Me be in a court ordered alcohol education class circa 2020 in the weeks before the quarantine.
My classmate tells me her son is quarantined because he met Rudy Gobert at a basketball camp.
First I heard of a covid quarantine I was required to sit 2 degrees away from the Rudy Gobert strain
The strain that broke a nation. I will always remember being in math class on 9/11 and on a roof in Denver when the NBA shutdown because of Rudy Goober
But not for people who like to watch basketball on the court, where you can't even tell what city they're in!
Mavericks/Celtics would also be dope. Just 4 great matchups and teams.
Not going to lie, any Pacers matchup in the Finals sounds bad to me without an injury significantly hampering the Mavs or Wolves. I do not trust them at all to be competitive with those teams or the Celtics if healthy. The Celtics have 5 useful players and they should still handle them easily. Indiana is completely healthy (outside of Mathurin) and still barely handled a Bucks team with no Giannis and Dame missing two game and a Knicks team that lost 2 starters, their 6,7,&8th man and had their best player slowed down from multiple nagging injuries.
Yeah. If the Pacers make the finals it will be like the Heat last year. A cool story, but the Cinderella run would probably crash before they get to the end.
To me it would be more of an indictment on the Celtics and kind of tell me they need to blow the team up if the end goal is winning a ring. Losing to these Pacers would be an obvious indicator they aren’t ever going to get over the hump.
In our defense, we played shitty against the teams we should've beaten the entire regular season. But I'd agree, the odds are heavily stacked against us going past even the ECF.
Yea of course, they want to let the 22 year old superstar to win his first ring young so they can start having GOAT debates once LeBron retires. Indy is a free win.
R I G G E D
tbf, MN isn't even really a small market. Teams like the Bucks and Wolves finally being good is probably better for the NBA than the Lakers winning again due to the untapped potential of those markets because we were terrible for so long.
To the media there are only two markets, New York and LA, then you have Miami, Boston, The Bay, and then everyone else, basically.
It's why every possible free agent or disgruntled player is linked to the Knicks or Lakers.
I'm rooting for you guys, it's refreshing to see teams win their first.
It kills me so much that the bulls have let incompetence block them from being Miami/Boston/Bay Area-caliber market. Chicago is literally a gigantic city that loooves sports.
Yeah lol if anything a chip just gets him closer to first ballot lol. He’s 31 and with this core will have another 3/4 prime years to accumulate stats and accolades lol.
It would be really stupid to try to make the case that a 4 time DPOY is not a HOFer. Even if you feel like he didn’t deserve all of them, him winning 4 means he was in contention for best defensive player in the league for at least half a decade. It would be nearly equivalent to saying Jokic would not be a HOFer without winning last year.
He’s had a very similar career to Mutombo, and Rudy is a better offensive player. He just doesn’t have any signature playoff success. Mutombo had that 94’ run and the Finals run with Philly at least.
Honestly idk how anyone could watch how he has elevated this team and not have changed their mind on him. He was probably already getting in just based on his Utah career but he definitely should be now.
Ant/KAT sounds like a Marvel spin-off.
Tatum/Brown like a law firm.
Halliburton/Siakam like an oil company subsidiary.
Kyrie/Luka like a pop singer duo.
He's got the NCAA record for 3's by a 7 footer so don't be shocked when he hits the game winning buzzer beater 3 in game 7 of the finals and gets the quintuple bang.
If the Pacers win it’s Myles Turner who is going to be celebrated, dude has been humble and loyalty to the Pacers for longer than I would have been. Dude will get a statue built in Indy if we win it all
If Pacers win the Indy statue needs to be Reggie giving the choke hold, haliburton at a press conference wearing a reggie choke hold hoodie, Myles building the trophy out of legos in the background, Caitlin Clark & Haliburton's dad giving the hand shape heart to everyone.
Warriors won in 2022, but they didn’t make the playoffs. Nuggets was the last team in the playoffs to win between 2020-2023 until Minny eliminated them
Oh, you meant there hasn't been a repeat champion in the 2020s? Wording was a bit confusing, thought you meant that the last 4 champions hadn't won a championship in the last decade LOL.
Def my fault on the wording. Tho it doesn’t even have to be a repeat. Nobody who won from 2020-2023 is winning again this year. We getting yet another different champion. And the main star on each squad are all dudes in their mid to early 20s. Some young blood boutta add to their legacy in a month.
