ITS THE OFFS BABY THE 2023 NBA PLAYOFFS

https://hoopshabit.com/files/2014/04/02_Nuggets_SuperSonics.jpg

burned into my brain for 30 years

that was awesome for sure. we believe dubs prob the most hyped ive ever been for a sporting event.

the bulls series is the OG derrick rose injury iirc

UPDATE: Keith Sweat, Guy and special guest Tank will continue their Friday as planned. Please schedule your evening accordingly. https://t.co/FJdO9ZRjXl

— John Hollinger (@johnhollinger) April 27, 2023

happy for miami

Holy crap I picked a hell of a night to pass out on my kid’s floor while putting her to bed

Lol I passed out with my kids too.

Really wish the hawks would’ve matched up with the bucks

I'm sure the Bucks do, too

something that stood out to me this whole series was despite the heat running out a bunch of poor defenders and the bucks having multiple players who can iso they didnt really capitalise on it

if duncan robinson or love are on the floor you should attack them every time but it just didnt happen

its tough cause outside of giannis the bucks dont have guys who are necessarily worthy of breaking the offensive flow to set up an iso, middleton has at times in the past been that guy but he clearly wasnt at peak powers this series

btw worth mentioning the Bucks got the #1 seed despite Middleton missing like 50 games and Giannis missing 19, they finally got to full strength by the playoffs and faced a Heat team that was ravaged by injury and still somehow lost. the Heat had 3 players foul out by overtime! idk I know shit happens in the NBA but this is the most inexcusable series loss I've ever seen, if heads don't roll over this the Bucks are just not a serious organization

Coach Bud is the Mike McCarthy of the NBA

I really love Giannis and am bummed they are out of the playoffs but it does feel great to see Twitter roasting Grayson Allen all day

oh god yes practically everyone I know is saying this

remember before they won the ship a lot of Bucks fans were calling for Bud to be fired, and I kinda wondered if maybe they were destined for the same fate. perennial MVP candidate, super talented team, the 1/2 seed every year, only to get their hopes crushed in a series of baffling playoff losses where everything unravels in the same exact way every time. something that really hit me at the ends of both these last two losses is how the Bucks just kinda stopped running offensive plays at the end of the game, nobody wanted to take a shot, they played as though they were just as nervous as all the fans were

man those last two heat bucks games were the most exciting basketball ive seen in a long time, march madness vibes with nba players, salute

ok just watched heat bucks full game highlights... that has to be one of the worst losses i can recall, there are like 4 separate bill buckner/charles smith/chris webber level fuckups. condolences frogbs, only consolation is that it's so egregious they *have* to fire bud, right?

it was so bad it actually made bill simmons' "levels of losing" reenter my brain for the first time in many years

if they dont fire bud, man

especially with nurse just sitting there

Coach Bud is the Mike McCarthy of the NBA

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, April 27, 2023 8:43 AM (fifty-seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

otm

yeah it reminds me of the Packers NFCCG loss to the Seahawks, just so many easily avoidable errors in a row, combined with the other team doing exactly what they needed to do to force OT and win. main difference is the Bucks did it in *TWO* consecutive games, which is pretty wild

I wonder what happened to Giannis in the 4th here. Game 6 of the Finals in 2021 he was a man on a mission, physically overwhelming and extremely focused. he shot 90% from the FT line which was previously his weakness. here it was just the opposite, he was just lost offensively and seemed to not want the ball in his hands. he wasn't even getting close on some of those free throws and bricked like 6 or 7 of them down the stretch. the play that sticks out to me...okay so Bucks up 4, 14 seconds left, Heat hit a quick 3, they mess up the inbounds, winds up being a jump ball, which tips over to Giannis. Giannis then anticipates being fouled, knows he's not shooting FTs well, and just whips the ball out of bounds, which Middleton makes an insane play to save and get to Jrue. Holiday of course misses a FT setting up Jimmy's circus shot to force OT with 0.5s left. but like why Giannis did that, I dunno, it's the sort of mental mistake that he did so well to clean up to get to the level he's at now

idk maybe there's something to be said about the stress of playing an unexpectedly tough series vs. a team you know you're supposed to beat. Bucks do this shit all the time. they go up 10-12 with 4 minutes to play and as soon as the other team gets a couple buckets they completely unravel.

