OKC's ridiculous flopping

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Bob_Loblaw said:
Flopping needs to be reviewable and it should be a technical.

Of all the things that old timers hate about modern basketball (resting players, 3PA, analytics), they are 100% right about the flopping. OKC is hard to watch and that's a shame because they are so good at basketball.
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Resting players is why I am glad Popp is gone. He is mostly to blame.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
Flopping needs to be reviewable and it should be a technical.

Of all the things that old timers hate about modern basketball (resting players, 3PA, analytics), they are 100% right about the flopping. OKC is hard to watch and that's a shame because they are so good at basketball.
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Adam Silver says there's no issue though. So this isn't going to change.

Manufacturing SGA as the MVP twice is a choice Silver made. It's more proof of why he's by far the worst commissioner of any sports league today.

OKC's cap issues will begin next year and they'll eventually fade over the next few years. The flopping isn't going anywhere though, and it'll likely only get worse across the league.
 


GopherWeatherGuy said:
Adam Silver says there's no issue though. So this isn't going to change.

Manufacturing SGA as the MVP twice is a choice Silver made. It's more proof of why he's by far the worst commissioner of any sports league today.

OKC's cap issues will begin next year and they'll eventually fade over the next few years. The flopping isn't going anywhere though, and it'll likely only get worse across the league.
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Agreed. It's not going to change because he's a gutless idiot.

I saw the interview today when he said "we have to understand players are taught" to exaggerate calls as a defense for not putting harsher punishments. Adam, we know they're taught it, that's exactly what we want you to stop. Players used to be taught to hand check. We decided it was worse for the game, so you made a rule and players had to stop hand checking.
 


GopherWeatherGuy said:
As bad as the flopping is, hockey's playoff format is too stupid to get behind.
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The NHL is a frustratingly poor format from a fan experience perspective. As if we don't already see enough of Dal and COL in the regular season.

Just go back to seeding the Conferences with Division winners getting the top 2, or better yet, seed all 16 teams that qualify for the Playoffs and let it rip. I would enjoy playing teams in new markets far more than "forced" rivalries.
 

Slim Tubby said:
The NHL is a frustratingly poor format from a fan experience perspective. As if we don't already see enough of Dal and COL in the regular season.

Just go back to seeding the Conferences with Division winners getting the top 2, or better yet, seed all 16 teams that qualify for the Playoffs and let it rip. I would enjoy playing teams in new markets far more than "forced" rivalries.
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The regular season is for rivalries. The playoffs is for determining the best team.
 




I get people clamoring for the 1v8 seeding lines while ignoring that Colorado got extra rest heading into the Vegas series. Teams lose players and it has large impacts on upcoming series all the time and is part of what makes winning the cup so challenging (maybe its a wildly different series if MacKinnon doesn't block that shot with the side of his knee as well).

West (if preserving div winners as top seeds)
Colorado v LAK (saw it)
Vegas v Anaheim (saw it)
Dallas v Utah
MN v Edmonton

We'd draw Colorado in the 2nd round and we saw that.

East
Carolina v Philly (saw it)
Buffalo v Pitt
Tampa v Ottawa
Montreal v Boston

Montreal despite going 7 still took out the Buffalo team that handled Boston. Pitt and Philly were the worst 2 teams in the east by a pretty handy margin

How this ended up had so minimal to do with the playoff format and that Carolina is just clearly the best team with experience in the east and Vegas got the benefit of Colorado being hurt (same as the Wild can probably beat Colorado if healthy and if Colorado is missing Makar and Mackinnon is at 70% capacity). We see shit with straight seeding happen to where 8s beat 1s. It's just the joy of hockey and health this time of year (same as no one gave Anaheim a chance until it came out that McDavid and Drai were both hurt), given we saw both Utah and Anaheim, who everyone though were super weak, given Vegas a better series than Colorado did.

