NBA Chatter Thread

1bigfan13

1bigfan13

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Carp said:
Are you kidding me? The only reason they were "in control" was because of Westbrook and Durant. If they were more passive, like you are suggesting, I guess we would just sit back and marvel at how Ibaka, Adams, and Roberson take control of the offense. Smart thinking...all those guys can create off the dribble...wait, no they can't.

Reminds me of when Iverson got the Sixers to the finals. Sometimes the best open shot they had was off of an Iverson miss when 2 or 3 guys were collapsing on him.
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If we're strictly talking game 6 I think you're dead wrong. Westbrook was solid for most of the night but aside from a few moments here and there, Durant was a mess on offense. Before you could blink he'd already threw up 7 quick shots....we probably weren't even 3 minutes into the game and he'd only hit one of those 7 shots.

I don't think anyone wants a scorer of his caliber to be passive on offense and completely defer to the lesser talented role players, but he has to defer some.

Durant draws a ton of attention on offense and could easily set up guys like Ibaka for clean shots. When his shot is completely off he should be using that to his advantage instead of constantly chucking up bricks.

I know they're two separate players but Lebron does it all the time. He knows defenses cheat towards him so he uses it to his advantage to get his role players good looks.
 
L.T. Fan

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1bigfan13 said:
If we're strictly talking game 6 I think you're dead wrong. Westbrook was solid for most of the night but aside from a few moments here and there, Durant was a mess on offense. Before you could blink he'd already threw up 7 quick shots....we probably weren't even 3 minutes into the game and he'd only hit one of those 7 shots.

I don't think anyone wants a scorer of his caliber to be passive on offense and completely defer to the lesser talented role players, but he has to defer some.

Durant draws a ton of attention on offense and could easily set up guys like Ibaka for clean shots. When his shot is completely off he should be using that to his advantage instead of constantly chucking up bricks.

I know they're two separate players but Lebron does it all the time. He knows defenses cheat towards him so he uses it to his advantage to get his role players good looks.
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Thank you.
 
1bigfan13

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The lone sliver of hope that I have is that being pushed to the brink of elimination will refocus OKC on playing the right way and sharing the ball.

Billy Donovan alluded to it last night during his post game press conference and the Thunder beat writers have discussed it as well......OKC had gotten past their hero ball style of play after being humbled by a couple of bad losses (Game 1 vs Spurs & Game 2 vs GSW). They responded to those blowout losses with refocused effort. Primarily because ass whippings like those tend to humble you and make you embrace your coach's input a little more.

Unfortunately old habits are hard to break and an ego driven style of play returns every other week with this group of players. I think the OKC players certainly bought into their own media hype to some degree and got too caught up with one on one beefs with Draymond Green and Steph Curry. I think after coming up short in these last two games Donovan has their ear again. They may not win on Monday night but I think there's a good chance we see a smarter effort from the Thunder.

As an added bonus, it did take a record breaking performance from Klay Thompson to keep Golden State in it.

I'm grasping at straws here. I need something to give me a little false hope.
 
Jiggyfly

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1bigfan13 said:
The lone sliver of hope that I have is that being pushed to the brink of elimination will refocus OKC on playing the right way and sharing the ball.

Billy Donovan alluded to it last night during his post game press conference and the Thunder beat writers have discussed it as well......OKC had gotten past their hero ball style of play after being humbled by a couple of bad losses (Game 1 vs Spurs & Game 2 vs GSW). They responded to those blowout losses with refocused effort. Primarily because ass whippings like those tend to humble you and make you embrace your coach's input a little more.

Unfortunately old habits are hard to break and an ego driven style of play returns every other week with this group of players. I think the OKC players certainly bought into their own media hype to some degree and got too caught up with one on one beefs with Draymond Green and Steph Curry. I think after coming up short in these last two games Donovan has their ear again. They may not win on Monday night but I think there's a good chance we see a smarter effort from the Thunder.

As an added bonus, it did take a record breaking performance from Klay Thompson to keep Golden State in it.

I'm grasping at straws here. I need something to give me a little false hope.
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I could see this game refocusing them and G.S. hit some crazy shots late to win this game.

Klay especially was out of his mind.

I can't let Donovon off the hoof it's not like he called anything to get them better shots they ran they kept running same thing over the last 3minutes.
 
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L.T. Fan

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Jiggyfly said:
And he still did not say they were selfish and grandstanding.

There is a huge difference between taking bad shots or creating a turnover and being selfish or grandstanding.

You really have no clue.
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You are better than a circus.
 
Carp

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1bigfan13 said:
The lone sliver of hope that I have is that being pushed to the brink of elimination will refocus OKC on playing the right way and sharing the ball.

Billy Donovan alluded to it last night during his post game press conference and the Thunder beat writers have discussed it as well......OKC had gotten past their hero ball style of play after being humbled by a couple of bad losses (Game 1 vs Spurs & Game 2 vs GSW). They responded to those blowout losses with refocused effort. Primarily because ass whippings like those tend to humble you and make you embrace your coach's input a little more.

Unfortunately old habits are hard to break and an ego driven style of play returns every other week with this group of players. I think the OKC players certainly bought into their own media hype to some degree and got too caught up with one on one beefs with Draymond Green and Steph Curry. I think after coming up short in these last two games Donovan has their ear again. They may not win on Monday night but I think there's a good chance we see a smarter effort from the Thunder.