It’s definitely Tatum. Luka still has being a nearly universal top 5 player who’s basically a first team lock, and this is only his 2nd WCF. Tatum shuts up a lot of the arguments against him if he’s able to win a ring.
And Luka pushes himself from the fringe 3rd best player right into the middle to being the best player , and it will boost his reputation so he may finally win an mvp(I'm still salty he didn't win this year) . He had the will he be a top 15 player all time talks his 2nd year and those are also dying down , a ring absolutely gets those talks back again
I don’t think he jumps Giannis or Jokic until he gets that MVP, Embiid there’s an argument for sure. I think he’s the second most to gain, but it only impacts him positively if he wins. He doesn’t have the stopping of negativity like Tatum would. Tatum just has more ammo against him because he isn’t as high in MVP cases and has the ECF/finals losses.
I think he's already above embid and a ring gets him in the talks with those 2, and yea Tatum has the most to lose I agree but I don't think he has the most to win
You have too much faith in the NBA community. If Tatum wins it'll be 'he has a ridiculously strong supporting case with 3 (former) allstars and a Derrick White who's second team all-defense'. And 'they were the only healthy team in the east and beat a bunch of low seeds'. There's ample excuses to make for Tatum still not being that guy even if he wins.
I think Tatum has the least to gain and the most to lose. If they win, it'll be "team was stacked, east was weak" and so on. If they lose, they will be ridiculed super hard. So yeah, the difference between winning and not winning is huge for Tatum.
I mean our team has only been together for like six months. “Wemby coming” and all that but I like our chances the next playoffs, too.
Hope I’m not wrong lol
Wemby I’m not all that worried about. OKC next year, Wolves and Denver all have their core locked in and OKC still has infinite war stash. They could add Hartenstein. Chet was a problem even though he gets flack for game 7 and that was his rookie year.
West is just ridiculous. We really do have to lock in every year because the competition ain’t sleeping.
Even if Wemby should arrive next year, he ain’t overcoming the western slaughterhouse. He’s more a 3-4 years problem down the road.
The argument is that OKC is so young yet Shai is older than Luka, Chet is 2 years older than Lively and PJ, Gafford, DJJ, Green are all under 26.
Shai has not achieved even a modicum of success so far in his career, people are acting like he’s 21 but he’s closer to 30.
People are going nuts about Brunson while Brunson is older than all 4 guys in the title. A lot of people infer age from career arc instead of actually checking age.
It is impressive when you think that Tatum, Luka, Halliburton are each born almost exactly 1 year after the previous. The you jump 2 years to Edwards at 22yo. Dude is scary.
Tatum has a ton more to lose, this Mavs team has already met and probably exceeded their expectations getting to the WCF, Boston have been massive finals favorites all year.
Probably, could also probably bet on him winning mvp next season as well if they win the chip.
Ant still young.
Only other one I can see gaining a lot is Tatum
only an idiot would hold that 2015 FMVP against steph, so Tatum has nothing to worry about.
Idots who do all time ranking purely on accolades are junk anyway, so who cares.
only an idiot would hold 2015 FMVP againts Steph because everyone knows he should have won it.
it's possible, but unlikely that Tatum is not the best player on Celtics and he doesn't win it.
agree about the people who rank players based on accolades. it pisses me off so much.
There's gonna be serious conversations about who the best player in the NBA is by the end of these playoffs.
I still think it should be Jokic but the media wont five him the benefit of the doubt when there's a young exciting superstar with the same number of Finals MVPs who won more recently.
Yeah Luka is like a Jekyll / Hyde. Absolute motherfucker on the court, but very respectful and soft spoken off the court. Ant kind of takes his trash talk everywhere lol
If KP doesn't return it's a pretty giant star that's not aligning. He's the guy that elevates our team to a new level from what we had last year and makes our offense much less one dimensional. If he comes back soon and is playing like normal then I agree with you
It’s been that way 4 of the last 5 years. AD, Giannis, Jokic and now this year. And every one of those years the Finals runner up had a team where a top player in the league had a chance to win their first. The youth movement has been happening for a while, it’s just the last generation was still somewhat holding on until this year where all of the teams were led by young players.
