A quick word on other games.....

[Diesel]

The Myth of Playoff Jimmy was laid to rest tonight. 

 

Miami had a good gameplan early... Uptempo and keep Jokic tired.   It was actually working.   Then when they switched him out, Bam was killing Green.   But.....

The winner is Denver. 

[Sothron]

Watched this game with my Jokic jersey on and cried to see it. No shame. I've liked the Nuggets since my dad showed me what motion offense was watching Doug Moe's teams. I've been a straight up stan of Jokic since his rookie season when I saw this guy was special but needed a coach crazy enough to use a point center.

Thank God they won that title. More smaller market teams need to win. More teams with just one superstar player winning is great for the league. It inspires other teams to try and not just sit on their hands year after year.

Glad for Nuggets fans everywhere for their first ever NBA title. Mrs. Sothron borrowed my Alex English jersey. We wore those all through the playoffs when the Nuggets were on. 

[benhillboy]

Pretty much nothing else to be said, first time ever.  That man has mastered basketball inside and out.

WS/48 makes a great case for his playoff run being arguably the best in the modern era (championship winners underlined):

Murray ain’t no Pippen, and Murray/ Gordon damn sure isn’t Pippen/ Rodman.  This was a master class in a carry-job for Joker.
 

That roar Murray got from the crowd was awesome.

Always knew Brucie B was a championship level player.  He flashed in Brooklyn more than those overhyped divas.  Who would’ve thought Uncle Jeff’s ring would be the most valuable from that early Thunder core? (gotta always get my KD jabs in lol) 

I simply didn’t think Mike Malone and the supporting cast were good enough and that GS would somehow limp toward another ‘ship despite having Jordan Poole on the roster again.  I was dead wrong, tip my hat to them boys.  Aaron Gordon played like he already won a ‘ship his mistakes were so far in between.

Edited June 13, 2023 by benhillboy

[benhillboy]

6 hours ago, Diesel said:

The Myth of Playoff Jimmy was laid to rest tonight. 

 

Miami had a good gameplan early... Uptempo and keep Jokic tired.   It was actually working.   Then when they switched him out, Bam was killing Green.   But.....

The winner is Denver. 

His Finals was poor by his standards no doubt, still had 32 assists to only 6 turnovers and shot .368 from three.  The Nugget’s length had him shook: they did a wonderful job defending his pivots and cuts.  But keep lying to yourself that he isn’t a sensational playoff performer:

His career playoff WS/48 is nestled between Reggie Miller and Oscar Robertson, and coming off the 17th ranked individual run last season and carried it over to the next.

You kinda right though, “Playoff Jimmy” is only a thing to casuals who are overly fascinated by scoring.  He’s been the same wholistic player since taking over the reigns in Chicago from Rose.

Edited June 13, 2023 by benhillboy

[benhillboy]

I always thought KCP was overrated but I see how important his BBIQ and corporate knowledge was to this squad. Another one of those super-efficient mistake-limiters.

I wondered how Denver would fare in terms of depth.  They got good timely minutes from Braun and Uncle Jeff but it was huge that their starters logged heavy minutes throughout the playoffs to prevent Malone from having to play Ish Smith, Reggie Jackson , De’Andre Jordan, and to an even lesser extent, Thomas Bryant.  That would’ve put their title in jeopardy no question.

Edited June 13, 2023 by benhillboy

[JayBirdHawk]

9 hours ago, givemesome1ce1 said:

Congrats to the nuggets. They’re an amazing to watch and I love watching Jokic play.

 

the nuggets are interesting because they’re a perfect example of how patience pays off…it took years of belief from the organization and just making the core better and better for the team to make it this far. It begs the question…should hawks fans have more patience when it comes to this FO, Quin, and the team? Nuggets just showed how patience can be a virtue.

I get the patience angle, but the Nuggets top 7 guys in this run to the championship:

Drafted Joker in 2014 (1st NBA season in 2015), Murray in 2016, MPJr in 2019, Braun in 2022  [two missed lottery picks along the way:  Emmanuel Mudiay #7 and Trey Lyles #12 ]

Traded for Gordon in 2021 (Harris, Hampton, 1st)
Traded for KCP in 2022 (out Barton and Morris)
Bruce Brown in 2022 FAcy

Think about this; guys like Gallo, Milsap, Jerami Grant, Will Barton, Kenneth Faried, Jusuf Nurkic, Javale McGee, Gary Harris, Malik Beasley, Jarred Vanderbuilt were once teammates with Joker/Murray.  So the team that won last night has had their share of player turnover on the roster around Joker and Murray since they were both drafted.

The main stay from Joker's rookie season has been Coach Mike Malone (and Tim Conelly as GM until this year when Calvin Booth got the job) over the last 8 years:
33-49, 40-42, 46-36, 54-28, 46-27, 47-25, 48-34, 53-29.

Hawks are now on their 3rd head coach since the rebuild started in 2018 with front office upheaval this past year. Record over that span:

29-53, 20-47 (two deliberatetanking years), 41-31, 43-39, 41-41

I'm hoping we can have some stability in coaching and front office for at least the next 5 years.

Since 2015 when Ressler bought the team:
4 GMs: Ferry, Bud, Schlenk and Fields
4 Coaches: Bud, LP, Nate and Quin

That's too much turnover in 8 years.
 

[Spud2nique]

11 hours ago, benhillboy said:

I barely posted about the heat’s run up until they were about to close out Boston because 1) it was no surprise and 2) I knew all the posters who hate high-level, hard-nosed ball couldn’t stand it.  Now y’all wanna come out the woodwork in Finals Game 5 to throw dirt?  This board is truly weird at times.

