On the eve of the finals

[Spud2nique]

1 minute ago, AHF said:

I want to see the Warriors before ruling them out for the playoffs.  Remember that with them out of the picture it only took 40 wins to make the playoffs in the West this season.  

That said, they are at risk for losing several players to FA and others to entire rehab seasons so a lost season is not hard to foresee.

They may want to even lean into it ala the Spurs and tank the season and hope to get lucky in the lottery.  How terrible would it be to see them get lucky and land a top pick under the new lottery odds?  

Adam Silver would be happy once again!

 

Sid anyone catch Silver in the background when the Raps were celebrating? He HATED it! HATE! I bet he lost money on his boys.

[MaceCase]

5 minutes ago, Spud2nique said:

Organic is the way to go! That’s what I loved about the 80’s. If Isiah would have joined the Lakers in 87 or 88, I would have hated it then as well. 

Its like all the best kids in the playground want to be on the same team. It’s stupid. Pick captains and take turns. 

How bout this lineup:

Magic/Jordan/Dominique/K. Malone/Mark McNamara

aka a donut  

 

  yes sir! 

Well, from what I remember, free agency didn't exist until the very end of the 80s and even then, guys were regularly signed to 7-10 year deals already so that made many fantasies moot.  I however got nothing against a key signing and/or crafty trades as many of my fav champs were built like that. 

My issue was the Dubs were NBA record 73-9 good....and KD pushed them to the brink in the WCF (choked really, but he could have had them), then decided to join up with them after...  That was just.... just awful.  I didn't mind the Heatles, those guys weren't winning on their own so them forming together was like, yea, I get it.  You're not going to beat the Night King alone so unite your armies against him, don't go toe to toe with him and decide last minute "naw, it's cooler on this side".

[MaceCase]

18 minutes ago, Spud2nique said:

Adam Silver would be happy once again!

 

Sid anyone catch Silver in the background when the Raps were celebrating? He HATED it! HATE! I bet he lost money on his boys.

I think he was more nervous about having to speak publicly, he never shook that puberty voice crack thing.

[marco102]

With warriors out who do you guys have taking the west? I want Denver or Portland!

[AHF]

11 minutes ago, marco102 said:

With warriors out who do you guys have taking the west? I want Denver or Portland!

The next teams are close enough that you need to see what happens this summer, IMO.  Even third tier teams like Utah and OKC could get significantly more or less interesting with a move or two.

[Spud2nique]

24 minutes ago, MaceCase said:

Well, from what I remember, free agency didn't exist until the very end of the 80s and even then, guys were regularly signed to 7-10 year deals already so that made many fantasies moot.  I however got nothing against a key signing and/or crafty trades as many of my fav champs were built like that. 

My issue was the Dubs were NBA record 73-9 good....and KD pushed them to the brink in the WCF (choked really, but he could have had them), then decided to join up with them after...  That was just.... just awful.  I didn't mind the Heatles, those guys weren't winning on their own so them forming together was like, yea, I get it.  You're not going to beat the Night King alone so unite your armies against him, don't go toe to toe with him and decide last minute "naw, it's cooler on this side".

No doubt I agree. I’ve written a lot on Benedict Arnold Durant. But you gotta do what you gotta do. Look at Horry. Horry was a starter though, KD was a top 5 guy at the time. If you can’t beatem, joinem mentality is mad weak imo.

23 minutes ago, marco102 said:

With warriors out who do you guys have taking the west? I want Denver or Portland!

I like Denver because of the style of Joker and one of my fav x Hawks Sap. The Blazers are a nice small market team too. I like them both. Why not!

[JayBirdHawk]

1 hour ago, MaceCase said:

I will say, it was incredibly easy for me to root for the Warriors when it was just their original trio of Steph, Klay, and Dray out there.  That was the organic core before the KD cheat code, I wanted that game 7, I don't know a ball fan that wouldn't root for that.

[cam1218]

I'm really glad the Raptors pulled this off. I hated to see Thompson go down though. I'm not putting any asterisk on this championship, Leonard was the best player in the series and they went 3-0 in Golden State. That alone is impressive enough. Everyone will always talk about the injuries, but that is part of the game and they weren't coming from dirty Raptor play, like Dellavedova going low on Korver.

On a site note, did anybody see the Doris Burke interviews during the trophy presentation? I'm glad she is willing to ask some tough questions, but it was awkward and I'm thinking to myself just let these guys celebrate. She brought up free agency to Leonard, asked about Derozan to Lowry, asked Gasol about his old teammates in Memphis (with a vibe of you left for better things and they didn't get to win a championship this season), and I feel like she was trying to get something out of Nurse about Casey not being there. There might have been more, but Doris was dropping the hammer on them.

[Spud2nique]

2015

2016

2017*

2018*

2019

 

How I see it.

