Regular Degular Redux - 2019-20 NBA Season thread 2

they were so much better this year tho but yeah coach bud doesnt have a great playoff record

their regular season stats were pretty fucking good last year too. fwiw they were a double OT game away from being up 3-0 on the Raps last year and I am pretty sure they would have beaten the hobbled Warriors in the finals. I think they've got a good shot at it this year but I can see why people are skeptical. Bud seems bad in a series, both Boston in '18 and the Raps in '19 were able to disrupt their key strategies and he had no recourse. then again he's clearly the best coach the Bucks have had since I've started watching them so who knows. he's had a long time to think about this.

to me you can make a case for the bucks being a vulnerable no 1 seed w/o even bringing up bud. they still have to prove they can score enough in the halfcourt in the fourth quarter of playoff games & that's a personnel issue not a coaching one imo. the bucks played better this year and the continuity has to count for something but the roster around giannis hasn't changed from last year (arguably has gotten worse w/o brogdon). when teams start walling off the paint against giannis in the final 5 mins of games and there's no more transition, middleton, bledsoe, and brook are gonna have to step up and make plays.... george hill and divencenzo are going to have to hit shots. the bucks placed their bets on these guys. it's all been gravy in the regular season but we shall see... is george hill a 50% three point shooter? can middleton take over a crucial game if giannis can't get to the rim? can bledsoe contribute anything? these are open questions on all the players

bucks are still clearly the favorite bcuz every other team in the east is flawed but i think they're way closer to toronto, boston, philly and miami in a playoff scenario than the season long point differential indicates

playoff bledsoe is the problem

they just seem like theyve got the stuff this year, theyve been together where a bunch of teams in their way are on overhauled rosters, theyve come close before and have steadily improved, tho obvs the layoff and the bubble are huge wildcards

if middleton can maintain his level of play i think theyve got it hes been so good this year, and thatll allow bledsoe et al to do less be the role players they are

*personally* i think a 1-4 bucks-heat match up would be mighty interesting.... giannis only averaged 21 points in two games vs the heat this year (both losses) and i think the heat have the no 1 giannis defender in the east (bam), plus they're crazy deep at wing defender now after the memphis trade. ultimately the heat can't score enough to win that series but they'd put the bucks to the test imo in a real way especially in the scenarios i'm describing above.

lakers have a lot of good vibes but i still have no clue what their best 5 looks like. rondo and bradley are out and thats two playable vets.

clippers have much more depth and paul george finally got to let his shoulder heal.

if middleton can maintain his level of play i think theyve got it hes been so good this year, and thatll allow bledsoe et al to do less be the role players they are

― lag∞n, Wednesday, July 29, 2020 1:21 PM (four minutes ago)

yeah to me he is the key. giannis gets all the pub and rightly so but if you take a step back, they're paying middleton $137 million. he needs to be able to get buckets in playoff games pretty much at will when the defense is throwing everything at giannis. if he can't do that, the bucks probably made a bad bet and it could very well cost them giannis. no pressure!

i would love that heat/bucks matchup and hope it happens

saw someone else say p much the same and idk it might be a good matchup for them but ultimately i think the heat just arent that good

i like the bucks this year and if they lose its because of the virus not cause im wrong

Sigh ok look I think the Coach Bud hawks playoffs thing is bullshit. I don’t want to debate about it but:

2 of their rotation players were assaulted and injured by the NYPD

In the playoffs an Aussie goon went out there and injured two starters, knocking korver out of the playoffs.

To me you have to give him a mulligan on what happened to that Hawks team and I’m still mad about it

yeah if any team seems custom built to take them out its the Heat

imo the Bucks have probably the least amount of flaws of all the big contenders, they legitimately have a very good bench which allows them to destroy other teams while having their stars only play ~30 minutes. if the plan is gonna be to force someone to hit open 3s, I'll take it. the Raps did that last year and it worked, but I think there's some luck there, it seemed like everyone on the team shot below average from game 3 on. agreed that someone's gonna have to step up but that's true of every team...how far do the Raps get last year without VanVleet? as Spottie mentioned the big question mark for them is Bledsoe

Btw the nuggets should get porter vaccinated! I mean you don’t want this guy getting measles right

yeah seriously

other ppl have pointed out you can't attend college w/o certain vaccinations -- as a mizzou student myself i can confirm!!! maybe they made an exception for mpj but i also think it's likely he doesn't know what he's talking about

i don't really see it with the heat. too many one-way players.

it's likely he doesn't know what he's talking about

― J0rdan S., Wednesday, July 29, 2020 1:41 PM (forty-four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

or hes just talking booboo

Sigh ok look I think the Coach Bud hawks playoffs thing is bullshit. I don’t want to debate about it but:

2 of their rotation players were assaulted and injured by the NYPD

In the playoffs an Aussie goon went out there and injured two starters, knocking korver out of the playoffs.

To me you have to give him a mulligan on what happened to that Hawks team and I’m still mad about it

― Matt Armstrong, Wednesday, July 29, 2020 1:34 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

reasonable points but wld still like to see a multi year study on the topic

haha

anyway nba is gonna be on all day every day in a few days something im thinking about

― lag∞n, Wednesday, July 29, 2020 12:54 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

guess who’s got the next 10 days off 8)

baseball march madness has been going on for a week already get on our level (minus the marlins)

yes but baseball is bad

more like barch badness

baseball is just on at its normal times

i don't really follow baseball except the twins or watch much of it but sometimes it's kind of nice just to have on

take our hoop talk here folks:

( ( ( ( ( nba bubble ball 2020 ) ) ) ) )