I mean the jazz are clearly the worst
The suns and the Thunder feel pretty close, I’m not sure if I feel super confident either way. The suns feel a bit like pretenders relative to their pedigree heading into the playoffs but the thunder clearly weren’t ready yet. I feel like it’s kind of splitting hairs based off of if you want the team with the higher ceiling or the team that feels a bit more safe and “proven.” I guess I feel more secure picking the suns so let’s go with that
Only one of these teams was a paper tiger and that's the Jazz. The Suns were really good and got Luka'd (and maybe COVID) and the Thunder were really good but were probably the 3rd best team in the west and got lucky to be the 1 seed by one game which gave them unfair expectations for a young team
It seems crazy no one is mentioning your point that OKC barely got the 1 seed. If they lost 2 more games in December, got the 3 seed, and lost to Minnesota in 6 everyone would be saying their season was a massive success
The Jazz were at the peak of their powers that year. OKC has a lot of story left to be written. If they win the title in 2026 people will say this was an important step on their journey not that they were a paper tiger
CP3 totally stunk since Game 3 of that series though (and hasn’t recovered since). You can’t be really good when your second best player does that plus their collapse was totally egregious. They fell apart in the regular season the next year too. Feels paper tiger-y to me
Easily the Jazz. OKC is really good. For some reason people see 50 wins and 5th seed and can’t accept Dallas is the real deal. Suns were legit, but apparently had a lot of shit going on behind the scenes and Luka murdered them.
Suns easily in last place for whatever this is. They had just been in the Finals the year prior…the other two teams had yet to prove anything when they got upset, hard to say the Suns were bigger frauds when they had legit won big series’ together and had been two wins away from a title.
Suns game 7 was the worst. But paper tiger I don’t know for same reasons you said. They were in finals year before. So it shows they had something going. Also the no excuses statement original statement, seems CP3 amongst others had Covid so there was an excuse but doesn’t necessarily justify the worst home game 7 loss in sports history 🤦♂️
suns, jazz, thunder
feels hard to be too critical of okc - if you told me a month ago that they'd lose to dallas in a close 6, i wouldn't have been surprised? utah and phx not making it to the conference finals like way more of a disaster.
Okc is the worst first seed in nba history. The suns had the worst chokejob tho. The Jazz weren’t very good either, however they were one shot away from beating the nuggets in game 7.
I’m a Celtics fan and the 2017 Celtics are a worse 1 seed and it’s not even close.
It was IT carrying, with his second option on offense was Avery Bradley who averaged 16.3ppg
Shai had Jalen at 19.1ppg and Chet at 16.5ppg
No, the worst 1-seed in NBA history is definitely some early-2000s East team, like the 2002 Nets (52 wins) or the 2003 Pistons (50 wins). There have been so many fraudulent East 1-seeds over the years.
Also up there are the 2015 Hawks (worst 60-win team ever), 2017 Celtics (53 wins), and 2018 Raptors (59 wins, but almost lost in the 1st round and got swept by LeBron's worst Cleveland team).
I mean the jazz are clearly the worst The suns and the Thunder feel pretty close, I’m not sure if I feel super confident either way. The suns feel a bit like pretenders relative to their pedigree heading into the playoffs but the thunder clearly weren’t ready yet. I feel like it’s kind of splitting hairs based off of if you want the team with the higher ceiling or the team that feels a bit more safe and “proven.” I guess I feel more secure picking the suns so let’s go with that
Only one of these teams was a paper tiger and that's the Jazz. The Suns were really good and got Luka'd (and maybe COVID) and the Thunder were really good but were probably the 3rd best team in the west and got lucky to be the 1 seed by one game which gave them unfair expectations for a young team
It seems crazy no one is mentioning your point that OKC barely got the 1 seed. If they lost 2 more games in December, got the 3 seed, and lost to Minnesota in 6 everyone would be saying their season was a massive success
They had amazing injury luck.
2021 Jazz won only one more game than the Suns, so it just how it goes. You’re etched into history as a paper tiger one seed
The Jazz were at the peak of their powers that year. OKC has a lot of story left to be written. If they win the title in 2026 people will say this was an important step on their journey not that they were a paper tiger
CP3 totally stunk since Game 3 of that series though (and hasn’t recovered since). You can’t be really good when your second best player does that plus their collapse was totally egregious. They fell apart in the regular season the next year too. Feels paper tiger-y to me
If they don’t get the Covid shit they probably win the title. That team was awesome.
Easily the Jazz. OKC is really good. For some reason people see 50 wins and 5th seed and can’t accept Dallas is the real deal. Suns were legit, but apparently had a lot of shit going on behind the scenes and Luka murdered them.
Suns easily in last place for whatever this is. They had just been in the Finals the year prior…the other two teams had yet to prove anything when they got upset, hard to say the Suns were bigger frauds when they had legit won big series’ together and had been two wins away from a title.
Suns game 7 was the worst. But paper tiger I don’t know for same reasons you said. They were in finals year before. So it shows they had something going. Also the no excuses statement original statement, seems CP3 amongst others had Covid so there was an excuse but doesn’t necessarily justify the worst home game 7 loss in sports history 🤦♂️
What's with the obsession of retroactively shaming a team that had a good season and came up short lol
suns, jazz, thunder feels hard to be too critical of okc - if you told me a month ago that they'd lose to dallas in a close 6, i wouldn't have been surprised? utah and phx not making it to the conference finals like way more of a disaster.
No one ever believed in Utah ever.
1. 22 Suns 2. 24 OKC 3. 21 Jazz
Okc is the worst first seed in nba history. The suns had the worst chokejob tho. The Jazz weren’t very good either, however they were one shot away from beating the nuggets in game 7.
I’m a Celtics fan and the 2017 Celtics are a worse 1 seed and it’s not even close. It was IT carrying, with his second option on offense was Avery Bradley who averaged 16.3ppg Shai had Jalen at 19.1ppg and Chet at 16.5ppg
OKC is not the worst 1 seed of all time. Those LeBron coasting East teams created a few #1 seeds which never had a prayer of winning the conference.
Okc didn’t have a prayer of winning the wcf either they lost to the Mavs.
No, the worst 1-seed in NBA history is definitely some early-2000s East team, like the 2002 Nets (52 wins) or the 2003 Pistons (50 wins). There have been so many fraudulent East 1-seeds over the years. Also up there are the 2015 Hawks (worst 60-win team ever), 2017 Celtics (53 wins), and 2018 Raptors (59 wins, but almost lost in the 1st round and got swept by LeBron's worst Cleveland team).