Milwaukee vs. Philadelphia 4/4/19 quick hit

Just watched the end of Milwaukee vs. Philadelphia.  Milwaukee looked like a team and Philadelphia seemed like a bunch of dudes that barely know each other and aren't too interested in getting to know each other any better.

also from January 16th

On a quick note: I generally find Enes Kanter quite annoying but I cut him some slack because his situation with his home country of Turkey seems freaking nuts. So Kanter recently said that he wasn't going to go to London because he feared assassination as some kind of retaliation from the Turkish government. "I talk to the front office and decided I’m not going,’’ Kanter said. “The freaking lunatic, there’s a chance I can get killed out there. I talked to the front office. I’m not going. I’m going to stay here and practice. It’s pretty sad. All this stuff affects my career in basketball. I want to help my team win, but because of one lunatic guy I can’t even go there to do my job. It’s pretty sad. They got a lot of spies there. I can get killed pretty easy.’’
Hedo fucking Turkoglu of all players, who now serves as an advisor to Recep Erdogan the Turkish president, "blasted Kanter on Monday for launching a "smear campaign" against Turkey, claiming Kanter wasn't able to travel abroad in any event due to "visa issues." Turkoglu accused Kanter of "trying to get the limelight with irrational justifications and political remarks."
6 days later Turkish prosecutors are seeking an arrest warrant for Kanter for allegedly being a terrorist. Can someone please call Turkoglu out for being both an asshole and wrong about the situation. Also, while they're at it, can they explain to Turkoglu that it wasn't enough to simply take steroids. He would have actually have had to work out as well if he had been hoping to receive some sort of physical benefit that might have prolonged his NBA career.

from January 16th

It's been way too long and this season has been pretty fascinating so I am hereby promising myself that I will start writing again. It's not easy finding time but I'll manage. In the mean time, to get the ball rolling, I am going to try and do a close to daily short segment which just involves my most immediate and visceral reactions to the games of the night before. Sometimes it'll be really short and perhaps other times I'll be longer and more inspired depending on what games and how much of those games I actually had time to watch. Hopefully I'll find the time between the baby and school and work and occasionally getting a chance to remember that I used to be a tubist to write some longer more in depth articles but for now...
My reactions to the games of Tuesday, January 15th:
Pacers 131, Suns 97: No one really talks about the Pacers. They're clearly good. They just feel like the team that will give some other team a hard time in the playoffs. This is the kind of season, though, in which no one seems that much better than anyone else so who knows.
Philadelphia 149, Minnesota 107: Minnesota has been playing better lately. Towns has stepped up. But bottom line, maybe Jimmy was right.
Hawks 142, Thunder 126: Ugh. The Thunder are good, but it's games like this that show they are zero threat to make the finals. That Westbrook's shooting has become historically embarrassing has helped him concentrate a bit more on setting guys up and allowing them to actually play basketball with him which is good. But then you've got a guy on the court shooting historically badly and he still jacks up way too many shots. I keep coming back to the word "ugh."
Bucks 124, Heat 86: I had only the time to watch the beginning of this game and I thought the heat were really tough and I was impressed by them and thought the game would be close. That the Bucks blew them off the floor shows they may actually be for real. They've got a lot of dudes playing well.
Lakers 107, Bulls 100: That this was a great victory for the Lakers in a game they had to win pretty much says it all.
Golden State 142, Denver 111: This game reminds us all that once again, the outcome of the season is a foregone conclusion. When Golden State has the combination of trying and playing well they are miles ahead of any team in basketball. They opened the first quarter with the intent of making a point... point taken.

We've all been deluding ourselves

We're at the point in the season when we realize that Golden State is simply head and shoulders above everyone else.  It's clearly going to be Rockets vs. Warriors and I just don't see Houston having a shot.  They're a nice, effective team that does their best to game the system as much as they can but let's be honest, a steady diet of James Harden one on one plays is not gonna scare Golden State.  The Warriors will switch the heart out of Houston and Dramon will snuff out Capella's rolling to the basket much like he is doing to Anthony Davis.  I deeply wish someone would beat the pants off these two teams but I'll have to settle for the half measure of Golden State taking it to the Rockets.  On a personal level, both teams are full of dudes that drive me up a wall.  Harden and Chris Paul's entire careers are dedicated to gaming the system to bait the refs into calling as many fouls on their behalf as possible.  Everyone on Golden State freaks out over every call.  But at least Golden State plays an interesting brand of ball.  Watching Harden dribble for 10 seconds between his legs at the 3 point line before making a move is quickly sapping all my love for the game of basketball. 
     Over in the east, let's face it, unless Brad Stevens is the greatest basketball genius of all time (not entirely impossible) Lebron's gonna will the Cavs to the finals where they will be overwhelmed by the talent of the Warriors.  I hope it doesn't turn out this way, but it's pretty much exactly what I would have told you before the season began.  What was the point?  All the little stories were fun and exciting while they lasted...

what if...

