EwingsGlass wrote:martin wrote:LivingLegend wrote:Alpha1971 wrote:LivingLegend wrote:I get that we were tired and short players but how did our defensive principals and defensive rotations just completely implode.Deuce (who I love) was abused so badly I’m no longer sure he’s a defender.
You smoking crack about Deuce or what ? He will be better next year and if the team is healthy his impact will be even better next year.
His reputation is as a great on ball defender.
In these playoffs he had some really nice offensive moments and big games/shots.
He can’t run an offense AT ALL and he is small defensively- again his #1 attribute is an ability to stay in front of ball handlers.
In the playoffs he was destroyed by Maxey and against Indy not only McConnell killed him but he was primary defender past few games on Haliburton and Hali killed him over and over.
He looked dumb, overmatched and simply did not take away any strengths from the players I noted.
For me, when there is a breakdown in personal - especially in the front court - the lack of defensive capabilities trickle down to the guards.
Also, it's pretty much like his first real playoffs. Ever.
Feel like he may have some room to grow here. Probably.
Indiana literally one of the best offenses out there too.
In my head, we lost because we lacked the personnel to shut down Siakam. Siakam is a similar player to Randle. Feast or famine. He has the absolute ability to win or lose games for teams with his shot selection. When he is rolling, they are hard to beat. Once Siakam got comfortable, they clearly had more firepower than our guys.
I am not angry or upset about this series. I don't even wonder what could have been. I am actually excited what this team can do with another year together.
Indiana deserves a ton of credit also. I think their front office has put together a hell of a squad in a relatively short time period. That trade for Hali caught me by surprise. Made solid decisions.
The Reggie choke sweatshirt is pretty funny. Hart deserves that for fucking with Reggie. Gonna give it, gotta take it.
We lacked most all of our front court lol
MaTT4281 wrote:
This really was funny as hell.
You want to like him right?
He makes more money, has better hair, cheats on his girlfriend and does not care, doesn't even try to like you, and he don't care either.
But he invites you on his big ass boat, does not ask for gas money, or beer money, he seems to be having more fun that anyone else, he takes his girl down below and bangs her, then when done guzzles a beer, does a triple back flip it the water, jumps back in. You realize during that time while texting to your friends about him he was doing a three way with your girl. Inadvertently his selfishness makes you look good. Since he violated you he now is more buddy buddy and lets you drive the boat, all the while drinking even more. You want to hurt him but he said he'd hook you up with that new IPO that he is excited about.
At the end of the day, your feel bloated from all the beer, your girl needs to be alone, but hugs you and says how much she appreciates you, and as you say good by you realize his six pack abs look even better even after a day of beer drinking and his hair is still perfect!
LivingLegend wrote:VDesai wrote:Regarding Brunson's hand - he missed time late in the 2023 season with a sprained hand. He missed the final few games of the season with it and it was a concern before the playoffs, but now forgotten since he played well through it. Very well may be a re-injury / now he broke a bone vs. having a sprain/fracture. On the bright side, now is the best timing to have a surgery on it.
The biggest issue for this franchise is Brunson’s long term viability (ability to avoid injury / breakdown).
I mean I wouldn't call that an "issue". Brunson is pretty durable, young and with much fewer NBA miles on him than most stars at his age.
OG OTOH...
martin wrote:EwingsGlass wrote:martin wrote:LivingLegend wrote:Alpha1971 wrote:LivingLegend wrote:I get that we were tired and short players but how did our defensive principals and defensive rotations just completely implode.Deuce (who I love) was abused so badly I’m no longer sure he’s a defender.
You smoking crack about Deuce or what ? He will be better next year and if the team is healthy his impact will be even better next year.
His reputation is as a great on ball defender.
In these playoffs he had some really nice offensive moments and big games/shots.
He can’t run an offense AT ALL and he is small defensively- again his #1 attribute is an ability to stay in front of ball handlers.
In the playoffs he was destroyed by Maxey and against Indy not only McConnell killed him but he was primary defender past few games on Haliburton and Hali killed him over and over.
