My warriors winning game 1 today
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Sports NBA Thread: 2024-2025 Season
- Thread starter awyp
- Start date
WARRIORS PROVING THEY GOT THE BEST DEFENSE IN THE LEAGUE EVEN WITHOUT CURRY WOOOOOO
as a celtics fan since 2013 (as far back as NBA memory goes) that was actually the most despicable game ive ever seen them play. at least in 2017 vs bulls they were just fun overachievers and in 2023 vs heat they came back and wouldve had a good chance to win if tatum didnt fuck his ankle on first play (and those celtics teams were nowhere close to superteams). this team has the most talented starting five in the nba but they're just gutless, mazzula literally just left them to die on offense no timeouts no anything, every single guy shooting 10-15% below their season averages and they're just playing the same dogshit no movement ball that they played in nov/dec when porzingis got hurt. the reason they were so good from 3 last year is the amount of drive and kick motion offense they played, and instead we're getting five straight isos in the clutch? (love al but MY GOD)
i love the knicks (josh hart and halli are my two favorite players not on the celtics) so will root for you guys to go all the way assuming we don't pull off a miracle but holy fuck this shit team will never stop shooting themselves in the foot. and they're so fucking inconsistent that its not even that out of character for them to go back to shooting 45% from three and somehow make it a series then lose game 7 at home. usually i don't vent after playoff losses but GOD so frustrating. regardless of what happens in this series mazzula is a dogshit coach (u don't have a single fucking play to run ????????????) and without al drinking the fountain of youth we'd be so fucked with kristaps "on paper" porzingis showing up for fifteen minutes once every three games as our starting center. also i love jrue but he has honestly been worse than hart on offense in this series which is insane from the guy who shot 44% from corner threes last year.
i love the knicks (josh hart and halli are my two favorite players not on the celtics) so will root for you guys to go all the way assuming we don't pull off a miracle but holy fuck this shit team will never stop shooting themselves in the foot. and they're so fucking inconsistent that its not even that out of character for them to go back to shooting 45% from three and somehow make it a series then lose game 7 at home. usually i don't vent after playoff losses but GOD so frustrating. regardless of what happens in this series mazzula is a dogshit coach (u don't have a single fucking play to run ????????????) and without al drinking the fountain of youth we'd be so fucked with kristaps "on paper" porzingis showing up for fifteen minutes once every three games as our starting center. also i love jrue but he has honestly been worse than hart on offense in this series which is insane from the guy who shot 44% from corner threes last year.
Im a Jazz fan, still to early to call it but chuck said “this is the first time since November cavs didn’t make 10 3s in a game”.
When led by Donny the Jazz were the 1 seed with insane offense that crumbled in the playoffs. Donny will drop 50 and you will lose in the playoffs to a mediocre clippers team missing kawhi. Welcome to the Donovan Mitchell experience.
Lotto is 110% rigged but as a mavs fan i feel a little better after how horrible this year went after the historically bad luka trade clearly they made this deal behind closed doors lol
The FBI needs to investigate this.
We all knew something was up with the trade. Obviously it was in the leagues interest to preserve their top franchise after LeBron.
This was the Mavs reward
We all knew something was up with the trade. Obviously it was in the leagues interest to preserve their top franchise after LeBron.
This was the Mavs reward
I don't really buy into a lot of sports conspiracies, but like, this is the most obvious instance of collusion in recent sports history, right? It's at least the most blatant shit I've ever seen in the big four American sports leagues. I'm already not really an NBA fan or watcher, but I don't know how I'd watch it after this if I was.
See, the MLB has it right. They don't manufacture big moves like this; they just let the richest teams in the league throw obscene amounts of money around without a salary cap. It makes people upset, but it's fair, honest rigging where the system just does what it's supposed to do, not this forced shit with the commissioner's fingerprints all over it. Proper American deck-stacking for a proper American sports league.
See, the MLB has it right. They don't manufacture big moves like this; they just let the richest teams in the league throw obscene amounts of money around without a salary cap. It makes people upset, but it's fair, honest rigging where the system just does what it's supposed to do, not this forced shit with the commissioner's fingerprints all over it. Proper American deck-stacking for a proper American sports league.
I'm instinctively a big sports conspiracy doubter, so I'm treating my opposing gut reaction as more of a "devil's advocate" position than a genuine fully formed belief that I'm committed to. Especially because how ridiculous this looks on paper. But here is my initial reaction anyway. I'm curious if anyone agrees or not, if nothing else.
The Lakers are a merely decent franchise right now. Besides the bubble* title* that people kinda don't care about, they have a total of two playoff series wins in the past 12 years. This isn't a track record that suggests substantial past rigging to me, especially the heavy handed kind, especially when their best performance was when the fewest people cared. For the present, I don't doubt the Lakers could pull some star in F.A. to replace Lebron and maintain this "decent" level of performance and relevance. Rigging Doncic out as a way to "preserve the franchise post-Lebron" feels unnecessary and convoluted.