I haven’t had much time to write anything much this season. Most of my time’s been taken up with work and school and music and planning for the future. I wanted to take a second for a quick 'what if' though. Today’s 'what if' involves the process going on down there in Philadelphia. They’ve finally got a team that’s interesting to watch but what if they’d done things just a tiny bit differently. What if they had drafted Porzingis instead of Okafor and Tatum instead of Fultz. The Okafor draft pick never made sense. In a world in which you thought Embiid could some day be healthy there would never be a place on the floor for Okafor. Even in a world in which Embiid never played basketball again I’m not sure there’d be a place for Okafor. He’d just not good enough at a skill that is no longer a high priority in the NBA to justify being anything but a good backup position. Can you even imagine a future frontcourt of Embiid and Porzingis? What a perfect combination. Then you have Simmons running the point. Fultz is still young and may very well figure some stuff out in the not too distant future but Tatum looks like a star already. Fultz and Simmons are never going to be a great fit together. The length and skill level of a starting four of Simmons, Embiid, Porzingis, and Tatum is just amazing to think about on both the offensive and defensive ends. It’s never worth dwelling on this kind of thing too long but I just wanted to take a moment out of the day to imagine how close we could have been to the future best challenge to Golden State for best team in the league.

Thank God for the NBA off-season

     Thank God for the NBA off-season.  Thus far it’s been far more entertaining then the 2016/17 “season of the inevitable Warriors victory.”  At least for a brief time we can ponder the uncertainties of roster moves and promising rookies.  What will the pairings of Paul George with Russell Westbrook and Chris Paul with James Harden look like on the court?  What kind of teams will coalesce around them?  Can Minnesota take the leap with the addition of Jimmy Butler?  How will the Spurs still manage to pull off another 60 win season?  Will the Greek freak make the leap to MVP caliber player?  What is going on with the Clippers?  Will the Western conference dominate the East forever?  Why does the East keep trading their good players for nothing to Western conference teams?  There’s so much hype for this rookie class.  Will any of these guys possibly be as good as they’re supposed to be?  Can the Sixers stay healthy and actually win some NBA games? 

     For a brief few months there is hope once again blossoming all over the league.  Sadly, by a couple months into the next season, outcomes will become predictable, and we will have to look forward to more trades and another crazy offseason.  Without a major injury the Golden State Warriors will easily win the championship again.  Does this matter?  In many ways the league is falling prey to the media fostered angle that championships are everything.  Being good is seen by most NBA writers as a waste of time if there is not a clear path to becoming great.  Is this the proper way to approach team building?  Isn’t there value in putting an entertaining product out on the court?  Let’s take a quick look at the interesting scenario’s unfolding this offseason while we ponder those questions…

     The Clippers: What exactly is going on with this team?  For a moment after Chris Paul forced his way to Houston it seemed like this team might rebuild.  Instead they doubled down.  At first I thought this was a bad move.  Blake Griffin can still be a great player but he seems permanently bitten by the injury bug.  Some of these injuries are of the fluke variety and it is possible that he might stay healthy enough to make the contract he signed worth it.  I wouldn’t bet on that.  I have to say though that I actually like the team they’ve constructed.  Is it possible that Doc is no longer pulling all the strings?  It doesn’t seem like it.  Patrick Beverley is actually a very good NBA player and I’m fascinated to see what Teodosic can be and Gallinari is really good when healthy.  There’s that caveat again though.  If this team is healthy I actually would not be surprised if they are just as good as they were with Chris Paul.  But that’s a very strong “if”.  Griffin might not even start playing until December.  It was definitely time for this team to break things up a bit but I’d still be curious to know the story behind why Paul forced his way out.  Did he not get along with Doc?  Was it Deandre?  Paul definitely seems like the kind of guy that has a shelf life for how long his teammates can deal with him.  He’s constantly freaking out and controls every aspect of a game.  That’s both a great trait and a terrible one.  He’s clearly a great point guard but he has a tendency to pound the ball to death.  At the end of games he sees himself as the architect of everything his teams do and for such a clutch player at the most inopportune times in pressure situations he has consistently melted down in inexplicable ways.  That leads me to the next fascinating scenario I’m excited to see play out…

