2023 Playoffs: Around the League Round 2 News Thread

[carey]

Dan Gilbert's son, Nick, has passed away. You'll probably remember him as the lucky charm in the NBA draft for the Cavs. He was only 26.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/375 ... rt-dies-26

[Superbone]

Dan Gilbert's son, Nick, has passed away. You'll probably remember him as the lucky charm in the NBA draft for the Cavs. He was only 26.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/375 ... rt-dies-26

I was wondering if this will get Ishbia to soften on Gilbert Senior. I would think he would have to empathize having kids of his own.

[In2ition]

Dan Gilbert's son, Nick, has passed away. You'll probably remember him as the lucky charm in the NBA draft for the Cavs. He was only 26.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/375 ... rt-dies-26

Poor kid.

[Mori Chu]

[Wally_West]

Lakers are up 3-1 on GWS.

[Split T]

I think the suns and nuggets are both better than Lakers/Warriors. Win tonight and I think we are in the drivers seat to go back to the finals.

[Mori Chu]

I think the suns and nuggets are both better than Lakers/Warriors. Win tonight and I think we are in the drivers seat to go back to the finals.

Zany prediction: Whatever team wins Suns/Nuggets Game 5 tonight wins the NBA Championship.

[Split T]

I think the suns and nuggets are both better than Lakers/Warriors. Win tonight and I think we are in the drivers seat to go back to the finals.

Zany prediction: Whatever team wins Suns/Nuggets Game 5 tonight wins the NBA Championship.

Not crazy…I kinda feel the same…Celtics still worry me a bit as they should be the best team

[wpmiller42]

I think the suns and nuggets are both better than Lakers/Warriors. Win tonight and I think we are in the drivers seat to go back to the finals.

Zany prediction: Whatever team wins Suns/Nuggets Game 5 tonight wins the NBA Championship.

Not crazy…I kinda feel the same…Celtics still worry me a bit as they should be the best team

I actually think Philly is going to find a way to knock out the Celtics.

[Split T]

I think that’s possible as well. I’d feel pretty good about going up against Philly. Don’t think they have the guys to defend us. Though we probably don’t have the guys to defend them either.

[JeremyG]

I would take Philly or Miami (home court advantage).

[Mori Chu]

A path of LA Clippers -> Nuggets -> LA Lakers -> 76ers to the title would be about as reasonable as you could ask for.

[Split T]

And would really test Ayton…hard to come up with a tougher trio at the 5 than Jokic, AD, Embiid. Though maybe him having to defend more in space is actually a bigger issue

[Split T]

Lakers up 10 at the half. Reaves hit a shot from the backcourt at the buzzer. Looking like Lakers-Nuggets.

Miami beat NY earlier to move to the ECF. Boston vs Philly, game 7 on Sunday.

[Sunsfan4life]

Warriors are cooked. This should have been Sacramento...think they would have posed more issues for LA.

[Mori Chu]

Something has been on my mind all through this year's playoffs.

The play-in, as currently constructed, is bullshit and bad.

Yes, I get that it is cool to give teams 7-10 all a chance to qualify for the playoffs. That's exciting. And I get that it gives teams strong incentive not to tank. That is really good. These are undeniable positives.

But the play-in breaks the playoffs. The whole point of working hard to get the 1 or 2 seed is so that you get a mediocre/bad first round opponent. But now you actually get a potentially much tougher opponent. Instead of getting whatever team happened to be ranked 7th or 8th, you get the best team out of teams 7-10 as your opponent. That is actually a worse deal. If I were the Bucks and got matched against the Heat, or if I'm the Grizzlies and got the Lakers, I would be pissed. You work hard all regular season and that's the reward you get. I actually think it's best to be the 3 seed if that's the way it's going to be; at least then you know who you're playing and it's not the best out of N teams.

Now you have a 7 seed, the Lakers, and an 8 seed, the Heat, in the WCF and ECF respectively. That is not a total accident or coincidence. The play-in got us this outcome.

[Split T]

The Lakers would have been the 7 seed without the play-in…and Miami actually dropped in the play-in

[Superbone]

I'm glad the Warriors got knocked out but it's sickening that the Lakers made the WCF.

[INFORMER]

The Lakers would have been the 7 seed without the play-in…and Miami actually dropped in the play-in

Right.

Sorry, Mori, your play-in take doesn't really make sense. .

The real reason why there has been so much parity in this year's playoffs, is because you have a bunch of teams that basically didn't exist in the regular season. The team that the Suns fielded wasn't the team that the league saw the majority of the regular season. Miami never consistently fielded the same lineup. The Lakers assembled their team more than halfway through the season. The Warriors were without Wiggins and reacquired GP2.

So the seeding was somewhat meaningless.

[INFORMER]

This made me chuckle: