NBA Playoffs Thread

[tuq]

kidcolin,

D'Antoni's tantrums are to be enjoyed and possibly embraced as a sign of his awesomeness.

[ThomasPHoolery]

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1. I remember the Kings still being great offensively the next year, but that was when they knew Webber wasn't going to be there. Whatever the reams of paper might have proved, he was still the #1 guy at the time (Peja was definitely peaking at this time, too) and him going down seems tough to adjust to on the fly. But, I haven't read the reams of paper.



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Basic idea is that that team had a lot of players who could score, whose efficiency didn't drop off too badly with higher usage rates. Bibby, Jackson and Peja in particular were operating at around 20 usage rates, and could have been much higher without loosing too much offensive efficiency (all three are very good with the ball in their hands in tough situations). Meanwhile, Webber was operating at like a 28 usage rate with a sub 100 offensive efficiency. When he was off the floor, his possessions were eaten up by other players in a very efficient manner. The next year, this is even more dramatically exhibited, as the Kings were on pace to be the best offense ever without Webber and a .750 team, but he came back, they promptly turn into .500 team, and almost entirely Webber's fault. Webber can be very good player on teams that need someone to soak up possessions because his efficiency drop is very low at high usage rates, but he doesn't have that high of efficiency at low usage, so he's a bad fit for teams with scorers.

[kidcolin]

tuq,

agreed completely. I love them. They get me pumped. I almost moved to Arizona 2 years ago, and I would be all over this Suns team if I did. I like D'Antoni a lot, and frankly, find it insulting that he's an assistant to that cum rag Coach K for USA.

Sorry for your loss. This should've been a 7 game series. On Tuesday, I'm going to have a huge post about the Celtics draft position. If we don't get a top 2 pick, and I don't post within 24 hours about it, call 911. I'll be hanging from my ceiling fan. If we do win (top 2 pick), and I don't post in 24 hours, don't worry about. I'll be creaming all over Sacramento's hooker population.

[BobboFitos]

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Also, the Suns being really, really good from 1989-1995 and 2005-2007 and coming away with nothing to show for it is really frustrating.

[/ QUOTE ] I am a Sonics fan, and I believe 10 years younger than you. My whole history of the Sonics is of heartbreak. I feel you, trust me.

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Ive been a jazz fan all my life. I, too, have only known heartbreak.

[Clarkmeister]

Phoenix went 0-3 on their home friggin court against that Bulls team. No rational person can suggest they were the better team.

[BobboFitos]

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The Jazz are a good team with 4 quality starters and a decent bench. I think it will be a good series to watch.

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The jazz have 4 quality all stars. i would rate the spurs higher right now ONLY because of homecourt.

[Clarkmeister]

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Amare has the potential to be a dominant 2-way player

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He's a looooooooooooooooong way from that. Amare is an abysmal defensive player given his athleticism and size.

[ThaSaltCracka]

Clark, I agree.

[kidcolin]

I think that's kbfc's point. There's really no excuse for Amare to be that bad.

[BobboFitos]

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Why do you guys think Spurs - Jazz will be a good series? The Spurs do everything the Jazz do but much better. I guess the Jazz are a quicker pace team and they will run the Spurs?

Prove me wrong, I'm all ears... but I don't see it.

-Al

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Al,
I like the Spurs to dominate this series. Since the all star break, the quality of ball they've been playing has been breathtaking, however, some like the Jazz because they do create some match up problems, they continue to defy odds and play over their heads, and, counter-intuitively, the Spurs play slightly worse against slower teams than quicker teams (Utah's no turtle, but they are much slower than Suns or Nuggets).

Parker, historically, has had a good deal of trouble with guards with size instead of speed (Devin Harris in last year's playoffs was a bit of an exception). Parker could have a bit of trouble vs Williams on both ends if Willams proves to have the footspeed to at least not let Parker blow right by him. Additionally, Utah will likely try to utilize Kirilenko on Ginobilli some, which is a perfect type of defender to mitigate Ginobilli (tall rangy, able to block shots at all angles). Duncan will be Duncan, but the Jazz have an ability and a discipline to not completely collapse on penetration and abandon their assignments, which could help.

The Jazz are also really peaking right now. I'll be the first to admit that, judging from the way they closed the season, I thought the Rockets were going to cream them, but the Jazz played a well thought out, effective series. I felt they were underdogs to GS too, but, again, they came up with a good game plan stuck to it, and did a very good job of stealing GS's luck box. As such, I think a lot of people are just not sure exactly how good the Jazz actually are right now.

Finally, and I've posted briefly on this before, teams like the Spurs and Rockets actually prefer to play fast-paced teams because they are very good at dictating pace (The Spurs pace SD stats are pretty sick this year). When teams deviate from their standard pace, either faster or slower, their offensive efficiency almost always changes for the worse. As such, they become a worse team, and with SA operating close to ideal pace, they are able to exploit what amounts to a higher net advantage. With a team like Utah, they're not going to deviate too far from the pace that yields their maximum offensive efficiency output, and are therefore, in theory, slightly better off.

All those factors being in place, I still feel San Antonio is much better than the Jazz and a very solid favorite. This year's incarnation of the Spurs at their peak is one of the best teams in league history.

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thomas, greatpost. Iagree. I think one other thing worth mentioning is that Utah has a great coach (sloan) who can match up with pop in any situation. he also HAS been here before - even though no title to show, he has quite theplayoff pedigree.

the fact the jazz have played two polar styles, and won both series (slow, rockets, fast, warriors) I think they'lladjust back tothe slow game of the spurs.

i think the defense will be incredible. the jazz are a little better in transition. the spurs have a HUGE advantage from 3pt land. its the one big problem for the jazz; no one to take that shot late in the game, unless dfish is playing way above his head.

duncan unfortunately mitigates boozer-yao is a good defender but cant hold a candle to dunc. booz was able to outhustle yao/hayes and outmuscle harrington/sjaxx, he wont be albe to do either vs the big fundamental.

i will be overjoyed if the series is 1-1 coming back to salt lake, but if the jazz cant steal 1 i just dont see the series going beyond 6.