AROUND THE 2024 NBA PLAYOFFS: Eastern & Western Conference Finals

I'm not a fan of Haliburton because of the mock Dame Time shit he pulled in the in-season tourney but with that said...

A Pacers v Wolves Finals would be so much fun. I get it that the Celtics will probably walk through the Pacers but we've seen that team in contention for a while now and if we could see two teams with the youth and relative inexperience of Minny and Indy in the Finals, that would be exciting.

 

It’s almost as if defense is important

 

For most, at ~ 6 years old it dawns on you that height is an advantage on the court. Neil missed this revelation.

 

Pulling for Minnesota. Never won anything. And nice people in Twin Cities.

 

Defense is important, but I am guessing that Denver fans were thinking it would be nice to have someone who could freaking score last night other than their big 2. One basket from the bench last night was not enough.

 

Pacers have one of worst defenses in the league.

 

This game has and always will be about Buckets! Good defense is imperative to win no question but great offense beats good defense.

 

The Pacers have skated past a Bucks team without Giannis and without Dame for half the games.

Now they beat a Knicks team without Randle, with OG for half the series, without Hart for a few games.

I still think Boston is going to smash them.

 

Yup. The blame for this loss falls on Nuggets management. They were complacent and did nothing to improve and balance their roster. I guess when you have the best player in the league it’s easy to get complacent, but it’s a league where your competition is always gaining on you.

 

Yep

 

Agreed. They have been very lucky the last two years with injuries. Especially compared to past years. An injury to Murray and they would have been lottery-bound. Even with Jokic.

 

Bro, that Gobert trade with Utah is looking pretty good? So is the Kyrie one?

 

in the past, sure. This season? not so much. Rankings of the 4 teams in the conference finals:

* defensive rating: 1-3-17-24 (average 11.25)

* offensive rating: 1-2-10-16 (average 7.25)

* Net rating: 1-3-9-14 (average 6.75)

* TS%: 1-3-8-9 (average 5.25)

* 3ptFG%: 2-3-9-13 (average 6.75)

* 2ptFG%: 1-2-4-16 (average 5.75)

* Offensive Reb rate: 12-20-21-24 (average 19.25)

* Defensive Reb rate: 7-11-21-26 (average 16.25)

of course, looking at one season could be just looking at an anomaly, so there's that.

But we have all watched the NBA 'evolve' over the last 10-15 years. Meaning if you're just going by this single season, it does kind of confirm what we've seen. That being that offense, especially shooting, trumped defense and rebounding. Of those 3 shooting stats, the 4 conference finals teams ranked in the top half of the league 11 out of 12 times, and the one time they didn't was 16th. And, 9 out of 12 times they ranked in the top-10; and 7 out of 12 in the top-5.

Teams have to be able to score well and shoot with great efficiency. Defense is still important, but as always, good defense can be beat by great offense.

The other side of it all is that rebounding doesn't matter much at all. Minny looks like an anomaly with their 3 big rotation, but two of those bigs shoot over 40% on 10.3 three's a game. That's unique. Indiana's big rotation is Myles Turner (who is shooting 46% on three's in the playoffs on 5.4 attempts, and 6'8 Obi Toppin. Boston's is/was Porzingis/Horford who combined for nearly 40% shooting on three's at 9 attempts/game. Dalas' big men are Gafford and Lively who shoot no three's but are good rim protectors and pretty good rebounders. Other than Minny, these teams are not trotting out many all-star bigs

again, just based on this season, the most successful template is to have great shooting, along with length and versatility at the wings. If your bigs can't shoot 3's at high efficiency they need to be rim protectors. It also helps to have those 'superstars'. Minny has Edwards (& KAT); Boston has Tatum & Brown; Indiana has Haliburton; Dallas has Doncic and Kyrie.

How far does Portland have to go? To start with, not only do they have no superstars, they have nobody close to all-star level. They ranked 29th in offensive rating; 30th in TS%; 30th in 3ptFG%; 30th in 2ptFG%. Yikes!!

I think, obviously, it also helps to be healthy and draw seeds against opponents that aren't. Would Indiana even have made it out of the 1st round if Giannis, Dame, and Middleton had all been healthy?

 

Mr. 6-24 for 16 points? Truly Jordanesque.

 

Yes Jordan had some horrid shooting nights but still impacted the game on defense and timely shots that gave his team a chance to win. Edwards did the same Sunday, but at a much younger age than anything Jordan did.

 

I’m not saying that Edwards isn’t an amazing player. He absolutely can take over a game the way that the great ones can. What’s a bit annoying is the rush to call him the next Jordan. Lots of NBA players have had amazing seasons. The ability to stretch together years of such seasons, coupled with years of playoff success, is what makes Jordan the GOAT, or at the very least, one of the top 2-3 GOATs. Edwards has a lot of work to do to be placed in that conversation.

 

I don't think anyone would rank Edwards career at Jordan career level right now, thats nuts. But he has a chance to match or exceed some of Jordan success. Thats not something we normally see at all in a 10 year period. Kobe and LeBron were probably the last guys that had a small possibility of doing that. It's just exciting that Edwards might be in that conversation. Obviously he will need to have a lot more accomplishments either this year or in the seasons ahead.