2017 NBA Playoffs Thread: RIP Believeland

I don't know what happened to the last basketball megathread and I don't feel like digging through a ton of forum search results for it, so I've just created this one for the playoffs. If someone wants to make a more general basketball thread later, then they can do it, as I won't be updating this a lot.

LeBron and the not-LeBrons are going down to the Oakland Superteam. Sorry Cleveland, you had a good run.

My Bulls made it, even though a few months back we all just wanted the season to end.

I honestly don't know who will win the East, but I'm assuming the Warriors just win it all.

I'm a Pistons fan. This thread is garbage.

Anybody interested in a slightly used Andre Drummond? The asking price isn't very high and he gets a shit-ton of rebounds.

@csl316: I actually just got done writing a piece about how the numbers are pretty overwhelmingly in the Warriors favor.

My Pacers made it but thanks to the Cavs late season collapse we ended up facing them instead of the Celtics. I think the Pacers could challenge and even pull the upset against the Celtics. I don't think they can do it against the Cavs. Of course I still believe the Cavs will "flip the switch" and if they don't it could get interesting. If the Cleveland doesn't make it out of the East I can't imagine anyone else challenging the West's winner.

@oldenglishc Only if you are interested in taking a very worn Monta Ellis and is possession hijacking in return.

The Celtics are the one seed and have the highest chance of getting the number 1 pick. So I'm happy.

The Warriors are odds on favorites against the field and I'd really like them to smoke everyone because them playing at a high level is really fun.

My other biggest hope is that the Bucks make it out of the first round and give the Cavs a run. Giannis is the closest player to young LeBron I've seen and him guarding LeBron would be fun.

@meteora3255: Shhh! We've played each other enough were you know how bad he actually is. I'm hoping to sucker a Western Conference team into buying what little hype he still has. Any Kings fans on here?

@internetdotcom: How would feel about giving up that pick for a historically good rebounder who's only 24 years old?

@oldenglishc: well that sounds great, how about the free throw shooting?

@internetdotcom: SO MANY REBOUNDS!

@internetdotcom: yep, looks like the Nets' fire sale/money laundering usage worked out for everybody. Wizards got Bogs and a rookie, Celtics got the (likely) #1, a Russian oligarch got to stash a lot of money out of the country, everyone wins! Except Brooklyn, sorry guys.

The eastern conference is still a sort of enigma that I'm afraid to stare at for too long for fear of being cursed for eternity, but I was elated to see the Celts do some work this season. I only see them getting upset by the Cavs, which should be an interesting series.

Is it to much to hope for the Warriors and Cavs to choke in the first round and go home to shame and humiliation? That'd be great.

Also James Harden MVP

I hate that my bulls made it, now they get no lottery pick, keep zoidberg even though he posted an even worse record than last year, and still lose in first round to boston of all teams! I will still root for them but i am not optimistic, whoever comes out west (spurs or warriors) wins the ship imo.

@oursin_360: To be fair to Hoiberg, the front office hasn't exactly done him any favors assembling a roster for his preferred system. "So you want to run a slash-and-kick offense flanking the primary ball handler with outside shooters? Ok, let me get you two starting guards who are career 30% 3 point shooters." A coach should be somewhat flexible in their system and maybe even with the right players Hoiberg would still be mediocre but the cupboard hasn't exactly been full.

@meteora3255: a good coach isnt limited to one system, especially a system that barely worked in college. The fact they are going to still humor this failed experiment because they msde the playoffs( with an actual worse record than last year) is a big downer.

His biggest flaw isnt even the system, its his player rotation and keeping all his players guessing at their role(especially our young guys)

But yeah gar and pax need to go as well.

Go Pacers

Wizards crushed the Hawks! Also Wall might've crushed a guy sitting one row up from the court! Also Jason Smith might've torn something in his knee, but hopefully it's just banged a little! Because if Smith is out and Mahinmi is still recovering, we have to rely on...

*checks roster*

...some guy named Daniel Ochefu to give Gortat a breather.

Big Celtics fan... everything with Isaiah Thomas and the tragedy he went through has me feeling pretty strange about it all. Makes basketball seem silly. Much love to IT tho and I hope everyone takes a moment to make sure they appreciate the people they love in life.

The first sign of a great coach is that he adapts to is personnel. The best example is Popavich, who has had the Spurs play everything from glacially slow paced to super fast paced over the last number of years depending. Brad Stevens of the Celtics is a great example, utilizing an undersized team with bigs who may not be bangers but can stretch the floor and pass.