     The Houston Rockets: Can Chris Paul and James Harden coexist?  They’re both such great players that to some extent the Rockets will be great.  But I’ve got to say I’m not as optimistic about this pairing as some.  I’m not sure how long it will take but eventually these two will drive each other nuts.  Harden’s defense still sucks and it will drive Chris Paul out of his mind at some point.  One of these two is going to have to make a great sacrifice on the offensive end and play off the ball.  Paul will not enjoy standing on the perimeter while Harden does his dance.  Fortunately both players are so good on offense that this experiment can only fail so badly (unless of course they kill each other).  The most fascinating part of this pairing is that it would never have come to pass without the help of Greg Popovich.  Chris Paul does not fit into what the Rockets have been all about over the last few years.  His best attribute is his mid-range game, a shot the Rockets would simply not take in the past.  Popovich exposed this strategy in this year’s playoffs.  The Spurs played virtually no defense between the 3-point line and the paint.  They dared the Rockets to take any other shot on the court.  The Rockets simply could not adjust.  D’Antoni has never been one for adjustments.  His philosophy has always been if we do what we do then the other team will not be able to handle it.  But on the Phoenix teams of D’Antoni’s past plenty of two pointers were taken.  Nash was an unbelievably high percentage shooter and these mid-range shots made sense.  The lane isn’t always open and why not take advantage of the space your own offense has created.  Open shots are always a good idea especially for historically great shooters.  Clearly Morey and D’Antoni looked in the mirror and realized that this 3 pointers and layups only philosophy is untenable in the extreme.  The Rockets will be fascinating but I’m not sure how much better they will be then last year.  Beverley was a perfect complement to Harden.  Paul is clearly an upgrade but how much of one I’m not entirely sure yet.  Rumor says that the Rockets are looking to add Carmelo Anthony to their team.  I don’t understand this rumor at all.  Didn’t Anthony get D’Antoni fired from the Knicks?  Why would he (or D’Antoni for that matter) want to be reunited?  I also don’t see how this happens without the Rockets trading Ryan Anderson.  Hilariously even the Knicks just realized that absorbing that contract would be ludicrously stupid.  The Knicks!  Who else is more gullible then the Knicks?  If Morey can pull off the trading of Anderson then he’s definitely a genius.  Which brings us conveniently to…

     The Knicks: At this point the Knicks might easily be the sorriest franchise in the league.  I cannot believe the tweet Phil Jackson sent of him lounging around at his cabin.  Is he basically admitting that he fleeced Dolan for his money?  It definitely felt like he signed an extension and then said to himself, “what the hell can I possibly do to get fired from this job.”  I was going to keep this list to the teams I’m actually interested in seeing next season but the Knicks are such a shit show that they may actually be fascinating now (at least until actual games occur).  I cannot believe they signed Tim Hardaway Junior to such a massive contract.  Who exactly were they competing against for his services at this price?  Reportedly Atlanta was going to offer him about 20 million less then he got.  It’s hilarious that Steve Mills has not made himself available to the press since this signing.  This is what happens when you have no GM.  Apparently David Griffin withdrew from consideration for the job because he didn’t feel like he’d be able to make his own decisions and use his own personnel to do so.  The Knicks will really be set for the next bunch of years with Hardaway’s terrible contract and Noah’s horrible contract.  What a joke of a franchise.  More then any other team in the league there’s little to nothing to hope for in the foreseeable future other then the sad machinations of the James Dolan coterie.  The only thing that gives Knicks fan’s any strain of hope are things like this:

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/knicks/kristaps-porzingis-shows-weight-room-gains-instagram-article-1.3326957

I don’t have the time to actually watch this stuff but I didn’t notice this dude’s take:

https://www.reddit.com/r/NYKnicks/comments/6mivgl/porzingis_strength_levels_in_recent_videos_has/