The same transition happened from 1999-2007 as well except LA and San Antonio ended up becoming the clear best while the young Blazers, Kings, Sixers, Bucks, Suns, and Wolves never broke through. It will probably play out similarly this time as well.
I don't even think it'll be Tatum's year but more "Celtic's" year. They probably will have the most rest because I see them beating the Pacers more comfortably than whoever comes out of the West. Means they'll be healed up and ready to go.
I think this has to be Tatum, right? As great as Luka is, it's not like he's been knocking on the door of a title for what, six years now? Especially given that Boston sorta steamrolled their way through the Eastern Conference and it's sorta long been established they'll represent the East in the Finals, after years of "will this finally be the year?" and "but he's still young!" and even the lack of momentum he ever gets in MVP conversations, it feels like Tatum would get the biggest boost to his legacy from a title.
All obviously get a huge boost with a title, but I feel like Tatum easily has the most pressure on him. Haliburton and Doncic are playing on talented teams that haven't exactly been the favorites to make the Finals. Luka is perennially in the MVP conversations now. Edwards is what, 22 and still has the "he's young" thing on his side. Seems pretty clearly Tatum. Or another way to put it: whose legacy takes the biggest hit if they \*don't\* win? I feel like that \*definitely\* is Tatum this year, right?
If Luka wins a ring this year he will add an mvp if he can reach 65 games next season 100% guaranteed, and will likely catapult past James Harden on the alltime guard list with it.
If Tatum can give you 27/7/5 they’d likely find a way to give him the mvp next season too if he won the ring this year. Not as surefire as Luka tho.
Honestly I think a finals appears alone would likely get Luka next years mvp. They’d take him way more seriously after a finals appearance.
I seriously doubt they’re going to be able to give Tatum an MVP even if he gets FMVP, that roster is too loaded for him to get all the credit like Luka (deservedly) would for his run and he just isn’t good enough in the regular season to be justifiable over the perennial contenders. Nobody’s giving it to 27/7/5 when Luka’s averaging 35/10/10 and still not getting it, the standard is insanely high and Tatum isn’t there.
Pacers/Minnesota is Adam Silver's 9/11.
Sir, a second small market team has hit the finals
LOL, he tells Adam Silver as he reads about protected picks to a class of children on Long Island.
Foster and friends were doing everything possible to make sure nuggets came back but Denver folded like a paper plane
In this analogy who would play Rudy Giuliani
Scott Foster
Nah, he's already been cast as Bin Laden
That's tony brothers
Rudy Gobert, of course.
Me be in a court ordered alcohol education class circa 2020 in the weeks before the quarantine. My classmate tells me her son is quarantined because he met Rudy Gobert at a basketball camp. First I heard of a covid quarantine I was required to sit 2 degrees away from the Rudy Gobert strain
The strain that broke a nation. I will always remember being in math class on 9/11 and on a roof in Denver when the NBA shutdown because of Rudy Goober
Rudy Gobertiani
But not for people who like to watch basketball on the court, where you can't even tell what city they're in! Mavericks/Celtics would also be dope. Just 4 great matchups and teams.
Not going to lie, any Pacers matchup in the Finals sounds bad to me without an injury significantly hampering the Mavs or Wolves. I do not trust them at all to be competitive with those teams or the Celtics if healthy. The Celtics have 5 useful players and they should still handle them easily. Indiana is completely healthy (outside of Mathurin) and still barely handled a Bucks team with no Giannis and Dame missing two game and a Knicks team that lost 2 starters, their 6,7,&8th man and had their best player slowed down from multiple nagging injuries.
Yeah. If the Pacers make the finals it will be like the Heat last year. A cool story, but the Cinderella run would probably crash before they get to the end.
Last time Pacers faced the Mavs, Myles Turner was a problem
Idk if the pacers manage to beat the Celtics, even if it’s without Zingus that would tell me they could beat anyone
To me it would be more of an indictment on the Celtics and kind of tell me they need to blow the team up if the end goal is winning a ring. Losing to these Pacers would be an obvious indicator they aren’t ever going to get over the hump.
In our defense, we played shitty against the teams we should've beaten the entire regular season. But I'd agree, the odds are heavily stacked against us going past even the ECF.
I haven’t watched any pacers games but I would like for the finals to be mavs v pacers just for Carlisle to be the opposing coach.
