nba playoffs aka the 'offs (which includes the 'ins) 2021

valuing shooting in the nba draft is too easy and even tacky imo

and sticking the knife in

🐦[Joel Embiid: "I’ll be honest. I thought the turning point was when we — I don’t know how to say it — is when we had an open shot and we made one free throw..."
— Rich Hofmann (@rich_hofmann) June 21, 2021🕸]🐦

OKC would be perfect for simmons bcuz they could build up a team around him fairly quickly the problem is they don’t have much that will help the sixers. i mean kemba would help them but the sixers would need much more than that. picks aren’t going to help them next year tho i guess darryl could try and use those in another trade. maybe there’s a 3 teamer where OKC gets simmons, sixers get beal and washington gets a bunch of picks from both teams. i like that actually

simmons / beal / kemba flip works salary-wise, nice and uncomplicated

The entire Embiid press conference was something. He’s so unlikable.

And no team outside of China will build around Simmons.

maybe simmons should work on a rick berry style underhanded-toss FT this offseason. a lot. the basic mechanics are too simple to screw up much. nothing below the waist really gets much involved. the hand and wrist motions are symmetrical and also quite simple. you just need to consistently achieve the right arc and toss it toward the middle of the hoop. voila!

embiid and doc not really doing anything for ben simmons's trade value in these press conferences. there's nothing else they can say I guess

The hawks and suns are in the conf finals. No one woulda predicted that a year ago, or at the beginning of the season. The lakers and nets are out. We are truly blessed. I’d be happy with 3/4 of the teams remaining winning.

Suns are fun

Oh what a difference. pic.twitter.com/5dkjMXE2Lg https://t.co/KokExPjyMs

— Mike Vigil (@protectedpick) June 21, 2021

Vibes check:

Suns: A+ pristine vibes - a little bit of just surprised to be there mixed with fun youngsters and chip on their shoulder vets and a coach that everyone loves who says “freaking” instead of actual f bombs.

Clippers: B hard to admit but the vibes are good atm. Not having to deal with weird guy energy all day is prob kinda nice. Hopefully Kawhi is taking note of how free everyone looks w out him. Vibes can switch quickly w this team tho, I wouldn’t trust it.

Bucks: B+ overall a solid vibes team but the expectations to win it all means they can’t really let loose. All of them seem nice but seem to lack charisma.

Hawks: A- mostly same as suns. Trae seems to have figured out how to be a fun guy to play with. The balance feels right. Early in the season it seemed he was out for himself a bit too much, and he and Collins seems to figure out how to work together.

monty you got to say the f word be real

embiid and doc not really doing anything for ben simmons's trade value in these press conferences. there's nothing else they can say I guess

― symsymsym, Monday, June 21, 2021 3:20 AM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Would you blame them after what we just saw this playoffs?

There is no chance Simmons can ever play for the Sixers again. Fans will boo him every time he touches the ball. I almost want to see it.

I would take Kemba and a couple firsts that could be used to build out an actual bench.

it does have to be said that he was under the basket here you can see his feet are way past the charge circle and his momentum is carrying him further under the basket, he wouldve had an easy layup but gallinari knocked the ball away

Ben Simmons did not just pass this up... pic.twitter.com/4JyM7ZHNkJ

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) June 21, 2021

just finished this game and wow

no excuses for simmons please

you could make out a fan shouting "trade ben simmons" at the end of the broadcast haha

he was awful dont get me wrong but but he didnt have any sort of easy basket on the infamous play

Since 1974 when the stats become available, non-guards, over 300 playoff minutes in a season:

Embiid now has two of the worst ten playoff runs for turnovers per 100 possessions. 5.6 per 100 this year; 5.8 in 2018-19. 1/2

— Ryan Bernardoni AC⚡️AB (@dangercart) June 21, 2021

embiid seemed like he had improved on this but really reverted in the offs

He was worried about getting fouled by Trae Young.

Not going to totally defend Embiid, he always tries to do too much, but he seemed like he thought he had to do everything as the series wore on and no one outside of Curry could help.

and he wasn't totally wrong. but it's always going to be easy to generate turnovers on a lumbering 7-foot guy dribbling around on the perimeter.

