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tlongII said:
The Spurs are NOT in the mix for the WCF. They will fall off. GuarandamnSheed.
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I kind of agree but I their demise is exaggerated. They were in the playoff mix (and made it) last year with out Kawhi playing and all the Kawhi stuff too. Then added Derozan who is a very good SG borderline all star (type), in terms of the playoff mix I think they’ll be in. I dont think they’re a legit contender to come out of the west though.
 
Spurs are the same as the Blazers. First round fodder.
 
SheedSoNasty said:
Wow... that was a crazy game between SA and OKC just looking at the box score:

SA shot 16/19 on three pointers for an incredible 84%.
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They were 89% until missing their last attempt very late in the game. How would you like to be the guy who accounted for 2 of the team's 3 misses, including that one?
 
BonesJones said:
Compare their roster before IT and now... they have talent to contend with a lot of great young talent and many more picks coming.

Their record through half a season doesnt mean anything.
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I know they are loaded put they haven't been able to make the dance yet! Lets see.
They've had enough talent over the last five years to contend and certainly way more than Portland.
 
kjironman1 said:
Say what you want about the Blazers but losing LaMarcus was a giant step back. If they had him on the roster the Blazers would be a contender.
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LA never would have played like this had he stayed here. Pops is solely responsible for making LA a good player. If he was still playing for Tater Totts he'd primarily be shooting 18' jumpers at a roughly 40% clip.
 
blue9 said:
LA never would have played like this had he stayed here. Pops is solely responsible for making LA a good player. If he was still playing for Tater Totts he'd primarily be shooting 18' jumpers at a roughly 40% clip.
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Oh please..... How soon we forget.
 
blue9 said:
LA never would have played like this had he stayed here. Pops is solely responsible for making LA a good player. If he was still playing for Tater Totts he'd primarily be shooting 18' jumpers at a roughly 40% clip.
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Sir, LaMarcus was arguably the BEST GOD DAMN POWER FORWARD IN THE LEAGUE when he was with us. You realize this right? You just typed he was a "good" player. My lord!
 
Zach Lowe 10 things has this on Nurk:
When I visited Portland two months ago, a rival executive summed up the Blazers alleged stasis with one cogent line: The gap between their second- and third-best players is too big. He identified a chasm between C.J. McCollum and Jusuf Nurkic. Flash forward, and it's possible Nurkic has been Portland's second-best player this season.

He is averaging career highs across the board, and has looked straight-up nimble finishing on the pick-and-roll:

Damian Lillard and McCollum with traps in last season's playoffs. For Portland to survive that, Nurkic has to be comfortable catching, passing and finishing in open space. He has succeeded on all counts.

The Blazers have scored 1.18 points per possession on any trip featuring a Nurkic on-ball pick, the 10th-highest figure among almost 175 high-volume screen-setters, per Second Spectrum.

Portland loves clearing one side of the floor for the Lillard-Nurkic dance:

Nurkic can manufacture offense from the post. He's a deft passer from the elbows.

He is a one-man gang on the offensive glass. Tracking technology measures how likely each player on the floor is to snare any rebound based on his location the moment a shot goes up. Nurkic's offensive rebounding rate is almost 5.5 percentage points higher than expected based on that data -- the sixth-largest bump among rotation players, per Second Spectrum.

He'll never be the main driver of an elite defense, but you can build a solid one around him. This Nurkic is a bargain on a four-year, $48 million deal. Portland snaring Nurkic and a first-round pick for Mason Plumlee will go down as an all-time heist for GM Neil Olshey. (To be fair, Plumlee is doing great work as Jokic's backup.)



Portland is 25-17 against the league's second-toughest schedule, though it has been home heavy. It's easing up. If McCollum gets hot and the wing rotation stabilizes, the No. 3 seed could be in play (again).

Videos here: http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/25731162/10-things-like-including-silly-all-star-rules-nba
 
HCP said:
Sir, LaMarcus was arguably the BEST GOD DAMN POWER FORWARD IN THE LEAGUE when he was with us. You realize this right? You just typed he was a "good" player. My lord!
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It's tough being the team he left. I can understand the frustration but to question his ability is wrong.
 
kjironman1 said:
It's tough being the team he left. I can understand the frustration but to question his ability is wrong.
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Totally understand the hate. You may not like his style of play or his personality, but at least respect the game. What is being done on the court. Always hate that about fans, not just our fans, but everywhere. Save your hate for some bench scrub, not somebody killing it out there.
 
