It is the 2018-19 NBA Playoffs discussion thread for hoops friends ONLY

draymond definitely plays better when kd doesn't play.

Losing twenty pounds also didn't hurt.

draymond definitely plays better when kd doesn't play.

― i think ur a controp (voodoo chili), Tuesday, May 21, 2019 4:32 PM (fourteen minutes ago) Bookmark

yeah there's a fundamental thing where with no KD draymond gets/has to have the ball in his hands a ton. it certainly seems to elevate his play & yeah also just makes them more fun.

yah dray's been beastin all playoffs, even when KD was healthy.

KD has game and all but his style of play has never been particularly exhilarating to watch, to me anyway. theyve had stretches during this run where the dubs play their preferred style and KD is playing more within the flow and passing and cutting and moving but that hasnt happened as consistently since the first title run, especially the cutting part. when he does it they blow everyone out of the water... he may say he was happy after that first year but clearly it wasnt his preferred style so theyve done everything they can to appease him over the last couple of seasons to get him to re-sign. the organization-wide narrative/push for the last couple of months is for everyone to say the words "he is the best player in the nba" to make sure he feels loved. he's been finally getting mvp chants at oracle too. might be too little too late.

i feel like they didn't need to do this in the series to win but the pace the warriors were playing with was pretty fun to watch. dray was getting the ball up the floor in 2 seconds flat like every possession it felt like regardless of make or miss

he was relentless. beautiful to watch

If anything it seems like it was just a tactic to wear the Blazers down since they've been playing every other day since game 7 of that grueling series against the Nuggets. It's part of how the warriors were able to dominate the second half of every game.

dray starting doing it in the rockets series when they got bogged down. opened everything up

yea I can't really hate on the Warriors with Durant out, they're a really fun team. Durant suffocates them a bit...they average .5 fewer passes per possession with him on the floor

yeah there's a fundamental thing where with no KD draymond gets/has to have the ball in his hands a ton. it certainly seems to elevate his play & yeah also just makes them more fun.

― J0rdan S., Tuesday, May 21, 2019 4:48 PM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah otm w kd yr using drays ballhandling/playmaking less which is one of his best skills

it's funny--in an ideal warriors offense, you have steph/dray pnr's with kd and klay surrounding as shooting threats, which is fine, but that means you aren't using the unique and ridiculous scoring abilities of kevin f'n durant.

feel like getting him the ball w the defense scrambling wldnt be the end of the world

like u cld even design some of those steph-dray pnrs to go to him

but its all academic since kerr hates the best basketball play

like dray isnt a very good finisher but he is a very good passer so if u get to to him on the roll and he has a dunk thats cool otherwise keep it moving

It's going to be weird as hell next year when they're playing in SF, that's all I know.

I think the full roster does play a really cool brand of hoops quite often tbf. just seems like less and less lately (harder to do against disciplined playoff teams). when they started this season out they were playing pretty much perfect basketball kd and curry had never looked better together then curry got hurt and dray said some stuff...

and then there was also that weird low usage kd month before the playoffs where he was just passing all the time and it was kinda weird.

yeah the move to sf is bad. oracle hasn't been what it was since the first title run really tho if we're being honest.

u cant fight silicon valley

forget it jake its silicon valleytown

and so forth

oracle hasn't been what it was

Maybe inside the arena. Outside, it's not too different than it was. I doubt that vibe will carry over to Mission Bay.

yeah more just in game noise and hype during games. they still party outside

eesh i havent been to a game there since 09

sure i mentioned i went to a game there years ago to see yao ming, the warriors werent any good but the vibe was still lively

love a good lively vibe to go along with my tall people watching

its really the way to go

they had an in house band and mike dunleavys parents were sitting a few rows behind me

dubnation hated them some dunleavy

pretty underwhelming player tbf

2. Jay Williams
3. Dunleavy
4. Drew Gooden
5. Tskitishvili
6. DeJuan Wagner

the 2002 lottery wasn't the best

eesh

Just seeing the name Jay Williams gives me Bulls fan PTSD

lowry is on one

Jesus fucking Christ guys

holy shit Ibaka is balling out

the refs are “letting them reprieve”

lol. “letting them play”

Kind of embarrassing for the Bucks to be playing this poorly while Kawhi is a non factor

Holy shit Mirotic is having an awful game

when the bucks can’t score off a PNR their halfcourt offense dies

it’s just crazy to me that bud has... no plays ??? ... to get giannis the ball near the basket? am i missing something?

spoelstra for instance always had plays where lebron would duck into the post and get the ball on the block. i don’t see much off ball movement from the bucks.

they did just run a good play out of a timeout

yea they seem completely lost on offense right now and are leaving someone open on 3 on nearly every possession, not exactly a recipe for winning hoops

i’m getting nervous on the raptors behalf about this game getting tight in this arena with kawhi dragging a leg around

seems like forever since Middleton's played like this

yeah one does feel like toronto needs to survive at this point and 17 minutes is a lot of surviving to do.

Really bizarre how giannis was like a house on fire for the first two minutes of the game and has basically had his foot off the gas ever since. I know he just made that 3 but he was being guarded by Norman freaking Powell, should have drove on him.

god sit down Drake

bucks gotta pack this one in