Also holy FUCK the Dodgers bribing their way to victory is SO boring. God. I understand why people who have particular attachments to them like them, and I wish them no ill spirit, but god.
The Lakers are a merely decent franchise right now. Besides the bubble* title* that people kinda don't care about, they have a total of two playoff series wins in the past 12 years. This isn't a track record that suggests substantial past rigging to me, especially the heavy handed kind, especially when their best performance was when the fewest people cared. For the present, I don't doubt the Lakers could pull some star in F.A. to replace Lebron and maintain this "decent" level of performance and relevance. Rigging Doncic out as a way to "preserve the franchise post-Lebron" feels unnecessary and convoluted.
Also holy FUCK the Dodgers bribing their way to victory is SO boring. God. I understand why people who have particular attachments to them like them, and I wish them no ill spirit, but god.
I can see this perspective, but here's the thing: Do the Lakers need to be serious ring contenders to rake in cash for themselves and the league by extension? All signs point to no. They're a legacy franchise with a bunch of super iconic branding in popular culture, and they're situated in one of the country's biggest media markets. There's a meme that Lakers fans are also Yankee and Cowboy fans, and that's because they're all the same kind of franchise. If Jerry Jones can make the Cowboys the most valuable sports franchise on the planet without making the NFCCG this century, and the Yankees can be top two in MLB's pecking order despite not winning a World Series in decades, then the Lakers can rake in cash despite not being serious contenders for a while outside of the MMBR (Mickey Mouse Bubble Ring). All you have to do is get star players and keep the team in the news, and the Luka trade does both. What's good for the Lakers is good for the entire league because every team feels the revenue increase when a legacy franchise is keeping people engaged and buying merch. Speaking of which...
I don't like it either, but what can you do? The players will never agree to a salary cap, and the owners will never agree to a salary floor. The small-market owners have no incentive to rock the boat because revenue sharing makes it all even out at the end of the day. Same with every other sports league where one team is allowed to piledrive everyone year after year.
I think is all true but it comes down to me like, what does the Luka trade accomplish here that the FA carousel and signing a star there doesn't? Why make this flashy zany move when there's a natural alternative that doesn't require interference?
Well, being flashy and zany is the point. I'm not sure that it'll work how the NBA hopes it will, what with how many people have been disillusioned as a result of how suspect it all is, but the point is that we're still talking about the Lakers/Mavs and where this trade leaves them months after the fact.
I'm not too bothered about this Dallas thing. That fan base deserves something. People are naturally suspicious and I don't blame them. I've been watching KOT4Q for a while and he's a die hard Bulls fan so I was sad they didn't win the coin flip to get the #1 pick. I think it would've been much worse if the Spurs got #1. On a side note ESPN is so incompetent. They messed up the broadcast when they said the 76ers lost their pick. There are some bright spots like Mike Breen, Windy, and Jay Williams, but they just feel like the definition of a souless corporation whenever I watch them (I don't hate MNF that much though). A couple of searches on YouTube about Stephen A and that NBA countdown lady will show that they only want to say the most inflammatory things for views. They laid off many employees I actually liked (Zach Lowe) so that I'd get to see Kendrick Perkins every day. I'm so excited about NBC and I think they will push forward the medium. My Tatum and Celtics hate was at an all time high this playoffs. It was so gross watching them shoot threes 3 seconds into the shot clock or swinging it around and then shooting. The Knicks and Wolves have had offensive struggles this playoffs but have rebounded and become really entertaining and effective teams. The Tatum thing is obviously awful.
My Hornets got pick 4 and I'm really excited about edgecombe potentially. He and that Wright kid absolutely dominated big 12 competition as freshman. Lamelo-Edgecombe-Miller-Salaun (I still believe ok)-Williams sounds Pistons-esque.
My Hornets got pick 4 and I'm really excited about edgecombe potentially. He and that Wright kid absolutely dominated big 12 competition as freshman. Lamelo-Edgecombe-Miller-Salaun (I still believe ok)-Williams sounds Pistons-esque.
Hello, NBA fanbase. Enjoying your incredibly jank past week or two? Speaking as someone who was hoping to get more into basketball than I actually ended up doing this past year- there’s always next year, I suppose- I heard what happened with your draft lottery and I too have mixed feelings about the whole thing. However, I think there’s a larger issue at play here that not a lot of people are talking about, so since I’m at work right now and don’t want to get too distracted, I’ll save the second thing I wanted to post for later and leave you guys with a low effort meme I just made.
Hello again, everyone. My apologies for the double post. I was honestly expecting someone to beat me to the punch on what I’m about to say, but I guess I get first dibs. That being said, you know who’s not getting first dibs to the Western Conference finals this year? The freaking Warriors.