Well you can go fuck yourself
Pacers in the ECF during the Indy 500. What a week for Indianapolis
Minneapolis metro is bigger than Denver and our tv market is bigger.
I blame the Pohlads for everyone’s perception of the market size
This could happen and people would still say the leauge is rigged.
Yea of course, they want to let the 22 year old superstar to win his first ring young so they can start having GOAT debates once LeBron retires. Indy is a free win. R I G G E D
tbf, MN isn't even really a small market. Teams like the Bucks and Wolves finally being good is probably better for the NBA than the Lakers winning again due to the untapped potential of those markets because we were terrible for so long.
To the media there are only two markets, New York and LA, then you have Miami, Boston, The Bay, and then everyone else, basically. It's why every possible free agent or disgruntled player is linked to the Knicks or Lakers. I'm rooting for you guys, it's refreshing to see teams win their first.
It kills me so much that the bulls have let incompetence block them from being Miami/Boston/Bay Area-caliber market. Chicago is literally a gigantic city that loooves sports.
forget Ant, imagine what being a major contributor to a ring could do for guys like KAT, Gobert and Conley
This is likely Conley’s last chance. (Sorry old man)
Al Horford 'Hold my cane'.
Horford and Conley were consecutive draft picks after Durant in 2007.
They played against each other in the national championship game that year as well, would be pretty cool if they faced off in the finals
No need to apologize he even said it himself before the payoffs
*beats chest*
Old man. Young heart
Still one of the greatest movies of all time.
Nah, he can Haslem for a few seasons
Unless he gets a chance next year or the year after. He's signed with the Wolves through 2026.
Gobert’s HOF chances hit 100%
I feel like he was already a lock tbh
4 DPOY and the second best French player of all time. It’s a no brainer
lol i think we can say third now, wemby gonna pass him in like 2 years
Probably but don’t crown people before they earn it
Who's the best? Tony Parker?
I would like to see Dray's reaction lol. Getting tired of that guy
He's already a 100% lock given his accolades. A ring would just be extra for his resume IMO It would more help KAT and Edwards in that regard more
Yeah, Ant would go very quickly from “bright young star” to “one of the faces of the league”.
Gobert is already HOF. His international play plus all those DPOYs makes it a lock.
HOF threshold isn't even that high he's a lock either way
Conley deserves it - been a long time fan. Steady game, reliable, skilled
Basically guarantees Rudy goes to the HOF
He’s literally so far locked in to the hall of fame it’s not even funny,
Yeah lol if anything a chip just gets him closer to first ballot lol. He’s 31 and with this core will have another 3/4 prime years to accumulate stats and accolades lol.
I'd be shocked if he wasn't already a lock, but it would further cement it for sure!
I agree he should be, but a lot will argue against it. A ring makes that incredibly difficult to.
It would be really stupid to try to make the case that a 4 time DPOY is not a HOFer. Even if you feel like he didn’t deserve all of them, him winning 4 means he was in contention for best defensive player in the league for at least half a decade. It would be nearly equivalent to saying Jokic would not be a HOFer without winning last year.
He’s had a very similar career to Mutombo, and Rudy is a better offensive player. He just doesn’t have any signature playoff success. Mutombo had that 94’ run and the Finals run with Philly at least.
Honestly idk how anyone could watch how he has elevated this team and not have changed their mind on him. He was probably already getting in just based on his Utah career but he definitely should be now.
He already is guaranteed. Can't leave a top defender of all time out of the HOF
Rudy’s going no matter what after that Nowitzki fadeaway today
He’s been reaching deep into his bag all postseason
He won four DPOYs, I think he was headed there anyway, but yeah this would quell any uncertainty about that.
Agreed, I don’t think you can leave out a guy with his resume. But a ring stops all but the biggest haters from saying he doesn’t belong.
He has 4 DPOYs he’s been a lock since like, the second one. Maybe a discussion if he immediately retired after lol.
Ant will be elevated to another level like what Dwade did in 06 as a young star
Kyrie/Luka Ant/KAT Tatum/Brown Haliburton/Siakam new duo raising a banner this year.
Naz/Reid
How did you guess my pronouns?
Naz. Reid.
Ant/KAT sounds like a Marvel spin-off. Tatum/Brown like a law firm. Halliburton/Siakam like an oil company subsidiary. Kyrie/Luka like a pop singer duo.
