I haven’t
written much since earlier in the season.
This somehow went from a very exciting season to a kind of boring season
quite quickly. Other than Golden State
and San Antonio most of the big stories are kind of depressing. The other contenders for the title all seem
like pretenders. Frankly I think anyone
knocking off Golden State would be an upset at this point and that includes San
Antonio. The Spurs are a great team but
the Warriors have another gear that no one else can match. Even the Spurs are left hoping that Golden
State simply misses some shots and leaves them a window. It’s a possibility but if I was a betting
person I’d definitely bet on Golden State.
After Golden
State and San Antonio the quality of the teams this season becomes
significantly murkier. Cleveland is a
dysfunctional mess but they’re not even an exciting mess. It’s just not that interesting dissecting
cryptic Lebron James tweets. It’s hard
to tell if Cleveland will be beatable in the East. The regular season means nothing to them and
other than wrapping up the number one seed in the East there’s just isn’t
anything for which they are playing.
Cleveland’s winning or losing is almost entirely built upon the
greatness of Lebron. They don’t run much
of an offense. If Love and Irving hit
some shots and play ok then they generally win.
As a team Cleveland certainly doesn’t inspire much. Miami looks like they might have a shot
against them particularly if Bosh is able to come back. That would be pretty ironic if Miami made it
to the finals knocking out Lebron. It’s
clear that Riley is a much better puppet master than anyone else in the east.
Toronto also qualifies as a positive
story but given their post-season play the last couple years nothing they do in
the regular season really matters until they put together some wins in the
playoffs. This season feels different for
The Raptors but then again so did last season.
That’s pretty much it in the East.
Atlanta has played much better the second half of the season but it’s
hard to imagine them doing anything against Cleveland. The Hornets are a nice story. Kemba Walker finally taught himself to shoot,
but they too have no chance to win the East.
The Pistons have been fun but they’re still a few years away from any
chance at contention. It’s a good story
though. The bad stories seem to far
outweigh the good. Chicago has been the
number one disappointment in the league (excepting perhaps the Rockets). They just proved the other night that they’re
a bad match up for Cleveland but they’ve been a mysteriously dysfunctional mess
all season. You get the feeling no one
likes each other and that Hoiberg was not ready to coach an NBA team. No way does Thibodeaux miss the playoffs with
this team. Milwaukee has to be
disappointed taking a dramatic step back this season. At least they have some nice cornerstone
players. Antetokounmpo looks like he
might have found a role at point guard and Jabari is starting to look like he’s
got some potential as a good player (it usually takes a solid year to come back
from his kind of injury). Middleton is a
nice player but after that there’s not a whole lot there. I’m not a fan of the Greg Monroe trade they
made. He can put up some numbers as he
did with Detroit previously but he doesn’t do much for a team. He also made them more conventional then they
were last year. The Knicks are dismal
and depressing in every way. The Unicorn
is the only thing that keeps them interesting but I’m worried that it’s too
appropriate of a nickname. Unicorns are
mythical beasts and they’re not real.
Towns is real. He’s already a top
20 player in the NBA. Porzingis is still
a project. It’s hard to know what he’ll
end up being.
Washington
is a huge disappointment as well.
They’ve got good players and I like some of their draft picks. They’re long and interchangeable. On paper I don’t understand why this team is
not better. I feel like a good coach
could dramatically change the fortunes of this team next season. How Randy Wittman is still an NBA head coach
I’m not sure.
Brooklyn
and Philadelphia are so depressing they’re not even worth talking about. The only thing I’ll say further about Philly
is that in a weird way while I totally disagree with how they’ve run their
team, I’m not sure I agree with firing Hinkie.
I mean everyone in that organization had to sign off on this stupid
plan. What really changed such that they
decided things weren’t working? I
suppose that while plenty of teams have tanked no one has ever taken it this
far and probably never will again. The
stupidity of playing the numbers like they’ve done is that no matter how many
draft picks you get the odds of getting a Lebron type talent are still
bad. It’s not worth historically sucking
to add a few percentage points to your chance at a number one pick that might
not even be as good as the 13th pick of the draft. If Hinkie had nailed one draft pick that
might have given him some leeway with Philly’s fans and their management and
the NBA powers that be. His picks were
conventional and obvious and didn’t inspire any confidence that he was a good
judge of young talent and potential. His
plan depended 100% on that ability. One
could say time will tell if it was all worth it but I don’t agree. At this point they needed to have 1 player
with potential star power to make that kind of losing palatable. I could go on and on but who really cares
about Philly. Other teams will tank but
no one will ever treat their players that poorly again…
In the West
it’s been great watching San Antonio and Golden State but most every other team
other than Portland has been a huge disappointment. The Rockets collapsed completely. They should have kept Mchale as their
coach. The Clippers imploded and yet
stayed afloat. They’re still one of only
two teams with a chance to knock off San Antonio or Golden State but they’ve
stayed pretty much the same or are slightly worse while those other two teams
have managed to get even better than last year.
OKC will always be dangerous with 2 transcendent talents but they still
aren’t fun to watch and barely run an offense and have done a terrible job of
putting pieces around Durant and Westbrook.
Memphis and Dallas had too many injuries and have limped into the playoffs. They’re sad to watch. Memphis as least has enough crazy dudes that
if they play the Clippers it’d be worth watching for the drama. Utah hasn’t really improved much from last
season. Other teams just dropped off
giving them a window into the playoffs but they don’t inspire much. At least they seem to play Golden State well,
so that match up could at least lead to a few close games.
Out of
Sacramento, New Orleans, Denver, Minnesota, Phoenix, and L.A., only Minnesota
seems to have any kind of hope for next season.
If they get a real coach they could be a playoff team with a lot of
young potential. It would really help if
they could nail one more draft pick. The
other five teams mentioned above are barely worth talking about at this
point. Anthony Davis disappointed and
the roster around him stinks. Sacramento
entertains only in a rubber necking sense.
I find Cousins reprehensible on the court. He would easily be the least fun to play with
of anyone in the NBA. I can’t believe
the shit he says to the refs. I’m
actually amazed he doesn’t get even more technical than he does. Denver surprisingly, of the after thoughts in
the West, might be the most on the right track.
At least they’ve gathered a few interesting young players and kept a few
useful veterans around. If they continue
on that track and stay healthy next year (big ifs) they could be worth
watching.
Hopefully
the playoffs will turn this all around and we’ll get some exciting games but
the second half of this season has been, for the most part, more about collapse
than achievement…
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