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On April 30 2014 14:22 red_ wrote:
People can (rightfully) give Westbrook some flak, but regardless of how he is playing, if OKC drops out in the 1st round right now KD is about to get some of that 2011 Lebron fire. Right or wrong, it's just how it works. If you're a top flight player on the #2 seed in a conference you don't lose in the first round, full stop, no excuses.
Game 6 is going to be HUGE, and I expect him to absolutely go off.
He's welcome to come to the Lakers.
I don't think he's going to go off. He played 38.5 mins per game in the regular season, 47.8 in the playoffs. His tank is about empty. And he needs to exert so much energy to get a shot off in Scott Brooks' (lack of) offensive system. Many people didn't realize how badly Mike Brown sucked until Lebron got Spoelstra. Even then, Spoelstra doesn't get remotely anywhere near the credit he deserves.
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If they were open shots that would be one thing. They're usually contested ugly ones though. Pretty sure Derek "Musclebricks" Fisher missed the rim entirely on one of his shots. It's fine (even smart) to use Durant as a decoy. It's baffling that they run an offense that could be reasonably summarized by
1. Give Russ the ball.
2. Maybe run a pick and roll.
3. ????
4. Profit.
I've seen more sophisticated motions from High School teams.
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Honestly I can't remember Durant ever going off vs. Tony Allen on him.
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These playoffs. OKC sucks, Spurs are terrible, Pacers are the worst. Mavs 2014 Champion, calling it right now. 
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That's underselling the Grizzlies and the Mavs. On the topic of Lebron/Spoelstra the other thing the Heat have that the Thunder don't are secondary pieces/bench depths. Yeah Westbrook and Durant are shooting ass percentages but when teams can double and triple team you because there are multiple useless guys on the court at any given time (Perkins and Fisher to name just 2) there's only so much you can do.
Brooks coaching still sucks ass though.
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MURICA15980 Posts
Memphis and Dallas are probably some of the best 7th and 8th seeds ever in the NBA.
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On April 30 2014 23:44 Haiq343 wrote:
If they were open shots that would be one thing. They're usually contested ugly ones though. Pretty sure Derek "Musclebricks" Fisher missed the rim entirely on one of his shots. It's fine (even smart) to use Durant as a decoy. It's baffling that they run an offense that could be reasonably summarized by
1. Give Russ the ball.
2. Maybe run a pick and roll.
3. ????
4. Profit.
I've seen more sophisticated motions from High School teams.
Charles Barkley said it best. They called a timeout, only needed 2 points, and called a near halfcourt heave from Durant. That's the play the coach designed? Really?
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This could just be rationalization, but I think Dallas is a matchup that is strangely effective against the Spurs. The Spurs defense is philosophically a box and one, designed to force away your preferred shots into less favorable shots. This falls apart, though, in the face of very balanced scoring like the Mavs have. On the other side of the ball, the Spurs don't really have anyone to repeatedly abuse their defense. They usually depend on Parker for this, but the Mavs have devoted considerable defensive focus on him and he hasn't looked that great this year anyway.
I'd like to think that Dallas will be out of magic soon and the Spurs will regain their form in the next round, but I guess we'll just see.
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As much as I wanted KD to have a ring,I have a feeling it wont happen this year.I belive that in order for KD to become a better player they have to lose now.In the offseason he has!!!! to start building up some muscle,and learn how to low post!Thats the only way he will ever win a championship.LOWPOST!!
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On May 01 2014 05:21 pokerface wrote:
As much as I wanted KD to have a ring,I have a feeling it wont happen this year.I belive that in order for KD to become a better player they have to lose now.In the offseason he has!!!! to start building up some muscle,and learn how to low post!Thats the only way he will ever win a championship.LOWPOST!!
Or if they promote Jackson and trade Westbrook for another piece.
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On May 01 2014 05:23 Zorkmid wrote:Show nested quote +On May 01 2014 05:21 pokerface wrote:
As much as I wanted KD to have a ring,I have a feeling it wont happen this year.I belive that in order for KD to become a better player they have to lose now.In the offseason he has!!!! to start building up some muscle,and learn how to low post!Thats the only way he will ever win a championship.LOWPOST!! Or if they promote Jackson and trade Westbrook for another piece.
Yeah I forgot that ^^
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The whole Westbrook sucks argument has swung so hard in that direction it's hilarious. He's not as bad as you guys make him out to be. You certainly wouldn't get equal value for him on the trade market.
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Let's be real here, all other bullshit aside about their Clogged Toilet offense, if he isn't shooting 72% from the stripe in this series they're up 3-2 or resting for the next series 4-1(I'd say won 4-1 100% but you can't literally say that him making 1 FT to not be tied is an automatic win, game situation would obviously change). Tony Allen isn't defending him at the free throw line. Russell Westbrook isn't hogging the ball while he's standing alone shooting free throws. KD needs to make the shots.
