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Official 2020-21 NBA Finals - Milwaukee Bucks win the NBA Championship!

The Spurs needed a mess this year and didn't do it. Making a bunch of FA signings this year without figuring out the roster would be a mistake. I'd prefer to go young and see what they can do. I'd go with Murray/Vassell/Johnson/Samanic/Poeltl with White/Walker anchoring the bench. Keep Dieng because he can shoot.

Then try to get assets and a contract. Try to get the last two years of Wiggins' contract and the #7 pick from the Warriors or the last two years of Kevin Love's contract and next year's 1st from the Cavs. Either player could actually make the team better as well.

The Spurs need to just start the rebuild that should have started last year instead of a longshot bid to make the playoffs. Hard to see any of the West playoff teams dropping out. The Grizzlies will get better. Dame and Luka are probably staying put. The Pelicans are much better positioned that the Spurs. The Warriors will definitely be in. Just go young for a few years like the Hawks did and rebuild with good picks and front office work. Leave Becky something to work with.

The with/without ratings for Trae are interesting. He's the most important player in the playoffs right now. They just need to solidify that backup PG slot next year.
 
deacon14 said:
I spent some time digging into Hawks playoff stats, found some interesting stuff.

1. Collins and Gallo are +9.1 points per 100 possessions as a two man combo in 148 minutes together. Some of that is driven by 21:09 of the 5 man lineup of Trae, Bogdan, Gallo, Collins, Capela that abused the Sixers to the tune of +45.1 pts/100 poss, but I'm still pleased that number is so positive considering a lot of those 148 minutes came without a true center on the floor. In the regular season Collins/Gallo together were only +1.7 in 406 minutes together, so they've been playing together way more frequently and way more successfully in the playoffs compared to regular season.

2. The Hawks have an ORtg of 115.0 in 501 minutes with Trae on the floor. The Hawks have an ORtg of 95.1 in 124 minutes without Trae. A swing of 19.9 seems massive to me, and it really underscores how the entirety of the offense goes through Trae. It also shows that guys like Lou Williams aren't doing a good enough job when Trae is sitting. In the regular season Ortg went from 120.5 to 108.1 with Trae sitting, so still a big swing but the non-Trae minutes were much better offensively. The opponents' ORtg with/without Trae improves by 5.3 (110.3 to 105.0), so the Hawks are somewhat better defensively when Trae sits, but it doesn't do near enough to compensate for his offensive impact.

As an interesting side note, the Bucks ORtg goes from 109.7 in 467 minutes with Giannis to 109.6 in 120 minutes without Giannis. So barely any different at all. But they give up an opponent's 112.6 ORtg without him compared to a 103.0 with him, suggesting that Giannis has actually made a bigger positive impact defensively than offensively in these playoffs, at least compared to the bench options for when Giannis sits.
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it is fun to imagine the Bucks and those pieces with a coach running an actual NBA offense
 
Official 2020-21 NBA Conference Finals - Suns/Clips and Bucks/Hawks / Pistons #1 pick

NBA Playoff TV ratings are strong.

https://www.sbnation.com/2021/6/24/...mall-market-ratings-hawks-bucks-suns-clippers

Early ratings returns aren’t just showing that interest is overwhelming at the end of this season, but they might eclipse anything we’ve seen in recent years. A deep dive into NBA ratings by Ben Rohrbach Yahoo Sports shows that the young stars of the NBA like Trae Young and Devin Booker are as compelling as anything we’ve seen in the last 20 years.

“The viewership share for this year’s playoffs — the percentage of people with TVs in use that are watching the NBA — is at its highest since the league first began logging that data during the 2002-03 season.”

​
These swelling market share numbers better reflect the changing ways people watch TV, and that those choosing to watch live programming are tuning in. However, the raw numbers support the idea that the NBA is succeeding this season.

