We didn't underestimate the heat we overrated the east

[Raps in 4]

The Heat were the #1 seed last year.

It's true that the East is overrated though. Embiid is probably the biggest choker in the NBA right now and Philly had a trash coach. Giannis has a somewhat one-dimensional game that can get shut down by a good coach (i.e. Spo). Boston had a trash coach and their stars tend to disappear in important games too.

[Young gun 6]

I don’t think this is trying to tear down the Heat.

It’s more that the East does appear weaker and was overrated.

That will be decided by the champion anyway. Let’s see if the champion is from the West or the East.

Winner

[soxfan2003]

The East was very overrated.

Bucks are always the same team. They're good but their offense is predictable and their defense isn't versatile. Just not enough versatility. They won that one year because Middleton played amazingly and Middleton just isn't that guy anymore unfortunately.

Sixers have Embiid and Harden, notorious underperforming playoff performers. No one should take them seriously until they stop grifting for fts. How can you expect to win when you literally rely on the referees for your points.

Boston is just inconsistent. They probably win game 7 and go to the finals if JT didn't roll his ankle in the first play of the game, but whatever they still shouldn't have let it get to a game 7 in the first place losing the first 3 games.

Boston lacks professionalism and smarts under 3 different coaches. It reduces the teams margin for error. The Celtics may have still lost this series if the Celtics matched the Heat's professionalism since it is a make or miss league but the first 3 losses of the series would have been closer.

[Young gun 6]

Generally, there isn't really a dominant team this year. I guess if the Nuggets wallop the Heat we could consider them dominant but I don't think that's how it will shake down.

It's why I got my hopes up for a minute with my Knicks but the Heat were more prepared for Game 1 and generally a little better. But the field was wide open for a team to get hot and take it. The Heat yet may.

There’s been a dominant team in the Playoffs though.

What we’ve learnt this off season is the regular season doesn’t matter THAT much.

Playoffs is when everything gets turned up a dial and there’s been one dominant team.

The team who hasn’t lost a single home game.

Took care of Minnesota in an easy 5.

Beat the KD/Booker Suns whilst only losing in games their opponents had historical level games.

Swept the Lakers who went into the series as nearly the same odds.

Have by far and away the best player in the league.

Overall the conferences are relatively similar in parity but there has been 1 dominant playoff team and that’s the West Nuggets.

[Onus]

The East was very overrated.

Bucks are always the same team. They're good but their offense is predictable and their defense isn't versatile. Just not enough versatility. They won that one year because Middleton played amazingly and Middleton just isn't that guy anymore unfortunately.

Sixers have Embiid and Harden, notorious underperforming playoff performers. No one should take them seriously until they stop grifting for fts. How can you expect to win when you literally rely on the referees for your points.

Boston is just inconsistent. They probably win game 7 and go to the finals if JT didn't roll his ankle in the first play of the game, but whatever they still shouldn't have let it get to a game 7 in the first place losing the first 3 games.

Boston lacks professionalism and smarts under 3 different coaches. It reduces the teams margin for error. The Celtics may have still lost this series if the Celtics matched the Heat's professionalism since it is a make or miss league but the first 3 losses of the series would have been closer.

Them no showing in game 3 was just baffling.

[Capn'O]

Generally, there isn't really a dominant team this year. I guess if the Nuggets wallop the Heat we could consider them dominant but I don't think that's how it will shake down.

It's why I got my hopes up for a minute with my Knicks but the Heat were more prepared for Game 1 and generally a little better. But the field was wide open for a team to get hot and take it. The Heat yet may.

There’s been a dominant team in the Playoffs though.

What we’ve learnt this off season is the regular season doesn’t matter THAT much.

Playoffs is when everything gets turned up a dial and there’s been one dominant team.

The team who hasn’t lost a single home game.

Took care of Minnesota in an easy 5.

Beat the KD/Booker Suns whilst only losing in games their opponents had historical level games.

Swept the Lakers who went into the series as nearly the same odds.

Have by far and away the best player in the league.

Overall the conferences are relatively similar in parity but there has been 1 dominant playoff team and that’s the West Nuggets.

Nuggets have more dominant wins but the Heat played better teams. I don't think much of the western powers this year.

[kieferli]

Well at least East final are more entertaining lol

[og15]

The Heat were the #1 seed last year.

It's true that the East is overrated though. Embiid is probably the biggest choker in the NBA right now and Philly had a trash coach. Giannis has a somewhat one-dimensional game that can get shut down by a good coach (i.e. Spo). Boston had a trash coach and their stars tend to disappear in important games too.

Giannis wasn't shut down, he was made turover prone, he missed half the series, and be also missed A LOT of FT's. He was still very productive.

But these same things apply to the West. Suns had their PG go down with their backup PG still not fully healthy and were already a short depth team. They had Ayton who is only focused half the time guarding a league 2xMVP, and had played 8 games with their significant new addition.

Lakers had old LeBron still nursing an injury, and of course the Wolves were not a threat to anything.

[SkyHookFTW]

Spoiler:

In the West the Laker's got swept in 4 by a team with the 2nd best player being Jamal Murray.

Tell me how the West compares to the East again?

LMAOOOOO. Both conferences are overrated in that case, and the Teams that made the Finals are trash then, right? The whole NBA is overrated, maybe the Euro league is better. This is legit the most stupid thread I have ever seen in my life. You are a brainlet.

