Let me preface by saying I'm not dissing, but it's a question of would you rather lose or not compete at all. Most likely my team is getting swept on Sunday but it is what it is. I root for a NY team so I know our losses are gonna get completely hyped up and reveled in, but having watched every game this season I know how far we could have gotten barring a ton of injuries and overall fukkery so I keep it moving and look forward to next year. The crazy thing rooting for a team in NY tho is despite the Knicks not having won shyt for nearly 40 years, the fans and media can't just let shyt rock and develop. Besides mismanagement and poor decisions that mentality plays a part in the losing. You won't agree probably but the same can be said for the Jets.
See, I get where you're coming from. It's easier to handle first round losses if you feel like your team is on its way to something bigger later. For example, if I'm Utah, getting my ass beat by the Spurs doesn't feel as bad because you feel like you're on your way up. Knicks fans from what I gather feel bad because they're afraid that the team as constituted won't go much further than this going forward.
And I agree that the mentality makes things tougher, but with the Jets and Knicks, it's been almost 40 years for them. It's gotten to the point where the gap between titles is so huge, you feel like those titles in the early '70s for the Knicks didn't even happen.
I'd rather have this record than not be making the playoffs period like the Timberwolves, Kings or teams like that. And really, if we won game one and lost in five would you be less angry cause we avoided a pointless record? If we got to the second round and lost would you be cool with that? Too many fans are cool with moral victories. If you're not winning championships there's nothing to be happy about. It's like Bulls fans acting elite when the Knicks have been to the Finals more recently.
I'd definitely be cool with that cause it would note some sort of progress. Look breh we tanked for 2 years to get this squad, if I told you our team with two max players would get swept two straight years in 2010 you definitely would not sign up.
With the other option being what we had before either max player? Chill out fam
I know we had to do it but my point is lets not revise expectations. This wasn't supposed to be a 5 year rebuilding experiment we were supposed to begin competing right now. Check the preseason predictions and it was almost unanimous that people were expecting a top 4 finish and a playoff series win. I understand circumstances got in the way but another sweep is definitely a major disappointment anyway you look at it.
I'm not even trying to boast, but not everyone had the expectations that high. Cats dismissed what having Tony Douglas as our starter in D'Antoni's system really meant. I remember coming off like I was defending dude cause I kept asking people what they expected to happen when we started off horribly. Lin's emergence was pure luck and he got hurt. Baron never got to 100%. Melo and Amare were injured every other month. We went through a coaching change. We draw the runaway favorite to win the chip in the first round. Our best perimeter defender tears his ACL, our DPOY center catches the flu and plays like crap the first two games and one of our max players hurts himself after a game. Being disappointed is fine, but but being disappointed without factoring in reality is when all that delusional talk starts being merited.38-28 barring injury and any significant trades/signings.