I watched Indiana:OKC last night and I got to say, I was not pleased with how Durant played. Against the Clippers he was 1-7 from downtown and yesterday he went 2-11. Now I might be looking too much into this, because he still went for 30 something points, but he does strike me a bit tired. Also I had no idea why Brooks went with Perkins in the last minute, because they tied it by going small (Fisher was pretty good).
If Doc river is the great coach he is, and an improvement over del negro ( whose mediocre coach according to many) he should take the clippers to nba finals.
Sure but it's also proven that we can't handle Miamis other gear in the playoffs. We need a healthy D Rose to have a real shot.
Does anyone think that a portion of Indiana's struggles are related to Andrew Bynum? I thought he'd actually contribute, but he's done all but that.
With him just being there. He's not exactly the best teammate, and when you look at him, he looks like '' can't wait 'till this is done, so I can be out of here''.
I doubt Bynum wants out. In fact I bet you he's glad he suckered another team into paying him to not contribute anything.
I'm not talking about him leaving the Pacers, rather that he doesn't want to play basketball. I agree with you on the latter. He wants to get paid and not to contribute. It might have an affect on the rest of the team though. Just to make it clear I don't think he's the reason for their troubles, but it could be a factor.
There's an article about Pat Riley on ESPN that says part of the reason they didn't trade Haslem for Evans was because Haslem is part of the Heat family. Larry Bird should have thought it through - I think that move hurt morale.
I agree and the other two teams that have that sort of mentality (family and all) are the Spurs and Boston (even if they're rebuilding). I was sure before the season that Indiana had it too, but with the Granger trade and them getting Bynum, they've really shot themselves in the foot. Other than that it's too soon to tell. OKC is trying to continue in that direction and so are the Clippers. But that takes years to build and you need a person acting as the godfather (Riley, Ainge or Pop).
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jessela...ring-first-round-than-regular-season-average/ Heta only team in nba to sell first round tickets at discount to regular season
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/ar...lsea-Arsenal-Liverpool-Manchester-United.html Wow, The Chicago Bulls salary was [or still is for this season?] higher than Chelsea FC?
So do you guys agree with the general media about the individual awards? MIP, 6th man, defensive player of the year? From what I saw the MVP is Durant (no doubt), Defensive player of the year is Noah, MIP supposedly Gerald Green, 6th man of the year is Taj Gibson and COY is Poppovich. To be clear, these aren't my choices, but what I gathered from various sites.
Nick Young should probably win 6th man, being the top scorer off the bench. Gerald Green is a good story, but Demarcus Cousins is a nominee, and its a close one between the two. Gerald Green's improvement is no doubt bigger statistically, but I just like Cousins a lot. Agree with every thing else. Noah deserves Defensive POTY, but there's a candidate somewhere that Im forgetting that deserves a honorable mention.
If ever there was a meaningless #1 seed, this is it. Not only does it not ensure an easier 1st or 2nd round matchup, the Heat still essentially have home advantage for the first 3 rounds.
But Taj Gibson is playing the most 4th quarter minutes in the entire NBA and has a huge impact on winning games. Nick Young just scored in a system that inflates scoring averages.