2016-2017 NBA Thread

[Blueobelisk]

Yep yep I'm watching too. I mean, not with my glasses so not actively. But I'm looking at my TV.

[xskarma]

Not the way you want to start. Cavs already hitting on all cilinders and Celtics with turnovers and airballs from 3.

[Blueobelisk]

Cavs up 43-27 after first. That 43 is a most points in any quarter record for Cleveland.

[xskarma]

Cavs up 43-27 after first. That 43 is a most points in any quarter record for Cleveland.

And it could have been worse. Ugly game so far, especially on the Celtics side, no flow to the offense and the past few minutes just constant fouling on defense.

Celtics need a miracle, and the usual miracle worker (IT) is home injured.

[Blueobelisk]

Cavs up 75-57. The 75 is a halftime record for the Cavs lol.

Guess we know who will win this game...Celtics crowd is getting ready to go home.

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New Game of Zones:


Goddamn did that suck. Why would they think showing the 76ers during the last game of the Conference Finals would be popular? They think we care about december shit?

[xskarma]

I usually bitch about the announcing in NFL games, but seriously these NBA announcers are worse than pretty much anything the NFL offers, and I would assume that these are the top crews around given the current play off stage. That's pretty dire then and I can't imagine how bad the announcing is during the regular season when there's multiple games going on at the same time and they have to use 3rd 4th and 5th crews to cover games.

EDIT: don't even mean just this game or this series, but just pretty much every game I've watched in these playoffs.

[Blueobelisk]

God Lebron just passed Michael Jordan in playoff points, I think. Wasn't listening that much.

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What don't you like about them?

[ProphetFlume]

I usually bitch about the announcing in NFL games, but seriously these NBA announcers are worse than pretty much anything the NFL offers, and I would assume that these are the top crews around given the current play off stage. That's pretty dire then and I can't imagine how bad the announcing is during the regular season when there's multiple games going on at the same time and they have to use 3rd 4th and 5th crews to cover games.

EDIT: don't even mean just this game or this series, but just pretty much every game I've watched in these playoffs.

What do people want from announcers? What do you wish they talked about during games?

also is it too late for pix? taking calves to broom the warlocks 5-0.

[chrisnumbers]

Since LeBron returned to Cleveland after the 2014 season, the Cavs have clinched every playoff series on the road except for the 2015 ECF vs Atlanta.
They were "punished" for winning at home by losing to the GSW at home that year.

[Blueobelisk]

also is it too late for pix? taking calves to broom the warlocks 5-0.

I'm taking that as "Cleveland over Golden State 4-0."

[Sharpbladez]

So for the first time in NBA history, the same 2 teams will meet in the Finals 3 straight years. Pretty crazy.

Now to figure out what to watch for the next week of no basketball...

[Blueobelisk]

So for the first time in NBA history, the same 2 teams will meet in the Finals 3 straight years. Pretty crazy.

Finals Rematch III! I'm sooo hyped I can't put it into words.

[chrisnumbers]

So for the first time in NBA history, the same 2 teams will meet in the Finals 3 straight years. Pretty crazy.

Now to figure out what to watch for the next week of no basketball...

Imagine having one team win for 8 years in a row. Now that's boring.

[Blueobelisk]

Cleveland's starters are sitting on the bench prepping their Eastern Conference winners speeches. ABC Crew is also panning to the trophy basically saying there's enough time left in the game to engrave it with Lebron's initials.

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Just think, that there are literally 21+ other franchises in the NBA right now sitting at home thinking "wow we're in the same sport as these Cleveland guys and those Golden State guys, and there is absolutely no fucking way we would ever beat them in a seven game series. Why did we even bother playing this year?"

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Cleveland wins.

18/18 chose Cleveland.
11/18 chose Cleveland in 5. (Majority so...no special mentions.)

Stommped wins the Conference Finals Predictions!

He correctly guessed both records. (Everyone guessed both teams.)

[xskarma]

What don't you like about them?

It's hard to put into words, but I'll give it a go.

They have trouble staying on top of the action and calling it, they spend too much time talking about the players themselves and the previous action and the statistics and non-game play action when there's actual game play action going on. Sooooooo many times that they are busy discussing what just happened, often in ways that offer zero insight but just ball wash the player in question, WHEN THERE'S SOMETHING INTERESTING HAPPENING, and then they just half hearted break into what they are discussing with a "oh wait that dude just scored" and then continue on with their nonsense, completely ignoring what happened, despite it being an interesting score often enough. It's maddening to hear.

And even when they stay on top of what is going on with the action they often fail, in basic ways. Uneven play by play calling sometimes being enthousiastic and sometimes really monotone. It's VERY common to hear the play by play be uneven in their hype levels, between plays that are similar and even between teams in similar situations. Uneven colour commentary in the same way, overly praising simple scores by star players and not giving a shit about what bench player X just did. At least in the NFL when a player makes a play they get praise, regardless of their situation on the team. That is severely lacking in NBA coverage.

