2015 NBA Playoffs

[bukie]

This is the first time since the first round went to best-of-seven that five first round series have gone 3-0. In 1989, five series went 3-0, and those were sweeps since the first round was best-of-five.

 

Total first round games played each year since 2003:

 

2003:32+17=49 (0 4G,1 5G,5 6G,2 7G)
2004:32+07=39 (3 4G,4 5G,0 6G,1 7G)
2005:32+11=43 (2 4G,3 5G,1 6G,2 7G)
2006:32+13=45 (1 4G,2 5G,4 6G,1 7G)
2007:32+09=41 (3 4G,2 5G,2 6G,1 7G)
2008:32+12=44 (1 4G,3 5G,3 6G,1 7G)
2009:32+13=45 (1 4G,3 5G,2 6G,2 7G)
2010:32+13=45 (1 4G,2 5G,4 6G,1 7G)
2011:32+11=43 (1 4G,3 5G,4 6G,0 7G)
2012:32+14=46 (2 4G,2 5G,2 6G,2 7G)
2013:32+16=48 (2 4G,0 5G,5 6G,2 7G)
2014:32+18=50 (1 4G,1 5G,1 6G,5 7G)

[SouthSideRyan]

Woj says Donovan to Thunder is done.

[Banedon]

Woj says Donovan to Thunder is done.

 

College basketball coaches moving to the NBA always works out awesome.

[Derwood]

Wow , what a fourth quarter in that Spurs/Clips game

[Guest]

Oh good, they're hacking DeAndre in the first quarter. Just what everyone wanted to see.

[ChiCubsFan]

They absolutely need to change the rules to eliminate this. This game is/was unwatchable.

[Cubswin11]

Eh, just get better at free throws. He just needs to get from abysmal to simply bad (55-60%) and teams wouldn't do this. I'm fine with the strategy when teams do it.

[Guest]

I have to say, I kinda agree with just forcing people to be at least poor at free throws. If you can shoot above 50% it doesn't make strategic sense anymore. That just isn't a very high bar. Take an offseason and literally shoot a million free throws.

[Cubswin11]

And we're talking what, 5 guys at most in the league that teams do this on and they don't even do it regularly?

[Guest]

Or they can call it for what it actually is - an intentional foul.

[Guest]

Or they can call it for what it actually is - an intentional foul.

Or he can hit enough of them that they won't do it again the next game.

[Guest]

I have to say, I kinda agree with just forcing people to be at least poor at free throws. If you can shoot above 50% it doesn't make strategic sense anymore. That just isn't a very high bar. Take an offseason and literally shoot a million free throws.

 

Take an offseason and just do a bunch of batting practice. Then pitchers will be able to hit and we won't have to worry about the DH. I'm aware that there are only a few guys this happens to and almost all pitchers can't hit but pitchers also only take 2-3 PAs per game whereas DeAndre Jordan took 34 free throws last game. It makes it unwatchable. Pitchers hitting is only slightly irritating. Anyone who says they won't watch an NL game because pitchers hit probably isn't much of a fan of baseball in the first place.

 

It's a loophole that teams have exploited recently that is very easily fixable in a number of different ways. Just fix it and be done with it.

[Cubswin11]

I have to say, I kinda agree with just forcing people to be at least poor at free throws. If you can shoot above 50% it doesn't make strategic sense anymore. That just isn't a very high bar. Take an offseason and literally shoot a million free throws.

 

Take an offseason and just do a bunch of batting practice. Then pitchers will be able to hit and we won't have to worry about the DH. I'm aware that there are only a few guys this happens to and almost all pitchers can't hit but pitchers also only take 2-3 PAs per game whereas DeAndre Jordan took 34 free throws last game. It makes it unwatchable. Pitchers hitting is only slightly irritating. Anyone who says they won't watch an NL game because pitchers hit probably isn't much of a fan of baseball in the first place.

 

It's a loophole that teams have exploited recently that is very easily fixable in a number of different ways. Just fix it and be done with it.

It shouldn't be that hard for a NBA player to become a ~50% FT shooter if they put in the time/practice, it's far different and easier for a player to get better at than the pitcher hitting thing

[Guest]

I have to say, I kinda agree with just forcing people to be at least poor at free throws. If you can shoot above 50% it doesn't make strategic sense anymore. That just isn't a very high bar. Take an offseason and literally shoot a million free throws.

 

Take an offseason and just do a bunch of batting practice. Then pitchers will be able to hit and we won't have to worry about the DH. I'm aware that there are only a few guys this happens to and almost all pitchers can't hit but pitchers also only take 2-3 PAs per game whereas DeAndre Jordan took 34 free throws last game. It makes it unwatchable. Pitchers hitting is only slightly irritating. Anyone who says they won't watch an NL game because pitchers hit probably isn't much of a fan of baseball in the first place.

 

It's a loophole that teams have exploited recently that is very easily fixable in a number of different ways. Just fix it and be done with it.

