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Post by tj on Apr 13, 2018 13:16:23 GMT -5
thisiswhyweplay.nba.com/playoff-officials/Quite a few changes this year. The total number (36) is down one from the 37-man roster last year. Additions from last year: 23-Phillips and 59-Zielinski return from injuries last year. 28-Scott (alternate last year), 34-Cutler and 77-Lane get first-time assignments. Out: 13-McCutchen (promoted to supervisor), 18-Boland, 20-L. Richardson, 38-Smith, 40-Wood and 43-D. Crawford (retired). Alternates: 3-Buchert and 32-Kogut were alternates last year. 21-D. Taylor, 39-Ford and 73-Maddox are alternates for the first time. More importantly, there will be two "new" referees in the Finals this year with McCutchen and Crawford off the floor.
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Post by russ on Apr 13, 2018 13:35:01 GMT -5
Congrats to Scott, Cutler, and Lane on their first on court playoff appearances. Interestingly Cutler and Lane have never been alternates for the playoffs and are going straight to the court. That is not the usual protocol.
First time Michael Smith has missed the playoffs since 2003. You could definitely see him on the downwards as he no longer is an acting CC and has only worked the First Round the last 3 years of the playoffs after working Conference Finals in 2010 and 2011. I wouldn't be surprised to see him retire soon as he is 63 years old. The other 3 out aren't too surpsising, Wood has not been a consistent playoff performer the last 5 years and Richardson and Boland were first round only last season.
I am really inetrested to see who the 8 CC's are for the first round. With 2 of the top 3 retiring there are goign to be a lot of new faces at CC in each round.
My CC Guesses: (In parentheses is the round they will last be a CC in) Foster (Finals) Callahan (Finals) Mauer (Finals) Davis (Finals) Stafford (Conference Finals) Capers (Second Round) Malloy (First Round) Zarba (First Round)
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Post by tj on Apr 15, 2018 15:49:34 GMT -5
"Spot-on" on the crew chiefs. So I presume those eight are in the Finals. I think Phillips, Brothers and Goble are good bets as well. In my opinion it's between Wright, Washington and Kennedy for the last spot.
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Post by impz45 on Apr 16, 2018 11:00:54 GMT -5
My guess is Sean Wright get's the spot as league generally will incorporate "youth" into the finals upon a veteran retirement. Last year was John Goble.
An under the radar candidate would be Bill Spooner getting his first Finals assignment.
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Post by russ on Apr 16, 2018 11:16:25 GMT -5
My guess is Sean Wright get's the spot as league generally will incorporate "youth" into the finals upon a veteran retirement. Last year was John Goble. An under the radar candidate would be Bill Spooner getting his first Finals assignment. I don't see Spooner getting it, he hasn't even worked the Conference Finals the last 2 years. If it is someone new besides Wright it would probably be either Fitzgerald, Guthrie, or Fraher.
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Post by russ on Apr 16, 2018 11:30:06 GMT -5
Specifics from the first round Games Number of games at each position in parenthesis.
CC's: Scott Foster (6) Derrick Stafford (6) Marc Davis (6) James Capers (6) Mike Callahan (6) Ken Mauer (5) Zach Zarba (5) Ed Malloy (5)
2 spot: Tony Brothers (5) John Goble (5) Tom Washington (4) *Jason Phillips (4) Bill Kennedy (4) Sean Wright (3) Kane Fitzgerald (3) David Guthrie (3) Pat Fraher (3) Eric Lewis (3) James Williams (3) Derrick Collins (2) Zach Zarba (1) Ron Garretson (1) Sean Corbin (1)
3 spot: Josh Tiven (5) **Bill Spooner (3) Brian Forte (3) Tony Brown (3) Mark Ayotte (3) **Kane Fitzgerald (2) Ron Garretson (2) Sean Corbin (2) Rodney Mott (2) Eric Lewis (2) Bennie Adams (2) Courtney Kirkland (2) Gary Zielinski (2) Mark Lindsay (2) Brent Barnaky (2) **Jason Phillips (1) **Sean Wright (1) **David Guthrie (1) Pat Fraher (1) James Williams (1) ***Kevin Scott (1) ***Kevin Cutler (1) ***Karl Lane (1)
Alternates ****Nick Buchert (4) ****Marat Kogut (4) *****Tre Maddox (4) *****Dedric Taylor (4) *****Tyler Ford (4) Brent Barnaky (3) Kevin Scott (3) Karl Lane (3) Brian Forte (2) Bennie Adams (2) Tony Brown (2) Courtney Kirkland (2) Gary Zielinski (2) Mark Ayotte (2) Kevin Cutler (2) Derrick Collins (1) Mark Lindsay (1)
Replay Center Number in parenthesis is days spent in replay center Sean Wright (2) Sean Corbin (2) Derrick Collins (2) Tony Brown (2) Bennie Adams (2) Courtney Kirkland (2) Gary Zielinski (2) Kane Fitzgerald (1) Pat Fraher (1) Eric Lewis (1) Mark Ayotte (1) Mark Lindsay (1) Kevin Scott (1) Karl Lane (1)
Notes *Returning to the court after not working the Playoffs last season **The Officials in this group Were regular season CC's ***First Ever On-Court Playoff Appearance for this Official ****Has not appeared on the court yet *****First Time as an Alternate in the Playoffs
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Post by tj on Apr 17, 2018 9:24:40 GMT -5
As I've suggested before, I believe positions 2 and 3 are purely in alphabetical order and don't have any significance. Position 1 is clearly the crew chief. Case in point today's assignments where Goble and Wright just happen to fall in the #3 spot because of the alphabet.
