Around the NBA (Non-Celtics) 2019-2020, Part 3 – "Playoff Version"

[Ill News]

2020 really is the worst year. It looks the Lakers will romp to another title.

What I hate the most about this is that the Lakers have done very few things right since 2012. They overpaid an aging Kobe, most of their draft picks didn't pan out, overpaid some bums like Mozgov, then there was that whole disastrous run with Magic as GM. And now they might win a title despite all the dumb decisions they've made over the past decade.

The main reason why? LeBron wanted to live in LA so he joined them. That's it. He leveraged his Klutch connection to get AD to force himself out of the Pelicans, and now they have the best 1-2 punch in the **** league. If LeBron never went to the Lakers, they'd still be languishing in hell right now.

I hate it. I really **** hate it. Ainge and co. have made so many great decisions since they started rebuilding in 2013, resulting in having a great young core and attracting some big free agents, and yet the Lakers will win another title before us. I **** HATE IT.

It just feels so unfair, like the universe telling you that no matter how much you persevere for something, it still won't matter; you'll still be trumped by someone who's just lucky and privileged, which is exactly what the Lakers are. They're that privileged douche in real life who had everything handed to them, all while you had to work and sweat through **** jobs just to make a living. Or that artist who knows several connections and influential people which they leverage for fame, while no one pays any attention to anything you make because, well, you're a **** nobody.

Sorry for the rant. Not in the best mood today after last night's devastating loss and the thought of the Lakers potentially falling ass backwards into another title. I might not even watch the Finals if our Celtics meet the Lakers there, I don't think I can stand seeing LeBron hoist another trophy, and worse, in a **** Lakers jersey.

[Bleeding Green]

LeBron can't even beat the Clippers in the playoffs. **** bum or whatever the current goalposts say. Could be the tenth Finals that LeBron fell ass backwards into being on one of the two best teams in the NBA.

[BostonCouchGM]

2020 really is the worst year. It looks the Lakers will romp to another title.

What I hate the most about this is that the Lakers have done very few things right since 2012. They overpaid an aging Kobe, most of their draft picks didn't pan out, overpaid some bums like Mozgov, then there was that whole disastrous run with Magic as GM. And now they might win a title despite all the dumb decisions they've made over the past decade.

The main reason why? LeBron wanted to live in LA so he joined them. That's it. He leveraged his Klutch connection to get AD to force himself out of the Pelicans, and now they have the best 1-2 punch in the **** league. If LeBron never went to the Lakers, they'd still be languishing in hell right now.

I hate it. I really **** hate it. Ainge and co. have made so many great decisions since they started rebuilding in 2013, resulting in having a great young core and attracting some big free agents, and yet the Lakers will win another title before us. I **** HATE IT.

It just feels so unfair, like the universe telling you that no matter how much you persevere for something, it still won't matter; you'll still be trumped by someone who's just lucky and privileged, which is exactly what the Lakers are. They're that privileged douche in real life who had everything handed to them, all while you had to work and sweat through **** jobs just to make a living. Or that artist who knows several connections and influential people which they leverage for fame, while no one pays any attention to anything you make because, well, you're a **** nobody.

Sorry for the rant. Not in the best mood today after last night's devastating loss and the thought of the Lakers potentially falling ass backwards into another title. I might not even watch the Finals if our Celtics meet the Lakers there, I don't think I can stand seeing LeBron hoist another trophy, and worse, in a **** Lakers jersey.

Not. Danny passed on Giannis and Gobert, two young and high upside prospects, for the older Olynyk. Laughably stupid considering 2013 was ground zero for the rebuild. He passed on Jokic twice in the 2014 draft. Instead of embracing the tank and rebuilding they made trades in 2014/15 so they could limp into the playoffs and get swept. This cost them a chance at Booker. He then felt a mythical roster crunch so he drafted and stashed Yabusele and Zizic instead of taking Siakam, Dejounte Murray or LeVert, then traded away picks instead of taking Brogdon. He then took Williams over Robinson a couple years later. And he traded for disgruntled head case Kyrie instead of staying with the rebuild and taking SGA or MPJ with the #8 pick they sent to CLE. The next year he passed on Sekou, Bazley, Clarke and Bol, leaving us with one of the worst benches in the league. That’s just his terrible draft day moves. He also overpaid for Kemba in a panic move because he didn’t want to lose Kyrie for nothing, thus saddling us with a 6’ PG who is nearing 30 yo, injury prone, a massive defensive liability, whose game relies on his diminishing quickness. No sir, Danny and co have absolutely NOT delivered like his numerous defenders on here claim. If not for taking advantage of a Russian owner in the Nets trade, we’d be screwed right now

[Darthlukey]

Its been a bad week to have quit smoking, im actively engaging with bronsexuals on Facebook, ergh

[Darthlukey]

Lakers bench crew is awesome at hyping their guys up. Everybody standing up yelling.

