₦airaland Forum

Roland17:
The Bulls have tied the series..

The Bucks are lacking something, not sure if it is the Bulls killing the excitement by slowing the game but they look indifferent and uninterested.

They really could have been down 0-2. Something has not been right with that team all season long.

DeeMain:
Veterans-superstars-role players-coach fit matters. That's the lesson.

I remember D.Wade and Lebron discussing how they settled for Bosh in forming the Miami big 3. They said they chose him specifically because they knew he was so cool headed and drama free and would complement them well.

Exactly. What was their allure to Westbrook? Maybe they thought he would realize the window for a title was closing and he would humble himself, turns out he is dangerously delusional and the more the season wore on the more it became clear he was not about that winning life

Middleton and Holiday shittin the bed as usual

Khanben:
The worst mistake the Nets will make is to leave Tatum or Brown 1v1 against Simmons on his return, both of them will cook him.
Nobody returns after not playing for 11months in game shape, so if they are thinking of playing him, it will have to be in the same mode as what Claxton is already doing for them.

The whole Simmons business and Brooklyn as a whole just chose distractions all season long. I am trusting Boston to put them out their misery

Android22:
Everything dropping for the Celtics in this one.

BKN need to win 4 of the next 5. I don't think they can sustain this without Simmons and a KD big game.

You're really banking on Simmons who has not played any basketball in almost 11 months

Kevin Durant having an absolute disasterclass. Only FTs are saving him

Boston can end this in 5 if they put their minds to it

DeeMain:
Vogel was not faultless. The report is that Vogel's flaws showed up once this team came together. Their were reports of him saying A and some people insisting on C.

An early example was, Vogel wanted to implement a policy of whoever rebounds the ball should bring the ball up the floor, but Russ insisted it was his job and would not budge no matter what and eventually had his way.

He could not handle the egos of the multiple galacticos. Cracks developed, feelings festered and he lost the authority and the dressing room not too long after.

Of course he was not entirely faultless but this is a veteran veteran team. They should have been able to police themselves

Those players quit on themselves. Remember when Fizdale stepped in, they were still losing

There was a lack of accountability from top to bottom. People were scared to get in each other's face instead passing subliminals to each other via the media

It's tough to do anything with that collection of players

Roland17:
I thought the Pelicans found something at the end of the 1st game. So what did they find? 2 actually..

1. They realized hey can compete on both boards for rebounds.

2. They realized, they have to run a very fast offense that does not allow the Suns to set their defense and that worked.

Despite Booker's spectacular 1st half, the Pelicans really stayed with it so I can't really say Booker's absence while important was the reason for the loss. Could they have won the game with Booker? Yes, I think so but I am also not going to discount the fact that the Pels were always around the corner. The Suns will still win this series but they are going to need Booker to stand any chance of returning to the conference finals. They need to end this series very quick so they can have some clarity regarding Booker's status.

They were down when Book got hurt though.

Make no mistake about it. They need Booker or they are going to lose this series. Mccollum is a proven guy in the playoffs and in the postseason you need at least 1 guy capable of going off. The Pelicans have 2 guys capable of scoring and generating offense by themselves. The problem for the Suns is they will now be over reliant on CP3 and knowing his injury history that is recipe for disaster.

The Suns better pray and hope Booker does not miss more than a game or two otherwise we could be in for an upset

Itsrm:
I cannot stand this Bruno in my team. Very little intelligence. Just lob it forward and insha Allah

@Lana1
Are you see what I saw?

WhoDeyHause:
“Mo Salah and Mane are fasting but Man Utd have made them feast, that’s Haram in Ramadan.” -Peter Drury.

Jesus. He really said that

Roland17:
You don see wetin I Dey talk wen I reason Jokic matter last week? His team mates don’t have the same kind of dog he has in a fight. These guys were missing rotations, strolling on the court, not contesting shots m, air balling and just lashing around with no intention. Jokic has seen a lot of that over the last two games and openly frustrated with his team mates and if you listen to M. Malone, he alluded to that without calling out certain players.

Jokic is not entirely free of blame. He's been substantially slowed down by Draymond Green who is 6'6. Can you imagine putting a 6'6 ninja on prime Hakeem

The team is just so lifeless and their two primary role players are looking like G-League level. Let's see if they can steal a game at the least. Would be a bit embarrassing to get swept twice

birdman:
Lakers got sloppy. The days of stacking superstars to get far in the playoffs are over. The league is sufficiently skilled, even role players like Maxey and Poole will light you up. And this generation of coaches are much better, they dont lean too much on defensive or offensive identities like the JVG, Larry Brown (defense) vs Don Nelson, Adelman (offense). They are very balanced, coach stingy and technical defense and their offensive playbooks start to look like football. For that same reason, Nash will be on the hot seat soon. All the Kyrie and Harden issues have covered his faults for now.

