OFFICIAL AROUND THE NBA: DECEMBER 2024

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SharpesTriumph said:
The Blazers were a 3 seed and the Pelicans were the 6th seed. Demarcus Cousins was the Pelicans big star along with Davis but had torn his Achilles. The Pelicans hadn't won a playoff game in 8 years and only had one other appearance getting swept.

So totally made sense the Blazers were favored.
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The Blazers won a grand total of (checks notes) 1 more game than the Pelicans did that year. The only people who were surprised that the Blazers lost (or constantly complained about it/used it as proof of anything) were people who had no idea what they were talking about.
 
julius said:
The Blazers won a grand total of (checks notes) 1 more game than the Pelicans did that year. The only people who were surprised that the Blazers lost (or constantly complained about it/used it as proof of anything) were people who had no idea what they were talking about.
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Um, the Blazers were swept 4 games to zero. It looks like proof of something to me. That they couldn't even win one game in the first round, at least that particular season.

Big difference between being swept and losing in 7 games.
 
blazerfan11 said:
Um, the Blazers were swept 4 games to zero. It looks like proof of something to me. That they couldn't even win one game in the first round, at least that particular season.

Big difference between being swept and losing in 7 games.
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Again, the Blazers only beat the Pelicans when Davis was injured during the regular season. If Davis played all of those games Portland would have likely been swept by the Pelicans in the regular season as well.
 
Phatguysrule said:
Again, the Blazers only beat the Pelicans when Davis was injured during the regular season. If Davis played all of those games Portland would have likely been swept by the Pelicans in the regular season as well.
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And that would have changed their win/loss record and possibly even changed the matchup altogether?
 
Phatguysrule said:
Again, the Blazers only beat the Pelicans when Davis was injured during the regular season. If Davis played all of those games Portland would have likely been swept by the Pelicans in the regular season as well.
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Regular season doesn't mean much. Teams often lose that and win the series or vice versa.

The Pelicans won a single playoff game in Anthony Davis career outside that Blazers sweep - they were a bad playoff team and most often a lottery team. It made perfect sense that the Blazers were a favorite in that series. Also makes sense the Blazers lost, they werent a great team either. It was very surprising the Blazers got swept though.
 
kjironman1 said:
And that would have changed their win/loss record and possibly even changed the matchup altogether?
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SharpesTriumph said:
Regular season doesn't mean much. Teams often lose that and win the series or vice versa.

The Pelicans won a single playoff game in Anthony Davis career outside that Blazers sweep - they were a bad playoff team and most often a lottery team. It made perfect sense that the Blazers were a favorite in that series. Also makes sense the Blazers lost, they werent a great team either. It was very surprising the Blazers got swept though.
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Yep. Davis had injury problems and that prevented the Pelicans from getting a good seed year after year. The difference was Davis was healthy vs the Blazers that series. Without Davis and Cousins the Blazers could outscore them. So picking the Blazers to win was picking Davis to miss 4 of the 7 games.

With Davis the teams weren't close that season. The Blazers were woefully outclassed talent wise. Without Davis the Pelicans didn't have enough offense to keep up with Portland and they didn't have enough defense to shut down both Dame and CJ consistently.

Even with Davis the Pelicans didn't have enough offense to keep up with Golden State, who had more All Stars and better defense.

Davis was healthy enough for the Pelicans to make the playoffs twice in his time there, and both times they were easily run out of the playoffs by Golden State (like most other teams Golden State faced during this time). They just got a lucky draw against a team they were more talented than when they dropped to 6 and were gifted Portland at 3.

Portland's only chance in that series was the Pelicans having devastating injury problems. Which wasn't unlikely. But it has very little to do with Dame or coaching. Portland simply didn't have the horses to compete with a healthy Pelicans team that season.
 
Phatguysrule said:
Yep. Davis had injury problems and that prevented the Pelicans from getting a good seed year after year. The difference was Davis was healthy vs the Blazers that series. Without Davis and Cousins the Blazers could outscore them. So picking the Blazers to win was picking Davis to miss 4 of the 7 games.

