Around the League: Week 25 - The End of the Regular Season

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carey
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Around the League: Week 25 - The End of the Regular Season

Post by carey »

Nationally televised games this week

Tuesday: OKC @ Minnesota 8:00PM EST NBATv
Wednesday: Atlanta @ Indiana 8:00PM EST ESPN, New Orleans @ Portland 10:30PM EST ESPN

NBA News

D.A.'s Morning TIp - This season's awards: http://www.nba.com/article/2017/04/10/m ... harden-mvp

Flannery - The Celtics are on the clock: http://www.sbnation.com/a/celtics-nba-p ... hootaround

For MVPs, wins are most important, says James Harden: http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/1912 ... tant-thing

Zach Lowe - 10 things I like and don't like featuring Rajon Rondo: http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/1909 ... -rondo-nba
Go Suns!

Og Snus!

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Hermen
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Re: Around the League: Week 25 - The End of the Regular Season

Post by Hermen »

I was looking for team standings predictions from before the season started (found foxsports, bleacherreport and fivethirtyeight) and they all had OKC above Houston by about five wins. What changed that the narrative is now how Westbrook is carrying a shitty team to the playoffs?

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Indy
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Re: Around the League: Week 25 - The End of the Regular Season

Post by Indy »

Hermen wrote:I was looking for team standings predictions from before the season started (found foxsports, bleacherreport and fivethirtyeight) and they all had OKC above Houston by about five wins. What changed that the narrative is now how Westbrook is carrying a shitty team to the playoffs?
Was that before they got rid of Ibaka?

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Re: Around the League: Week 25 - The End of the Regular Season

Post by Hermen »

Indy wrote:Was that before they got rid of Ibaka?
Nope, the predictions are from the fall, September-October. Vegas had over-under for OKC at 45.5, for Houston at 41.5.

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Indy
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Re: Around the League: Week 25 - The End of the Regular Season

Post by Indy »

Too bad we didn't bet on the over for Houston. I don't think people expected Mike's system to be implemented so effectively there. And for Harden to buy in so much.

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carey
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Re: Around the League: Week 25 - The End of the Regular Season

Post by carey »

Good thing I didn't bet on the over for Phoenix. It was 26 iirc and I recall saying it was easy money. I'm often wrong but I was really wrong on this one.
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Mori Chu
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Re: Around the League: Week 25 - The End of the Regular Season

Post by Mori Chu »

We could totally have won > 26 games if we had wanted to. We are tanking pretty hard to end the season.

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Re: Around the League: Week 25 - The End of the Regular Season

Post by O_Gardino »

Hermen wrote:I was looking for team standings predictions from before the season started (found foxsports, bleacherreport and fivethirtyeight) and they all had OKC above Houston by about five wins. What changed that the narrative is now how Westbrook is carrying a s*** team to the playoffs?

The OKC narrative didn't change, the Thunder are about where we expected them to be.

It's the Rockets who are a "surprise". People are still figuring out that Howard doesn't help his team, and Mike D's reputation is mixed at best. Harden was considered a no-d stats only guy who wasn't a leader on the team. I mean, he sure didn't look like he was leading last year.
The league needs heroes, villains... and clowns. -- Aztec Sunsfan

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Split T
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Re: Around the League: Week 25 - The End of the Regular Season

Post by Split T »

The rockets were a surprise, but it wasn't just harden. Eric Gordon had a huge year, Ryan Anderson was really good. Clint capela more than filled in for Dwight.