Just my opinion.
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Post by russ on Apr 17, 2018 10:41:40 GMT -5
As I've suggested before, I believe positions 2 and 3 are purely in alphabetical order and don't have any significance. Position 1 is clearly the crew chief. Case in point today's assignments where Goble and Wright just happen to fall in the #3 spot because of the alphabet. Just my opinion. Yeah but that's not how I am figuring it out. I am not calling the 2 Official the 2 Official based on how it is listed on the website, I am listing the 2 Official as the second highest ranking member of the crew (ie, regular season CC). So in the case of today I will list Goble and Wright as the 2 Official even though the NBA website lists them as 3. If you look at yesterday for Spurs-Warriors it listed Barnaky as the 2 and Lewis as the 3 but I switched it since Lewis is clearly the higher ranking member (Lewis having worked several second round series over the years and Barnaky just 1 playoff game before Yesterday). In the end the numbers are fairly meaningless but it does help me predict who will move on each round.
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Post by wjl on Apr 17, 2018 11:50:15 GMT -5
Russ has been consistent with this procedure over the years, and has always done an outstanding job, and I appreciate it. In our local paper, they list the referees randomly. For example, Sunday it was listed as Phillips, Scott (the alt), Callahan and Forte.
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Post by tj888 on Apr 17, 2018 13:37:03 GMT -5
As I've suggested before, I believe positions 2 and 3 are purely in alphabetical order and don't have any significance. Position 1 is clearly the crew chief. Case in point today's assignments where Goble and Wright just happen to fall in the #3 spot because of the alphabet. Just my opinion. Yeah but that's not how I am figuring it out. I am not calling the 2 Official the 2 Official based on how it is listed on the website, I am listing the 2 Official as the second highest ranking member of the crew (ie, regular season CC). So in the case of today I will list Goble and Wright as the 2 Official even though the NBA website lists them as 3. If you look at yesterday for Spurs-Warriors it listed Barnaky as the 2 and Lewis as the 3 but I switched it since Lewis is clearly the higher ranking member (Lewis having worked several second round series over the years and Barnaky just 1 playoff game before Yesterday). In the end the numbers are fairly meaningless but it does help me predict who will move on each round. Yes, and I really appreciate the job done by Russ!
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Post by tj on Apr 17, 2018 15:53:19 GMT -5
As do I - no criticism intended by my post! I was merely commenting on the way the NBA posts its daily referees. I hadn't caught Russ' adjustments.
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Post by russ on Apr 17, 2018 16:19:45 GMT -5
As do I - no criticism intended by my post! I was merely commenting on the way the NBA posts its daily referees. I hadn't caught Russ' adjustments. No worries at all TJ. You have been a major help in these threads for many years and have been analyzing NBA and NHL Playoff Officials since before I started doing this set-up. I just enjoy sharing my Officiating passions with everybody else here.
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Post by tj on Apr 28, 2018 15:45:34 GMT -5
thisiswhyweplay.nba.com/conference-semifinals-officials/Second round features 28 officials (down from 30 last year). Out from the previous round are 11-Collins (alternate), 71-Mott (alternate), 28-Scott, 29-Lindsay, 34-Cutler, 36-Barnaky, 59-Zielinski and 77-Lane. Collins and Mott drop a level from last year and of course McCutchen and Crawford are retired. Jason Phillips returns (from injury last year) and 56-Mark Ayotte earns a promotion.
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Post by russ on Apr 29, 2018 0:05:27 GMT -5
Specifics from the second round Games Number of games at each position in parenthesis.
CC's: Mike Callahan (4) Scott Foster (3) Ken Mauer (3) Derrick Stafford (3) Marc Davis (3) James Capers (3)
2 spot: ****Zach Zarba (3) ****Ed Malloy (3) John Goble (3) Tony Brothers (2) *Jason Phillips (2) Bill Kennedy (2) Kane Fitzgerald (1) David Guthrie (1) Eric Lewis (1) Josh Tiven (1)
3 spot: ***Tom Washington (3) ***Sean Wright (2) Pat Fraher (2) James Williams (2) ***Bill Spooner (1) Ron Garretson (1) Sean Corbin (1) Eric Lewis (1) Brian Forte (1) Josh Tiven (1) Bennie Adams (1) Tony Brown (1) Courtney Kirkland (1) **Mark Ayotte (1)
Alternates: *****Rodney Mott (2) *****Derrick Collins (2) Brian Forte (2) Bennie Adams (2) Courtney Kirkland (2) Mark Ayotte (2) Tom Washington (1) Sean Wright (1) Bill Spooner (1) Ron Garretson (1) Sean Corbin (1) James Williams (1) Tony Brown (1)
Replay Center Number in parenthesis is days spent in replay center Brian Forte (2) James Williams (2) Bennie Adams (2) Tony Brothers (1) Tom Washington (1) Kane Fitzgerald (1) Bill Spooner (1) David Guthrie (1) Josh Tiven (1)
Notes *Returning to this Round after not working this Round last season **First Time on the Court for The Second Round ***The Official was a regular season CC's ****Was a CC in the First Round *****Has not appeared on the court yet this Round
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Post by wjl on May 11, 2018 12:36:29 GMT -5
Third round officials now available at thisiswhyweplay.nba.com.
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