Around the NBA 2022 Playoffs: The Thread

Nah Grizz have Home court. They won't get swept.

 

He clearly wants to coach again because he was interviewing after he was fired last year. That said, the NBA is also moving towards hiring more minority candidates who can “relate” to the players.
But you are correct, I should never say “never”. I would put it at highly unlikely.

 

Give me Edwards over Ja. I’m always weary of players who rely on freakish athleticism and can’t really shoot.

 

Given how well the Grizzlies do without Ja...
But if you're asking which one I'd rather WATCH, it's Ja, no question. Although Edwards is certainly a lot more entertaining an interview.

 

Depends what you want from the player. They don't play the same position. In the series, Ja did a lot more than Edwards outside of scoring. You could see that clearly at the end of game 6.
In the 6 game series:
Ja - 8.7 rebounds per game, 10.5 assists per game (2.5 assist/to ratio).
Edwards - 4.2 rebounds per game , 3.0 assists per game (1.2 assist/to ratio).

In the regular season, Morant had a slightly higher true shooting percentage than Edwards, 57.5 % vs 56%, so even though Morant shot poorly in this series, he scored better than Edwards in the regular season and still had more rebounds and assists.
If I were starting a team from scratch, I'd take Morant over Edwards.

 

Well first and foremost I want a player than I can rely on to be on the court. Anthony Edwards has played more games than Ja in both seasons he’s been in the league. Anthony Edwards is also younger than Ja. And like I said, Ja is one injury away from being the next Derrick Rose.

I also like the fact that you don’t really have to build specifically around Ant like you do Ja. Ja is an extremely high usage player. Needs the ball in his hands and probably needs to be surrounded by shooting.

Personally it reminds me of Russell Westbrook conversations where the stats are in his favor against pretty much any player (even last year with the Wiz), but I think a majority of us would take Damian over him. Or Jimmy Butler. Or Paul George. Or Devin Booker or Chris Paul or Lavine, etc. last year (when Russ averaged a triple double).

I think it’s close though. Can’t really go wrong with either in my opinion. Like I said, hesitant to go with a player that relies on freaky athleticism in pretty much every aspect of his game.

 

Worst playoffs so far. No Game 7s. No games at all on the third Saturday of the playoffs. What a bummer. Not looking forward to the second round all that much. I think I'm rooting for either Boston or Milwaukee to win it all. Boston because it's an amazing story how they turned their season around, 3 games under .500 halfway through the season, and Milwaukee because they won it last year and they're very likable. They don't get enough credit for last year's title. Fucking Lakers & Nets were overwhelming "favorites" in October. I have no interest in Chris Paul winning a title. Doncic going further could be cool. I guess the Phoenix/Dallas series could be fun.

 

I thought that the Memphis/Minnesota series was classic even though it didn't go to a seventh game, the Grizz won three out of their four coming back from down ten in the fourth quarter. I thought the Suns/Pels series was far more competitive than it should have been and yeah that was because of Booker but still we got competitive ball where there wasn't supposed to be. I think a lot of people took some satisfaction in seeing the Nets get swept. Utah/Dallas was very competitive. That's just the first round and now the match ups get a lot tighter. I'm enjoying the games so far and think there is really compelling ball to come.

 

I would add Denver as making the last couple games much more competitive than it seems like they should have been. I don't know what switch got flipped for them, but they suddenly figured out how to match up with GS' constant movement. I don't recall ever seeing a team get to the spots in advance that their off-ball movement was heading for. There's a rehearsed flow to GS' system that normally leaves defenders chasing. Whoever is behind Denver's insight should be the highest paid person in the league, on court or off!

 

Funny how just about everybody in the Meedja was talking like Tatum was #1.

 

No KD in the top 21? Yikes.

 

I'm sure it has been posted somewhere, but I just added it up and Memphis outscored Minnesota by 62 points in the 4thQ's of thos 6 games. That's an average of 10.2 points and that's pretty remarkable. I'd wonder if it's a playoff record for 4thQ margin an a series

 

Not a single upset. Not even a 5 over 4. No one will remember Minnesota/Memphis 10 years from now. So no, not a classic. Like I said, we’re only 2 weeks into the playoffs and there wasn’t a single game today (a Saturday!) and I had the whole day free. What a disappointment.

 

Hollinger’s equations aren’t fool proof. He had Warriors going 39-43 this season because of all sorts of advanced stats.

 

KD was awful.

 

Warriors outscored us by 35 points in 4 games of the 2019 WCF. That’s near 9 point average. I’m sure there are many others that are more.

 

ME-J not there

 

So do you consider him box office?