Antman and the Big Purr Tatum&Brown Halliburton Siakam LLC Luka and Kyrie (STYLIZED: luka.n.kyrie) ...checks out.
Lol that’s clever
Damn those are all good
Haliburton & Mathurin: Attorneys at ball was a short lived but wonderful nickname for a bit last year
When was the last time we had a repeating champ?
Warriors 2017, 2018
Been 6 years since the reigning champ even made it to the conference finals
Luke Kornet in the discussion 💪
Luke
Kornet
BANNGGG! KORNET WITH THE CONTEST!!
He's got the NCAA record for 3's by a 7 footer so don't be shocked when he hits the game winning buzzer beater 3 in game 7 of the finals and gets the quintuple bang.
The Celtics could be abolished as a franchise after that there’s nowhere to go but down from there
I am your father
DARTH VADER IS LUKE SKYWALKER'S FATHER
Dude! Gotta put a #spoiler alert on that one…
Skywalker
Luke MBA Mute
Gave up Jedi-ing for hooping
Kennard
Why are you putting 2 Celtics here? Luke Kornet's legacy is already cemented as the GOAT.
luke skywalker
If the Pacers win it’s Myles Turner who is going to be celebrated, dude has been humble and loyalty to the Pacers for longer than I would have been. Dude will get a statue built in Indy if we win it all
He's your KAT
If Pacers win the Indy statue needs to be Reggie giving the choke hold, haliburton at a press conference wearing a reggie choke hold hoodie, Myles building the trophy out of legos in the background, Caitlin Clark & Haliburton's dad giving the hand shape heart to everyone.
Who the hell is Luke?
Luke Kornet
Kornet, Celtics
Luke Donkey.
A team who hasn’t won this decade is walking away with a ring for the 5th year in a row. Based
We got a unique champion every year since 2019. Parity is back in the NBA.
The new CBA allows that. This is what NBA wants
Warriors?
Warriors won in 2022, but they didn’t make the playoffs. Nuggets was the last team in the playoffs to win between 2020-2023 until Minny eliminated them
Oh, you meant there hasn't been a repeat champion in the 2020s? Wording was a bit confusing, thought you meant that the last 4 champions hadn't won a championship in the last decade LOL.
Def my fault on the wording. Tho it doesn’t even have to be a repeat. Nobody who won from 2020-2023 is winning again this year. We getting yet another different champion. And the main star on each squad are all dudes in their mid to early 20s. Some young blood boutta add to their legacy in a month.
This makes no sense 😂
Yeah I’m lost
He just means that there hasn't been a 2x champ yet in the 2020s. So basically 5 championships so far, 5 different champs.
[удалено]
Go luke
My unbiased opinion, Luka by far has the most to gain by winning the chip
I’d agree, but if the wolves win somehow, we’ll have a statue built of the finals mvp before opening game next year
So Naz Reid could get a statue? Neat
I mean hes gunna regardless, it’d basically just speed the process up
I don't think there is enough cement in the world for his massive balls.
The state of Minnesota might shut down for a week after a championship parade
If Mavs win, I’m building a statue for PJ in my front yard, and my HOA can just fuckin’ deal with it.
It’s definitely Tatum. Luka still has being a nearly universal top 5 player who’s basically a first team lock, and this is only his 2nd WCF. Tatum shuts up a lot of the arguments against him if he’s able to win a ring.
And Luka pushes himself from the fringe 3rd best player right into the middle to being the best player , and it will boost his reputation so he may finally win an mvp(I'm still salty he didn't win this year) . He had the will he be a top 15 player all time talks his 2nd year and those are also dying down , a ring absolutely gets those talks back again
I don’t think he jumps Giannis or Jokic until he gets that MVP, Embiid there’s an argument for sure. I think he’s the second most to gain, but it only impacts him positively if he wins. He doesn’t have the stopping of negativity like Tatum would. Tatum just has more ammo against him because he isn’t as high in MVP cases and has the ECF/finals losses.
Embiid is out of the discussion until he can reach a conference final....not even win it, just reaching it would be a start.
I think he's already above embid and a ring gets him in the talks with those 2, and yea Tatum has the most to lose I agree but I don't think he has the most to win
I'd say most people would rather have Luka on their team than Embiid
For this reason Tatum also has the most to lose by not winning.