Oh, and do you realize that it was the #6 defense taking on the #8 defense in a best of 7? Do you know how defensive teams look in 7 games series grind fests? Your takes are just ice cold man.

I will take this all into consideration.

Thank you for your words.

Idk why I came out the gate like this, I have a head ache today thats prolly why. Anyways, I wish it were the Suns in there against Buckets because I think they'd win (KD stan). 76ers, Bucks and Celtics DID under perform relative to expectations.

I think the 76ers performed to expectations. I don’t recall seeing many posters who thought Doc and Harden would get out of the second round.

[ChiTownHero1992]

I've said that for awhile:
76ers are pretenders
Celtics arn't finishers
Bucks fall flat all too often
Hawks are a Trae young injury/bad shooting day away from being a Top 3 pick
Cavaliers cohesion has not worked so far and some pieces dont seem to fit
Knicks dont have the 5th gear to go far
Nets are not the team that got them to the 6th spot
Raptors and Bulls look good on paper but cant get it done, neither team is deep enough to do any damage either

...the East isn't built for Championships yet unfortunately

[spanishninja]

You know who else got overrated? The KD suns.

Suns still took Nuggets to 6. I really doubt Heat will do that but we will see.

It's all about matchups.

I would still pick the Bucks beating the Suns or Lakers in a 7 game series even though they got bounced in the first round.

If the Bucks had survived the first round and gotten Giannis back to near full strength, that could definitely have happened. them's the breaks though in the playoffs.

[Sharkboy242]

7 of the top 10 payoffs scorers are in the West.

I'm taking Lakers and Suns over any of Boston/Sixers/Bucks. AD/Lebron and KD/Booker is just a way better duo than any of what those teams offer.

[Joao Saraiva]

The East was good. Just because the outcome was not what most people expected (I mean, who would bet in Miami?!) it doesn't mean the East was bad.

G7 vs Boston was fantastic. The defensive activity all over the place, guys moving fast, switching properly, gambling for steals and getting em, contesting every shot... It was a joy to watch.

But wait... no one defends in today's NBA , that is the narrative. Oh well.

[nbafan38]

I mean who in the west was that impressive either? I think the reality the league doesn't have a great team right now. Maybe Denver but when I asked if Denver is the best finals team of the past 5 years most people seemed to lean no.

[nbafan38]

Spoiler:

I will take this all into consideration.

Thank you for your words.

Idk why I came out the gate like this, I have a head ache today thats prolly why. Anyways, I wish it were the Suns in there against Buckets because I think they'd win (KD stan). 76ers, Bucks and Celtics DID under perform relative to expectations.

I think the 76ers performed to expectations. I don’t recall seeing many posters who thought Doc and Harden would get out of the second round.

This although I think the expectations changed when they led the celtics in the 4th quarter of game 6, gotta close out that game.

[TheGeneral99]

I think we overrated the West, to be honest.

This Heat team finished 1st in the East last season and went to the 7 with Boston. They had a lot of injury issues this year and just stayed afloat, but everybody knew Miami is a tough playoff team if healthy. I didn't see Miami going to the finals but I wasn't going to be surprised if they took Boston or Milwaukee to 7.

The East had 3 top tier teams - Bucks, Celtics, and Philly.

The West really only had 1 top tier team this year - Denver. Memphis was great the first half of the year but had way too much dysfunction with Morant's personal issues and losing Adams.

Warriors were pretty average this season, finishing 9-33 on the road. They barely scraped by a young and inexperienced Kings team that won 48 games.

Lakers were also very average this year and were able to take at advantage of the Grizzlies dysfunction in the 1st round.

The Suns were the wildcard but Durant only played a handful of games for them due to injury, and they lost Chris Paul.

Clippers were done after the Kawhi injury.

[TheGeneral99]

I mean who in the west was that impressive either? I think the reality the league doesn't have a great team right now. Maybe Denver but when I asked if Denver is the best finals team of the past 5 years most people seemed to lean no.

The league has about 6-7 great teams. Lot's of parity.

Denver, Milwaukee, Boston, Philly, Phoenix and Clippers (if healthy) are all legit contenders.

Miami was a crazy wildcard, but they are always a dangerous scrappy team if healthy. They are an old veteran team. Butler missed 20 games this year, Lowry missed 27 games this year, Gabe missed 14 games this year...they had injury issues. But this was a team that was great last year and nearly made the finals.

[ChaseDown]

I had the Celtics winning it all with Bucks meeting them in the conference finals. Suns were also supposed to be in the finals. But hey, here we are with an interesting matchup between a franchise that might win their 1st championship under a 2nd round great in Jokic vs a 30th pick in Butler trying to carry his way to his 1st ring & Haslem’s 4th.

[druggas]

The only thing that's not being discussed here is matchups. During the regular season it's not important, but in the playoffs, it's everything. Doesn't matter if it's teams of the West or East or what they did to each other during the regular season. That's why they play the games.

[Lalouie]

you overestimated the whole nba

even though we acknowledge the chaotic nature of 2023, no one is taking it into consideration. we still use the same metrics we've used in the past to measure the caliber of THIS SEASON. this is silly because you have to examine the macro because it defines the micro