That's quite a false equivalency there.

[Guest]

I have to say, I kinda agree with just forcing people to be at least poor at free throws. If you can shoot above 50% it doesn't make strategic sense anymore. That just isn't a very high bar. Take an offseason and literally shoot a million free throws.

 

Take an offseason and just do a bunch of batting practice. Then pitchers will be able to hit and we won't have to worry about the DH. I'm aware that there are only a few guys this happens to and almost all pitchers can't hit but pitchers also only take 2-3 PAs per game whereas DeAndre Jordan took 34 free throws last game. It makes it unwatchable. Pitchers hitting is only slightly irritating. Anyone who says they won't watch an NL game because pitchers hit probably isn't much of a fan of baseball in the first place.

 

It's a loophole that teams have exploited recently that is very easily fixable in a number of different ways. Just fix it and be done with it.

It shouldn't be that hard for a NBA player to become a ~50% FT shooter if they put in the time/practice, it's far different and easier for a player to get better at than the pitcher hitting thing

 

So DeAndre Jordan, Shaq, Dwight, etc. don't practice free throws at all? Do you think they're willingly just shooting 50% from the line and think that's good enough?

[Cubswin11]

I have to say, I kinda agree with just forcing people to be at least poor at free throws. If you can shoot above 50% it doesn't make strategic sense anymore. That just isn't a very high bar. Take an offseason and literally shoot a million free throws.

 

Take an offseason and just do a bunch of batting practice. Then pitchers will be able to hit and we won't have to worry about the DH. I'm aware that there are only a few guys this happens to and almost all pitchers can't hit but pitchers also only take 2-3 PAs per game whereas DeAndre Jordan took 34 free throws last game. It makes it unwatchable. Pitchers hitting is only slightly irritating. Anyone who says they won't watch an NL game because pitchers hit probably isn't much of a fan of baseball in the first place.

 

It's a loophole that teams have exploited recently that is very easily fixable in a number of different ways. Just fix it and be done with it.

It shouldn't be that hard for a NBA player to become a ~50% FT shooter if they put in the time/practice, it's far different and easier for a player to get better at than the pitcher hitting thing

 

So DeAndre Jordan, Shaq, Dwight, etc. don't practice free throws at all? Do you think they're willingly just shooting 50% from the line and think that's good enough?

In all honesty, yes. I don't think they put much time into it or seek out the proper shooting coaches, etc. to help. Maybe I'm wrong and they have, but I've never heard of DeAndre or Dwight hiring a shooting coach or changing their technique from the FT line.

 

Also, I'm a little to young to remember all of Shaq's career. But didn't he kind of willingly embrace the whole bad FT shooter thing and it was just kinda his thing/a joke?

[sneakypower]

Several years ago, when questioned about his free-throw percentage, Shaq said, "I make them when they count."

http://www.nba.com/2009/news/features/john_schuhmann/10/29/numbers.game/

[Sammy Sofa]

The weird thing about DeAndre Jordan is that he DID get better at shooting from the line. His first two season he was a little worse than he is now, but then stepped up as a .452 shooter in '10-'11 and then up to .525 the next season.

[SpongeWorthy]

Practicing free throw shooting does work for the most part. The fact that we only talk about huge, athletic specimens like DeAndre Jordan, Shaq, Howard, etc. is proof of that. Anyone else besides a freak of nature would have been screened out from the league if they couldn't hit a wide open standstill shot from 15 feet at a reasonable clip (aside from 7 foot, end of bench stiffs like Chris Dudley).

[JeffH]

What's your idea of a "reasonable clip"?

[Splendid Splinter]

I would like you guys to shoot FTs with the hands those guys have. It's not easy with giant, fat hands. It's also why none of those guys can shoot outside of 5 ft from the basket. If anything, the person that everyone should be on is LeBron when it comes to FT %. There's absolutely no reason for him to not shoot 80%.

[SouthSideRyan]

I mean they had 25 minutes of game time where Joey Dorsey, Clint Capela, or Kostas Papanikolau were out there. It's not like they were intentional walks.

[SouthSideRyan]

I would like you guys to shoot FTs with the hands those guys have. It's not easy with giant, fat hands. It's also why none of those guys can shoot outside of 5 ft from the basket. If anything, the person that everyone should be on is LeBron when it comes to FT %. There's absolutely no reason for him to not shoot 80%.

 

Why?

[Guest]

If a guy is that bad at free throws, they need to change what they are doing. To be that bad and continue shooting the same way is not going to alter the results much, especially if you aren't practicing them. But, has anyone ever been extremely bad and made a tremendous improvement over time?

[Sammy Sofa]

If a guy is that bad at free throws, they need to change what they are doing. To be that bad and continue shooting the same way is not going to alter the results much, especially if you aren't practicing them. But, has anyone ever been extremely bad and made a tremendous improvement over time?

 

DeAndre Jordan. Then he got bad again.