[Sports Illustrated] Knicks Owner James Dolan Sued By MSG Shareholders Over ‘Excessive’ Pay (Thursday, May 02, 2019 6:56:32 AM)
MSG shareholders suing New York Knicks owner James Dolan for ‘excessive’ pay.
(Thursday, May 02, 2019 11:18:13 PM)
The Knicks are hoping to land Kevin Durant in free agency this summer, but what exactly will their pitch be? SNY’s new NBA Insider Ian Begley shared his insight Thursday on The Thread.
(Thursday, May 02, 2019 8:59:06 PM)
The Knicks were as far from the playoffs as could be, but Scott Perry has his scouts all over the postseason with a big summer upcoming.
(Thursday, May 02, 2019 1:41:55 PM)
It seems that pretty much everyone expects Kevin Durant to not only opt out of his contract this summer but to sign with the Knicks after doing so.
[NYTimes] Danny Ainge, Boston Celtics President, Has Mild Heart Attack (Friday, May 03, 2019 2:55:21 AM)
Ainge, 60, also had a heart attack in 2009. The Celtics said he is expected to make a full recovery.
[NYTimes] Golden State’s Klay Thompson Is a Different Kind of Dangerous (Thursday, May 02, 2019 9:00:10 AM)
Thompson, the Golden State Warriors’ All-Star guard, is known for his long-range 3-point shooting, but his defense keeps opponents on their heels and bricking shots.
(Thursday, May 02, 2019 4:35:57 PM)
The NBA reacted in support of Portland’s Enes Kanter on Thursday, not long after the league’s Turkish-centric Twitter account failed to mention Kanter’s efforts in the Trail Blazers’ victory over Denver in Game 2 of the teams’ Western Conference semifinal series. The league also fired the Turkish company in charge of operating that account. Kanter…
(Thursday, May 02, 2019 4:32:08 PM)
The Knicks are at the playoffs. Sort of. While coach David Fizdale plans to soon attend playoff games with his youngest players, the club has ramped up its pro scouting during the postseason. According to two NBA sources, the Knicks have blanketed the first and second round of the playoffs, with general manager Scott Perry…
132 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2019.05.03)”
Oh man, this is tough. You’re making me choose between wanting to know and having to read something on reddit.
I’m not so sure Knicks fans should be making fun of the Nets. What they’ve done in such a short period of time with no lottery picks is nothing short of remarkable. If they weren’t the 2nd tier franchise in NY they would be the favorite to land 1 or 2 premier free agents with their cap space this summer. Still, with their picks going forward and that space, they are in a good position to keep improving. What they’ve done is probably even more impressive than what the Clippers are doing so quickly. At least the Clippers started with some star players to trade and got some assets in return, even if they weren’t stars.
Anybody can rebuild if you are willing to wait 6-10 years. Even Orlando and Sacramento may finally be getting it right.
I’m not making fun of the Nets. I’m making fun of the fact that like ten days ago the narrative was “Haha tanking is teh dummest” and now that seems to be, uh, not the narrative.
@djphan
I read the theory, it’s an intriguing one which does coincide with my own suspicions about a certain someone’s transformation and how that is really the threat which the Seven Kingdoms face. I also agree with the interpretations circulating around the blogosphere that the Song of Ice and Fire epic is very influenced by the Ragnarok epic. But I don’t see a dragon in the figure we’re talking about and think it is actually an Odinic one.
And I was making fun of the fact that that was never the narrative ten days ago, it was just another case of people being so eager to make fun of something on the internet that they misread like 15 posts so they could get their licks in, and you’re still doing it two weeks later.
$1 a year would be excessive pay for Dolan.
That’s weird because I seem to remember a whole “I’d rather be the Nets than the 76ers” argument going on around here but maybe that was on some other Knicks blog
for those who know:
i remember reading somewhere that the musicians which jimmy d employs in the straight shot are really good…
has any one actually listened to the music; and, is dolan actually a passable “artist”…
bonus question: how much would it cost for you to play for jimmy d?
