Jump to content

West Conference Finals: (4) Clippers vs. Suns (2)


TheRealMcCoy

Who is going to the Finals?  

8 members have voted

  1. 1. The winner will be _____________ in ____ .....

    • Clippers in 4
    • Clippers in 5
      0
    • Clippers in 6
    • Clippers in 7
      0
    • Suns in 4
      0
    • Suns in 5
    • Suns in 6
    • Suns in 7

This poll is closed to new votes

  • Please sign in or register to vote in this poll.
  • Poll closed on 06/20/2021 at 08:30 PM

Recommended Posts

1 hour ago, TheRealMcCoy said:

@NYRaidertime to pull a Tonya Harding 

jk... don't wish that on Rudy

Suns would be better with Gobert. Suns are a way better passing team, lis they had the best A:TO ratio in the reg szn maybe since the 3pt line was introduced (I was manually checking every year but stopped looking after like 20ish years lol) and would find him better, also Monty wouldn't dare the best corner 3pt shooting team of all time to shoot wide open corner 3s all gm as a strategy. Plus all of the perimeter players on the Suns are better defenders than the Jazz players. Ayton is better scoring in the post and touch shots but it's not like he gets a lot opportunities to do that. I do think Ayton does do better 1v1 guarding bigs, which is weird. But Gobert is way better rotating to protect the rim. I was rooting for the Jazz to win cause I thought players 4-8 the Suns are way better and would win for sure. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, TheRealMcCoy said:
Booker isn't the best defender, but major props for this. This is some Kobe energy.

It is annoying when he guards 2s just cause that is his position, even tho it is like Don, Jamal, Lavine, Beal, etc. Like that is why we have Mikal

Edited by 11sanchez11
Link to comment
Share on other sites

52 minutes ago, 11sanchez11 said:

Suns would be better with Gobert. 

No you wouldn't be. Rudy was legitimately afraid to try and post up or attack Reggie Jackson or Batum. Rudy is legitimately afraid to even try to post up, he scores strictly on lobs or put backs. People also really don't understand how much not having Conley effected our offense. Most of Rudy's scoring came in the pick-n-roll with Conley, in round 1 Conley averaged 9 assists per game and Rudy averaged 17.5 ppg. Not having Conley hurt his ability to score because guys like Mitchell and Clarkson were getting blitzed off the picks and were looking to score. 

Ayton's presence offensively forced Lue to play their bigs for 31 min tonight, they played a combined 14 min the last two games of our series. 

Edited by NYRaider
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Man, there is no way I'd want Gobert for Ayton.   Yes, Gobert is a defensive monster around the rim, but the Clippers figured out how to neutralize that rim protection.   Ayton is such a balanced player.    Ayton's pick and roll was a massive problem for the LAL, DEN & LAC D.    Ayton's ability to run is a great fit for PHX.   It's pretty questionable....straight up.  Once you factor in the $, that's a hard pass.

Back to the series - PHX missed a TON of open looks in the 1H - while PG & Jackson played out of their minds today, the PHX D played well, and their O was very meh today (not just because of CP3 being out, but their shooting was abysmal in the 1H - whether it was rust or whatever, they were wide open from 3 and only shot something like 35 percent, was a huge reason why it was close at halftime.    LAC didn't have nearly as many uncontested shots.  

If CP3 returns and PHX hasn't lost a home game (next game, or game 3 up 2-0, or game 4 up 2-1)....I don't see the Suns losing here, barring more injury effects.   They're just the deepest team, and they match up so well here.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 hours ago, Broncofan said:

Man, there is no way I'd want Gobert for Ayton.  Yes, Gobert is a defensive monster around the rim, but the Clippers figured out how to neutralize that rim protection. 

The primary reason they were able to neutralize his rim protection is because he's a complete non-threat offensively. If he had any offensive skill at all it would've forced the Clippers to play their bigs as we saw that they had to do in game 1 vs the Suns. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Another huge advantage that the Suns have over the Jazz is that they have guys like Booker, Bridges, Crowder, Johnson, and Craig who can switch on the Clippers pick-n-roll and not absolutely get cooked in isolation. Don was hobbled and he's like 6'2 and guys like Bojan, Ingles, Clarkson, and Niang are just all terrible defenders. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Which is what makes it even more frustrating as a Jazz fan because these issues were exposed in the post-season last year and we did nothing to address them. We knew we needed PG depth because of Conley's health concerns, more versatile wing defenders, and a backup rim protector behind Rudy. So we drafted Azudookie who never even played and traded for Matt Thomas at the deadline.

Obviously hindsight is 20-20 but we should've used the money we paid Derrick Favors on Serge Ibaka or Nerlens Noel/Chris Boucher. And instead of signing Shaq Harrison to a minimum deal, who we waived anyways, went after Reggie Jackson. Then drafted Desmond Bane, a guy I loved, over a 3rd string center.

Nic Batum was waived in December and signed a vet minimum deal with the Clippers and would've been a great signing for us. And we could've also pursued PJ Tucker and Torey Craig at the deadline and chose to just stand pat. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How many times Gobert gotta be exposed in the playoffs before people fully wake up? Honestly, don't even care about his perimeter defense, he's supposed to be the rim protector and can't switch out because Utah's other defenders are all trash and Gobert is a one man defense. The guy has no offensive game though which allows teams like the Clips to go with Batum at center and feast on offense while not feeling the burn on defense. Even Ayton is far from the most offensively skilled big in the league made Lue respect him and play actual bigs. 

Gobert will not be fully playable in the playoffs until one of two things happens. 1) Utah gets much better wing defenders so Rudy can switch at the perimeter to guard them without worrying about the BBQ chicken at the rim or 2) He adds enough of an offensive game to make other teams pay for going small. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 minutes ago, Spartica4Real said:

Gobert will not be fully playable in the playoffs until one of two things happens. 1) Utah gets much better wing defenders so Rudy can switch at the perimeter to guard them without worrying about the BBQ chicken at the rim or 2) He adds enough of an offensive game to make other teams pay for going small. 

Yup, those two things were exposed big time. Having Mike Conley would've helped a ton because Rudy gets most of his offense in the pick-n-roll with him. But Rudy's inability to dominate the offensive glass or score in the post allowed Lue to keep their small ball lineup on the floor. I think Rudy is what he is at this point, he's never going to be a great offensive player. The biggest issue we have is our lack of other good defensive players that can switch. 

If Conley and Mitchell were healthy I think we win the series but no Conley left Don as the only guy in our rotation that could consistently create his own offense. And he was on a bum ankle, IIRC he didn't even dunk once the whole series, and had to hit the 3 ball at a crazy clip to score. 

Denver was able to expose these flaws in the playoffs last year and we didn't do anything to fix them. Bojan, Clarkson, and Ingles are good offensive players but they get absolutely fried defensively. Hopefully Conley can come back and stay healthy next season but without a doubt we need to make some major moves this off-season. We're one of the least athletic teams in the league and it got exposed in the playoffs. We need big, athletic wings that can switch and hold their own defensively.

Which again is why it's so frustrating that we passed on Desmond Bane in the draft and didn't make any moves in the off-season. We could've signed Reggie Jackson to a minimum deal to have an insurance policy behind Conley or signed Batum to a minimum deal after the Hornets waived him. We also could've made trades for versatile defensive wings like PJ Tucker or Torey Craig at the deadline and just sat on our hands. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...