NBA thread

Spartacus1987 said:
Yep. If you haven’t noticed but I haven’t posted in the Reds thread this season either (couldn’t care less) they have also pretty much lost me as a fan. They did nothing to address their inept offense and are paying for it now. All I’ve done is check some scores here and there but haven’t watch a full game all season. Trash like that does not deserve my attention.

Reds and Pistons are essentially mirror images of one another
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yes, I've noticed. I don't really agree with you on the assessment of the Reds. The are in the early stages of a rebuild. Part of that is seeing what you have on and extended basis. Less than two months isn't enough. And it's frustrating, I get it. Could they have gone and got a few guys in the off season, yes. They did get Candelario. But really for the most part, most of the major roles were covered. We found about Marte late, McLain got injured in spring training. I really feel the blueprint for this organization is to draft, develop and continue that mode. To me the future looks really bright. The rotation minus Montas is young and here to stay, Rhett Lowder will be added in a year or so. Position player wise, Elly, McLain, Marte, CES, Friedl, Steer. And then just buy and plug pieces around those guys and I think that's a recipe for success.
I'm a Sixers fan and they are in the spending mode, and that doesn't necessarily work either. The NBA is a different animal though. It's odd the Pistons can't figure it out. Normally in a players league like the NBA, you can hit a high draft pick or two and at least be decent. Cade Cunningham hasn't been what he was expected to be. Heck the Sixers could have drafted Jayson Tatum and they took Markelle Fultz instead??
 
14Red said:
yes, I've noticed. I don't really agree with you on the assessment of the Reds. The are in the early stages of a rebuild. Part of that is seeing what you have on and extended basis. Less than two months isn't enough. And it's frustrating, I get it. Could they have gone and got a few guys in the off season, yes. They did get Candelario. But really for the most part, most of the major roles were covered. We found about Marte late, McLain got injured in spring training. I really feel the blueprint for this organization is to draft, develop and continue that mode. To me the future looks really bright. The rotation minus Montas is young and here to stay, Rhett Lowder will be added in a year or so. Position player wise, Elly, McLain, Marte, CES, Friedl, Steer. And then just buy and plug pieces around those guys and I think that's a recipe for success.
I'm a Sixers fan and they are in the spending mode, and that doesn't necessarily work either. The NBA is a different animal though. It's odd the Pistons can't figure it out. Normally in a players league like the NBA, you can hit a high draft pick or two and at least be decent. Cade Cunningham hasn't been what he was expected to be. Heck the Sixers could have drafted Jayson Tatum and they took Markelle Fultz instead??
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I think Candelario is what a career 260 hitter? A piece like that isn’t going to help the offense much even hitting his career average but it turns out it was a bad gamble and he’s been absolutely terrible.

The offense was bad even with all the guys you listed that are unhealthy now but without them it’s one of the worst of all time. I think I was one of the few people who wasn’t blinded by the hot streak the Reds went on last July and knew the offense wasn’t very good. It sunk like the titanic after that.

De La Cruz is an outfielder trying to play shortstop. He just doesn’t have the coordination or quickness with his lanky frame to be playing there.

As for the Pistons I like Cade but he isn’t talented enough to be a build your franchise around type player. He’s a #2 or perhaps even a #3 on a title winning roster. He just doesn’t have the explosiveness or finishing ability for only being 6’6 ( we were mislead coming out of the draft thinking he was some 6’8 guy )
 
Spartacus1987 said:
I think Candelario is what a career 260 hitter? A piece like that isn’t going to help the offense much even hitting his career average but it turns out it was a bad gamble and he’s been absolutely terrible.

The offense was bad even with all the guys you listed that are unhealthy now but without them it’s one of the worst of all time. I think I was one of the few people who wasn’t blinded by the hot streak the Reds went on last July and knew the offense wasn’t very good. It sunk like the titanic after that.

De La Cruz is an outfielder trying to play shortstop. He just doesn’t have the coordination or quickness with his lanky frame to be playing there.

As for the Pistons I like Cade but he isn’t talented enough to be a build your franchise around type player. He’s a #2 or perhaps even a #3 on a title winning roster. He just doesn’t have the explosiveness or finishing ability for only being 6’6 ( we were mislead coming out of the draft thinking he was some 6’8 guy )
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I disagree, it's way too early to bail on these kids. And look around the league, .260 is pretty good anymore. And I'm all for Elly staying at short, I think he can be phenomenal as a tall short stop. Much like having him a the top of the order, I want him handling as many chances in the field as possible. He's not going to get as many chances in any outfield position as he will at short.

