2016-2017 NBA Thread

[Adp]

San Antonio can now only win in 7:
12/13 people picked SA.
0/13 picked SA in 7.
1/13 (Ractoh) picked OKC.
He also picked OKC in 7.

If OKC wins Racthoh will have predicted something no one else did. Huge lead for him if so.

Ugh, I feel like this series should have wrapped up with Spurs going 4-1 if it weren't for the horrible officiating in the last minute of games 2 and now 5. Refs are handing OKC this series on a platter. All they have to do is hang around and then get a deluge of terrible calls against the Spurs.

[Pendulous]

Portland playing Golden State's game, making all the threes. Bogut apparently forgot how to shoot a basketball. Kind of weird start to this game. Thompson has two fouls too.

[Allerius]

You sound like a raving lunatic.

17 points in OT actually is the GOAT in both the postseason and regular season. It's more than the Blazers as a whole scored in that same OT period. In fact it's more than both the Raptors and Heat scored combined in their OT.

What sports do you play. I can tell you I definitely get rusty at my skill shots and serves in tennis after 2 weeks of inactivity and that's not counting a slight loss in conditioning. When I try to do hard intervals on my bike after 2 weeks off the saddle? Yep, my wattage goes down. Curry's knee might be mostly pain free, but it is still weak and will remain weak into the next series. Curry has an injury history and his lack of injury over the past couple of seasons is because of rigorous lower body strength training. Curry is agile and acrobatic. Do I need to link the clip of him figuratively breaking CP3's ankles and melting his brain simultaneously?

Curry wide open? Yeah he looks open because his release is so quick and he takes shots from farther out than anyone else. Every team has to cover more ground when playing Curry.

People like you are so clueless. Basketball is a sport where you play against COMPETITION. If you take a random NBA player and put him in a high school game the guy is gonna score 100+ because his COMPETITION sucks. So when Curry scores a ton of points against shit COMPETITION, it doesn't show how good he is.

I play basketball. As any player would tell you, muscle memory for shooting isn't quick to go. You can easily take a few weeks off then go back to shooting just like you did before. Curry isn't athletic by NBA standards, anyone who doesn't have their head up their ass knows that. The fact you think a highlight clip is a good way of making a point shows how clueless you are. Btw breaking someone's ankles is a reflection of ball handling skill and a failure of the defender, not a great athletic achievement.

Curry's release isn't meaningfully faster than other NBA shooters. As to him taking longer distance shots, that's exactly right. That's why you always have to go above the screen and keep a man on him at all times. The failure of Portland to do that is why he scored so much in that period where they played especially shit defense.

Where was your GOAT last year in the finals? I don't remember the time MJ let a BENCH player (lmao) take finals MVP from him while letting a super injured team take two games. Curry is the best shooter I've ever seen, but if it wasn't for having a team that both spaces the floor to keep people from sticking to him and covers his flaws by doing everything else other than shooting nobody would think Curry was anywhere close to a top 5 all time player.

[Blueobelisk]

I also don't think Curry is athletic, FYI. Too athletic people to me are Westbrook and probably Lebron. Definitely LeBron from a few years ago. People said Blake Griffin and I kind of agree.

[Pendulous]

Curry's release isn't meaningfully faster than other NBA shooters.

Where was your GOAT last year in the finals? I don't remember the time MJ let a BENCH player (lmao) take finals MVP from him while letting a super injured team take two games. Curry is the best shooter I've ever seen, but if it wasn't for having a team that both spaces the floor to keep people from sticking to him and covers his flaws by doing everything else other than shooting nobody would think Curry was anywhere close to a top 5 all time player.

I see Curry basically pushing the ball out of his hands as he's jumping. I don't think it's possible to shoot the ball faster.

And I don't get how you can say he isn't great because the rest of his team is good. Or how you can dismiss the stats that pretty much say "yeah, best shooter, ever".

Warriors pull out the win after that ugly first quarter.

[Craaazyyy]

People like you are so clueless. Basketball is a sport where you play against COMPETITION. If you take a random NBA player and put him in a high school game the guy is gonna score 100+ because his COMPETITION sucks. So when Curry scores a ton of points against shit COMPETITION, it doesn't show how good he is.

