#focus#mustwin#playoffs#drama? : 2013 NBA playoffs

so basically they beat the knicks because they had a good defense that beat the knicks good offense

i'd like to see the evidence for this, i would bet there's more of a benefit to being a slow team than there is a good defensive team. the latter just seems like a sportswriter cliche

― you are not a better writer than f. scott fitzgerald. you are not a b (k3vin k.), Sunday, May 19, 2013 5:56 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

well games tend to slow down in the playoffs and get tighter, which benefits teams that are good on defense

― J0rdan S., Sunday, May 19, 2013 5:58 PM (1 minute ago)

no it benefits teams who play in the halfcourt, which sometimes, probably more often than not, are the good defensive teams

so basically they beat the knicks because they had a good defense that beat the knicks good offense

― 乒乓, Sunday, May 19, 2013 6:01 PM (27 seconds ago)

yes if you want to go through life not understanding things you should definitely try to fit everything into received wisdoms like this

you're splitting hairs, we're making the same point

xp

kev youre really blowing my mind here with this "but is there really even such a thing as a good defense, maaaaaan' college freshman seminar philosophizing

i think it's an important point though. like if someone who understood statistics better than me actually looked at the data and ran a multivariate analysis, i don't think "top 5 PPP defense" would be significantly more predictive of playoff success than "top 5 offense" would be. i could buy the idea that pace might be though

it's already been established itt and by advanced stat geeks that indiana had one of the best defenses in the league, if youre really gonna make me have to talk about brass tacks and bolts and qualify every sentence i make about indiana with specific defense strategies i'm probably just gonna shoot myself now

i think it's an important point though. like if someone who understood statistics better than me actually looked at the data and ran a multivariate analysis, i don't think "top 5 PPP defense" would be significantly more predictive of playoff success than "top 5 offense" would be. i could buy the idea that pace might be though

― you are not a better writer than f. scott fitzgerald. you are not a b (k3vin k.), Sunday, May 19, 2013 6:06 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

a team built like the bulls is likelier to do better in the playoffs than a team built like the rockets

but both teams would struggle to make the finals because you need to be very good to great on both sides of the ball

For all the statnerd love on ILH it's amazing how people still defend Carmelo as if it were LeBron-Durant-Melo or something. All other things equal, there are like 15 guys I'd rather have on my team / root for than Melo; maybe even more! Any argument that doesn't bring up his suspect rebounding/defense/passing + ball-stopping + iffy fg% for that volume of possessions is just trolling. The only situations that would turn a Melo team into a title contender would be with A) a CP3-type pg who could drive'n'dish to an OPEN Melo consistently, or B) Melo-as-2nd-scoring option, which I actually think might happen in a few years, once he doesn't have the athleticism to trick his team into rolling w/ him as top dog.

If Melo were in the situation where he had wide-open looks on those long-range jumpers like Garnett/DWest, I think he'd be an amazing addition. Meloball is like a bad flashback to isoball dark ages.

W/r/t loss to Pacers, Knicks have a shitshow roster that may as well've been chosen pin-tale-on-donkey style (and lolol are for the next two years) and a huge part of the blame falls to Woodson for demonstrably bad in-game subbing. It's a shame that Chandler/Shumpert weren't both 100% for them, would've made for a great series.

http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/7406/lbjjcp5.gif

in other news, spurs obliterated the grizz
zbo has 2 points whole game

[ikev youre really blowing my mind here with this "but is there really even such a thing as a good defense, maaaaaan' college freshman seminar philosophizing
― 乒乓, Sunday, May 19, 2013 6:05 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

... What if the Melo I perceive as a bitchmade volume shooter is different from the Melo you perceive?? *:? ...

He's one of a handful of current players — maybe Durant, Harden, Curry, Paul, Kobe and that's it — who would step on a court with LeBron right now and think, Fuck that guy, I'm as good as him.

he would also be hilariously wrong and shoot a bunch of long 2s while thinking this

Monta Ellis would totally step on the court and think he's as good as Bron

the melo conundrum is pretty simple; the talent is there but the basketball sense isn't.

i mean, ppl who rate him are getting fooled, but they're getting fooled into thinking he'll ever figure out the game, not getting fooled into believing in his skills. different things.

he could be, like, exponential paul pierce but i think the ship has sailed.

melo is basically 00s nique

that's a really good comp

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/a/anthoca01.html
http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/w/wilkido01.html

i did not know that melo's middle name was "kyam"

you're on defense for half the time and offense for half the time

yeah, but a good defense generates easy offensive opportunities more often than a good offense makes your defense stronger.

http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/2646645/triptony.gif

melo had a great season this year largely cause the knicks played him at power forward most of the time, something to think abt

tony allen is v smooth

melo is basically 00s nique

― one if by lamp, two if by deeznuts (m bison), Sunday, May 19, 2013 11:03 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i can't believe i've never seen this before and the stats are ridiculously similar, esp if you look at the same ages

i love melo as our team usa streak-shooting stretch 4 for fifteen minutes a game and hate him as nba pseudo heroballer

allen felt bad about the tony-on-tony violence and helped parker up after that trip

FWIW I have a relative who worked in advertising in the 60s/70s and she has always griped about the heavy amphetamine use since it made people burn out after a year or two / could only come up with half-formed ideas that they thought were brilliant. She has used the word "gibberish" in the past; happy to finally see it in MM!

* wrong thread; Melo is my shitty B-12 shot :/

"J.R. Smith is expected to opt out of his contract and re-sign with the Knicks in a four-year deal starting at about $5 million"

how do they have the cap room to do that

how many of the old timers/bench players will be coming back next year? (i.e. Camby, KMart, Thomas, Kidd, etc.)

kidd had one of the all time weirdest seasons

ha yeah he did

JR probably shot his way out of about 20 million bucks this postseason

Aren't basically all of the Knicks' olds back for two more seasons?

JR probably shot his way out of about 20 million bucks this postseason

― you are not a better writer than f. scott fitzgerald. you are not a b (k3vin k.), Monday, May 20, 2013 6:03 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark

yeah i was gonna say that 4/20 seems very low for him but he's so volatile that i guess it's heartening that no team would drop tons of money on him

4/20 seems perfect for him

;)

B-)

lol

how do they have the cap room to do that

― J0rdan S., Monday, 20 May 2013 20:44 (3 hours ago) Permalink

apparently they can early bird him

really thought game 1 was tonight for some reason

me too, hate the long layoff

Dark days ahead, fellas.

Dark days perhaps, but also days without having to watch the Knicks play the Pacers any more.

i'm starting to think you guys don't like the Knicks

Knicks > Lakers

^^ agreed