How are the Spurs winning without Leonard and with Parker + Ginobily Stinking up like that? Can't tell me it is all Aldridge.
Because Pop plays his bench all year long from the start so they are ready and able to step up and fill in when necessary. Every year they have guys most people have never heard of making big contributions.
As much as I hate to say it, Aldridge is having the best season of his career. Career highs in both PER and TS%. Pop and his system also has some sort of magic that turns guys like Rudy Gay into positive defenders. The 6MOY award will probably come down to Eric Gordon and Lou Williams, but Gay should be in the top 5, if not the top 3. BNM
I just checked. Gay has played 51 games, 6 of which he started so no, he is not top 5 for 6th man of the year.
That would also eliminate Eric Gordon who has only come off the bench 37 times and almost eliminates Lou Williams who has only come off the bench 57 times. Thankfully, the NBA takes a more sensible approach to this award. The only requirement to be eligible is a player must come off the bench more times than he starts. So Gay, Gordon and Williams all qualify. BNM
Wonder if it'll end up in our best interests to tank the final game of the season so as to cement the Jazz into the 4/5 matchup.
sure, only if we don't also slip to 4 in the process. That last game could be fairly meaningless to both teams if we get locked into 3/6 or 4/5. Only impact would be for second round matchups
Gobert and Mitchell are good. But I believe Ingles would present a giant matchup problem for Portland with or without Harkless. imo that's the reason why Portland shouldn't want Utah.
Terry is currently on radio. He said "3 seed or 4 seed doesn't matter. We just want home court in the first round." He also seems to think division winners get HCA, and he's wrong.
Western Conference Playoff Standings Record Conference Playoff Spots No Playoffs Team W L 1* 2* 3* 4* 5 6 7 8 9 Rockets 62 15 0 ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ Warriors 56 21 X 0 ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ Trail Blazers 48 29 X X 3 2 1 1 1 0 ^ Our magic number to clinch the 3rd spot is 3 Our magic number to clinch the 5th spot is 1. http://www.playoffstatus.com/nba/westernwinmagicnumbers.html
Huh? Thought division winners got seeds 1-4? Edit: guess winning your division is the second tie breaker just behind head to head.
I got the impression that he was saying that if they win enough games to win the division, that will also be enough wins to be in the top 4, which is true. Spurs are the only non-NW team that could possibly finish #3.
