***2024 NBA Thread - Let The Games Begin***

TribalDrumz said:
You still don’t understand big 3 caliber players wow … Kobe was going up against Paul Pierce the Truth in the finals . Don’t mention Andre fucking Kirilenko
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Kirilenko led Russia to victorys over Spain and Argentina in the Olympics.
 
I actually think OKC play style is better suited to beating Denver than Dallas'. But I think Dallas' more unpredictable superior star power to OKC evens that out.

If Denver comes back to beat Minnesota though I'm not picking anyone against them - that's enough egg on my face. I don't ever recall a team making adjustments of the magnitude Denver has to swing that series so ridiculously. Wildes' light dimming glasses wearing gentlemen's skits on First Things First have been hilarious. "I never said they couldn't be beaten two games in a row, I said nobody can bear them in a seven game series.". He's milking it for all it's worth and it's hilarious. Anyhow, just gonna assume they win until someone beats them.

The east has been thoroughly uninteresting so far. I'm still pencilling in Boston for the finals but at least a series against New York won't feel like a total formality (to me at least).
 
Unknown Pleasures said:
I actually think OKC play style is better suited to beating Denver than Dallas'. But I think Dallas' more unpredictable superior star power to OKC evens that out.

If Denver comes back to beat Minnesota though I'm not picking anyone against them - that's enough egg on my face. I don't ever recall a team making adjustments of the magnitude Denver has to swing that series so ridiculously. Wildes' light dimming glasses wearing gentlemen's skits on First Things First have been hilarious. "I never said they couldn't be beaten two games in a row, I said nobody can bear them in a seven game series.". He's milking it for all it's worth and it's hilarious. Anyhow, just gonna assume they win until someone beats them.

The east has been thoroughly uninteresting so far. I'm still pencilling in Boston for the finals but at least a series against New York won't feel like a total formality (to me at least).
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I think it’s the opposite with the thunder mavs matching up with the Nuggets. If the thunder can’t make it a fast pace game, they are done. Their half court game has been exposed by the Mavs in this series.

Thunder also have zero experience and full of young players who have never made it this far. They have no bigs that can cause the slightest of problems for Jokic (Chet is getting bodied by Dallas’ bigs lol) and if Ant Man can’t beat them with his surrounding cast, the thunder are even worse off. Shai would have to outperform Jokic and Murray basically, while Gordon is more consistent than every other player on the Thunder.

As for the Mavs, they have size, experience, two elite players that can matchup with Jokic/Murray, can play fast or slow effectively, more firepower with the surrounding cast than the thunder, and are better defensively than the thunder. In the end, I still think Denver beats both teams if they advance, but Dallas has a better shot to beat them.
 
MM808 said:
I think it’s the opposite with the thunder mavs matching up with the Nuggets. If the thunder can’t make it a fast pace game, they are done. Their half court game has been exposed by the Mavs in this series.

Thunder also have zero experience and full of young players who have never made it this far. They have no bigs that can cause the slightest of problems for Jokic (Chet is getting bodied by Dallas’ bigs lol) and if Ant Man can’t beat them with his surrounding cast, the thunder are even worse off. Shai would have to outperform Jokic and Murray basically, while Gordon is more consistent than every other player on the Thunder.

As for the Mavs, they have size, experience, two elite players that can matchup with Jokic/Murray, can play fast or slow effectively, more firepower with the surrounding cast than the thunder, and are better defensively than the thunder. In the end, I still think Denver beats both teams if they advance, but Dallas has a better shot to beat them.
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I think you hit the nail on the head re: fast paced game. I think they (OKC) could in theory make it that at times and have success. And that would be problems for Denver. Kind of like how GS beat the watered down version of Denver in the playoffs a few years ago. This version of Denver is much stronger of course but I'm of the mind out thinking them is a fools errand but out running them isn't IMO.

Right now I don't think any center left in the playoffs can stop Jokic without assists from ref whistles, so that's somewhat of a non factor to me. But I do think offensive speed reduces his defensive effectiveness. I think OKC did better in the reg season against Denver than Dallas' did, but that's also a meh from me. 7 game series with tactics is different IMO.

One thing is though if Denver wins, probably better for their legacy to beat OKC. You know the half wits will be talking about never having been any good and beating a 5 seed instead of a 1 seed when Denver eventually does lose lol. But really shouldn't get ahead of myself, they still gotta finish off what I thought was the toughest team in the West that was most designed to beat them.
 
