NBA Playoffs 2021

[Walker Wiggle]

Lost in all of this… has there ever been an athlete — in any sport — that tore his Achilles and came back as if nothing happened? Offensive lineman don’t count.

[liam]

Giannis is not going to the Finals until he learns to shoot outside the paint and pass the ball better. He was brutal down the stretch.

He needs to be a finisher, not a ball handler.

He's an excellent finisher. He has to be able to hit free throws, open jumpers, and pass properly out of a double team.

Yeah, the ball needs to end up with him, not start out with him.

[ozgod]

That's an all time performance from KD. I've started to hate him as a player but you have to take your hat off to him, at times he's just unstoppable.

[ozgod]

Return of the Khris Middleton vanishing act.

He'll probably show up again Game 6 because it's in Milwaukee.

[Ed Monix]

Honestly, Giannis will regret signing that super max so early. I think the staff and players emotionally manipulated him in to an early decision.

I don’t care what coach they hire and fire, the team isn’t built around his strengths enough to win a championship now nor the near future. Giannis seems to be in the Garnett mould, that is loyal to a fault and hopefully I’m wrong but he may end up like KG, regret staying so long.

I know the Bucks have done a better job than the Timberwolves at building a competitive unit, but it seems like they are a tier two level squad and with their players on the wrong side of 30 this could be as good as it gets for the Bucks.

[gouki88]

Lost in all of this… has there ever been an athlete — in any sport — that tore his Achilles and came back as if nothing happened? Offensive lineman don’t count.

Nique is the closest that I can think of. Came off his achilles rupture to average 28/6/3 over the next two seasons. He was pretty old when he did that too.

That's basically the only one I can think of though. Durant does have to be managed very carefully though, as seen by him playing 49% of the regular season. Not a knock if it means he can hit the playoffs like this

[ozgod]

Honestly, Giannis will regret signing that super max so early. I think the staff and players emotionally manipulated him in to an early decision.

I don’t care what coach they hire and fire, the team isn’t built around his strengths enough to win a championship now nor the near future. Giannis seems to be in the Garnett mould, that is loyal to a fault and hopefully I’m wrong but he may end up like KG, regret staying so long.

I know the Bucks have done a better job than the Timberwolves at building a competitive unit, but it seems like they are a tier two level squad and with their players on the wrong side of 30 this could be as good as it gets for the Bucks.

It's possible he values stability more than the chance to win a championship at another team. He's come a long way from selling trinkets on the streets of Greece.

[mr. dee]

That was an epic chokejob by Giannis down the stretch. That dumb jumper costed them the game along with his butter fingers that lead to another vital turnover.

As a DPOY winner, he should have guarded the best player of the other team. It was mind blogging why Bucks kept putting Tucker who is too short or Lopez who was too slow to guard KD. Guys like Jordan, Kobe and even Kawhi would take the challenge to defend the opposing team's best player.

[ozgod]

That was an epic chokejob by Giannis down the stretch. That dumb jumper costed them the game along with his butter fingers that lead to another vital turnover.

As a DPOY winner, he should have guarded the best player of the other team. It was mind blogging why Bucks kept putting Tucker who is too short or Lopez who was too slow to guard KD. Guys like Jordan, Kobe and even Kawhi would take the challenge to defend the opposing team's best player.

From CBS Sports, from a guy named Brad Botkin:

I can't fathom, for starters, how Budenholzer didn't have Giannis, supposedly one of the best defenders in the world, guarding Durant in money time. Instead, the dude was stuck on Joe Harris, who was a statue in the corner as Durant went to work on Khris Middleton and P.J. Tucker.

This is a strange trend throughout the league right now. The best defenders rarely match up on the best scorers. We saw Doc Rivers put Danny Green on Trae Young in Game 1 of the Sixers-Hawks series while Ben Simmons roamed around helplessly. Young cooked Green. The Sixers lost. Since then, Doc has made the adjustment, putting Simmons and Matisse Thybulle on Young, and the Sixers won Games 2 and 3 and have restored home-court advantage heading into Game 5 on Wednesday.

You wonder what took so long.

Now Gianis is saying he wants to "take on the challenge" of guarding Durant in Game 6. That's nice. It might well be too late.

There are, on paper, reasons for keeping these top defenders off the best scorers. On the ball, they'll likely fall victim to a ball screen anyway. Their versatile talents are often best utilized in a free-safety capacity, roaming around in search of the right time and place to make their impact felt. Indeed, modern NBA defense isn't about one matchup. It's about all of them and how you move from one into the other. It's more about your weakest link than your strongest.

