*** Official 2015-16 NBA Playoff Thread ***

Letting "the players decide" is fine until someone gets hurt (or intentionally kicked in the nuts).

I think the NBA did OKC a favor by letting Green play. So many globetrotter style passes that were TO and it really galvanized OKC to put the pedal down seeing him out there. OKC hit their high point at the right time of the year. I love it how the 2001 Mariners are now trending on Twitter.
 
Title windows in the NBA open and close faster than you usually expect. Four years ago it looked like OKC would own the West for the foreseeable future, then all of a sudden it looked like they had completely missed their chance and now their one win from being the favorites in the Finals again.

A couple months ago Joe Lacob was going on and on about how the Warriors were going to dominate the league for years to come, suddenly they don't look athletic enough to keep up with OKC. I think win or lose, Durant comes back to OKC for at least one more year and if they get a title at any point during that stretch it will be real hard for him to walk away.

I think this as well, simply because he and his agent will also want his contract to open back up when the salary scale jumps in a few years.
 
I think this as well, simply because he and his agent will also want his contract to open back up when the salary scale jumps in a few years.

It makes a lot of sense to sign a one year deal with OKC next year, like you said he can get in on the salary cap jump then and also Westbrook and Ibaka's deals will be up then too.
 
I'm not making excuses for anyone, but I think Curry and Green are both playing through injuries. We know Green has been playing with a gimpy ankle for a while now and Curry had the knee injury back in round one plus the dinged up shooting elbow from earlier in this series. Neither player has looked 100% other than Curry's outburst in Game 2. It doesn't take away from what the Thunder are on the verge of doing, but players that good don't fall off like they have for no reason. I'm kind of excited about a potential KD/Lebron showdown in the Finals.
 
I'm not making excuses for anyone, but I think Curry and Green are both playing through injuries. We know Green has been playing with a gimpy ankle for a while now and Curry had the knee injury back in round one plus the dinged up shooting elbow from earlier in this series. Neither player has looked 100% other than Curry's outburst in Game 2. It doesn't take away from what the Thunder are on the verge of doing, but players that good don't fall off like they have for no reason. I'm kind of excited about a potential KD/Lebron showdown in the Finals.
I think the question is even at 100%, are there real weaknesses here? I think the answer is yes. Golden State looks unathletic and small. These were the same things people were worried about when Curry and Thompson were both coming into the NBA. They overcame them with the best precision basketball in the land. But injuries make everything a little different, and at this point Curry cant even hit FT. It is a good point that if you rated the top NBA guys by durability, Curry may come in last. He is a Bo Jackson of Super Tecmo Bowl. Dominant stats but always in Bad condition.

In addition I know NBA purists will cry foul, but you play defense differently in the playoffs. The OKC team is flying around the court. Golden State is still playing like this is the regular season. They basically found something that works and are sticking with it. Their bench had hardly any minutes because of this.

Also, Billy Donovan is coaching circles around Steve Kerr. Which is awesome.
 
Does anyone here think Toronto has a shot tonight?
I think Lebron is a great player. I think he is a bad coach. Since he is currently in both positions for the Cavs, I think it is very possible he doesn't tell Tyronn to make the right adjustments and the Raptors win.
 
I think the question is even at 100%, are there real weaknesses here? I think the answer is yes. Golden State looks unathletic and small. These were the same things people were worried about when Curry and Thompson were both coming into the NBA. They overcame them with the best precision basketball in the land. But injuries make everything a little different, and at this point Curry cant even hit FT. It is a good point that if you rated the top NBA guys by durability, Curry may come in last. He is a Bo Jackson of Super Tecmo Bowl. Dominant stats but always in Bad condition.

In addition I know NBA purists will cry foul, but you play defense differently in the playoffs. The OKC team is flying around the court. Golden State is still playing like this is the regular season. They basically found something that works and are sticking with it. Their bench had hardly any minutes because of this.

Also, Billy Donovan is coaching circles around Steve Kerr. Which is awesome.

I don't think anyone would deny this. The energy level goes up, plus almost all of your scouting and coaching resources are focused on one team rather than several teams on the upcoming schedule. Kerr has had that small ball line up trump card that he's been able to pull out at any time he needed it over the last two years, but for the first time, it's not working. Not only is it not working, that lineup is getting destroyed now, they can't rebound, they can't stop OKC with that lineup. I think they need to go big and slow it down at this point to have a shot, which is the exact opposite of how they've handled trouble the last two years, it's always been go small and if that doesn't work go even smaller.
 
Title windows in the NBA open and close faster than you usually expect. Four years ago it looked like OKC would own the West for the foreseeable future, then all of a sudden it looked like they had completely missed their chance and now their one win from being the favorites in the Finals again.

A couple months ago Joe Lacob was going on and on about how the Warriors were going to dominate the league for years to come, suddenly they don't look athletic enough to keep up with OKC. I think win or lose, Durant comes back to OKC for at least one more year and if they get a title at any point during that stretch it will be real hard for him to walk away.
Four years ago the Thunder still had Harden( how good would they be if he stayed). The last 2 season Durant and Westbrook have been hurt. The thunder just needs to build a decent team around Durant and Westbrook and they'll be contending for titles for the next couple years.

As for the Warriors I think they have one more really good season before they start to drop off.
 
Four years ago the Thunder still had Harden( how good would they be if he stayed). The last 2 season Durant and Westbrook have been hurt. The thunder just needs to build a decent team around Durant and Westbrook and they'll be contending for titles for the next couple years.

As for the Warriors I think they have one more really good season before they start to drop off.
The OKC team right now is the team everyone has been expecting to see. I think they are all finally healthy at the same time.
 
Nope. Toronto's going to have to prove they can play well on the road first, let alone win one. I think tonight is going to be the Lebron show.

I want to see how quick they are to go away from Love again, going small with either Thompson or Frye would seem to be the Cavs best lineup for this series.
 
I think Lebron is a great player. I think he is a bad coach. Since he is currently in both positions for the Cavs, I think it is very possible he doesn't tell Tyronn to make the right adjustments and the Raptors win.

He can't be that bad, he's been to 5 straight finals, maybe 6 this year.
 
Four years ago the Thunder still had Harden( how good would they be if he stayed). The last 2 season Durant and Westbrook have been hurt. The thunder just needs to build a decent team around Durant and Westbrook and they'll be contending for titles for the next couple years.

As for the Warriors I think they have one more really good season before they start to drop off.




Harden is poison.
 

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