EPTNBA Playoffs 09 - Page 14
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Xeris
Iran17695 Posts
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KOFgokuon
United States14908 Posts
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XaI)CyRiC
United States4471 Posts
On April 23 2009 09:36 TubbySmurf wrote: Delonte West - imop the NBA's most improved player this year. The guy is a true point guard who now has confidence in his shot and will take it from anywhere on the court. As good as he has improved on offense this year, defense is still his strong suit. He is playing well, but most improved? There are stronger candidates who don't have the luxury of Lebron always sucking up all the defense. Z Ilgauskas - I cannot believe this Center has been underestimated as long as he has. Without a doubt a top 10 NBA Center. One of the best shooting and rebounding Centers, and THE best free-throw shooting Center in the NBA. Top 10 center isn't actually saying much because of how shallow the pool is. Plus, most people consider a lot of Cs to actually be PFs, i.e. Al Jeff, Bosh, Duncan, JO, etc. According to ESPN, he's 13th amongst Centers in PER, 16th in VA, and 16th EWA. He's a great shooter, but just 38th overall in rebound rate in the league. Also, Yao is a better FT shooter (85-86%) than Big Z (80%) by a good margin. He's also behind or tied with Bosh (81%), Bargnani (83-84%), Okur (80-81%), and Amare (80-83%). Surprisingly, he's not in the top 20 amongst Centers in TS%. The Bench - Cavs have tons of depth in shooters J Smith and D Gibson. Szczerbiac may have never reached his true potential as a starter, but fills a key roll as a clutch shooter and smart vet when needed. I don't think their bench is that great. It's good, but I don't think it stands out amongst the better teams. However, depth doesn't matter as much in the playoffs, so it likely won't matter too much in the end. To those who were comparing the Lakers support cast for Kobe with LBJ's and saying anyone would switch Clevelands for the Lakers if they could, I would like to voice up that I would not make that switch. I'm very happy with the team Danny Ferry has put together, and I am looking forward to some great games this year. Agreed that both teams fit their stars just fine. Both were crafted around them after all. [/QUOTE] | ||
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igotmyown
United States4291 Posts
On April 23 2009 09:36 TubbySmurf wrote: *Breathes deep* It's been a long sad road for Cleveland sports fans, but this year we have something to be happy about finally! I've been a Browns, Cavs and Indians fan for a long time and seen a lot of near championships and playoff pushes go down in flames. We deserve this! Having watched the Cavs most of this season, I gotta say its going to be really tough to stop this team with home advantage throughout the postseason. Having said that though, a few teams have great chances at a championship this year. LBJ is truly amazing to watch. He makes his team better, is a leader, and a mouth-dropping entertainer. No offense to you Detroit fans, but I really am enjoying Ohio's latest (in a growing string of) domination of Michigan teams.  Those of you who only know the Cavs from the highlights you scan over on foxsports.com or espn, I'll post a few keys to watch if you do catch a Cavs game during these playoffs. The 2009 Cavs are totally different than past Cavs teams, with depth they have never had before. LBJ - no longer needs to carry this team. He is so good, that he won his first MVP award in a year where he played the least amount of minutes of his career. Be afraid. Mo Williams - the shooter Cleveland needed. He can handle the offense and is often wide open for 3's because of the player listed above penetrating in the paint. Delonte West - imop the NBA's most improved player this year. The guy is a true point guard who now has confidence in his shot and will take it from anywhere on the court. As good as he has improved on offense this year, defense is still his strong suit. Varajao - another greatly improved player. He could always play defense and draw fouls, but now he can also score when needed. He's a key roll-player. He picked up the slack of an aging Ben Wallace. Z Ilgauskas - I cannot believe this Center has been underestimated as long as he has. Without a doubt a top 10 NBA Center. One of the best shooting and rebounding Centers, and THE best free-throw shooting Center in the NBA. The Bench - Cavs have tons of depth in shooters J Smith and D Gibson. Szczerbiac may have never reached his true potential as a starter, but fills a key roll as a clutch shooter and smart vet when needed. To those who were comparing the Lakers support cast for Kobe with LBJ's and saying anyone would switch Clevelands for the Lakers if they could, I would like to voice up that I would not make that switch. I'm very happy with the team Danny Ferry has put together, and I am looking forward to some great games this year. I must bring in the Cavs hating! Delonte West is a point guard? Ilgauskaus is one of the best shooting centers. But he's obviously not THE best free-throw shooting center. He's also not one of the best rebounding centers; he's never had a 10 rebound/game year. Cavs have a stronger backcourt sans Kobe. Fisher shot .550 last playoffs from corner 3's and .550 from the right corner for that season, and this season he was shooting like .600 before he started to stink. Sasha "The machine" Vujacic is streaky, is an overrated defender and his stats never seem to match up to his reputation. Farmar puts good ball pressure and is an ok shooter, but is also playing horribly. Shannon brown is playing because they've been terrible lately. He doesn't have enough data to provide meaningful stats yet. | ||