The problem was not stacking stars. It was not doing the work to build an identity and thinking the league would just roll over and fold because Lakers, they had this arrogance and assuming energy. You listened to their press conferences from LeNomad to AD to Westbrook. They took the warning signs for granted right from preseason where they lost every single game. That should have rung alarm bells but they stayed snoozing. I said it here that teams seemed to be intentionally raising their game just to humiliate the Lakers. This was kinda what Shaq was talking about. Though in a slightly different context, nobody was scared of this team

birdman:
Lakers entered this season believing they could ignore all this, just put 4 big names on the roster hoping it would all work out. I already told you at the beginning of the season that it wouldnt work - Westbrook cannot fit anywhere in today's league. Its hard to blame Vogel given all the injuries, but the rotation never really made sense. I guess he was trying to please players. I would have loved to see Fizdale imprint a defensive identity on the team. Maybe you cant keep up with the young legs, but you can slow things down and play some ugly.

And Lebron actually put in work last offseason. His offensive skill is as good as its ever been. But I think he was too nice guyish at the beginning and refused to address issues that were obvious to everyone watching. Me I learned lesson from it o, your skill is not enough if you cant make others follow your lead.

I don't know that anyone expected them to fail this badly. It's hard to convince me that you believed a team with AD, Lebron and Westbrook would not finish top 10 in the conference. Not even the most doomday scenario could have seen this happening. Vogel has already proven himself as an elite defensive coach when he had the personnel. The problem is the ingredients Pelinka handed him did not give the man a fighting chance

Lebron was caught up in proving he was still that guy and stopped defending, the man was launching 8 3's a game. Assist numbers dropped and this whole myth of how he makes others better was further rubbished this season. His usual passive aggressive vibe instead of being the bad guy with his chest like Kobe or the GOAT would do caused further issues. You recruited a guy you couldn't tame and get to buy in to what you were trying to achieve. It remains to be seen who gets Westbrook cause I wouldn't give away a tuber of yam for Westbrook

Thanos:
If only my Luka was fit. We would have swept this jazz team.

Someone is going to have to give Jalen Brunson a big bag if he keeps performing like this. Impressed by the Mavs fighting spirit. It would have been too easy to roll over and give up but Brunson and Kleber said to hell with that

Roland17:
This is a very tough and rough matchup for the Nuggets. They can’t stay focused and are losing their concentrations during games which led to points for the Nuggets. Their offense seems too labored and I can see a lot of frustration which is an evidence of a mentally broken team.

Don’t get it twisted, the Warriors are playing on another level. They are locked in right now with the way they are executing on both ends of the court. I am really worried about Jokic because there is no help or matched intention from his team mates.

If I'm Jokic I would strongly consider either demanding a trade or moving certain guys off the team. After looking at that Nuggets team it is abundantly clear that Jokic should be MVP. Cos no other player is beating that Warriors team with a supporting cast this bad

Aaron Gordon was shooting airballs from 12ft fgs

All that clown can do is dunk. He has no staple, no go to move to get to the rim, nothing

Incredible performance thus far from Jordan Poole. Arguably the best player in the playoffs thus far

joshboo:
Jrue still dey ok, but Middleton that was touted as batman is the most annoying and inconsistent player the game has ever seen. The bucks are that team though, they'll play nonsense and still scrap it through cos they have Giannis.

That is why I feel somehow when people call this Milwaukee a big 3.

My own issue with Middleton is his floor is unacceptable for a team that consistently wants to win. You can't oscillate from 36pts one game to 6pts the next. There should be a floor that no matter how bad the game you're having you should never fall beneath a certain level

joshboo:
Jrue still dey ok, but Middleton that was touted as batman is the most annoying and inconsistent player the game has ever seen. The bucks are that team though, they'll play nonsense and still scrap it through cos they have Giannis.

They always start slowly. And Giannis has to carry the load. They shoot too many shots to be that inefficient. They are lucky Demar DeRozan was even worse. 6 of 25. (Told y'all DeRozan get as e be)

Jrue and Middleton are 8/26. That's why the Bulls are back in the game. The Bucks were downtooling and always playing down to the opposition in the regular season. I see they have not stopped

donlittle25:
Tony Parker could use angles very well and had great finishing around the rim. The guy that was the leading scorer in the paint in a season when we had big men ready to knock you down is the one Trae Young has more tools than?

I've heard all types today bro. And I like Trae but really the core of his game is 3pt spamming. This ninja takes 8 to 9 3pters a game and he's a 31% shooter.

Middleton and Holiday have started again. They will be calling Big 3 in the future now and people will be adding them in the discussion

benji93:
For clutch, that is not an argument you can win. Being Clutch in a few games in a finals is enough to label you clutch now and forever. But you self no dey try your bar is quite high. You no find anybody else but MJ? I suppose joining the GSW bus to two championships and two finals MVPs, and being one toe away from another finals MVP is enough to call you the best player in the world.
I mean they are already considering KD and Curry getting into top ten, over somebody like Hakeem. Unbelievable. What else can you not expect?

