You Heard it Here First

RoadDawg55

OKC and Indiana are going to the conference Finals. Indiana makes quick use of Washington. Hibbert will even be useful against Nene and Gortat. OKC beats either the Clippers (likely) or Warriors in 6.

allpurpleallgold

I really don't want that to happen. I can't take another year of Scott Brooks.

Hibbert hasn't been useful against anyone in 2 months. It's not a match up issue.

[Deleted User]

OKC I didn't think could beat the Clippers in a best of 7 prior to this postseason and I still don't see it.

Remember Clippers have two bigs who are good so OKC will continue to trot Perkins out there.

Rivers is a much better coach than Brooks as well. Clippers are a deeper team and OKC I think is going to be gassed. 4 straight OT games is going to wear on them.

You are probably right in regards to the Pacers. I still think the Pacers take two from Miami as they match up well with Miami. Plus Miami tends to coast. I can see Miami stealing game one, coast game two, win the two at home, coast game 5, close game six.

RoadDawg55

Hibbert has been a bum, but he's going to have to play against Nene and Gortat. He was useless against Atlanta with no one to guard. He's a rim protector that either got pulled out by Antic or he got destroyed by Millsap.

OKC's two best players have played about as bad as they can play in this series. Tired or not, I think they will play better in the next round. The Clippers are deeper but Durant, Westbrook, Ibaka > Griffin, Paul, Jordan. They have been the better team for the past few years. The Clippers have never done anything in the playoffs.

[Deleted User]

RoadDawg55 said:

Hibbert has been a bum, but he's going to have to play against Nene and Gortat. He was useless against Atlanta with no one to guard. He's a rim protector that either got pulled out by Antic or he got destroyed by Millsap.

OKC's two best players have played about as bad as they can play in this series. Tired or not, I think they will play better in the next round. The Clippers are deeper but Durant, Westbrook, Ibaka > Griffin, Paul, Jordan. They have been the better team for the past few years. The Clippers have never done anything in the playoffs.

Have you learned nothing from this web site? Coaching matters. Vinny Del Negro was fucking awful and held the team back.

In a tight close series I'll always take the team with the huge advantage in coaching which this series will have.

allpurpleallgold

Something that really just surprised me- I agree with Road that Durant, Westbrook, Ibaka > Paul, Griffin, Jordan. But I had to think about it for a second. Are they? Are we sure about that? Like we're really sure? You sure?

RoadDawg55

He_Needs_More_Time said:

RoadDawg55 said:

Hibbert has been a bum, but he's going to have to play against Nene and Gortat. He was useless against Atlanta with no one to guard. He's a rim protector that either got pulled out by Antic or he got destroyed by Millsap.

OKC's two best players have played about as bad as they can play in this series. Tired or not, I think they will play better in the next round. The Clippers are deeper but Durant, Westbrook, Ibaka > Griffin, Paul, Jordan. They have been the better team for the past few years. The Clippers have never done anything in the playoffs.

Have you learned nothing from this web site? Coaching matters. Vinny Del Negro was fucking awful and held the team back.

In a tight close series I'll always take the team with the huge advantage in coaching which this series will have.

Del Negro sucked, but NBA coaching is mostly overrated. Playoffs are what matters, but the Clippers won 56 games last year and 57 this year. It's not even close to the same as college football or the NFL. Rivers is certainly good at managing ego's, the players respect him, but I've never been sold on him as a coach. He was a fucktard in Orlando and Boston until KG and Ray Allen came giftwrapped. He did a good job in Boston, but it would have been kind of hard to fuck up having Pierce, Allen, and KG all at the end of their prime, hyper focused on winning championships.

[Deleted User]

RoadDawg55 said:

He_Needs_More_Time said:

RoadDawg55 said:

Hibbert has been a bum, but he's going to have to play against Nene and Gortat. He was useless against Atlanta with no one to guard. He's a rim protector that either got pulled out by Antic or he got destroyed by Millsap.

OKC's two best players have played about as bad as they can play in this series. Tired or not, I think they will play better in the next round. The Clippers are deeper but Durant, Westbrook, Ibaka > Griffin, Paul, Jordan. They have been the better team for the past few years. The Clippers have never done anything in the playoffs.

Have you learned nothing from this web site? Coaching matters. Vinny Del Negro was fucking awful and held the team back.

In a tight close series I'll always take the team with the huge advantage in coaching which this series will have.

Del Negro sucked, but NBA coaching is mostly overrated. Playoffs are what matters, but the Clippers won 56 games last year and 57 this year. It's not even close to the same as college football or the NFL. Rivers is certainly good at managing ego's, the players respect him, but I've never been sold on him as a coach. He was a fucktard in Orlando and Boston until KG and Ray Allen came giftwrapped. He did a good job in Boston, but it would have been kind of hard to fuck up having Pierce, Allen, and KG all at the end of their prime, hyper focused on winning championships.

Coaching matters when you are talking elite teams in the NBA. Sure I'll take Scott Brooks and Kevin Durant and give you Phil Jackson with the Knicks roster and still win.

However in a close series where both teams match up well I'll go with the coaching edge.

OKC has some major holes and I think the Clippers match up well with them I really do.

RoadDawg55

allpurpleallgold said:

Something that really just surprised me- I agree with Road that Durant, Westbrook, Ibaka > Paul, Griffin, Jordan. But I had to think about it for a second. Are they? Are we sure about that? Like we're really sure? You sure?

If you go by win shares, it's a close battle. Clippers lead that 35.5 to 34. Take into account, that Westbrook missed almost half the season and played reduced minutes since February. In win shares per 48 minutes, the total is .661 for the Clippers and .646. It's definitely a close call, and the advanced stats give the edge to the Clippers. I would still rather have OKC's trio, mainly because Durant is quite a bit better than everyone in the NBA except LeBron.

Durant > Griffin and it's not even that close. LeBron and Durant are pretty far ahead of everyone else in the league.

Paul > Westbrook. Despite the hate Westbrook gets, this is close. Paul is the better, more consistent player, but Westbrook's athleticism can't be ignored. When he's on, he's incredible. The problem is reckless play and consistency. I love his bulldog mentality though, and think he gets too much shit that should be going elsewhere.

Ibaka > Jordan. I give the edge to Ibaka. They both are great shot blockers, Jordan is a better rebounder, but Ibaka is better on offense, especially at the foul line. I could see why someone would give the edge to Jordan that he is a true center.