[NBA] Denver Gold Rush

Nirya

EVERYONE IS GETTING HURT IN THE PLAYOFFS THIS YEAR!

EMBIID IS HURT BECAUSE GOD HATES FUN!

BUTLER IS HURT BECAUSE GOD THOUGHT IT'D BE FUNNY TO MAKE THE KNICKS LOSE TO ONLY KYLE LOWRY!

MORANT, FOX, AND GIANNIS ALL GOT HURT AND NOW THEIR TEAMS ARE OUT OF THE PLAYOFFS!

I mean, there are still some good healthy teams somewhere in here, but we're suddenly looking at a potential Lakers/Celtics matchup that the NBA would love to have and NBA fans are dreading, so that's fun.

Jragghen

Very funny because I believe they didn't hold that distinction until the Mariners made the playoffs last season, so it feels like the Kings got handed that hot potato and said "absolutely fucking not" immediately. Current longest drought is the New York Jets at 12, and they're in pretty good position to end that drought this year as well

That being said, when you compare the relative difficulty of getting into the postseason between the MLB and the NBA, I'd say the Kings' was more embarrassing even when the Mariners was longer.

Captain Inertia

Knuggets Knicks is the Finals matchup of most like to see

Edit: whoops

Carpy

Captain Inertia wrote: »

Knuggets Knicks is the Finals matchup of most like to see

Edit: whoops

I'd be fine with the west side of this. Murray is really fun to watch and it's nice seeing him be all the way back.

Captain Inertia

Hell yeah

But also because the other 3 teams are the last 3 West teams that have been to the Finals

Dirtyboy

https://twitter.com/leaguefits/status/1653163365424852992

The Judge

He went hunting for Muppets and the hunting was good.

Knight_

yea this just makes me sad because this team would 100% beat boston in a 7 game series with a healthy embiid.

they're just not that good.

Knight_

refs allow the game to get totally out of hand by not calling anything for a second sixers series in a row, and now maxey is hurt after a dirty hit from brown that wasn't even a foul apparently.

i love the nba, basketball is so great and fun.

DJ Eebs

I didn't post my "I bet Harden blows up and steals a game" prediction but in my defense, I didn't think it could happen game 1

Captain Inertia

Paul

Reed

Knight_

fuck the celtics

paul reed so far out the mud he's ascending

harden with a fucking ice cold shot

god i'm not gonna be able to sleep for hours

Captain Inertia

This Sun your Nuggs game is awful

BlackDragon480

Captain Inertia wrote: »

This Sun your Nuggs game is awful

This 4th quarter by Denver is the most complete period I've watched of them all playoffs. Jokic have everything working, close, mid, Pope swishing 4 huge 3s, and on D the Nuggs have been attached to every Suns ass for the last 6 minutes/once CP3 went out.

Knight_

tbh denver has not played well. suns just have played so unbelievably bad the entire game. if suns shot league average on wide open 3s they'd be up 10 lol

The Cow King

Knight_ wrote: »

tbh denver has not played well. suns just have played so unbelievably bad the entire game. if suns shot league average on wide open 3s they'd be up 10 lol

Suns shooting 3s?????

Lol

It's just funny cause yeah your right but out of all the teams to say this about well yeah the sun's are whod I expect to suck at it

If kd shot *7 more twos instead of bricking 3s they'd also have won they got tricked by the athletic article

Nirya

Also Devin Booker has some real Memphis Grizzlies energy to him, where he's such a front-runner but as soon as things go bad he's out here trying to pick fights with *checks notes* Bruce Brown.

Dirtyboy

https://twitter.com/espn_macmahon/status/1653256021287239681

Pellaeon

Damn, that's one of Paul's signature moves.

Oh, you meant himself off his leg, well....

Ticaldfjam

Pellaeon wrote: »

Damn, that's one of Paul's signature moves.

Oh, you meant himself off his leg, well....

Paul's chance was against their Finals loss to Milwaukee.

Time to Hang it up, this generations Stockton.

Captain Inertia

Pellaeon wrote: »

Damn, that's one of Paul's signature moves.

Oh, you meant himself off his leg, well....

Tbf, another of his signature moves is a playoff groin injury

The Judge

No no, his signature move is going up 2-0 in a series.

And then . . . .