As we find out with alot of NBA guys, they are more like mid first round picks rather than being franchise carriers. And frankly there is maybe only 1 or two guys annually that can be a major franchise piece. As bad as it was with Fultz, we hit a homer with Maxey. He can be very special.
 
14Red said:
I disagree, it's way too early to bail on these kids. And look around the league, .260 is pretty good anymore. And I'm all for Elly staying at short, I think he can be phenomenal as a tall short stop. Much like having him a the top of the order, I want him handling as many chances in the field as possible. He's not going to get as many chances in any outfield position as he will at short.

As we find out with alot of NBA guys, they are more like mid first round picks rather than being franchise carriers. And frankly there is maybe only 1 or two guys annually that can be a major franchise piece. As bad as it was with Fultz, we hit a homer with Maxey. He can be very special.
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The Reds have had promising players before that never amounted to much of anything. You give too long of a leash to a franchise that hasn’t won a playoff series since 1995 and hasn’t had a team that is really contending since 2012.
 
Spartacus1987 said:
The Reds have had promising players before that never amounted to much of anything. You give too long of a leash to a franchise that hasn’t won a playoff series since 1995 and hasn’t had a team that is really contending since 2012.
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Sorry way off topic here on the NBA tread, but basically, I'm not changing teams, I'm a Reds fan. You can't hold what happened 15 years ago, 10 years ago or even 5 years ago over the current teams head. It's sports.
 
Not a Cavs fan, but how in the heck if your Donavan Mitchell do you not suit up and at least give it a go last night? Game 4, at home, you HAVE to have it? He basically ended the Cavs season last night. They beat the Celtics if he plays last night, even if only 15 - 20 minutes. The audacity of today's NBA players who just sit games. I don't get it.
 
14Red said:
Not a Cavs fan, but how in the heck if your Donavan Mitchell do you not suit up and at least give it a go last night? Game 4, at home, you HAVE to have it? He basically ended the Cavs season last night. They beat the Celtics if he plays last night, even if only 15 - 20 minutes. The audacity of today's NBA players who just sit games. I don't get it.
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If you have a bad calf you you’re just one bad step from tearing your Achilles. If you do that then your entire next season is over.
 
14Red said:
Sorry way off topic here on the NBA tread, but basically, I'm not changing teams, I'm a Reds fan. You can't hold what happened 15 years ago, 10 years ago or even 5 years ago over the current teams head. It's sports.
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I’m not changing teams but I’m not going to support trash either. So in other words I don’t really have a team outside of hoping the Indians lose every game.
 
14Red said:
Not a Cavs fan, but how in the heck if your Donavan Mitchell do you not suit up and at least give it a go last night? Game 4, at home, you HAVE to have it? He basically ended the Cavs season last night. They beat the Celtics if he plays last night, even if only 15 - 20 minutes. The audacity of today's NBA players who just sit games. I don't get it.
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The man literally carried the team on his back for the first 8 games of the playoffs. And his game is a lot of driving to the basket and getting knocked to the ground by big men. I think his body has just given up on him. I’m not going to knock Mitchell at this point, regardless of what happens.

The series with the Celtics was always going to be a long shot. I almost would have preferred a sweep. Getting Game 2 gave everyone false hope. The Celtics are a far superior team this year, even if the Cavs were fully healthy.
 
Cedar_Point said:
If you have a bad calf you you’re just one bad step from tearing your Achilles. If you do that then your entire next season is over.
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That may be true, but I have a really hard time believing a guy who scored 33 points on May 11 and has been really good in the postseason suddenly can't play? It's at least a legitimate question. He's 27 years old, who knows how may playoff runs he has left?
 
14Red said:
That may be true, but I have a really hard time believing a guy who scored 33 points on May 11 and has been really good in the postseason suddenly can't play? It's at least a legitimate question. He's 27 years old, who knows how may playoff runs he has left?
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I’m guessing as long as he’s in the league he’ll be in the playoffs
 
Nice to see the Knicks get bounced. Of course, ESPN is devastated.

"If ESPN is concerned about an East coast bias, having nearly the entire pregame centering around the Knicks doesn't help. Up next, Stephen A.'s Knicks pep talk," Andrew Marchand of The Athletic added.

It was all so cringe. And we get the small market vs. big market bias. It's New York vs. Indianapolis. But this was just so over the top.
And no, this isn't just some salt from the local Indy market.
Here's a headline from Awful Announcing: Was Knicks Game 7 fanfest a new low for ESPN’s NBA Countdown?

MSN

www.msn.com

www.indystar.com

'Are you kidding me with this?' ESPN, ABC's Knicks lovefest 'embarrassing coverage.'