With Davis the teams weren't close that season. The Blazers were woefully outclassed talent wise. Without Davis the Pelicans didn't have enough offense to keep up with Portland and they didn't have enough defense to shut down both Dame and CJ consistently.

Even with Davis the Pelicans didn't have enough offense to keep up with Golden State, who had more All Stars and better defense.

Davis was healthy enough for the Pelicans to make the playoffs twice in his time there, and both times they were easily run out of the playoffs by Golden State (like most other teams Golden State faced during this time). They just got a lucky draw against a team they were more talented than when they dropped to 6 and were gifted Portland at 3.

Portland's only chance in that series was the Pelicans having devastating injury problems. Which wasn't unlikely. But it has very little to do with Dame or coaching. Portland simply didn't have the horses to compete with a healthy Pelicans team that season.
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Also if you go back the Blazers were not healthy. Lillard, Nurk and Chief were all dealing with injuries.
 
blazerfan11 said:
Um, the Blazers were swept 4 games to zero. It looks like proof of something to me. That they couldn't even win one game in the first round, at least that particular season.

Big difference between being swept and losing in 7 games.
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People bring up them being the 6th seed as if they were significantly worse. The Pelicans were 1 win worse.

That's my point. And it's not that surprising that a team with 1 fewer win and there was a total of 5 points difference between their games that year (and sucked at defense) lost to a team 1 game worse than them with better roster construction.

And the post I quoted directly referenced the 6th seed vs 3rd seed thing.

This isn't about whether or not it was a disappointment, it was about how the "3rd vs 6th" narrative is lazy and inaccurate.
 
Phatguysrule said:
Portland's only chance in that series was the Pelicans having devastating injury problems. Which wasn't unlikely. But it has very little to do with Dame or coaching. Portland simply didn't have the horses to compete with a healthy Pelicans team that season.
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First the Pelicans weren't healthy - Cousins had a torn Achilles.

Second your overall point is not consistent with betting odds, experts picks, or any other projections at the time. The Blazers were favored in that series and had HCA. Maybe you had a hot take and expected the Pelicans to easily win that series - should have put a bunch of money on it. The people that were projecting that professionally did not project something your stating is so obvious in hindsight.
 
julius said:
People bring up them being the 6th seed as if they were significantly worse. The Pelicans were 1 win worse.

That's my point. And it's not that surprising that a team with 1 fewer win and there was a total of 5 points difference between their games that year.

And the post I quoted directly referenced the 6th seed vs 3rd seed thing.

This isn't about whether or not it was a disappointment, it was about how the "3rd vs 6th" narrative is lazy and inaccurate.
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I simply stated a fact that the Blazers were the 3 seed. I never said they were an overwhelming favorite or anything as often the 3 seed is - they weren't. They were a very small favorite, but they were the favorite. That was a very flawed Pelicans team and yes it was also a very flawed Blazers team. It was totally expected the Pelicans could win that series. It wasn't expected they would sweep it.
 
That Pelicans team was trash, Nikola Mirotic and Etwan Moore were their other starters and both horrible 3rd scoring options. While Jrue is great, he shouldn't be a 2nd scoring option, he should be 3rd or 4th at the most. Rajon Rondo scored 8.3ppg on 46% shooting with 54% FT. Their other role players were Darius Miller and Ian Clark.

It's one thing to get swept by the Warriors or Spurs as the Dame Blazers did. But to get swept by that Pelicans team when Cousins was injured was just a complete embarrassment.

Yes the Pelicans and Blazers had similar regular seasons so it made sense that either team could win the series. Still even that was with Cousins playing so the Pelicans should have been projected as worse in the playoffs than their regular season record.

So no the Pelicans never should have been considered an obvious favorite as many here are stating in hindsight, nor have been expected to sweep.
 
