2010-2011 NBA Season 2.0

randman · March 22, 2011, 2:57am

[quote]gregron wrote:

[quote]therajraj wrote:
Edit didn’t take

The Lakers are the 2nd worst team in the league when it comes to giving up offensive rebounds.[/quote]

its a lack of effort. its that same old “turn it on in the playoffs” mentality that the Lakers have always had. its pretty frustrating as a fan but it really has worked out for them so I guess I cant complain too much.[/quote]

Agreed. There is no way in hell the Lakers are giving up 18 rebounds to Miami in ANY playoff game (not that Miami is going to make it that far but I digress). Their rebounding on both ends of the floor becomes dominant once the playoff stakes are high.

Throwing out the Miami game, I’m guessing the offensive rebounding stat has improved quite a bit since the All-Star break (with the exception of last night’s game without Bynum where they gave up a shit ton of rebounds again).

therajraj · March 22, 2011, 4:00am

Big game by Howard tonight. I know it’s the Cavs but damn, 28 and 18. Nice night.

Teledin · March 22, 2011, 7:35am

[quote]MattyXL wrote:

[quote]Teledin wrote:

[quote]scj119 wrote:

[quote]Teledin wrote:
Can’t believe Phili have passed NYK for 6th position in the east.[/quote]

Yeah and where are all the Knick fans who thought they were unstoppable after 3 games with Carmelo/Chauncey?[/quote]

TBH I don’t even buy into the whole ‘time to click’ thing. Denver are what … 9-4 since the trade while NYK are 7-8?

NYK haven’t really improved defensively. I think that was their biggest issue to begin with. Just seems like a more uptempo team with the same defense give or take. Personally I think they are worse off defensively.

I lol’d pretty hard at the end of the 1st quarter when Bucks were up 32-9 against them. 9 pts in 12 minutes … REALLY? Chicago or Boston should smoke them in the playoffs. Provided the top 8 doesn’t change much.[/quote]

Hmm sounds like a Knick hater, this is good at least there somewhat relevant again. Statistically at least they have been better defensively. Your wrong about the knicks being more uptempo after the trade, they have been less uptempo after the trade which has been an issue. Melo has been slowing down the offense so far, Billups lately has been uncharectaristically un steady and is not the uptempo PG Felton is. Teammates have started to watch melo and stand there.

It also comes down to coaching, Karl is a better coach than D’antoni, and right now as far as the roster goes the Nuggets are a better team. I dont know why you or anyone would think that this time to gel stuff is BS…the knicks traded half of their team, their starting PG just missed 4 games. They have no size and other than Douglas, Fields and Williams do not have much talent to speak of (not including the melo, stat, billups tri-fecta)

I didnt hear anyone shitting on the knicks when they beat the Heat, Grizzlies twice, destroyed the hornets and Jazz all teams with better records than the knicks.

So I think we need to temper our enthusiasm / hate on both sides of the spectrum[/quote]

I guess I was in a little less of an ideal mood at the time of posting. =P

I see your points clearly, and they are good ones at that.

I accept an initial ‘lapse time’ where issues need to be ironed out (the first 7 - 14 days or so). 30+ days is a different story IMO.

I definitely understand that without a solid coach, these things just don’t work. That is the issue. Miami is another example. How the coach handles the on-court leadership challenge when guys like Bosh/LBJ, Melo/Chauncey make their way into a team, is very important and I’d argue the highest priority initially.

It’s been about a month now since the trade and on the flip side NYK did drop games to the Bucks, Cavs x 2, Pacers x 2 and could have been blown out even more against Dallas had it not been for their very impressive 35/37 from the free throw line. At least 5 of their 9 losses were very winnable games.

Denver on paper really aren’t too impressive but something seems to be working over there as they haven’t seemed to miss a beat since their major roster shake-up.

I guess we’ll see what happens come playoff time. Either way the Knicks will be going up against the Heat, Bulls or C’s and if they can scare one of those teams, I’ll give them credit where credit is due.

Teledin · March 22, 2011, 8:14am

[quote]sam_sneed wrote:
You guys don’t think Billups missing 6 games since the trade has anything to do with that?
[/quote]
From memory they won at least 3 of those games without Billups, and even with him dropped easy games. I guess when I think back some of the games I watched on TV didn’t have Chauncey in the line up.