I think you can be a system type coach and be a good coach, but not great. Doc Rivers is an example of that kind of coach and I think Phil Jackson is as well (I know many think of him as a legend but his Knicks run has only further cemented that he is a guy with a specific system who happened to get some of the best players ever who fit that system, not a guy who made something out of nothing). I respect a system but in the end if you are a systems coach and you don't have the personnel you are not going to make it.

There's a lot of things to question about the Bulls but I don't see how you can like Hoiberg. He seems to be a systems coach and a guy who can't motivate or communicate to pro players. Those are big problems.

@andythemez: I can see your issues with the NFL mainly (a part of the reason I gave up on the sport in the last year) but not the NBA. It was just a good season, with the sport becoming faster and more skilled than ever. There are no annoying issues in the NBA really.

I can't stress enough how bad the NFL is in many ways, from attitudes of players, to their handling of any issues, to the commentary of the media (who are willing to print someone's medical charts for absolutely no gain and then act like they are in the right), to the league office. The NBA is night and day in comparison.

Indeed, the NFL seems like some mean-spirited macho contest, whereas the NBA seems more like a family. There's a lot of respect between players, coaches, everything. Off the court issues do occur, but it's a smaller player count than the NFL so it seems less common.

Great play from Bulls today. Sadly I don't think they can sustain it, but was nice to see the fight. Tough circumstances for I.T and the Celtics today.

@captain_insano: C's are vulnerable to some of the Bulls strengths tho. I'm not sure Portis can keep it up, but he had a great game for sure. A few Celtics, like Olynyk and Crowder, were awful tonight but the team really needs everyone to contribute or it can go bad.

I think the series goes 6 games at least. The Celtics defense can be better and I hope the rotations are tightened up. I don't see why Zeller should play or even Gerald Green. I am a big Brad Stevens fan but sometimes he gets too fancy with rotations when IMO, especially in the Playoffs, you have to keep it tight to like 8-9 guys.

@captain_insano: Right, some great bench play for the Bulls, and they took advantage of an emotional day for the Celtics. So we'll see how they respond in game two. I'm in Chicago but wound up watching the Boston commentary for whatever reason, and they seemed a bit cocky. "They know we can beat this team. I just wish we were blowing them out!" As a Bulls fan, I've seen them seesaw so much and play up to good teams that I can't count them out. Even if the regular season was a damn mess.

Still, this game keeps me thinking that the East is wide open.

Yeah this is the case unless the Cavs turn it on. The Celtics were good this year but not as good as a one seed should be. Their point differential was very low for a one seed and 54 (or 53?) wins is too.

The main thing is the Celtics are more geared for the regular season. They have one offensive star, one great supporting star in Al Horford, but need someone else who can make their own shot. They really don't have that at all. They need guys to get hot shooting threes.

I also think people kind of underrate how good IT was and how he really carried the team. I actually think he should be right in the MVP discussion, like at the top. That may sound homer but it actually is me being realistic about the rest of the team. They rely so much on him.

@kingbonesaw: It should be Harden! Speaking of which this just cracked me up:

I love Harlan sometimes.

ikr! I had to rewind to make sure i heard that one right :). Great game!(If ur a Rockets fan)

I love Patrick Beverly

Dubs for the Finals! Westbrook for MVP!!!

Condolences to IT4, it's terrible that after having such a great season that his post-season starts off with such a tragedy. Hope it doesn't hurt his game too much, he's got to have a lot on his mind right now and hopefully he channels it into his game.

@genxalo: Westbrook is low hanging fruit. Look at his FG%. Look at his turnovers. Look at him slack on defense to pad his rebounds. Good indicators of efficiency are true shooting % and points per attempt. Harden's season is in the top 5 EVER in both those categories(for guards). He did this while averaging just 2 rebounds less than Westbrook.

Sadly the triple double record is a good headline. The media is pushing Westbrook super hard.

Your 2016-2107 MVP ladies and gentleman

@qrowdyy: Honestly I agree with you for the arguments for the Beard, but Westbrook's narrative for the 2016-2017 season just sounds better for the MVP award. Left behind by Durant and nobody giving the Thunder a chance at all, so Russ goes full on Hulk and breaks a record that nobody thought would be broken and carrying his team as far as he did. So as far as a single player's narrative? I'm sticking with Russ.