Carolina looked inevitable and Vegas got a nice twist of fate thrown their way, but it's not like they weren't beating Edmonton in the 1st round and they showed they could've beaten Colorado in the 2nd. You got the 2 teams playing the best (given health) at the right time which is what it always comes down to
 








fan of Ray Williams said:
Chet with 2 field goal attempts in tonight’s game 7
Ouch
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An overrated Gumby🥳

Slim Tubby said:
That sound you hear is not a deflating balloon...it's Chet's trade value. Cue up the "Chet + Picks for Giannis" trade talk in 3, 2, 1...
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Sorry I missed my cue

4 & 4 for Chet in a game 7 - you’d do cartwheels if the Bucks would take him in a Giannis trade.

Were you a tall gangly mediocre center for Coon Rapids? Are you living vicariously via Chester?
 

Slim Tubby said:
That sound you hear is not a deflating balloon...it's Chet's trade value. Cue up the "Chet + Picks for Giannis" trade talk in 3, 2, 1...
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Couldn’t resist 😉😎🤗. 5 for $239M starting next season -he’s grossly underpaid🥳🤠


The narrative for the Oklahoma City Thunder was clear as they entered Game 7: Someone needed to step up with both Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell out for the winner-take-all contest.

That someone could easily have been Chet Holmgren. Should have been, even. The 7-foot-1 big man was a third-team All-NBA selection and finished second in Defensive Player of the Year voting. Only Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored more points for OKC this season.

It is hard to properly emphasize just how badly that idea worked out.

A potential duel with Victor Wembanyama might as well have been a shadow-boxing session, as Holmgren was a non-factor in the game that decided the Thunder’s season. He finished with 4 points on 1-of-2 shooting (two shots!) with 4 rebounds, 2 steals, 2 blocks and 2 turnovers in 32 minutes.

He had his moments on defense, but OKC needed far more than a defensively inclined big man in Game 7. What’s more, both of those shots came in the Thunder’s first four possessions. He made a step-back jumper after deciding against challenging Wembanyama in the paint. He missed a floater with Wembanyama waiting for him at the basket.

And then he didn’t take a shot for the rest of the game.

That’s not to say he didn’t get the ball. He just avoided doing anything with it while Wembanyama was looming. And the few times he did try to do something, like on an iso with his team down five points in the fourth quarter, the results were … not star level.

“There were definitely opportunities to get more attempts up that I didn’t,” Holmgren told reporters Sunday as the Thunder conducted end-of-season media availability. “And that’s an area I need to improve.”

Maybe it’s unfair to expect Holmgren to do something he hasn’t all season. He is a shooter and finisher on offense, not a creator. With Williams and Mitchell out, OKC’s biggest problem in Game 7 was an offense that didn’t know what to do when Gilgeous-Alexander didn’t have the ball. Holmgren has never been a ball-handler and this wasn’t exactly the best environment to give it a try.

However, we need to remember two things.

One, this is the player who has been frequently presented as a foil to Wembanyama, a physical freak approaching the absurdity of a 7-foot-4 Frenchman with guard handles. They are supposed to be rivals, and one of them decided it wasn’t even worth trying to go toe-to-toe in the biggest game of the season.

Two, Holmgren signed a five-year, $239 million max extension last year that goes into effect next season. If he can’t be something, anything, for the Thunder against the Wembanyama-era Spurs, there might be some re-evaluating to do in Oklahoma City.

Trade speculation was running rampant on social media before the game even ended. It could be a long offseason for the Thunder, which is suddenly facing the idea of a younger team that could blot out its future, much like OKC did to the West’s other contenders last year.

No single player should have his future judged off just one game (though this wasn’t a great series overall for Holmgren before Saturday, either). It’s simply a sign of how catastrophic Saturday was that a contender trading a 24-year-old All-NBA defensive anchor is even a conversation.
 


A team should have a guy fall on top of him every time he goes to the ground. I think that might end his constant falling.
 


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