NBA 2017-2018 Season thread

[Hiromi]

Well when EVERYONE calls the other players trash-You don't have to wonder why they can't attract talent. No one wants to be call that all the time.

I went into this earlier, but the Cavs current roster is a direct result of Dan Gilbert chasing off David Griffin right at the beginning of the off season, he was literally in the middle of working a deal with the Bulls for Butler when it happened, the offseason front office turmoil basically caused them to whiff on every major deal of the offseason and(I believe anyway) completely blow the Kyrie Irving deal.

[Jabare]

Well when EVERYONE calls the other players trash-You don't have to wonder why they can't attract talent. No one wants to be call that all the time.

And yes those were a bunch of rookies playing in a game 7 for a trip to the Finals. A team that was not healthy all year long was one win away. All this does is make Boston DEADLIER next year.





They wouldn't have to. No one is going to call their teammates trash in the media all the time.

Also you are talking about guys who played in markets called LA, Chicago & Boston. They don't have the issue attracting players like Cleveland.

I would say Dirk had a bigger collection of castoffs than Lebron would ever have to reach the finals.

Dirk has had great teammates. That year they won the Finals they destroyed everyone in the West. Spurs, Lakers, a stacked OKC...everyone. Tyson Chandler, J Kidd, Jason Terry, Marion and them boys were legit.

People never called Wade or Kyrie trash.

Cleveland has trouble attracting talent because its Cleveland. Just like the Cleveland Browns and everything else about that city. Nobody really wants to be there if they can be somewhere else. There is a reason Cleveland is always in the top 10 worst cities. that franchise is just lucky Lebron was born in Akron. People in Cleveland didn't even give two licks about Akron before Lebron, now they've seemingly adopted it.

[Hiromi]

Honestly Wade was kinda trash in the 2014 finals, at least by his standard because he only averaged 15 points a game, but it wasn't his fault so much as his knee had really deteriorated by then, even the year before that he could only give a Wade style performance in the playoffs every other game or so it felt like and was having to get it drained in between games

I really wonder what he could have been if he hadn't taken the short cut of having his meniscus cut out in college

[WestPhillyPunisher]

I went into this earlier, but the Cavs current roster is a direct result of Dan Gilbert chasing off David Griffin right at the beginning of the off season, he was literally in the middle of working a deal with the Bulls for Butler when it happened, the offseason front office turmoil basically caused them to whiff on every major deal of the offseason and(I believe anyway) completely blow the Kyrie Irving deal.

Gilbert can't be blamed for Irving who made it clear he wanted out of Cleveland because he didn't want to be Robin to Lebron's Batman. I don't think any amount of money could've gotten Irving to stay with the Cavs as he wanted to be "the man" and not a sidekick.

Meanwhile, Lebron continues building upon his legacy, taking a kennel of mutts that would be a lottery team without him to the Finals. Amazing!

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

seriously I thought they were done. they were getting destroyed the first half.

and than this guy just said I don't think so

Meh. This game was a lot more about Brown, Rozier, Smart playing terrible basketball. It's kind of hard to give Lebron credit for being Superman when the team he faced scored 79 points against a terrible defense because they were just lobbing up 3's all game.

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

That this Cavs team is one quarter away from going to the Finals is astonishing. I don't think Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Bill Russell or any other player besides LeBron could've tugged this collection of players this far. (All due respect to Bill Russell and his 400 rings.) I think this Cavs team -- the one playing tonight, not the one that has Kevin Love --is worse than the 2007 team LeBron dragged to the Finals.

They didn't play in an East where the main competition was a team full of rookies who were missing their best and most seasoned players to injury. In the same situation, yeah prime Bird/Jordan/Magic could have done it.

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

Gilbert can't be blamed for Irving who made it clear he wanted out of Cleveland because he didn't want to be Robin to Lebron's Batman. I don't think any amount of money could've gotten Irving to stay with the Cavs as he wanted to be "the man" and not a sidekick.

Meanwhile, Lebron continues building upon his legacy, taking a kennel of mutts that would be a lottery team without him to the Finals. Amazing!