No one would call you crazy if you turned on Pacers-Knicks Game 7 and thought you were watching the MSG Network.
www.indystar.com www.indystar.com

 
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Looking forward to the poor oppressed sports media like Stephen A. having to go to Indy and Minny a few times to cover the conference finals...oh the horror!!

There is an enormous major market/glamour market bias in NBA media. They all pretty much openly root for teams located in cities they want to travel to for work, i.e. the Knicks, Nets, Lakers, Clippers, Heat, Warriors, Celtics. Nobody matters to them outside of like 7-8 teams.
 
The bias is definitely annoying for most neutral viewers, but it makes sense why ESPN would push it from a $ perspective, considering the ratings for a Knicks-Celtics ECF would be significantly higher than any other match-up imaginable.
 
nwwarrior09 said:
Looking forward to the poor oppressed sports media like Stephen A. having to go to Indy and Minny a few times to cover the conference finals...oh the horror!!

There is an enormous major market/glamour market bias in NBA media. They all pretty much openly root for teams located in cities they want to travel to for work, i.e. the Knicks, Nets, Lakers, Clippers, Heat, Warriors, Celtics. Nobody matters to them outside of like 7-8 teams.
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Stephen A will stay in New York. Why would he lower himself to travel to " flyover cities"? That's the attitude of the national media. The market bias also applies to all sports.
 
tom 48 said:
Stephen A will stay in New York. Why would he lower himself to travel to " flyover cities"? That's the attitude of the national media. The market bias also applies to all sports.
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I do think you have it to some degree in all sports, but NBA media is by far the worst with it IMO. They are absolutely shameless.
 
The Pacers did play in the game. I just want to let ESPN know,” Patrick said Monday on The Dan Patrick Show. “If you want to buy into East Coast bias, you have every reason to buy into ESPN’s East Coast bias watching that game. How about some impartiality here, okay? I was embarrassed for ESPN, because it felt like it was all about the Knicks. Even at halftime, it was about the Knicks.

“The Pacers aren’t exciting. I get it. Not big names, not a sexy team, but you still have to cover the game. You gotta be fair. I don’t need a Stephen A. Smith arrival video. I don’t need a pep talk with him and Spike Lee. He doesn’t work for the Knicks, he works for ESPN. I was really surprised. And I didn’t care who won, but after that, I was rooting for the Pacers. I thought, ‘You know what? Let’s make this uncomfortable for you.'”


larrybrownsports.com

ESPN legend rips network for coverage of Knicks-Pacers series

One of ESPN's legendary figures ripped the network for how it covered Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals between the New York Knicks and Indiana
larrybrownsports.com larrybrownsports.com
 
tom 48 said:
The Pacers did play in the game. I just want to let ESPN know,” Patrick said Monday on The Dan Patrick Show. “If you want to buy into East Coast bias, you have every reason to buy into ESPN’s East Coast bias watching that game. How about some impartiality here, okay? I was embarrassed for ESPN, because it felt like it was all about the Knicks. Even at halftime, it was about the Knicks.

“The Pacers aren’t exciting. I get it. Not big names, not a sexy team, but you still have to cover the game. You gotta be fair. I don’t need a Stephen A. Smith arrival video. I don’t need a pep talk with him and Spike Lee. He doesn’t work for the Knicks, he works for ESPN. I was really surprised. And I didn’t care who won, but after that, I was rooting for the Pacers. I thought, ‘You know what? Let’s make this uncomfortable for you.'”


larrybrownsports.com

ESPN legend rips network for coverage of Knicks-Pacers series

One of ESPN's legendary figures ripped the network for how it covered Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals between the New York Knicks and Indiana
larrybrownsports.com larrybrownsports.com
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Patrick is 100% right, but I think we have to acknowledge that ESPN isn't media anymore. It's an entertainment company and they have to get ratings based on eyeballs. That's probably the #1 thing that changed in the media over the last 40 years. There was a time when reported was supposed to be fair and impartial, but when the networks started paying billions for broadcast rights, that ended. I get why Patrick was upset, but he can't be shocked this is the way it goes. We don't have fair and impartial reporting in sports anymore. Let's just be glad that we've not moved into blatant cheating and fixing to keep big markets in the finals. The fact that the Celtics are the only big brand left is rather refreshing for the NBA final four.
 
Loved Mike Conley at OSU but for how small he is, he isn’t a great finisher, shooter, or offensive player for only being 6 feet tall. That’s why the teams he’s on never make it to the finals. Point guard on the team has to always stress a defense from deep or it’s going to be harder for them to put stress on a defense
 
Mike Conley has had a really good NBA career. Probably one of the 10-15 oldest guys in the league, and LeBron is probably the only guy older than him that does more than what Mike currently does.

