2015-16 NBA Thread (feat. the Wives)

The thing is that, putting this series aside, home-court is still so important in the NBA. It saved Golden State in the prior series, for example.

 

Enough with the bs that chasing the record had anything to do with losing. Look at minutes played by their top guys.

 

If it was any other player on the floor it would have been called a defensive foul

 

Perhaps it didn't. But we can safely say they didn't play their best in the playoffs and were banged up down the stretch. And if you thought throwing in a rest night here and there, as the team did a season prior, would help on that front, you're more likely to do it.

 

I'm not saying that. I'm strictly talking about the known injuries that Curry suffered during the early rounds.

 

Wasn't directed at you.

 

"Inherited" a team that was 39-4 is a bit disingenuous. He set the lineup, the battle plan and a system that Luke Walton took over while Kerr was on the sidelines. He gave Walton a team tailor-made for success and Walton was not only smart enough to not screw it up, but smart enough to know how to maximize the system. That was his team, regardless of who was calling plays for first 40-some-odd games. The inherited tag was the knock on him last year taking over the team that had won 51 games and making the playoffs two years in a row and then fired Mark Jackson. It was truer then than it is now and it wasn't very true then.

You can't say he was out coached for going down 3-1 in the conference finals and then say he was out coached for giving up a 3-1 lead in the finals. Let's look at what happened in the finals: Warriors shut down LeBron and Kyrie for three of four games and embarrass them in the process. Warriors showed their depth and how their lineup is supposed to work. Green, Bogut, Iguadala, Livingston et al hid the fact that the Cavs shut down Curry and Thompson. Then in Game 5, Green is suspended and now the lineup is out of whack. Guys who are good bit players for 5-minute stretches are now being asked to play significant minutes and the defense that got Golden State that far was gone. On top of that, not only did LeBron and Kyrie go off, they went off in historic ways. If you can coach that, good on you. Then Bogut got hurt and again, the Warriors couldn't pivot with the pieces they had. The Cavs were also insane on their home floor and again, Kyrie and LeBron are historically good. In Game 7, the Warriors got careless with the ball when it mattered the most. That wasn't Kerr's coaching, that was being careless.

It wasn't Bogut's injury that hurt the Warriors. It wasn't LeBron and Kyrie going for 40 per game that hurt. It wasn't Green's suspension. It wasn't role players not playing well. It wasn't the Splash Brothers not playing well. It wasn't the Cav's bench playing out of their gourds. It wasn't Kerr's coaching. It was all of it.

Yes, he was out coached in the Finals. Lue did a helluva job of saying "we're going to beat up Thompson and Curry and dare everyone else to beat us." Cleveland was amazing, hit shots and were put in good positions. But Kerr put his guys in good positions too. The problem was his guys didn't execute and Kerr didn't have an answer for it. Part of that is on Kerr for sure but not all of it. And what play should Kerr have drawn up to stop LeBron from putting on a performance that will be talked about in the same way we talk about Bird, Jordan, Magic, et al? LeBron freaking charged down the court on a 2-on-1 break that should have been an easy bucket for the Warriors and blocked it. That's not coaching, that's something else.

 

According to Skip Abbott it was a foul

 

Skab for short?

 

Dan Gilbert and his cronies are the only reason I was not overjoyed that Cleveland won. That and the fans who burned LeBron's jersey when he left for Miami. Gilbert is the biggest dipshit owner in the league. He was fortunate enough to get LeBron in one of the most coveted draft lotteries in history, publicly trashed him after he left, then miraculously got him back as a free agent. How does that happen? Gilbert has to be one of the the luckiest men alive. There's not doubt he would make it all about him and his pals.

 

I'll take Gilbert over GS owner Joe Lacob, who thinks his management style and organizational setup is why the Warriors are as good as they are.

 

Valid argument, but I never said it was entirely Kerr's fault. Though I did think it was absurd that he won coach of the year after being on the bench for less than half the season. And if Walton was merely a puppet, why did he have a better win percentage than Kerr did with the same team?

It probably doesn't matter because you're right, this series was about LeBron and his legend. He was ridiculous. So, it wasn't entirely Kerr's fault that Golden State lost. But his team went 15-9 in the postseason after a 73-9 start and couldn't finish with two home games and a 3-1 lead in the finals, with the league MVP and two other all-league players. There were numerous factors at play, but it's still a pretty epic collapse and if Kerr is going to get credit for the successes with a shiny COY award, he has to take a bulk of the blame.