He looked dumb, overmatched and simply did not take away any strengths from the players I noted.
For me, when there is a breakdown in personal - especially in the front court - the lack of defensive capabilities trickle down to the guards.
Also, it's pretty much like his first real playoffs. Ever.
Feel like he may have some room to grow here. Probably.
Indiana literally one of the best offenses out there too.
In my head, we lost because we lacked the personnel to shut down Siakam. Siakam is a similar player to Randle. Feast or famine. He has the absolute ability to win or lose games for teams with his shot selection. When he is rolling, they are hard to beat. Once Siakam got comfortable, they clearly had more firepower than our guys.
I am not angry or upset about this series. I don't even wonder what could have been. I am actually excited what this team can do with another year together.
Indiana deserves a ton of credit also. I think their front office has put together a hell of a squad in a relatively short time period. That trade for Hali caught me by surprise. Made solid decisions.
The Reggie choke sweatshirt is pretty funny. Hart deserves that for fucking with Reggie. Gonna give it, gotta take it.
We lacked most all of our front court lol
I really think the answer to stopping McConnell's dribble would have been having Mitch (or even OG) behind the line as rim protection. There's only so long Deuce can run around with TJ - he needed something to funnel him to to stop his dribble.
I will never understand this
martin wrote:I will never understand this
Yeah this is pretty much horseshit and we have the added bonus of hearing Doris pontificate about how great he is at "creating space for himself"
VDesai wrote:martin wrote:EwingsGlass wrote:martin wrote:LivingLegend wrote:Alpha1971 wrote:LivingLegend wrote:I get that we were tired and short players but how did our defensive principals and defensive rotations just completely implode.Deuce (who I love) was abused so badly I’m no longer sure he’s a defender.
You smoking crack about Deuce or what ? He will be better next year and if the team is healthy his impact will be even better next year.
His reputation is as a great on ball defender.
In these playoffs he had some really nice offensive moments and big games/shots.
He can’t run an offense AT ALL and he is small defensively- again his #1 attribute is an ability to stay in front of ball handlers.
In the playoffs he was destroyed by Maxey and against Indy not only McConnell killed him but he was primary defender past few games on Haliburton and Hali killed him over and over.
He looked dumb, overmatched and simply did not take away any strengths from the players I noted.
For me, when there is a breakdown in personal - especially in the front court - the lack of defensive capabilities trickle down to the guards.
Also, it's pretty much like his first real playoffs. Ever.
Feel like he may have some room to grow here. Probably.
Indiana literally one of the best offenses out there too.
In my head, we lost because we lacked the personnel to shut down Siakam. Siakam is a similar player to Randle. Feast or famine. He has the absolute ability to win or lose games for teams with his shot selection. When he is rolling, they are hard to beat. Once Siakam got comfortable, they clearly had more firepower than our guys.
I am not angry or upset about this series. I don't even wonder what could have been. I am actually excited what this team can do with another year together.
Indiana deserves a ton of credit also. I think their front office has put together a hell of a squad in a relatively short time period. That trade for Hali caught me by surprise. Made solid decisions.
The Reggie choke sweatshirt is pretty funny. Hart deserves that for fucking with Reggie. Gonna give it, gotta take it.
We lacked most all of our front court lol
I really think the answer to stopping McConnell's dribble would have been having Mitch (or even OG) behind the line as rim protection. There's only so long Deuce can run around with TJ - he needed something to funnel him to to stop his dribble.
There are, shall we say, other options befitting the Pacer's white beast
martin wrote:LivingLegend wrote:Alpha1971 wrote:LivingLegend wrote:I get that we were tired and short players but how did our defensive principals and defensive rotations just completely implode.Deuce (who I love) was abused so badly I’m no longer sure he’s a defender.
You smoking crack about Deuce or what ? He will be better next year and if the team is healthy his impact will be even better next year.
His reputation is as a great on ball defender.
In these playoffs he had some really nice offensive moments and big games/shots.
