NBA Playoffs Thread

[Threedee]

I think Toronto needs to ban Danny Green from attempting three pointers. Lowery really struggled. Perhaps ending the game looking like he had all night long will give him the push he needs.

 

[Hawk-Lock]

I thought Nick Nurse made a huge mistake taking a timeout when Toronto was on a 12-2 run late in the fourth quarter. I think after he took that timeout, GS went on a 9-0 run. Why take a timeout when GS was on the ropes? Don’t fix it if it ain’t broke.

 

[hgwellz12]

I thought Nick Nurse made a huge mistake taking a timeout when Toronto was on a 12-2 run late in the fourth quarter. I think after he took that timeout, GS went on a 9-0 run. Why take a timeout when GS was on the ropes? Don’t fix it if it ain’t broke.

He massively overthought things. Reminds me of a certain coach close to home...

 

[Threedee]

I thought Nick Nurse made a huge mistake taking a timeout when Toronto was on a 12-2 run late in the fourth quarter. I think after he took that timeout, GS went on a 9-0 run. Why take a timeout when GS was on the ropes? Don’t fix it if it ain’t broke.

That was my reaction.

 

[LymonHawk]

I'm sorry GS lost, but it was a helluva game!

 

[Hawk-Lock]

Warriors couldn’t catch a break this series. Once Klay went down it was clear they just aren’t meant to win the championship. Congrats to the Raptors. They are probably one of the weaker championship teams, but I’m glad someone other than the Warriors finally won. I hope this is a start of a more unpredictable NBA, where it isn’t just LeBron James and the Warriors winning it all each season.

 

[Maulbert]

Warriors couldn’t catch a break this series. Once Klay went down it was clear they just aren’t meant to win the championship. Congrats to the Raptors. They are probably one of the weaker championship teams, but I’m glad someone other than the Warriors finally won. I hope this is a start of a more unpredictable NBA, where it isn’t just LeBron James and the Warriors winning it all each season.

Only if the Thunder never win.

 

[knownone]

The media and fans will likely blame injuries, but depth is ultimately what cost the Warriors the title. They were forced to rely on a short rotation throughout the playoffs and guys started to wear down. Their bench was abysmal. The Raptors have 7 guys who can create a shot. The Warriors have 2 without Durant.

Steph and Klay had their best shooting finals collectively, and they were still lucky to win 2 games. One historic quarter offensively and the Raptors choking were the only things preventing this from being a sweep.

 

[mistaowen]

Drake celebrating like he's on the team is laugh out loud funny.

 

[Chawker]

Canada has the title? A... how did this happen A ? This is a joke right? What is wrong with people A?

 

[mrt144]

The media and fans will likely blame injuries, but depth is ultimately what cost the Warriors the title. They were forced to rely on a short rotation throughout the playoffs and guys started to wear down. Their bench was abysmal. The Raptors have 7 guys who can create a shot. The Warriors have 2 without Durant.

Steph and Klay had their best shooting finals collectively, and they were still lucky to win 2 games. One historic quarter offensively and the Raptors choking were the only things preventing this from being a sweep.

How do you have depth when carrying a top 5 and top 25 player in addition to all the other players? I can't imagine a scenario where the Warriors roster could have depth to make a difference without Klay or Durant. Like the drop off from either to 'next best' on the roster would likely be similar for any given team across the NBA, not just a Warriors problem per se.

 

[knownone]

The media and fans will likely blame injuries, but depth is ultimately what cost the Warriors the title. They were forced to rely on a short rotation throughout the playoffs and guys started to wear down. Their bench was abysmal. The Raptors have 7 guys who can create a shot. The Warriors have 2 without Durant.

Steph and Klay had their best shooting finals collectively, and they were still lucky to win 2 games. One historic quarter offensively and the Raptors choking were the only things preventing this from being a sweep.

