On May 19 2016 10:19 Scarecrow wrote: there were 4 elite teams, 3 were in the west. .516 comes from the east having less shit teams, but the cavs still don't have any real competition
the exact comment was "the east blows". you can twist it , spin it, spend 5 paragraphs explaining it. you can twist perception... reality won't budge.
The East does blow. No one gives a shit about Vanderbilt vs. Syracuse. The SEC is better at football than the ACC, even if one year Florida State or Clemson is better than Alabama.
The east does blow. 5th-8th seeds in the west fell off a cliff so the east caught up in record. However, I felt all year that most of the teams in the east in the 2-6 seeds were built to be regular season overachievers.
the 5th through 8th seeds consist of 27% of the conference and everything they do contributes to the quality of the western conference. as does Philly in the East and Golden State in the West.
Toronto is often viewed as "not really a 56 win team". However, in the West they'd be a 52 win team. And, their record against GSW, Spurs, Cavs, and OKC was 4-5 during the regular season. How many teams outside of the "elite 4" compiled a record this good?
The West is slightly better than the East as indicated by the 260 games played between the 2 conferences. If Toronto were in the West their record would be slightly worse as I've indicated.
Can we get that guy in here who thinks the last 240 innings Marco Estrada has pitched is a small sample size and so it doesn't count?
Last year a 53 win team in the East took a 67 win team in the West to 6 games. Another indicator the 2 conferences are somewhat competitive. Had a 53 win team in the West swept a 67 win team in the East.. well then we can have a discussion about how much the East "blows".
You also JJR, need to understand that the East is disproportionately suffering playoff-time injuries, which make the East blow, in at least that the East Playoffs blow. Portland would give the Cavs a better series than any team they have faced so far. Toronto has no Valanciunas, and might as well not have Lowry and seemingly only have half a Derozan. They barely beat the Heat without Bosh and Whiteside.
There is one team in the East (Cleveland) that could beat any of the final four in the West. The Clippers (if healthy) would have given the Cavs a better series than any of these teams (even if ATL, Miami, Tor were healthy).
i'm talking about the entire conference.. not just a few teams. and, actually its 450 games played between east and west... 30 games.. 15 teams.
both Toronto and the Clippers are not healthy so you're just making stuff up. Toronto is 4-0 versus the Clippers in the last 2 years and a +57 in those 4 games. There is not much data to go on. But what we do have indicates the Raptors are better than the Clippers.
Considering where we are in the NBA season, it doesn't matter which conference has the stronger lottery teams or what have you. The east just isn't competitive with Lebron teams. Teams like Atlanta and Toronto are normally regular season overachievers.
The Raptors are not over achieving or under-achieving. They are a 56 win team in the weakest division in the NBA. Adjusted to strength of schedule they are a 52 win team. They defeated the 48 win Miami Heat who play in a stronger division and therefore have a tougher schedule. Adjusted to strength of schedule Miami is a 50 win team. So we have 2 injury ravaged teams with similar regular season performances.. and surprise.. surprise.. we get a 7 game series. Both teams performed in alignment with their respective regular season performances.
the Raptors played most of the season without Valenciunas and Carroll and got 56 wins with either 2 or 3 of their starters able to play.
Now we have a 56 win team playing without its starting centre coming from the weakest division in the league going against a 57 win team coming out of a division with 1 team below .500. Once we adjust both teams win totals to the strength of schedule the Cavs are substantially better than the Raptors. Unless Valencuinas returns and has a big impact this looks like a 4 or 5 game series to me. A healthy JV that plays well during the entire series means we have a somewhat competitive 6 game series in favour of the Cavs.
As long as you adjust a team's win totals according to the strength of its schedule the screaming emotional hyperbole doesn't add up to much.
I've played a ton of competitive sport, including basketball, and abuse of a teammate is incredibly rare. Maybe i've just been lucky not playing in the US?
Fuck you might as well mean "shut up" or "I love you" or any of 100 other things on a BBall court. Being pissed and cussing out trash teammates is tradition. Golden boy Tom Brady does it when his team is winning, while simultaneously wielding his helmet like a hammer. Missed your country, sorry.
On May 20 2016 13:16 cLutZ wrote: Being pissed and cussing out trash teammates is tradition..
I had no idea. Sounds like standard toxic moba behavior. Cussing out opponents but not teammates is the standard in Aus, with Korea being even more mannered. Sorry about the name-calling, had a shit day
He was genuinely pissed at Waiters on that play for not passing to him earlier (you can see him waving his arms in frustration just before he cuts baseline and finally catch&shoots). But the "fuck you" is just business as usual between teammates imo.
On May 20 2016 13:16 cLutZ wrote: Being pissed and cussing out trash teammates is tradition..
I had no idea. Sounds like standard toxic moba behavior. Cussing out opponents but not teammates is the standard in Aus, with Korea being even more mannered. Sorry about the name-calling, had a shit day
Which is why its nuts to call it "standard toxic moba behavior" its just normal behavior in a competitive environment. Physically its probably even more likely and healthy in online games because exercise and hitting a guy or the like actually burns off a lot of the stress. That's why you gotta do pushups or jumping jacks between games.
I guess we just disagree about what's 'normal' in an RL team sport. Australia's pretty shit in terms of sportsmanship but cussing out teammates is still taboo, unless it's online with strangers then anything goes.