He can’t run an offense AT ALL and he is small defensively- again his #1 attribute is an ability to stay in front of ball handlers.
In the playoffs he was destroyed by Maxey and against Indy not only McConnell killed him but he was primary defender past few games on Haliburton and Hali killed him over and over.
He looked dumb, overmatched and simply did not take away any strengths from the players I noted.
For me, when there is a breakdown in personal - especially in the front court - the lack of defensive capabilities trickle down to the guards.
Also, it's pretty much like his first real playoffs. Ever.
Feel like he may have some room to grow here. Probably.
Indiana literally one of the best offenses out there too.
All true Martin - I was just shocked with how often he was literally left 3-4 feet behind his man basically guarding nobody while our bigs tried to react to guard penetration. The overall team D imploded as well so maybe Deuce a victim of overall physical/ mental team breakdown.
nycericanguy wrote:LivingLegend wrote:VDesai wrote:Regarding Brunson's hand - he missed time late in the 2023 season with a sprained hand. He missed the final few games of the season with it and it was a concern before the playoffs, but now forgotten since he played well through it. Very well may be a re-injury / now he broke a bone vs. having a sprain/fracture. On the bright side, now is the best timing to have a surgery on it.
The biggest issue for this franchise is Brunson’s long term viability (ability to avoid injury / breakdown).
I mean I wouldn't call that an "issue". Brunson is pretty durable, young and with much fewer NBA miles on him than most stars at his age.
OG OTOH...
He literally just died of exhaustion in front of us the last 2 games - he also suffered numerous injuries during the playoffs alone and couldn’t finish the 2nd round.
He is a small guy, an average athlete who works very hard for everything he gets - he also takes a lot of physical abuse both offensively and taking charges defensively.
Many stars cruise thru the season- Brunson gets pounded over and over again - often to the floor.
Not arguing just believe we need to take some of the load off this kids shoulder.
VDesai wrote:martin wrote:EwingsGlass wrote:martin wrote:LivingLegend wrote:Alpha1971 wrote:LivingLegend wrote:I get that we were tired and short players but how did our defensive principals and defensive rotations just completely implode.Deuce (who I love) was abused so badly I’m no longer sure he’s a defender.
You smoking crack about Deuce or what ? He will be better next year and if the team is healthy his impact will be even better next year.
His reputation is as a great on ball defender.
In these playoffs he had some really nice offensive moments and big games/shots.
He can’t run an offense AT ALL and he is small defensively- again his #1 attribute is an ability to stay in front of ball handlers.
In the playoffs he was destroyed by Maxey and against Indy not only McConnell killed him but he was primary defender past few games on Haliburton and Hali killed him over and over.
He looked dumb, overmatched and simply did not take away any strengths from the players I noted.
For me, when there is a breakdown in personal - especially in the front court - the lack of defensive capabilities trickle down to the guards.
Also, it's pretty much like his first real playoffs. Ever.
Feel like he may have some room to grow here. Probably.
Indiana literally one of the best offenses out there too.
In my head, we lost because we lacked the personnel to shut down Siakam. Siakam is a similar player to Randle. Feast or famine. He has the absolute ability to win or lose games for teams with his shot selection. When he is rolling, they are hard to beat. Once Siakam got comfortable, they clearly had more firepower than our guys.
I am not angry or upset about this series. I don't even wonder what could have been. I am actually excited what this team can do with another year together.
Indiana deserves a ton of credit also. I think their front office has put together a hell of a squad in a relatively short time period. That trade for Hali caught me by surprise. Made solid decisions.
The Reggie choke sweatshirt is pretty funny. Hart deserves that for fucking with Reggie. Gonna give it, gotta take it.
We lacked most all of our front court lol
I really think the answer to stopping McConnell's dribble would have been having Mitch (or even OG) behind the line as rim protection. There's only so long Deuce can run around with TJ - he needed something to funnel him to to stop his dribble.
He shouldn’t have got into the paint so often in 1st places- we chased him OVER SCREENS 30 feet from the basket all series.
martin wrote:I will never understand this
Unreal - showed this to my wife and as a non hoops fan she simply said - “6 steps”.
