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CA Dreamin

Gender: Male

Location: LA

The Mavericks front office claimed they were concerned about Luka Doncic's fitness level, and he was entering a max contract year. Ok, he looks a little overweight, which could be a injury concern later in his career, and I can see how Dallas didn't feel he was 'the guy' who would lead them to a championship, worthy to become the highest paid player in the sport. I get that part. But...why didn't the Mavericks shop him? That was the most mind-boggling part of the Doncic-AD trade. If Dallas wanted to trade Doncic, why didn't they publicly say so, in order to get the best return? He's worth much more than the Lakers gave in return. Other teams could have and would have given up much more. Why the Lakers? Why was it such a secret? Why was the return for Doncic comparatively small? The points in that Youtube video all make sense. A deep playoff Lakers run is good for business, especially if they met the Celtics in the Finals. The only thing left to wonder is what's in it for Dallas? The #1 pick in the draft. How do they get it? By the league instructing them to tank the rest of the season to get into the draft lottery, and then rig the lottery to give them the #1 pick. The Mavericks did their part. Dallas was looking like a 6-8 seed playoff team at the time of the trade, which would not have put them in the lottery. They went 8-17 over their last 25 games, putting them in the lottery. And now here we are. I'm sorry but there's no way anyone can say it's fair that a 39-43 team should be drafting before a 17-65 team, or any of the other crap teams who finished with 30 wins or less. Especially Dallas, who have good veteran presence with Klay Thompson, AD, and Kyrie Irving. When they add their #1 pick to their roster, they could become a dominant force real quick, while other teams are doomed to continue sucking. Screw the Mavericks and the Lakers (thank you Timberwolves). The circumstantial evidence of conspiracy is there, but we'll never know. But let's say it's all a coincidence. Let's say the Dallas GM is a huge dipshit, but then they lucked out in the lottery. That only shows A. they don't deserve to have a good team, and B. the draft lottery is bullshit. And if it was a conspiracy, that's worse because that means the Lakers, Mavericks, and the NBA are lining their pockets, while tipping the competitive balance in favor of those teams. Again, conspiracy or no conspiracy, screw the Lakers and Mavericks. I hope they both fail for years to come.

And the other team I like to see fail is, as you might have guessed coming from a Sixers fan, the Celtics. But ugh, that's just awful about Tatum. Don't want to see them win, but not like this. I feel bad for the guy. Hope he recovers and gets back on the court as soon as he can.

As for the current playoff picture, which looks so different than it did a week ago, I have to agree with AfterHours. I think the OKC-DEN winner likely wins the Finals. It's been a great series. Neck-and-neck tonight until OKC put it away in the final two minutes. Cleveland totally shit the bed. Were they not that good, or is Indiana better than we all gave them credit for?

Repo

BeA Sunflower

Location: Forest Park

CA Dreamin wrote:

And the other team I like to see fail is, as you might have guessed coming from a Sixers fan, the Celtics. But ugh, that's just awful about Tatum. Don't want to see them win, but not like this. I feel bad for the guy. Hope he recovers and gets back on the court as soon as he can.

As for the current playoff picture, which looks so different than it did a week ago, I have to agree with AfterHours. I think the OKC-DEN winner likely wins the Finals. It's been a great series. Neck-and-neck tonight until OKC put it away in the final two minutes. Cleveland totally shit the bed. Were they not that good, or is Indiana better than we all gave them credit for?

How do u feel about the Knicks? Based upon last years playoffs, that's an even more intense rivalry . Hard NOT to route for Brunson. That guy is just a gamer.

Pacers <& Haliburton> are WAY better than we give them credit for. They beat the Knicks in 7 just last year and played Boston tough in the ECF.

AfterHours

Gender: Male

Location: The Zone

We all probably think Jokic is having a very mixed, up and down, good and bad, series (or something like this). And we wouldn't necessarily be wrong, it has been up and down for him (though imo, his impact has been great even while he was statistically struggling efficiency-wise).

Yet his overall stat line for the OKC series only is: 30 PPG, 15 Reb, 5 Asts, 2 Stls, 1 Blk on 45% FG. Not too shabby. This would be an all time great series for almost any other player. You know you're among the all time greats when this is being considered perhaps your worst series of your MVP level seasons.
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CA Dreamin

Gender: Male

Location: LA

Repo wrote:

How do u feel about the Knicks? Based upon last years playoffs, that's an even more intense rivalry . Hard NOT to route for Brunson. That guy is just a gamer.

