Pros and Joes Basketball Addict: First Round
2018 NBA PLAYOFFS: FIRST ROUND
Hello, my name is Dylan and I am a basketball addict.
Seriously. Without basketball, I’d go into withdrawal immediately and lose my mind shortly after. During the summer, I legitimately get yelled at by all my friends and family to stop watching blow out Orlando Summer League games.
I was high school teammates and have worked with Frank Kaminsky on and off the court since the day he was drafted (I also bust his ass 1v1 quite frequently). I also walked onto the basketball team at Marquette University in 2012 and played there for a couple seasons. By played there, I mean I got my ass kicked by Buzz in workouts every day and was put into a few games here and there. After college, I spent a season interning with the Chicago Bulls which was great because I was actually paid to go watch my favorite childhood team. I worked directly under a guy named John Ligmanowski, who has worked inside the Bulls locker room since 1983, and boy does he have some great stories about those 90s Bulls teams. I’ve played pickup basketball with Scottie Pippen and he once muttered “Damn, that white boy can dunk.” A true highlight of mine. I also talked basketball with Michael Jordan for 5 minutes last summer, so you know it’s real. I even spent eternity chained up on Moron Mountain playing 1 on 1, but always losing. I’ve been around the NBA game for 4 years now and have watched more basketball than I’d ever like to admit. I have seen how a professional locker room works inside and out and think I can offer some insight to anyone who cares.
I’m here to tell you that even talking about the first round of this year’s playoffs is a complete waste of time. Do you want to know why?
Because a coward named Kevin Durant packed his gucci bags and joined a 73-9 team after squandering a 3-1 lead to that very team 6 weeks prior. Since that soft-ass move, almost nothing that has happened in the NBA (from a fan’s perspective) has mattered, including the playoffs that are currently going on. The Warriors used to be authentic and fun. Created from great draft picks and awesome player development. Steph and Klay took the NBA by storm with their incredible, never-before-seen shooting tandem, but then KD came and ruined it. While these playoffs have been relatively fun so far, the whole point of it all is to see what the final outcome is. Who is going to win that championship? We’ve known the answer since the summer of 2016. How fun would March Madness be if everyone knew who the Final Four was going to be every year? It would take away the fun right? Can you say anti-climatic? Well that’s exactly what KD has done, he has sucked the fun out of it for everyone that does not call themselves a Warriors fan. **raise your hand if you were a Heat fan 3 years ago** Absolutely no one from the Eastern Conference can even push the Warriors to 6 games in the Finals. The Cavs couldn’t last year even when they were GOOD, and they suck suck suck suck now. LeBron is still incredible, but he can’t take down 2 superstars and 2 all-stars by himself…he could hardly drag his Cavs past a team whose second scoring option is Bojan Bogdanovic. It would take a divine miracle from the hands of Jesus Christ the Savior himself for LeBron to beat GS this year.
When healthy, the Warriors are un-fucking-beatable. They are 5-1 in the playoffs so far without Steph Curry (a top 3 player in the world). When Steph was on the floor this year, the Warriors scored 120.4 points per 100 possessions, the best rating by any player in the past 20 seasons. Yeah, good luck beating a team that has that guy ON TOP of 3 All-Stars, in addition to seasoned veterans like Iguodala and Livingston. They are also able to keep their team together in this day and age much more easily because of the salary cap increase this past season. KD has also publicly said he’d take pay cuts in order to help keep the roster together (that motherf*****).
The Houston Rockets, kudos to them, have put together a team that could possibly, maybe, perhaps beat the Warriors. It’s within the tiniest realm of possibility and I truly thank Rockets GM Daryl Morey for giving us a glimmer of hope: to at least have some sort of narrative change in the playoffs. They would have to catch the 3 best shooters and 2 of the top 3 players in the world on off nights for 4 games in order to have a chance to win. The Rockets beat them in the regular season a few times yes, but the regular season is a whole different game than the playoffs. Who would you rather have?
Curry or Chris Paul? KD or Harden? Klay or Eric Gordon? Draymond or anyone else on the Rockets? The answers should be quite obvious.
The only advantage the Rockets has is Clint Capela and sorry to tell you that simply isn’t enough.
I almost feel sorry for NBA owners and GMs right now because they have to worry about beating such an unfair team. They have to figure out how to continue to put fans in the stands while not ruining their future by trying to scrap together a team that can compete for a championship because some coward decided that he couldn’t do it on his own. I don’t blame that coward for leaving OKC. I’m sure playing with Russell Westbrook, a player who is willing to shoot 82 times in 2 games isn’t easy…but he could have gone ANYWHERE else and it would have been fine. There’s no other combination of players that you could possibly put together to beat them. The NBA is predicated by the 3 ball now and GS has the best shooters in the world on their side. I feel bad for the players as well. I know for a fact that a lot of players straight up know that for the next 5 years they basically have no chance at winning a championship. It sucks the fun out of it for them as well.
Right now all NBA teams can do is try to find young talent, keep their salary cap as low as possible and let Father Time take care of the unbeatable Warriors over the next 3 to 4 years.
Example: The Boston Celtics.
Next year, the average age of their starting five, who will win the Eastern Conference, will be right around 25 years old. The average age of the Warriors starting five will be right above 30 years old. The Celtics are going to be very good in the upcoming seasons. They made it to the second round of the playoffs with a bunch of young players and without their superstar point guard. Can they beat the Warriors within the next 2 seasons? Hell no! But their core nucleus can outlast them. Father Time will eventually right the ship and start making up for the colossal pussy move that was Kevin Wayne Durant going to Golden State. Danny Ainge sees the writing on the wall and is putting together a team that can beat the Warriors once age slows them down a bit. Other teams should try and follow what Danny Ainge is currently doing.