What's new

2016 NBA Playoff Thread

Intelligence, bbiq, better teammates and coaches, more star treatment from refs, stronger, better defensively, more experienced, leadership, savy.

His speed and athleticism and shooting mean that the sky is the limit for him.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk
He had a stacked team and didn't do much.

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk
 
He had a stacked team and didn't do much.

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk

He did have a pretty stacked team with aldridge, matthews, and batum there. And they won the northwest division, won 51 games in a very tough western conference, finished in 4th place in the west (the spurs were 6th place), and lost to a very good memphis grizzlies team in the playoffs. Oh and wes matthews, a key part of their team, had a season ending achilles tear during the season.

Not too bad imo. I would love to win the division and finish 4th in the west actually. Maybe could have and should have been better but still, not too bad.

Oh ya, and he was an all star that year. (second year in a row btw)
 
This has been a fun discussion but i cant waste any more time on it after this post.

Lillard was drafted in 2012 season and won rookie of the year.
In 2013 season his team won 54 games and upset the rockets (rockets were 4th seed with homecourt advantage) in 6 games. Lillard hit the series clinching 3 pointer in game 6 btw. They ended up losing to the eventual champion spurs. All star season.
in 2014 his team won 51 games and were first place in the division. They lost to a very good memphis team in the playoffs. (missing matthews, a key contributor) another all star season.
in 2015 his team was supposed to be one of the worst in the league yet ended up the 5th seed and won their first round series (I understand that a lot of luck went into this but still) He was considered by many to be the biggest all star snub in the league.

So to summarize... Rookie of the year, 2 all star appearances (should probably be three), 3 playoff appearances and got to the second round twice, two 50+ win seasons. All in only 4 years.
This year he averaged more points and assists than any year so far in his career while playing the least minutes per game so far in his career (he is still improving).

He played in 82 games his rookie year. 82 games the next year. 82 games the year after that. 75 games last year. Plus all star games, dunk contest, three point shootout, lots of playoff games.
 
All I have to say on the Blazers discussion, if they had Aldridge right now they'd be 2-0 on the Curry-less warriors and have a chance to knock out the defending champs tbh. How Dame has bounced back since losing his main guy on his team is amazing and all the respect in the world goes to him, even if they get swept.
 
All I have to say on the Blazers discussion, if they had Aldridge right now they'd be 2-0 on the Curry-less warriors and have a chance to knock out the defending champs tbh. How Dame has bounced back since losing his main guy on his team is amazing and all the respect in the world goes to him, even if they get swept.
Doubtful. They would lose just as badly with Aldridge IMO.

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk
 
If anything I think this playoffs shows how important teams are, not star players.

which makes sense in the first couple of rounds. A majority of NBA teams make the playoffs. "Solid" teams can prevail in that environment. Alas, later rounds are a different environment
 
If anything I think this playoffs shows how important teams are, not star players.

I dont know. I think most of the best healthy players in the playoffs are still alive and well. (lebron, kyrie, durant, westbrook, curry, green, thompson, leonard, lillard, wade, derozan) Lots of all stars still playing right now.

A couple teams who stars got injured (clippers and grizzlies) would probably be still playing but the team was not good enough without their stars. Then you have some teams lacking stars (celtics, pistons, charlotte... kemba might a star some day but not yet, mavs.. dirk is no longer a star) that got taken out early.

Houston (harden) and indy (george) are the only teams with a healthy star that got taken out. Houston played the best team in history with the bigger star in the series. Indy had the bigger star and lost to the more complete team.

So one "team" effort took out the bigger star.

Looks like stars still rule the nba.
 
I dont know. I think most of the best healthy players in the playoffs are still alive and well. (lebron, kyrie, durant, westbrook, curry, green, thompson, leonard, lillard, wade, derozan) Lots of all stars still playing right now.

A couple teams who stars got injured (clippers and grizzlies) would probably be still playing but the team was not good enough without their stars. Then you have some teams lacking stars (celtics, pistons, charlotte... kemba might a star some day but not yet, mavs.. dirk is no longer a star) that got taken out early.

Houston (harden) and indy (george) are the only teams with a healthy star that got taken out. Houston played the best team in history with the bigger star in the series. Indy had the bigger star and lost to the more complete team.

So one "team" effort took out the bigger star.

Looks like stars still rule the nba.

wut?
 

Let me try to simplify it for you.

Most of the teams left in the playoffs have star players carrying them.

Most of the teams that didn't have a star or teams whose stars got hurt are now out of the playoffs.

So it looks to me like stars are still very important, relevant and necessary to success in the playoffs.
 
I dont know. I think most of the best healthy players in the playoffs are still alive and well. (lebron, kyrie, durant, westbrook, curry, green, thompson, leonard, lillard, wade, derozan) Lots of all stars still playing right now.

Derozan has been terrible all post-season, and he and Lowry both got badly outplayed by Paul George in the first round. The Raptors prevailed because of their supporting cast.
 
Derozan has been terrible all post-season, and he and Lowry both got badly outplayed by Paul George in the first round. The Raptors prevailed because of their supporting cast.

Funny you should mention that

Houston (harden) and indy (george) are the only teams with a healthy star that got taken out. Indy had the bigger star and lost to the more complete team.

So one "team" effort took out the bigger star.

We agree.
And I damn near didn't include derozan in my list of stars (cause I don't think he is on the level of the other stars in my list) but he was an all star so I put him in there.
 
Joe Johnson had some great one on one buckets at the end of the half
 
Let me try to simplify it for you.

Most of the teams left in the playoffs have star players carrying them.

Most of the teams that didn't have a star or teams whose stars got hurt are now out of the playoffs.

So it looks to me like stars are still very important, relevant and necessary to success in the playoffs.

100% disagree.

Most of the teams rely on great teamwork (Spurs, Warriors, Heat, and even the Cavs). Yes those players have "stars" but the stronger aspects of their team are the whole, not the individual pieces.

If anyone on a team gets hurt, star or not, that team is going to struggle. Avery Bradley and Nicols Batum are no stars, but their loss greatly impacted their teams.
 
100% disagree.

Most of the teams rely on great teamwork (Spurs, Warriors, Heat, and even the Cavs). Yes those players have "stars" but the stronger aspects of their team are the whole, not the individual pieces.

If anyone on a team gets hurt, star or not, that team is going to struggle. Avery Bradley and Nicols Batum are no stars, but their loss greatly impacted their teams.
Fair enough.
Good post
 
Back
Top