2021 NBA playoffs thread

A max deal for someone who can't/won't shoot initiate your offense

 

It's crazy to me to see the number of people still willing to defend The Process. After the Sixers clinched the top seed they were celebrating The Process again.

By intentionally throwing garbage out on the court year after year after year, The Process gave them:

Joel Embiid
Nerlens Noel
Michael Carter Williams
Jahlil Okafor
Elfrid Payton
Ben Simmons
Markelle Fultz

They threw away years and embarrassed the sport for Joel Embiid -- a legit great player -- and a pack of bums, and people are still pretending The Process was genius.

Sixers are on the hook for five years with Simmons at $30 mil a season. Good luck trading him.

 

They could have…
Mikel Bridges
Lonzo, Taytum or Fox
Ingram, Brown or Heild

They were just awful at drafting.

 

The process: Smart concept, poor execution. And when I say “smart,” I mean it in the same way that baseball teams are “smarter” than ever although it comes at the expense of the fan and the game itself.

 

You're absolutely right about this, but here's one of the fatal flaws of The Process: everyone is terrible at drafting. A high pick guarantees nothing. They got Embiid because he fell to third; the Bucks passed on him to take Jabari Parker.

You don't win by drafting at the top every year. You win by finding good guys wherever you are drafting.

There are four teams left. The Hawks are built around Trae Young, a 5th pick. The Suns built around Devin Booker, a 13th pick. The Bucks live and die with Giannis, a 15th pick. The Clippers have Kawhi, also a 15.

 

Not a smart concept for reasons I just listed, but I'll come at it another way.

The Process covered the drafts from 2013 to 2017. Imagine the Sixers "perfected" The Process and got the number one pick in every one of those drafts. Those picks were:

Anthony Bennett
Andrew Wiggins
Karl-Anthony Towns
Ben Simmons
Markelle Fultz

Five consecutive number one picks.. and that team would be still be in the lottery every year.

 

those 5 players were in college for how many seasons?

 

For all his sins, yab wins the thread today.

 

Don’t kid yourself. Guys stay in school because they aren’t very good, and they will improve much more in the NBA than in college.

 

That Booker run in the third quarter yesterday was something ... as was the Clips' run to erase that deficit and go up six points. Suns were great save for that weird possession at the end of the game where they allowed eleventy billion offensive rebounds and let the Clips cut the 10-point lead to 2. And that Boogie cameo was just weird. He posterizes Saric, scores a bunch, just watches as Bridges and Co. backcut him to death, then nearly fouls out. Dude scored 11 points and was a -11 in his 13 minutes. That's special.

 

I think each player will react differently. Some will thrive in the NBA, and others will grow more in college.

You go from the pressure of college and classes to Jordan’s cocaine circus.

Some needed the attention of more coaches, tutors, academic advisors and some don’t.

 

Dumb luck picking a name out of a hat would have given them a better chance of getting a decent player when they had a top-5 pick.

More than half of the top 5 turned into great pros.