NBA (and Raptors) 2024 Season

[SuperMatt18]

Originally Posted by GreenLantern2814

You’re right - LeBron’s whole thing is “why don’t you think I’m as great as MJ?”

Durant’s is “why don’t you think I’m as great as LeBron?”

Ironically, the answer to both is “because you’re not.”

Thing is I'd argue that Lebron is a lot closer to MJ than Durant is to Lebron.

And TBH Lebron is closer to MJ than Kobe is to Lebron or MJ, but that's a whole other discussion.

[Kasi]

Originally Posted by GreenLantern2814

The Bengals will be relevant as long as Joe Burrow is upright.

Anthony Edwards is at the very beginning of his career - the only way they won’t continue to contend indefinitely is if they try to build a super team instead of real one.

One star isn’t really enough. I agree you don’t need a three star super team but they need a legitimate second option. Who are they going to surround ANT with after giving up so much for Gobert? I’m of the mind that Towns is just a bad secondary option. Can they get enough by trading him?

Pretty sure Bengals will never sniff anything with this current crew. They’ve lost too much talent. They had their shot when burrows was cheap but some weak drafts plus attrition I think has killed their window.

[Hockey_Ninja]

The Nuggets are getting destroyed yeesh

[Senator Clay Davis]

Outside of the Knicks-Sixers series these playoffs have been pretty crap. Lots of noncompetitive games and some poor quality ball.

[GreenLantern2814]

Originally Posted by SuperMatt18

Thing is I'd argue that Lebron is a lot closer to MJ than Durant is to Lebron.

And TBH Lebron is closer to MJ than Kobe is to Lebron or MJ, but that's a whole other discussion.

You can actually define the separation between MJ, LeBron and KD by the quality of their movies.

Space Jam - Iconic

Space Jam 2 - a pale imitation that doesn’t understand why the original is so beloved.

Thunderstruck - makes Kazaam look like Aladdin. But only after you remember both movies actually exist.

[trackercowe]

I had no idea that Thunderstruck movie existed till now. I'm certain I'm not the only one either.

[Hockey_Ninja]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

You know if we're going to slag off LeBron as a coach killer, Durant is just as bad. With Vogel now fired that makes six coaches fired since 2019. Evaluating Durant's legacy is going to very interesting.

KD is one of the greatest scorers of all-time. But he lacks a certain edge and demeanor that you'd see in the usual players you'd see in a top 10 list. He won two straight finals MVP's but Steph was still considered the leader of those Warriors teams. I think if KD was able to lead the Nets to a ring his legacy would've looked a lot better. But we all know how that ended.....

[Paulie Walnuts]

Pacers taking it to the Knicks.

Can’t believe that cavs beat writer bagged Malika Andrew’s.

[DropIt]

PACERS!

Halliburton and Turner are absolute gamers.

McConnell, Nesmith, Nembard in support were great.
Now tonget railroaded by Boston

[Kasi]

Knicks even if they won were too beat up to beat Boston. Pacers won two of five against Boston this year. Do I think they’ll beat them? Not really but they can score a ton of points and could get into some fun track meet games. Boston can go into some scoring variation because they rely so much on three point shooting. Aka some games like this game seven here and the pacers could make things interesting.

[Hockey_Ninja]

The Celtics really have one of the softest paths to the finals we've seen in a while

[Strange Brew]

T-Wolves might do this.

[Mathgod]

What a meltdown by the so called champs. Congrats to Minny.

[Hockey_Ninja]

What a game from Naz Reid off the bench. Really happy for the Wolves. I'm officially on their bandwagon

[Senator Clay Davis]

Celtics gotta be the biggest favorites in recent memory, should be a breeze for them.

[trackercowe]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

Celtics gotta be the biggest favorites in recent memory, should be a breeze for them.

To go all the way, or beat the Pacers? I think if the Wolves get past the Mavericks they can take Boston. Tatum and Brown have always had problems closing out big games. Hockey-Ninja is right, they've had the easiest path to the finals. With Embid, Giannis, and Butler's injuries the East is back to being a joke. The Celtics themselves had some luck when Mitchell and Allen missed time... The Celtics are basically the Oilers of the NBA.

[Jason14h]

Originally Posted by Mathgod

What a meltdown by the so called champs. Congrats to Minny.

Only two guys weren’t terrified to touch the ball for them basically all series

At the end of the game Jokic basically looked like me after a pickup game gasping for air

[Senator Clay Davis]

Originally Posted by trackercowe

To go all the way, or beat the Pacers? I think if the Wolves get past the Mavericks they can take Boston. Tatum and Brown have always had problems closing out big games. Hockey-Ninja is right, they've had the easiest path to the finals. With Embid, Giannis, and Butler's injuries the East is back to being a joke. The Celtics themselves had some luck when Mitchell and Allen missed time... The Celtics are basically the Oilers of the NBA.

It's the NBA in 2024, upsets are always possible if a team can get hot from three. But the only reason the Celtics have even lost the two games they've lost so far is their propensity for just taking games off. Wolves are a nice story, but they needed a complete meltdown from the Nuggets to win the series, they'll likely need the same from the Celtics who are better than the Nuggets. It has been an easy path for the Celtics, but it's also just the NBA now has reached peak mediocrity, the same Pacers who are in the conference finals now were 12 games under .500 last year, and could easily be 12 games under .500 next year. The NBA finally has the kind of parity the NFL has, albeit with the product being far worse because of it.