all the criticisms of playoff giannis dried up when he won a ring but they prob still apply at least to some extent

obvs hes still great and you can win with him but there are real issues too

also not hard to imagine jimmy as goat-level at getting under his opponents skin and getting them shook. certainly moreso than anyone on the suns team they beat in 21

suns dont have anyone like jimmy buckets lol

wasnt like that was a dominant run either if they hadnt found their way through the discourse around giannis would be intolerable yb now, glad he got one

I'm sure the Bucks do, too

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, April 27, 2023 9:03 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

The hawks beat the heat! Not to say the heat didn’t play a great series or that the hawks would have had the same outcome (they played the bucks really well this year) but the Celtics were the last team I wanted to play. Disciplined, deep, athletic is the hawks kryptonite unfortunately

yeah that 2021 run was stressful as hell. they blew a huge lead to the Nets as Durant scored 50 thanks to Milwaukee's refusal to switch up their defense. they probably should've lost it but Durant's toe was on the line which gave them a chance to win in OT. vs. the Hawks they came out flat again and had Giannis suffer an injury that looked so gruesome it looked like he was gonna miss an entire year. they lost the first two to the Suns and then squeaked out 4 straight. especially considering the injuries to Harden and Kyrie you could very much argue 2021 was a fluke run.

But that's the thing -- EVERY run is a fluke run!

There are too many good teams. You can't win a title in the modern NBA without a lot of luck falling your way.

all the criticisms of playoff giannis dried up when he won a ring but they prob still apply at least to some extent

― lag∞n, Thursday, April 27, 2023 10:55 AM (forty-three minutes ago)bookmarkflaglink

obvs hes still great and you can win with him but there are real issues too

― lag∞n, Thursday, April 27, 2023 10:56 AM (forty-three minutes ago)

i don't think giannis' reputation will take much of a hit. i guess we can say that he can't just summon at will the ability to make 90% of his free throws in a huge game. and that is a structural flaw in his game that will likely flare up in playoff games again in the future. but the guy still put up 38-20 and looked physically overwhelming. maybe we also saw that he can be stopped late in games if you can prevent him from getting to the rim, but in both of the last two games he also made a lot of baskets in crunch time including several and 1s, fouled bam out etc

to me the bucks ppl who will be getting reevaluated from most to least severe are

1. bud
2. middleton
3. jrue

bud it goes w/o saying. his reputation may never recover. middleton had a very weird series... he had no hope on defense and despite some big scoring nights never took over a game and did numerous stupid stuff at the end of last night's game. jrue i think ppl will just chalk it up to jimmy being historically great in that series. he also shot 10-30 from the field incl 4-17 from the 3 in the final two games.

on the other hand brook lopez was a beast the entire series and looks like one of the best 16 game centers in the NBA. he clearly outplayed bam in all 5 games altho bam did have a great second half and OT last night.

agree with all that and there's a big chasm btwn #1 and #2 on yr list

jrue was always underrated then became briefly overrated still a guy anyone would want on their team

idk about giannis reputation people will believe what they want but not being able to shoot at all including from the ft line is always going to cause issues in modern nba

and im sure ive said this a million times on here but i dont think the way he plays is a match for his skills someone who cant shoot handling the ball on the perimeter all the time doesnt really make sense, its not that hes not effective that way but it just represents too much of his game he should be mixing in way more big man stuff rolling posting cutting altogether receiving the ball closer to the basket

if you can stop his initial drive he settles way too much for those in between fading shots which are not good, he missed one badly in crunch time last night

I actually really noticed the absence of Jrue as a force on defense, which is where you kind of anticipate him stepping up in a big moment -- and of course he missed the crucial free throw with 2s left, without which the Bucks probably win in regulation! I mean, Giannis missed more FTs, but you kind of factor that in that he's going to miss some.

jrue was prob just exhausted from getting his ass beat by jimmy

[if you can stop his initial drive he settles way too much for those in between fading shots which are not good, he missed one badly in crunch time last night

Exactly this. We kept on asking, where's the play where Giannis just rumbles in like a tank and either makes the layup or not depending on how badly he gets fouled? I do wonder whether he wasn't 100% because it's weird to watch a Bucks game where that doesn't happen, it's like watching a 1980s Washington now-Commanders game where John Riggins never smashes into the line for a 3 yard gain

imo he was for sure slowed by the injury didnt quite have his usual pop

some ppl have argued already on twitter that a heavy portion of the blame falls on bud for not getting giannis the ball in spots where he can succeed. by contrast at the end of the game last night the heat suddenly morphed their offense into bam playing PG from the top of the key w/ jimmy cutting to the basket and they got him 3 layups incl an and 1 on like 4 possessions.

but i think there is an onus on giannis as well, not every possession in a game like that is gonna be a called play. he got to the rim a ton and played his game. but he also missed a lot of shots in the paint that weren't lay ups & every time you can get him to do that you exhale as an opposing fan.

some crazy out of body shooting stats from this series ...