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Sadist
United States7326 Posts
at least the red wings are beating columbus' ass =[ Cavs going to finals easy.... and top 10 center means absolutely nothing. | ||
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Xeris
Iran17695 Posts
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InfeSteD
United States4658 Posts
Watch how different they ll play tomorrow in Salt Lake City... its fuckin ridiculous man! | ||
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Aca
United States165 Posts
On April 23 2009 12:23 Ace wrote: It did change in the last 3 years, but not what numbers played what numbers. The seeding is different. Now it's Division Winners automatically having the top 3 out of 4 seeds regardless of the records of everyone else. It's a shitty system in most respects because if one division was just absolute garbage (imagine Kings, Warriors,Thunder, Clippers are one) one of those teams bumps a better team out the playoffs and gets the #8 seed a ridiculously easy matchup. The only thing saving the NBA from this setup is that with 82 games and enough good teams per division it's unlikely to happen. Winning its division does not guaruntee a team one of the top three seeds in its conference. | ||
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SK.Testie
Canada11084 Posts
woah Ace is responding to himself | ||
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Sanity.
United States704 Posts
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Ace
United States16096 Posts
On April 23 2009 16:54 Aca wrote: Winning its division does not guaruntee a team one of the top three seeds in its conference. *One of the top 4 is what I meant. Or more accurately 3 of the top 4 seeds in the Conference are the division winners. | ||
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Aca
United States165 Posts
On April 23 2009 16:57 MYM.Testie wrote: I was like woah Ace is responding to himself I've been wanting be able to use the handle ACA, which is how I type it on battle.net, for several years now, but this site forces me to use Aca since that's how I typed it when I created my account. =[ | ||
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Aca
United States165 Posts
On April 23 2009 17:12 Ace wrote: *One of the top 4 is what I meant. Or more accurately 3 of the top 4 seeds in the Conference are the division winners. Oh sorry, I misread your post. | ||
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tonight
United States11130 Posts
On April 23 2009 14:56 Sadist wrote: fuck ohio. at least the red wings are beating columbus' ass =[ Billups feels completely at home during the playoffs. He's showing this team what it means to be a winner. | ||
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TubbySmurf
United States11 Posts
Lakers probably do have a better bench than Cavs, but not by much. And I disagree about the importance of a bench in the postseason. First of all, getting to the postseason (in one of the top seeds) depends on a strong bench to absorb any injuries and still remaining competitive. In the postseason there are a lot of minor injuries. (Example:: Celtics lose KG and then lose top seed in playoffs. Now they have to beat a hungry Bulls team just to get to the Magic) A deep bench allows starters the ability to stay fresh. The playoffs to the championship is 2 months of highly competitive play, I would say a bench is more important in the postseason than it is in the regular season. (Example:: Spurs destroy everyone for years because of the strongest bench in the NBA.) | ||
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Dknight
United States5223 Posts
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eStoniaNBoY
Switzerland439 Posts
Pau is still underrated by Laker fans and media. This guy is mad effective. LA-Jazz is like Deja Vu from last year. If Lakers don't step up playing defence and Cavs happen to be there in the finals then we all know what will happen. Lakers will get smashed. Yeah there is Bynum, so what? Last year people actually though it will be a series - instead it was total bashing. Lakers blew their leads and their victorious games were not the nicest the remember about. There is no such thing as "we will play defence in Finals" for Lakers. They lack discipline. Their defence should be a lot better. I remember Phil and Lakers team saying flat out that they need to improve their defence to be a contender but where are they now with their defence? They played very nice defence during the start of the season, but falled totally off. They won't shoot that well through the playoffs and Cavs is even better at defence and protecting their home court than Boston was last year. I mean even Larry Brown made Bobcats defence a lot better. Yeah they play different way, no triangle and etc, but Lakers have three seven footers. They have to improve their defence by far heading into next games. They need to stick to the plan! | ||
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KOFgokuon
United States14908 Posts
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Xeris
Iran17695 Posts
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KOFgokuon
United States14908 Posts
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