nba playoffs aka the 'offs (which includes the 'ins) 2021

it actually kinda sucks for the mavs that luka was so good so fast if he had a more normal rookie progression theyd have been able to make another lottery pick or two

umm Dirk was actually selected by the Milwaukee Bucks

being out of the lottery without getting another foundational guy to run with luka def makes their job harder

seems like theyre pretty much on a path to needing to get a guy or two through free agency, tho trades arent out of the question but they dont exactly have blockbuster assets

maybe get a very good player through free agency and trade picks and spare parts for a #3 guy

so their path to improvement is already limited partially due to circumstance and some to their own actions, the zinger trade/signing is obvs a big swing and miss that ties up their salary cap for the next couple years, being bad for a few years pre luka and not coming away with any guys is not great either, but as mentioned they do have luka and a dece team that just lacks secondary high end talent, improvement to champ level is def doable... but will they execute lol

we knew when the Luka/Trae trade happened it would be Analyzed And Discussed For Years To Come. very comforting to see things playing out just as predicted

lol yeah

Still haven’t figured out why the Hawks felt like it was toss up between the two but I’m glad they’ve recovered

luka skepticism prob mostly hinged on anti euro bias and his lack of athleticism, or sometimes ancient balkan blood feuds

My theory is they wanted to do a fancy tier drafting system and well tiers suck when you have too many of them so maybe stick those two guys together

one thing that i think is pretty clear is anyone who dominates in a top european league as a teen should be taken extremely seriously as an nba prospect

i thought it was kinda silly at the time that people were rolling out the usual euro-player criticisms. he was putting up better euro-league numbers as a 17-year-old than successful nba players like nikola mirotic were putting up at 22

yeah obvs a huge mistake, the history of nba euro buzz and bust is kinda funny after dirk there was a big run on euros who mostly didnt pan out then a long fallow period and now weve got luka jokic and giannis dominating

Rubio had insane hype, hard to compare but maybe Luka levels? That mightve been a cautionary tale the Hawks bought into

yeah guys like him def scared teams off, jokic went in the second round ffs, giannis 15th, hard to imagine any of them slipping as far as they did if they had played in the ncaa

schlenk came from the dubs and he wanted to build the dubs east

this fear of euro draft busts is odd considering for every euro bust there have probably been 10 locally sourced busts

yeah its dumb

pic.twitter.com/fy0C3qjtZS

— giri (@girinathan) May 26, 2021

if he's chis paul level his whole career i will be content

― Heez, Wednesday, May 26, 2021 3:54 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

did you say this just to make me angry

lmao

i enjoyed that one.

starting elfrid payton is effectively spotting the other team a ten point lead

its weird

rose and quickley also played amazing last game, sparked the whole offense

knicks hoisting a lil too hard here

knicks seem like theyre playing good but then the hawks are always still ahead

and randle has turned into a pumpkin

The mavs are a great organization because they made 2 great draft picks in 23 years

(sorry to be continuing this conversation but i was on a plane for the last 3 hours)

(i’m rooting for the hawks)

i'm on a plane (mmmmm)
i still complain (mmmm)

Jordan, I just read your posts upthread in stephen a smith’s voice, and i got some good chuckles out of it.

look at the mavs... drafting two hall of fame players that are going to give them 30 years of success... and they think they’re a good franchise. if only they had top 30 offensive player colin sexton then they might be onto something

(sorry to be continuing this conversation but i was on a plane for the last 3 hours)

― J0rdan S., Wednesday, May 26, 2021 8:43 PM (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

wow didnt it have wifi

trae is destroying the knicks werent they supposed to have good d whats goin on

guys keep talking about how the knicks’ bench is out scoring their starters without mentioning that they don’t start their best players

kenny finally brought that up lol

Rip wizards. Rwb turned his ankle

ah well

some asshole in philly dumped popcorn on him as he was walking to the tunnel. the fans are back baby!

lol philly

That’s lame but philly lol

Russ got heated after a fan threw popcorn at him pic.twitter.com/XyMRUxUVwc

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) May 27, 2021

russ shouldve been allowed to punch that guy once

randle is good again

The garden is rockin love to see it

knicks fans having to be excited about this team is so pathetic

omg let them live