Gilbert's a dick, but let's be very clear here, he basically humbled himself to get Lebron back and decisions were made to satisfy for Lebron. Lebron wanted to get a team full of veteran talent and they tossed away trade and draft capital to get this team and it was a total patch work job. They didn't take a smart approach, they didn't want to develop players and get people through the draft because they didn't want any projects while Lebron wanted to win titles. Now all the teams that did develop and built teams the right way started to mature, and the Cavs are starting to feel pressure in the East and are woefully incompetent to play anyone in the West.

[Jabare]

Bird and Magic weren't as good as Lebron so I don't see that happening. They couldn't drag a bunch of corpses to the Finals.

Celtics are a good team. They were solid. Are we allowed to talk about how the Celtics blew 2-0 and 3-2 series leads, plus a 4TH QUARTER LEAD AT HOME in Game 7? That is Lebron right there. Celtics came out like gangbusters in the 4th quarter.

Hindsight says Cavs were smart to get rid of Wiggins for Love, but they messed up overpaying JR and Tristan. If Kyrie was still on the Cavs he'd still be injured so I think thats a wash. End of the day I hope he's happy because even if Hayword comes back 110% Celtics aren't getting past whoever comes out of the West.


People face off against who they face off against. After an 82 games season half the League is hurting. You could make arguments for or against anybody.


But that man from Akron Ohio did it for 8 straight m*************g years! And I don't think his team is nearly as good as it was his first 3 years in Miami





Most consecutive Finals appearances, by some all time greats:
MJ- 3
Magic- 4
Kareem- 4
Bird- 4
Kobe- 3
Shaq- 3
Wade- 4

LeBron- 8


to quote a talkshow analyst

Screen Shot 2018-05-28 at 10.08.11 AM.jpg

[Jabare]

The man played 48 minutes! 48 minutes! Only dude I know in NBA history who has his minutes increased in the playoffs as he is past his prime

[Hiromi]

Gilbert can't be blamed for Irving who made it clear he wanted out of Cleveland because he didn't want to be Robin to Lebron's Batman. I don't think any amount of money could've gotten Irving to stay with the Cavs as he wanted to be "the man" and not a sidekick.

Meanwhile, Lebron continues building upon his legacy, taking a kennel of mutts that would be a lottery team without him to the Finals. Amazing!

Not saying he still wouldn't have left, just that he probably wouldn't have left to a conference rival for what turned out to be absolutely nothing in return, I remember people said it was a mostly even trade at the time, well hindsight says Danny Ainge completely won that trade

Gilbert's a dick, but let's be very clear here, he basically humbled himself to get Lebron back and decisions were made to satisfy for Lebron. Lebron wanted to get a team full of veteran talent and they tossed away trade and draft capital to get this team and it was a total patch work job. They didn't take a smart approach, they didn't want to develop players and get people through the draft because they didn't want any projects while Lebron wanted to win titles. Now all the teams that did develop and built teams the right way started to mature, and the Cavs are starting to feel pressure in the East and are woefully incompetent to play anyone in the West.

He managed to get his act together for a few years(and after that letter he absolutely owed it to Lebron to be on his knees begging him to come back), but we know for a fact he basically chased Griffin out of town, and he has a history of doing that to other people in the organization, it's one of the reasons he's typically thought of as a bad owner

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

Bird and Magic weren't as good as Lebron so I don't see that happening. They couldn't drag a bunch of corpses to the Finals.

Celtics are a good team. They were solid. Are we allowed to talk about how the Celtics blew 2-0 and 3-2 series leads, plus a 4TH QUARTER LEAD AT HOME in Game 7? That is Lebron right there. Celtics came out like gangbusters in the 4th quarter.

Hindsight says Cavs were smart to get rid of Wiggins for Love, but they messed up overpaying JR and Tristan. If Kyrie was still on the Cavs he'd still be injured so I think thats a wash. End of the day I hope he's happy because even if Hayword comes back 110% Celtics aren't getting past whoever comes out of the West.


People face off against who they face off against. After an 82 games season half the League is hurting. You could make arguments for or against anybody.


