Jason Sitoke

Should be a fun one, especially out West. All the lower seeds have reason to believe they can win. Crazy to think that half of the field will be done in a little over 2 weeks, considering the talent on all of those rosters. For example, if Minny loses first round after basically leading the West all year....or conversely if the Suns go out with a whimper after pushing all their chips in and mortgaging the next 10 years of their franchise....

Unfortunate to be seeing football highlights this time of year. I was hoping to hear about the gains…with a few platitudes about hard work thrown in.

I don’t know how deep they are. Going to be very reliant on 34 yr old Reggie Jackson to spell Jamal Murray. Braun has been ok, but not really made much of a leap as an offensive player. After that, really not sure who the 8th guy is. West is just ridiculous. Bucks would’ve been a play in team if they were on this side of the bracket.

I'd echo this. I'm a Nuggets fan, so I only really follow injury news as it pertains to my team...but Jamal Murray was cleared for on-court activities in April of 2022, right as Jokic and a very shorthanded Nuggets team was playing the eventual champion Warriors in the 1st round. He didn't feel ready, and hence didn't play. He caught some flak for it, but since he's played multiple times through ankle sprains, hamstrings, etc since, I think he's confirmed that he's super competitive and prefers playing through injuries whenever he can. Looking back, if he didn't feel ready then he wasn't fully healthy. I am no defender of Embiid, but he just had knee surgery. I'm not going to flame him for not jumping on the court once the team doctor says he's good.

Watched the Spurs last night. Catch them a couple times a year when they’re on TV. They don’t look like a well coached team. Offense is disorganized and they do some really dumb things on defense. They do play hard…but otherwise it’d be tough to guess a HoF coach was on their bench by just watching the team. Either Pop is doing an awesome stealth tank job, or he’s mailing it in. We’ll find out I guess since he just got extended

As a Nuggets fan, a healthy Minnesota team would scare me as much as anyone. Big front court with long defensive wings and a stud playmaker.

I agree that OKC is up there. Lots of people writing them off due to inexperience. I think their style of play is suited for the postseason

West is shaping up to be a bloodbath in the postseason. Hard to find a definitive easy out in the top 10.

Pop has been mailing it in for a couple years, IMO. Spurs haven’t had a ton of talent, but they have looked like a poorly coached team on both ends of the floor for awhile now. The Sochan point guard experiment was silly. Pop is a so called defensive genius, yet they’ve consistently been a poor defensive team. I’ve watched them a few times and they look like they’re just making things up on offense. Only thing I can remember him doing recently if not was going full Karen-pop mode and scolding spurs fans when they booed Kawhi.

I think Lebron should be appreciated for having some perspective. But he comes off just as egotistical as MJ. Jordan was cutthroat as a competitor and had a gambling issue. And yes his HoF speech came off as petty. Otherwise I’d say Jordan was every bit as impressive considering the mania he dealt with in his early twenties. No legal issues or controversy really followed him. He was very careful not to tarnish the Air Jordan brand he was building.

Defender of all things Mav and Mavs

So your argument is that referees get paychecks from their employers, therefore game is compromised. Don’t all leagues work this way? Don’t college officials get paid by their conferences, and wouldn’t these conferences have the same financial motivation as any of the professional leagues? So then, by your logic, aren’t all athletic organizations that are primarily revenue driven no longer sports, but rather ‘businesses meant to resemble’ their respective sports? Couldn’t let this one go either….Michael Jordan got on ‘the good side’ of David Stern? What, by being a transcendent athlete that grew the popularity of the league of which he was commissioner?

This madness started when they first cut holes in the peach basket. That was the first BS rule to increase scoring and ruined the game I love.

So you think the NBA wants to manufacture superstars by giving players that (according to you) are less than superstars preferential treatment. So the refs send them to the line over and over because free throws are…entertaining? Or could it be that rules that favor the offense probably need to be tweaked because gifted offensive players have gotten so good at initiating contact and grifting calls? I’m not going to argue that referees are impervious to being star struck during a game. But it’s not a directive given from up on high by Adam Silver. Btw, Embiid is absolutely a superstar. As is Durant. As is SGA. Kawhi is back in that realm as well.

I honestly don't know what this even means. If the point is that the NBA is meant to be entertaining as a priority, I agree. If the implication is that you're not seeing 'real' basketball and competition, then I''m not sure what you're watching. I think there are purists for every sport, and most of those people believe today's game diverges from what the game is 'supposed to be'. Baseball fans I think are the best example of this today. A lot of older fans hate that there is now no real emphasis on baserunning or situational hitting. It's all launch angles, exit velocities, and baserunners waiting around for the long ball. Batting averages, OB%, stolen bases have been marginalized. I miss those things, but I don't necessarily think that MLB is foresaking the pure game in favor of entertainment necessarily. I think it's more a consequence of the athletes that make up the game and an understanding of the analytics behind these strategies. @Mavric Can you clarify what you mean with examples and why they go against 'basketball'?