Board 8 > NBA playoffs - where Devin Booker happens

(+) Yeah! (+)

I think the comments were poorly timed but mostly correct. Aside from embiid, harden, and maxey, the sixers dont' have another guy scoring 15ppg on the roster. Harris is a huge negative contract and he was supposed to be their 3rd best player. The celtics again had a top 10 if not top 5 defense this season. It happens, one bad game doesn't suddenly make embiid the problem imo.

Harris isn't worth his contract but he isn't a negative player at least. He's still a high level starter. His PPG only dropped to 14.7 this season because his number of shots reduced. His true shooting was 60%+ and he shoots 39% from 3.

Like yeah he's not a max contract guy but he wasn't a max contract guy when they gave him the deal either. He shouldn't be earning $37m but it's not like he's a sub MLE guy either. And whether Philly paid him $37m or $20m this year, they couldn't have used the difference in money because of how the cap works and them being way over it.

philly's roster isn't good enough, but you just can't be the best guy on your team and call out your teammates after combining with your runningmate for 24 points in game 7

Emeraldegg posted...

Harris is a huge negative contract and he was supposed to be their 3rd best player.

Hey, he led them in scoring in Game 7!

Yeah you can't campaign for MVP for years and then blame teammates when you have a terrible game 7. imo Philly's roster is close but probably need a couple of upgrades on their rotation/bench. I had read the article with Rivers and Harden complaining about foul calls, and became very optimistic yesterday. Especially with the Celtics starting double bigs again.

(that said I'd be OK to see White starting a few games against Miami)

neonreaper posted...

I had read the article with Rivers and Harden complaining about foul calls, and became very optimistic yesterday.

morey's an all timer at this

the refs actually did seem to favor the sixers early - not tremendously so, but a few awkward things like the back court violation, some fouls in the brown/harden matchup

of course then brown got elbowed in the face and had his knee grabbed by niang and then it was time to go super saiyan

Imagine if Harden opts out of his player option and leaves in the summer.

Yeah, nobody complains about everything going against his team like Morey

https://twitter.com/rich_hofmann/status/1657896053029621760

wow it's almost like people intentionally took a snippet of the answer out of context to make Embiid look worse

it's not a perfect answer but come on people

Being desperate to defend an MVP who could only score 15 in a do or die game is not a good position to take.

He deserves to have his comments taken out of context.

_PandaMaster_ posted...

He deserves to have his comments taken out of context.

Yikes, awful take

i'm defending embiid. the game is more fun when you allow people to be overemotional. you can clown him and hate on his dirty play but this wasn't just him sucking, it was also the result of an incredible celtics effort. this series should have been over in 5 given embiid was out; the sixers honestly overachieved to get to 7.

_PandaMaster_ posted...

Being desperate to defend an MVP who could only score 15 in a do or die game is not a good position to take.

He deserves to have his comments taken out of context.

Do or die games are overrated in sports culture. Each game matters the same, and him having a bad game in the last one doesn't erase the tremendous season he had.

Whether giannis/jokic/embiid won MVP, it's just a label. All 3 guys had some of the best seasons in the league the past 3 years. Let's not act like embiid didn't earn it this season. He certainly didn't play well this last game, but to use his MVP status against him as though he doesn't deserve it because of one game...nah

Emeraldegg posted...

Do or die games are overrated in sports culture. Each game matters the same.

Nah, they definitely don't matter the same and the players definitely don't treat them the same.

Like, I'm not going to be upset at Embiid or Harden because they lost. Winning Game 7 on the road is really hard. The Spurs are one of the most successful franchises this century and even they've had their fair share of painful playoff exits. Jordan going 6 for 6 in the Finals raised the bar to an impossible standard for most players.

But Harden in particular has a history of coming up small in big games, and that's an earned reputation.

Games have different amounts of pressure on them which is the nature of a series, but what it boils down to for me is, I don't think it's right that a guy can have a great season and for the most part, a great playoffs, but 1 or 2 ill-timed bad games and he doesn't deserve an award or has a loser mentality. That just isn't fair to me. To me, the good performances embiid put in are just as important as the bad ones especially when there's far more good ones than bad ones.