It’s a given though, teams will have their ups and downs. Even great teams. I know I might be coming across a little extreme, but I genuinely don’t believe they will go deep in the playoffs. Not this season, not next. Unless they make some major changes defensively. Which is the reason I believe the Celtics and Bulls would smoke them in the first round.

They do have great offense I’ll give them that, despite the shake-ups between a guy like Amare who likes to play a fast game while Billups liking to slow it down more. Once they do ‘click’ - if they do - watch out because there are some very legit bench scorers in the mix. Something that a team like Miami lacks and I feel, holds them back.

sam_sneed1 · March 22, 2011, 2:33pm

[quote]Teledin wrote:

From memory they won at least 3 of those games without Billups, and even with him dropped easy games. I guess when I think back some of the games I watched on TV didn’t have Chauncey in the line up.
[/quote]

Yeah, that’s true but not the only factor I was getting at. It’s hard to get the chemistry and team to gel together when your new main ball handler is out for a bunch of games. You can see it when he came back that the timing, spacing and tempo has been somewhat off.

The last 7 minutes of last night’s game is a perfect example. It was painful to watch. The Knicks execution seriously reminded me of a crappy high school pickup game where everyone stands around the perimeter waiting for the ball. There was no play making, cutting or movement what so ever. They’ve got 2 great scorers and Billups as a third option down the stretch. They should have a few good set plays that they can go to towards the end of the game; all the other good teams have that. Instead you just have a clusterfuck of no movement and poor spacing leading to poor passing and turnovers.

therajraj · March 22, 2011, 1:25pm

[quote]gregron wrote:

[quote]therajraj wrote:
Edit didn’t take

The Lakers are the 2nd worst team in the league when it comes to giving up offensive rebounds.[/quote]

its a lack of effort. its that same old “turn it on in the playoffs” mentality that the Lakers have always had. its pretty frustrating as a fan but it really has worked out for them so I guess I cant complain too much.[/quote]

That’s one thing better about the MLB format. In NHL/NBA the top teams can coast for parts of the season and still make the playoffs. In baseball it’s gotta be full effort day-in and day-out for 162 games straight to make the playoffs.

scj119 · March 22, 2011, 3:23pm

[quote]gregron wrote:

[quote]therajraj wrote:

[quote]scj119 wrote:

[quote]gregron wrote:
The final few minutes of the Lakers/Blazers game last night were awesome. Two things that were very evident:

Lakers missed Bynum down low. They gave up waaaaaaay too many offensive rebounds.
Kobe hasn’t been himself for the past couple games. The announcers said his shooting percentage over the season is 45% a d since the ankle injury he has had a 35% average. That’s a pretty significant drop off/stat. We was on fire over the last couple minutes and nailed 3 or 4 really big shots but for most of the game his shooting was really bad.[/quote]

Wait, I missed this - why was Bynum not playing?[/quote]

Suspended[/quote]

he got a flagrant 2 in their game the other night and he has to miss 2 games. 1 down and 1 to go[/quote]

Duh I totally forgot. You said he was out and I immediately thought he was resting his knees or something, but I did read about that.

scj119 · March 22, 2011, 3:30pm

[quote]sam_sneed wrote:

[quote]Teledin wrote:

From memory they won at least 3 of those games without Billups, and even with him dropped easy games. I guess when I think back some of the games I watched on TV didn’t have Chauncey in the line up.
[/quote]

Yeah, that’s true but not the only factor I was getting at. It’s hard to get the chemistry and team to gel together when your new main ball handler is out for a bunch of games. You can see it when he came back that the timing, spacing and tempo has been somewhat off.

The last 7 minutes of last night’s game is a perfect example. It was painful to watch. The Knicks execution seriously reminded me of a crappy high school pickup game where everyone stands around the perimeter waiting for the ball. There was no play making, cutting or movement what so ever. They’ve got 2 great scorers and Billups as a third option down the stretch. They should have a few good set plays that they can go to towards the end of the game; all the other good teams have that. Instead you just have a clusterfuck of no movement and poor spacing leading to poor passing and turnovers.