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On May 01 2014 05:23 Zorkmid wrote:Show nested quote +On May 01 2014 05:21 pokerface wrote:
As much as I wanted KD to have a ring,I have a feeling it wont happen this year.I belive that in order for KD to become a better player they have to lose now.In the offseason he has!!!! to start building up some muscle,and learn how to low post!Thats the only way he will ever win a championship.LOWPOST!! Or if they promote Jackson and trade Westbrook for another piece.
Their bench would be garbage then.
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Haven't been able to post in a few days while this whole Sterling thing went down (I've admitted on here that my fav thing about sports discussions is when it transcends to other parts of society) so grr to that.
Not that it was surprising to hear all that come out from this weak man. Growing up in Los Angeles has exposed me to reading/hearing a lot of things over time. I mean we are talking about someone so weak he changed him name from Tokowitz to Sterling because it sounded "more successful", when all he really meant to say is that it sounds "less Jewish".
In any case, the best legal breakdown I have read: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/nba/news/20140429/donald-sterling-nba-adam-silver-clippers-lawsuit-lifetime-ban/
And does Whitlock= best sports columnist in the country?? I read his take around midnight last night and I think I put him up there in my book (heard him on the radio a few weeks ago too).
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So Donald Silver is going to go to court and say:
"So you're taking my team away for something I said in a private conversation?"
Then what?
edit: Im off to game 5, Go Raptors!
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Westbrook is not that bad. Good coaching could improve him. Monta Ellis in Dallas, for example, is shooting better this year compared to last year. It's just that his shot selection is awful. They need a better coach who can install an actual offensive system instead of the clogged toilet system.
A good contrast would be to Wade. He's getting old. He's lost a step. He can't shoot from outside. Yet he's still shooting 55% on good volume just because he's such a skilled player near the rim.
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And also because he's not forced to do more than he's capable of because of Lebron and Bosh and their team is fairly deep.
I see a lot of "OMG PASS IT WESTBROOK/DURANT" on other forums but like, who is there to pass it to? Lamb doesn't get minutes, Derek Fisher can't shoot anymore, Reggie Jackson is inconsistent at best, Perkins and Sef are nonexistent offensively, Ibaka can't really create his own offense. I don't think that they should be chucking up all the terrible shots that they are but at the same time when your offensive system is nearly nonexistent and your supporting cast is borderline terrible (other than Ibaka) there's only so many options you have.
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Outside of Russ, KD & Ibaka there's not a lot of offensive punch on OKC for sure. Which makes their refusal to engage in things like, having more than one thing happen per offensive possession, or run some back-screens and other motions, is all the more baffling. Other teams do a much much much better job of putting players in a position to succeed, and place less emphasis on contested jumpers off the dribble. It's a mistake to 'blame' the players.
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Jason Whitlock is a lot more intelligent than most journalists, let alone sports writers, and his writing commands respect, but he does have a particular bent that slants his opinions. I find myself half agreeing with almost everything he writes.
He and Kareem are right that we shouldn't be particularly happy about the form the outrage has taken nor think that it's necessarily a sign of virtue. Whatever course of action was taken should not be taken lightly or without regard to its implications. If I was an NBA owner and I knew that every owner was going to vote to oust Sterling, I would consider casting a symbolic vote of dissent.
I'm not sure he quite nails the mood, though. He talks about "an angry black mob", but the mob was not just black and at the least was made up of a culture with a white majority. I think it's telling that we spent a hundredfold more time talking about what an NBA owner said in private than when the mayor of New Orleans stood in front of a crowd and said "we're going to make New Orleans Chocolate City". And, no, I don't think it's just about double standards in the media. Mayor Nagin, frankly, doesn't matter to white-led America; he's not part of most people's culture. Donald Sterling is, though. Whitlock fears a white America that's hostile to blacks; I think he should fear a white America that's apathetic towards blacks much more.
It also seems strange that the culture that supposedly created Donald Sterling is now excoriating him. Whitlock laments that it was too easy and too comfortable to tolerate him until it became impossible to. But...isnt' that a good thing? I came across a Gladwell essay yesterday about the Branch Davidian Incident and Gladwell remarked that we welcome Jews who want to play golf or blacks who want to get MBAs. We don't tolerate people who dress funny or live in communes. We tolerate people who strive to fit in and don't people who set themselves apart. Donald Sterling fit in so we thought it better to just ignore him instead of going on a crusade. Isn't that what real tolerance is? If we always demand that everyone give an accounting for themselves and demand that anyone who doesn't grade out be eliminated, then we will be left with a partisan, polemical and eventually one dimensional society.
@MassHysteria- I agree that these questions are interesting, but nearly all sports journalists are unqualified to treat these subjects with subtlety. They don't even know that they don't know. ESPN and Bob Costas alike are more or less one way flows of ideas and any publication that doesn't actually create a forum for discussion is just propaganda. In that respect, they do more harm than good in my opinion. If you want to talk about the intersection of sports and society, you need to be an expert in society, not sports.
@Zorkmid- 1) The NBA Constitution 2 gud 2) The nature of the ownership in the NBA is uncommon. First, the other owners have a right of association, so even if he kept his 'team', they could still bar him from actually playing in the league. Second, it's more like a very expensive golf club membership + parking lot.
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EPT