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Re: Around the League: Week 25 - The End of the Regular Season

Post by In2ition »

Marty [Mori Chu] wrote:We could totally have won > 26 games if we had wanted to. We are tanking pretty hard to end the season.
This is where I would have been pissed if I had big money on it, because you're right, they could have easily beaten the over. But, I'm glad I didn't bet and I'm glad they tanked. Next year, they should be able to go over the line, as you expect the line to be between 22-26.
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Re: Around the League: Week 25 - The End of the Regular Season

Post by O_Gardino »

Here's our Predictions thread. A lot of folks here had OKC at the 4th spot and Houston 6th or lower. A few even predicted Houston would miss the playoffs.

http://www.phx-suns.net/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1094
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Indy
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Re: Around the League: Week 25 - The End of the Regular Season

Post by Indy »

O_Gardino wrote:Here's our Predictions thread. A lot of folks here had OKC at the 4th spot and Houston 6th or lower. A few even predicted Houston would miss the playoffs.

http://www.phx-suns.net/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1094
http://www.phx-suns.net/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1094#p67935

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Ring_Wanted
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Re: Around the League: Week 25 - The End of the Regular Season

Post by Ring_Wanted »

I had this:

1.- Cleveland, 2.- Toronto, 3.- Atlanta, 4.- Boston, 5.- Indiana, 6.- Milwaukee, 7.- Chicago, 8.- Orlando.
1.- GSW, 2.- LAC, 3.- SAS, 4.- HOU, 5.- POR, 6.- OKC, 7.- MEM, 8.- DAL.

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Mori Chu
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Re: Around the League: Week 25 - The End of the Regular Season

Post by Mori Chu »

Here are a couple of my posts in that start-of-season predicitons thread:
In the West, I think Houston will be pretty good this year. I don't think OKC will be as high as many have listed them; I think they are a fringe playoff team. In the East I think Milwaukee is super overrated.
I think the Pelicans are cursed. They just seem to be injured and underachieve every year. I wouldn't bet on them to make the playoffs.
(wrong on this next one)
I have given up on Memphis. Not sure they have enough shooting or athleticism to compete for the playoffs. And I have never been a Chandler Parsons fan; I think he's one of the most overrated players in the NBA. I don't think he moves the needle for them, or for anybody really. What's the word on Marc Gasol's health?
Here's my take on how the Suns would do this year:
I don't think we will make the playoffs. We would have to make an almost historic jump upward in wins. I know we had some injuries and excuses last year, but really we had most of our guys at full strength. We just have the wrong group of guys. To make the playoffs we would have to see a huge leap from Booker, as well as seeing a healthy Bledsoe for most of the year, harmony in our currently confusing rotations for both guards and forwards, a productive Jared Dudley, a reinvigorated Tyson Chandler and/or a leap from Len, ... It's just asking a lot.

What's more, I don't -want- us to make the playoffs. I want them to play the young guys and experiment with different lineups and figure out what works, not push veterans into heavy minutes to try to make an ill-fated playoff push. If we make it in as the 8th seed, we'll just get absolutely demolished by the Warriors.

I know we missed Bledsoe for several games, but I didn't see a team that was one Bledsoe away from making the playoffs. And I don't really count Tyson's later injury as real. I bet he would have played if we had any prospect of being good by that point in the year.
Here were my predictions for the two conferences. I nailed some teams, but I made some huge mistakes as well. Such is life.
East
1. Cleveland <-- possibly correct
2. Boston <-- possibly correct
3. Toronto <-- correct
4. Atlanta <-- actual: #5
5. Indiana <-- actual: #7
6. Detroit <-- actual: #10 (OOPS)
7. Orlando <-- actual: #13 (OOPS)
8. Milwaukee <-- actual: #6
9. Charlotte
10. New York
11. Washington <-- actual: #4 (OOPS)
12. Chicago <-- actual: #8 (OOPS)
13. Miami <-- actual: #9 (OOPS)
14. Philadelphia
15. Brooklyn

West
1. Golden State <-- correct
2. San Antonio <-- correct
3. LA Clippers <-- actual: #4
4. Houston <-- actual: #3
5. Utah <-- correct
6. Portland <-- actual: #8
7. Memphis <-- correct
8. Minnesota <-- OOPS!
9. Denver <-- correct
10. Oklahoma City <-- actual: #6 (OOPS!)
11. New Orleans
12. Phoenix <-- actual: #15
13. Sacramento
14. Dallas
15. LA Lakers
Full current standings: http://www.espn.com/nba/standings