 

[yungsta]

The Denver nuggets is just another example of if you have the best/one of the best players in the league that performs in the playoffs with a good supporting cast you can win a championship.

The nuggets were lucky enough to have one of them fall into their laps in the 2nd round. There isn't a unique lesson to be learned here.

Edited June 13, 2023 by yungsta

[AHF]

I doubt the NBA will ever learn the lesson for the MVP award that it should just go to the best player regardless of whether you are tired of voting for them or not.  MJ, Shaq, Jokic and others have been repeatedly screwed out of MVPs because the voters wanted to mix it up and let someone else have a turn.  Just vote for the best player guys.  You look dumb when the best player runs the table and takes home a ring and you chose to vote for a lesser competitor simply so they could have their day in the sun.

[Spud2nique]

11 hours ago, benhillboy said:

I barely posted about the heat’s run up until they were about to close out Boston

Uh huh, that’s even worse. So you admit you waited till they were about to close out the Shhhmelts. And now you pointing fingers at us? Seems like frustration to me. 
 

Ben, your Heat didn’t do it. Your scrubs didn’t do it either. Great year! 
 

Ps @kg01 BIL check? Is he ok, or having to make several statement like Benny here to heal the Yimmi pains.

Hey @benhillboy what’s the %of someone who goes 5-18 in an elimination game and claims they weren’t gonna lose and wouldn’t let it happen? I’m no stat guy but 5-18 is horrific as a LEADER. We found out yesterday that Yimmie was a fake, a fraud a 2 bit hack and a liar.

Congrats Nuggets! Great victory!

[Spud2nique]

bye skeet culture.

Udonis Haslem shoulda retired in 2013.

[macdaddy]

This Heat run was improbable by any standard.  It was impressive they made the finals with the team they had.  Jimmy is a great player but he didn't play great in this series by any means.  And they needed him to to have any shot.  Did he play hard? play decent? yeah but that's not what is needed when you're the only star on the team.  7, 3pointers for the series ain't nothing to brag about.  

[Gray Mule]

Coming down the stretch, I wanted the Heat to drop the Celtics.  They did!

I wanted the Nuggets to win over the Heat because they hadn't ever won it all.  They did!

I'm now 2-0 in the last 2 series!  Something to smile about for a while.

While I'm enjoying all this, Hawks have an all-new coaching staff for Quin and we await the draft, free agency and all those NBA trades coming up this summer.  How long to pre-season?  It's not very long now, is it??

[JayBirdHawk]

This was a great thread! Worth a re-read!

[Spud2nique]

Did y’all see this. Porter got a chip and Trae is mad . I like that mad it means you hungry.

 

.   

[hawkman]

18 minutes ago, AHF said:

I doubt the NBA will ever learn the lesson for the MVP award that it should just go to the best player regardless of whether you are tired of voting for them or not.  MJ, Shaq, Jokic and others have been repeatedly screwed out of MVPs because the voters wanted to mix it up and let someone else have a turn.  Just vote for the best player guys.  You look dumb when the best player runs the table and takes home a ring and you chose to vote for a lesser competitor simply so they could have their day in the sun.

Hakeem Olajuwon.

[Final_quest]

40 minutes ago, yungsta said:

The Denver nuggets is just another example of if you have the best/one of the best players in the league that performs in the playoffs with a good supporting cast you can win a championship.

The nuggets were lucky enough to have one of them fall into their laps in the 2nd round. There isn't a unique lesson to be learned here.

Really interesting to see the post Lebron and post Curry landscape take form.  For a long time you needed at least two HOF players to win a title.  Even Lebron couldn't do it alone.  Seems like that might be changing a little.  Denver only had 53 wins.  Golden State had 53 wins last year.  No teams are really dominant right now.  

[kg01]

1 hour ago, Spud2nique said:

Uh huh, that’s even worse. So you admit you waited till they were about to close out the Shhhmelts. And now you pointing fingers at us? Seems like frustration to me. 
 

Ben, your Heat didn’t do it. Your scrubs didn’t do it either. Great year! 
 

Ps @kg01 BIL check? Is he ok, or having to make several statement like Benny here to heal the Yimmi pains.

Hey @benhillboy what’s the %of someone who goes 5-18 in an elimination game and claims they weren’t gonna lose and wouldn’t let it happen? I’m no stat guy but 5-18 is horrific as a LEADER. We found out yesterday that Yimmie was a fake, a fraud a 2 bit hack and a liar.

Congrats Nuggets! Great victory!

I think hillbilly might fight me at the next block party.  Just make sure yall hold him back when the time comes.

Jimi Suckets should get .... heat for his play last night.  Basically was a non-factor.  That can't happen if you claim to be as great as he and others have claimed he is.

Criticism is fair.  I'll allow it. 

[JayBirdHawk]

 

Bud and Doc without gigs. @kg01 favorite Kenny Atkinson passed up again for a head coaching job.

 

[kg01]

38 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

 

Bud and Doc without gigs. @kg01 favorite Kenny Atkinson passed up again for a head coaching job.

 

I can see Bud taking a year.  GLLLLenn may be a tv guy from here on out.

On Atk, we've reached the point where folks convince themselves he's "just waiting for the right opportunity".

Yeah, ok.

Hope he's not thinking he's taking over for Kerr.  He ain't leaving until there ain't no more juice left there to squeeze.