Game 7 of the Hawks and Sixers pulled in a 6.1 rating, beating the U.S. Open on the day, while Game 1 of Suns vs. Clippers had a 4.5. Those numbers exceed the 2020 Finals between the Lakers and Heat, and rival the 2007 Finals between the Spurs and Cavaliers. Obviously last year deserves as asterisk, because people weren’t really interested in the bubble finals in the middle of a pandemic.

The jokes on Twitter about Adam Silver sweating a small market final four (aside from the Clippers, who let’s face it, are the Clippers) are falling on deaf ears. There’s fun and excitement, especially from lapsed NBA fans who have felt the game has become too predictable.
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On the other hand, the lottery ratings were the lowest since 2006.
 
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The only times I have ever even considered actually watching the lottery broadcast was when the Hawks had good odds at the #1 pick. Even then I think I just checked twitter while it was going on. I cannot imagine why you'd actually watch the broadcast, particularly if your team was not heavily involved. Particularly in the age of the internet when Woj or someone is gonna tweet it out like 0.5 seconds after it happens
 
WRS said:
I wonder if this ultimately ends up benefiting the Suns/CP3. Obviously only in hindsight because they are up 2-0 but he’s had a week+ off in the middle of the playoffs when he otherwise would have played 70 minutes minimum the first two games of the series.
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It's possible. He might also be a bit rusty and the offense might be a bit out of sync are the flip side to the potential advantage. Playoff injuries have always been a problem for CP, though, so I just hope he's had some time to get his shoulder right over the last week despite quarantining.
 
I watch a lot of NBA and it's really unclear to me a lot of the time that I'm watching the same product that the NBA media is watching. These dudes either just openly despise the game or talk about things like ratings that literally don't matter if you actually enjoy watching basketball.

The NBA has a few crises to deal with this off-season. Officiating is a big one, but man the NBA media sucks and I wish the league would work with the various outlets to change that in the future. This is as good, if not better, than any generation of NBA that I have lived through and you would never know it listening to some of these idiots.
 
strick, which NBA media are you talking about? I don't have twitter, so I get most of my takes from Lowe, the Ringer, and here -- those sources seem very positive about the game
 
Strickland33 said:
I watch a lot of NBA and it's really unclear to me a lot of the time that I'm watching the same product that the NBA media is watching. These dudes either just openly despise the game or talk about things like ratings that literally don't matter if you actually enjoy watching basketball.

The NBA has a few crises to deal with this off-season. Officiating is a big one, but man the NBA media sucks and I wish the league would work with the various outlets to change that in the future. This is as good, if not better, than any generation of NBA that I have lived through and you would never know it listening to some of these idiots.
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Exactly. The only people who care that it's not the Nets and Lakers in the finals are the talking heads telling us that everyone is disappointed if it's not the Nets and Lakers.

Turns out, if the players are good and games are exciting, people are entertained.
 
JuiceCrewAllStar said:
strick, which NBA media are you talking about? I don't have twitter, so I get most of my takes from Lowe, the Ringer, and here -- those sources seem very positive about the game
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Yeah, those are the exceptions and I unfortunately spend way too much time on Twitter. (I also probably watch 7-10 games a week during the regular season, so I'm probably not the modal viewer.)

Most of the Twitter pundits, all of the ESPN talking heads, and the "serious" regional media are seemingly obsessed with the stupidest, least consequential parts of the game, and clearly can't process that change is, in fact, good. Have you watched a broadcast on ESPN recently? Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson are sometimes so openly antagonistic it border on raw jealousy. Remember Ethan Strauss's "are ratings falling because the NBA is too woke?" crusade from last summer? Even Inside the NBA gets weird when Shaq and Chuck just can't get it through their heads that these guys are good and, in some instances, better than they ever were.

I love watching the TNT crews and Doris/Mark on ESPN because they seem to actually enjoy watching basketball, as opposed to openly resenting the players and coaches that are currently employed while they're doing commentary/analysis spots.