When it comes to playoff basketball you cannot run away from needing to be clutch. Steph is not clutch that is why they couldn't put away Lebron and Cleveland. It took a 3pt from Ray Allen to win Game 6 and keep the Heat alive, it took a clutch shot from Lebron in game 6 to win the series for the Heat

I'm just trying to share for you how people go on about shooting, how KD is a 7 ft monster, how Steph is the greatest shooter ever but when the game gets really tight we no dey see am so what gives?

No way KD and Curry fit dey my top ten sha. Certainly not over Hakeem

My top 10 would be
Jordan
Lebron
Kareem
Magic
Kobe
Duncan
Shaq
Bird
Hakeem
Russell (he would be higher but that era mehnnnn. Na only 6-8 teams dey league)

Khanben:
I would have understand the arguably, if you had picked say 2010, but 2007 come on. Does defense no longer count or is scoring and passing the only metric that matters

What are you on about? Does Trae Young play defense? Does Steph play defense? Tony Parker was their most consistent player from that stretch. 07 to 14 he was either best or second best and no lower than that

Khanben:
The clutch stat you just mentioned does not necessarily mean anything. If you are blowing out people, which the 2017 GSW was doing, you do not necessarily have the opportunities to take clutch shots.

What are you talking about? Are you going to blow out every opponent you face? Weren't they almost losing to Brick Ross before CP3's hammy gave way and historically calamitous shooting from 3 was the final coup de grace?

Khanben:
So from 2007 Parker was the best player on the spurs, . Okay, no wonder

Thank God I said arguably since you like pretending you cannot read. But the argument could definitely be had. He was their leading scorer and passer

benji93:
It's easy to become the best player when you play alongside another great all-time player. Last year the mantra was 'he was all alone'. Good excuse. Well, Kyrie is back. And we have been told he can play at home now. So the supposed best player must carry his team home. I mean everybody keeps reminding us that he was a toe away from getting them there last season, and i suppose the greatness of Kyrie can do better than one small toe. . I won't be surprised if that bad man dropped 50 in the next game though.

He's a great player no doubt but best player in the world on what grounds?? That was the part that always grated on my nerves. This man had not won a MVP in years, no finals MVP since 2018. What was the metrics by which he was being given that accolade. That's the thing about aesthetics and narratives.

Was watching a debate the other day when they were talking about how the KD Warriors were the best team in history and how Steph and KD are unbeatable and what not. Did you know MJ has 9 buzzer beaters and Steph, Klay, KD combined have 4. These are people that we constantly refer to as clutch but these guys are not clutch at all

This should have been the perfect game for the Nets to steal and put the Celtics under immense pressure. Instead a morale killing defeat was the outcome. I hope it's a lengthy series but this was really a big miss for Brooklyn

Khanben:
That's the problem with people, we are talking about Trea young and Parker through the first 4 years of their nba career, not the Parker that won finals MVP. He is talking as if Trea young as Plataeued after just his 4th year in the league. by their 4th year, Parker even Steph were not as good as Trae is already right now

Trae is only playing in a bigger role. He is not in a system so comparing them is asinine but even if you insist the only thing we know is Trae Young is spamming more 3s than Tony Parker did

Khanben:
Prime Heatles lost to a team that played team basketball. No one player was the linchpin of their success. That Spurs team was and still is the only team that ever played that Noone was a primary forum. Parker was a great player, but in his 4th year in the league, this version of trea Young was far better that him and that is a fact

Even on a team basketball setup there is always the head of the snake, that head was Tony Parker so stop dropping generic statements. Tony Parker was the primary scorer and facilitator on that team and had since 2007 been arguably their best player

This version of Trae Young is only a better 3 point shot spammer. The only thing we have established is that he takes 6 more 3pt attempts and attempts 8 more shots per game than Parker did

aliondo:
This is blasphemy i.e..comparing Parker and Trae young...Parker was a real nuisance....Kyrie has a similar way of driving to the basket like Tony...That sleek movement...

If he said Kyrie had a bigger bag than Tony Parker I still grudgingly hear that one but Trae Young?? Trae friggin Young any body who followed that Spurs dynasty knows Tony Parker was a problem and far more difficult to guard than Trae Young

Jaayson Tatum is that dude..

Tomorrow Stephen A, Skip, Marcellus and all these American pundits will keep repeating this KD is the best player in the world cap

Khanben:
Numbers, so you are one of those that never watched the players, go pull out stats sheet and say Numbers don't back it up.
Parkers one knock was always that he could shoot, the stats you are bringing up also shows that Shaq could shoot.

Lmaoo. Go to any forum or any place where knowledgeable hoop fans are gathered and claim Trae Young has more tools than Tony Parker let's see if they won't laugh you out of the vicinity

Go and ask Prime Lebron and the Heatles what their eyes saw from Tony Parker's hand. You don't know how goofy you even sound right now

What is the correlation between Shaq and my post? Are you inebriated or something?

The numbers back everything I said, which was Trae Young is a 3pt spammer.

The ninja you claim can shoot from anywhere is a 31% shooter from 3. That is abysmal for someone you claim has an extended toolbox

Kyrie is burning these niggas naked