Our coaches strength is defense. Everyone said Montrezl would be a defensive liability as well but we still had the best defense in the league even without AD for most of the season. Regardless of how good he is as a 1 v 1 defender our team plays top level team defense and Drummond will be taught to do the same.
I reckon the biggest surprise champions in my time of being a hardcore NBA fan ( since 2007 ) would he he to be Dallas 2011 and Toronto 2019.
Both teams had 1 legit star in Dirk & Kawhi. Youād have to say Dallas was the biggest shock coming through Portland, Lakers, a talented young OKC then the Heat big 3 in the finals. Dirk was amazing the rest of the starting 5 was a veteran Kidd, veteran Marion, Deshawn Stephenson and Tyson Chandler.
That Raptors team was deep but I think we all know they got a massive slice of fortune with the Warriors injuries.
1 Like
100% Aussie, GSW take that in like 5 games if fully healthy. It happens once every 10 or 15 years. The other one was the Lakers losing to Detroit in 2004. Of course the Lakers were on the verge of breaking up because Shaq and Kobe couldnāt coexist and weād mortgaged our team depth to sign a washed Gary Payton and Karl Malone that summer.
1 Like
They are not the only ones though. In the sense that I donāt know if you need to keep it against them anymore. Cavaliers 2016, LBJ didnāt have Love or Irving going into the 2015 Finals. At this point so many teams have had luck with opponentsā injuries. Do the Warriors make the Finals in 2018 if not for Paul getting injured?
1 Like
Iggy was injured for GSW too who was the primary defender for Harden. But I think that Warriors team was a different situation all together because they were so overwhelmingly the favorites.
You can go make ur argument with situations like 1989 or 91. Magic and Byron Scott both missed the finals against the Pistons and it meant the end of the showtime dynasty, but u canāt really use that as an excuse if ur the Lakers cuz the Pistons took u to 6 games completely healthy in 88 (in fact Isiah Thomas had an injured ankle and still dropped 40 in LA and almost took the series back to Detroit for game 7). In 91 the Lakers best player at the time, Worthy, was hobbled and the Lakers lost to Jordan and Bulls in 5. Those match ups were much more fair tho, that GSW team had so much talent the Raptors never would have had a chance without the injuries, thatās the difference there imo.
1 Like
Iād say 50-50 if Paul never got hurt, really interesting series that one, Houston still had chances in game 7 but missed like 20 3s in a row or something stupid.
Yeah 2015, Think Irving played game was and they lost in Overtime but then missed the rest of the series.
Westbrook put up 35-14-21 today against the Pacers haha.
Bulls despite looking pretty good on paper are now 19-26, canāt really work out why the Raptors are 18-29 either after winning 50 + games last season.
Lovely crossover
1 Like
Russ was incredible from start to finish. Heās always praised for his athleticism, but his basketball IQ should be highlighted more.
Emergency landing for a Utah Jazz flight to Memphis, ran into a flock of birds at take off apparently.
The pauses, the cadences, the mannerisms. This is peak Stephen A Smith. Put this alongside his hall of fame worthy speech on Kwame Brown.
4 Likes
āsoliloquyā hahahaha
Classic Stephen A
1 Like
These NBA stars are so sensitive
Russ is gonna be confused after this oneā¦ Stephen A the only one to make you feel both respected and disrespected at the same time lol.
2 Likes
This Nets team is stacked, top seed in the east and their Big 3 didnāt even play that much together.
1 Like
I donāt think it will happen. Denver is not going to have a top three record, plus with Gordon coming in I reckon Jokic will shoot less and his scoring average is going to go down a bit. At this point I wouldnāt mind Harden getting another one, 26.8 ppg, 8.9 rpg and 11.2 apgā¦Nets number 1 seed in the East. From the perspective of something ānewā I wouldnāt be surprised if Embiid gets in.
I need to start watching NBA to understand what you guys are all talking about it, was much more into it in Carterās daysā¦ so Iāve bought myself a late birthday present:
2 Likes
Embiid is missing too many games with injury at the moment to get it imo.
This sucks for the Hornets. They have finally something going for them but Ball is injured for the remainder of the season and Hayward will miss four weeks.
1 Like