• Changing RCF's index page, please click on "Forums" to access the forums.

2021 NBA Offseason Thread

Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Status
Not open for further replies.

From everything I’ve seen and read over the past year or two especially, Delonte really needs intervention and pretty much 24/7 care for a long time. What he’s experiencing is likely not something that just some one time help or financial aid can help with at all.
Really wish him and all those suffering from mental illness well.
 
Pioneer10 said:
It's funny how many playoff teams could have used TT. So many teams went small ball but then against playoff teams with good bigs suddenly teams had trouble guarding them and the rebounding caused enough of a change that small ball teams couldn't get enough possessions to expose the big. Plus the bigs deep in the playoffs are guys like Davis and Bam who can switch onto little guys well on the PnR.

Clippers couldn't match up with Jokic and died with Harell getting roasted on defense
The Celtics had to play freakin Grant Williams to match up with Bam
Houston had no answer for AD

TT on either the Clips or Celts and I think they advance
Click to expand...

Hey don't hate on Grant Williams! :chuckle:
 
MirORich said:

From everything I’ve seen and read over the past year or two especially, Delonte really needs intervention and pretty much 24/7 care for a long time. What he’s experiencing is likely not something that just some one time help or financial aid can help with at all.
Really wish him and all those suffering from mental illness well.
Click to expand...

As someone with bipolar, it can be hard to just not torpedo your life at times. I’d have to imagine the adjustment for him when he left the NBA had to be pretty horrible. When he was in the league he would’ve had a bunch of resources available and people looking out for him, money coming in, attention, etc.

As with most people that achieve any level of notoriety, I’m sure once the money dried up “friends” disappeared and he had no idea who to trust. Hopefully he can get things straightened out with some help. Always liked the guy and in general he seemed well-liked by coaches and teammates.
 
Good for Mark Cuban. It's not easy to help someone with mental illness, he was under no obligation to do it, and he put himself out there. Obviously he's very wealthy and isn't going to move the guy into his basement or whatever, but it's not a simple responsibility to even coordinate his care.
 
What do people think about whether the Heat have a real shot in the Finals?

I've been surprised at statistical models like fivethirtyeight.com giving the Heat a 73% (!) chance to win (https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2020-nba-predictions/?ex_cid=rrpromo) and the Ringer model giving them a not-bad 39% chance to win (https://www.theringer.com/nba/2020/...a-restart-odds-playoffs-lakers-clippers-bucks).

I think statistical predictions are mostly junk, but still.

Bottom line is that AD+Lebron are significantly superior to Adebayo+Butler as a top two. Beyond that, yes, the Heat might be deeper or more talented but the gap at the top of the lineup seems too big to overcome. Also, the Lakers seem to have enough big men to smother Adebayo effectively, with such a good defensive coach in Vogel. They aren't going to have to roll a Grant Williams out there. It's hard for me to see the Heat taking four out of seven here. Of course I thought that the Bucks were going to beat them too.

Iguodala is an interesting X factor here. The Celtics series shows he still has it. Yes old but he's gotten a lot of rest this season. Specialist Lebron defender LOL.
 
Last edited:
I think that AD defensively is just the perfect matchup to put against Bam. He is bigger, can stay in front of him on the perimeter and on the roll, can bother his shots... and Lakers as a team can just switch everything if they want. With Theis the Celtics couldn't and Grant Williams was just too small and non threat offensively.

The matchup is not great for the Heat imho. They will be switching every Robinson screens, KCP will bother Tyler Herro and Danny Green and Lebron will also be a tough out defensively for Butler.

Will be interesting.
 
cavsfever said:
What do people think about whether the Heat have a real shot in the Finals?

I've been surprised at statistical models like fivethirtyeight.com giving the Heat a 73% (!) chance to win (https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2020-nba-predictions/?ex_cid=rrpromo) and the Ringer model giving them a not-bad 39% chance to win (https://www.theringer.com/nba/2020/...a-restart-odds-playoffs-lakers-clippers-bucks).

I think statistical predictions are mostly junk, but still.

Bottom line is that AD+Lebron are significantly superior to Adebayo+Butler as a top two. Beyond that, yes, the Heat might be deeper or more talented but the gap at the top of the lineup seems too big to overcome. Also, the Lakers seem to have enough big men to smother Adebayo effectively, with such a good defensive coach in Vogel. They aren't going to have to roll a Grant Williams out there. It's hard for me to see the Heat taking four out of seven here. Of course I thought that the Bucks were going to beat them too.

Iguodala is an interesting X factor here. The Celtics series shows he still has it. Yes old but he's gotten a lot of rest this season. Specialist Lebron defender LOL.
Click to expand...

Also, Spo >>>> Vogel. Can't underestimate Spo's experience coaching in the Finals and his knowledge of LeBron in-and-out as a player. I think it has to play a factor at some point.
 
