Around the League: Week 14 3/22-3/28

[Mori Chu]

If the Jazz are healthy, I'd bet a sizeable sum of money on them beating the Warriors in a series this year.

[Mori Chu]

What if this ends up being our year to go far in the playoffs, partly because everybody else is breaking down with injuries?

[BKinSJC]

What if this ends up being our year to go far in the playoffs, partly because everybody else is breaking down with injuries?

Don't even say such things. She's still out there. You know who I mean.

[Superbone]

Sure, 0.0000001% chance (estimate) is still a shot.

"So, you're saying there's a chance?!"

[ShelC]

Are they really breaking down with injuries or picking and choosing their rest? A lot of these guys just don't want to play thru a season anymore IMO. We're the ones grinding thru 70 games, it'd be a shame to put in all this work and go into the playoffs tired.

[Flagrant Fowl]

Considering historical context, the Suns and Jazz look to be falling into the category of teams that overachieve in the regular season but inevitably fall short in the playoffs because they probably peaked too early and/or avoided injuries.

Inexperience within the organization is a huge factor in this, I think. And sometimes it seems to become a habit, which could probably be said about Budenholzer.

[ShelC]

If you have no life or some free time you don't mind not getting back, this is a wild story about a popular Lakers podcast host with 16k followers on Twitter who apparently was fake and catfished a lot of Lakers fans for a lot of years

[jonh]

Considering historical context, the Suns and Jazz look to be falling into the category of teams that overachieve in the regular season but inevitably fall short in the playoffs because they probably peaked too early and/or avoided injuries.

Inexperience within the organization is a huge factor in this, I think. And sometimes it seems to become a habit, which could probably be said about Budenholzer.

I would love to see more load management for CP3 in particular, and I think him being healthy in the playoffs matters more than anyone else (besides maybe Ayton). However, I think there is an incredible amount of uncertainty heading into this particular playoffs, and I don't know if I can say the Suns fall into any particular playoff category yet.

Defense matters in the playoffs, and the Suns have a great (sometimes elite) defense, as well as an efficient, grind-it-out offense. I would argue the absence of injuries doesn't mean there is less of a chance of postseason success, and could mean the Suns luck into a less rigorous playoff schedule.

[Indy]

I think I'd prefer for him not to take games off, but stagger Book and CP3 more, and let him play 28 mpg the rest of the season. He is only at 31.6 mpg this year, and his career average is 34.7. We actually don't have anyone on the team getting a ton of minutes. Closest to a "leader" in mpg is Book at 33.8 (which is 30th in the league).

[Split T]

I think I'd prefer for him not to take games off, but stagger Book and CP3 more, and let him play 28 mpg the rest of the season. He is only at 31.6 mpg this year, and his career average is 34.7. We actually don't have anyone on the team getting a ton of minutes. Closest to a "leader" in mpg is Book at 33.8 (which is 30th in the league).

Ya I’d compromise with him. Don’t sit him for games, but play him 25-28... especially on back to backs. The guy I might sit to let him refresh is Dario. Let Frank play a few games. Might be nice to have him ready in case we need him.


But I don’t expect that to happen. I think CP3 said recently he wants Monty to increase the playing time of their starters... get them ready for playoff rotations. Did anyone else hear that recently in a post game conference?

[Indy]

I think I'd prefer for him not to take games off, but stagger Book and CP3 more, and let him play 28 mpg the rest of the season. He is only at 31.6 mpg this year, and his career average is 34.7. We actually don't have anyone on the team getting a ton of minutes. Closest to a "leader" in mpg is Book at 33.8 (which is 30th in the league).

Ya I’d compromise with him. Don’t sit him for games, but play him 25-28... especially on back to backs. The guy I might sit to let him refresh is Dario. Let Frank play a few games. Might be nice to have him ready in case we need him.


But I don’t expect that to happen. I think CP3 said recently he wants Monty to increase the playing time of their starters... get them ready for playoff rotations. Did anyone else hear that recently in a post game conference?

can't remember if it was a post-game or a pre-game show that I saw that on, but yeah. Maybe it was after that OT game against Utah. He said the other guys have to get used to playing extended minutes.

