NBA Playoffs Thread - Play-in and 1st round edition

I certainly hope the Blazers are in a good enough position next year to be able to bring in a buyout guy to add depth around trade deadline time.
It would be nice if they actually want to come here because it looks like the Blazers will be competitive.

 

he had a great game today but he hasn't been a great player, at all. Actually he's been below average pretty much across the board

not sure why you guys are wishing Portland had him. Another 7th-9th man who hasn't done anything well...except today. Portland's problem isn't at 7-9, it's at 2-4

 

You should know the deal around here:

Bemoan the players that don't come here, overhype the youth/end of bench, and then crush them once they become starters.

 

Boy the Clippers sure have depth. 1-10 they got players. Something tells me this is a bad matchup for the Suns.

 

Uh oh?
Maybe I’m wrong? Chuck just said the same thing I was thinking?
I’m all out of sorts now.

 

Exactly. 2-4 is our issue.

1-4 is what win championships. You need 2 REALLY good players, 1 pretty good player, and usually 1 player to elevate to the situation. Rarely is that player in the 7-9 range.

You could argue Simons / Grant could combine to cover the 4th spot.

 

We need a player equal to or greater than Dame, that's 1-2. That's the "push all chips in" move

We need another player that's equal to or greater than Grant, that's 3-4. In addition to satisfying above, this might require spending aka lux tax, unfortunately I don't think Jodi wants to spend

If Shaedon is our 5th best starter, that's a contender. You gotta have role players of course

 

Exactly. This is why I have a hard time with people who trot out opening day lineups and say that the Blazers can’t compete. Every year, come the playoffs, the injury bug makes a mess out of the roster power ranking notion.

 

Who did we get for Powell?

 

Sharpe to start with

 

Westbrook has 7 points on 18 shots.......geeeeeezuzzz

 

It’s been comical. He tries to shoot every time he has the ball. I keep thinking he’s gonna pass it out to Leonard or Powell but nope.

 

We got Justise, Keon, a second round pick and not another fucking thing. Oh and don't forget RoCo, dude hasn't played tonight but he has given them 16 minutes per game over 48 games this season, he's close to 40% from three, averaging 3.5 boards, 1.2 assists, .7 blocks and .8 steals in those 16 minutes... nice luxury to have.

 

Now Russ is passing the ball.

 

Yeah Roco is part of that depth they have. He will play at times this series for sure.

 

Did we saved Jody some money after the trade? It’s all about the money

 

I think, given all of the other trades that Joe has made make sense, that either Joe panicked on his first move or much more likely he had pressure from ownership to make the move. Maybe just cut the salaries however you can and get it done now or something weirder like the Microsoft connection. Regardless he hasn't made one move since then that has been a bad one, so for me his track record is pretty damn good. Obviously all of the moves he's made have been small and about acquiring assets and not building a quality team, so we have to wait and see if he's capable of that.

 

Russ just made two huge hustle plays.

 

Playoff Basketball at its best.

 

HCP's boyfriend was MVP of crunch time.