Let’s get off this subject quickly before I turn from titillated by the horror to severely depressed by the horror…

     The Minnesota Timberwolves: This season will be a deeply informative one as far as determining what kind of coach is Tom Thibodeau.  This team has real talent and they’ve been built entirely according to his image.  He’s basically assembled the bulls plus an all world talent in Karl Anthony Towns.  Butler has made himself into a top 10 or 15 talent.  Given proper coaching Andrew Wiggins should be a good player.  I like his game especially if he’s a third option.  A lot of analysts seem to think he’s terrible but I don’t see it that way.  He’s still young and he works hard and with another full year of development I’m convinced he can learn to play good defense again.  If this team can’t play defense and win some games then Thibs is not the coach we believe him to be.  The only move I did not like was the replacing of Rubio with Jeff Teague.  Teague is fools gold at this point in his career.  He’s soft.  He doesn’t play much defense and his offense comes and goes from game to game.  Minnesota, on paper, should win a lot of games and make the playoffs easily.  But then again, they’re the Minnesota Timberwolves.  Either way I can’t wait to watch what happens with them…

     The Milwaukee Bucks:  Giannis Antetokounmpo.  That’s really it.  This dude is going to be the best player in the league at some point.  When exactly that happens is the question.  Can he make a leap this year?  All he needs is a consistent jump shot and he will be unstoppable.  His form looked pretty good last season so I could definitely see his jumper developing soon.  If Giannis takes a step forward and Parker can stay healthy this team could do some serious damage.  I’m worried about Parker’s long-term health though.  It doesn’t seem like his playing style puts too much stress on his body but he just seems brittle.  Hopefully he can put the last couple years behind him.  If the two of those guys can get consistent playing time with Chris Middleton and if Thon Maker and the rest of the supporting cast can develop a bit this team could eventually challenge Cleveland for Eastern supremacy.  I’m a little worried about how lost Maker looked in summer league.  Playing well in summer league doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re any good but playing badly is usually a sign that you are not very good. 

This seems like a good opportunity to take a very short break from teams to talk which players at summer league have intrigued me.  I’m not going to say much because I didn’t watch much college ball and so don’t have much of a sample size for my gut instinct on players.  I was impressed by Jayson Tatum who seemed to have a very polished offensive game.  I would worry a bit that he takes a lot of difficult shots which he barely gets off and against good defenders those shots might not fall for him.  Within the Celtics scheme there should be plenty of open looks and open space to be found though and he will not be expected to go one on one.  I was also impressed by the Mavs pick of Dennis Smith.  Imagine if the Knicks had picked that dude one pick earlier.  Everyone would probably be freaking out in NYC and calling him the second coming and looking at a pairing with Porzingis as the foundation for a future team.  Oh well.  I find Lonzo Ball unbelievably annoying so I’m just going to skip talking about him.  Whatever the Ball family is doing is clearly working though.  From all accounts the crowds at Lakers summer league games has been insane which makes me all the more happy that I did not go this year.  The only thing more annoying then Ball family news is an excited and giddy Laker fan.

The San Antonio Spurs:  I’m always excited to watch the Spurs because they play my favorite basketball and Kawhi is my favorite player.  Every year it seems like the end of a reign and yet somehow they continuously bang out 60 plus wins.  They didn’t do anything this off-season.  They lost Simmons who I loved and gained Rudy Gay who I do not love.  Last year they signed Pau Gasol, which really tested my love of the Spurs. They always seemed like the kind of team that wouldn’t pay washed up players who can’t play defense.  They’ve needed a rim running big man who is athletic and can block shots pretty much since David Robinson retired.  I got briefly intrigued when there was talk of a sign and trade with Phoenix to acquire Tyson Chandler who still fits that bill well but the Spurs apparently decided that his contract was too much for them.  On paper this team should be on the bubble for a place in the playoffs in the ultra competitive Western conference.  But games aren’t played on paper and as far as I can tell the combination of Greg Popovich and Kawhi Leonard can’t help but be among the elite.  The Spurs play beautiful basketball and though it might be help if they had a few more athletes, they’re still always one of my favorite teams to watch…

The Denver Nuggets: will definitely be in my league pass rotation.  The Joker is great fun to watch because his game doesn’t entirely make sense.  Milsap is a nice addition and the Nuggets should be able to run an interesting offense through two great play making big men.  They’ve got a plethora of interesting young players who hopefully make a leap of some kind this season.  I’m not sure what the answer at point guard is, or even if they need one given Milsap and Jokovic’s ability to make plays.

