SimWorld NBA: The Chronicle

[cormag001]

May 2nd, 2018

There's Something Special About The Utah Jazz

One year ago today, the Utah Jazz were getting ready to suit up for Game 1 of the Western Conference Semifinals. Coming off a grueling series 7-game series (which saw the Jazz put an end to the Paul-Griffin-Jordan era Clippers), no one gave Utah a chance to win this series. In fact, the larger, looming question was the impending free agency of Gordon Hayward. Hayward was coming off the best season of his career, averaging 21.9 PPG, 5.4 RPG, and 3.5 APG, all while shooting nearing 40% from 3. There was no doubt that losing a player of Hayward's caliber would set the the franchise back substantially.

Sure enough, the Jazz were outclassed and swept by the Warriors, officially opening up the door for Hayward to leave Utah. When he decided to join his former college coach in Boston, it appeared the progress the Jazz had made towards becoming a contender was long gone. Who would be the face of the new team? George Hill's career was on the decline and he struggled to stay healthy all season. Gobert, Hood, and Ingles are nice pieces to any team, but they are far from being a centerpiece of a championship squad.

Luckily, the Jazz had a right to swap draft picks with the Denver Nuggets and could move up to 13th. While this is an obvious upgrade from their original spot at 24, it's no secret that there's no where near 13 guys per year with the talent to lead a franchise. Many thought the Jazz just needed to pick a high potential guy who could eventually develop into a key player.

Dennis Lindsey thought differently. He took Donovan Mitchell with the 13th pick of the draft, a guy who most analysts predicted would be taken in the bottom third of the first round.

Oh how things have worked out. Mitchell has proven that he was vastly underrated, excelling at the pro-level almost immediately. In fact, he may have even filled the hole Hayward left:

Hayward '17: 21.9 PPG, 5.4 RPG, 3.5 APG
Mitchell '18: 20.5 PPG, 3.7 RPG, 3.7 APG

What makes Mitchell's breakout even more impressive is that he was able to put those numbers up on a successful team. The Jazz rallied around their rookie, finishing in the exact same spot as last year -- 5th in the west -- with an even brighter future.

Every player seems to know their role. Mitchell is the volume scorer who controls tempo, Gobert mans the inside, Ingles is the trash- talking sharpshooter, Rubio the scorer/distributor off the bench. The chemistry this Jazz team shows is equal, if not superior, to every other team in the league. They seem to legitimately enjoy playing together, and after pestering the T-Wolves into submission, that has leaked over into their playoff performance.

Yet again, here the Jazz are, as the massive underdogs taking on the top team in the Western Conference Semifinals. And Game 1 followed that script -- the Rockets completely dismantled Utah, embarrassing them en route to a 122-76 whopping.

But this Jazz team isn't the same as last year's Jazz team. This year's Jazz team is better.

In Game 2, the Jazz got double digit scoring from Mitchell, Ingles, Rubio, Gobert, Favors, Burks, AND Exum -- plus a masterful defensive performance on Harden, taking him out of the game. They went right at the Rockets and played a gritty, hard-nosed game, getting to the line 30 times and stealing Game 2 on Houston's home floor.

If the Rockets expect anything less than Salt Lake City and the Utah Jazz to bring their best performance in Game 3, they're in for a rude awakening. The Jazz are for real, and they're here to stay.

[ronyell]

[Reed1417]

May 3rd, 2018

Greg Popovich on Spurs play in win: “We played fantastic. Now we've gotta keep at it. This isn't over”.

Joel Embiid relaxes the Philly fans: “We had a bad night, but it happens. I've said it before and I'll say it again. No need to worry....just trust the process we got this”.

Stephen A. Smith fires back at Max Kellerman on Cavs situation: “Max you mean to tell me that you think the Cavaliers WITHOUT LEBRON can beat these Raptors in this series and it's good for the future of this team? No no my friend. I'm a fan of this team, but I have to be realistic.”

[ronyell]

[ronyell]

[bryan3169]

May 4th, 2018

Shannon Sharpe on faith of the Cavaliers: "Not a soul on this planet would have begun to think that without LeBron James, that the Cavs had an ice cube chance in hell to go up in this series against the Raptors. Kevin Love has stepped up in a way that he has never stepped up in Cleveland. Mr. Love put his big boy drawers on, Skip. 12-18 6-10 from behind the arc, he has taken charge that LeBron and the brass up stairs has wanted since Kyrie packed for Boston. Toronto has been confused from jump with this new free flowing offense that Cleveland has put to the court, and Rodney Hood has stepped up to be the new Robin to Love's temporary Batman. Hood in both wins has gone over 20 points. The Cavs might have enough they can do this Skip!"

