NBA first round | The Boneyard

NBA first round

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superjohn

superjohn

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I didn't enjoy the regular season much but the first round has been awesome. Refs are letting them play and the shotmaking has been awesome. Two great games today between Knicks/Pistons and Wolves/Lakers.
 
Its been great, so much physicality being allowed and it's led to the animosity being raised between the teams. The shotmaking in games 3&4 of MIN/LAL has been ridiculous. If Ja didn't get taken out it looked like even Memphis had a shot of making things interesting vs OKC.
 
aceboon said:
Its been great, so much physicality being allowed and it's led to the animosity being raised between the teams. The shotmaking in games 3&4 of MIN/LAL has been ridiculous. If Ja didn't get taken out it looked like even Memphis had a shot of making things interesting vs OKC.
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And if Cam Spencer played
 
aceboon said:
Its been great, so much physicality being allowed and it's led to the animosity being raised between the teams. The shotmaking in games 3&4 of MIN/LAL has been ridiculous. If Ja didn't get taken out it looked like even Memphis had a shot of making things interesting vs OKC.
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There is a line and the refs flirted with it in the Knicks/pistons game today. The first half of the third quarter was truly awful basketball to watch because of how physical they let it get.
 
aceboon said:
Its been great, so much physicality being allowed and it's led to the animosity being raised between the teams. The shotmaking in games 3&4 of MIN/LAL has been ridiculous. If Ja didn't get taken out it looked like even Memphis had a shot of making things interesting vs OKC.
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The NBA is just better when they let them play. As you say, it ups the animosity. It leads to more intensity and it leads to more incredible plays. The Knicks/Pistons, Nuggets/Clippers, and Wolves/Lakers look like they actually want to fight each other which has been missing from NBA basketball in recent years.
 
superjohn said:
The NBA is just better when they let them play. As you say, it ups the animosity. It leads to more intensity and it leads to more incredible plays. The Knicks/Pistons, Nuggets/Clippers, and Wolves/Lakers look like they actually want to fight each other which has been missing from NBA basketball in recent years.
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Rockets vs Warriors as well

 
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Dame either injured his achilles or his calf, either way I doubt we see him again this playoffs. Nothing has gone right with the Dame/Giannis pairing
 
aceboon said:
Dame either injured his achilles or his calf, either way I doubt we see him again this playoffs. Nothing has gone right with the Dame/Giannis pairing
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Andre Jackson MPG dropped dramatically after mid-February.
 
Good call on the thread- playoffs look like a different sport when it comes to the physicality & intensity- with that said looks like a “better sport”.

Hopefully the rest of the playoffs are similar- btw the ratings show a major uptick in viewership. Who could’ve imagined fans actually like defense- lol.
 
aceboon said:
Dame either injured his achilles or his calf, either way I doubt we see him again this playoffs. Nothing has gone right with the Dame/Giannis pairing
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I fear his career may effectively be over if this is worst case scenario like some seem to believe. It's a tough injury to overcome at any age, but he'll be pushing 36 by the time he's cleared and has already begun to show major signs of decline.

His career will be a tricky one to quantify one either way. I never felt like he was on a team that had a realistic shot to win a title.
 
aceboon said:
Dame either injured his achilles or his calf, either way I doubt we see him again this playoffs. Nothing has gone right with the Dame/Giannis pairing
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It was a mistake from the start. There are a few teams that are waking up to the fact that the household name players aren't always better fits for your team than other guys. Draft and develop. You know who would have been an ideal fit there? Stephon Castle.

Rumors now floating that the Bucks will try to move Giannis for a rebuild. Hard to match salaries though.
 
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HuskyHawk said:
It was a mistake from the start. There are a few teams that are waking up to the fact that the household name players aren't always better fits for your team than other guys. Draft and develop. You know who would have been an ideal fit there? Stephon Castle.

Rumors now floating that the Bucks will try to move Giannis for a rebuild. Hard to match salaries though.
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As a Bucks fan I wasn't ever happy about the deal. I also wasn't happy when they fired Bud. He was the right coach for that team, but injuries derailed them. Honestly I don't know what they do - hope they don't get rid of Giannis - but their cap situation is so messed up I'm not sure there is a way to fix this without going through a multi-year abyss. At least we (and Giannis) got the one title. Some greats never even get one.
 
Agree on the physicality. Much better product than in years past. Feels like 90s/early 2000s NBA. Hope it continues.
 