Oh, it went on.
There was a whole bunch of you saying “I can’t believe you’d rather be the Nets than the 76ers.” The problem was no one ever said they’d rather be the Nets than the 76ers.
You did kill the straw man, though. And now you’re back for more.
They’re touring pros. They play his music with competence and professionalism.
Yes, I have listened to it! There’s a song about how he should have known Harvey Weinstein was a predator, another song about Trayvon Martin, and even a song about fixing the Knicks in which he name-checks Isiah Thomas. He’s not a passable artist. If you saw him playing at the local bar down the street from you, you would think he sucks. Because he sucks. As far as I know there are no viable billionaire blues musicians. They just don’t have very many blues to speak of.
Ooh, that’s a tough one. It would have to be a LOT. It would have to be more than he probably pays. I’ve done lots of hired gun gigs over the years and so have a lot of my friends. I’d probably need top-call, Adele-tour type money to do that gig. Like $10K a week or something.
There has been a fairly long discussion about the Sixers tanking for years to only assemble a team that can’t make it out of the second round of the playoffs-maybe not specifically on here, but in the basketball media world. And they still might not. I think people might be burying the Raptors too soon.
oh shit, that’s funny…
sounds like the msg shareholders are paying for the dream…
to be honest, i’ve never really poked around the MSG stock itself…just for curiosity i might…
the sixers are an incredibly strong team, especially in the playoffs when they can push the starters’ minutes. it’s easy to forget that after the butler trade the wolves over-under was 48.5 in a stacked West. their third best player was, i dunno, taj gibson? the sixers get to add ben fucking simmons and tobias harris. that’s a monster team even if the fit isn’t ideal.
i still like the raptors in the series i think. they have a monster team, too, and i don’t agree that lowry is washed. he’s definitely past peak and a little weird though. probably a minority
view, but i don’t think the warriors would have an easy walk against either of these teams.
I read an article somewhere, when he first started working with them, that implied this was the case. They make serious bank.
I think Toronto wins this series.
Co-signing on the following:
1) Tanking still works if you know how to draft and you know when to push the chips in. The Sixers will probably take it to 7 but they’re in the driver’s seat now and might have a shot against the Bucks if they don’t encounter MVP Giannis.
2) We have like four hours of GOT left. No need to have the internet crowdsource-spoil the ending. I’m an adult — I can stare at the cookie for hours.
3) Dolan is a garbage singer and rich people generally suck at writing emotive music in general. There is no place more hostile to rich white guys than the blues. It is 100% about feel and he has absolutely none.
4) His band is killer. They’re all very good at what they do. Doesn’t save the whole thing, as Dolan sucks at singing as much as he does writing.
5) It’s easy to underestimate just how much time you spend writing, rehearsing and socializing with artists, even when you’re a hired gun. I played touring drums for a couple years for a guy whose name I won’t write here because it’s embarrassingly bad music. (He later went on to average $1-2M a year in revenue and married another rich-girl YouTube star/personality; they probably have as plastic a life as they come.) You don’t get a whole lot of me-time when you’re in a touring band. That is, if you dislike people you tour with, you can’t remove yourself from it. When the aforementioned pop schlock peddler made the argument that McDonald’s was the best burger in the world because of its popularity (an opinion he shared about just about any product, with no awareness of factors unrelated to quality that lead to a product’s success), I realized that we were not on the same wavelength about much at all. But there I was, trapped in Ames, Iowa, baking in the sun while we waited for soundcheck. It would take a dump truck of money to get me to tolerate someone as big an asshole as Dolan, to say nothing of his complete lack of talent.