How do you have depth when carrying a top 5 and top 25 player in addition to all the other players? I can't imagine a scenario where the Warriors roster could have depth to make a difference without Klay or Durant. Like the drop off from either to 'next best' on the roster would likely be similar for any given team across the NBA, not just a Warriors problem per se.

Good question, but that's not really the point I was making. I'm saying that the lack of depth cost them the title. I'm not necessarily blaming them for it. My overall point is that we shouldn't diminish the Raptors victory because GSW suffered injuries when they were playing 4 players damn near 40 minutes/game for the entire playoffs. That's not sustainable for guys at or close to 30 years old. You can't hide 4 guys on defense to get them rest during a game, so they played hard minutes throughout the entire playoffs and it ultimately cost them.

The Raptors are a significantly deeper team top to bottom. They had one player +- 30 playing 35 minutes/game, the other 2 players are 24 and 27.

If you go through the roster player for player, the Warriors were pretty average 1/8, but average depth rarely wins titles regardless of how great your top end players are. We saw this with the Heat in 2011 and 2014, they had significantly better high end talent than the Mavs and Spurs, but they didn't have the depth and their starters wore down or got injured in the end.

 

[Uncle Si]

That's sort of cherry picking a fairly unique situation though..

"Hey you lost because the best player in the league and probably the best shooter in the league, as well as your super sub, who happen to be on your team were inactive or unable to play much.. and you couldn't replace them."

They have bad depth because their top 6 are so strong. 3 of them just couldn't offer much. I just don't know what kind of depth you can expect with first 6.

All that said, I thought Toronto was terrific in the series. Very aggressive and poised.

 

[knownone]

That's sort of cherry picking a fairly unique situation though..

"Hey you lost because the best player in the league and probably the best shooter in the league, as well as your super sub, who happen to be on your team were inactive or unable to play much.. and you couldn't replace them."

They have bad depth because their top 6 are so strong. 3 of them just couldn't offer much. I just don't know what kind of depth you can expect with first 6.

All that said, I thought Toronto was terrific in the series. Very aggressive and poised.

What's unique about this situation? We saw it in last years conference finals when Chris Paul got hurt. It's happened at least 5 times since 2015. The only thing unique is that it happened to 2 premier players, but we saw that in 2015 when both Kyrie and Kevin Love went down with injuries.

They used their MLE on a guy coming off an Achilles injury, and they didn't even know if he'd come back this season when they signed him. They resigned Iggy to a ludicrous deal for a player his age (the prior year). They gave 8 million/year to a point guard who can't create his own shot in Livingston. Look, I'm not saying those are bad players, but it's not as if the Warriors couldn't make moves for guys who were a better fit for the team during the season. They choose to reward guys because of loyalty which is fine, but it ultimately cost them.

The Raptors have a deeper top 6. They have 3 top 30 guys, and 2 others who'd fall somewhere in the top 50. Iggy at 35 and Cousins (a year removed from an Achilles) are not top 50 guys. Kawhi just had the best playoffs since LeBron in '12 and Jordan in '98. I'd still favor the Warriors with a healthy KD, but the best player in the league was not on the Warriors; he's on the Raptors.

Klay missed 1 1/2 games but he played lights out before and after his (initial) injury. He was still -11 in the series despite shooting damn near 60% from three. Losing Klay hurt but they were barely hanging on even when he was out there. There is no guarantee that he'd continue his record pace sharing the ball with KD.

 

[Uncle Si]

It happened to two premier players and another premier player they were hoping would be the best off the bench. Klay was far less than 100 percent in all but maybe one game.


If it's not unique when 3 premier players from an nba team are not able to contribute then you should know how almost impossible it is to compete.

Of ourse the Raptors have a deeper first 6 when you compare the salaries they are playing and the health of the group's. Play this with everything equal and I firmly believe GS wins.

Not a sweep, mind. Toronto was very good. But questioning why GS depth couldn't fill in for their stars over entire games doesn't seem fair.

 

[Hawk-Lock]

That's sort of cherry picking a fairly unique situation though..

