He certainly takes a lot more shots up close, but if you look at Gasol’s shot chart, it’s pretty putrid from 3 ft out to the 3-point line: ~38%. Toronto already has a guy in DeRozan who takes long 2s and is much better at it, so what’s Gasol’s value add here? You could make a case for his passing, which is very good,…

They were, actually, right in that “second tier” of teams, together with the Clippers and the Jazz, just as I said they were. There’s a whole season’s worth of games substantiating this; your counterargument seems to be that they were the defending champions, which is irrelevant. I don’t know how you can look at the…

Even if that trade could work salary-wise (it can’t), you’d be asking an older Gasol to eat a larger volume of minutes while playing with less frontcourt support. That doesn’t read like a recipe for success to me.

You don’t get credit today for things you did yesterday.

The main difference is that both Toronto and Boston look like legit teams this year. Maybe LeBron still does his thing, but this year is the first in some time where you couldn’t take it for granted.

I don’t see how this chain of reasoning helps. First, as you acknowledge, they were playing in a substantially inferior conference. Furthermore, you cannot win a series more decisively than 4-0, so just comparing records doesn’t tell you much except that the Warriors were clearly much better than their competition and…

They won a mere 51 games, which put them below Golden State, San Antonio, and Houston, and ties them with the Clippers and Jazz. Their SRS was a pitiful 2.87, compared with 4+ for every one of those other teams. If the Cavs are in the west, do they even make the finals? Hell, do they make the conference semifinals?

They were down 3-1 to a team that had previously owned their number, and featured an overall better roster top to bottom. They had to play 4 perfect games to win that series, which, if you think was highly probable, maybe you should have bet a lot of money on.

Now that would be a piece of wizardry for sure. I’d imagine they’d have to give up a great deal to get someone like Gasol: one of Jonas or Ibaka, plus... what? And I’m not sure that trade makes them substantially better. But DeRozan has hit a new level, so it’s definitely possible that they won’t fuck up again this…

Sorry, the persistence of which take? I think we agree here.

The quality of those looks was not great, is the problem. Lots of long twos (many contested), threes taken not in rhythm, drives to the basket that ended up being swallowed by the defense. Maybe that’s worth it; ultimately this game is pretty meaningless and if he’s able to come back to form, no one will remember it.…

I think they were clearly better than Boston last year going into the series, and once IT got injured, it was pretty much self-evident that they would win handily, which they did. The East was an atrocious stinkhole last year, which made their path to the finals much easier. They overachieved in an absolute sense over…

This is probably what they should do, but who knows if desperation will drive them to some crazy maneuvers.

Toronto I could see, although it’s very likely that they’ll have to do it by beating Boston at home, but Milwaukee? They’re currently down 2-1 in the regular season series against Boston, they’re stuck in the lower rungs of the playoff pictures, and they’re coached by Jason Kidd. I don’t see this team making the ECF.

It was baffling how little action Love got against the Warriors last night. I don’t know if it would have helped, but he did something good every time he had the ball. Instead, 35 shots, many of which were just awful, went to IT and Wade.

I’m sure it’s harder when you’re actually living the suckage, but this was an entirely predictable development, given the Cavs’ age, various health issues, and general quality of the cast surrounding LeBron. If anything, this team has clearly overachieved in the last 3 years, winning a title against all odds against…

Williams’ brain fart is going to obscure what a bad idea that throw was to begin with. Not only is it well short of the sideline, but there are two Saints there already, and very little room to maneuver. Since Diggs had to go up to get the ball, he has nowhere to go while he’s making the catch; if Williams just wraps…

fortles bowl

He did get two touchdowns off 4th downs, too.

Paging Michael Wolff, Mr. Wolff to the White House.