*~*~* 2022 PLAY-IN GAMES THREAD *~*~*

bruce brown thinking hes just gonna waltz into the lane and loft floaters like he did vs cleveland is very silly! generally people are overrating how much losing rob is going to hurt the celtics all the guys soaking up his minutes are good players

having said that should the celtics play the bucks in round two it would be very nice to have him back

well, yeah

the beautiful game... lamelo/trae/rozier combined 8/36 fg in the 1st half.

i seriously cannot believe isiah thomas gets minutes for the hornets. sadly he looks like one of the worst players in the NBA, like just strictly negative plays

the most interesting thing that’s happened in this game is me learning that ted turner has a “jersey” hanging in the rafters of the hawks arena

gotta give the rich man his propers

When Ted Turner bought the Hawks, his basketball men asked what their first move should be. Turner just smiled and said "Get someone who looks like me only a lot bigger." The men laughed. "Do I look like I'm fucking joking?" said Turner. pic.twitter.com/Wt5y3yRQL1

— Super 70s Sports (@Super70sSports) October 8, 2018

tweet i've never been able to get out of my head

i have a weird soft spot for ted as i live near and honestly enjoy one of the only northeast location's of ted's montana grill (tm)

good riddance to the hornets. please learn how to play something that resembles defense

they need a lot of re-engineering to be a serious team and i'm not sure how it happens

this is why i circle back to them finding a new coach. it’s the easiest potential fix. no idea if it’s barrego’s fault or not but they prob need to try something else. the hayward contract has ended up playing out like we thought it would

it's too soon and i am sorry but free lamelo

re: firing the coach, you know it's not going to fix anything, right? who on this roster is ever going to play defense?

like they will move on from borrego and that's fine but their incredibly passive approach to team building is what created this.

they need more guys

i know i said it the other day but it still amazes me--there is no principle or point of view about what they're trying to be. they've found a completely random assortment of ok players.

I know it's dumb to have these sub-.400 teams in the playoffs but watching them play this hard & constantly panicked is fun, like a mini-March Madness before the real playoffs start.

they don’t have any good defensive players on their roster but their guys could also… try? maybe a different coach gets through to them, or gets them more organized on that side of the floor? i don’t think it’s a crazy thought. barrego seems like a fine coach but he might just be mismatched with this roster. their offense barely needs coaching meanwhile they need a massive effort on the defensive end. there’s prob someone who could squeeze more out of them

or now what if, just hear me out, mike dan tony

i hear thibs may be available soon

xp i'm sure there is but effort and organization is like 20% of the problem and personnel is like 80%. as usual it comes down to what the teams goals are and i'm not sure the hornets really have any.

Clint Capela’s been quietly bringing a lot recently. Glad to see Hunter have a game but yeah this was mostly cringing at the hornets

idk, on defense i’m not sure the split is necessarily 80% talent and 20% effort. on offense, sure. but there’s plenty of guys with defensive potential who don’t try or aren’t on teams that promote good defense. maybe not on the hornets (tho i might put bridges in that bucket) but i just find it hard to believe that this group of guys couldn’t get somewhat better on that end. they were by a significant measure worse than orlando and OKC, for instance. that’s not a personnel issue that’s a coaching (and by extension an organizational) issue.

last year dallas was 21st in defense, minnesota was 28th. this year those teams were 7th and 13th, without making significant roster changes or having any noteworthy defensive players on either roster, barring arguably finney smith but it’s not like anyone mentions him in all defense discussions. the one thing both those teams did was change coaches. i don’t think you just look at your roster and go “well we don’t have any good defensive players on here so we just gotta wait 3 more years until we can change this team over and then maybe we will play defense”

i understand that point (as much as i think it might speak to high variability in defensive rating year to year) but in the case of the hornets, they've cast their lot with so many veterans who are known quantities that i do think the talent is doing a lot of work here--they play herrell and plumlee at center, neither of whom have ever played effective defense. rozier hasn't played defense for a few years. hayward can't be expected to be impactful there going forward.

their cornerstone players are lamelo, who isn't playing defense anytime soon, and bridges, who could play some defense but he's had such an explosion on the offensive end that i'm going to assume his effort is weighted there in the future.

i do agree that a different coach could improve defensive performance, but the structural problems in the roster are real.

the crowd in NOLA has been bringing it tonight

mccollum 25 points in the first half

McCollum with the heat check

CJ is just roasting these guys sheesh

spurs havent been a very good defensive team this year. murray being dislined with foul trouble isnt ideal. keldon having one of the worst games ive ever seen from him, just totally lost in the sauce.

cj woulda been perfect for the the 76ers but morey had to have his guy

cj believes in the pelicans hes going out to dinner with zion trying to make it work

cj isn't my favorite player but he is too good for the 9/10 play in, and is rightfully destroying this

i think the flaw in the play in game might be that the 10 seeds are just non competitive. been pretty grizzly both years now

no the grizzlies are the 2 seed

they were the 8 seed last year, i teed that one up for you

hope Zion can come back for the next game

it wouldve been funnier to watch the lakers lose a playin game to the pelicans

spurs denying the lakers the play-in was our highlight of the year besides pop's wi record

you mean highlight of the year so far

this new orleans team is cool. they could really use some zion in that jaxson hayes slot. cj/herb/ingram/zion/valencunias is a pretty sweet starting 5.

feels like the west is gonna be back loaded next year. houston & OKC will be the only teams not trying to make the playoffs. dame back in portland, full season of sabonis in sacramento, zion back and full season of CJ there, kawhi back, murray back, lakers can’t possibly be worse. utah is the one team where it feels like it could go either way depending on how the next month plays out

re: hornets there have been persistent rumours that they are interested in myles turner. just finding any top level rim protector would go a long way to improving their defense, at least in the regular season.

haywards contract sucks but he has two fewer years left than gobert so maybe that would make some sort of sense for the jazz if they blow it up

People dumping on the hornets too much, they’ve got a lot of talent and were 4 games over .500

i like them a lot but theyve def got some work to do filling out the roster

lamelo and bridges are like 2/3 of a very good core. a non-plumlee big would go a long way

the hornets were 4 games over .500 but have also lost play in games by 29 points and 27 points in back to back years. doesn't speak very highly of their chances to make noise in the playoffs should they actually get there one day. idk if you can win anything of substance if you play defense like that.

i'm not sure they have "a lot of talent" ... they have two great core young pieces, which is definitely something. it should give them a certain floor for the next half decade. the hurdle is that they're gonna be drafting in the middle of the first round at best moving forward, they aren't a FA destination unless they wildly overpay, and they're not a franchise that is exactly known for its shrewd GMing around the margins of its roster. i would love to see them cycle out the rozier/oubre/washington part of their roster for guys who better balance out lamelo and bridges.

myles turner is a great idea for them. maybe the hayward-indiana reunion finally happens?

New for @TheAthleticNBA - No, Charlotte's train isn't stuck on the tracks, but are we sure it's moving in the right direction?https://t.co/6qqzAVUdb0

— John Hollinger (@johnhollinger) April 14, 2022

guess the worst case scenario for them is lamelo future laker