The NBA is fun again
I haven’t had this much fun watching NBA games since the 2005–2007 stretch, when:
- the Spurs-Mavs met in a conference semis that was worthy of a Finals
- the 2nd-seeded Suns beat the 7th-seeded Lakers
- the best player on the planet stopped winning MVPs (Timmy)
- there were at least five different teams that could have won the title
- a young superstar looked like he had a chance to be the GOAT (LeBron)
It’s 2021 and —
- the Bucks and Nets just finished a 7-game series in the East semis that was worthy of a Finals
- the 2nd-seeded Suns beat the 7th-seeded Lakers
- the best player on the planet hasn’t won an MVP since 2014 (KD)
- there were at least five different teams that could have won the title
- a young superstar looks like he has a shot at being the GOAT (Luka)
A decade ago, I thought I reached the point when I could no longer watch a full 48-minute game. Sometimes, I’d just tune in for the 4th quarter. At one point, I skipped the playoffs altogether. (For the record, I also didn’t watch the bubble tournament aka glorified pick-up championships. That wasn’t real NBA basketball. No, this isn’t a hot take; just keepin’ it real.)
I’m an equal opportunity kind of guy, and I hate players rigging the system by forming superteams. Through injuries and age, everything sort of evened out this year. Combined with working from home and unlimited live streams, I was hooked again for the first time in almost a decade and a half. Of course, it helped that I maintained a perfect bracket until today, when Doc Rivers and Ben Simmons busted it.
Some people love superteams because it’s good for business. I don’t care about that BS. I rarely watch All-Star games because I’d rather watch superstars beat the crap out of each other — as KD and Giannis just did — than play together and gang up on semi-stars (sorry, Horford, Korver, Millsap, Teague, Derozan, and Lowry). That’s what “sports” mean to me. Thankfully, most of my friends feel the same way. So it’s a win for us. It’s a win for basketball, the sport.
I’ve enjoyed shooting the bull so much this playoffs that I just have to give everyone my twopence:
1. Trae should be “The Supervillain”
He anointed himself as the next Knicks villain and he backed it up. Forget Ice Trae. Trae is The Supervillain. It just lends itself.
Buck in 4.
2. Blown leads
My rule on blown leads: “Happen once, players’ fault; happen twice, all on the coach.”
And can someone tell Kenny to stop calling Doc a “great coach”? FFS.
3. Best player on the planet
When healthy, KD has been the best player on the planet for the past five years. He outplayed LeBron in the 2017 Finals. He was so good in 2018 that he was toying with his food and even trying to serve the Finals MVP to Steph on a silver platter. Obviously, he was injured in the 2019 Playoffs and missed 2020. He came back from his Achilles injury and was one inch away from being in the conference finals despite the injuries to Irving and Harden.
To complete the picture:
- 2019 belonged to Kawhi after the phenomenal run that was almost Jordanesque. Almost.
- AD was the best player in 2020* as the Lakers’ Markieff Morris said so himself.
The only thing I hate more than analysts calling Doc Rivers a great coach? Analysts saying that LeBron was the best player in the world after 2016. He was not. He didn’t deserve any more MVPs than what he has. And he’s no longer one of the five best players today. Book it. I was thisclose to proclaiming that Andrew Wiggins is better than LeBron during the play-in game. Damn Draymond trying to make passes as if he was CP3.
Circling back, remember all that talk about having broad shoulders? Guess whose shoulders are broader? Slim Reaper’s.
4. Injuries are part of the game
All these complaints about injuries — guess who was particularly vocal about it? — are simply misguided.
First, if there is any blame to lay, it should be on the bubble which extended last year’s season to October. The bubble is not the real NBA. Half the players didn’t want to be in it. Eight teams weren’t even in it. No fans. No pressure. No travel. All the talk about how it was supposedly more difficult because players couldn’t be with their families is just narrative fodder by the LeKlutch Propaganda Ministry. You’ve got FaceTime and Messenger to compensate. It’s no big deal.
What I know is that no way the Nuggets would’ve come back from 3–1 down TWICE, needing road wins on both occasions. No way Kuzma would’ve hit a game-winner in a real NBA game. Anyway, if the complaint is the short offseason, the bubble is the culprit.
Second, top players go through shorter offseasons every other year with the Olympics and the World Championships. This is nothing new.
Finally, and more conclusively, the stats just don’t support it. It’s observation bias. Just because stars like Kawhi and Kyrie got injured doesn’t necessarily mean that, on the average, there are more injuries this year. Read this.
As an aside, I thought I was going to lose a bet after CP3’s shoulder stinger in the first round. Thank God.
5. Early offseason
After painfully watching Ben Simmons’ confidence level reduced to zero — and my bracket busted, plus the chances of seeing a Giannis-Simmons free throw shooting contest evaporate — I just don’t see how the Sixers run it back with Embiid and Simmons. The Process Era is officially over.
I don’t know what value Ben Simmons can still fetch (it’s fair to assume it will be 60 cents on the dollar), but I have a pet hypothetical trade: Simmons for Jamal Murray. It benefits both teams — Denver sucked at defense, Sixers needed a shotmaker. I guess it depends on how the Nuggets project MPJ. I’m high on him being Denver’s number 2 guy, though the back injury he suffered against the Suns— the same injury that caused him to slip out of the top 5 in the 2018 lottery— may be cause for concern.
Now, for something more outrageous: Jazz need to find a way to bring Lillard in with Mitchell. Gut the roster if you have to. I need to see Dame and Spida play together. They’re gonna out-splash the Splash Brothers. I don’t know if that pair can win a title or even reach the Finals (I wouldn’t bet on it), but it’s gonna be fascinating to watch them try. In my head, at least.
There are a number of coaching vacancies for next season, but none should be more enticing than Dallas, with the chance to coach a generational talent. (No matter what Supervillain Trae does in his career, that draft day deal will be considered a daylight robbery.) I’ve been campaigning for Dallas to part ways with Carlisle, and Carlisle apparently heard me. Don’t get me wrong, I think he’s an excellent coach, but zero playoff series wins since the 2011 title means it’s time to move on. That’s basically out-Docking Doc. And you know what? Great players often need coaching changes to reach their full potential — that’s why Doug Collins had to go. Del Harris had to go. Mike Brown had to go. Mark Jackson had to go. Only possible exception is Pop, but he was just into his first full year as a coach when Spurs drafted Duncan.
6. Finals prediction
Bucks-Suns. Suns in six.
Bucks lost the title in November when they traded for Jrue instead of CP3. CP3 wanted to go to the Bucks. But Bucks management overthought it. They needed someone like CP3 to close games but were too concerned about his age. Well, CP3’s MVP-level campaign at age-36 proved that the concern was unfounded. Occam’s razor, yo! You can bet that CP3 remembers this well when he faces the Bucks.
