ITS THE OFFS BABY THE 2023 NBA PLAYOFFS

8-5-6 in 23 minutes, +8

:-/

you know who else had a good game my guy christian braun, that guy competes hustles gets his hands on balls (in the good way)

suns will win game 3 and i think thats it. durant way too much of an afterthought in this 'offense'

Durant took 27 shots to get 24 points that is not good

the game just looks noticeably difficult for him in the playoffs now. aaron gordon is a good wing defender but it’s not like he’s gonna make all defense. the durant that everyone just assumes still exists hasn’t showed up in a high level playoff series in two calendar years. the clock is ticking

good thing phoenix didnt just trade away their future for him haha

I still think he has one or two big games in him this series yet but yeah both this and the Kyrie trade seemed dumb because they only work if you assume your superstar is going to be healthy and playing at a high level for like 65+ games and the playoffs, which we know just ain't gonna be the case going forward

sucks for Phoenix because they kinda looked like they were gonna be competitive for a while even post-CP3. now who knows. I'm surprised they were as good as they were this year. if they do lose this series the vibes are gonna be pretty bad there and Ayton will get traded for a sack of potatoes

nets sitting pretty right now tho lol

i think you could have looked in the abstract at the time the trade was made and said that phoenix's best chance was not going to be this year but next year. maybe depth can be overrated and maybe continuity can be overrated, but lack of both seems pretty likely to be damaging. unfortunately for them cp3 and ayton are looking worse and worse as both players and assets and i don't see this management team getting creative enough to build actual depth for another run.

wonder what theyll get when they trade kd, def not as much as they gave up

i feel like all the recent superstar trades have been defended by nba talking heads with "well you can't NOT do it!" but ummm maybe you shouldn't trade your entire future for one player? the track record of doing that is looking completely horrible

especially in 2023. you can win with one top tier dude and a great rotation. not sure you can win with two top tier dudes and a handful of borderline nba replacement players

def a ton of groupthink in the nba media that hadst caught up to new realities im sure the damn will burst soon tho

suns messed up by not trading Cp and Ayton when they had trade value.

yeah everyone saw a bunch of Big Three teams winning and then...built Big Two teams? it's not quite enough

or big threes where one or more of the three was clearly a fraud

so in that build a team with $15 dollars, don't spend $12 on 2 top tier players?

but ummm maybe you shouldn't trade your entire future for one player? the track record of doing that is looking completely horrible

― J0rdan S., Tuesday, May 2, 2023 11:27 AM (twenty-nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

was gonna say "well it worked for the Warriors and Durant" but then I remembered they didn't trade for him he just signed as a free agent

jrue holiday is prob the one trade you'd throw in there as a success but it's also tied to the miracle of having giannis

especially in 2023. you can win with one top tier dude and a great rotation. not sure you can win with two top tier dudes and a handful of borderline nba replacement players

― Spottie, Tuesday, May 2, 2023 12:33 PM (thirty-five minutes ago)

i can't find it right now but i'm reminded of the hollinger article from i believe last year about how the playoffs are morphing into a game where the quality of your worst player on the floor is almost as important as the quality of your best player. every team is out there hunting weak links on both sides of the floor... and when your team is 10 weak links and 2 great players?? teams are too good now at figuring out how to counterbalance that by repeatedly pressing on your pain points

yup. i think bill mentioned it recently but maybe the suns didnt need to include cam johnson in that trade? even just hanging on to him could have had dramatic impact on this roster.

yeah i thought that was a good point. the nets clearly had the suns new owner over a barrel

jrue also a case of breaking the bank for a 3rd strong player not a 2nd

the one success is AD to the Lakers but even if you don't want to put an asterisk on that chip, the particular alignment of circumstances played a big role. star player who can't stay healthy gets an abbreviated season with no travel

and then obv it all fell apart quick (redemption arc tbd)

that lakers chip was an absolute fluke that would not have happened with out the sweet shooting epcot center gym

you can still get two stars you just cant gut it completely, and you have to develop the rest and be successful on fringe moves. the lakers were a good example of this but then turned it around completely at the trade deadline by bringing in like 4 playable rotation guys plus a new found confidence from reaves. and AD and Bron hgh cycles kicked in and they started playing like top 20 players again.