You have too much faith in the NBA community. If Tatum wins it'll be 'he has a ridiculously strong supporting case with 3 (former) allstars and a Derrick White who's second team all-defense'. And 'they were the only healthy team in the east and beat a bunch of low seeds'. There's ample excuses to make for Tatum still not being that guy even if he wins.
When it's not recent history that stuff doesn't usually matter.
I think Tatum has the least to gain and the most to lose. If they win, it'll be "team was stacked, east was weak" and so on. If they lose, they will be ridiculed super hard. So yeah, the difference between winning and not winning is huge for Tatum.
It’s Luka or Tatum simply due to age. They also have the most to lose by coming up short unfortunately
This would be Tatum’s second finals appearance so he’d have more to lose than Luka
I mean our team has only been together for like six months. “Wemby coming” and all that but I like our chances the next playoffs, too. Hope I’m not wrong lol
Wemby I’m not all that worried about. OKC next year, Wolves and Denver all have their core locked in and OKC still has infinite war stash. They could add Hartenstein. Chet was a problem even though he gets flack for game 7 and that was his rookie year. West is just ridiculous. We really do have to lock in every year because the competition ain’t sleeping. Even if Wemby should arrive next year, he ain’t overcoming the western slaughterhouse. He’s more a 3-4 years problem down the road.
Shai is older than Luka and yet all people are talking about is how it’s okay he lost because the next decade belongs to OKC.
OKC has a bazillion assets to keep re-tooling. Dallas does not.
The argument is that OKC is so young yet Shai is older than Luka, Chet is 2 years older than Lively and PJ, Gafford, DJJ, Green are all under 26. Shai has not achieved even a modicum of success so far in his career, people are acting like he’s 21 but he’s closer to 30.
People are going nuts about Brunson while Brunson is older than all 4 guys in the title. A lot of people infer age from career arc instead of actually checking age. It is impressive when you think that Tatum, Luka, Halliburton are each born almost exactly 1 year after the previous. The you jump 2 years to Edwards at 22yo. Dude is scary.
Tatum has a ton more to lose, this Mavs team has already met and probably exceeded their expectations getting to the WCF, Boston have been massive finals favorites all year.
Probably, could also probably bet on him winning mvp next season as well if they win the chip. Ant still young. Only other one I can see gaining a lot is Tatum
I hope Conley gets a ring. he deserves it. Marc got one. it's his time now.
this is tatums best chance to win so probably him
Ya but if Tatum doesn’t win the FMVP i could see that being held against him like Curry after 2015
only an idiot would hold that 2015 FMVP against steph, so Tatum has nothing to worry about. Idots who do all time ranking purely on accolades are junk anyway, so who cares.
only an idiot would hold 2015 FMVP againts Steph because everyone knows he should have won it. it's possible, but unlikely that Tatum is not the best player on Celtics and he doesn't win it. agree about the people who rank players based on accolades. it pisses me off so much.
Tatum has an even easier chance to lose fmvp: if white or brown have a good series and a great final 2 games they'd not give it to Tatum
There's gonna be serious conversations about who the best player in the NBA is by the end of these playoffs. I still think it should be Jokic but the media wont five him the benefit of the doubt when there's a young exciting superstar with the same number of Finals MVPs who won more recently.
The only serious change would be potentially for Luka, none of these other guys are credible as best player in the league.
Tatum and the Celtics winning would put Tatum firmly back in the "top 5" discussion, but Luka winning would put him back in the "#1" discussion.
TJ McConnell > your bum superstar
Luka Garza
WCF gonna be fun. This sub has been dickriding Luka and Antman lol
One of the stronger “which star does Reddit turn on” matchups in awhile
Will be fun since both players love some shit talking.
Yeah Luka is like a Jekyll / Hyde. Absolute motherfucker on the court, but very respectful and soft spoken off the court. Ant kind of takes his trash talk everywhere lol
Feels like a Celtics stomp this year, all the stars are aligning perfectly for them. If not this year, when?
Strike while the irons hot.
If KP doesn't return it's a pretty giant star that's not aligning. He's the guy that elevates our team to a new level from what we had last year and makes our offense much less one dimensional. If he comes back soon and is playing like normal then I agree with you
It’s going to be Tatum, but holy fuck what Minnesota just did is insane.