This is just an offshoot though of why I think playoffs aren't fair and why I dislike them. Regular season just doesn't matter. I really don't like that we are forced to judge the success of a team and players based on an inherently fluky system where you play against the same team a few times and if you get cold at the wrong time, oh well, you suck, nothing you did before this matters.

Like I totally get why it is the way it is, it creates drama, march madness is a hit for a reason. But whatever it is, fair is not it.

I mean, the NBA has voluntarily chosen to have the regular season not matter over the past decade or so, but it's also the sport where the best team wins the highest percentage of the time. I'm not particularly concerned about "fair" in the playoffs regardless, and they aren't really designed to be fair anyway.

People overreact to wins and losses all the time whether it's the regular season or playoffs, but it's heightened in the playoffs.

Good luck to everyone hoping to win the Wemby Sweepstakes tonight

bye doc

https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1658491168047464448?s=46&t=rTA-RIGQd2lid4TVM7ibNw

Deserved firing.

Doc has been living off of that one championship from 15 years ago

Would be funny if Bud/Nurse/Monty/Doc/ all just go to each others teams

Wonder if Quin Snyder is still feeling great about taking the Hawks job now that there are several better jobs available.

Speaking of coaches, this is the 3rd ECF matchup between the Heat and Celtics in 4 years, and the Celtics have had a different coach each time

pistons fall all the way to 5th pick

go go spurs

lol Detroit fell all 4 spots

RIP me

the pistons will never be good again

hornets plz

fingers crossed for spurs or blazers

LETS GOOOOOOOOOoo

Knew to send a white guy

Laaaaaaaame

congrats spurs fans though

this is actually great for victor; the odds of him being a bust are way lower

Spurs 1, Hornets 2 was my hope. Victor in San Antonio just fits like a glove, and I'm interested in who they put next to Lamelo

I'm mad that San Antonio falls into a generational center yet again and I didn't even want him going to my team for once since we don't have a lottery pick

but it's the perfect organization for him to land in, so I'm thrilled for him. I suddenly believe in him a lot more after going to the Spurs instead of the Hornets or whatever.

Aw yeah a threepeat

I might actually start watching the Spurs again

I like to think I willed this into existence by building up good karma in watching as much Spurs basketball as I was this past year.

let's go SPURSSSSS

UltimaterializerX posted...

The refs are handing this game to the Lakers so blatantly that it has to be seen to be believed. Denver was up by 21 in the 3rd before refs took over and its been nothing but free throws since.

refs really are trying their best here but KCP has hit some clutch shots here

just a 34/21/14 game from Jokic, no big deal

Nuggets survived the 40 point AD game, which is huge

Joker is just something else

AD is doing what he's supposed to, have to give him credit, but wasn't enough

Also I'm very upset that Austin Reaves continue to do well and has begun to grow on me. I can only hate him so much.

LeonhartFour posted...

just a 34/21/14 game from Jokic, no big deal

Nuggets survived the 40 point AD game, which is huge

He almost had a 1st quarter double double, only 2 pts short. He was on pace for like 32/48/20

feels like lakers have inevitability on their side. AD/bron/rui shot like 70% inside the arc last night

And they still lost.

AI: show me purple jokic, bottom text: "i am inebbitable"

NBIceman posted...

And they still lost.

yeah, they did, but it's one road game and they dominated the second half on the whole. feels like lakers have more defensive cards to play than the nuggets. but i would looooove to be wrong

SeabassDebeste posted...

yeah, they did, but it's one road game and they dominated the second half on the whole. feels like lakers have more defensive cards to play than the nuggets. but i would looooove to be wrong

Do you think that's going to be the pattern of the series or they just had a hot game (and still lost)? I don't expect AD to do that in Game 2, so I'd say it's fairly likely the Nuggets will be up 2-0.