That Mavs governor looks like someone Tony Soprano would blackmail with photos of him doing weird shit at the Bing.
By diehard Go To Post1 week ughwatch baseball :)
By unknown Go To Postwatch WNBA
By unknown Go To Postwatch baseball :)no
By jar155 Go To PostLuka is an insufferable asshole. Go Celtics!Who's crying motherfucker
By Shanks D Zoro Go To PostDo you lot think we will see an all European or at least non-US starting lineup soon?I think the problem with having an all euro starting lineup is that it’s too top heavy
You can’t have a lineup with Doncic, Wemby, Jokic, Wagner, Giannis. Financially you would need non-starters like Frank Nitty, Batum, Fournier, Schroder, Bertans, etc
By n8 dogg Go To PostWhat can you do when Luka plays like that, lolFoul him and hope refs don’t call it so he’s too focused on crying to hit 30 footers over you
Unstoppable
By Shanks D Zoro Go To PostDo you lot think we will see an all European or at least non-US starting lineup soon?In the finals? I doubt it. I think a couple of teams came close to non-US starting lineups quite a bit pretty often now though.
The Poole trade was good actually, Wizards need Cam Boozer so this isn't how people feel after they get out lol.
By DY_nasty Go To Postwnbayes, this is the way. only the nba and primier euro leages are better
By reilo Go To Postlol
i wonder if beer drinking is the main reason why people say he comes in out of shape.
some good thoughts by Clark, imo: https://ccme.beehiiv.com/p/pels-12-problem-population-not-passion
Does Darren Waller's breakup music video w/fake Kelsey Plum belong in the NBA, NFL, Slaent-Hop, or relationship thread?
By Sho_Nuff82 Go To PostDoes Darren Waller's breakup music video w/fake Kelsey Plum belong in the NBA, NFL, Slaent-Hop, or relationship thread?yes
By Kuma Go To PostThink Mavs win in 6. Cs play too dumb and Kyrie/Luka going to avg 40 against usYou been hanging out with frisky too much
By Kuma Go To PostThink Mavs win in 6. Cs play too dumb and Kyrie/Luka going to avg 40 against usIt's okay to drop the underdog gimmick.
Yes I know they got All NBA players at the trade deadline, like DY's personal GOAT PJ Washington and Daniel Gafford (obviously the best center to leave the Wizards in a trade recently), but that doesn't make up the gap. Especially since Lively and Gafford can't play at the same time.
I believe in Net Rtg, but you have to agree that for whatever reason, the Mavs are playing much better than a +2.2 team right now.
By diehard Go To PostI believe in Net Rtg, but you have to agree that for whatever reason, the Mavs are playing much better than a +2.2 team right now.I think they are too, I think they're probably more like a +4.2 or even +5 net rating team. Which would still put them in the middle of that list. Now if Porzingis isn't playing or comes back like Kawhi did, it becomes a bit more interesting--there are some upsets near the bottom of the "biggest mismatches" chart. But if he is, it's hard to justify treating this as a tossup IMO, and the Mavs will need insane shooting luck to win (which they already needed to beat a significantly worse OKC team).
By reilo Go To Postno fun allowed
From my napkin math...
Playoffs
Celtics +10.8 NetRtg
Mavericks +4.4 NetRtg
Conference Finals
Celtics +7 NetRtg
Mavericks +6 NetRtg
EDIT:
Opponents NetRtg:
Celtics
Heat +1.8
Cavaliers +2.5
Pacers +3.0
Mavericks
Clippers +3.4
Thunder +7.4
Timberwolves +6.6
I'm not even gonna get into adjusted NetRtg based on health / who actually played in these games lol
Playoffs
Celtics +10.8 NetRtg
Mavericks +4.4 NetRtg
Conference Finals
Celtics +7 NetRtg
Mavericks +6 NetRtg
EDIT:
Opponents NetRtg:
Celtics
Heat +1.8
Cavaliers +2.5
Pacers +3.0
Mavericks
Clippers +3.4
Thunder +7.4
Timberwolves +6.6
I'm not even gonna get into adjusted NetRtg based on health / who actually played in these games lol
By Christberg Go To PostAll that tells me is the eastern conference wasn’t at all competitive this year, LOL 😂Celtics are finally facing a 50-win team in the playoffs
The exactly 50-win Mavericks
The worst team the Mavericks faced is the 51-win Clippers in the first round
By reilo Go To PostFrom my napkin math…I'm not going to harp on this because I know it will give you an aneurism, but a significant amount of the Mavs net rating in the Thunder and Wolves series was driven by shooting luck (and the Celtics' too, actually, in the opposite direction, in the Pacers series--i.e. Celtics were playing better and Mavs worse than their net rating shows there). More to the point, we know something about basketball beyond just the teams' net ratings in the playoffs and can be pretty confident based on historical precedent that the Mavs did not become the 96 Bulls by adding a couple of role player centers, so we need to strongly regress our observations to what we actually saw them do all season (or even after the trade deadline--they weren't all that impressive in the regular season). Saying they're a secret +5 team is already quite generous IMO, and the only reason I'm willing to go that far is because Lively's rapid progress is within the realm of possibility for a raw rookie center.
