2018-19 NBA Thread

I think Kyrie has the ability to match Giannis in terms of basket-for-basket but it just hasn't been there for him. I really thought once we saw Giannis kick it into high gear last night that Kyrie was going to have some answers at the other end but they had nothing.

And you are probably right. They can't get to his level right now. It's like when LeBron played the Pistons and as good as the Pistons were collectively, they had no answers for him. It felt like I was watching that last night.

 

Good point. It does seem like Ainge was waiting for that trade offer that he couldn't say no to. The picks were nice and they will clearly keep the Celtics in the playoffs for years to come I believe but it's probably not a championship roster. And as good as Tatum or Brown can be, they don't appear to be players that can completely change a game.

 

The problem with the Celts is that they are a jump shooting team. When they miss, that lets the Bucks get out in transition, which is where Giannis does the majority of his damage.

In Gm. 1, the Celts, from what I saw, did a nice job of running the pick and pop with Horford and Horford killed them in the pop and then posting up the switch. Plus, Brown/Kyrie/Morris/Rozier/Tatum/Hayward were hitting from the outside. That seems to have evaporated now. I don't think you can lay this on Hayward's fault, he's showing real strides to getting back to where he was, he's hitting 3s and floaters and most importantly, getting his aggressiveness back. The problem is that Kyrie is a great creator when he's on, but when he's not? Its almost Harden like with everyone else standing around.

As for Giannis, he's not a shot creator in the half-court other than if he cuts and gets a lane to the basket (which is unbelievable to see). He's a little like Simmons in the half-court in that he's got no real go-to move.

 

Philadelphia doing its best to play dead tonight.

 

The thing with Giannis

Yet he is 3rd in scoring and Simmons is terrible so not that similar.

 

I can't really recall a series resembling the Raptors-Sixers, where each team has looked so invincible in its wins and incompetent in its losses.

 

What a fucking shitshow.

 

Make LeBron player-coach. It worked for Red and Russell.

 

Gotta be Kidd now.

 

Oh my god. That's amazing.

Ty Lue was actually a really logical, solid option.

Now? They're pretty hosed.

If it's Kidd I'll laugh my ass off. That's a TERRIBLE hire.. which means it's pretty likely.

Even as bad as that front office is, I'm amazed they screwed up the Lue thing.

 

Earlier in this thread some laughed at LeBron, player-coach. But what do the Lakers have left?

 

I don't know. Lue and Monty Williams were both really good options.

I'd make a run at Dave Joerger.