There was an article about this somewhere once. I think the upshot was that Paul Allen of Microsoft fame was the top of the pops in the billionaire rock boys club….
damn jowles, you’ve squeezed a lot of life in to just a few decades 🙂
it never even occurred to me that some of you all probably can play more than one instrument…
Yup, I play a bunch of ‘em. And I assure you that my band days were as half-baked as my ideas about basketball. I always managed to quit a band just before it took off. That guy actually called me while I was starting my last semester of undergrad and asked me to fill in on a three-week Japan tour. Everything turned out fine for me in the end, but that one still stings a bit. I also would have liked his SE Asia tour and continental Europe, but those came much later.
Lue is expected to get the Lakers coaching job. Figure. Lebron colonizes every franchise he plays on.
i just noticed – you made this sound like an achievement:
like there should be some kind of merit badge included in the ordeal…
my apologies for being incredibly shallow and superficial at times (i am what i am) – but, there is little authenticity/genuineness to either dolan’s appearance – my god those teeth, or, demeanor – stumbling, mumbling, slovenly projection…
i can’t imagine going somewhere “for the music” to enjoy your band, and, having jimmy d trot out on the stage beforehand – time to head to the bar, or, outside for a vape break…
I’ve been lucky in that the hired gun things I have done were usually not terrible music, and always had great musicians on the gig. I did do one year touring playing music that I absolutely hated, but the other guys and girls in the band became lifelong friends and the artist was sweet as can be. If you get hired to be part of the Straight Shot you probably ride in brand new 2019 tour buses, stay at Ritz Carltons, get a hefty per diem, and the other people in the Straight Shot are probably pretty cool.
Dolan probably wants you to hang out with him and kiss his ass and make him feel like a cool guy though, so that would be pretty rough. I’d try to put boogers in his lobster salad or something if I got the chance.
hopefully they’ll get even smarter, and, stop trying to build for the future (hart, ingram, kuzma, ball) and get more “win now” type players on the roster…
JoTD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjUOYLJ8IYI
I wouldn’t hesitate to join James Dolan’s band — if only for the networking opportunity to join his inner circle, sycophanting my way up the ranks in order to influence the direction of my beloved knicks.
Also, the most recent game of zones episode does a wonderful job of ethering melo. best of this season imo.
If Steve Mills managed to keep a job at MSG for so long with absolutely no recognizable talents or track record, imagine if JK47 or Jowles played for Dolan? They could become the next POBO! Come on guys, we need someone to sacrifice themselves for the cause!
bonus question: how much would it cost for you to play for jimmy d?
It would cost me my soul…
@22
In fairness to the Lakers front office, it’s not as if Pelinka hasn’t tried. But you know what is often said about the best laid plans of mice and men – they often go astray. Paul George rejected the chance to play with Lebron over there in LA and Del Demps didn’t seem serious about trading Anthony Davis either. It’s clear they expected to be further along in their own process by now.
https://media1.tenor.com/images/c2e4e488cff0890f2f8eab537c476173/tenor.gif
🙂
John Lee Hooker didn’t even see a million cents during his lifetime, let alone a billion anythings… (and it had nothing to do with him going blind)
Well, LeBron had success with Lue before and well, they did reach the finals all those years. I don’t think it’s a terrible hire, and I don’t think many top coaches are lining up to join the LeBron next top scapegoat reality show, so I don’t think the Lakers has many options.
At this point with George rejecting them, a trade for Davis being very uncertain and Leonard, Durant and Irving all rumored to be going somewhere else, the only option the Lakers really have is caving in to everything LeBron tells them to do and trying to work from there. Well, unless they trade him, which would probably be the least Laker move of the all time, so they’re never going for it.
Come on, spill, THCJ, spill…
I’m pretty sure my guitarist was embarrassed to tour with Britney Spears, because he didn’t even tell me he got the gig. My bassist got me tix to the Scorpions every time he came through town, though, until I asked him not to. Not really my thing.
