8 players (4 on each team) in today's BOS/TOR game played high level basketball and aggressive defense for 50+ minutes. And many of those Toronto players are routinely playing 40+ minutes every game and using really short rotations. Both of those teams have played 10 games in the playoffs so far - same as the Rockets. Kyle Lowry, at 34 years old, has played 40+ minutes in 4 of the last 5 games, with 53 minutes today.
PREACH, mclemore was great during the regular.. had the highest offensive rating on the team, and then the playoffs start and he is in the doghouse.. that has to kill a young players confidence
I don't get it. Those 5 turnovers to open the 4thQ that led to 8 fast break points were because we were gassed?
It's Morey's fault that his dumb coach won't play Carroll when the situation is clearly calling for it?
You pay Westbrook and Harden 40 millions each to hit clutch shots doe and not get tired in the clutch. I think we should reconsider the super max contract under this type of ownership. You give top dollar only to those who are tough as nails in the 4th like a Butler, hopefully more talented. This sets a tone what type of team it's going to be. You surround superstars who aren't as tough with tough minded defensive players, it rubs off on them but if they do not have it within them to begin with, it's not enough. Russ is not really that skilled unfortunately.
well what I’m saying not very week is that despite roster faults DM is a capable GM and had he spent more time focused on wing positions and less time focused on center/guards the last 4-5 years he might have gotten on of those guys instead of the path taken. I just don’t think he’s thought much / enough about the type of player to pursue but rather has just been like “oh he’s available and supposedly Really good let’s get him!” Remember how he listed after Melo for 18 months and that worked all of one month (or didn’t work at all if you think about it). Like why wasn’t he putting more thought into moves like that?
This is a lazy hot take. You break down the 4th quarter film and it's not like the Rockets are slow and not hustling. Lakers defense forced the Rockets to make plays, and they made the wrong plays.
we literally just came off of 2 years where the only team with more talent was an unprecedented KD warriors team. and we were about to beat one of them and played a really good series against the other. why is this written like we were hopelessly outclassed by other teams? and both of those guys were collected by a GM and organization who did literally nothing to get them, other than exist in los angeles. in fact, they were comically bad for like 8 years and still got those guys. exact same way the clippers were built. except the 2017-18 team was one of the better teams in nba history, it just ran into one of the heaviest favorites ever. that was very much a championship team. as was 2019. you don't get to choose your opponents. lots of teams wanted dwight. 2014 was still very much before the warriors changed everything. and we went to a WCF in year 2. it's not like it was some terrible team. i suspect some of it is just availability and initial conditions. we very much wanted kevin durant, but he didn't want to come here, despite presumably even being friends with harden because that was coming off the horrible 2015-16 season. how many elite star forwards are there, how many have been available, and how many did we have any chance to get? there was only one season after dwight and before cp3. i don't have those offseasons memorized, but who was an available forward that would have made us better than the ridiculously good 2018 team with chris paul? very few players could have even hoped to have made us better than we were that year and i don't remember having a chance at any of them. westbrook sucks but once you've gone down the chris paul track, there aren't many "outs" other than the westbrook trade because of initial conditions (if you wanted an out, which i didn't). i don't think this was the plan, so to speak. it was simply the best plan available at a certain point. do you wanna watch injured capela clog up the lane with westbrook and know for certain that the 2nd round is the best we can hope for, even if things go well? sure, it would be a more traditional way to lose, but the writing was on the wall. small ball gave us a lottery ticket, payable if westbrook is healthy (he's not) and we hit a ton of 3's (we haven't). the idea that only a championship means it was a good idea to trade capela seems like a weird meauring stick, given that we pretty much knew we were doomed the other way. you may as well see if the mad scientist experiment works.
When you see the below graphic, does anyone see a shoe? Like a high top sneaker, with harden at the top?
Well no ****, d’antoni himself admitted to this, yet still he won’t learn from it. Stubborn old fool. Watching these Raptors take that Celtics through sheer force of will and different players stepping up, even off the bench, makes me jealous as hell.
