NBA- OU players and general (this thread only)

[Eielson]

Stop it. Boston went 64-18 during the regular season. That was 14 games better than the next team in the East, and 7 games better than the best team(s) in the West.

Boston was dominant this year and was clearly the favorite to win the title once the playoffs started, even if some of the talking heads started looking for reasons to suggest otherwise.

Boston was one of only a couple of teams to finish top 2 in both offensive and defensive efficiency for a season. GS a few years back was the other.

So again, DOMINANT! Your hatred of the doesn't change the facts.

Boston has had numerous great regular seasons prior to choking in the playoffs. Jrue was a key addition and pushed this one over the top. Maybe he does that in the West, but I doubt it.

Yes, Boston was the betting favorite, but largely because they had no competition in the East. Most West teams had harder matchups in the first round than Boston had at any point in the East. There is no way that Boston would have been favored in a series against Denver. Maybe they pull out the win, but I doubt it. They're probably favored against the rest, but a few teams would have made it a very competitive series.

 

[WTSooner]

Boston has had numerous great regular seasons prior to choking in the playoffs. Jrue was a key addition and pushed this one over the top. Maybe he does that in the West, but I doubt it.

Yes, Boston was the betting favorite, but largely because they had no competition in the East. Most West teams had harder matchups in the first round than Boston had at any point in the East. There is no way that Boston would have been favored in a series against Denver. Maybe they pull out the win, but I doubt it. They're probably favored against the rest, but a few teams would have made it a very competitive series.

Boston would have absolutely been favored over Denver. With home court advantage? lol, 100% the favorite.

Would that have been a better series than Boston/Dallas? Probably, but I'd still have liked Boston's chances. A lot.

There was no one key addition. And I wouldn't call the last two years choking. Tatum and Brown needed to grow up. Improve. Learn to play together. I'm not downplaying the Holiday addition, he was great, but that's a prime example of why Boston wasn't losing this year. No other team would match Boston 1/2 with Tatum/Brown.....AND match them 3-6 with Porzingis, White, Holiday, and Horford. Nobody even gets close in that 3-6 comparison, and that includes Denver. Derrick White might be one of the most underrated players in the NBA.

 

[Eielson]

Tatum wasn't better this year in the playoffs. Tatum/Brown isn't a better duo than Jokic/Murray. Jrue definitely was the key addition for the Finals. I'm not talking about 1-2 years of choking. I'm talking closer to a decade.

The Celtics obviously won the championship and I'm not suggesting it should be stripped, but it's laughable to pretend they had a tough path. Maybe they survive the West, but it would have been ugly, and I have strong doubts.

 

[BoulderSooner]

Boston would have absolutely been favored over Denver. With home court advantage? lol, 100% the favorite.

I don't think they would have been the betting favorite over denver ..

 

[WichitaSooner]

In an ESPN article written at the start of the playoffs, the guy who oversees NBA odds for Caesar's was quoted as saying that he would expect Boston to be a slight favorite over Denver due to homecourt. He said he personally though the Nuggets were slightly better, but it is clear from the article that he viewed the two teams as being very close. Suffice it to say, nothing about his comments suggest that there is "no way" Boston would have been favored.

Again, I don't like the Celtics and would have been cheering for just about any Western team. But we don't really have to speculate about this. The info is out there.

 

[jmizzy4ou]

I'm not going to nitpick anything. The Celtics won it on the court, and as much as I hate them, they earned every piece of it. I didn't think the duo of Tatum/Brown was as good as most said they were, but they did what they had to do, and got a strong performance from their supporting cast. I agree Holiday was the biggest difference from last year, but Horford and Porzingis were both very good during the playoffs.

 

[NickZepp]

Denver just didn't get much from their role players this year. Especially in the playoffs.

JJ Reddick is now the Lakers coach.

 

[WTSooner]

I don't think they would have been the betting favorite over denver ..

Better season. Better record. Home court advantage. A healthy Porzingis (at the time).

Zero justification for them not being the betting favorite. You are literally suggesting they'd have been a home dog to Denver. Crazy.

 

[WTSooner]

I'm not going to nitpick anything. The Celtics won it on the court, and as much as I hate them, they earned every piece of it. I didn't think the duo of Tatum/Brown was as good as most said they were, but they did what they had to do, and got a strong performance from their supporting cast. I agree Holiday was the biggest difference from last year, but Horford and Porzingis were both very good during the playoffs.

Porzingis missed too many playoff games to say he was very good.

He was very good in Game 1 of the Finals, helped get things kicked off. Other than that, he didn't really do anything that wasn't replaceable, in part because of healthy, and in part because of a lack of PT/minutes (b/c of health). I'm a big fan of his game, he just didn't play the minutes to have a big impact. And his minutes in Game 5, he was clearly injured and was not good on defense at all. Luckily we played well enough we could keep him on the floor, because he really wanted to play/contribute.

