ISO
Pass me the rock nikka
Everyone is dealing with injuries. Giannis himself is injured now, the Bucks haven't had Donte DiVincenzo all playoffs. I don't know why you think think they had no business being competitive with the Hawks. It's like if series aren't straight up sweeps y'all not satisifed that's not how the playoffs works. I saw the lowly Hawks and Cavs take a 66 win Celtics team to 7 games in '08, I then saw the Celtics beat the Lakers in 6 games and whip them by 40 to close out. It's the playoffs it's about match ups, adjustments, execution. How close was this Hawks series? The Bucks won the series with a double digit margin of victory. The Hawks stole the games they won with a 48 piece from Trae in the first game and a throwback Lou Will performance in that game Giannis got hurt. Also, all this downplaying of the Hawks when they have been one of the hottest teams in basketball since hiring Nate McMillian and they spent a bunch of $ this season bolstering the roster with firepower.The Hawks were a lower level conference finals team that were already dealing with injuries to Bogdan and Hunter. They had no business being competitive with the Bucks and yet they were when Giannis was healthy. The series would have likely went 6 or 7 games if both Trae and Giannis didn’t suffer injuries.
The Nets were not built to withstand injuries to their stars. They were a team that went all in on being the greatest offense in NBA history by trading away their depth for a top 10 player. To suggest that they were a championship level team without Kyrie and Harden is just disingenuous.. I mean Blake Griffin was getting the bulk of their center minutes and the Bucks still struggled to score efficiently for most of the series. The Bucks looked like the inferior team when Kyrie was healthy and Harden was out and they struggled to beat the Nets when both Kyrie and Harden were injured.
If all things are equal, the Bucks are like the 4th or 5th best team in the league. Neither the Bucks nor the Suns should be punished for making the finals but these are important distinctions to make when discussing all-time rankings.
The Nets big man rotation was their weakness all year. They still had depth between Harris, Brown, Griffin, Green, Shamet. Griffin at the 5 was their advantage the Nets stayed exploiting Lopez with small ball line-ups and abusing him in P&R. The Nets wouldn't be able to do that with DeAndre Jordan playing. It's a luxury to have a guy like Blake Griffin as a role player. The smaller line-ups made them more switchable and allowed them to defend better too. It was by no means a easy series because again Durant was playing the best basketball of his career. I had the Nets winning it all healthy but they weren't healthy and might never be. I don't penalize Giannis for this he did what he was supposed to and matched the play of Durant, who is a top 15'er himself in a great series. Kyrie and Harden also weren't out all series lol. Kyrie played the first 3.5 games and Harden was around 60% the final two. In that final game Harden choked like he always does with wide open bricks and dumb ass, low I.Q. TO's. If Kyrie and Harden were fully healthy and Giannis lost y'all would hold that against him even though the Nets are stacked. So tell me how that work?
I also don't believe the Suns and Bucks are just the 4th or 5th best teams in the league. They too have had injuries these playoffs and throughout the year they were two of the best teams in the game. I had the Suns as the West's best team coming into the playoffs and the Bucks as the East's second best team. The Jrue and CP3 pick ups were big for both teams, and they have two of the most complete, foul proof rosters in the game. Again it doesn't seem like y'all want parity or non-sexy names/markets in the Finals. That same energy also isn't being kept when it come to other teams and players Finals runs in history.
Last edited: