LET'S GO CELTICS!
Do I believe the Celtics can beat the Heat four times in a row? Yes. Do I actually think that will happen? No, not really, since they're already pretty deep in a hole. Also, Boston's interior defense - especially when Robert Williams is on the bench, which he seems to be a lot - absolutely, positively sucks. And on that note, I'm hoping that this offseason teams around the NBA will once again realize that shotblocking, or at least the threat of being able to do so, really is a thing in basketball.
SHOUTOUT TO NIKOLA JOKIC
I knew this was going to happen. The NBA was dickridin Nikola Jokic so hard the last couple of seasons, giving him MVPs he didn't really deserve (as compared to other players), that when it finally did get around to him actually deserving it they'd have to give to someone else, i.e. Joel Embiid, who got flunked out of the Playoffs.
I've had my eyes on Jokic for awhile, ever since back in the day when the Nuggets were debating whether to trade him or Jusuf Nurkic. Obviously, their braintrust made the right decision. And that's one thing I've been saying about Denver for the longest, that they have one of the better braintrusts, even if they haven't won a championship yet. For instance, when was the last time the Nuggets were actually garbage?
And on that note, just like you can't mention Jordan without Pippen, you also can't mention Jokic without Murray. Holding on to Jamal Murray is another bold move the Nuggets made, one that a year or two ago I definitely didn't support. The Nuggets, upon staying healthy, are finally about to prove that they're the best team in the NBA.
SHOULD LEBRON RETIRE?
Lebron may be acting emotional, but I believe that by this point he must be accustomed to the Lakers getting their asses bust. Post-bubble, LAL has been one of worst and arguably most-disappointing team in the NBA. So it ain't like them losing is really anything new, though it is a stark contrast from earlier in LBJ's career, when he was able to lead a team of nobodies to the Finals.
I've been advocating for Lebron to retire for the longest, but now, I don't really know. Imo he's one of only four players - besides Dame, Mitchell and especially Curry - who can score 40 points on any team at will. The problem with Lebron though is that at this age, he doesn't play defense for shit. And the fact that no one in the mainstream media seems ever mentions that, that LBJ doesn't even make semi-consistent defensive effort these days, is like a coverup or something.
Another problem is that, as I've also been pointing out for at least 2-3 months now, he and AD don't play particularly well together. This is in part because AD has his own issues in terms of being able to effectively play defense. But here we have the Lakers giving arguably the two most important defensive positions in basketball, C and PF, to one player who's (relatively) old AF and another who has a number of injury issues.
The Lakers' braintrust is like the opposite of the Nuggets. LAL relies more on luck than strategy or effective roster construction. For instance why now, after all this time, they suddenly decided that LBJ shouldn't run the point? Now that they finally have the type of players - like Hachimura, Beasley, Vanderbilt, Walker and even Austin "Sound White" Reaves - to surround PG King James with wings, why now do you insist to have Russell and Schroder bringing the ball up the court and having one of them on the floor at all times? It became obvious after Game 1 that the small-guard strategy was not going to work against the Nuggets.
So in terms of Lebron retiring, I don't know. But the Lakers have to do a better job of recognizing and accommodating his aged, though still offensively-great, skillset.
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