The Judge

https://twitter.com/ShamsCharania/status/1653430519315714049

"Under any circumstances" from an official team statement is some serious GTFO.

Captain Inertia

I think he should go to LA to keep the heel thing going or do a face turn with OKC and get his baby face redemption push while locking Ja down in next spring’s playoffs

Butters

I think he should join the WWE under the name "Dillon the Villain" and his signature move can be dick punching.

Knight_

dillon brooks is on track to be the worst player in nba history by vorp.

he's at -4.6 already, the worst ever is -8.3.

dude should be paying to play on an nba team.

Captain Inertia

Wow!

What’s crazy is there was actually a case for him as DPOY based on him having the most possessions 1v1 against All Stars (by like 25% more than #2 on the list) and holding them to the lowest FG% of any other defender on that list

ESPN's Tim Keown explained last month:

There is satisfaction to be derived from rising above your perceived station, and the statistics bear out Brooks' interest in seeking out All-Stars. Per Second Spectrum tracking and ESPN Stats & Information, Brooks has matched up in the half court defensively 922 times against this year's All-Stars, the most of any player. He has held those All-Stars, from Tatum to Curry to Durant, to a 45.7% effective field goal percentage, which ranks first among the 72 players to record 400 such matchups. (League average, for comparison, is 54.6.) Among the players who have the most half-court matchups against All-Stars, Brooks is allowing the lowest percentage. In short, he has matched up against All-Stars more than any other NBA player, and he has defended them better than anybody else. Just one player -- Lillard -- has scored 40 against him this year.

So he was the league’s premier “island” defender from that standpoint

That likely doesn’t translate to VORP, but also every other part of his game is bad, stinky poo

DJ Eebs

If he could commit to just being a defender, it'd be fine, but he also won't stop shooting the ball and he's terrible at it.

Butters

In this era, the value of the 3-and-D Wing is weighted much more on the 3. If you can't manage at least 30% from three in the playoffs you're not special, you're Isaac Okoro.

Captain Inertia

Damn Butters!

Butters

I'm still in pain over here, brother. It hurts so bad I actually subconsciously cheered for the goddamn Knicks to make Cleveland's elimination seem more palatable.

Knight_

ya he's a good defender and vorp isn't really a great metric overall, and is especially bad at including defense. but it's still fascinating that he's on track to be the literal worst in history.

i think there's plenty of space for limited offensive players on teams with high usage players, but they have to be able to space the floor with at least the plausible threat of a 3. they also need to not shoot a billion shitty shots a game for no reason.

Carpy

28% from 3 on 7 shots a game this series, 31% from the field overall. I knew he was bad offensively this series but that's something else

Butters

Basically you need to be just dangerous enough that you can't be totally ignored in the corner e.g. P.J. Tucker

Peen

Did Reggie Miller get hit in the head a lot as a player and I just didn't realize? The guy can't go more than 5 sentences without misspeaking and it's all silly little stuff, like last night he called P.J. Tucker T.J. and swapped which team was doing what multiple times, among other things, and I don't want to be too hard on the guy but boy it's distracting.

Transporter

It warms my heart that Jamal Murray lighting his ass up was the start of the end for Dillion Brooks.

Knight_

Peen wrote: »

Did Reggie Miller get hit in the head a lot as a player and I just didn't realize? The guy can't go more than 5 sentences without misspeaking and it's all silly little stuff, like last night he called P.J. Tucker T.J. and swapped which team was doing what multiple times, among other things, and I don't want to be too hard on the guy but boy it's distracting.

reggie also has, despite calling a lot of sixers games in the last month, not figured out the difference between tyrese maxey, de'anthony melton, and shake milton.

he's just not a very good announcer is most of it, i don't think it's like CTE or anything.

Peen

I try to be charitable before I jump straight to "he sucks," but if it's just that he sucks boy he sucks.

Butters

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hz2z2-7-fww

Knight_

Peen wrote: »

I try to be charitable before I jump straight to "he sucks," but if it's just that he sucks boy he sucks.

he's been this guy for an extremely long time at this point. he's just not very good.

which tbh would be fine if he wasn't constantly used on the prime crew with Kevin "I'm calling both games!" Harlan, one of the greatest of all time. i get it there's a lot of games all the announcers can't be great. but have mercy tnt.

Captain Inertia

Mama there goes that man