I play basketball. As any player would tell you, muscle memory for shooting isn't quick to go. You can easily take a few weeks off then go back to shooting just like you did before. Curry isn't athletic by NBA standards, anyone who doesn't have their head up their ass knows that. The fact you think a highlight clip is a good way of making a point shows how clueless you are. Btw breaking someone's ankles is a reflection of ball handling skill and a failure of the defender, not a great athletic achievement.

Curry's release isn't meaningfully faster than other NBA shooters. As to him taking longer distance shots, that's exactly right. That's why you always have to go above the screen and keep a man on him at all times. The failure of Portland to do that is why he scored so much in that period where they played especially shit defense.

Where was your GOAT last year in the finals? I don't remember the time MJ let a BENCH player (lmao) take finals MVP from him while letting a super injured team take two games. Curry is the best shooter I've ever seen, but if it wasn't for having a team that both spaces the floor to keep people from sticking to him and covers his flaws by doing everything else other than shooting nobody would think Curry was anywhere close to a top 5 all time player.

you shouldnt be posting on here ever again bro..

[ItachiZaku]

Cleveland-Toronto/Golden State-Oklahoma City would be the most lack luster conference finals, Cavs in 4, GS in 5.

[Blueobelisk]

GSW wins over Portland in 5:
11/13 people picked GSW. (ItachiZaku picked POR, The BigZoMan picked GS but he was late so...)
8/13 picked GS in 5.

So far 3 people have perfect scores for those 2 series. Stommped, Faltemer, and Arqentum are leading with a perfect 20 points. (All three chose GS in 5 and CLE in 4.)

[Stommped]

Damn gutsy performance by Portland, Crabbe/Lillard/CJ is one nice trio. Wonder what the series would have been like if LMA stayed.

[Pendulous]

Utah changed their logo and jerseys. Even weirder now that they're "returning to their roots of New Orleans", and yet still are in Slat Lake City, Utah.

[Gumboy]

A-aren't you white. Not that Kobe is necessarily a black name but...



The thing is, almost everyone else chose those teams so...records matter a lot to differentiate winners.

-----

Curry unanimously named MVP. First time ever. Closest was Lebron in like 2012 but some guy picked Melo because he was worth more to the bitch ass Knicks.

Curry is pretty gr8.

Tonight at 8 is OKC @ SAS.

Cleveland is chilling waiting for Miami or Toronto. Everyone else is playing.

Yeah but I was late anyway so no point picking the series length haha!

And yeah I'm white. Kobe Bean gonna be the name.

I kind of want to go with "Kobe Eli mylastname" or maybe Eli Kobe my last name. Not sure yet.

[Allerius]

I see Curry basically pushing the ball out of his hands as he's jumping. I don't think it's possible to shoot the ball faster.

And I don't get how you can say he isn't great because the rest of his team is good. Or how you can dismiss the stats that pretty much say "yeah, best shooter, ever".

Curry is the best shooter ever and he is a pretty good player, I'm not denying any of that. However there's a lot more to the game of basketball than shooting and he doesn't really excel at anything else. As to why the team makes him look better, you have to consider his skillset. Curry isn't athletic and he doesn't jump over people. If you can keep a competent defender (or two) on Curry his performance is going to decrease drastically (see the finals last year, the only time Warriors played a halfway decent team in the playoffs so far). So the fact that his team can space the floor and make people pay for sticking to Curry enables him to get the room he needs. If Curry switched places with Lebron on the 2007 cavs, his stats would be far worse and that team wouldn't have gone anywhere close to making the finals. That's what differentiates Curry from all time greats like MJ, Kobe, and Lebron. These guys play an all around game, dominate their competition, and are unguardable even when playing on shitty teams that let opponents load up on them. Meanwhile, Curry is largely a product of the system he is in. It's a critical mass sort of thing, where once you get enough floor spacing the product becomes more than the sum of its parts. For a non-Warriors example, look at the Cavs game 2 vs. the Hawks where FRYE (lol) was able to drop 30.

