Lakers are a mediocre, horribly coached team
Care to elaborate? How are they horribly coached? Mike Brown is a damn good defensive coach, he has them playing some great team D (currently tied w/ Philly in Opp FG% @ 41) and they are 5th in Opp pts/G, allowing 91 total points... which is pretty amazing considering the current roster and how they rarely play any defense on the road. Look up their home vs road defensive numbers, they are an elite defensive team when they want to be, and that will always keep them in playoff games.
Are you saying he is to blame for their struggles on offense? Look at the freaking roster man. There's a HUGE dropoff in talent after the big 3 (Kobe/Gasol/Drew). We are handicapped at the 1 and the 3 ppositions and have no bench. Matt Barnes is arguably our 4th best player! Now MB's sets aren't the most innovative, but they are good enough and the Lakers get good shots when they actually bother to move the ball, set solid screens, etc. And no offensive system in the world will look good if players can't hit WIDE FREAKING OPEN SHOTS. Mike Brown is not the reason they're the worst 3 point shooting team in the league and have zero offensive spacing. (spacing was a huge issue even under Phil Jackson's triangle offense). The offense would look so much better if we had a starting PG and SF that belonged in this league. They are practically playing 3 on 5 out there.
My only real gripe with Brown is that he overplays Kobe a bit and his rotations confuse me at times. Other than that, I think he has done a great job consideringthe circumstances.
I really want to see what Kobe will do if/when the Lakers either a) stop sucking so hard from downtown around him or b) force that to happen through a trade. The way he's balling right now with no spacing is nothing short of remarkable.
OKC is a terrifying team (almost as much as the heat), but it seems like every other win I see from them depends on Late Game Heroics. They will probably come out of the west, barring a surprise from the Spurs or Mavs(probably not but a guy can dream), but will lose to the Heat or the Motherfucking Chicago Bulls.
I think everyone is overrating OKC, I don't think they're near Miami's level. They are neither an elite defensive team, nor an elite offensive team (yeah they put up a ton of points in the regular season with their transition game, but what happens when the game slows down in the playoffs? They have no halfcourt offense). They rely too much on their perimeter scoring. They need someone who can get them easy buckets in the post. Ibaka and Perkins are not those guys. We'll see how far their talent carries them this year.
those three "world class, potential HoFers" looked very average last year against an old Mavericks team. actually, in that highly entertaining NBA Finals match-up last year, the only one out of those three who looked potentially world class, was Chris Bosh. and that in and of itself is hilarious
Wade had a monster Finals series, dude. I do think the Bulls have a shot at taking them down though. I think in order to beat Miami, you need three things.
1. Size in the paint
2. Depth to wear the Big 3 out; and
3. Enough quickness that both Wade & LeBron have to go around chasing people.
With Asik healthy, the Bulls have #1 covered between him and Noah. They definitely have the depth, if healthy.
What the Bulls might lack, and here Rip and some evolution from Watson will be key, is guys that will force both Wade & Lebron to exert a lot of effort running around on defense. It's still too easy to key in on Rose, and Deng if he's not moving doesn't require too much energy to defend. Boozer's interior passing and having a good series overall will also be key, and some nice minutes from Taj.
Oh and there are very few SGs in this league that can frustrate Wade, and Rip is one of them.