Yeah that's a travel regardless of whatever they call that BS "gather" step. The moment he stopped his dribble when his right hand comes into contact with the ball, he locked in his right foot as his pivot foot, and then he lifts it and brings it down again. No ambiguity. Same reason you can't bring down your right foot again in a Eurostep when you plant your right foot and then pick up the ball.
martin wrote:I will never understand this
DuckVader wrote:Yeah that's a travel regardless of whatever they call that BS "gather" step. The moment he stopped his dribble when his right hand comes into contact with the ball, he locked in his right foot as his pivot foot, and then he lifts it and brings it down again. No ambiguity. Same reason you can't bring down your right foot again in a Eurostep when you plant your right foot and then pick up the ball.martin wrote:I will never understand this
Gather steps and step-throughs after establishing your pivot foot is all BS added to help scoring. They get me so angry. What is the point of a pivot foot if you are allowed a full step after establishing it. I hate these BS NBA rules.
LivingLegend wrote:nycericanguy wrote:LivingLegend wrote:VDesai wrote:Regarding Brunson's hand - he missed time late in the 2023 season with a sprained hand. He missed the final few games of the season with it and it was a concern before the playoffs, but now forgotten since he played well through it. Very well may be a re-injury / now he broke a bone vs. having a sprain/fracture. On the bright side, now is the best timing to have a surgery on it.
The biggest issue for this franchise is Brunson’s long term viability (ability to avoid injury / breakdown).
I mean I wouldn't call that an "issue". Brunson is pretty durable, young and with much fewer NBA miles on him than most stars at his age.
OG OTOH...
He literally just died of exhaustion in front of us the last 2 games - he also suffered numerous injuries during the playoffs alone and couldn’t finish the 2nd round.
He is a small guy, an average athlete who works very hard for everything he gets - he also takes a lot of physical abuse both offensively and taking charges defensively.
Many stars cruise thru the season- Brunson gets pounded over and over again - often to the floor.
Not arguing just believe we need to take some of the load off this kids shoulder.
Brunson playing the way he was forced to this playoff run isn’t sustainable for anyone. The amount of drives per game was unheard of. He was pressured full court for the entire game and had to drop 40 and take 30+ shots for us to have a chance. But he’s just fine in the durability department. We just need to give him a reasonable workload by giving him for ball handlers and creators.
VDesai wrote:martin wrote:I will never understand this
Yeah this is pretty much horseshit and we have the added bonus of hearing Doris pontificate about how great he is at "creating space for himself"
My brother and I were bitching about this all game. that one rook literally jumped like 5 feet to his side at one point and I was wondering what the hell was going on, and how something wasn't called.
On a side note, too many Pacers shot like that for it not to be coached so....there is that.
Officiating sucked for sure whether JB getting no calls or Indy doing whatever it wanted especially after Carlisle hissy fit
Super reductionist but we were 2-0 with OG, 1-4 without (not counting game 7 as with OG).
Preaching to the choir (or the blind), but the OG injury and Brunson injuries were really the beginning of the end.
OG and Hart's positional versatility are flippin' brilliant. These two guys make us very injury-resistant - you can slot them in anywhere - you can even line up Hart as your primary ball handler for stretches.
I'd say in an alternate universe somewhere, the Knicks win game 3 (DiVo's big game) and go on to meet the Celtics. But without OG, it really put a tremendous amount of added strain on the team that was already playing 110%. Coupled with Brunson's freak foot injury, we were basically treading water from that point on.
Hart's injury broke our back in game 6.
I still cannot believe we lost this series after being up 2-0 and 3-2 and got blown out at home in a Game 7.
This will sting all summer. 
SergioNYK wrote:I still cannot believe we lost this series after being up 2-0 and 3-2 and got blown out at home in a Game 7. This will sting all summer.
If you say Mitch went down after game 1 and OG went down after game 2 and Brunson bang up his foot and Josh injured his ab it becomes more believable and stings less