"Hey you lost because the best player in the league and probably the best shooter in the league, as well as your super sub, who happen to be on your team were inactive or unable to play much.. and you couldn't replace them."

They have bad depth because their top 6 are so strong. 3 of them just couldn't offer much. I just don't know what kind of depth you can expect with first 6.

All that said, I thought Toronto was terrific in the series. Very aggressive and poised.

I agree with basically everything you said.

This isn't rocket science. When a team loses players like Durant and Thompson, you aren't going to win a championship. I understand what knowone is saying, the depth was terrible. But even if GS (or Cleveland in the past when they lost Love and Kyrie) had better replacements, you aren't going to win a championship with better role players filling in for superstar players.

Nothing wrong with GS taking Cousins at that deal, any team would have done that. GS might have had the worst luck I've ever seen in the playoffs. Literally every player that contributes besides Curry got hurt at some point. Both Durant and Klay got injured twice. Cousins got hurt and was rushed back. Looney who is a key piece got hurt and was also rushed back. Iguodala was banged up for the entire playoffs.

What these playoffs showed me is how great Durant is. People forget that the Warriors were far from unstoppable before they got Durant. They blew a 3-1 lead and lost the finals to the Cavs. That same season they lost to the Cavs, they were down 3-1 to OKC and came back to win. The splash brothers are awesome, but they can be stopped. Durant is match up proof, even against the best defense he will just shoot over the top of his defender. I'm really excited for this offseason, because there is going to be a major shake up. Could be the biggest free agency we've ever seen. As much as everyone hates the big market teams like the Knicks and Lakers, I think it would be cool to see them become great.

 

[knownone]

It happened to two premier players and another premier player they were hoping would be the best off the bench. Klay was far less than 100 percent in all but maybe one game.


If it's not unique when 3 premier players from an nba team are not able to contribute then you should know how almost impossible it is to compete.

Of ourse the Raptors have a deeper first 6 when you compare the salaries they are playing and the health of the group's. Play this with everything equal and I firmly believe GS wins.

Not a sweep, mind. Toronto was very good. But questioning why GS depth couldn't fill in for their stars over entire games doesn't seem fair.

I respect your opinion, but are you really calling Cousins a premier player? He's a good litmus test for 'did you actually watch the regular season' because he has great stats while being terrible on the court. In the regular season the Warriors had the number one offensive rating 115.6 without Cousins on the floor, their rating drops to 107.4 with him on the floor. He was virtually unplayable before his quad injury because he couldn't play defense.

If Cousins was healthy there is no way the Warriors would have been able to sign him this off-season. So, to assume his injury during the playoffs had a significant impact on the outcome on the finals is silly. There lucky he could give them any minutes before or after the injury. On top of that, he shot 30% on 12 attempts from the field, had 6 turnovers, and fouled out in 21 minutes before his quad injury.

We mostly agree though, I think the Warriors would be a slight favorite with KD and Klay healthy. It's important to remember that Kawhi was only 80% in this series and the Raptors were missing their best best wing defender in OG Anunoby. If both teams are 100% it goes 7.

If you are wondering what healthy Kawhi looked like against a better Warriors team. [youtube]GXSYMVuxI5c[/youtube]

 

[IndyHawk]

Lebron got himself a star to play with! :0190l:

 

[Uncle Si]

Cousins is a premier player when healthy, yes. That was my point. The warriors had planned on 6 healthy players by playoffs and maybe had contingency for one big absence.

3 was a lot and I don't think you can harp on GS for not preparing for that.

Kawhi is exceptional no doubt. All things considered, he is the first player you start a team with.

I'm only saying it's hard to rail on GS for not planning for all of the things that finally befell their team.

 

[Hawk-Lock]

There isn’t a ton to debate here. It’s sinple, the Warriors got hit with a ton of injuries and couldn’t overcome them. No team would have. You take away arguably the best player and best shooter in the league and add in some other injuries and you aren’t going to be a champion.