SharpesTriumph said:
I simply stated a fact that the Blazers were the 3 seed. I never said they were an overwhelming favorite or anything as often the 3 seed is - they weren't. They were a very small favorite, but they were the favorite. That was a very flawed Pelicans team and yes it was also a very flawed Blazers team. It was totally expected the Pelicans could win that series. It wasn't expected they would sweep it.
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I think they were like the 99 Blazers. Not in talent, or what they should have done (well, that 99 team massively over performed), but once the dam was broke, they didn't know what to do.

I.e., once Sean Elliott hit that fucking shot, the team was done for.

Same with that years Blazer team. Once they lost HCA, especially in the way they lost it (being a super close game) they just were like a kid who just found out his crush only liked him as an acquaintance. Gutted.
 
SharpesTriumph said:
First the Pelicans weren't healthy - Cousins had a torn Achilles.

Second your overall point is not consistent with betting odds, experts picks, or any other projections at the time. The Blazers were favored in that series and had HCA. Maybe you had a hot take and expected the Pelicans to easily win that series - should have put a bunch of money on it. The people that were projecting that professionally did not project something your stating is so obvious in hindsight.
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They had three contributing All Stars (Davis, Jrue, and Rondo) (and again, that's guys who have been All Stars, and are still playing impactful basketball). Yes, their fourth All-Star (cousins) was injured.

We had one.

If they only had two All Stars that's probably a really good series.
 
BigGameDamian said:
Should Portland be interested?

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price will be way off from what the Blazers want to pay. Pels will want draft and young prospect assets. Same thing Portland wants. I think the Pels are diving into the placid waters of the tank. But maybe, like Portland, they just can't commit to that direction. They should. They should trade Ingram, Zion, and CJ for whatever they can get. Jones is already 26 so he's on the edge of being too old for a tanking team. His contract is nice though.
 
Phatguysrule said:
They had three contributing All Stars (Davis, Jrue, and Rondo) (and again, that's guys who have been All Stars, and are still playing impactful basketball). Yes, their fourth All-Star (cousins) was injured.

We had one.

If they only had two All Stars that's probably a really good series.
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Rondo was on his 5th team earning the vet minimum, scored 8 ppg, but now you consider him a contributing all-star along with Dame, Davis and Jrue?

That Pelicans team was trash - the next season with the same Davis, Jrue, Mirotic, Moore starters but Cousins injured the entire year the Pelicans were well under .500 and blew up the team.

Blazers were even worst than trash to get swept by that Pelicans team.
 
SharpesTriumph said:
Rondo was on his 5th team earning the vet minimum, scored 8 ppg, but now you consider him a contributing all-star along with Dame, Davis and Jrue?

That Pelicans team was trash - the next season with the same Davis, Jrue, Mirotic, Moore starters but Cousins injured the entire year the Pelicans were well under .500 and blew up the team.

Blazers were even worst than trash to get swept by that Pelicans team.
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Rondo's defense was far better than anybody Portland had. Not even close.

Yes, the Blazers roster was absolutely trash. They didn't have any winners like Rondo or Jrue (say what want about Rondo, his play wasn't the reason he was only making the minimum). Portland didn't have any elite athletes like Davis.

All they had was Dame.
 
wizenheimer said:
price will be way off from what the Blazers want to pay. Pels will want draft and young prospect assets. Same thing Portland wants. I think the Pels are diving into the placid waters of the tank. But maybe, like Portland, they just can't commit to that direction. They should. They should trade Ingram, Zion, and CJ for whatever they can get. Jones is already 26 so he's on the edge of being too old for a tanking team. His contract is nice though.
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And I’m willing to bet if the Pelicans tank and trade away their big 3, they’ll be back in the playoffs before the Blazers.
 
MickZagger said:
And I’m willing to bet if the Pelicans tank and trade away their big 3, they’ll be back in the playoffs before the Blazers.
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Herb and Troy are great forwards on nice contracts. Their vets could get a haul, and the Pelicans have good amount of picks. So yeah they're stacked for a nice quick rebuild even if they tear it all down.

There's just very few rosters in the NBA setup worse than ours unfortunately.
 
BigGameDamian said:
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