The 2017 NBA playoffs thread

[sunsfan88]

Its unfortunate Mike gets ALL the blame when his Star player craps the bed in the biggest game of there season. I didnt hear a peep out of you D'Antoni haters during the season when they comprised a 55-27 record. "But, but but... he lost to the Spurs again"!!! BFD. Id take a 50+ winning season with a chance at going to the Finals over the **** storm weve put up with the last 7 yrs.

Yeah some people act as if we've been stacking the trophy case in Phoenix since D'Antoni left and he was holding us back.

D'Antoni isn't Mark Jackson. Mark Jackson was the one holding back the Warriors before Kerr took over and they won championship and had numerous historical seasons ever since.

After. D'Antoni left, the Suns have remained a colossal disaster of a franchise for the 9 years since.

Can anyone with a straight face tell me that Terry Porter, Alvin Gentry, Lindsey Hunter, Jeff Hornacek or Earl Watson are any better than Mike D'Antoni?

I'm not a D'Antoni apologist, I rooted for him because he helped bring success to the Suns once upon a time but there are many coaches in the NBA I would choose before him. He definitely has his flaws and his ignorance of defense and a bigger rotation is baffling. All that said, Gregg Popovich wouldn't have been able to win last night if he was coaching Houston and Harden was playing as uninspired as he did yesterday night.

It looked almost like Harden was paid to throw the game. Complete lackluster play by their superstar and MVP candidate.

 

[Phrazbit]

Its unfortunate Mike gets ALL the blame when his Star player craps the bed in the biggest game of there season. I didnt hear a peep out of you D'Antoni haters during the season when they comprised a 55-27 record. "But, but but... he lost to the Spurs again"!!! BFD. Id take a 50+ winning season with a chance at going to the Finals over the **** storm weve put up with the last 7 yrs.

I believe the counter for this would be; sure, Mike gives you a shot at 50 wins, but he does not give you a shot at the finals, because as soon as Mike runs into an opposing coach who can... you know... make an adjustment, he is done. Yeah, Harden played like crap in the last game, but San Antonio changed the way they defended him (and got better at it throughout the series) and Houston/Mike D never came up with a counter. Mike's idea of an adjustment is to shorten his rotation and run his players into the ground.

 

[StreetTruckinTitan]

I believe the counter for this would be; sure, Mike gives you a shot at 50 wins, but he does not give you a shot at the finals, because as soon as Mike runs into an opposing coach who can... you know... make an adjustment, he is done. Yeah, Harden played like crap in the last game, but San Antonio changed the way they defended him (and got better at it throughout the series) and Houston/Mike D never came up with a counter. Mike's idea of an adjustment is to shorten his rotation and run his players into the ground.

If you make it to the playoffs you always have a shot. Thats all I want every year. Just a shot.

 

[Phrazbit]

If you make it to the playoffs you always have a shot. Thats all I want every year. Just a shot.

Sadly, not in the NBA. Going into the playoffs, out of the 16 teams, generally everyone knows only 2 or 3 have an actual chance to win it.

And this ignores Mike D's other flaw. He needs to have some absolute freak at distribution and shooting for his team to be competitive. He had a looooong gap between Nash and Harden where he coached a lot of games and absolutely sucked. Seeing as we have not had that type of player, I am pretty confident that D'Antoni would have done no better with the post-Nash Suns than the coaches we've trudged through.

 

[StreetTruckinTitan]

Sadly, not in the NBA. Going into the playoffs, out of the 16 teams, generally everyone knows only 2 or 3 have an actual chance to win it.

And this ignores Mike D's other flaw. He needs to have some absolute freak at distribution and shooting for his team to be competitive. He had a looooong gap between Nash and Harden where he coached a lot of games and absolutely sucked. Seeing as we have not had that type of player, I am pretty confident that D'Antoni would have done no better with the post-Nash Suns than the coaches we've trudged through.

Speculation but I believe theyd be a hell of lot better running Mikes system than what they have now. Which is basically nothing.

