulder is a ticking time bomb. One more tweek on that thing, especially if they're still struggling, and I think he will really consider shutting it down.

One more note, Dallas has an extremely favorable stretch of games coming up. If they avoid the temptation of blowing up their team they could very well pass the Lakers in the standings which I think would be a big demoralizer for LA.

 

[JCSunsfan]

Ok. Loss to Miami is in the books. Now we have to do our job. Yes, 1-6 would be a fantasy. Is it remotely possible, yes. I think the most likely is 3-4. But there are alot of home games. Losses to Miami, Clips (home/away doesnt matter) Boston, and Dallas. I would so love to see Portland beat them because of the playoff implications.

 

[Phrazbit]

Nerlens Noel appears to have blown out his knee. If its bad this would seriously shake up the top of the draft.

 

[Phrazbit]

I saw some shots of Noel's injury... no need for the MRI... its bad, really really bad. If you've just eaten I advise you not to look it up.

 

[slinslin]

we should probably still take him if we cant draft Muhammad or McLemore with out pick.

Noel was just starting to play great.

 

[SweetD]

I wonder if Noel's injury has him going pulling out of the draft? This might have moved him out of the top 5.

 

[AzStevenCal]

I wonder if Noel's injury has him going pulling out of the draft? This might have moved him out of the top 5.

He really isn't/wasn't quite ready for the NBA and I think everyone, including him, knew it and still he projected to the top 5. I don't really see how that changes. From his perspective, he would now be eligible, he should still be drafted fairly high, next year is projected to be a stronger class at the top and a big guy coming back from a serious injury is unlikely to play at a level that matches his pre-injury performance. My guess, if he had doubts about staying or going, they're now gone and so is he.

Steve

 

[Phrazbit]

I would guess he still comes out for the draft this year. He will likely go top 5 still, where if he stayed in college and struggled to come back next season he would probably see a serious drop in his stock.