2015-16 NBA Thread (feat. the Wives)

Batman, that's what I've thought since the first game.

 

Me too. Makes me wanna go back to 09 Colts management and say "See! This is how it's done. You don't rest your starters when you have a shot at making history..."

 

Maybe the Spurs have just been playing a really long game this whole year, but Duncan has continued to slip this year. Rebounds and blocks per 36 minutes slightly down, and points especially (17.3 to 12.2). If the Warriors go heavy with Bogut, then Duncan has someone he can guard, otherwise, I don't think he has the foot speed to guard Green or the ability to punish Golden State enough on the offensive end for them to bring in Bogut. The Warriors forced Mozgov off the floor in the finals at points, and they kept Dwight Howard, Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol at or near their averages in the 2014-15 playoffs. I'm not sure why Duncan would be any different.

 

This is what it's like to read traders' emails. Completely inscrutable.

Carry on.

 

Using a slower big man falls right into the W's plan because Green and Barnes play more than sufficient post defense; even when there is some success, the Ws have an extra layer where they bring very effective double teams from the perimeter yet don't get burned too often from 3 pt land.

Then on offense, the Ws use excellent ball movement and PNRs to create the mismatches against those slow bigs.

The key though is that the Ws small ball lineup rebounds better than most any other small ball lineup I've ever seen. The Nelson small lineups could score but they were awful on rebounding and D; the Kerr version is so much better in both aspects. (I think this is what Milwaukee aspires to but their guys don't shoot well enough from the perimeter.)

 

To me its the new world we live in; call it the influence of my two teenage boys, I've either got to keep up or be called the clueless old-timer. Glad you could understand.

 

Per Jason Concepcion:

"With Sunday’s loss, the San Antonio Spurs are 1-3 against the Golden State Warriors this season. More troubling than the wins and losses, however, is the fact that the Spurs have lost even while largely executing their game plan. They've dragged Golden State’s lightning pace down to earth (101.64 to 96.15). They’ve manhandled Stephen Curry and generally made it tougher for the Warriors to get into their offense. They’ve taken care of the basketball and worked the boards. All well and good and very on-brand Spurs. It’s just that, against the Warriors, the Spurs cannot freaking score.

The numbers tell a stark story of teamwide player hating. LaMarcus Aldridge is shooting under 43 percent against the Warriors’ interchangeable swirl of bodies — a percentage boosted by more than six points after last night’s 11-for-18 outing, the result of a strategic concession by the Golden State defense. Aldridge shoots 51 percent against everyone else. Tony Parker, who no longer can be counted on to reliably pierce defenses, is shooting 32 percent against the Warriors. Kawhi Leonard, 44 percent (down from nearly 51 percent against the entire league). Danny Green is already struggling with a career-worst 37 percent shooting, and the Warriors make him look like he’s got ricin poisoning (32 percent against the Dubs). Patty Mills has taken 15 3-pointers over these four games and has hit only four. Tim Duncan has appeared in two of the four games and has, for the most part, looked his age. The team’s lone bright spot, whole-octopus-eating savage Boris Diaw, did not play Sunday.

With nothing to fear from the Spurs shooters, the Warriors have set about strangling the interior. In the series, San Antonio managed to shoot only 50 percent from within 10 feet of the basket."

Yeah, its all about Duncan and without him playing, the games to date are meaningless. Go ahead keep writing conclusions without any facts.

 

LOL. You get so angry, especially about the Warriors.

But I'm really concerned that a lawyer would label my opinion about what's going to happen when Duncan gets back in the game as "facts."

I don't think I've said the Warriors can't win with Duncan in there. I think I've said I don't draw a lot of meaning from these results. In other words, we'll see. You seem to have analyzed the results of playoff series that hasn't occurred. Thanks, I'll take that to Vegas!

But then, I'm talking to a dim bulb who can't even remember what he wrote two pages earlier.

 

Who is Duncan going to defend on Golden State if the Warriors go small (i.e. sans Bogut?) Great rim protector. Great interior defender. Not so great when pulled away from the basket.

 

Echoing what Cosmo said - Who does Duncan defend? Or, do you think he's going to be such a weapon on offense that the Warriors are going to have to match-up to him?

I don't know. I just think the "Spurs haven't had Duncan!" talk is as illogical as when people expected the Lakers to bounce back to being a competitive team because Kobe was coming back after consecutive season-ending surgeries.

 

I figure Duncan will be on the court against Bogut or Ezeli, which is a significant amount of time. I don't think the Warriors are going small ball 48 minutes a game.

 

Bogut got a DNP in Game 6 of the Finals last year, and two minutes in Game 5, once the Warriors figured out that the Cavs couldn't match up when they went small. I agree that it's unlikely that the Warriors would sit him and/or Ezeli for an entire series, but at this point in his career, I'm not sure that Duncan is better than Mozgov, who was the Cavs' big man forced off the floor by the lineup change.