I’ll guess John Legend for the artist that can’t be named. I’m guessing the real world experience is not as debauched as something like backstage Van Halen during the early 80s?
this guy makes Britney Spears look like Kate Bush
I don’t care for John Legend at all but I’d play in his band for good money
u guyz r intrestin mfers im boring as fck
bt i hung w mitch so gtfo loozas
Imagine if Jack’s Mannequin were somehow even worse than they are, which is a real feat but apparently possible, and after finding out that breaking into cultural relevance and financial success with unoriginal original music is not only an astonishing grind but a total crapshoot that you have almost no control over, you decided to start covering Top 40 hits on YouTube with highly manicured performance music videos with tons of awkward eye contact and autotuned vocals, and somehow became (in)famous to the tune of — get this — 700 MILLION views on your Youtube videos alone and later parlayed it into a stable of wannabe YouTube stars who lined up at your feet to let you turn them into a McRib sandwich of shitty pop music. That’s who I played with.
Also we ran in the same circle as the guy who helped his girlfriend turn their dog into a little-known internet celebrity called Doug the Pug. They followed the same basic structure as the aforementioned shitty-pop peddler: homogenize, saturate, charge impressionable, fame-hungry morons for your advice on how to “make it.”
Hilariously, one of the Yale undergrads I dated while living in New Haven had happened to be a [name redacted] fan but only found out after she had taken a liking to the cock jowles via organic means.
redacted…just cuz i wanted to use that word…
So Lue will coach the Lakers and Monty Williams will coach the Suns. I’m picking the Suns to give the Lakers trouble next season. The Suns have good young talent and the Lakers will have 36 year old LeBron dominating the ball. It could actually be a toss up.
If I had to pick a band that was successful but bad, it would be Nickelback
goot?
bruno mars?
Good half of basketball there
Fuck
I would play for Bruno Mars. Again, I don’t give a shit about his music but he’s a talented performer. Sort of if Prince could still wail, but hadn’t been a visionary and a genius.
I can’t believe Brook Lopez is doing what he is doing this season. And I hope he does something good to keep the Celtics from advancing.
Giannis also good.
George Hill coming up huge too… if Bledsoe can stop shitting the bed the Bucks will win.
Sure is quiet in Boston right now
that was a moronic sequence by the Bucks
fuck the celts
Some of Giannis moves just look like someone pressed the fast forward button. Like he is at the three point line and the next moment he is dunking.
I think it was Hubie Brown who actually made a pretty good point about Giannis, you don’t get used to guarding a guy with his length and athleticism ever, so he surprises you with the shit he can pull off. There were plenty of moments where he was posting up someone at the block, then he took like one step and was instantly at the rim, where a normal player would have to try a different move to score.
He’s just all-around phenomenal, he also played incredible defense in some stretche. He’s at the LeBron level where you can’t really ever contain him, so you just hope he’s having a bad game and you can mitigate the damage somehow.
Does Doris Burke have some connection to the Nuggets? She’s stanning hard for them in this game.
My, how soon we forget just how great LeBron has been…
the return of the big man…
this is way cool, get to watch embiid do his thing one night, the next it’s the jokic show…
@51
Do you think Giannis’ individual level is below that right now?
Obviously it’s an unfair comparison because LeBron is a top 3-5 player of all time, but the point was that Giannis is making it impossible for teams to minimize his impact in the game, much like it’s been impossible to take LeBron out of games.
whoever makes it out of this series, I’m going to be rooting really hard for them in a week or so…
what’s cool about giannis, he’ll dominate the ball at times, and, go crashing to the rim like harden – but, it’s fun to watch…
him, jokic, leonard just usually seem to make the right play…
Millsap just seems ageless huh
Did Murray really take that stupid low percentage shot? He had Kanter on a switch in the perimeter.
You know who has been super disappointing this postseason? Murray. He’s scored 34 tonight, but just by shooting a ton. Eight seconds left in the third overtime, ball in his hands at midcourt, he gets shut down and he has to just throw up a half count shot? How shitty is that?