[/quote]

There are a couple problems in NY in my opinion. One is that I think D’Antoni has a hard time adapting his system to different rosters. He’s a great coach if you have the right players, but his strength isn’t designing half-court sets.

We’ve talked about Billups’s weaknesses (in regards to running an up-tempo system)… but another problem with the “fit” of this roster is that Melo slows the ball down. That’s just his game, and is not going to change. He’ll never be a spot-up shooter who likes to put up quick jumpshots off screens. He creates with the ball. His best talents are directly opposed to what D’Antoni likes to do on offense.

That’s what I said when the trade first went through - that it will be interesting to see if D’Antoni can change his system to accomodate a ball-dominating wing player. Knicks fans can answer this better than I, but so far it seems like he’s struggling wth it.

gregron · March 22, 2011, 3:33pm

[quote]scj119 wrote:

[quote]gregron wrote:
he got a flagrant 2 in their game the other night and he has to miss 2 games. 1 down and 1 to go[/quote]

Duh I totally forgot. You said he was out and I immediately thought he was resting his knees or something, but I did read about that.[/quote]

yeah they said that his knee has a little bit of swelling but that it isnt anything at all like last year (as far as pain.limiting movement goes)
The two games off will still help him out IMO. We should still handle the Suns tonight and then get him back for the Clips game.

I really think Kobe needs to rest up a while cause he is definitely not playing like himself these days.

scj119 · March 22, 2011, 3:33pm

Anyone else think we are seeing some parallels to Miami and NYK here? Here me out:

Miami acquired two boll-dominating wing players and assumed they were so talented that they’d figure out a way to work it out, despite everyone knowing that their skillsets weren’t a perfect match alongside each other.

The Knicks acquired Melo, despite not being a great fit for D’Antonis system, assuming that he is such a good talent that he’ll be a net positive regardless.

Just sayin, it’s interesting.

gregron · March 22, 2011, 4:06pm

damn… NYK went ICE COLD in the 4th quarter.

WhiteFlash · March 22, 2011, 6:23pm

[quote]scj119 wrote:
Anyone else think we are seeing some parallels to Miami and NYK here? Here me out:

Miami acquired two boll-dominating wing players and assumed they were so talented that they’d figure out a way to work it out, despite everyone knowing that their skillsets weren’t a perfect match alongside each other.

The Knicks acquired Melo, despite not being a great fit for D’Antonis system, assuming that he is such a good talent that he’ll be a net positive regardless.

Just sayin, it’s interesting.[/quote]

Well, we all know that if something isn’t working the coach gets canned. I have faith that D’antoni can get these dudes on track, but if they’re not winning [and winning big] by the middle of next season I predict he gets the axe. Actually, if they tank in the playoffs I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets tossed this off-season. There seems to be a lot of shit talking and finger pointing going on right now, and that doesn’t bode well for the current set up.

scj119 · March 22, 2011, 9:59pm

[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:

[quote]scj119 wrote:
Anyone else think we are seeing some parallels to Miami and NYK here? Here me out:

Miami acquired two boll-dominating wing players and assumed they were so talented that they’d figure out a way to work it out, despite everyone knowing that their skillsets weren’t a perfect match alongside each other.

The Knicks acquired Melo, despite not being a great fit for D’Antonis system, assuming that he is such a good talent that he’ll be a net positive regardless.

Just sayin, it’s interesting.[/quote]

Well, we all know that if something isn’t working the coach gets canned. I have faith that D’antoni can get these dudes on track, but if they’re not winning [and winning big] by the middle of next season I predict he gets the axe. Actually, if they tank in the playoffs I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets tossed this off-season. There seems to be a lot of shit talking and finger pointing going on right now, and that doesn’t bode well for the current set up.[/quote]

Agreed. What’s the old saying? Someone has to go, and it’s easier to get rid of the coach than the players.

chillain · March 22, 2011, 10:48pm

[quote]gregron wrote:
damn… NYK went ICE COLD in the 4th quarter.[/quote]

credit that defense played by a legit contender (BOS) that knows abot deep playoff runs and “peaking for the playoffs etc” that runs from April-May

its the same idea behind LAL holding POR to 14pts in the 4th this past sunday

MattyXL · March 22, 2011, 11:26pm