B-Roy said:
Spurs are the same as the Blazers. First round fodder.
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The rhetoric is that Pops is a great coach. That may or may not be, but IMHO, the relevant factor is that Tim
Duncan is the greatest (or one of) PFs of all time. They don't have him anymore. They still won 61 with Kawhii,
losing in the conference finals. Without either last year, they won 47 and lost in the first round. This year they
are on track to do the same.
 
Wizard Mentor said:
The rhetoric is that Pops is a great coach. That may or may not be, but IMHO, the relevant factor is that Tim
Duncan is the greatest (or one of) PFs of all time. They don't have him anymore. They still won 61 with Kawhii,
losing in the conference finals. Without either last year, they won 47 and lost in the first round. This year they
are on track to do the same.
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Yah I don't know how they've been doing it so far this season. However, I refuse to give credit to Popovich.
 
tlongII said:
Yah I don't know how they've been doing it so far this season. However, I refuse to give credit to Popovich.
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I guess you can give the credit to the players. I mean at least some on this board would have to agree. There are those that absolutely would not give anyone but the coach the credit assuming they will not blame anyone but the coach when a team doesn't play well. You simply cannot say talent makes a difference to some on this board.
 
I knew Cleveland would be bad, but they are really, really terrible. They seriously need to make some moves.
 
calvin natt said:
Uh this is what they want to happen. They’re gonna get ANOTHER top pick. Zion.
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hoopsjock said:
If Cleveland doesn't finish in the bottom-10 they lose their pick to Atlanta so they are trying to be as bad as possible.
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Not really.
1) They're unlikely to get Zion, even if they have the worst record in the league.
2) They wouldn't have given Kevin Love the world if they had planned on being superterrible.
 
Wizard Mentor said:
Not really.
1) They're unlikely to get Zion, even if they have the worst record in the league.
2) They wouldn't have given Kevin Love the world if they had planned on being superterrible.
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This is what happened...

Their owner is a complete moron and wanted to prove that they could still make the playoffs without LeBron. So they stupidly signed Love to an extension thinking they still had the pieces in place to be good. A few games into the season they realized that making the playoffs had a 0% chance of happening (duh!). Love has been "hurt", they traded Korver, and JR Smith isn't even with the team.

So you are right that they were initially thinking they would make the playoffs and thus give Atlanta a non-lottery pick but that plan quickly evaporated. I don't think getting Zion is as important as also keeping their pick. Not having a top-10 pick this year would set them back a long way from rebuilding.
 
hoopsjock said:
This is what happened...

Their owner is a complete moron and wanted to prove that they could still make the playoffs without LeBron. So they stupidly signed Love to an extension thinking they still had the pieces in place to be good. A few games into the season they realized that making the playoffs had a 0% chance of happening (duh!). Love has been "hurt", they traded Korver, and JR Smith isn't even with the team.

So you are right that they were initially thinking they would make the playoffs and thus give Atlanta a non-lottery pick but that plan quickly evaporated. I don't think getting Zion is as important as also keeping their pick. Not having a top-10 pick this year would set them back a long way from rebuilding.
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Exactly correct. You had me at Their owner is a complete moron. :)
 
hoopsjock said:
This is what happened...

Their owner is a complete moron and wanted to prove that they could still make the playoffs without LeBron. So they stupidly signed Love to an extension thinking they still had the pieces in place to be good. A few games into the season they realized that making the playoffs had a 0% chance of happening (duh!). Love has been "hurt", they traded Korver, and JR Smith isn't even with the team.

So you are right that they were initially thinking they would make the playoffs and thus give Atlanta a non-lottery pick but that plan quickly evaporated. I don't think getting Zion is as important as also keeping their pick. Not having a top-10 pick this year would set them back a long way from rebuilding.
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Time for karma to step in as the Cavs have had great fortune in the lottery.
 
I really liked Luka coming into the draft, but I'm shocked how quickly he's adjusted to playing against NBA athletes.

I don't think he'll have the growth curve of a typical 19 year old so I'm not ready to go future MVP high on him, but damn he's impressive.
 
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