Murray’s one of the most overrated young players in the league. I’d still take him over any Knicks PG tho
Murray has played like ass this overtime. Not impressed.
I’ve been getting to see more of him than I normally do because of the playoffs and holy shit, he just doesn’t seem particularly good at anything. I mean, taking shots, I guess? He’s not bad, either, but for a guy who’s supposed to be the other star on the Nuggets, he’s so disappointing.
If this goes to a 5th overtime I will freak.
Whoa, I just got home and turned on the TV… this is crazy, what happened to a Terry Stots’ bow tie??
Wow, Doris Burke didn’t think they called a foul on Portland correctly! I’m impressed!
Millsap is so underrated.
That’s a ballsy shot by Millsap.
Jokic has played 65 minutes?!
This game is in the 1st quarter over on espn 2 right now.
LOL Hood!
And his defense was so bad that they had to take Murray out of the game! And replace him with Malik Beasley, who isn’t good at defense!
Brutal break for Denver on that rebound! Great three by Hood (he could have also easily drawn a three-point shooting foul there, by the way)!
Just don’t give Murray the ball, Denver!
Jokic can be a legend here.
Oh, Jokic!
LOL Damn, Jokic.
Instead of Jokic
We got Choke-ish.
Yeah, if that’s not game right there, this will be shocking. Gotta make your free throws, people!
So, the answer to “can you play Enes Kanter in the playoffs” is “only for about 56 minutes or so”.
Such embarrassing play by Denver there, letting Lillard get that far away.
Holy shit, so many mistakes and incredible plays, damn. Feels bad for Jokic playing so many minutes and missing there.
@78
But only if you have Jamal Murray playing 55 minutes on the opposing side.
Honestly, I think that there were a lot more mistakes than incredible plays.
Well, I’ve watched maybe 90 minutes of nba basketball all season, but I’m glad I caught the last few minutes of this. Wish I’d turned it on 30 minutes earlier, though. One of the reasons I love living on the west coast.
Damn, too bad Jokic missed that free throw. I was hoping for a Fifth OT
Those guys looked Tired out there
That was a great rebound and kick out to hood by McCollum, btw. Big time play by a guy that’s had some question marks. He and Lillard work so hard, it’s cool seeing the blazers have success.
@82
Yeah, Denver especially made so many crazy mistakes, turnovers, sloppy handles, they did everything they needed to do to lose the game. I think they’re buried, there’s no way they come out looking decent 48 hours from now for game 4 after this loss.
Agreed. That was basically the one incredible play I saw.
While your description of their play was accurate, Portland still needed four overtimes to put them away, ya know? So I wouldn’t be shocked if Denver tied it up on Sunday by simply not playing so moronically.
Jokic played 65 minutes, holy shit
Tired legs on those final free throws no doubt
Oh, no doubt. Still gotta make those free throws. Brutal misses. Barton before him, too.
No, I don’t. I think he is a freakishly athletic big man with some court vision but come on, LeBron is the most complete package of skill, athleticism and court vision to ever play the game. It’s not even close.
Giannis would be a legit MVP, but is he that far above Harden? Or Durant? Or Kawhi? LeBron was by far the best player in the league at Giannis’ age. The Freak is on a pretty balanced and solid team and he’s facing mediocre competition (this is not the Pierce-Garnett-Allen-Rondo Celts.) So if your point is that Giannis is as dominant against the level of competition he’s seen in the playoffs thus far as LeBron was against his at that age, I suppose that’s fair.
Correction: I meant, yes, I do.
If the rockets can climb back in this series we’re looking at the best 2nd round in a very long time.
Giannis needs an outside shot. I don’t care how good you are inside, unless you are Shaq you need to be able to score away from the basket consistently enough to not impact other aspects of the offense, get double teamed, or run into a team that matches up well against you. What Giannis does will work on 9 out of 10 nights in regular season and 8 out of 10 in the playoffs, but if he wants to be compared to all time greats, he can’t be a liability outside.
