NBA 2015 Playoffs Thread

Three lottery picks since 2004 have won titles:
Adam Morrison
Corey Brewer
Andrew Bynum

I mean wtf.

At least Andrew Bynum was a legit All-Star talent when he wanted to be. But yeah, that's pretty crazy. Old school reigns supreme.

If the Cavs win, Kyrie will join the list. Same with Tristan Thompson taken at number 4 in the first round in the same class as Kyrie. Not sure if you meant number 1 picks or picks in general.

I was about to say duh Kawhi... he was the first pick out of the lottery though, which is amazing to me. I wanted the Warriors to pick him at 11 that year and it looked like he might get taken before that. We picked Klay (can't be too upset about that), but then Burks and the Morris twins rounded out the lottery before Kawhi was picked.

Love that 2pac commercial with Rose. Badass

Curry is just too good.

Good game here. Wish Gordon had been able to carry over his success from the first half. He was really good his first three years but I never would have expected him to matter again after seeing him this year.

I was impressed with how quickly GS just flipped the switch and took the lead in that 2nd quarter. That is a scary looking team right now.

That's pretty typical of GS this season. No lead unless it's 30+ seems insurmountable. The defense leads to offense. Make a few stops and get in transition. It seems those always come in spurts. Two blocks, a steal, and a missed bucket and W's convert them all to points and suddenly they've dropped 10 points in about a minute.

Anthony Davis is ridiculous.

I want to change my pick and go with Bulls in the east. If rose can play at a high level they will be tough

Angelwatch_sl said:

If the Cavs win, Kyrie will join the list. Same with Tristan Thompson taken at number 4 in the first round in the same class as Kyrie. Not sure if you meant number 1 picks or picks in general.

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Interesting way to look at it as I hadn't considered that. In truth, the Cavs have six (6) lottery picks on the roster:
LeBron James (1)
Kyrie Irving (1)
Kevin Love
Tristan Thompson
Shawn Marion
Mike Miller

Not all were drafted by the Cavs of course but I had never considered how lottery picks usually have done in the years that followed.

I became more curious about this so I looked into it a bit more. In comparison, here are a few other playoff teams:

(7) Golden State:
Harrison Barnes
Andrew Bogut (1)
Stephen Curry
Andre Iguodala
Shaun Livingston
Brandon Rush
Klay Thompson

(1) San Antonio Spurs (this is amazing):
Tim Duncan (1)

(7) L.A. Clippers:
Jamal Crawford
Blake Griffon (1)
Spencer Hawes
Chris Paul
J.J. Redick
Austin Rivers
Ekpe Udoh

(5) Toronto Raptors:
DeMar DeRozan
Tyler Hansbrough
Patrick Patterson
Terrence Ross
Jonas Valanciunas

(3) Memphis Grizzlies:
Vince Carter
Mike Conley
Jeff Green

(3) Boston Celtics:
Kelly Olynyk
Marcus Smart
Evan Turner

(5) Milwaukee Bucks:
Jerryd Bayless
Michael Carter-Williams
John Henson
O.J. Mayo
Jabari Parker

(4) New Orleans Pelicans:
Anthony Davis (1)
Tyreke Davis
Jimmer Fredette
Eric Gordon

(4) Houston Rockets:
Corey Brewer
James Harden
Dwight Howard (1)
Jason Terry

(4) Brooklyn Nets:
Earl Clark
Joe Johnson
Brook Lopez
Deron Williams
Thaddeus Young

(5) Portland Trailblazers:
LaMarcus Aldridge
Chris Kaman
Meyers Leonard
Damian Lillard
C.J. McCollum

Did the Wiz just 2-0 the Raptors in Toronto?

Gilgamel_sl said:

Edit: If Josh Smith isn't playing in Turkey next year he has incriminating evidence on someone. He is worthless as a basketball player.

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Meanwhile, Josh Smith is dominating!

Something like 7-8 assists by Smith in the 4th quarter. Smith has some big flaws but he's definitely not at the point of not belonging in the NBA.

Another poor performance by Harden, incidentally.

Every series that's two games deep has one team up 2-0!