Going into the playoffs I was fairly sure, large, for me, wager on it in fact, that Denver would win the whole thing. Part of that was down to how well they matchup with Boston, there’s no way you’re convincing me Tatum is executing in the clutch against that team. I remain very confident that Boston can’t beat Denver, I am decidedly less confident that Denver makes it out of the West. OKC and Minny are here, ready, and as good anyone else in the league. Couple very athletic road blocks in the way
It still is astonishing to me that Lebron not only met the expectations set on him when he was 16 years old or younger, he exceeded them and he did it without so much of a blemish off the court (unless you count shitty movies) You cant say that about other GOATs like MJ (getting his father killed or being a serial adulterer) or Kobe (Colorado rape incident)
Shit like this is where that algorithm shit needs to get thrown into the bushes. There is no universe in which Boston should have a 42% chance to win the fucking title and Boston a team who lost at the fucking garden to a Jimmy Butlerless Miami vs the 14% chance they give Denver who's clearly a better team IMO
Kind of a tangent but Connelly getting credit/blame for drafting and trading Gobert happens a lot and it always annoys me. It was literally just a draft day trade of the pick. Utah drafted Gobert. Don't know why the NBA insists on not just reporting those as pick trades and crediting the appropriate team with making the draft pick.
I think I just don’t view any of the other west teams except for Minnesota to be actually capable of beating Denver and even then no offense LuPoor
Apparently I'm going to be among the last TMBers on the Minny bandwagon. Ant is fun and they're an interesting match-up with Denver. But I'm going to go ahead and wait to see how they play in crunch time of some of these playoff games before thinking they're on this level. Denver/Minny in the last 3-4 minutes of a close game feels like the same kind of mismatch GS/Boston proved to be a few years ago.
If I think the Lakers would have dumpstered OKC, surely you don't think I'd take offense at thinking Denver would beat OKC in a series
There is minor blame for selling off 1st rounders for for meaningless 2nds and cash, but all teams do it for cap reasons. Definitely unfair to give him credit for the scouting or say "Wow, he traded Rudy Gobert for nothing" It's not like he traded Luka Doncic for Trae Young knowingly
He did technically draft and trade Gobert, draft day trades are not official, until the new fiscal year begins for the NBA.
They and OKC are in the same “prove it” group for me. Both have defenders to give Denver problems but what do their offenses look like in close games of a series against good coaching will be interesting.
This is what it comes down to for me. Denver seemingly just sharpens in the clutch specifically jokic and Murray. We have no idea what Ant and Kat or SGA and Chet are gonna look like late in the playoffs in the later rounds when these games get really tight not really worried so much about Ant and SGA as much as I am about Chet (rookie) and Kat (we all have seen his movies enough to know not to trust him)
I kind of view OKC differently because I haven't watched the Thunder look like the dumbest motherfuckers in the league in the playoffs the last couple years like Minny has. And maybe that's not fair because OKC hasn't been in situations to showcase that level of stupid in recent years, but that's where I'm at.
Imo OKC plays much smarter than their collective experience, but there simply is no answer for Jokic on that roster. All we could hope for is to let Jokic go for 40+ while you clamp the perimeter players (I think we can) and turn the game into a track meet and hope to run them out of the gym (problematic at altitude). We went 3-1 against them but I think we were maxing out every night, and I doubt they ever gave 100% in a single regular season game.
I forget who our primary #Minnesota Timberwolves fan itt is but I do recall him repeatedly calling them the dumbest motherfuckers in the league during the current season…so it’s probably safe to say that’s not entirely behind them.
wolves definitely got less dumb this year, especially after that charlotte debacle (finch embarrassing them in the press conference after that game was probably pretty eye opening) it can still pop up on passes and kat offensive fouls, but its not nearly as detrimental to winning as it was two years ago against memphis helps that dlo and pat bev are gone
By right developmental system we mean him fully recovering from his health issue and improving in college right?
Team doctors were hopeful for "some games" but after swelling increased they bumped it to "many of them"
Thought it was Joey but I also always lump him in with Heat fans because I think he’s a state of Florida cfb fan - though I don’t remember who.
I dont love the games on streaming trend, but Peacock has been decent on the occasions I've watched games on there