All that said, I feel better about that Bucks series even though it’s far from over.
Now if Toronto can figure out a way to turn Lowery from a pumpkin into a consistent 3rd option maybe they can steal one in Philly.
Denver and Portland was ugly as all hell in the OTs.
@91
Yeah, that’s fair. If we take Strat’s point, I would say Giannis is unstoppable on 8/10 nights where prime LeBron was unstoppable on 10/10 nights, and that is a big difference that shows LeBron’s otherworldly level at his prime. I do think there’s more talent around now than there was when LeBron was Giannis’ age, as the league has gotten better.
I think Giannis is very very good but not quite LeBron level. I don’t remember anyone limiting LeBron the way Horford is limiting Giannis. Also any two big guys greeting his forays into the paint at the foul line area render him helpless.
A solid 15 footer, where he stops his rush into the paint and hits it would go a long way into solving these issues. Maybe he adds it in the offseason.
Siakam questionable for Game 4. If you’re a Raptors fan, it’s not what you want.
Horford limited Giannis to 32 points on 13 shots and held him to only 13 rebounds and 8 assists. Lebron never got locked down like that.
Yikes
So Kanter re-separated his shoulder in last night’s marathon? And played 56 minutes? Dude definitely knows how to make himself a folk hero.
Giannis dominates 2 straight playoff games.
Knickerblogger: Yeah, he could really add a 15 foot shot to his arsenal.
LeBron’s 2017-18 playoff appearance was godly, one of the very best in NBA history, and yet–
https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201804270IND.html
https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201805130BOS.html
Sometimes he has bad games.
A certain contingent on this board sometimes eats up whatever the punditry is scooping onto their tray. The Bucks were never in danger. They’re going to continue to crush the Celtics and probably steamroll the Sixers on their way to a serious matchup. Giannis shot better than .600 TS% in FIFTY games this season. It’s highly unlikely he’s going to put up bad numbers over any 7 game stretch.
2 thoughts.
1. Yes the Celtics were a formidable foe to Cleveland and Miami later but the east for the most part has really sucked during Lebron’s reign. I actually think this year with the top four teams the competition is better in the east than it was during Lebron’s years.
2. Giannis is only in his 5th year so the question should really be is Giannis this year as good as Lebron was in his fifth year. I think if we frame it that way it’s much closer. Lebron didn’t hit his peak in his fifth year and neither has Giannis.
Why is that everything has to be black or white when there are dozens of shades in between?
Giannis is a great player. He’s supposed to dominate virtually every night. However, without an outside shot he and his team will have an occasional difficult night because of the matchup, defensive strategy, or the way the game is being called that guys like James, Jordan, and other elite greats won’t have because they can adjust to the situation with an outside shot and by creating greater space for their teammates.
Lebron James was constantly trying to improve his 3 point shot because despite ripping everyone a new asshole practically every game going inside, in the playoffs the Spurs used to give him room and let him shoot 3s. If he wasn’t knocking them down consistently enough, they kept packing the paint on him and his teammates making it tougher. He was still great, but when he’s hitting 3s he’s even better because he could take them out of that adjustment.
It’s a degree of greatness.
Giannis is great, but he can be better on a more consistent basis for himself and his teammates if he can shoot from outside.
@103
And I would add that Giannis has brought himself up from a much lower floor. LeBron has prepared himself his entire life to be the chosen one, he was already a star level player in his 2nd year, while Giannis had no idea how to play professional basketball until his 3rd or 4th year in the league, when his body got fully ready and he started to develop.
LeBron’s 6th year was when he made the leap to unstoppable force of nature, when he posted a 13 BPM and .318 ws48 which is still his very best statistical season to this day. Giannis is in his 6th season too and not quite at the “might be the best season ever by a player” level, but it’s not so far away.