[Pendulous]

Curry is the best shooter ever and he is a pretty good player, I'm not denying any of that. However there's a lot more to the game of basketball than shooting and he doesn't really excel at anything else. As to why the team makes him look better, you have to consider his skillset. Curry isn't athletic and he doesn't jump over people. If you can keep a competent defender (or two) on Curry his performance is going to decrease drastically (see the finals last year, the only time Warriors played a halfway decent team in the playoffs so far). So the fact that his team can space the floor and make people pay for sticking to Curry enables him to get the room he needs. If Curry switched places with Lebron on the 2007 cavs, his stats would be far worse and that team wouldn't have gone anywhere close to making the finals. That's what differentiates Curry from all time greats like MJ, Kobe, and Lebron. These guys play an all around game, dominate their competition, and are unguardable even when playing on shitty teams that let opponents load up on them. Meanwhile, Curry is largely a product of the system he is in. It's a critical mass sort of thing, where once you get enough floor spacing the product becomes more than the sum of its parts. For a non-Warriors example, look at the Cavs game 2 vs. the Hawks where FRYE (lol) was able to drop 30.

He was tenth in assists. And he shoots contested shots all the damn time. He may not make a move around a defender, but he doesn't have to. He looks people in the eye and throws the ball up with resounding accuracy. Number one in free throw percentage. Number one in steals.

I mean, it sounds like you're saying he can't be the best because of his size and what position he plays. He takes what he has and does more with it than anyone else.

[Blueobelisk]

And yeah I'm white. Kobe Bean gonna be the name. I kind of want to go with "Kobe Eli mylastname" or maybe Eli Kobe my last name. Not sure yet.

You really like Kobe that much? It'll be pretty obvious who he's named after. It's not a common name.

Really hope OKC wins tonight. I would much rather watch an OKC/Warriors series then the Spurs.

Not me. I wanna see #1 and #2. I hope Spurs hold out tonight. All the pressure is on the Spurs though...they play in OKC tonight I think.

I see Curry basically pushing the ball out of his hands as he's jumping. I don't think it's possible to shoot the ball faster.

Yeah not gonna lie. I've seen him chuck it up and thought he was overzealous and crazy...and the shot would go in. I...I just don't know how it's possible. He's controlling gravity or vector fields or something. That's the only explanation.

-----

It's hard to evaluate Curry without his team because his team is literally the best team in the history of the NBA. (With him on it, at least.)

Probably, if you take a good shooter off a good team then he'll do significantly worse than if you take someone independant like Lebron off a team and put him on a regular team. Just think of how Kyle Korver was a random shooter, and then he gets to Atlanta and they get a little hot and he can average 50/50/90 and people think he's so great and almost as good as sliced bread.

[Gumboy]

Hell yea I'm serious about the name haha. Kobe is my all time favorite player.

[Denkou]

I would say Curry has a lot more to his skillset than just being a good shooter. He has speed and agility and some of the best handles in the league, IMO. Of course he's known for his shooting, but he also drives to the basket and splits defenders extremely well, and his passing is superb, as his assist stats show.

That said, I do agree that he is a product of the system, to an extent. That GSW roster is just so deep at every position, all of their bench players are very good. As far as being the most "valuable" player goes, if you were to go strictly by the literal definition of the word then he would not be as valuable as Lebron. GSW is a top-5 team even without Curry but the Cavs are nothing without Lebron. I don't take the MVP award as a literal interpretation of the words, but I can see why people would get hung up over it. Maybe "best player" is a more appropriate term.

It's crazy that he is playing even better this year than last year. Take away Curry and you have a good chunk of other legitimate MVP candidates (Lebron, Kawhi, Harden, Dame, Westbrook, even his own teammate Money Green to name a few), all of whom had stellar years. But, Curry is just that good that he overshadows great years from other players.

Anyway, I try not to dwell too much on debates like this, and especially about comparisons between Curry/MJ or GSW to the 95-96 Bulls. It's a different era and a different style a play. I just sit back and enjoy it as a fan, because there's a lot of great basketball going on during this year's playoffs.

[Blueobelisk]

My grandpa is watching election/political stuff and switching back and forth between wrestling. I'll have to bust out Kindle and watch (30 seconds behind live) in a bit.

It's not looking great for the Spurs...

[Gumboy]

they getting clowned on at the moment. first quarter didn't seem bad but then bammo.

[jregz]

If there's a team that could pull this back, it would be the Spurs right?

[jregz]

Riiight. I usually expect the Warriors to be up like 20 by Q3.