Yes. The Bucks’ starting line-up is better and are deeper. Not to mention, there’s a huge chasm in coaching (Budenholzer is light years ahead of Nurse). Coupled that with all Raptors not named Kawhi afraid to shoot in the final 5 minutes and you have the Bucks in 5.

My favorite Leonard defensive play from last night was when he knocked the ball out of the hands of a driving player (I don’t remember who - mighta been Giannis) and it popped straight up, and Leonard just reached up and grabbed the thing out of the fucking air with one hand like it was a tennis ball. Didn’t leave his…

Kawhi’s behavior last year makes it really hard for me to root for him. Also, the fact that he plays for Drake’s team and he’s playing against Giannis. That being said, he is an incredible player and a ton of fun to watch.

Co-Sign every single point you just made. KD is the King of all Monsters in regards to the ISO game but GSW is a true terror when they play ball movement on offense.

I think this is totally worth the semantic debate. I agree with your first line: more _talented_ team with KD. I also think they might win more games with KD. But I insist that they are a better _team_ without KD. The team-oriented, full-flow, ball-movement, pick-at-the-other-team’s-weaknesses-with-our-strengths basket…

This is the NBA Rulebook

I’m gonna preface this by saying I LOVE defense. I’ll take a block over a dunk, and a clean pick pocket over a crossover.

I guess handchecking is not a foul if it’s the Warriors.

I hope you mean the Point Break remake.  Because he is 0% Swayze, or we’d be seeing a lot more roundhouses.  

That’s the thing about the Steph/Draymond P&R though. All the options are bad:

“competent enough defensively”

exactly - hayward averaged 3 more minutes a game than rozier. hayward had a LOT of terrible games. then in the 2nd half of the season, mixed in some excellent games. overall had a meh-average year, not what you expect from a max player but fine, he destroyed his ankle. rozier just plain had a bad season, shooting…

I don’t think it’s about Hayward being a diva and demanding playing time as it is Stevens probably feeling pressure from management to incorporate the team’s highest paid star ($31M this year and $65M the following two years) into the rotation and feeling comfortable with his shot and post-injury playing style. This…

Kinda weird he’s throwing heat on Hayward as if Hayward didnt graciously accept being sent to the bench and not say a negative word about it for the rest of the year. Especially considering that it’s not out of the question to say that while Hayward had a really rough year, Terry’s year off the bench was an absolute…

Machado has at least brought elite defense to the Padres while giving them a lot of swagger and enabling Hosmer to have a bit of a rebound season offensively. I wish his OPS would be a bit higher but I have zero buyer's remorse as a long-suffering Padres fan. And I expect they'll go after Keuchel hard once the amateur…

I read it as the later. I’ve never heard much about him being prickly, but he was crazy inconsistent all year. Would put up 23, then go 0-7. When your minutes are getting jerked around and a dude who probably deserves to have his minutes jerked around is spared by his college coach, that’s gonna piss you off. 

There was a real long stretch where Hayward was starting just because he was Hayward, even though he sucked ass. There was an even longer stretch where he was getting heavy minutes off the bench even though he still sucked ass. I don’t believe there was ever any clarity as to whether this was because he was demanding…

Not a celtics fan (so i could be way off base) but from afar I thought one of their problems was the young wings on the team had grown so much without Hayward last year, and this year he was healthy and it kind of was a square peg round hole type deal where it threw off the whole rotation, so I’m not sure if hes a…

It’s been rumored/lightly reported that Stevens’ insistence on incorporating Hayward back into the rotation helped to fracture the locker room. It sounds like a nice cocktail of forces combined to fuck up Boston’s season, which I definitely endorse

I wonder if it’s possible that part of the Celtics weakness is having a PG who plays 22 minutes per game despite shooting 38% from the floor.