Baron Davis: "OKC is built to be Houston's kryptonite"

It's not right to forget Wright

 

Turrible just turrible I say..

 

Everybody knew it was gonna be a disaster the second we noticed it was "players only". I literally have yet to see one person who thinks it is a good idea, everybody hates it. As painful as Fisher and Barry were, Nate Robinson was an absolute joke.

It's downright insulting to professional broadcasters that they think they can literally just put any former player on the mic and think it will be good, with no prep work or training. They read promos like kids in high school having a laugh during a class project.

It was awful, truly f**king awful. It somehow managed to be the worst players only game I have been forced to listen to, and that's saying something given how abysmal the previous ones have been. To make it even worse, there is no local broadcast, and the radio broadcast can't be synced up, so you are a captive listener.

 

What'd he say?

 

I would not play a healthy wright over a healthy nene . Brandan has been here what , two weeks !?

 

okay now your tweet last night makes sense lol. "Okc isnt even built to make the playoffs" I knew it had something to do with the broadcast though. I stuck with Craig and Matt on 740 cause #HTown

 

I really think NBA on TNT and ESPN and of course @twitter has made people stupid regarding NBA narratives

 

The guy is trying to make a living. It was a 40-60 call last night so he made a fair bet.

 

He really meant that Houston is built to be the Warrior's kryptonite. OKC is just built to be Lex Luthor's lackey.

 

Just want to say how much I truly HATE TNT exclusive games, and I UTTERLY DESPISE Players Only TNT exclusive games.

They spent the first quarter slurping up how awesome OKC was, I mean they literally had nothing to say about the Rockets till almost the second quarter....but hearing how they managed to say a bunch of crap that was at best unfounded for the rest of the game I suppose that was a blessing in disguise.

And then, we go to halftime...how many actual for real attempts at analysis happened during halftime? Maybe a minute, minute and a half tops. The rest of the time it was a bunch of idiots laughing it up over some joke one of them made or talking for most of the segments about Shaq's birthday.

I guess I'm spoiled from watching our hometown guys, at least Calvin and whats his face talk about the game that is in progress instead of unintelligable garbage and laughter like the whole Players Only schtick.

I have zero respect for the national broadcasts anyway, but this Players only gimmick is the worst sports broadcasting I have ever seen in my 40+ years of watching professional basketball..Period.

 

I'd rather have a team of Chris Smoove with AFunkyDiabetic/Coach Nick as color commentators than any of this players only spiel.

 

The mistake they've continued to make is that they're trying to force the players to do a "traditional" broadcast... or the players themselves think it has to be traditional.

I can see the original pitch premise was to have players discussing things as if they were watching a game at home, or on the bench, or in the locker room. I'm sure anybody who's been privy to those conversations have heard a more extreme in-depth analysis of certain aspects of the game that you never hear on a broadcast. I'm sure that somebody overheard this during a game one time and thus the brainchild of "players only" was born.

But in the end, TV is TV... and its such an established format that nobody will know how to do anything different. Sports on TV has literally had the same basic components ever since it first started. Trying to fit players only into those components is a disaster.

 

After bringing up the pace slowing down in the playoffs and things being run in the half-court set as the reason why OKC is built to beat Houston, you'd think either a producer or a fact-checker might have gotten into Baron's ear about how wrong he is. But nope. There isn't a single member of that TNT staff that's intelligent enough to even understand WHY what he said might have been the dumbest thing said all season.

 

Nothing wrong with a "Player's Only" broadcast but when the players don't know what they're talking about it will suck. Rockets already play with a slow pace; the idea that they're some new 7 seconds or less team couldn't be more inaccurate.

This isn't to say that OKC is incapable of doing well in the playoffs (should they make it), but it doesn't seem likely. And if it did happen, it wouldn't be for the reasons that Baron Davis stated.

And his reasoning for "their versatility" being "they have Russell Westbrook and Paul George" doesn't make sense. PG is an awesome player and is versatile, but he's the only one on OKC who fits that description.

Watching Baron Davis here is probably like watching a lowlight reel from my worst job interviews early on in my career.

"Why would you be good for this role?"

"Well I'm really built to be [Company's] asset. I mean, uh, my versatility... I can use Microsoft Office. And, you know, I have my own car, so I can drive myself to work. And like you were saying, once the workday starts, the workflow really picks up, and you won't be able to just not do anything. So that's why I'm a good fit here."

 

It's like having a bunch of professional broadcasters suit up for an NBA game.

 

You know who I think actually poses a huge threat to our offense style? Boston.

Brown, Tatum, Smart and Hayward (when he's back) is like our version of LMAM, Ariza and Tucker. Lengthy dudes that can switch to anyone and play pestering defense. Kyrie can shoot from anywhere and can penetrate pretty well. He has the offensive capabilities of a Harden and the probing efficiency of CP3. And Stevens is a really, really good coach.

 

You are not wrong.

I was far more worried about losing the Boston game than I was about the OKC one.

Celtics play a much better brand of winning ball than OKC does on their best days.

 

Former Players trying to "pretend" and "act" like Sports Television Hosts is the stupidest idea ever. Let them do what they do and maybe it's watchable but to force them try to act like something they are not is terrible and cringy as hell. I mean CWebb, who l usually like, IS NOT Ernie Johnson so why he trying to "act" like he is?!? Just do your CWebb thing. Same goes for the former player analysts trying to Albert or Harlan. Just please stop that nonsense and do your thing.

 

Yup, I can agree with that. I still think you have to give us the slight edge due to overall shooting up and down the roster, but it's not a very large gap.

 

I'd be far more worried this year about Toronto,They have turned themselves into Boston but with an elite offense. Their point differential backs it up.
Don't give me Toronto's postseason struggles when trying to glorify Boston, they may have hit a brick wall LeBron, but its not like Boston has been that much better. Just last year, Boston let the 8 seed Bulls go up 2-0 on them, only to win the series thanks to Rondo going down. in the second round, They let John Wall take them to 7 games, only to be given the gentleman's sweep at the hands of Cleveland. Neither Boston or Toronto have a clean playoff track record over the last few years, but I bet that Toronto wins at least one more game against Cleveland than Boston.