But don't you think Vogel has done a pretty amazing job this year making the Lakers one of the best defensive teams in the league? He had basically no good backcourt perimeter defenders to do it with, except for Lebron for that one quarter a game when he decides to play perimeter defense
 
cavsfever said:
What do people think about whether the Heat have a real shot in the Finals?

I've been surprised at statistical models like fivethirtyeight.com giving the Heat a 73% (!) chance to win (https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2020-nba-predictions/?ex_cid=rrpromo) and the Ringer model giving them a not-bad 39% chance to win (https://www.theringer.com/nba/2020/...a-restart-odds-playoffs-lakers-clippers-bucks).

I think statistical predictions are mostly junk, but still.

Bottom line is that AD+Lebron are significantly superior to Adebayo+Butler as a top two. Beyond that, yes, the Heat might be deeper or more talented but the gap at the top of the lineup seems too big to overcome. Also, the Lakers seem to have enough big men to smother Adebayo effectively, with such a good defensive coach in Vogel. They aren't going to have to roll a Grant Williams out there. It's hard for me to see the Heat taking four out of seven here. Of course I thought that the Bucks were going to beat them too.

Iguodala is an interesting X factor here. The Celtics series shows he still has it. Yes old but he's gotten a lot of rest this season. Specialist Lebron defender LOL.
Click to expand...

Lakers will not be flummoxed by the zone the way Boston was. They will attack the baseline the way we did with Larry Nance bullying Duncan Robbinson along the baseline. Lebron and Ad will just take it to basket.

The heat have literally been the only team I can remember since the Pistons who have been able to have a new "hero" every night. The best player can be Bam, Herro, Butler and the other guys have big nights too. This is going to be harder against Lebron and AD. Bam will have to limit AD more than he ever has in his career so far. Butler has not been able to guard Lebron at all. Neither has Crowder. Iggy hasn't looked good and even when he got Finals MVP, Lebron still put up big numbers.

Shooting is likely to have a major impact on this series. The Heat can win if they stay hot from 3. I think perhaps the heat can affect the Lakers 3 point shots more. I just think the Lakers are not the shooters under pressure that Miami is, and they haven't faced a defensive team like this.

The coaching thing is going to be very interesting. Both teams get better as the series goes on. Lebron picks teams apart and attacks their weaknesses, but Miami got where they are right now, but really executing their plans as a team, and they may have more discipline as a whole than the Lakers to do this.

I think this is going to look very competitive, but then the Lakers win the last couple games seemingly easily. Guessing game 1 goes to the Heat.
 
Cavatt said:
Both teams get better as the series goes on. Lebron picks teams apart and attacks their weaknesses, but Miami got where they are right now, but really executing their plans as a team, and they may have more discipline as a whole than the Lakers to do this.

I think this is going to look very competitive, but then the Lakers win the last couple games seemingly easily. Guessing game 1 goes to the Heat.
Click to expand...
The problem with this for the Lakers is that the Heat are much younger and extremely well-conditioned, while the every-other-day format is bound to grind on the more veteran Lakers and also make them more susceptible to injury...LeBron and AD were looking a bit haggard and beat-up in Game 4 against Denver. LeBron has always played better with a couple days of rest, and that's held true for the Lakers all year.

They really need to come out gunning and impose their will in Game 1, try to sap some of the Miami pups' confidence.
 
JMoneyYourHoney said:
The problem with this for the Lakers is that the Heat are much younger and extremely well-conditioned, while the every-other-day format is bound to grind on the more veteran Lakers and also make them more susceptible to injury...LeBron and AD were looking a bit haggard and beat-up in Game 4 against Denver. LeBron has always played better with a couple days of rest, and that's held true for the Lakers all year.

They really need to come out gunning and impose their will in Game 1, try to sap some of the Miami pups' confidence.
Click to expand...

Yeah totally agree. Lakers could get hit in the mouth and heat are in great condition. I think it will be a slugfest. Is 2007 the last time we had 2 super defensive teams in the finals?
 
Sobering thing here is...what percent of max effort do you think LeBron gave to beat the Rockets in 5? The Nuggets? Maybe 80%, 90% tops?

Even if the Heat are a little bit better than the Rockets and the Nuggets (and I'm not totally sure that's true), LeBron will simply give that extra 10-20% effort to make sure the Lakers have everything under control. Only real hope I see for the Heat is if they get ridiculously red hot from 3 and the Lakers are totally ice cold. And that's not going to happen 4 games out of 7.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Rubber Rim Job Podcast Video

Episode 3-14: "Time for Playoff Vengeance on Mickey"

Rubber Rim Job Podcast Spotify

Episode 3:14: " Time for Playoff Vengeance on Mickey."
Top