Never an all-NBA type player, but damn he's been an above-average starter on good (but not great) teams for an eternity... especially considering how much the game and the prototype PG has changed during his career. Finally starting to slide and decline, but I wouldn't be surprised if he plays for 3-4 more years and makes it to 40.

Believe it was in the conference semis, but in this playoff run he won a jump ball tip against a dude half a foot taller than him. Still has tremendous athleticism.
 
Spartacus1987 said:
Loved Mike Conley at OSU but for how small he is, he isn’t a great finisher, shooter, or offensive player for only being 6 feet tall. That’s why the teams he’s on never make it to the finals. Point guard on the team has to always stress a defense from deep or it’s going to be harder for them to put stress on a defense
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Really hard to even classify guys as point guards anymore. Pretty much everyone in the NBA is a scoring guard. I think Conley has had a pretty solid NBA career. We put way too much stock in winning championshps in the value of NBA players. It's really hard to be good enough to lift a team by yourself. The media loves to individualize NBA players, but it takes a team, always have, always will. I'd classifiy Conley as more of a thinking man's guard, makes the right play, is willing to sacrifice his stats for the team.
 
14Red said:
Really hard to even classify guys as point guards anymore. Pretty much everyone in the NBA is a scoring guard. I think Conley has had a pretty solid NBA career. We put way too much stock in winning championshps in the value of NBA players. It's really hard to be good enough to lift a team by yourself. The media loves to individualize NBA players, but it takes a team, always have, always will. I'd classifiy Conley as more of a thinking man's guard, makes the right play, is willing to sacrifice his stats for the team.
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I mean that’s how we quantify who the best players are in all sports. Just watching Conley the other day, he needs the ball in his hands but he isn’t a great finisher at the rim and got his shot blocked the other day late in the game. He just doesn’t seem to be able to make it happen late in games, same problem he had with the Grizzlies. He can’t really play off the ball either which is a problem.
 
Spartacus1987 said:
I mean that’s how we quantify who the best players are in all sports.
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I think that's a fallacy of ours. NFL, NBA, MLB all TEAM sports. Heck in football you don't even play half of the game (offense/ defense) As great as Tom Brady was as a QB, he never tackled a running back or deflected a pass. Probably more than half of the Patriots super bowls were more defensive oriented teams than offense. Could Conley had been on the Nuggets last year? Sure. You could had put Jokic and Murray with dozens of other players last year and the Nuggets probably win. Now Conley isn't a tip tier player, but he's been a very solid NBA vet.
 
14Red said:
I think that's a fallacy of ours. NFL, NBA, MLB all TEAM sports. Heck in football you don't even play half of the game (offense/ defense) As great as Tom Brady was as a QB, he never tackled a running back or deflected a pass. Probably more than half of the Patriots super bowls were more defensive oriented teams than offense. Could Conley had been on the Nuggets last year? Sure. You could had put Jokic and Murray with dozens of other players last year and the Nuggets probably win. Now Conley isn't a tip tier player, but he's been a very solid NBA vet.
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Yes but at the same time when the Patriots needed a big time throw in the biggest moments Tom mostly delivered.

Minnesota won that game last night because they put the ball in Anthony Edwards hands and he initiated the entire offense. I even forgot Conley was even out there which shows how little faith they have in him.
 
Spartacus1987 said:
Yes but at the same time when the Patriots needed a big time throw in the biggest moments Tom mostly delivered.

Minnesota won that game last night because they put the ball in Anthony Edwards hands and he initiated the entire offense. I even forgot Conley was even out there which shows how little faith they have in him.
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When did this become a thing for the value of Mike Conley? I mean he's a veteran NBA player. I actually thought Edwards took some really poor shots down the stretch, and they backed off him on the last one, dared him to make one more shot and he did.
 
Mike Conley is 36 and was always a facilitator as opposed to a scorer. May have had 1 or 2 seasons where he averaged right at or slightly above 20.

Minnesota wins and loses depending on what Edwards and Towns do. Towns has been largely atrocious this series, Edwards mostly just alright. Kyrie and Luka have been absolutely lights out, and it's why Dallas will advance to the Finals.
 
14Red said:
When did this become a thing for the value of Mike Conley? I mean he's a veteran NBA player. I actually thought Edwards took some really poor shots down the stretch, and they backed off him on the last one, dared him to make one more shot and he did.
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Any chance that guy gets to take a shot at anyone that has something to do with Ohio State he takes it even if it has zero do with the convo
 
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