 

[Cheesebeef]

Sadly, not in the NBA. Going into the playoffs, out of the 16 teams, generally everyone knows only 2 or 3 have an actual chance to win it.

And this ignores Mike D's other flaw. He needs to have some absolute freak at distribution and shooting for his team to be competitive. He had a looooong gap between Nash and Harden where he coached a lot of games and absolutely sucked. Seeing as we have not had that type of player, I am pretty confident that D'Antoni would have done no better with the post-Nash Suns than the coaches we've trudged through.

Not to mention the fact that guys like Nash AND Harden had already taken teams just as far as DA's teams did. Nash did it with the Mavs AND he did it AFTER DA left with Gentry as coach.

And people forget Harden actually got his Rocket team FURTHER than this year's team just two seasons ago without DA.

All we've really seen is that DA has been able to be successful in the regular season when he has an absolute MVP level PG running his show and then fizzles out in the playoff in the 2nd or 3rd round, sometimes with embarrassing results.

 

[Chaplin]

I don't get this attitude that we all think D'Antoni is this awful coach who has no business being in the NBA. I doubt you'll find anyone that's not appreciative of what he actually accomplished--that 7 seconds or less offense was entertaining as hell.

What we don't like about the guy is his unflinching attitude to going 7 deep and not adjusting. Do things differently and we might have finally gotten over the hump. It was a missed opportunity and D'Antoni deserves to take a lot of the blame for it.

 

[Phrazbit]

Speculation but I believe theyd be a hell of lot better running Mikes system than what they have now. Which is basically nothing.

I don't see why. D'Antoni cannot compete when he does not have an all-nba caliber guard running his team, we have not had one. We've been lousy without him, we'd have been lousy with him.

 

[Phrazbit]

I don't get this attitude that we all think D'Antoni is this awful coach who has no business being in the NBA. I doubt you'll find anyone that's not appreciative of what he actually accomplished--that 7 seconds or less offense was entertaining as hell.

What we don't like about the guy is his unflinching attitude to going 7 deep and not adjusting. Do things differently and we might have finally gotten over the hump. It was a missed opportunity and D'Antoni deserves to take a lot of the blame for it.

He isn't some all-time awful coach, he has his merits but he is too stubborn and he has no clue how to make adjustments.

SSOL changed the league, without question. If not for Mike D I suspect the league as a whole would have averaged 5-10, less points per game this year, maybe more. However, the other aspects of the job he stinks at and seems to still have never learned from previous failures.

I've made the comparison many times, Mike D'Antoni is to the NBA what Mike Martz was to the NFL. Martz and his 4 and 5 wide sets, spreading the field out and flingin it all over, it changed the NFL, the effects are still felt today, other teams adopted and improved on his strategies (just as teams like the Warriors did with Mike D). The league made adjustments, those guys didn't and as the novelty of their approach because the norm around the league Mike and Mike failed to adjust.

 

[Adrian]

Melissa Rohlin‏@melissarohlin 8m8 minutes ago
Pop said Kawhi is going to play tomorrow. He said he fully participated in today's practice.

 

[Adrian]

Chris Haynes‏Verified account@ChrisBHaynes 14m14 minutes ago
According to ESPN's Basketball Power Index, Golden State has an 81 percent chance to advance past San Antonio in the Conference Finals.

 

[JCSunsfan]

I don't get this attitude that we all think D'Antoni is this awful coach who has no business being in the NBA. I doubt you'll find anyone that's not appreciative of what he actually accomplished--that 7 seconds or less offense was entertaining as hell.

What we don't like about the guy is his unflinching attitude to going 7 deep and not adjusting. Do things differently and we might have finally gotten over the hump. It was a missed opportunity and D'Antoni deserves to take a lot of the blame for it.

I see MDA like Barkley. He is a very good coach, who has some minor flaws (easily correctable ones) that if addressed would have made him great. Kerr did what MDA should have.

