Breaking -- The human race has waived Josh Smith: 2014-15 regular season thread part 2

love hasn't stepped onto the floor so probably more defense is happening than usual

oh i guess it was a local okc sports journo who shits on russ all the time in the paper, n/m that is kinda cool actually xp to me

when keeping it real goes right

this is a fun game tbf

quite so, cavs play this way infrequently

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_E13tZNKyc

flop n tip for the win
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjiGB_ifIHg&spfreload=10

god you can't fall for a flop like that as a ref

WWO CAVS wtf EXECUTION

why in the world did lebron throw it to delly there

god didn't he miss 2 in a row a week ago in the clutch

and he just missed one a couple possessions ago

what is russ pissed about

i think that reporter had been criticizing scott brooks or something according to twitter

youtube suggests it's the guy that wrote this, i can buy that
http://espn.go.com/photo/2014/0501/nba_e_durantpaper_576x1165.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B7iN7qBCMAA8aD6.jpg

guess who's getting in on that hat game

or at least any team in which he is not absolutely the primary scorer/star/etc

― i'm tellin you it was kenard (slothroprhymes), Saturday, January 17, 2015 4:47 AM (51 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

but when he did that his team was better than this team is
--Matt Armstrong

ah yes the famed 40-42 and 31-51 minny timberwolves, their dominance always eludes me



guess who's getting in on that hat game
--Clay

dang bron why you biting melo's style?

uh russell westbrook told a reporter to his face he doesn't like him and the video of it is super weird

― Clay, Saturday, January 17, 2015 1:02 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark

Russ has the best interviews imo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkORR2MPrvs

ah yes the famed 40-42 and 31-51 minny timberwolves, their dominance always eludes me

― i'm tellin you it was kenard (slothroprhymes), Saturday, January 17, 2015 8:02 AM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

do you understand what it means to compare two different things

team quality and win record? yes. but I think saying that team was legit "good" and just happened to be unlucky w kevin love on it is a stretch. they were certainly better defensively than the cavs due to a healthy rubio, sure.

lets go to the tape

but when he did that his team was better than this team is
--Matt Armstrong

he said better full stop did he not?

that's all I was contradicting.

again i shall quote, this time with emphasis

ah yes the famed 40-42 and 31-51 minny timberwolves, their dominance always eludes me

― i'm tellin you it was kenard (slothroprhymes), Saturday, January 17, 2015 8:02 AM (21 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

team quality and win record? yes. but I think saying that team was legit "good" and just happened to be unlucky w kevin love on it is a stretch. they were certainly better defensively than the cavs due to a healthy rubio, sure.

― i'm tellin you it was kenard (slothroprhymes), Saturday, January 17, 2015 8:19 AM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

see matt was just comparing the wolves to the cavs but you are thinking he was comparing them to some sort of league wide standard of quality which he was not

and fwiw last year wolves were prob better than this years cavs tho in the same range of mediocrity

win% cavs 512 wolves 488

point differential cavs 0 wolves +2.7

anyway assessing a single player by the results of their teams is a pretty poor way to go about it since basketball is actually a team sport

when I first said "kevin love was overrated when he can't be the primary scorer" or whatever I was not doing so, but this went into a rabbithole.

in some ways these cavs are an opposite-day wolves - multiple players score well and the team defends horribly as opposed to having only one dude who scores well and a number of talented defenders

i think youre right to an extent in that loves best skill is creating a high volume of high efficiency shots, so being on a team with two other high volume shooters is not the best use for him, but also the cavs are just a mess all around

like its no surprise that their two more dribbly scorers are taking all the shots while they guy who needs plays run for him is standing around depressed in the corner

to be completely fair as well, were they in the east the wolves woulda been an 8 seed last year, putting them against the pacers who were not great defensively in the playoffs, and prob could've at least taken that shit to 7 games

by point differential the wolves wouldve been the 4 seed in the east! and thats not even taking into account the easier sched

true. there's no doubt that if the conferences, like, idk, maybe made sense geographically, the east would be more interesting and the west would...y'know still be pretttaayyyy good

the best criticism of love is imo that he is bad at defense which is true, being bad at defense as a big man is worse too since interior D is more important

then youve got people saying that he cant create his own shot one on one in situations where you need that but thats true of all non dribbly big men so idk, i mean you dont see the spurs just giving the ball to duncan on the perimiter and clear out

anyway i suspect if the cavs could generally get their act together they wld have no problem getting a lot from love, or maybe they shd trade him for brandon bass, one of those two

by point differential the wolves wouldve been the 4 seed in the east! and thats not even taking into account the easier sched

― lag∞n, Saturday, January 17, 2015 8:50 AM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

true. there's no doubt that if the conferences, like, idk, maybe made sense geographically, the east would be more interesting and the west would...y'know still be pretttaayyyy good

― i'm tellin you it was kenard (slothroprhymes), Saturday, January 17, 2015 8:54 AM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the wolves were also like +10 points per 100 possessions when love played and like -10000 when he sat

it could be that he's never been on a team that knew how to use him for optimal efficiency, including these cavs.

anyway i suspect if the cavs could generally get their act together they wld have no problem getting a lot from love, or maybe they shd trade him for brandon bass, one of those two
--lag∞n

coach brad will make it work if he comes here I will obv take back all my criticisms

one thing that wld help love is if cleveland played faster hes an excellent transition player, as is lebron i hear, not sure what the problem is

cleveland is the 6th slowest team in the league, some of that has to do with that they cant stop anyone, but a lot is just they are a mess

euro league plays super slow btw re blatt

Hah that westbrook interview he is on some popovich/belichick tip lately, love it

seems to be an increasingly popular form with athletes in general

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-qHdbIEEAs

sheed is of course the originator

feel like it wld be nice and caring if the league gave each player like 5 passes a year to skip the post game media availability

Both teams played hard my man

Thinking the Warriors maybe should tank a little to avoid OKC in the first round.

hedge fund robber baron and suspected but not tried illegal insider trader steven a. cohen has made an as yet unknown offer for the brooklyn nets

xp I think GSW would triumph in the end but would most likely be a rough 7 game series

http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=media%2Fapphoto%2F667a5590bd3473026b0f6a70670046cf.jpg

Kind of emblematic, no?