[Split T]

Been thinking this as well. I don’t buy into the narrative that the clippers will fold come playoff time. I think they’re better than the Suns or Jazz. Fully healthy Lakers or Nets? Probably not, but they’re closer than anyone else.



Milwaukee is the one other team I think could play on this level, but not unless they make some changes. I thought adding Jrue would allow them to make Giannis the screener in late game scenarios, but they still iso Giannis and that’s a terrible play when the defense can all just collapse. If they start putting the ball in Jrue or Khris’s hands down the stretch, I think they could give Brooklyn a series.

[In2ition]

If PG comes back to earth and Booker starts playing like we know he should...this changes, imo.

[Split T]

Thought this was funny

[Mori Chu]

Been thinking this as well. I don’t buy into the narrative that the clippers will fold come playoff time. I think they’re better than the Suns or Jazz. Fully healthy Lakers or Nets? Probably not, but they’re closer than anyone else.

I don't buy the Clippers. On paper, they have maybe the most talent and depth in the West. But I don't trust Paul George in the playoffs, and a lot of their depth guys don't scare me. Rondo, Ibaka, Beverley, Reggie Jackson, Batum, Patrick Patterson, Boogie, ... they have a lot of guys who I don't mind leaving open when I double PG or Kawhi. Their next 3 leading scorers after Kawhi and George are Marcus Morris (13.6 ppg), Ibaka (10.9), and Reggie Jackson (10.4). I'm not scared of that.

They're a second-round exit IMO. They'd lose to the Lakers, us, or maybe even the Jazz. They'd lose to the full-strength Nuggets but might beat them without Murray.

[Split T]

Been thinking this as well. I don’t buy into the narrative that the clippers will fold come playoff time. I think they’re better than the Suns or Jazz. Fully healthy Lakers or Nets? Probably not, but they’re closer than anyone else.

I don't buy the Clippers. On paper, they have maybe the most talent and depth in the West. But I don't trust Paul George in the playoffs, and a lot of their depth guys don't scare me. Rondo, Ibaka, Beverley, Reggie Jackson, Batum, Patrick Patterson, Boogie, ... they have a lot of guys who I don't mind leaving open when I double PG or Kawhi. Their next 3 leading scorers after Kawhi and George are Marcus Morris (13.6 ppg), Ibaka (10.9), and Reggie Jackson (10.4). I'm not scared of that.

They're a second-round exit IMO. They'd lose to the Lakers, us, or maybe even the Jazz. They'd lose to the full-strength Nuggets but might beat them without Murray.

I know this is a common belief...just saying I don’t buy into it. They are the number one shooting 3pt team for a reason. I think you leave those guys open and they’ll kill you.

As far as not trusting PG in the playoffs, I’d be careful there as well. I don’t think there’s anything to suggest he can’t play well. I’ll write off last year to the bubble...the year before he wasn’t healthy. He was pretty good in the playoffs back with Indy.

They don’t really have a 3rd guy, but Rondo helps if playoff Rondo shows up and they have the shooting that Kawhi/PG is enough.

[O_Gardino]

To me, the Clippers big question is heart. How will they respond to adversity if things don't go their way in a series? Last year, they collapsed even before the first game of the bubble.

[Indy]

I know I also regularly say I don't trust PG in the playoffs. But you know what, you don't have to have him be great for them to win. There will be less possessions, and more deliberate play. One thing they do really well is find the open shooter behind the line. Not only are they the best 3pt shooting team in the league this year, they are shooting 42.0% from 3. AS A TEAM!

Steph Curry is at 42.5% for the season. That is like an entire team of Steph's shooting 3s.

And it isn't like it is just a few guys carrying them from deep. They have 8 guys averaging more than 3.0 3FA per game. We have 5, and only one of them is shooting better than 38.5%.

[Superbone]

Steph Curry is at 42.5% for the season. That is like an entire team of Steph's shooting 3s.

No it isn't. Maybe percentage-wise but that's it. Curry works hard at getting those 3s off and not many (anybody?) can get them off like he does.

[Indy]

So your argument is that it would be better to work really hard to take threes than work less hard and make the same amount?