The Philadelphia 76ers:  Can this be the year they finally put an actual NBA team back on the court?  Tearing down a team is always much easier then putting one together.  For the first time in many years Philly fans can be excited and I will actually flip on a 76ers game (truth be told I watched a few last season because Embiid is so fascinating).  On paper they’ve done a great job finding a complementary group of players many of who deserve to be on the court in an NBA basketball game!  Unfortunately there’s a lot that worries me about this team and these worries almost entirely revolve around health.  If  Joel Embiid can stay healthy then this is definitely a playoff team.  That’s a big “if” though.  And it doesn’t seem like a big deal but Markelle Fultz’s injury in summer league is also troublesome.  This guy clearly has talent but his college career is inexplicable to me.  How can someone have number one draft pick talent and yet lose so many games on the collegiate level?  Imagine if  Lebron had played college ball.  Could you imagine any scenario in which his team went 9 and 22?  Absolutely not.  There have to be questions about how good this guy actually is.  Clearly he’s got talent and at this point there is nothing more important then for him then reps.  He needs to play in games and figure things out and get coached.   Initial injuries for guys whose general basketball understanding is lacking can deeply affect their entire year and the 76ers are going to depend on this guy if they hope to make the playoffs.  On the other hand, would it be such a bad thing if they failed to make the playoffs another year and got one more lottery pick?  That’s gonna be a tough road to travel this year as there are going to be quite a few truly terrible teams.  The 76ers are a fascinating example of a team that can finally prove or disprove for us all if there are any basketball gods that exist.  If said gods do indeed exist then the Sixers will be punished for the complete disdain which they showed said gods over the past many years.  If it finally comes together for Philadelphia then all the basketball athiests out there can sleep peacefully for another season…

The New Orleans Pelicans:  The Pelicans are fascinating.  Anthony Davis is an amazing talent whose only weakness appears to be his fragility.  The Pelicans have made truly terrible roster decisions in their attempt to put a team around Davis (see Omer Asik).  There was a moment when Davis was being talked about as the next “best” player in the league much like the Greek Freak is being talked about this off-season.  Now he is a forgotten after thought after toiling away on a crappy team year after year.  There are nights when he brings it and you wonder why every team in the league isn’t planning out a path to acquiring him from the abyss that is Pelican basketball.  Davis is great and clearly the players around him have not been good but, interestingly, this makes me realize how people undervalue someone like Lebron James.  Can you imagine a scenario in which Lebron could not drag a team into the playoffs?  This is why even though we occasionally convince ourselves that player x might be the best in the league, deep down inside we know inside that it’s just not true.  All their terrible roster moves forced the Pelicans to over pay Drew Holiday this year because there was literally no backup plan and they can’t afford to be losers for another year.  He’s a good player when he’s healthy but he can’t stay healthy and he’s definitely not worth the money they paid him even when he is healthy.  Were they bidding against someone?  Couldn’t they have saved some money for the rest of the roster?  They clearly needed to convince Cousins to stick around for another contract (see Rajon Rondo).  Is Cousins any good?  He’s an amazing talent who doesn’t appear to have any weaknesses of the non-mental variety.  These are two big men that should complement each other and should be playable together but it will take some present day out of the box thinking to make this team effective and I just didn’t see much of that last year.  Alvin Gentry seems like a great guy but I’ve never seen him actually do much coaching.  He took over for a Suns team that was already fully functional.  I’ll cut him some slack due to a lack of talent but at no point did I watch a Pelicans game last year and say “ooh, that’s interesting.”  The Pelican franchise is depending on Cousins proving he is a actually as good as his talent, and on Gentry proving he’s a good coach, and on Holiday proving that he can stay healthy.  Should be interesting to watch for a bit but it’s a lot of “ifs” for me…