J187Money said:
As a Bucks fan I wasn't ever happy about the deal. I also wasn't happy when they fired Bud. He was the right coach for that team, but injuries derailed them. Honestly I don't know what they do - hope they don't get rid of Giannis - but their cap situation is so messed up I'm not sure there is a way to fix this without going through a multi-year abyss. At least we (and Giannis) got the one title. Some greats never even get one.
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Jrue Holiday is so much better on defense than Dame it is ridiculous. I don't know if it was Giannis or the front office or both that didn't properly recognize Holiday's value as a winning player - probably both. Front office hasn't made mostly bad-to-awful moves since their championship.
 
The Knicks will beat the Pistons, but I'm really curious to see if they can be at least competitive against a top team in the playoffs. They weren't at all in the regular season, but they seem to have all the parts that they should be.
 
Dogdeacon said:
Jrue Holiday is so much better on defense than Dame it is ridiculous. I don't know if it was Giannis or the front office or both that didn't properly recognize Holiday's value as a winning player - probably both. Front office hasn't made mostly bad-to-awful moves since their championship.
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Imagine had they been able to keep Jrue and get rid of Middleton (who I loved but the injuries). Now with Dame probably done (at least for next year if this is an achilles), Lopez getting another year older, etc. There is literally no path forward.
 
looked like Bucks hit their ceiling with Jrue as well so I don't really blame them for trying to see what Dame/Giannis could do. Bucks have had horrible injury luck in the playoffs since they won the title in 2021 and even in that year they just avoided a major Giannis knee injury
 
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Dogdeacon said:
Jrue Holiday is so much better on defense than Dame it is ridiculous. I don't know if it was Giannis or the front office or both that didn't properly recognize Holiday's value as a winning player - probably both. Front office hasn't made mostly bad-to-awful moves since their championship.
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I understand the thought process behind the Jrue/Dame swap. What's made the trade disastrous in hindsight is that Jrue ended up in Boston. They should not have done it if they'd known that would be the outcome.

The thing I never understood from Milwaukee's standpoint, especially once they'd acquired Dame, was the attachment to Brook Lopez. Fine player, and very valuable if your goal is to win a lot of regular season games. But he does not match up at all with the one team you had to beat, and given the success teams have had going small in the modern game, it made no sense not to ride with him as your primary five man in high leverage games. Your path to building a championship offense was getting Dame. Your path to getting Dame and still having a top ten defense was Giannis...at center.
 
aceboon said:
looked like Bucks hit their ceiling with Jrue as well so I don't really blame them for trying to see what Dame/Giannis could do. Bucks have had horrible injury luck in the playoffs since they won the title in 2021 and even in that year they just avoided a major Giannis knee injury
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IMHO they should have run it back - they lost Middleton in 2022 and Giannis in 2023 - and you can't win a title that way. Turns out Middleton was never fully right again, but didn't know that then. The other problem with the Dame trade is giving Jrue to the Celtics - if they had sent him elsewhere that might have been better - but they got worse and the Celtics got better at the same time. Never saw the wisdom in that trade.

And now you will probably have Giannis leave and be paying $58M to a guy that won't suit up next year. And NO has the right to do a pick swap in 2026 so the Bucks won't even get the benefit of being bad next year. Ugly.
 
The Bucks intentionally traded for Kyle Kuzma. Malpractice.
 
Different topic but Orlando is a good looking young team. Two really good 6'10" guys, tenacious defense. They defend every minute of the game, no easy possessions, which is honestly not the norm in the NBA. They need more scoring from outside, but I wonder if they can add that without compromising the defense. Banchero is a really nice player but he's not very efficient because he's forced to take shots that should be passes to somebody else who can score. It will be interesting to watch them in the offseason.
 
Inyatkin said:
The Bucks intentionally traded for Kyle Kuzma. Malpractice.
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I get misty-eyed when I think of the glorious days of yore when the PA guy would yell “Kyle Kuuuuuzzzmmmaaaa” to a one-third full Capital One Arena. Sigh.
 
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The Dame trade was a disaster from the start. Dame never had nor never will play defense. Meanwhile, you lose a very good perimeter defender in Holiday to your top competitor.

2nd worst trade, only to the Mavs GM trading Luka in his Prime, to an oftinjured , aging player in Davis. Both GMs should be fired
 
ridiculous Bucks collapse vs the Pacers, looked like UConn vs Seton Hall trying to give away a game
 
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