[AHF]

Since I almost overlooked it and others might have too, congrats to 2019 Hawk Jeremy Lin on his first ring!

[High5]

I joined RealGm back in '06 and I've hated (not really, but kind of) Raptors fans ever since. And their behavior during these Finals did not improve my opinion of them. It's a sad day to see them win a championship. They were obnoxious enough when they were getting bounced by LeBron every year. Warriors fans aren't much better (winning brings out the worst of all fanbases), but they already had 3 recent championships to boast about. One more wouldn't matter.

At least Celtics fans aren't celebrating. And the Bruins lost the other night as well (not that I care about hockey). Gotta find the positives. 

[kg01]

25 minutes ago, AHF said:

The next teams are close enough that you need to see what happens this summer, IMO.  Even third tier teams like Utah and OKC could get significantly more or less interesting with a move or two.

Sheesh, what a fence-sittin' answer.  Grab yer ***s and answer the question, AH.  We all know it's subject to change.

38 minutes ago, marco102 said:

With warriors out who do you guys have taking the west? I want Denver or Portland!

I can see DEN/POR battling it out for the top just like MIL/TOR did in the east this year.

[AHF]

1 minute ago, kg01 said:

Sheesh, what a fence-sittin' answer.  Grab yer ***s and answer the question, AH.  We all know it's subject to change.

I can see DEN/POR battling it out for the top just like MIL/TOR did in the east this year.

As of today, I'd bet on Houston.

[JayBirdHawk]

4 minutes ago, High5 said:

At least Celtics fans aren't celebrating. And the Bruins lost the other night as well (not that I care about hockey). Gotta find the positives. 

[kg01]

Just now, High5 said:

I joined RealGm back in '06 and I've hated (not really, but kind of) Raptors fans ever since. And their behavior during these Finals did not improve my opinion of them. It's a sad day to see them win a championship. They were obnoxious enough when they were getting bounced by LeBron every year. Warriors fans aren't much better (winning brings out the worst of all fanbases), but they already had 3 recent championships to boast about. One more wouldn't matter.

At least Celtics fans aren't celebrating. And the Bruins lost the other night as well (not that I care about hockey). Gotta find the positives. 

Agreed.  Only saving grace is this'll likely be a one-off championship.  They could bottom out fast depending on what Kawhi does and what Masai chooses to do with his own career.

Seeing the Warriors lose is worth having the gawd-awful Rapts fans 'get one'.

6 minutes ago, AHF said:

As of today, I'd bet on Houston.

I thought about them but I'm expecting a steep decline in Paul's play and his relationship with Har_en.

[Thomas]

20 minutes ago, High5 said:

At least Celtics fans aren't celebrating.

Yes indeed. Number one wish is always the Hawks taking it all and number two is the Celtics not taking jack.

[kg01]

1 hour ago, MaceCase said:

I will say, it was incredibly easy for me to root for the Warriors when it was just their original trio of Steph, Klay, and Dray out there.  That was the organic core before the KD cheat code, I wanted that game 7, I don't know a ball fan that wouldn't root for that.

Am I the only one that thinks this doesn't sound like the real ma$e at all?  Sorry, something's off here.  Do we have a Misery situation going on?  Ma$e, blink twice if this is really you.

[macdaddy]

2 hours ago, AHF said:

Durant

Cousins

Thompson

Argue about Cousins if you'd like and I won't disagree that he has been a role player for them this season but he still averaged 23 and 12 per 36 in the regular season.  He is a stud talent who we all knew would have a rough year recovering from injury but tearing his quad and having to play through that clearly limited him even further in the finals.  

Technically, I should correct the record to say he did't really suffer the injury in the series (did it against the Clips) so much as suffer from it during the series.

True. but Cousins and Thompson did play most of the series.  Their injuries were definitely a drag and altered the series but it wasn't like it was some unheard of calamity....well at least until Thompson went down with a torn acl.

[AHF]

11 minutes ago, macdaddy said:

True. but Cousins and Thompson did play most of the series.  Their injuries were definitely a drag and altered the series but it wasn't like it was some unheard of calamity....well at least until Thompson went down with a torn acl.

Durant was a calamity.  Thompson was a calamity.  Cousins was a big drag.  Imagine Toronto with 3 similar injuries.  Huge impact that will hang over this series for years to come ala when GS won with Irving and Love out.  Injuries are part of the game but as a fan I'd have rather seen Toronto beat GS at its full strength.

[MaceCase]

26 minutes ago, kg01 said:

Am I the only one that thinks this doesn't sound like the real ma$e at all?  Sorry, something's off here.  Do we have a Misery situation going on?  Ma$e, blink twice if this is really you.

I'd wink but Luka Bob gave me PTSD.