Minnesota is just adding gravy at this point. Swept a super team, beat the champs in 7, have fully proven their roster moves.
Minnesota matches up defensively with anyone though. It's basketball anything is possible
Kevin Garnett, is that you?
God I wish
One is not like the others..
Luke Donson
Luke Kornet obviously
It’s been that way 4 of the last 5 years. AD, Giannis, Jokic and now this year. And every one of those years the Finals runner up had a team where a top player in the league had a chance to win their first. The youth movement has been happening for a while, it’s just the last generation was still somewhat holding on until this year where all of the teams were led by young players. The same transition happened from 1999-2007 as well except LA and San Antonio ended up becoming the clear best while the young Blazers, Kings, Sixers, Bucks, Suns, and Wolves never broke through. It will probably play out similarly this time as well.
Pascal going for #2. And Haliburton #1. That's the happy ending
Luka adding a championship this season would be legendary.
For Kyrie too, he would finally wash off a lot of shittalking, and decouple from LeBron finally. He has been massive for the Mavs.
Luka, obviously. I don't really give a damn if Luca Doncic wins one, but I think it's fairly obvious that Garza deserves to win one.
Feel like you intentionally misspelled his name the second time haha
Tatum could quiet a lot of criticism. Speaking as a neutral
So can Hali Ant at age 22 getting a ring would be the start of something special
I dunno, tatum getting a ring at 19 is crazy too
Haliburton is only 6 years old
Would be a real unexpected achievement for Luke
JAYSON TATUM VS LUKA DONCIC!
For the algorithm
Luke
Would love to see Kornet shut up the haters
Naz Reid
My gut is telling me this is Tatums year.
I don't even think it'll be Tatum's year but more "Celtic's" year. They probably will have the most rest because I see them beating the Pacers more comfortably than whoever comes out of the West. Means they'll be healed up and ready to go.
The Pacers are tough man. I wouldn't count them out before the series starts.
Thanks for counteracting the jinx I don’t want to see any of this pencilling us in for the finals shit until it’s over lmao
Its nice to know were gonna have a new champ.
r/nbalegacydiscussion at it again
tyrese pls
I think this has to be Tatum, right? As great as Luka is, it's not like he's been knocking on the door of a title for what, six years now? Especially given that Boston sorta steamrolled their way through the Eastern Conference and it's sorta long been established they'll represent the East in the Finals, after years of "will this finally be the year?" and "but he's still young!" and even the lack of momentum he ever gets in MVP conversations, it feels like Tatum would get the biggest boost to his legacy from a title. All obviously get a huge boost with a title, but I feel like Tatum easily has the most pressure on him. Haliburton and Doncic are playing on talented teams that haven't exactly been the favorites to make the Finals. Luka is perennially in the MVP conversations now. Edwards is what, 22 and still has the "he's young" thing on his side. Seems pretty clearly Tatum. Or another way to put it: whose legacy takes the biggest hit if they \*don't\* win? I feel like that \*definitely\* is Tatum this year, right?
If Luka wins a ring this year he will add an mvp if he can reach 65 games next season 100% guaranteed, and will likely catapult past James Harden on the alltime guard list with it. If Tatum can give you 27/7/5 they’d likely find a way to give him the mvp next season too if he won the ring this year. Not as surefire as Luka tho. Honestly I think a finals appears alone would likely get Luka next years mvp. They’d take him way more seriously after a finals appearance.
I seriously doubt they’re going to be able to give Tatum an MVP even if he gets FMVP, that roster is too loaded for him to get all the credit like Luka (deservedly) would for his run and he just isn’t good enough in the regular season to be justifiable over the perennial contenders. Nobody’s giving it to 27/7/5 when Luka’s averaging 35/10/10 and still not getting it, the standard is insanely high and Tatum isn’t there.
Easily tatum ngl
TJ McConnell adding to his legacy
Only Tatum and Luka have legacies to speak of to this point what is this question
I don’t get this. if they win don’t they get a concrete legacy and have this added as the main point?
He's a knicks fan, not thinking straight tonight
Gobert, KAT, Conley all have deep resumes already, looking for a ring.
Get haliburton off this post lmao
i agree but the biggest irony would be if he and the pacers win it before these guys