 

[Adrian]

ESPN Stats & Info @ESPNStatsInfo
Spurs-Warriors: first NBA conference finals with 60-win teams since 2003 (Spurs beat Mavericks, went on to win title). Sunday 3:30 ET on ABC

 

[TJ]

Chris Haynes‏Verified account@ChrisBHaynes 14m14 minutes ago
According to ESPN's Basketball Power Index, Golden State has an 81 percent chance to advance past San Antonio in the Conference Finals.

If Mike Brown is still coaching in this series, I expect Pop to win a couple of games simply by outcoaching him.

Gonna say Warriors in six.

 

[JustWinBaby]

I don't see why. D'Antoni cannot compete when he does not have an all-nba caliber guard running his team, we have not had one. We've been lousy without him, we'd have been lousy with him.

Why do you keep repeating the same nonsense. The Lakers went to the playoffs with a 65 year old Steve Nash on crutches. The Knicks went to the playoffs with Chauncy Billups in the emergency room after the Great Raymond Felton was his PG prior to the Melo trade. These are the facts not the alternative facts that you always seem to use.

You must have had many sleepless nights this year while D'Antoni improved a team, that lost the great Dwight Howard in the off season. Yeah the guy that Mike did not know how to coach. How did that work out in Atlanta this year? Melo had one good year after Mike left and Phil wants him out of New York. Except for one season the Knicks have been horrible since Mike left town. The Lakers still are.

If you are honest I expect you thought Mike would fall on his face in Houston, especially after signing both Gordon and Anderson in the off season. These are players that were described as overrated on this board and others. The same was said about Patrick Beverly. I expect you thought that Mike made the wrong choice in making Harden his PG. Mike improved the team that Harden played for the previous season from 41 to 55 wins, while winning splitting COY with Spoelstra. I know you are far more knowledgeable than those that voted for him but it did happen.

I am certainly glad that Pop and Aldridge woke up. You might have had a heart attack, if the Rockets had won. The Spurs finally took advantage of the Rockets biggest weakness after Nene went down. It actually probably helped the Spurs that Parker was hurt. Simmons played out of his mind after Leonard went down as well. The Rockets had to play small and if the Spurs would have tried to play with them I expect the Rockets would have in fact won the series. I actually think it was poor coaching on Pop's part that the Rockets even won two games.

I expect that they will try to do the same thing to the Warriors but the Warriors have two healthy bigs at this point as well as cheap shot Green. Unlike many others I think this will be a competitive series. Many are predicting a sweep by the Warriors.

Too say that Mike would not have done better than Watson did with the Suns roster this year is laughable.

 

[Phrazbit]

Why do you keep repeating the same nonsense. The Lakers went to the playoffs with a 65 year old Steve Nash on crutches. The Knicks went to the playoffs with Chauncy Billups in the emergency room after the Great Raymond Felton was his PG prior to the Melo trade. These are the facts not the alternative facts that you always seem to use.

You must have had many sleepless nights this year while D'Antoni improved a team, that lost the great Dwight Howard in the off season. Yeah the guy that Mike did not know how to coach. How did that work out in Atlanta this year? Melo had one good year after Mike left and Phil wants him out of New York. Except for one season the Knicks have been horrible since Mike left town. The Lakers still are.

If you are honest I expect you thought Mike would fall on his face in Houston, especially after signing both Gordon and Anderson in the off season. These are players that were described as overrated on this board and others. The same was said about Patrick Beverly. I expect you thought that Mike made the wrong choice in making Harden his PG. Mike improved the team that Harden played for the previous season from 41 to 55 wins, while winning splitting COY with Spoelstra. I know you are far more knowledgeable than those that voted for him but it did happen.

I am certainly glad that Pop and Aldridge woke up. You might have had a heart attack, if the Rockets had won. The Spurs finally took advantage of the Rockets biggest weakness after Nene went down. It actually probably helped the Spurs that Parker was hurt. Simmons played out of his mind after Leonard went down as well. The Rockets had to play small and if the Spurs would have tried to play with them I expect the Rockets would have in fact won the series. I actually think it was poor coaching on Pop's part that the Rockets even won two games.

