DENVER NUGGETS (3) vs OKC THUNDER (3)
At this point to be honest I'm kinda hoping that the Thunder win, because I'm just sorta tired of seeing Denver. I heard one of the commentators say that Murray + Jokic have now been teammates for eight (consecutive) years, and I mean, who does that in the NBA anymore? Are we now going back to the old days, before videogame GM mode?
If the Nuggets are out there straight dominating dudes, okay. But if they have to struggle, you know what I mean? They won a championship just a season ago actually, and you know, whereas dudes are old, they ain't old like that.
But it's like if they wanted to keep the world's interest, then they should have won or at least made it to the Finals last season also. Besides having Michael Jordan, the 1990s' Bulls were able to say popular because they kept winning. Now I see that when a team falls off and someone else comes up and take the top spot, it's like they lose some popularity points. Jokic is arguably "the best player in the world", but he isn't particularly marketable. Dude needs to drop like a rap video or some shit.
I like watching Rudolph play. He's like a really big PF or a point-center, as I like to sometimes call him. You see teams like the Cavs and Knicks and even to some degree OKC running two Cs at the same time. That's the point I'm trying to make.
I hope this offseason, Denver finally makes some like major roster changes, whether they win a championship or not, because the clock is ticking, if not already expired. Westbrook is a spark of energy, but sometimes I see why people say he's too erratic. So I mean more of that Draymond type of swag, dudes who can like bang with Jokic in the post while not sacrificing their own game.
Man do I love me some Chet "Deadpool" Holmgren. "White Wemby" looks like someone took Ryan Reynolds and stretched him out by a foot. Remember that, two or three seasons ago, Wembanyama was actually drafted before Chet, but the latter was lucky enough to land on a team on the rise with an exceptional braintrust . He's had more opportunity, so to speak. That said, I intend to write something soon about the Spurs, i.e. them being 'lucky' in the 2025 Draft; Trump forcing Popovich to retire, etc.
BOSTON CELTICS (2) vs NEW YORK KNICKS (3)
When Tatum got hurt and I said that now it's almost inevitable the Knicks will win the series, let me reiterate that I wasn't predicting that NYK would win Game 5, even though they were quote/unquote supposed to. And with that said, it wouldn't be all that mind-blowing if they did go on to lose the series, because this is, after all, the New York Knicks. That's a statement you prolly wouldn't understand unless you were unfortunate enough to grow up in New York and thus be a lifelong Knicks' fan by default.
Being a Knicks' fan is not like, say, rooting for the Wizards. With the Wizards, you already know to expect like failure and mediocrity type shit.
Contrastingly, the Knicks are or were the most-valuable team in the NBA. That's another way of saying that they're not short on money and furthermore, as us fans know, aren't afraid to spend it. So most seasons they're able to field exceptional rosters, just for us to sit back and watch them flunk in one way or another. Lauren Hill was talking about that shit way back in 1996, and to this day, almost 30 years later, they still haven't brought home the Larry O'Brian.
Let me also reiterate that there has never been a consensus on who's better between Brown and Tatum. Jayson is more marketable within the context of, let's say Western culture. But remember that last season, when they won a championship, Jaylen was better throughout and won Finals MVP. I theorize that's why last summer with Team USA, Steve Kerr was like f*k Tatum, not that Brown is better, but he did deserve to be there more.
These dudes are the best SG-SF tandem since Jordan + Pippen, but one is not convincingly better than the other. And my point is that, the Knicks can choose to fall asleep if they want.
The NY Post is reporting that, you know, there's a lot of energy in NYC right now, in hopes that dudes put the Celtics to bed tonight at the Garden. To some degree I understand that anxiety, because remember that, Tatum or not, they do have homecourt advantage, and if this series goes back to Boston, smh.
If the Knicks do win this series, you know, they need to blow Boston out. Otherwise, considering how difficult a time they're having, it's not really anything for NYK to celebrate imo, winning two games on last second plays and then struggling to beat dudes with their star player out. The Knicks never give their fans an opportunity to relax.
GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS (1) vs MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES (4)
As far as I'm concerned, even though we're now two years after the fact, all things considered - such as them since going after aged players like CP3 and Jimmy Butler - when Golden State traded away Jordan Poole a couple of seasons ago, they also traded away their future. I like Jonathan Kuminga, but the idea of him, Podz and Moody leading the next generation of Warriors, given this team's standard of like the winningest of the last decade, that prospect doesn't really make me feel comfortable.
Poole, he may not be as good as I thought he was, but he did have that magic while in Golden State (i.e. "the Ewing effect") and was the on-court senior, the leader, amongst all the young dudes. Who's their young consensus leader now?
Trading him away because Draymond punched him and all that shit, why is everyone so afraid of Draymond? Either discipline Green or forget about the incident, but in any event move on. Butler is a better player than Poole, but that doesn't mean he fits better in the Dubs' run-and-chuck system.
And going back to this idea of seeing aged cores play together over multiple seasons, I mean I'm not super exicted about the prospect of Steph and Draymond once again teaming up. Grabbing Butler, on the surface, was a masterful move. It's not far fetched to believe that since they do have Curry, if he didn't injure himself or whatever, like dudes could've made it all the way to the Finals.
But who is it that actually believed or gambled that the older timers would endure like that? That's the problem with teams like Golden State and to some degree even the Cavs, lack of contingency plans. Meanwhile you have a team like Boston who's most popular goes down, but their opponent is still nervous lol.
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