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Re: Around the League: Week 25 - The End of the Regular Season

Post by O_Gardino »

I was very wrong on Utah and New Orleans.
I was a little wrong about OKC and Portland.
The Clips and the Jazz have big games to decide that 4th spot to end the season. Both against good teams with no reason to win.
GSW
SAS - Could be better than last season, although I don't think they will win as many
LAC - I could honestly see these guys falling with some bad luck, an injury, or if they just get tired of eachother.
HOU - Could pass LAC
POR - From here down, it's anyone's game. But I think these guys are built for the regular season, and they know how to play around their 'stars'.
MEM - Good team. They won't stop winning yet.
OKC - They will struggle this year.
NOP - If healthy, this is a very good team.
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Re: Around the League: Week 25 - The End of the Regular Season

Post by ShelC »

I was actually going to bump that thread this morning...I predicted 37 wins, which I think we could've gotten with a decent coach. At one point, after watching our preseason games, I wrote that we wouldn't be better than the Lakers, Portland or Dallas.

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Re: Around the League: Week 25 - The End of the Regular Season

Post by Indy »

ShelC wrote:I was actually going to bump that thread this morning...I predicted 37 wins, which I think we could've gotten with a decent coach. At one point, after watching our preseason games, I wrote that we wouldn't be better than the Lakers, Portland or Dallas.
I think it mostly had to do with which personnel played, and when. That may be coaching, or it may be the front office dictating some things. Otherwise, I agree we could have won +30 games this year. Not sure about 37, but maybe.

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Re: Around the League: Week 25 - The End of the Regular Season

Post by Indy »

Marty [Mori Chu] wrote: Here's my take on how the Suns would do this year:
I don't think we will make the playoffs. We would have to make an almost historic jump upward in wins. I know we had some injuries and excuses last year, but really we had most of our guys at full strength. We just have the wrong group of guys. To make the playoffs we would have to see a huge leap from Booker, as well as seeing a healthy Bledsoe for most of the year, harmony in our currently confusing rotations for both guards and forwards, a productive Jared Dudley, a reinvigorated Tyson Chandler and/or a leap from Len, ... It's just asking a lot.

What's more, I don't -want- us to make the playoffs. I want them to play the young guys and experiment with different lineups and figure out what works, not push veterans into heavy minutes to try to make an ill-fated playoff push. If we make it in as the 8th seed, we'll just get absolutely demolished by the Warriors.

I know we missed Bledsoe for several games, but I didn't see a team that was one Bledsoe away from making the playoffs. And I don't really count Tyson's later injury as real. I bet he would have played if we had any prospect of being good by that point in the year.
I think you could argue all of those things did happen. No injuries to speak of (I guess Warren with that head injury for a while, and I discount the Bender one since we were done by then), big leap from Book, Bledsoe had his best year ever, productive JD for the most part, and Tyson played great. I don't think there was a lack of harmony in the rotations before the AS break, we just didn't like them.

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Re: Around the League: Week 25 - The End of the Regular Season

Post by Split T »

If we never benched Bledsoe, we could have won 5-7 more games. Been in that wolves, kings, mavs, pelicans group

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Re: Around the League: Week 25 - The End of the Regular Season

Post by In2ition »

Next year is going to be tough, the Suns are going to be in the same type of race for a playoffs as young teams that some are "supposedly" better built.

- Minnesota with another lottery pick and a hopefully healthy LaVine.
- Denver with another lottery pick to go with Jokic, Harris, and Murray.
- Dallas is building a young core, but coaching keeps them competitive.
- Sacramento is probably a bit away, but still have two top 10 picks in a deep draft and some nice young bigs along with Hield.
- Portland is a low level playoff team, but has a relatively nice young backcourt.
- Lakers have a young core that they love, but really need to hit on getting a top 3 pick this summer. Perhaps they can land a player through free-agency or trade this summer with or without the draft pick. I wish nothing but failure for them.
"When we all think alike, nobody is thinking" - Walter Lippmann
"Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them." ~ Frederick Douglass

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