Around the NBA Playoffs - Round Two

Horford is good. Tatum is young but a high pick and obviously he hit on him. Brown is good and they also hit on him. Terry Rozier well apparently he can play too. The Morris brother is alright. I think Boston has some talent there, it's not like Stephens is playing with Sacramento's Roster.

 

They have the best coach and the best GM in the league. I'm jealous of them.

 

Horford, Irving, and Hayward have all been around. Yeah two of them are not playing but their veteran leadership and advice combined with Stevens elite coaching is a huge difference to what the Sixers have. Also, the Celtics never went through a culture of tanking and losing for years.

 

I don't know why you keep going to the everyone would "trade AD for Dame" argument. You could trade Dame for draft picks and every player in the league other than LeBron, Durant, and Curry and you would still be able to make the argument that whoever our best player isn't as good as AD. That's why I believe we have to keep making the team around Dame better. The team this year was never 11 games below .500 like they were the year before. They did have a better season as a whole compared to last year.

 

Don't see how Casey comes back from this. Raps just completely unraveled

 

Same old Raptors

 

I have already heard the calling for Casey’s job, and big changes for Toronto. DeRozan is arguably too 3 Raptor of all time. What would you do?
Did they really have a better season than last year even though it ended in the same round?
They were the 1 seed in the east.

I ask because I see the Blazers in the same vein.
This season from me as a fan, wasn’t more successful than last years. Sure we had more regular season wins but it ended in the same round to a worse team.

If you were a Toronto fan would you defend Casey, and Lowry / DeRozan and be ok with continuing to go the minor improvement route? Toronto has basically has a very similar situation to the Blazers in my opinion.
Kind of seen the movie quite a few times, pretty good but not good enough.

 

What the hell was that foul call...?

 

Why is Derozen still on the bench...?

 

Clutch by Anunoby.

 

Spell his name G O A T

 

I don't think we would be too happy with Stotts if he had allowed that; I would have got the ball out of his hands even if it took a triple team.

 

I’m just curious, do you think there’s some move that the Raptors could make this summer that would get them on the same plane as whatever team LeBron signs with or with the Warriors? If not, are they supposed to toss in the towel and rebuild? Should that be the choice for every close, but not quite good enough team? Should every team that can’t realistically be expected to win a title rebuild? Just suck long enough until you get the next LeBron?

Talk about torturing your fan base.

 

No. Spell his name 2nd GOAT

 

It looked to me that there was 0.1 of a second left on the clock when James' shot went in. The Raptors should have been allowed to try for a tip in.

 

A few reasons why I think Toronto is different:

1) They play in the East. Other than LeBron who completely mindfucks them they should do better than they are. The East doesn't come close to the West in terms of talented teams. Put the Blazers in the East and they fare a lot better. Can you imagine getting to play the Heat in the 1st round instead of the Warriors or Spurs or Pelicans or whomever? We've actually fared quite well at home against the Cavs in recent years.

2) Lowry is 32 years old. When your 2nd best player is in the latter stages of his prime instead of just entering it like Dame and CJ it isn't the same.

3) Their salary situation is really bad. Only 11 players under contract next year and they are already deep into the tax and that is without Van Fleet. They have no picks in the draft either.

4) Can they really do any better? Lets say they tear it down, do you really expect them to be better than the 1 seed or would they likely become like the Twolves and suck for 14 straight years? What if LeBron joins the 76ers? How the fuck would any move they make matter? Isn't it better to just be as good as possible and hope you get lucky along the way by catching some breaks or hitting a home run on development or a draft pick or a trade or something? Even if they got out of the East they aren't beating the Warriors as constructed.

 

LeBron is basically like the hardass war veteran grandpa of the NBA, still dishing that knowledge out to the young folks.