Still, there are times to take the old-fashioned challenge. Giannis might not have the foot speed to stay with the shifty Durant, but he's the only guy with the length to give him a prayer of at least bothering his shot. This was ace-up-your-sleeve time for Milwaukee. Giannis is supposed to be an ace.

"I try it," an Eastern Conference coach texted CBS Sports on Tuesday night when I asked him why these great defenders are often kept off the greatest scorers. "It's interesting others don't." I then pressed the coach for what he made, in particular, of Bud's decision to keep Giannis off Durant down the stretch of Game 5.

"LOL," he wrote. "Dumb."

Harsh as it sounds, that word sums up much of what Budenholzer's Bucks stood for Tuesday night. Not only was Budenholzer not using GIannis on Durant; he wasn't even doubling him with other guys. Can you imagine letting the best one-on-one player in history play ... one on one ... as he's spit-roasting your entire organization right in front of your eyes?

https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/nets-bucks-giannis-antetokounmpo-is-not-that-guy-and-mike-budenholzer-is-not-that-coach/

[Somebody]

Gobert is one of the best defenders in the world and you probably don't want him guarding Kevin Garnett and Dirk Nowitzki. The same thing applies to Giannis - he's really not designed to chase 7 foot wings out there on the perimeter who call for a billion screens that he's notoriously has issues navigating through because of his huge frame, ntm said 7 footer has a shifty handle and incredible shot. Budenholzer actually tried putting Giannis on Durant in game 2 and the former got absolutely cooked because for all of Giannis' defensive strengths, locking down a perimeter-oriented cheat code like Durant isn't one of them.

[Somebody]

Giannis is not going to the Finals until he learns to shoot outside the paint and pass the ball better. He was brutal down the stretch.

He needs to be a finisher, not a ball handler.

He's an excellent finisher. He has to be able to hit free throws, open jumpers, and pass properly out of a double team.

Yeah, the ball needs to end up with him, not start out with him.

Aaaaand he has terrible hands lol. He's still a good finisher, but his off-ball game is very much like his on-ball game: both have glaring weaknesses that make them one-dimensional and relatively easy to gameplan for.

[Kernewek]

Honestly, Giannis will regret signing that super max so early. I think the staff and players emotionally manipulated him in to an early decision.

I don’t care what coach they hire and fire, the team isn’t built around his strengths enough to win a championship now nor the near future. Giannis seems to be in the Garnett mould, that is loyal to a fault and hopefully I’m wrong but he may end up like KG, regret staying so long.

I know the Bucks have done a better job than the Timberwolves at building a competitive unit, but it seems like they are a tier two level squad and with their players on the wrong side of 30 this could be as good as it gets for the Bucks.

I mean, maybe, but when you're looking at some pieces of paper that guarantee you north of 200 million dollars, I imagine it's hard to say no because of hypothetical "basketball reasons" in the future.

[Who]

Lost in all of this… has there ever been an athlete — in any sport — that tore his Achilles and came back as if nothing happened? Offensive lineman don’t count.

It's insane. I have never seen anything like it.

[johnnygreen]

Giannis is like Shaq, where he should be the team’s go to scorer for minutes 1-45. However, those last three minutes, was the time when Kobe or Wade took over for Shaq because of their reliability to create for themselves and make free throws. Obviously, Middleton and Holliday aren’t in their category, but they do need to take on that responsibility. Holliday might as well be a ghost, as he barely shows any signs of wanting to effect the offense towards the end of these games. Yes, I know he had the game winner in game 3, but the game should have never come down to that. Middleton is another guy that would rather defer down the stretch in big games. For instance, last night, he had a layup with about a minute to go, but decided to dump it off to Giannis, who fumbled the ball that resulted in a turnover. If Giannis caught the ball clean, Green would have fouled him and made him go to the line. Stupid play by Middleton, who should have 100% taken that shot.

The Bucks are essentially in the same boat as the Celtics recently. Paying max money for B+ talent, that don’t play like superstars and would rather defer to someone else down the stretch (Middleton, Holliday, Horford, Hayward, Walker).

[nickagneta]

Lost in all of this… has there ever been an athlete — in any sport — that tore his Achilles and came back as if nothing happened? Offensive lineman don’t count.

Dominique Wilkins but there were a couple of rumors that may have been pharmaceutically enhanced