Yeah, so, uh, apparently last night the Timberwolves just knocked out the Warriors in five games, taking the series 4-1 with a 121-110 final score last night in a game I didn’t end up watching because I had to get ready for work today and I was too busy being distracted by the NFL schedule release. Honestly, good on Minnesota. The Timberwolves up to this point have managed an 8-2 playoff record, tied for the best mark with the Pacers of all teams, against two big-market teams in the Lakers and the Warriors, and between how their star players are playing and the way the playoff bracket’s looking, I feel like Minnesota sports fans have as good of a reason as any to be excited for their team to have as good a chance as any of the remaining teams to go all the way.
I mentioned that I wanted to wait on this in my first post, and I said that just in case the Warriors won last night’s game and/or managed a 3-1 series comeback like the Celtics are trying to do right now. Now that the Warriors have been eliminated and the Celtics need to win two more against the Knicks, though, I wanted to show you guys something I found on Wikipedia of all places. still on the fence about how I feel about major league sports and conspiracy theories, and me personally I would argue this excerpt I found sounds like more of a historical parity issue rather than a conspiracy theory like this was listed in that particular section. The excerpt I found reads as follows:
“Big-market team bias/Lack of parity
Some NBA fans have accused the league of conspiring to have large-market teams and popular players succeed in the postseason. Since 1980, every NBA Finals has involved at least one of the following teams: the Boston Celtics, Chicago Bulls, Detroit Pistons, Golden State Warriors, Houston Rockets, Los Angeles Lakers, Miami Heat, Phoenix Suns, or San Antonio Spurs. Additionally, in that span, every NBA Finals except for 2021 has involved at least one of the following All-Star players: Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Isiah Thomas, Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon, Shaquille O'Neal, Tim Duncan, Kobe Bryant, Jimmy Butler, LeBron James or Stephen Curry.”(I copy-pasted this straight from the Wikipedia page, that’s why all of these team and player names are hyperlinked)
I don’t care as much about the conspiracy theory side of this excerpt as much as I care about the actual teams and players that have seen success over the years. Every era of every sport is going to have dynasties, superteams, stuff like that. But the other reason I waited to post this is because, as of last night, this excerpt is officially outdated, as the only remaining players on that list that haven’t retired and we’re still in the playoffs are both on the Warriors this season, and Lebron’s Lakers had already been eliminated by this point. As for the list of big-market teams, the Celtics are now the only one remaining in this year’s bracket, but like I said, they have to win two more games back-to-back to make a comeback against the Knicks and even then they’ll have to fight off a red-hot Pacers team with playoff experience if they make it to the conference finals.
As an outsider looking in, I would welcome the change in scenery. It’s always nice to see different teams play in and hopefully win the NBA Finals for a change. More than anything, I just wanted to post this just to see what you guys think of this information. You guys here know a lot more about this league than I do, so I enjoy collecting people’s opinions so I can learn more. What do you guys think? Does this change anything? Is all of this nothing more than a bunch of word salad? Who would be the next young, talented All-Star to make a list like this one? Does any of this really matter at all? I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts.
NBA been scripted for years idk why this has been such a big topic. But anyway dubs lost because jimmy refuses to stop playing like a roleplayer and will pass open looks. Draymond is always gonna be draymond and Kerr has no idea how to play a team without Steph. All we needed was 1 win and Curry would return and this would be winnable, but again the Dubs let us down.
I listened to the Zach Lowe pod, and he said the only gm against flattening the lottery odds was Sam Presti. The reasoning for him was that high draft picks was the only way for small market teams to get superstars. I had never thought about it that way. It sucks that Utah went from 1 to 5. At least you guys still have Jordan Clarkson lol.
Yuna may pick the Wolves but I don't lean in that direction. Then again, my record in predicting them has been zero. They play way above their regular season perception.
They got the size to defend OKC, but what about the turnovers? OKC has forced more turnovers than any playoff team since 07 Warriors, and Wolves ranked worse than Denver on that end. OKC also has strong defenders in Caruso/Dort to contain Ant much better than past defenders in the previous rounds. Randle will likely have more of a green light since OKC lacks perimeter length. Doesn't mean Edwards will struggle but they may depend on Randle's passing more.
OKC feels like the more complete team. Not much one can really say to feel strongly in either direction.
They got the size to defend OKC, but what about the turnovers? OKC has forced more turnovers than any playoff team since 07 Warriors, and Wolves ranked worse than Denver on that end. OKC also has strong defenders in Caruso/Dort to contain Ant much better than past defenders in the previous rounds. Randle will likely have more of a green light since OKC lacks perimeter length. Doesn't mean Edwards will struggle but they may depend on Randle's passing more.
OKC feels like the more complete team. Not much one can really say to feel strongly in either direction.
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