But that man from Akron Ohio did it for 8 straight m*************g years! And I don't think his team is nearly as good as it was his first 3 years in Miami





Most consecutive Finals appearances, by some all time greats:
MJ- 3
Magic- 4
Kareem- 4
Bird- 4
Kobe- 3
Shaq- 3
Wade- 4

LeBron- 8


to quote a talkshow analyst

Screen Shot 2018-05-28 at 10.08.11 AM.jpg

The two best players on this Celtics squad were rookies and two best players on the team were both injured before the playoffs even started. All the good teams in the East besides the Cavs are young. The Celtics also only scored 79 points tonight. Let's not jump on the "Lebron's the only person in the history of the league who could have done this" train. Lebron did what everyone expected him to do going into this series. The Celtics were heavy underdogs going into this series. It's more of a testament to the Celtics that they pushed it this far than the other way around.

Yeah Bird, Magic, Jordan would all beat a team that only scored 79 points in a playoff game.

Yeah Lebron went to 8 Finals, the East has been weak for all but maybe 1 of those years (really 2011 with the last year before the Celtics with Garnett/Pierce/Allen fell off and Allen left). That wasn't going to happen in Magic and Bird's era because they had to get through harder teams their entire career.

Let's be very clear, people were critical of Lebron because he looked like he was about to a team full of rookies who were missing their two best players, the fact that he came back in beat them meant he did what he was supposed to do.

I think Lebron's the 2nd best ever and alot closer to Jordan than people want to give him credit for, but **** like this is exactly why he's so hated. He came back against a rookie squad with no stars that were missing the best 40% of their starting roster and people want to call him Superman for it and call it a seminal moment. Going into the series all the same talking heads were saying he would sweep or beat the Celtics in 5.

[Hiromi]

I honestly don't care if they were rookies, all that means is that they have an excuse for last night(except for Horford) the Celtics had the second, third, fourth and possibly fifth best player and (debatably even sixth given Morris's defense)in that series on their team, if you took both those rosters and combined them, Kevin Love would be the SIXTH leading scorer on that team

I've defended Love in the past but it's clear he's not second best player on a competing team material, he's averaging a measly 14 points a game this post season shooting .388, that's pathetic for someone whose supposed to be a perennial all star and the second option on a championship team, his supposed strength of shooting 3s? His 3pt % is roughly the same as Lebron's right now, and that's with the wide open shots he gets, I wouldn't be shocked to hear he's still suffering from lingering injuries after the season he's had but if not he's been a severe disappointment this year

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Got an alert from Bleacher Report saying Chris Paul (hamstring) won’t play in tonight’s game seven against the Dubs.

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

I honestly don't care if they were rookies, all that means is that they have an excuse for last night(except for Horford) the Celtics had the second, third, fourth and possibly fifth best player and (debatably even sixth given Morris's defense)in that series on their team, if you took both those rosters and combined them, Kevin Love would be the SIXTH leading scorer on that team

I've defended Love in the past but it's clear he's not second best player on a competing team material, he's averaging a measly 14 points a game this post season shooting .388, that's pathetic for someone whose supposed to be a perennial all star and the second option on a championship team, his supposed strength of shooting 3s? His 3pt % is roughly the same as Lebron's right now, and that's with the wide open shots he gets, I wouldn't be shocked to hear he's still suffering from lingering injuries after the season he's had but if not he's been a severe disappointment this year

Let's go beyond them being rookies, lets go to the two best players on the team were injured. The Celtics were reduced to playing their 3rd and 4th best player who were also rookies and the majority of their starting rotation were supposed to be bench players.

Listen Lebron's great, but he did WHAT HE WAS SUPPOSED TO DO last night. Could you imagine a situation where we are calling it one of Jordan's greatest accomplishments for getting past a team with it's two best players out that was relying on rookies that HE WAS WILDLY FAVORED TO BEAT with the expectation that they would be SWEPT? No because that would never happen.

I'll give you that Lebron's team is terrible. But this is more about how weak the East is. Lebron should have never been in this position in the first place. And quite frankly, he has no chance in hell of beating whoever comes out of the West. 3-6. That's what we have to look forward to.

[Jabare]

No way Houston wins. I don't care if they are winning. KD's legacy can't survive a loss. I just can't begin to imagine the Warriors losing