2018 NBA playoffs

For casual NBA fans like me, who couldn’t care less about the league’s meaningless regular season or its interminable 7-game playoff series, this is the perfect setup. I just want to watch one of the most talented teams in NBA history (featuring KD, one of the greatest ambassadors for our athletic program ever) versus LeBron in the finals. I hope it happens again next year, and the year after that.

 

Mavs got screwed AGAIN in the draft lottery.

Boston does a fantastic job of asset accumulation. First off, don't get screwed in the lottery. Second, sign guys to contracts that are tradeable. Don't sacrifice draft picks on risky moves. Be willing to make trades that strengthen the future but sacrifice the present.

For the Mavs, take on the worst 2-3 year contract if it gets you a lottery pick or is a requisite to get a young, proven player. Don't trade down to get the highest talent out of each pick.

McRoberts is expired now. Powell imo is worth his contract now, but would be a good player to use in a larger deal. They don't have a lot of assets that they would be willing to trade.

 

Remember Cuan was on record saying the team was tanking early on. He tried to walk that back, but the team evidently didn't get the memo. He isn't going to spend any money until he sees an uptick, but he will not see an uptick until he spends some money. Someone needs to find a couple of big cigars who will put up the funds to buy the team.

 

I'm guessing this is one of the lowest rated finals ever with those two teams yet again. Superstars vs Lebron with Lebron having zero chance to win it. I probably won't even bother to look for scores. It's just not interesting to me.

 

Interestingly, more people tuned in to watch the past three NBA finals than any since the Jordan era. There were 20.4 million average viewers for the games in 2017, slightly higher than the 20.3 million in 2016 (and 2016 had the drama of a 7-game series to boost viewership).

 

Given who was out there, yes, but if all 4 teams had been full strength I think we'd be seeing the other two teams in the Finals based on the way the games played out.

 

Probably from the East, but GS plays down to their competition so the odds are they would still find a way in.

 

OT in Game 1 of the Finals, what more could you want...

 

Different teams.....yawn.....

 

I would have loved to have seen Houston, but after they lost CPIII, the Rockets clearly were not the best team. I'm fine with the two best teams in the finals. And I think they are.

 

I dont disagree with you at all. I just wish other teams would step up and get better. I have pretty much stopped watching all pro sports over the years except sometimes championships. So when the same teams get into the finals every year I get completely turned off. I watch most college sports all the time and I'm sick of Alabama. Someone needs to step up and kick their *** in a royal way and I'm hoping thats Texas in a couple years.

 

Amen to this.^^^ My fave is the Dallas Mavs. (and close 2nd the Spurs) For some reason the Mavs, even though Cuban goes after them with big money, cannot get back in the mix for championships.

 

Cary - you answered your own question.

 

If you didn’t enjoy watching KD put up 43 points in Game 3 tonight, you’re not a ******* Longhorn. I think the Warriors want to complete the sweep and humiliate King James on his home court. Friday night’s game should be interesting…

 

I really enjoy Durant in this winning role. How about he comes to SA with Kawaii and Aldridge (ok, fine, twist my arm and give me Avery Bradley)? I think he could prove that so long as he is not playing with R Westbrook, he will be in the finals every year like LeBron. Otherwise, we are getting to see the best overall team, in my opinion, that I have ever seen. They basically ran on one cylinder and still won. The buy-in of their players to a team game , built with the raw materials of some of the best shooters ever put together, is very impressive.

 

Excellent WaPo story about KD and the Warriors' culture: the Link
The writer gets it. With the Warriors, it not about having an alpha dog, it's about having a group of players that play unselfishly, cohesively, like a team...

 

i just don't think houston had much of a chance

 

Maybe, but they were up 3-2 and managed to keep both the last two games close even without Chris Paul, and even with a ludicrously unlucky shooting performance in the last game.

I'm not taking a position on the obvious implication one way or the other, but acting like donating money is a counter to anybody's position is just ridiculous.

 

I love watching Harden. He's ice water.

When people rag KD for leaving OKC for GSW, I think, well then OKC shouldn't have traded Harden and Ibaka. They could have been GSW, but screwed the pooch imo. Harden/KD would be an ideal 1-2 punch.

 

Possibly; but my take was KD was leaving OKC no matter what.

 

I think KD just wanted to play team basketball, and Westbrook was never going to do that. I admit that Harden played more of a team style than usual this year, but that was only as a last-ditch effort to win and avoid a bad legacy after years of being the man didn’t work.

Also, KD grew up in DC, is apparently a bit liberal in thinking, made his many, many millions, and didn’t want to live out the rest of his young adulthood in Oklahoma.

 

I'm not so sure I'd rule the Spurs out if Kawhi comes back at 100%, and I definitely wouldn't rule the Celtics out either.

Could be, but if they don't blow the 3-1 lead to the Warriors and then go on to win the Finals and Durant gets MVP (as he likely would have) does he really still leave? That would be nearly unprecedented.

 

I don't understand that at all.

 

This is still debatable, but I think they should have traded Westbrook. Fun to watch, but it's so obvious many players would not enjoy playing with him.

 

Assume sarcasm?

Being older and married, I might just rather live in OKC and visit San Francisco; if I were 27, single and rich, I’m pretty positive I’d rather live in SF, and ... still probably not ever visit OKC...

By the same token, if I had lived my whole life in the Akron/Cleveland area and was single and rich, I wouldn’t mind a few years in South Beach—whatever the basketball situation was.

I guess my point is that these stage of life things matter to these guys just like they would to us. An NFL guy who is just hoping to stay in the league for 3-4 years might not think this way, but people like KD and LeBron pretty much know they aren’t coming out of this lifestyle until age 40. They got little or no college experience. So, I do think they try to coordinate their basketball location with their young adulthood in mind.