re: .

I didn't realize Crawford was 37. He doesn't look it at all

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They were good in the regular season. They were streaky in the playoffs because the entire team hinged on James Harden. The playoffs are all about star power. If they had Harden, Paul, and Carmelo, they now have 3 legit scoring options instead of 1. Much less likely all 3 have off nights so it makes their great offense much more consistent and more difficult for teams to stop.

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I agree with your premise, but I don't know if you can consider Carmelo an star at this stage of his career. Now maybe it was a result of discontent in NY, but Carmelo has gotten progressively worse over the last 4 seasons. But that could also he because he's 33, and on the downside of his career.

Paul still is, so they do add one star.

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Individual series are different. Cleveland was outmatched defensively two season ago and they beat them in the Finals.

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Of course, but LeBron is/was better than anybody on the Rockets, but more importantly, the Warriors are much better than that team with the addition of Durant.

Again. Unless Warriors have injury issues, I just don't see any team making much of a series against them. They are too good offensively and defensively. They were the best team in history last year, and Durant was adjusting to a new team, and missed 20 games.

In addition, Thompson played the most minutes (2649), which was only about 67% of the total minutes, and 21st in the league. So when the playoffs come around, and the best players increase their minutes, the Warriors are more rested AND their team quality improves significantly.

It's basically the opposite of what the Rockets had, with Harden (2947) and Arizona (2773) playing significantly more minutes than anybody on the Warriors. So obviously fatigue is a potential risk, but the Rockets' potential quality gains with playoff minutes are inherently lower.

So what I'm saying is that, the Warriors should be better this season, and last season, despite already being one of the most dominant regular season teams of all time, their regular season team was not near the quality of their playoff team.

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The Rockets improved on defense this offseason. I'm not saying they are on Golden State's level defensively because they were one of the top defensive teams, but the Rockets could get into the top 10 this upcoming season.

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Top 10 seems a big step. They would have to improve by 1.5* points per 10 possessions. Beverly for Paul is probably a wash, but Paul is not getting younger. PJ Tucker is a good addition.

So I can see it improving, but 1.5* points is a lot, but the biggest issue is that D'Antoni just hasn't shown that he's a competent defensive coach, and with new pieces and parts, there is always adjustments, but I think defense is at the most risk of problematic adjustments.

Edit: *I incorrectly said 2.5 points when it's actually 1.5 points.

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Has there been any discussion on Demarre Carroll's comments regarding the Raptors?

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im curious, have a link?

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They were less than .5 points per 100 possessions from top 10 exactly one week from seasons end when they called the dogs off and started to Prep for the playoffs. When you just look at the numbers and miss context (your forte I might add) you get a lot of swing and misses.

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Since the last game was on 04/12/17, and the 04/05/17 game, they only game up 104 points, I'm assuming the "last week" refers to the last 4 games starting on 04/07/17.

Since they were calling off the dogs, I assume the main players barely played during that time.

Games and Average Minutes over Last 4 Games (difference from season average)
Harden-4 games-33.2 MPG (3.2 less than season average)
Ariza-3 games- 36.4 MPG (1.7 more than season average)
Gordon-3 games- 27.3 MPG (3.7 less than season average)
Beverly-3 games- 30.3 MPG (0.4 less than season average)
Anderson-4 games- 22.0 MPG (7.4 less than season average)
L. Williams-3 games-26.0 MPG (0.3 more than season average)
Capela-2 games- 26.8 MPG (2.9 more than season average)

So yeah. Obviously with most of the players sitting out a game (except Harden and Anderson) the team wasn't as good, but Harden still played in almost 70% of the minutes, and the other player played significant minutes in the games they played.

Yet, you had a defensive rating of 121.3 in those 4 games, 12.1 above the average ratings of those teams. Yet, your offensive rating of 115.8 was 6.2 points higher above those team's defensive ratings.

So while your defensive rating increased by 1.2 points as a result of the last few games, your offensive rating increased by 0.6 points. So I'm sure you don't consider that offensive rating increase either, nor Harden's increase in rebounds and assists above his season average. In fact, when you were talking about the Rocket's final season record, compared to their preseason prediction, I'm sure you don't count those 2 wins either. After all, they were just coasting right?

they sat everybody but harden one game. Some guys multiple games. They shut it down. Again if you didn't watch and only looked at the numbers you would swing and miss. Like you just did. They were within a point or two of being top 10 For the majority of the season. Up until the last week of the season when they started resting guys.

Move on bubby you barking up the wrong tree. You don't have any context re: effort bc you didn't watch.

Debating with Boom is like trying to convince Satan he's evil. He simply DGAF.

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they sat everybody but harden one game.

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In fact, I was given you the benefit of the doubt, it was actually 3 games, because against Detroit (game 78) everybody played.

In the one game, Ariza and Gordon didn't play (2nd on team in minutes), here were the minutes for the other top players:

Harden-36.0 minutes
Beverly-28.8 minutes
Capela-23.8 minutes
L. Williams-31.2 minutes
Anderson-23.1 minutes

And in the other 2 games, Harden, Ariza, Gordon, and Anderson played.

The Clippers game was the game where Beverly, Lou, and Capela sat. Gordon and Harden were pulled with 5 minutes to go in the 3rd quarter, down 23 already (83-60), so Ariza + the reserves actually gave far fewer points by that time.

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They shut it down

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When your star player plays significant minutes in all 4 games, and most of your top players play significant minutes in most of the games, it's hard to call THAT shutting it down. The Cavs shut it down, with Kyrie and Lebron sitting out the last 2 games.

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They were within a point or two of being top 10

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But they were not the same team defensively the last half of the season.

After your 31-9 start, you had a defensive rating of 108.9. After that AND EXCLUDING those 3 COASTING games, you had a defensive rating of 110.0 (110.6 including those coasting games). So your team's defense decreased by 1.1 points per game.

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Move on bubby you barking up the wrong tree. You don't have any context re: effort bc you didn't watch.

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Well apparently you didn't watch, since you said they rested everybody but Harden in a game, when that is completely false. Or you did watch the game, and you're being dishonest.

With 3 games left in the season they were .3 points from being top 10.

In the next two games they sat multiple rotations players. At least 3 in each.

And then had the last game of the season.

And you stick to your guns and insist that the team before they shut it down is a more accurate representation of the squad than how they looked before they sat multiple guys.

Wow. You don't know when to take a L huh.

You were the one on the receiving end of said poleaxing, you dummkopf. Since I have to spoonfeed you.

Up in here talking about taking L's when you could fill up an ocean liner with yours this past year alone