As an added bonus, it did take a record breaking performance from Klay Thompson to keep Golden State in it.

I'm grasping at straws here. I need something to give me a little false hope.
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Regardless of how they played in the end, they are the reason why they are where they are. The reality is...if they were not aggressive at the end they would have taken criticism as well. I used to get on Westbrook quite a bit, but I don't think there is a player I respect more than him. Neither was grandstanding or selfish...they certainly did not close strong, but I did not see anything that would lead me to believe they put themselves ahead of the team.
 
Texas Ace

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OKC kept that game closer than I expected. I thought GS would blow them out, but OKC hung tight.

Even when it looked like GS was going to pour it on in the 3rd, OKC cut the lead and hung around, but I guess none of that really matters.

I wanted OKC to win, but I do think that Warriors/Cavs is the better series.
[MENTION=6]1bigfan13[/MENTION] - is this the end of KD/Westbrook era?
 
Rev

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I got a good laugh at Marc Stein going over the teams that are going to visit with KD. Mainly because Houston was listed. Yeah, that's not happening.
 
1bigfan13

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Texas Ace said:
OKC kept that game closer than I expected. I thought GS would blow them out, but OKC hung tight.

Even when it looked like GS was going to pour it on in the 3rd, OKC cut the lead and hung around, but I guess none of that really matters.

I wanted OKC to win, but I do think that Warriors/Cavs is the better series.
[MENTION=6]1bigfan13[/MENTION] - is this the end of KD/Westbrook era?
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It's hard to say. I do think OKC helped themselves a lot by pushing arguably the greatest team in league history to 7 games in the WCF. Obviously it didn't end the way he would have liked but there aren't many teams out there that can offer him the same supporting cast.

My best guess at the moment is that he signs a one year deal to stay with OKC.
 
1bigfan13

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Rev said:
I got a good laugh at Marc Stein going over the teams that are going to visit with KD. Mainly because Houston was listed. Yeah, that's not happening.
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Deuce said:
Boston signs KD + trade 3rd pick for Okafor = Lebrons window is closed
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You thirsty bitches better stay away from my man or I'll claw your eyes out.

Seriously though, it will be interesting to see how it plays out.

The Miami sports talk homers are already making me nauseas with their "He'd be better off coming to Miami so that Riley can show him how to win" talk.

I especially love how they pretend that playing in the lesser conference hasn't aided in their success over the years. Put them in the West where they have to battle OKC, the Spurs, Clippers, and Warriors year after year and I'm not sure those Lebron, Wade, Bosh Heat teams make more than 1 Finals appearance.

Other than the obvious lifestyle upgrade, I just don't see Miami as the ideal landing spot for a superstar who wants to win now. Wade is past his prime. Bosh may never play again. Dragic and Whiteside are nice pieces but I think everyone would agree that that's a step down from Westbrook and Adams.
 
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Rev

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I don't believe he would ever come to Houston. Who does?
 
1bigfan13

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I don't think he's going to Houston either but their GM wouldn't be doing his job if he didn’t' at least make a pitch and/or an offer. Same with the rest of the teams.

IMO his top 3 landing spots are OKC, Boston, and as my wildcard I'll say the Clippers. If the Clips have the cap space I could see the intrigue in wanting to play with CP3 & Blake Griffin.
 
Texas Ace

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If the Spurs are interested, I'd say they are the favorites along with OKC.
 
Simpleton

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Can't tell which was more historic, the comeback to the collapse. You can give OKC as much blame for Game 6 as you give the Warriors credit for pulling it out, and then to top it off they generally outplayed the Warriors for the entire 1st half of Game 7 before just completely collapsing in the 3rd quarter.

Really amazing, although I guess Curry is miraculously better than 70% now.

As for the Finals, it's hard to tell how good Cleveland is because the East is so terrible, of course they look completely dominant but Toronto may have been bounced in the 1st round in the West. On the other hand LeBron pushed the Warriors pretty hard last year basically by himself and now he has a healthy Irving/Love with the Warriors coming off an absolutely taxing 7 game series. If I had to pick right now it'd be Warriors in 7, although LeBron showed last year that he can go up even another gear from where he's at right now and with a healthy Irving/Love, it may be too much.
 
1bigfan13

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Texas Ace said:
If the Spurs are interested, I'd say they are the favorites along with OKC.
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With he and Kawhi playing the same position I just don't see that happening.

But I guess you could get away with sliding Durant over to PF and Aldridge over to center.

Most PFs today are slightly built and play on the perimeter so I don't think he'd get banged around too much at PF.
 
Simpleton

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1bigfan13 said:
With he and Kawhi playing the same position I just don't see that happening.

But I guess you could get away with sliding Durant over to PF and Aldridge over to center.

Most PFs today are slightly built and play on the perimeter so I don't think he'd get banged around too much at PF.
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Meh, the Thunder were starting Westbrook/Roberson/Durant/Ibaka/Adams and did just fine. The main things you'd worry about with that lineup is 3 point shooting and ball handling as far as playing a jumbo SG/SF alongside Durant but Leonard is a better ball-handler and 3 point shooter than Roberson.

Durant basically functions as your second ball handler after Westbrook, Parker in the Spurs case, and Leonard can obviously handle as well. If the Thunder can get away with that lineup I'm pretty sure the Spurs could get away with Parker/Leonard/Durant at the 1-3, or he could play PF as you said.
 
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