Definitely. Morey's strategy should be continuing to focus on perimeter players/shooters so as to make it as hard as possible to double Embiid. Should be 4 guys at the 3pt line and Embiid in the paint every play.

I found all the posts about Simmons and Embiid last night really interesting. On ILB, I would always argue that yes, Clayton Kershaw clearly had some stuff going on in his head with regards to the playoffs; others thought that was silly, that one or two games would turn that around. I know Kershaw's not directly comparable, being one of the greatest starting pitchers ever in the regular season--which to me just underscored the disconnect--but everyone here seemed to agree about Simmons and Embiid. Is the mental aspect of basketball, as a sport, more a given than with baseball?

He was worried about getting fouled by Trae Young.

Is the mental aspect of basketball, as a sport, more a given than with baseball?

― clemenza, Monday, June 21, 2021 10:44 AM (eighteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

its prob about the same as baseball where its really only the super nerds who try to deny it, the thing about basketball is the game is different in the playoffs it really becomes much more about matchups and teams trying to exploit players weakness which is made possible by the fact that theyre playing seven times in a row where in the regular season you just dont have the time to prepare and adjust for every team cause youre playing 3 different teams in one week, and simmons along with being a headcase has some serious exploitable holes in his game, eg he cant shoot so the other team doesnt really have to guard him away from the basket

yeah i mean any player of ben’s athletic and finishing caliber would’ve just went for an up and under or gone thru contact but he didn’t want to put the ball towards the basket in any scenario. plenty of NBA players attempt to finish from way further under the rim than simmons was
― J0rdan S., Monday, June 21, 2021 10:47 AM (twenty minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

not saying he didnt have a shot just that it wasnt some wide open dunk that people were making it out to be

xp yeah. basketball also in general has more reps and more player-on-player interactions so i think some things become fairly obvious and undeniable. like with kershaw the baseball people can always fall back on one-game sample size for a starting pitcher or whatever.

Bucks: B+ overall a solid vibes team but the expectations to win it all means they can’t really let loose. All of them seem nice but seem to lack charisma.

I'm sorry but

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH-DxVrgXYg

lol

Giannis has charisma for sure lol. Meant the other guys, Middleton, jrue, etc. Brook has some solid funny/weird energy

I think Reddish will play this series. Especially with bogey hurt

PJ Tucker and Bobby Portis are fun dudes

Middleton is kind of weird, I have no clue what he's like

Middleton is just a total pro

I do think the joyous-star-in-his-prime vs cynical-seen-it-all-vet vibe between Giannis and Lopez is superb

All I know about Portia is he punched a euro back to euro. Also crazy eyes. Don’t think ive ever seen an interview w him or heard him speak.

Simmons said he was worried about All Defense 1st teamer Gallinari blocking him from behind

Do we think anyone talked to Simmons in the locker room last night? Exit interviews should be interesting.

Asked him if he wanted a juice box after his 48 minute nap.

Would you blame them after what we just saw this playoffs?

Don't blame them at all, just thinking that Doc could lie and say Simmons is a potential championship-winning point guard, if only to keep some pretence of trade value going. Maybe it's futile, but if they know they have to trade him they should at least act like they value him.

crazy how one play just crystallized the whole Ben Simmons problem

Naw, Game 4 of v WSH was when the mask fell off (at least for me). This series was all just further refinement.

Though I guess I'm talking about something other than crystalized.

i bit on the sixers to win it all because I am concussed I mistook Ben Simmons for a professional basketball player

― Draymond is "Mr Dumpy" (forksclovetofu), Monday, May 17, 2021

if your NBA fan spouse seems to be strangely generous with their time tonight i can assure you it's because of their unconditional love for you and nothing else.

— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) June 21, 2021

Simmons said he was worried about All Defense 1st teamer Gallinari blocking him from behind

all in on the suns now i guess

hate when a guy defends with his face and draws the offensive foul

yea that was a bullshit call

Clips do not appear to have any answer for this Ayton fella