@98 he had a great game.
With Horford on the court in the series so far he shoots 47.8% and with Horford off it’s 85.7%. This is only at the rim, which account to all his shots other than several 3s.
I know, sample size, but you can also see that Horford bothers him. The Bucks have great shooters, and a smart coach who found a way to create space for Giannis in the paint before the help gets there. So cool. But I cannot see how adding a 15 footer isn’t going to take G another notch up.
In his age 24 season Giannis had a .599 eFG%. That is a pretty fierce number.
The more pertinent question to me isn’t whether Lebron is better than Giannis at the same respective point in their careers. It’s clear that the former was superior to the latter as a 24 year old. To me, the more difficult question is which player would you rather have on your team. I don’t think the two questions are equivalent ones since there are other factors to consider than mere ability when you look at all of the baggage one player carries with them vs. another. And, for my money, the Bucks are in a better position moving forward with a 6th year Giannis than the Cavaliers were with a 6th year Lebron.
I think he will learn to shoot better away from the rim…and then, watchout…
that speed, length of stride and power combination is just so unusual…
he’s just a different type of athlete than lebron…and, not to disparage giannis’ basketball IQ, but, my understanding is that lebron is next level with that ability…
The question as always is not that he shouldn’t shoot jumpers, is that he should shoot them if they’re efficient enough to be worthy. I’m all for him learning how to shoot from the outside if that doesn’t take away from his major strengths. LeBron became a better shooter as he grew older, but that didn’t come at the cost of him losing what made him great. But really, as JK47 pointed out, a guy who’s not a center posted an almost .600+ efg%, so it’s hard to say he “needs” to do anything else to be great.
Lebron was obviously better than Giannis at age 24 which just shows you how preposterously good LeBron was, because Giannis just led the league in WS/48. Lebron was one of the best players in the league by his second season and kept that going 14 straight years while playing heavy minutes and never getting hurt, and that’s why (to me) it’s a no-brainer that you’d chose 24 year old Lebron over 24 year old Giannis. Giannis might turn out to have a better peak than Lebron, and that’s a crazy thing to think about, but you can’t assume Lebron’s health and workload, because almost nobody has ever been as healthy and productive over 40,000 minutes.
To make the leap to an all-time season, Giannis needs a three-point shot, not a midrange one. There is no player who’d be more devastating than him with a believable ball fake. If the defender moves vertically at all, it’s two strides and a quality shot at the rim. If his defenders stay on the ground, you sink the three. 35% would do just fine. But it must be efficient to be useful, and that’s a tall order from a guy who’s never come close to looking like a competent jump shooter. It’s all wishful thinking, like Shaq with a foul shot or Tracy McGrady with a functional body.
Without that shot, he’ll still be an MVP candidate for the next few years. With it, he would set records.
This brings up an interesting issue of classification that I’ve had regarding Giannis. According to Basketball Reference he hasn’t even been a SF since 2016-17, since then he’s exclusively been a PF/C. This playoffs alone, he’s almost played C as much as he’s played PF with a 43/57% split. If these classifications can be taken seriously I don’t think Lebron is a proper comp for him.
68 minutes of basketball…still buzzing from that game…
it was like they locked a bunch of guys in a gym and told them to play til the last man standing…
will barton was balling out…sure he jumped past hood for that smooth 3, but, for 40, 50, however many minutes he played – he was really putting it all out there on both ends…a lot of players were…
was cool to see that portland crowd up on their feet…amazing game…
lots of guys on each team to root for: aminu, millsap (not worth 30), barton, jokic –
I remember there were a whole lot of posters here on the jokic love wagon when the prevailing “word” was that he was soft, and, ill-conditioned…
I’m not sure about his defense, but, huge impact on the offensive end…
how about dame deferring to cj for clutch minutes of the game…
it’s fun to watch two teams move the ball and put in effort on defense…
what was up with kanter and those crazy grimacing faces he was making…
dude, if you are hurting that badly, chances are you can’t perform too optimally well from a physical standpoint…he missed a bunch of tip ins around the rim, couldn’t shoot from farther than 5 feet away, couldn’t really raise his arm well enough to catch a pass or grab a rebound…
my only guess is that stotts thought he was doing okay on defense and setting screens, and, zach collins was more apt to make a negative play…I don’t know???
