waiting for the other shoelace to drop: 2013-2014 NBA regular season thread (part 2)

that game the thunder beat them the other day they just turned on the jets and the spurs couldnt do anything about it

spurs were on a back to back tbf

and manu didnt play but still they just disrupted the hell out of their schemes which is what ur not supposed to be able to do against the spurs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfS8lEzIVSo

look how awesome the glove was, so great (sorry way xpost but the glove is worth it)

the idea that there's easily a best team in the west will prove faulty in the playoffs imo

Any team coming out of the west is likely to be mentally very tough, but physically worn down. This gives the east a fighting chance to beat the west champion.

curry >> beldsoe > dragic >>>> thompson so idk how that math works

― Clay, Sunday, April 6, 2014 7:11 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Klay has been back to near november form for a minute now and his D is super solid i am sold on dude and Harrison can burn.

Im not sure about bledsoe with that knee tbf so right now Id go

Curry >>Dragic>Bledsoe>Klay

glove is all time top 10 fav player easily

spurs are good i just never know, they have the same record every year and have a couple huge winning streaks every year but still idk. kawhi has made the leap and thats huge, manu kinda hurt them really bad in the playoffs last year (except game one vs GSW arrggggg) he looked pretty cooked. interested to see how much pop tightens his bench or if guys like belli and Mills will see reg season minutes.

agree; my gut tells me that while the spurs are good as usual they're not gonna make it all the way this year, still building dudes to make up for decreasing manu/duncan

bells and patty thrills are p important rotation pieces who will def see minutes. depending on matchups/opponent, diaw may start for tiago. patty will relieve tony and play the role of gary neal. he and marco are both dudes that can catch fire and probably clinch a few games during he playoffs.

plus http://www.legionreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/46bf2c1d59b6ed849f8b54d5de49b9c6350f0790.gif

prolly wont see, like, red mamba or jeff ayres or austin daye or cory joseph much. but spurs will go up to 9 deep.

thing for me is, and this is why i didnt pick okc to win it past couple of years, who steps into the harden role at okc? i think durant and westbrook are formidable enough on their own to pour in buckets, and stretch 4s like ibaka have always given spurs problems. but it was harden's explosive unpredictability iirc that really exhausted the spurs.

i think you have to factor in, too, that two years ago spurs had just thrown diaw into the mix and he's improved his understanding of the spurs. and kawhi was a rookie playing like a rookie two years ago. spurs are def better than 2 years ago, and ecause of belinelli and the development of mills, better than last year. thunder arguably worse (or at least with worse depth).

TLDR I BELIEVE

oh wow, i had a much more pleasant sunday than the pacers did

mark my words one of hibs/pg is hated by everyone in that locker room

could be both now

the idea that there's easily a best team in the west will prove faulty in the playoffs imo

― le goon (J0rdan S.), Monday, April 7, 2014 1:04 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah i think this is basically true, tho i doubt anyone has much chance outside okc/sa/lac

http://i.imgur.com/FEoFIVr.png

geogres decline started well before the break is why he didnt make the cut fwiw

lotta players on playoff teams there tho

pacers barely clinging to the first page of hollingers power rankings

mark my words one of hibs/pg is hated by everyone in that locker room

― call all destroyer, Monday, April 7, 2014 7:22 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

it's TOTALLY hibbert

in that big lowe post about them he clipped this one possession where hibbert took a horrible jumper while lance was standing open on the wing with his arms up. after hibbert shot it and everyone started to run back down the court lance continued to stand there with his arms up.

yeah also deciding just to post up in the middle of a george drive, demanding more shots, saying passive aggressive shit in the media

Plus Hibbert coming out and saying "there's some selfish dudes on this team"
Plus PG saying that Marcin Gortat is DPOY last week (don't know why more wasn't made of this)

that super hot start prob wasnt the best for them, started believing their own media, stopped doing the things that made them successful

mark my words one of hibs/pg is hated by everyone in that locker room

― call all destroyer, Monday, April 7, 2014 7:22 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

it's TOTALLY hibbert

― le goon (J0rdan S.), Monday, April 7, 2014

also could be stephenson. he seems like a super-angry, bitter player, and i believe he was the target of hibbert's "selfish guys on this team" comment. anyway, pacers are must-see nba-tv these days.

lance isnt really a central enough figure to torpedo the whole team imo

yeah

also i think hibbert's comment about selfishness was a shot at PG taking contested pull up midrange jumpers early in the shot clock

sorta feel like lance and david west would be the two guys actively trying to pull the team together while hibbert and PG stab each other in the back behind the scenes

george hill is prob just like "ummmmmmm yeah i'm gonna stay outta this one"

george hill is hoping no one notices that he's the starting point guard for a quasi-contender

sorta feel like lance and david west would be the two guys actively trying to pull the team together while hibbert and PG stab each other in the back behind the scenes

― le goon (J0rdan S.), Monday, April 7, 2014 11:50 AM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

feeling this

curious why you put lance and david west in the same category. what about lance screams to you "locker room leader?

they both have heart is how i break it down to an extent

idk sorta feel like lance was humbled in the years prior to him becoming a real player, i feel like he might be invested

lagoon also otm

All I can say is that it's a damn good thing that the Pacers already wrapped up the NBA title last January, because they're going to have a rough time doing it once May & June arrive.

yup. every dynasty, like the pacers, will hit a few rough spots now and again. that's the price of having won title-after-title.

Ethan Strauss ‏@SherwoodStrauss -- Every major collapsing team is the crash scene from Flight to me. Not sure who Pacers Denzel is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nhxm5QEbYI …

btw, don't watch the embedded scene, or the movie it's from, if you're anxious about flying.

http://m.espn.go.com/nba/story?storyId=10740818

this look intersting. they're sort of vague with regard to what the methodology really is, but it looks like it does a much better job of controlling for lineup effects than other +/- systems

http://espn.go.com/nba/statistics/rpm/_/sort/RPM

lol RPM loves nick collison too this dude is some kind of warlock i swear

iggy feelin it

manuuuu obvi

http://i.imgur.com/bbHSXxv.png

bledsoe can be more "valuable" cause hes younger but nowhere near the level of dragooooon cmon

having seen bledsoe play live now all I can really say is dude's game is singular.