HeatFanLifer wrote:VaDe255 wrote:HeatFanLifer wrote:
Cavaliers crush Heat in most lopsided series in NBA playoff history: Historic sweep by the numbers
https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/cavaliers-crush-heat-in-most-lopsided-series-in-nba-playoff-history-historic-sweep-by-the-numbers/?utm_source=chatgpt.com
This is what I mean my friend
Right, because if it had been a close sweep, then obviously the banners would be going up and legacies would be saved!
They fought their way to the playoffs through adversity and lost in the first round that's all that really matters here. The rest is just narrative to make the team look a certain way for frustrated fans
What adversity? Jimmy Butler wanting to leave? The second the Heat realized they weren’t going to pay him what he wanted, they should have known he was going to want to leave given both: 1) their history of dealing with players that wanted to leave over money (Shaq and Wade) 2) Jimmy’s history of wanting the max deal
What adversity? An almost fully healthy team getting the worst defeat in nba playoff history?
What adversity? Losing Rozier to an ankle injury?
Is any of that **** adversity? Looks like poor personnel management and awful coaching to me. There was nothing to build on coming off the worst playoff performance in nba history. The team needs to fully rebuild. But it won’t cuz they probably think they succeeded through some self made adversity. Ridiculous nonsense.
I was on the reset train myself, but my opinion changed quite a bit once I started digging into draft data:
i) Only #1 picks fairly reliably turn into All-NBA guys, around 40% of the time.
ii) Picks 2–4 see a significant drop, down to the 10%-5% range
Outside of the top 4, the odds fall to about 2%-0.6%
What this means is that resetting and tanking doesn’t guarantee anything. You either need to win the lottery or get lucky with your pick
Yes, there are success stories, but there are just as many cautionary tales. Look at the Pistons, Magic, and Hornets, they’ve had consistent high lottery picks for years and still haven’t won a playoff series in over a decade.
Most recently, just take a look at the Jazz, they started their rebuild the right way, selling off Gobert and Mitchell for great returns. Now entering year 4, they’re still nowhere close.
I don’t want to see the Heat become irrelevant for 5+ years (which is what a reset likely means).
Also culture, environment, scouting and player development can offset draft position. We've seen it with Bam, Tyler and now there is already Ware (21y), Kasparas(19y) and Jovic(22y) in the pipeline. There’s already young talent to develop and by all looks they are going for a developmental year. All-NBA talent can come from anywhere, ironically the top 3 guys right now Jokic, Giannis, and SGA were all picked outside the top 10. It’s harder to find them the lower the pick is, sure, but not impossible.
On the topic of adversity, I don’t know how many teams could survive their best player quitting midseason, patching together a roster on the fly, still competing and going through two play-in games on the road as a 10 seed. That’s the definition of fighting through adversity, even if the end result is getting historically cooked by a more talented team