The disjuncture between game play and commentary about the state of the game is just wild to witness.
 
strick has posted about r/NBA before, which is the same thing I often use to follow NBA, an aggregation of better commentary like Lowe, shitty ad-driven media conglomerates like ESPN, and nephew takes from redditors

ESPN/sports media could probably be further divided into 24hr coverage takes, which are attention-driven, and league reporting (usually light if any #analysis). the former is an unredeemable product, IMO and I wish the redditors would stop giving it the attention it so desperately seeks.
 
yeah, I guess I've avoided all of that

I don't watch games with the sound on until late in the 4th in a close game, I don't watch ESPN outside of the actual broadcasts, and I don't read twitter, so I suppose I'm insulated from all the negativity

everyone I know that likes basketball is into these playoffs big time
 
how/why does patbev have the reputation of an iffy 3-point shooter? he's consistently made 3s his whole career, over 38%.

i'm with juice on the media, haven't noticed any negativity at all.
 
IAppreciateIt said:
how/why does patbev have the reputation of an iffy 3-point shooter? he's consistently made 3s his whole career, over 38%.

i'm with juice on the media, haven't noticed any negativity at all.
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people just think patbev is tony allen
 
Strickland33 said:
Most of the Twitter pundits, all of the ESPN talking heads, and the "serious" regional media are seemingly obsessed with the stupidest, least consequential parts of the game, and clearly can't process that change is, in fact, good. Have you watched a broadcast on ESPN recently? Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson are sometimes so openly antagonistic it border on raw jealousy. Remember Ethan Strauss's "are ratings falling because the NBA is too woke?" crusade from last summer? Even Inside the NBA gets weird when Shaq and Chuck just can't get it through their heads that these guys are good and, in some instances, better than they ever were.
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the nephews love this shit though - clicks, retweets, and replies for days
 
I think there are some 80s and 90s NBA types who can be kind of prickly haters about the game right now. They're coming from their own place. Van Gundy and Mark Jackson are coaches who failed to adjust the way the game is going. Jackson, Shaq, and Chuck find themselves having to be experts of a very different game than they played. All three would have to make major adjustments as players to fit into today's game. On the other hand, Kenny and Reggie are a little jealous of today's game because they would thrive. Draymond, Candace, and D-Wade add so much to the studio because they're just more familiar with the way the game is played nowadays.

I do like that NBA social media and others who do the work get clips and highlights together so quickly. JC's backboard alley oops was up a minute after it happened. One game Luka Samanic had like 14 points and I couldn't watch the game, but I knew there would be a 2 min highlight video of this guy nobody outside of Spurs fandom knows about within 30 minutes of the end of the game. And there was. Social media does a good job promoting the G-League as well.

Mark/Doris is probably my favorite combination because they've both been doing this a long time and seem like knowledgable fans. And they really enjoy seeing the young guys play, which is my favorite part of today's game as well. They aren't shy about adding some off-court opinions either.

I wax nostalgic for the 90s NBA. I was a 90s Bulls fan. Hard to beat that. But today's game is a higher quality product if you just turn on a random playoff game. The game has its problems like replay, inconsistent officiating (although probably the best of any league), injuries and load management, but it's a fantastic product overall. The NBA just has to figure out how market more than a few players on a few teams. Maybe they add more national TV games in the next deal.
 
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Kidd is the frontrunner for Mavs head coach and they're close to hiring a GM according to Woj.

Not a good sign that things will change if Cuban/Haralabos are hiring a GM and head coach at the same time.
 
PhDeac said:
Kidd is the frontrunner for Mavs head coach and they're close to hiring a GM according to Woj.

Not a good sign that things will change if Cuban/Haralabos are hiring a GM and head coach at the same time.
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Agreed. Rumor is GM is Finely. So Dirk, Finley, and Kidd now running show. More proof that Cuban is desperate to say "nothing wrong here"
 
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