Damn, bad news for Toronto. Good news for Toronto is Leonard now owns the highest career playoff TS%. Giannis is number 69 on the leaderboard, which is still pretty nice.
Leonard is just insane… I thought he was going to be good, but I could never imagine that he would become such a complete offensive player. If Toronto still had DeRozan they would have no chance in this series.
I want to see Embiid and Giannis going at each other for 7 games, but I definitely wouldn’t be opposed to seeing Giannis facing Leonard.
That was a sick block by Capela on Iguodala.
I don’t see Giannis’ trajectory as a pantheon-level player…i.e. in the LeBron-Jordan-Magic-Bird-Kareem mold (let’s leave out the pre-3-pt era guys for now). It might be a b-ball IQ thing. I put him more in the David Robinson class, below Durant/Duncan/Hakeem/Shaq-level, but better than Ewing/Malone/Pippen. It’s just speculation. Athletically, he’s a match for anyone.
Well, there is one pre-3pt era guy to compare him to. As much as anyone, Giannis epitomizes how dominant a 24 yo Wilt would have been in today’s game with 3-pt spacing and fouling rules. Wilt was bigger, stronger, faster, longer, higher vertical, more skilled, a better rebounder, a better shot-blocker, a better passer, and had more endurance. FT shooting would have hurt him, but that’s about it. Imagine Wilt euro-stepping his way to the rim!
I don’t care how talented and skilled he his, it’s painful for me to watch Harden play basketball.
It’s gonna be great to have Durant on the Knicks next season. He practically single-handedly kept the Warriors in this game.
Why in the fuck didn’t the Warriors foul down 5 with a timeout left and 14 seconds?!?!
Unlike the Spurs, this was clearly on purpose. Ridiculous.
I wonder if they said “If we aren’t getting that charge on that drive by Harden, the refs aren’t going to let us win this game.” Why was Steph trying to dunk that ball?
What the hell is Curry doing, a missed layup and that stupid dunk attempt…
I don’t care because I’ve been increasingly hating the Warriors smug attitude this year, so I just want them to crash and burn.
jotd: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIqcFLexSOU
harden is a beast i dont care what any of y’all say. dude is on my starting 5 from the current crop of players.
Mets-Brewers are trying to outdo the Nuggets-Blazers
The rtefs are human. They are going to make mistakes and not be aware of their biases, but that was a bad one. There are times when 5-10 minutes into the game you can sort of sense whose side the officials are going to be on that night.
That was a spectacular dick punch of a finish for us Mets fans.
This has been a weird season. First our pitching sucked but we were scoring tons of runs. Now we can’t hit and our pitchers are good again.
Well, the officials ignored a 5 step travel on Curry that lead to a Draymond 3 late in the game, so it’s not like they weren’t making mistakes for the other side too. Draymond also poked Harden in the eye again on another play.
Amed Rosario really blows. The Mets have some decent young talent but that guy is a fuckin’ bum.
Yeah, so much for all of my optimism going into this Mets season. Who’s next on the long, miserable train of suck that have been my teams? The Jets, I guess…
Oh wait, never mind, the draft lottery is in a couple of weeks.
Is is possible that Steph is entering his decline phase?
I was saying that about Durant a couple of weeks ago. That doesn’t look like such a brilliant insight now. Still, I will probably be right the moment the ink dries on his Knicks contract. 🙂
I think Steph is OK. He does most of his damage shooting 3s. Durant does his damage from everywhere in every way. Steph is probably a little easier to limit than Durant.