Unknown Pleasures said:
I think you hit the nail on the head re: fast paced game. I think they (OKC) could in theory make it that at times and have success. And that would be problems for Denver. Kind of like how GS beat the watered down version of Denver in the playoffs a few years ago. This version of Denver is much stronger of course but I'm of the mind out thinking them is a fools errand but out running them isn't IMO.

Right now I don't think any center left in the playoffs can stop Jokic without assists from ref whistles, so that's somewhat of a non factor to me. But I do think offensive speed reduces his defensive effectiveness. I think OKC did better in the reg season against Denver than Dallas' did, but that's also a meh from me. 7 game series with tactics is different IMO.

One thing is though if Denver wins, probably better for their legacy to beat OKC. You know the half wits will be talking about never having been any good and beating a 5 seed instead of a 1 seed when Denver eventually does lose lol. But really shouldn't get ahead of myself, they still gotta finish off what I thought was the toughest team in the West that was most designed to beat them.
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I agree on some points but Denver has been so good playing fast these last 3 games, it was the main reason they made this comeback. In fact, they have more total fastbreak points than the thunder have in comparing the two series. I can’t count how many times I’ve seen them score off of long passes from Jokic, fastbreak threes off of turnovers, moving the ball around the perimeter, etc. They have the athletic players to do both styles probably even better than how the mavs do it too.

As far as the bigs go, I think it’s a huge issue. Difference between Jokic dominating with 30-40 pts vs possibly 20-30 could be significant. Having zero inside presence against the best big man in the game and against Gordon who thrives at the rim is a recipe for disaster. Jokic is feasting inside against a team with 3 good bigs/the DPOY. Imagine what he does to the Thunder…Look how many alley-oops and dunks the Mavs are getting vs this team, will be close or worse against the Nuggets.

I don’t see the thunder posing a big threat if they make it past the Mavs.
 
MM808 said:
I agree on some points but Denver has been so good playing fast these last 3 games, it was the main reason they made this comeback. In fact, they have more total fastbreak points than the thunder have in comparing the two series. I can’t count how many times I’ve seen them score off of long passes from Jokic, fastbreak threes off of turnovers, moving the ball around the perimeter, etc. They have the athletic players to do both styles probably even better than how the mavs do it too.

As far as the bigs go, I think it’s a huge issue. Difference between Jokic dominating with 30-40 pts vs possibly 20-30 could be significant. Having zero inside presence against the best big man in the game and against Gordon who thrives at the rim is a recipe for disaster. Jokic is feasting inside against a team with 3 good bigs/the DPOY. Imagine what he does to the Thunder…Look how many alley-oops and dunks the Mavs are getting vs this team. I don’t see the thunder posing a big threat if they make it past the Mavs.
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All the inside presence in the world from all defensive types in AD, Bam, Gobert etc haven't done a lick to slow post season Big Honey down. He's gonna get his. And with him points totals don't really matter much, he can be more dominant getting 20 than getting 30 - it's pure team chemistry and making the engine run better than it's individual parts than him being a scoring king. I thing the last game was the first time he scored 40 or more in a playoff game and the team won. It's generally misleading IMO to do a player by player breakdown with Denver and other teams because they are a total system team with little in the way of hero ball. Question is on the other end is the speed to get around Jokic or to some degree exhaust him because he's an intellectual defender, not an agile guy with good feet on defense.

I'm definitely not saying I pick OKC over Denver or saying they are are a much bigger challenge -- when Denver lost that game at end of season against the Spurs and some said it was some sort of collapse, the salient thing to me was finishing ahead of Minnesota to get home court there (though that hasn't turned out to matter much anyways lol unless it gets to a game 7). Never thought home court we make a difference in a series against OKC, but as a nuggets fan, I'm just on the indifferent side between facing them or facing Dallas with home court. Both are very good teams that are dangerous, both are challenges in their own, albeit different ways.
 
ferrisjso said:
The Nets, Wizards and Suns were commonly referred to as big 3s not to mention Spurs. The Bulls with Gordon, Hinrich, Deng and Ben Wallace might have even been called a big 4. They got lots of hype Jazz had Boozer, Deron Williams and Okur.

I came up with a lot more duos than 3s admittedly. I provided a solid group of teams with 3 star players though.
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Ok, as a long suffering Bulls fan who pathetically misses even those days......good god, shut the fuck up already. You have absolutely zero idea how ignorant you come across spouting this nonsense <lol>
 
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