I expect that they will try to do the same thing to the Warriors but the Warriors have two healthy bigs at this point as well as cheap shot Green. Unlike many others I think this will be a competitive series. Many are predicting a sweep by the Warriors.

Too say that Mike would not have done better than Watson did with the Suns roster this year is laughable.

Hahahah, "poor coaching on Pop's part". You are a riot.

First off, anyone attempting to tout that Laker's season as an admirable achievement is delusional, that team failed to live up to expectations to a historic degree. Pau, Dwight and Kobe... and Mike barely squeaked into the playoffs.

In New York when he got fired the Knicks were 18-24, they went onto win 75% of their remaining games... under Mike Woodson, a terrible coach in his own right. The next year they won 54 games.

You can accuse me of "alternative facts" and whatever other nonsense, but your boy just did exactly what he always does in the playoffs. Ran his team into the ground with his awful rotations and got destroyed as soon as the opposition made some adjustments.

Again... Mike isn't a terrible coach, but without an MVP caliber distributor and shooter on the court his teams are pathetic, and even when he does have that advantage his team has a ceiling of "waiting to get thumped by a coach who can adjust".

Fluff him all you want, but a spade is a spade. At the end of the day Mike D went out and failed in the exact same way his detractors have been ripping on him for years for failing.

 

[Hoop Head]

D'Antoni is like the Andy Reid of the NBA. He can coach a team to regular season success but falls apart in the playoffs. It doesn't matter what team it is, he simply can't or won't make the necessary adjustments to counter moves that opposing teams make during a series. He also runs his players into the ground during the regular season. He's already come out and said he hopes and plans to play Harden less during the regular season next year but as a Suns fan, I don't believe him because we all heard him say that with Nash, Marion, and Amare.

 

[AzStevenCal]

I have no interest in joining a D'antoni argument but Harden has a well established history of coming up tiny in big games. Laying the blame for these past two games anywhere other than at Harden's feet makes no sense IMO. Mike had nothing to do with James when he pulled this same kind of disappearing act so many times in the past in postseason play.

James routinely slowed the game down, passed up open shots, made lazy tosses to wide open teammates, turned the ball over at a high rate (15 in two games) and his team was -34 when their superstar was on the court in these last two games.

 

[Adrian]

Todays Game 5/14/17
Spurs Vs Warriors Game 1 (ABC) 12:30 p.m
http://www.espn.com/nba/preview?gameId=400953591

 

[Cheesebeef]

D'Antoni is like the Andy Reid of the NBA. He can coach a team to regular season success but falls apart in the playoffs. It doesn't matter what team it is, he simply can't or won't make the necessary adjustments to counter moves that opposing teams make during a series. He also runs his players into the ground during the regular season. He's already come out and said he hopes and plans to play Harden less during the regular season next year but as a Suns fan, I don't believe him because we all heard him say that with Nash, Marion, and Amare.

This feels pretty on point.

 

[Adrian]

Jeff McDonald‏Verified account@JMcDonald_SAEN 1m1 minute ago
Spurs: Mills, Green, Leonard, Aldridge, Gasol. Warriors: Curry, Thompson, Durant, Green, Pachulia

 

[Adrian]

Jordan Howenstine‏@AirlessJordan 2m2 minutes ago
Spurs have now made the Conference Finals in 10 of the last 20 seasons - most in the NBA.

 

[Adrian]

end of the first quarter
Spurs 30
Warriors 16

 

[Adrian]

Tom Orsborn‏Verified account@tom_orsborn 29s30 seconds ago
#Spurs up, 30-16, after 1Q. Warriors committed 6 turnovers. Aldridge has 11 points on 5 of 7. Sizzling start for the big underdogs.

 

[Adrian]

ESPN Stats & Info‏Verified account@ESPNStatsInfo 2m2 minutes ago
The Warriors only trailed for 12 of the 192 minutes in their series against the Jazz. They trailed for 9:34 in the 1st quarter today.