Should have the top 8 players all back next year. We have more of our first round picks than other 2nd Apron teams. An outstanding coach. We'll have to see what motivation looks like going forward, and how long it takes Porzingis to get healthy, but the Celtic's aren't going away.

 

[BoulderSooner]

Better season. Better record. Home court advantage. A healthy Porzingis (at the time).

Zero justification for them not being the betting favorite. You are literally suggesting they'd have been a home dog to Denver. Crazy.

0-2 vs Denver no answer for joker ... and better record sure they play in the east ..

 

[Eielson]

You are literally suggesting they'd have been a home dog to Denver. Crazy.

Not crazy at all.

 

[BCSooners]

The Nuggets weren’t the same team in the playoffs like they were last year. Losing Brown, also KCP got quite a bit worse. Throw in Murray struggling as well. I think Boston goes through the West, but obviously it would’ve been tougher.

Holiday was a HUGE upgrade over Smart. When Porzingis was healthy you’ve got 5 guys that can go for 20 on any night and then Horford as a role player doesn’t get any better. Boston whined a ton the last 2 years and really grew up. Imo they were the best team this year.

 

[WTSooner]

0-2 vs Denver no answer for joker ... and better record sure they play in the east ..

We supposedly had no answer for Luka and Kyrie either. How'd that work out?

You let Jokic get his points and you guard the others. One of those two losses was by 2 point on a night Boston shot terrible. The other loss was in the middle of a really tough stretch of games, where again, Boston shot the ball poorly. Denver finished 8th in D Efficiency during the regular season. Good, but not elite. I'm going to say Boston just happened to have a couple of poor shooting nights. Especially the 2nd game where even the FT shooting was poor.

Boston was 23-10 against East playoff teams.
Boston was 13-7 against West playoff teams.

Total of 36-17, winning percentage of 67.9% against playoff teams. Their winning percentage against ALL playoff teams would have been good enough for 4th in the NBA over the season, lol.

Keep hating. And from the same laker fans that don't acknowledge the COVID season and how lucky they are/were that GS has had a ton of injuries.

It's Banner #18, regardless of the hate. It's a Boston team lead by hungry, young players, not an aging team who just made a terrible head coaching hire because their "star" asked for it. Have fun with that trash the next couple of seasons.

 

[jmizzy4ou]

Porzingis missed too many playoff games to say he was very good.

He was very good in Game 1 of the Finals, helped get things kicked off. Other than that, he didn't really do anything that wasn't replaceable, in part because of healthy, and in part because of a lack of PT/minutes (b/c of health). I'm a big fan of his game, he just didn't play the minutes to have a big impact. And his minutes in Game 5, he was clearly injured and was not good on defense at all. Luckily we played well enough we could keep him on the floor, because he really wanted to play/contribute.

Should have the top 8 players all back next year. We have more of our first round picks than other 2nd Apron teams. An outstanding coach. We'll have to see what motivation looks like going forward, and how long it takes Porzingis to get healthy, but the Celtic's aren't going away.

Fair enough. I totally agree about White. He is the perfect Swiss army knife every good team needs. Every season someone wins a title, but there are people who what if it to death. Boston showed up and did what they had to do throughout the playoffs. To the victor goes the spoils, so as Laker fan, I can't say anything bad about this C's team.

 

[Eielson]

You let Jokic get his points and you guard the others.

Lolz. Yeah, that's all you have to do.

 

[SoonerBounce13]

Laker fans...

Redick? LOL

 

[NickZepp]

Lakers basically drafted Redick too.

 

[WaymanFan]

Laker fans...

Redick? LOL

Yes, Lakers fan...and no, I wasn't happy with the hire. It was my wish that Dr. Jerry Buss would come back to life . I may be a tad biased as an OU fan, but I would have liked Terry Stotts to have gotten the job. He finished runner-up two years ago when they hired Darvin Ham. I just think a veteran head coach would be perfect for the short-term while LeBron is still playing. Stotts did a great job managing Damian Lillard in Portland for all those years - and what has Portland done since Stotts was fired? He couldn't get them over the hump because they just didn't have enough talent at the power forward / center positions...but he got the most out of those teams.

 

[BoulderSooner]

Yes, Lakers fan...and no, I wasn't happy with the hire. It was my wish that Dr. Jerry Buss would come back to life . I may be a tad biased as an OU fan, but I would have liked Terry Stotts to have gotten the job. He finished runner-up two years ago when they hired Darvin Ham. I just think a veteran head coach would be perfect for the short-term while LeBron is still playing. Stotts did a great job managing Damian Lillard in Portland for all those years - and what has Portland done since Stotts was fired? He couldn't get them over the hump because they just didn't have enough talent at the power forward / center positions...but he got the most out of those teams.

Stotts is a great offensive coach .. I (also a laker fan) would have loved that hire

 

[NickZepp]