Playoffs
Celtics +10.8 NetRtg
Mavericks +4.4 NetRtg
Conference Finals
Celtics +7 NetRtg
Mavericks +6 NetRtg
EDIT:
Opponents NetRtg:
Celtics
Heat +1.8
Cavaliers +2.5
Pacers +3.0
Mavericks
Clippers +3.4
Thunder +7.4
Timberwolves +6.6
I'm not even gonna get into adjusted NetRtg based on health / who actually played in these games lol
(Obviously the Celtics missing their starting center pretty much the whole time had some impact as well, though how much is a little hard to quantify. I don't think it was more than about a -1 difference, but I also don't really think he's better than Horford so if you do think that you should assume it was larger).
Vegas has gone much further than that and is basically treating them as a +7.6 team, i.e. roughly on par with the Thunder. I'm not there at all--they had a zero net rating in the Thunder series with incredible shooting luck, that doesn't scream "actually as good as the Thunder" to me.
By Dark PhaZe Go To PostDy we catching strays with PJ and Gafford escaping our poverty franchisesAt least Gafford played well and had some big moments. PJ ain't do shit against Minnesota.
Yes, but
There's also an argument to be made that Luka and Kyrie were the two best players on the floor in each series they have played thus far.
And there's also an argument to be made that will be the case in the Finals.
There's also an argument to be made that Luka and Kyrie were the two best players on the floor in each series they have played thus far.
And there's also an argument to be made that will be the case in the Finals.
By reilo Go To PostYes, butLike half the finals in recent history have been won by teams that don't have the best player. Don't think this means much at all, TBH (I also don't think Luka is clearly a better player than Tatum, all in ones for the Celtics this year are very smeared around if they only incorporate one year of on/off data because they barely had any bad lineups; multiyear ones prefer Tatum by a large amount, but Luka's on/off metrics also kinda sucked before this year so that isn't fair to Luka either).
There's also an argument to be made that Luka and Kyrie were the two best players on the floor in each series they have played thus far.
And there's also an argument to be made that will be the case in the Finals.
By reilo Go To PostYes, but
There's also an argument to be made that Luka and Kyrie were the two best players on the floor in each series they have played thus far.
And there's also an argument to be made that will be the case in the Finals.
I don’t think it’s a question about Luka, and I’d also bet on Kyrie over Tatum too.
I still think the Cs win it, but the Mavs have a better chance than first impression might dictate.
By Sharp Go To PostLike half the finals in recent history have been won by teams that don't have the best player.This is a wild and completely erroneous take lol
Jokic
Curry
Giannis
Lebron
Kawhi
Were not the best player in each of those Finals?
By reilo Go To PostThis is a wild and completely erroneous take lolLeBron was certainly the best player in all the finals he lost, and saying Kawhi was is an entirely retroactive claim. So over the last ten seasons it's been like 5-5 or 4-6 depending on how you count Kawhi. I think this illustrates how being a superteam with an unfair roster can outweigh the advantages of having the single best player in the series, and Luka is not even remotely close to prime LeBron in terms of ability to take over a series (only Jokic is, but his supporting cast is godawful as we've discussed previously).
Jokic
Curry
Giannis
Lebron
Kawhi
Were not the best player in each of those Finals?
The last time Lebron lost a Finals was 7 years ago and he lost to a combo of Curry/Durant with his second best player being Kevin Love after Kyrie bailed. That's not recent history but ok.