2023-2024 NBA Season Thread • Page 632

That one is breaking my brain

 

It’s definitely one of the wilder ones I saw today

 

Didn’t he sign like a super short contract to retire there and he barely played? Weird situation.

 

Played in 43 games over 2 seasons with them at the end of his career. His body was shot.

 

The one for childhood me / adult me crossover

 

I cannot believe we have to wait until Thursday until the NBA Finals start...

 

AI and Jrue Holiday

 

vegas odds have the mavs as the third-largest underdogs going into the finals since the merger

just seems like that should not be the case lol

 

I'm a Celtics fan and obviously favor them, but those are bizarre odds with how the Mavs played through the playoffs. On a purely seed based perspective, it's a #1 season long dominant team, vs a team getting hot at the right time, but it still doesn't seem quite right.

Also agreed at how long of a wait this seems this year before starting.

 

The 2002-2003 Orlando Magic featured Grant Hill, Tracy McGrady, Horace Grant, and Shawn Kemp.

Also.

 

right lol it seems purely based off seeding, the mavs' record (ignoring that they've basically been over .750 since landing gafford and washington) and that boston dog-walked their opponents in the playoffs (ignoring that every opponent they've faced has been missing their #1 option the majority of the series)

 

but even taking all of that into account ... third biggest underdogs in nearly 50 years?? miami was less of an underdog last year???

 

Yeah, that's bananas.

 

I wonder if Vegas is like "we saw this with the Wolves where they expelled all their energy on the Nuggets and flamed out" lol

 

who beat that team, just curious

 

ive seen a lot of "boston has 5 of the best 7 in the series" which is fair but no one is willing to acknowledge dallas has two of the best three lol

 

...yes that's my point? lol

I.e. Wolves expelled an awful lot of energy and effort on the Nuggets, nothing left in the tank. Cavs expelled an awful lot of energy and effort on the Wolves, tank remains to be seen.

 

ah sure. it seems like people are still talking about the wolves in a way where they might have been more equal to the Celtics or have better odds than dallas does now, despite dallas beating their asses lol

it just seems like seeding-bias

 

Nah, Dallas is legit. Them having the third worst odds because they had a rocky regular season is bananas. Hell, on the NHL side of things Edmonton is in the finals after having fired their coach like 1/8th into the season lol

 

right .. even then it's just a rocky first half. they were great post-deadline, one of the better records in the league. seems very obvious that should be taken more into account. they're basically a different team.

 

I also don't know if I buy Kyrie > Jaylen. I think they're a bit of a wash where Kyrie is better offensively, but the gap between his offense and Jaylen's isn't as wide as the gap between Jaylen as a defender and Kyrie. Luka > Tatum, sure. Luka is filthy lol

So if it's Dallas has 1 and a tie for 3 and the Celtics have 2, tie for 3, 4 5 6, idk I think that's a positive outcome.

 

i don't think anyone would argue boston isn't the deeper team. they very clearly are. i think dallas' top two can take over a game in a way boston's guys can't. honestly brown is probably more reliable in that sense than tatum these playoffs

 

He really has been, which is also why I have no real interest in being one of those Celtics fans who cries when Luka is rated higher than Tatum.

If Luka has the ball with a chance to win the game, it's going in. Tatum? Ehhhhhhhhhh

So this series to me really comes down to, can Brown and Tatum level out with Kyrie and Luka enough for KP or White or Jrue to be the difference maker every night. If Luka and Kyrie are both firing on all cylinders and Washington and Lively are doing their thing I'm in trouble.