Have we just been unlucky with our playoff opposition the last three years?

Nice post. I feel the same way.

 

Wow, a "Trade Coming Soon" reference. It was misfortunate that the deal fell through, but it's not like I was just pulling that out of my ass. The only reason so many people remember that is because all of you guys kept guessing and pulling your own shit out of your asses.

As for LA being average, except for the month or so....actually about 2 months, that he was an absolute beast, his averages closely resembled his career averages. During the period between mid Dec. and mid Feb, when Brandon was out, Aldridge averaged a huge 26.25 PPG, 9.7 RPG. The rest of the year, he averaged 19.4 PPG, 8.1 RPG. His averages the year before were 17.9 PPG, 8.0 RPG. So while a bit better than last year, still about average. He finished 15th in the league in scoring, but without the time that Roy was away, he would have been in the mid 20's in scoring. Somewhere around Beasley and Gay. Rebounds drop him from 14th to the mid 20's as well. Somewhere around Chuck Hayes. So while still a very productive player, pretty average for him. Why is it you can't understand that? Some people were bithing about Blake Griffin getting a vote ahead of him, but Griffin scored and rebounded more than Aldridge did. Aldridge had a great couple of months, period. The rest of the time, he was a good NBA player.....just like he always is (or average for him)

 

Apparently it is too difficult for you to understand that MVP voting isn't based on whether a particular player was above their career averages or not. This isn't the MIP award. So saying that LMA was only slightly above his "average" is stupidly irrelevant.

No, I don't think LMA should be anywhere near getting the MVP. But your reasoning that he was "average" is just stupid for 2 reasons: 1) He was nowhere near an average NBA player. He was much better. 2) Improvement over average has nothing to do with winning the MVP.

 

Ok, fair enough. I have a hard time understanding that LA was pretty much his average self for most of the year, and you have a hard time understanding that our team and coaching staff just isn't that good when it comes to playoff time. Every year there will be an excuse.

 

I think Houston was unlucky in being a bad match-up, definitely. I don't think Dallas was a bad match-up, on paper, but Portland may have caught them playing their very best ball of the season (as they're showing against LA).

Phoenix, the misfortune was losing Roy. While it was surprising they made the WCF, they didn't appear clearly better than Portland, IMO, nor did they seem to be a terrible match-up on paper. Portland was just without their best player.

 

Where did I say anything about our coaching staff being a strength? Please post a link, or you're just spouting gibberish.

 

You didn't say that. You asked if our playoff problems had to do with facing the wrong team at the wrong time. I said no, you are a homer. You made some smart ass comment. I made one back. You made another one...etc. If you think it's about the wrong team at the wrong time, you are wrong. Our players and coaching staff aren't good enough to beat these teams in a 7 game series.

 

Do you think we could have beat any of the seeds above us in a 7 game series the past 3 years?

 

Off the top of my head I say no, but I will look at it when I get a chance later tonight and let you know for sure.

 

I think Houston is the only series we had an unlucky bad break matchup.

Last year we had no chance against anybody, we were very lucky to win 2 games. Our entire offense was centered on Roy and he got injured right before the playoffs. We would have lost to any of the other 7 playoff teams.

This year sure Dallas is beating the Lakers, but the Lakers are a shell of their former selves. Kobe is physically limited causing him to settle for all jump shots. He is not taking the ball inside to the hole which collapses the defense. Instead Kidd is able to guard Bryant allowing Dallas to have a good help defender cover all the Lakers. Pau is exhausted from 3 consecutive finals runs. Dallas isn’t better than a quality Lakers team, they are better then a struggling hurt old Lakers team.

Many of the teams in the west are neck and neck, Dallas, LA, OKC. Any of them could get hot and win multiple playoff series. The Blazers have just been slightly worse then the top teams in the west, but over a 7 game series the slightly worse team is going to almost always lose.

Now the Houston series was a bad break. Houston was one loss away from being a 2 seed but dropped to a 5 seed. That was one of the best 5 seeds ever. In other years if we had HCA we would have been strong favorites. Ultimately Yao played so many minutes in our series and the start of the Lakers series it ended his career.

 

Whatever the case may be, Portland has had a pretty rough time getting out of the first round. Last time each NBA team got out of the first round:


2011 - Bulls
2011 - Hawks
2011 - Celtics
2011 - Heat
2011 - Lakers
2011 - Mavericks
2011 - Thunder
2011 - Grizzlies
2010 - Cavaliers
2010 - Magic
2010 - Jazz
2010 - Spurs
2010 - Suns
2009 - Nuggets
2009 - Rockets
2008 - Pistons
2008 - Hornets
2007 - Nets
2007 - Warriors
2006 - Clippers
2005 - Pacers
2005 - Wizards
2004 - Timberwolves
2004 - Kings
2003 - 76ers
2001 - Bucks
2001 - Raptors
2000 - Knicks
2000 - Trail Blazers
Never - Bobcats (started play in 2005 season, but the Charlotte Hornets were in the second round in 2002)

Consider that the second longest a Western Conference team has had to endure first round futility has been since 2004.

 

Very informative. Nets, Warriors, and Clippers in the middle third? Timberwolves and Kings 4 years above us..now THAT is bad.

Wow, on the West list we are much worse! Owweeee.

2011 - Lakers - Mavericks - Thunder - Grizzlies
2010 - Jazz - Spurs - Suns
2009 - Nuggets - Rockets
2008 - Hornets
2007 - Warriors
2006 - Clippers
2005
2004 - Timberwolves - Kings
2003
2002
2001
2000 - Trail Blazers

 

Nope, it's just bad luck....

 

Yeah, I'm sure you were expecting Dallas to sweep and blowout the Lakers.

 

I don't think anyone expected that, but LA looked like shit in that series, and didn't really look all that great coming down the stretch in April.

 

Dallas is definately a good team though.

 

Ding!

The Blazers under Nate do one thing very well and that's play harder than most of their opponents during the regular season and when you play hard you have a good shot at beating most of the bad or average teams and hanging with some of the good teams. The trouble with this strategy is that it sometimes masks a couple of flaws that have been inherent in these Nate coached teams. A) They don't shoot a very high percentage in half-court situations (instead relying on second chance points to generate offense) and they allow a pretty high effective field goal percentage from their opponents. Their defense and offense just isn't all that impressive when it gets matched up against playoff level teams

And B) the players on this team seem to get pushed around in the playoffs, I don't know if that's a fault in the players or an attitude that trickles down from the coach, but it's clear to me that there is something lacking when the pressure and the physicality get turned up a notch.

So are the Blazers simply unlucky? I guess you could say that, but they also haven't done much to show me that they were ever really all that close to being able to take a series by the throat and throttle out the 4 victories needed to advance.

 

I guess we'll see how Dallas does in the next round, but they are playing out of their minds right now, IMO. I think the same could have been said for the Suns last year at this time.

 

The Lakers played worse moreso than the Mavericks played great IMO. Nobody closed out on shooters, they failed to defend the pick and roll at all and they never played with much urgency or intensity in any of their games in the series.

Personally I think Memphis is going to give them hell if they get matched up in the Conference Finals and I think OKC will give them a run for their money too.

Dallas is playing well, but they are no superpower.

 

I think Memphis will run into a similar problem as LA... nobody can guard Dirk. Will they really try to put Zach or Gasol on Dirk? He would eat them alive. Maybe they will try Battier on him.

On the other hand, I think OKC had probably put Ibaka on Dirk and will probably do a decent job. Can Durant guard Dirk for short periods?