Nick Wright on the Jazz team ball play: "The Jazz realistically have stayed relevant by sticking to the basis of basketball. Team play. In a league full of superstars, this team has stuck to the basis of fundamental basketball. Team defense on the perimeter and clogging the paint has kept them in the hunt with the Rockets after these last two games. Donovan Mitchell is the only real offensive threat on that team, Ingles and Gobert's performance depends on the flow of the offense. This team in a two point loss caused 21 turnovers, the last two games this Jazz defense has made the Rockets' unreal offense look rather human.

James Harden on team effort: "We know how we operate and sometimes we get caught up in how good we feel we are, we gotta be more discipline. Gotta take care of the ball better, take better shots. 40 missed shots 21 turnovers has gotta sharpen up to move further on in the playoffs."

Skip Bayless on the Toronto: "The Raptors have gotten lazy, Kyle Lowry does his best disappearing act as he always does in the Finals against a team with LeBron on it even if he isn't on the floor. 8 shots taken? I thought he was a contributing factor. He didn't have much of a problem staking his claim against Beal and Wall in the 1st round, where has he been against Rodney Hood and George Hill? Non existent! You know how many teams like Philadelphia would have loved to been gifted a non LeBron playoff matchup? Dwayne Casey said it best his team has lost their way and they aren't too far off of costing him his job quite frankly!"

[AdamJones113]

Adam Jones

May 4, 2018

The Case For... Minnesota Love

Where have I seen this guy before? Such is the question nagging at those watching the ongoing second-round series between the fourth-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers and the first-seeded Toronto Raptors. On the surface, it is unsurprising that the Cavs, Eastern Conference champions the past three seasons, are up a game. Yet just below the surface, of course, it is incredibly surprising that the Cavs are ahead so far into the series, since King James is injured and out.

There are a number of reasons for the Raptors' deficit. But there is one key reason for the Cavaliers' lead. Its origins are Minnesota, its catalyst is Andrew Wiggins, and its name is Kevin Love.

Love, incredibly, has found his Minnesota self. The big man earned three All-Star nods there, averaging 24 points and just under 14 rebounds per game in those years (broken only by an injury-plagued eighteen game campaign). In these three games, Love has 32 points and 12 rebounds per game. In the regular season, he averaged under 18 points and a little over 9 rebounds.

There are a number of reasons for Love's renaissance. The first is the simple fact that he is the #1 option for the Cavs, now that LeBron is out. That is straightforward—Love is the Cavs' second-best player and their second-most versatile scoring option, both of which of course become #1 rankings when LeBron is out. Thus he gets the ball more—where he took 12.5 shots per game in the regular season, he's taken 18 per game this series, a number right in line with his Minnesota days, where in his three all-star season he averaged just under... 18 shots per game.

The second reason is that Love is back to playing PF full time now—the Cavs are simply smaller with LeBron out, and so they need to play centers, especially against a relatively ancient plodder in Jonas Valanciunas. Tristan Thompson has played 29 minutes each game, a drastic increase from the regular season. Love is back at power forward, and he's just simply better than Serge Ibaka. Ibaka's post defense is neutralized by Love's range, and Ibaka isn't such a rangy, stretch 4 that Love has trouble defending him on the perimeter.

But the truly amazing this is that Love has managed to recover his Minnesota form at all. Consider the fact that history is 100% against him. Chris Bosh, on James' Miami Heat teams, was a similarly ball-dominant first option (on the Raptors) who was forced to change play styles to accommodate two ball-dominant scorers. Bosh became a three-point shooter and rebounder. But when James left, Bosh was unable to revert to his star form. In Cleveland, too, Love struggled with James simply off the floor—even when he shared time with Kyrie Irving.

But Love has managed to do it. He's 16-29—over 50%—from beyond the arc in the three games thus far. His Herculean game three effort—37 points, 18 rebounds—propelled the Cavaliers to a win on its own. Kevin Love from the Timberwolves has returned, and—while Cleveland isn't out of the woods yet, by any means—he might just be saving the Cavs' season.

[ronyell]