Jimmy Butler attempted 50 pull-up jumpers against the Bucks, coming out of the series with an eFG% of 58.0 on those shots.

His average eFG on those shots was 38.8 over the past four seasons, playoffs included, and 42.6 this year, probably the most efficient season of his career.

— Couper Moorhead (@CoupNBA) April 27, 2023

The Heat took 152 'contested' threes in that series, making 43.4% of them.

In the regular season they shot 34% on those attempts. In their best shooting season ever last year, they were at 37.3%.

— Couper Moorhead (@CoupNBA) April 27, 2023

Jimmy Butler's isolations produced 1.34 points-per, including assists, against the Bucks. According to the tracking data, which admittedly isn't perfect and uses pretty strict definitions, he never saw a double team.

— Couper Moorhead (@CoupNBA) April 27, 2023

and one that doesn't exactly flatter bud...

Giannis defended Jimmy for 13 total touches in this series, per tracking data. That amounts to about 7.6 defensive touches per 100 possessions.

In the '21 sweep, (healthy) Giannis defended Jimmy for 147 touches, including the first possession of Game 1, or 60.7 per 100.

— Couper Moorhead (@CoupNBA) April 27, 2023

effectively shooting 58% on jumpers across 5 games in a playoff series vs the 1 seed w/ a usage rate thru the roof is completely bonkers

yeah its haleys commit variance

i think there is an onus on giannis as well, not every possession in a game like that is gonna be a called play. he got to the rim a ton and played his game. but he also missed a lot of shots in the paint that weren't lay ups & every time you can get him to do that you exhale as an opposing fan.

― J0rdan S., Thursday, April 27, 2023 12:28 PM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

feels like giannis does what hes comfortable with and hasnt really grown as a player in a while, when he was injured in the finals and was forced to play more of a big man game to great success i was like thats it thats where future giannis should be headed, instead he worked more on his perimeter game to no avail

jimmy heaters are as fun as anyones, unique player

feels like giannis does what hes comfortable with and hasnt really grown as a player in a while, when he was injured in the finals and was forced to play more of a big man game to great success i was like thats it thats where future giannis should be headed, instead he worked more on his perimeter game to no avail

― lag∞n, Thursday, April 27, 2023 12:31 PM (three minutes ago)

he's so physically dominant that i have fewer concerns about the evolution of his game than others. i still think if he's healthy for 5 more playoffs over the next 7 years he'll get at least one more title just by being a different level of athlete than anyone else in the league, and i'd prob take the over on 1. sometimes that's really just the most important thing in basketbal.

but i also think your points about what part of his game he's emphasized are well founded. he should never shoot a three in a playoff game & should prob rarely if ever be shooting jumpers period. i think to some degree the bucks prob overemphasized regular season skill maximization (distance shooting) and underemphasized playoff skill maximization (having ways to consistently get buckets when every score is at a premium)

idk i feel like if you dont improve and evolve as a player your success is just going to follow your athletic/injury trend line which is going to be going down for most of your career, giannis could stay totally physically robust through his early 30s but he could also slow down a bit like how we saw with the back injury in this series and in that case if his game doesnt adapt hell be exactly as effective as his body allows

like imagine if young lebron never added to his game

for sure, he's more susceptible to his body breaking down than some other stars. i also don't think it's true that his game just hasn't evolved. but i think we can safely say at this point he's never going to be a good shooter & should figure out ways to score more creatively from around the basket in the half court

I think Giannis's game has definitely evolved. you're right that he's not ever gonna be a good shooter but his touch at the basket has gotten a lot better and he's way more aware of where his teammates are than he was 3-4 years ago. during the Kidd years you could just put 4 guys on him in the paint and he wouldn't know what to do. I do think though he tries really hard to have a "complete" game the way Lebron does instead of following his destiny as the new Shaq

big question is where the Bucks go from here. they are the oldest team in the league and I don't think they really have any good picks so they're kind of stuck. Middleton is starting to miss a lot of time due to injury and isn't really dominating when he's in. Jrue is gonna be 35 and just never shoots well in the playoffs. Brook is 37. idk I think the best route is to swap out Bud for a serious coach and see if he can figure something out.