Like I'm not gonna be unrealistic here, I think the Rockets are gonna maul the Thunder in their series. They're just a much better team and I'd give D'Antoni Coach of the Year for turning the Rockets around, his system (and Harden's willingness to change position) really turned them from barely making 8th seed last season to a record breaking 3pt sharpshooting team

@genxalo: I mean, i could talk till I'm blue in the face about how the trophy should be purely merit based. But realistically? You're totally right. Westbrook does have the better narrative and that's probably whats gonna decide it.

I mean they ran an ad for Jordans last night that was basically Westbrook propaganda. I don't think we're gonna be seeing any Harden ads.

The narrative in the last month of the season is what gave WB the MVP. He was must watch TV because of how exciting he was and because of the record. Rockets weren't great in the last month because Harden was playing hurt and they weren't shooting well. Before that it was a much closer race and Harden had the edge because the Rockets pretty much exceeded all expecations. The organization was pushing for Harden but players and the media pretty much all switched to Russ.

I did like the article Ariza wrote in favor of Harden winning though. I think James said it was one of the nicest things anyone has done for him

https://theplayerstribune.com/trevor-ariza-james-harden-nba-mvp-2017/

Sadly I have to count the Pacers out now. I thought if they could steal game 1 they would be in a solid position because they play so much better at home. The team is playing them close but I think coaching is hurting them and PG13 is starting to jump on everyone else on the team which isn't good. I watched them switch every LeBron-Kyrie pick and roll in game 1 and then just leave Jeff Teague on an island guarding LeBron, never sent any help his way. The ending of game 1 looked like Nate McMillan called a timeout but didn't actually draw up a play, just isolated George and hoped he could make something happen. Game 2 they go small and then put PG on Kyrie and leave Lance to fight with Kevin Love, again with little to no help. They also need much more from Myles Turner. Thompson is manhandling him and our starting center can't have 13 total rebounds over two games.

The other series that I am interested in is Clippers-Jazz. Partly because two Indiana boys (George Hill and Gordon Hayward) are leading the Jazz but also because this series may decide the fate of this Clippers core. If they can't get past round 1 again its going to be hard to justify spending on Griffin and Reddick and bringing back the same group and hoping this will the year they finally break through.

I've lost a lot of respect for Paul George. Showing up his teammate on the court after game 1 then doubling down on his shitty behavior in the press conference. His teammate (was it CJ Miles?) had a good look which is all you can expect in that situation. George was covered. Forcing it to him so he can jack up a wild shot isn't the right basketball play. I must've not got the memo that George had ascended into MJ, Kobe, or LeBron (who would never do that) status. Congrats, PG, you've done the unthinkable. You've made me root for the Cavs (and I'm a Warriors fan, dammit!).

No MVP love for Kawhi? Okay.

@notnert427: Plenty of people have given Kawhi MVP love (he will finish top 5 in the ballot) but he is going against a guy who had one of the greatest offensive seasons in history and a guy who did something no one thought would ever be repeated. Kawhi is arguably the best two way player in the league and he deserves a ton of credit for at times carrying by himself the Spurs at times this season but he is going against two guys who have had historic seasons. His narrative isn't as good and that matters, especially because Pop will get a lot of credit for Kawhi's numbers. For what it's worth I think Harden is the MVP.

ahahaha what are the Celtics even doing right now, getting schooled by Rajon Rondo and Robin Lopez?

Playoff Rondo is the best Rondo

My Bulls... they're actually playing to their ability again.

Guys, watching them lose to bad teams while beating the good ones was infuriating all year. A top-seeded playoff team is theoretically good, so playing good teams for a stretch on TNT is kind of... fun?

I hope The Blazers can win one game, but I don't see that happening.

I feel i cant get my hopes up about the bulls, they are playing hard right now and have the size advantage but even if they win the series they probably aren't good enough to do anything after.

I honestly wanted them not to make the playoffs, now they wont get any better and still dont have the talent to win a championship. They only made the playoffs because the east got even worse as they posted a worse record than when they didn't make it. Now we will be stuck with a bad coach and middling team even longer.

Glad the Lakers aren't there. Really think that without Kobe it hurts them.

Rockets are playing HORRIBLE tonight.

Go Rockets! We took the Thunder's best punch and still won. They got nothing for us.

@mems1224: Good thing Westbrook played even worse down the stretch. 18 fg in a quarter, playoff record.