that lakers chip was an absolute fluke that would not have happened with out the sweet shooting epcot center gym

― lag∞n, Tuesday, May 2, 2023 2:26 PM (twenty-four minutes ago)

this is one of my favorite topics so excuse me but the bubble also makes ppl forget how much of an anomaly that year was just in terms of the basketball

-- the defending champs were the raptors, kawhi leaves, they're basically over as contenders before the season starts
-- the warriors are w/o KD and klay, steph breaks his hand, they immediately pivot to being one of the worst teams in the league
-- KD is just out of the league this season. one year later he nearly drags the broken down nets to the title. kyrie also skips the bubble
-- the bucks are one month away from making the jrue trade. stuck w/ eric bledsoe they get smoked in the playoffs
-- the suns are one month away from making the chris paul trade. they make it into the bubble but not the playoffs
-- the rockets, the other defining team of the dubs-cavs era, make the panic westbrook trade which tanks their team
-- the celtics are still in the kemba/heyward era w/ two young stars that are still a few years away

and oh let's not forget that they miraculously avoid the clippers in the west finals & both dragic and bam get hurt in game 1 of the finals. the heat go down 2-0 w/ crowder, herro, robinson, olynyk, igoudala, nunn & meyers leonard being the only other guys getting minutes in game 2 around butler. the heat take 2 of the next 3 while getting bam back, but the first two games ultimately sink them.

i do think the lakers were prob the best team that year. they were the 1 seed in the west & had the best defense in the league. but even putting the bubble aside that was a weird ahistorical one of a kind type year that dropped a title in their laps like it was the end of a rube goldberg machine

such a weird season. didnt jimmy role his ankle in the finals too?

that lakers chip was an absolute fluke that would not have happened with out the sweet shooting epcot center gym

all the team playing in the same arena iirc

all true but I don't like when people say it as a ding against LeBron's legacy, like "no he has 3 titles and the BUBBLE CHAMPIONSHIP". if any player deserved a "cheap" one it's LeBron James...no disrespect to Jordan but things may look a lot different if he had to keep going through a buzzsaw like the KD Warriors

its ok to give bron a hard time he can take it

they won the final game of the playoff format that was provided and the banner looks the same as the other ones hanging in the rafters. if the celtics won you'll would be talking about how grueling the bubble was or some shit.

i do think all the stuff i mentioned mattered a lot more than the bubble... the bubble absolutely pushed davis to offensive heights via long range shooting that were a disney mirage but look at what the heat were doing

no sorry that one was a fluke and in fact im striking it from the record books xp

the bubble was weird af but counts imo

too late

Heat say Jimmy Butler is OUT for Game 2.

— Andrew Lopez (@_Andrew_Lopez) May 2, 2023

o jeez

the thing where every seed from 1-8 is represented in the 8 remaining teams is freaking me out

yeah the highest seed playing tonight is the #5 new york knicks baby

heat happy to steal game 1

the brackets shaking out such that the high seed teams cant even knock out the low seed ones in this round is doubly weird. could legit have a 7 and an 8 seed in the conference finals

heat happy to steal game 1

― Spottie, Tuesday, May 2, 2023 6:28 PM (one minute ago)

also more than most teams they have a specific strategy for when their best player sits that has led to success in the past

and game 3 isn't until saturday so jimmy basically gets a week off

i cant imagine joel tries to play tomorrow either. got game 1 now head home and rest

if the heat win this game im sorry we need to call off the series and cancel the knicks.

knicks are fine cmon 5 seed shouldnt be expected to be a huge favorite even vs the 8 seed

gsw/lal is probably going to break some viewership records