The Toronto Raptors:  We arrive finally to the Raptors who I think are a truly important team this off-season because they are the perfect example of a team through whom we can decide if basketball is worth playing anymore.  What the Raptors did this season was to resign Lowry and Ibaka and to ensure that they will put a good basketball product out on the hard court this season.  A good team but not a great team and it’s hard to imagine a scenario whereby this team could ever be great.  Their two stars, Lowry and DeRozan, are good players, but they both have flaws and neither one is ever going to be great.  They are the kind of player that inevitably makes slightly more then they are worth in the current NBA scheme.   Good players get rewarded (monetarily) the equivalent of great players.  There are a number of point guards in the league, arguments not withstanding, one would rather have then Lowry but he is good enough to lead a good team to the playoffs and there aren’t that many players better then him.  He just happens to be one tier below the top NBA superstar level.  A guy you’d like to have on your team clearly but at the max and as your best player it means you’re probably not going to win the championship.  Does this matter.  Potential is nice but so is watching your team win games.   The Raptors last year won a lot of games and they did so while being pretty fun to watch.  This was exciting for their fans.  They were in the playoffs and had some fun moments.  If there’s no value in this experience then every team in the league should just tank because, baring an injury related disaster, the Warriors are going to win the championship again.  But who is to say the Warriors won’t fall apart physically.  They’ve had an amazing string of healthy seasons.  It seems a far fetched impossibility, but Lebron could get injured and then the Raptors would be in contention for a spot in the finals and then maybe Durant gets injured and Curry goes down and then the Raptors are NBA champions.  It’s improbably but it’s still possible.  That’s one reason it’s worth being good.  The other reason is simply that perhaps I just like watching good basketball played by good teams in a competitive fashion.  Tanking may always make sense but it sucks to watch and, bottom line, isn’t that really the point.  Winning isn’t everything…

The Inevitable Outcome

Here we are. I didn't write much this season. It all seemed so inevitable at the start of the season that we would end up with a Warriors Cavaliers final and sure enough it came to fruition. Was the season boring? Certainly if knowing the end of a story ahead of time bothers you. Some shows or stories surprise you and that's great and other stories are just great stories told well regardless of whether they are predictable. Which kind of story was this season? There were about 25 minutes this season in which a third straight finals between Golden State and Cleveland was in question. And then Zaza Pachulia's big foot and questionable tactics put any chance of a team stopping the Warriors in the rear view mirror. Was it a dirty play by Zaza? Definitely. Does that make him a dirty player? Not necessarily. I don't think he had any intention of hurting Kawhi but the move he made to slide under him on that jump shot was totally excessive. Was this payback for years of Bruce Bowen's questionable defense?

If there was any doubt how good a player Kawhi is then those doubts were clearly put to rest. The Spurs were probably not going to win that series anyway, but they went into that series with a plan and they executed that plan and when Kawhi went down for good their entire team was deflated and exposed for their lack of talent. I love Jonathon Simmons but when he's your best player you're in a lot of trouble. When David Lee getting hurt matters you've got a major talent deficit. For the future of the Spurs I am hoping that Aldridge was nursing some sort of injury because not only did he look old and slow but his mid-range jump shot, once one of the most effective shots in the game, never felt like it was going to go in the basket.

I happen to love basketball so I still enjoyed the season, but it is not a good thing when you cannot picture a scenario that doesn't end in a repeat finals. Yes, the Warriors are great and greatness should be celebrated but it kind of sucks that a team can have the greatest regular season in history and then add the second best player in the game to their roster. Not only did this stack the deck for Golden State but it eliminated the team that was their greatest rival to make the finals from contention. Teams not named Cleveland and Golden State need to start thinking long term. I know things can change fast in sports due to injury and salary caps but the Warriors have a bunch more prime basketball years in them.

This brings me to my prediction. I will be very surprised if Golden State doesn't win in five games or so. I don't really see anything but Mike Brown coming between them and the championship but really this team doesn't need that much coaching at this point. I wouldn't be totally shocked if Cleveland pulled off an upset though. They do have Lebron James who is still clearly the best player in the world. Kyrie looks like he is potentially poised to make the leap and Kevin Love is finally looking like the Kevin Love of Minnesota that Cleveland thought they were getting. But unless those two play out of their minds and all the various role players step up and play well (Deron Williams, Kyle Korver, J.R. Smith, Tristan Thompson etc...) Golden State is just overwhelmingly talented. Cleveland had to get a bit lucky last year in order to win and even so it was so close a series. And then you throw Kevin Durant in the mix and it just seems preordained. Let's hope for an upset and settle for a competitive series but I'm afraid this series may be neither.