Something that stands out to me as well as a fairly nooby NBA watcher: I have learned pretty much NOTHING about how the game works from these announcers. A good announcer will open up the game to casual or noob watchers and make them more proficient at watching the game and what to watch for. In pretty much all TV coverage I have watched for the NBA this year there's recitation of stats and hyping up of the athleticism of the players, but there's almost zero tactical explanation. They *might* throw in a comment like "this team is not passing enough" or "this team is not switching fast enough" but it's few and far between and even then rarely explains any further beyond that basic statement. Most of the commenting sticks to stats and athleticism, not what is tactically going on.



Lastly if there's one constant I have noticed between sports it's that fans absolutely HATE it when they feel the commentating is one sided or if they feel the commentating is biased against their teams, and having listened to this Celtics-Cavs series commentary it was RIDICULOUSLY one sided. Part of that is due to the blow outs there have been, but even in the game the Celtics won and the game they were up 16 points in there was a near constant tendency to talk to the viewers from the Cavs point of view, how they were doing badly, instead of talking about how the Celtics were doing well. How they were hot, instead of noting how the Celtics were not doing well. The worst thing you can do in a series that is already billed and viewed as one sided, is having the commentators confirm to that bias as well and not give one of the 2 teams it'd due.


That's enough ranting I think. Not sure if I even conveyed what irks me about them in a sufficient way. If I had to put it in a TL;DR: type sentence: I feel like I'm listening to the cast offs of better announcing teams, some local radio station call, instead of a national team. That's the feeling I get listening (not just tonight but other games of other teams as well).

[Blueobelisk]

Kyrie being interviewed by EJ. In the third quarter, Lebron was sitting on the bench and had a towel on his head facing down. Kyrie was screaming something into his ear while the game was on. It turned out to be that Kyrie was telling Lebron not to just gloss over passing MJ's scoring record. He said it was important to him so that he told Lebron to live in the moment and make sure he celebrates breaking that record.

Interesting stuff.

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Draymond Green interviewed in a media room and he said he wants to destroy Cleveland.

I CAN'T WAIT.

[Pendulous]

GS in 6. Sooner or later, there has to be a worthwhile series to watch.

[Sharpbladez]

Draymond Green interviewed in a media room and he said he wants to destroy Cleveland.

That was from a few months ago.

[Blueobelisk]

TNT Crew is doing a post game show but they mentioned that game 7 of a hockey game is in 2OT so...I'm watching hockey now instead of their analysis. I wanna see the analysis though...

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GS in 6. Sooner or later, there has to be a worthwhile series to watch.

Omg the picks are so divided so far ehehhe. This is fun. I want Cleveland to win but I'd put my money on Golden State.

That was from a few months ago.

....Oh.

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Celtic's 33 point loss was the worst elimination loss ever in franchise history. Lols.

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Chuck says Boston should give up the #1 pick for an established player so that they can compete with Cavs next year. They need a veteran superstar and a big name.

[xskarma]

Chuck says Boston should give up the #1 pick for an established player so that they can compete with Cavs next year. They need a veteran superstar and a big name.

Yeah, no thanks. Celtics are not just 1 player away. We'd end up like Toronto, not quite good enough to compete, and locked into competing NOW cause we gave up our future for it.

Honestly with how little parity there is in the NBA the smart plan is to build for the the future when Lebron legitimately can't do what he does now anymore. Even then playing with Kyrie and Love and his slew of underpaid veterans they'd be a really really tough match up.

But maybe in 2 years or so Lebron will have slowed down enough, maybe have some health issues starting to crop up from playing all these minutes for all these years. There might be some cracks in the armor then. I think that's when the East will open up for the rest of the teams outside Cleveland again.

Then you still have the Warriors though, but they'll compete for a long time unless money becomes an issue and some of them go their seperate way. But in 2 years, who knows how they'll look?


And who are we going to get for that 1st overall pick that might meaningfully change the team? There's basically only 2 realistic candidates that you could get for the first pick (and maybe some minor additions) and that's Butler and George. There's no way Butler makes enough of a difference to make the team able to compete. And George has made it perfectly clear that he intends to play in LA in 2018. You don't give up the 1st pick for a 1 year rental.

If the Celtics had played the Cavs closer then players might have gotten the feeling that the Celtics are close and that if they joined the Celtics they might be able to create a Super team of their own and challenge the current 2 team top tier. But, they didn't, so there goes that.



I've spent a lot of time reading opinion pieces on the Celtics the past few weeks and I've not read a single piece that makes a compelling case for what the Celtics could do to compete in the East right now. Most of the opinions that don't go off ridiculously optimistic notions or absurd trade plans that have no realistic shot are the ones where we take Fultz with the no.1 pick and pray that he and Jaylen Brown ascend in the next 2 years. The rest changes from piece to piece but some want to go all in on Heyward, some want to use next year's pick that has a good chance to be lottery as well to draft yet another good player, some want to use that pick as trade fodder down the road to get a useful player, lots of different options.

But trading the no. 1 for a player is not something I've seen in any well argumented way that made realistic sense for the Celtics.