Hopelessly outclassed? No. But second most talent behind the Warriors? Lol, absolutely not. How many all star teammates has Harden had in his years in Houston? He's been here 8 seasons. How many seasons of all-star play has he had next to him? TWO! With 4 other starters * 8 years, so 32 possible all star seasons next to him, he's had TWO! One with Dwight, and then this year with Russ. Last year, the Sixers, Bucks, Raptors, Thunder all had two, the Warriors of course three. The year before the Warriors with a ton, heck the TWolves had two, the Pelicans had two, Thunder had two, Celtics with two, heck the Wizards had two. Ok, ok... so DM is better at getting non-all star role player types!!! Well, maybe. Though they're not the only team good at that. The Celtics weren't on the multiple all-star list last year for example but tons of solid solid players. Ok, ok... so DM got the players, but playing next to Harden for whatever reason, they're talent was muted a bit and they just didn't make an alll-star team!!!! I don't think so. CP3 might have been all-star worthy, but he missed it because he was injured and indeed had muted stats from the system instead of being the lead guy. Factoring in injury risk is part of the GMs job though. Look, DM is a solid GM. But he's not amazing. It's probably more likely he'd be replaced with someone worse, then someone better, but by no means a given and at some point, you have to re-assess. And....? It is what it is, doesn't mean you should stop trying. Moreover, you still have to build around those players and prepare to get those players. Lakers traded a package to get AD and prepared for Lebron for a few years. Clippers scrapped their way to being a capable playoff team, partly btw with LouWill/Montrez/PBev - who at this point I'd rather plus all the picks back then Russ (though only to try and trade for a better sidekick) Following up on the above... I think the system's value is insanely high. By this I mean, the mass amount of 3s, with the layups and FTs. Yes, you need a mid-range component, and yes there might be better ways of doing the same style then just standing around. But i think the system gets them wins and success for sure. In other words, talent wise, on paper, the 18/19 team was solid, but I wouldn't say clear championship team when put against a vast majority of other championship teams. Hey man, the goal here is to win a ring, not get close. Getting close is fun when you haven't been close in forever. It was "nice" then. Sure, it was a 4-1 loss so not that close, but it was nice. The goal though is to win. And that lots of teams wanted Dwight doesn't mean anything to me? In fact, it probably just re-iterates my comment. DMs strategy has seemed to be "that's probably a great player that lots of people like, let's get him!!". It's not the dumbest strategy, lol. It's better than, "let's just get all mediocre players!!" lol. Put a bunch of great players together, you can do well. The Heat Big 3 weren't a perfect fit. I'm not asking for perfect fits, just better fits. Or more top line talent. Big 3, or better fit. Could just be me... but i've been beating the forward drum for years. To me it was obvious. Harden needs a Pippen. My goal isn't to go back and say "hey, what would I have done 'realistically' as a GM". I could, but doesn't it make more sense as a fan, not getting paid millions a year to GM a team, to make broader observations and reviews, when your GM has been in place for 13 years?? THIRTEEN!! If I wanted to be more specific, I would still be somewhat broad, and note that indeed move A leads to B which leads to C, D, E, etc. Like I could go back and say "kept Dwight TOO long" [you might say "WHAT! After a WCF trip??"... I think a lot of the board was divided on that if I recall, he was already complaining of back issues, the fit already obviously didn't work, etc.]. F'd up the Chandler Parsons thing (seriously, COMPLETELY f'd this up), picked Morris ahead of Kawhi, Ty Lawson didn't work (because he was an alcoholic, was any dd done there?), etc. Tiny little dominos, imo. This year, the Gordon extension made no sense. The Melo move was a pure "hey, he WAS an olympian and multiple time all star" that made no sense though (as half the board thought he would suck in the system and be a net negative and he was). Am I asking for perfection?? Well, no, not perfection, but close, that's the goal!
MDA is a real OG though--he ride or dies with what he's got. How else would you explain him continually giving minutes to Austin Rivers despite the fact that Rivers is completely sucking right now? Let Carroll, McLemore, Luc...anyone for that matter...come in and try to inject something into the team. I hope whoever the next coach is will have "I make adjustments in the postseason" tattooed on his forehead.