I'm not supposed to root for the Knicks either. But anyway, I disagree. Sixers-Knicks rivalry isn't nearly as intense as Sixers-Celtics. Whereas Boston has our number, beating us several times in the playoffs in my lifetime (and long before that for that matter), last year was the only time in my life we played the Knicks in the playoffs. The Knicks are also kind of sad. Their championship drought is now over 50 years. Plus their roster has several players who brought Philly a championship, Villanova's college basketball championships, led by the aforementioned Jalen Brunson. So I can't really dislike the current Knicks team. I'd be fine if they won the Finals, but realistically that's a long shot. They might not even finish off the Celtics, who are still a solid team without Tatum. And I wouldn't predict the Knicks over the Pacers in the ECF. Indiana is on a hot streak, and I def think we underestimated how deep and talented they are. They may not have a Top 10 player, but they have great team chemistry and they have great bench.

LedZep

I did not have any of this on my bingo card 😲 Man I love the playoffs. Incredibly sad to see Tatum go down like that. I'm not a Tatum stan or anything, but I do believe he's a very underrated player at times. Especially defensively. Hopefully he makes a full recovery, but I'm incredibly sad that this might be the last we see of truly peak Tatum. The best player on a championship team, the best defender in an all-time defensive 5-man lineup. And he was getting better every year. Sure, his bad shot selection irritated me, but man... It's just unfortunate.
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2020s

Repo

BeA Sunflower

Location: Forest Park

CA Dreamin wrote:

Repo wrote:

How do u feel about the Knicks? Based upon last years playoffs, that's an even more intense rivalry . Hard NOT to route for Brunson. That guy is just a gamer.

I'm not supposed to root for the Knicks either. But anyway, I disagree. Sixers-Knicks rivalry isn't nearly as intense as Sixers-Celtics. Whereas Boston has our number, beating us several times in the playoffs in my lifetime (and long before that for that matter), last year was the only time in my life we played the Knicks in the playoffs. The Knicks are also kind of sad. Their championship drought is now over 50 years. Plus their roster has several players who brought Philly a championship, Villanova's college basketball championships, led by the aforementioned Jalen Brunson. So I can't really dislike the current Knicks team. I'd be fine if they won the Finals, but realistically that's a long shot. They might not even finish off the Celtics, who are still a solid team without Tatum. And I wouldn't predict the Knicks over the Pacers in the ECF. Indiana is on a hot streak, and I def think we underestimated how deep and talented they are. They may not have a Top 10 player, but they have great team chemistry and they have great bench.

Thanks! Nice points!

AfterHours

Gender: Male

Location: The Zone

LedZep wrote:

I did not have any of this on my bingo card 😲 Man I love the playoffs. Incredibly sad to see Tatum go down like that. I'm not a Tatum stan or anything, but I do believe he's a very underrated player at times. Especially defensively. Hopefully he makes a full recovery, but I'm incredibly sad that this might be the last we see of truly peak Tatum. The best player on a championship team, the best defender in an all-time defensive 5-man lineup. And he was getting better every year. Sure, his bad shot selection irritated me, but man... It's just unfortunate.

I agree with everyone on Tatum. Despite his play annoying me a little this post season and sometimes in the past (when he over-relies on the 3) he otherwise the type of wing I like the most (plays both sides, diverse shot making ability and productive at each level offensively).

The silver lining (hopefully) is that this happened while he is still young and those players usually have the best shot to recover more closely to their previous form.

And yes, this playoffs has been bonkers. The toughest to call that I can remember...
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AfterHours

Gender: Male

Location: The Zone

Well, with BOTH Cleveland and Boston out, I think just about the entire world's brackets are busted about now???
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LedZep

And OKC isn't nearly as dominant as expected. Wild, no one had this bracket for sure.
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2020s

CA Dreamin

Gender: Male

Location: LA

AfterHours wrote:

Well, with BOTH Cleveland and Boston out, I think just about the entire world's brackets are busted about now???

On the east side, yes. But OKC is still alive. Looking forward to Game 7 tomorrow. There is still a lot of basketball to be played, but tomorrow almost feels like the Finals game 7. Then again, these playoffs have been full of surprises!