We should have tried getting Dwight Howard.

they are basically cobra kai.

I would love to see what the bench is like when the chips are down, but i doubt anyone pushes them hard

[London2Boston]

Lakers bench crew is awesome at hyping their guys up. Everybody standing up yelling.

We should have tried getting Dwight Howard.

Miami bench guys are the same I noticed.


—-

If Lakers tying us for titles this year doesn’t light a fire under this whole franchise to go all in then I dunno what will.

Enough hoarding first round picks that are going to go on players that are no where near ready.

[Ill News]

2020 really is the worst year. It looks the Lakers will romp to another title.

What I hate the most about this is that the Lakers have done very few things right since 2012. They overpaid an aging Kobe, most of their draft picks didn't pan out, overpaid some bums like Mozgov, then there was that whole disastrous run with Magic as GM. And now they might win a title despite all the dumb decisions they've made over the past decade.

The main reason why? LeBron wanted to live in LA so he joined them. That's it. He leveraged his Klutch connection to get AD to force himself out of the Pelicans, and now they have the best 1-2 punch in the **** league. If LeBron never went to the Lakers, they'd still be languishing in hell right now.

I hate it. I really **** hate it. Ainge and co. have made so many great decisions since they started rebuilding in 2013, resulting in having a great young core and attracting some big free agents, and yet the Lakers will win another title before us. I **** HATE IT.

It just feels so unfair, like the universe telling you that no matter how much you persevere for something, it still won't matter; you'll still be trumped by someone who's just lucky and privileged, which is exactly what the Lakers are. They're that privileged douche in real life who had everything handed to them, all while you had to work and sweat through **** jobs just to make a living. Or that artist who knows several connections and influential people which they leverage for fame, while no one pays any attention to anything you make because, well, you're a **** nobody.

Sorry for the rant. Not in the best mood today after last night's devastating loss and the thought of the Lakers potentially falling ass backwards into another title. I might not even watch the Finals if our Celtics meet the Lakers there, I don't think I can stand seeing LeBron hoist another trophy, and worse, in a **** Lakers jersey.

Not. Danny passed on Giannis and Gobert, two young and high upside prospects, for the older Olynyk. Laughably stupid considering 2013 was ground zero for the rebuild. He passed on Jokic twice in the 2014 draft. Instead of embracing the tank and rebuilding they made trades in 2014/15 so they could limp into the playoffs and get swept. This cost them a chance at Booker. He then felt a mythical roster crunch so he drafted and stashed Yabusele and Zizic instead of taking Siakam, Dejounte Murray or LeVert, then traded away picks instead of taking Brogdon. He then took Williams over Robinson a couple years later. And he traded for disgruntled head case Kyrie instead of staying with the rebuild and taking SGA or MPJ with the #8 pick they sent to CLE. The next year he passed on Sekou, Bazley, Clarke and Bol, leaving us with one of the worst benches in the league. That’s just his terrible draft day moves. He also overpaid for Kemba in a panic move because he didn’t want to lose Kyrie for nothing, thus saddling us with a 6’ PG who is nearing 30 yo, injury prone, a massive defensive liability, whose game relies on his diminishing quickness. No sir, Danny and co have absolutely NOT delivered like his numerous defenders on here claim. If not for taking advantage of a Russian owner in the Nets trade, we’d be screwed right now

Are we just going to focus on every miss that Ainge had and just ignore everything else he did? Because that's what every Ainge detractor does. Sure, we obviously could be in a better position, but that's like complaining that your hot girlfriend only has C-size breasts and not double Ds. I get why some fans are still critical of Ainge, but really, the only argument you're making is that he didn't make moves you like even when the product he's been putting on the court has been consistently great for more than half a decade. Six straight years in the playoffs when we should have been tanking in a rebuild. Three ECFs in the last four years. And these are all because of Ainge's savvy moves.

This is gonna be a long post, so buckle up. I don't give a **** if you read this or not, I just want to get everything off my chest.

1) "Danny passed on Giannis and Gobert, two young and high upside prospects, for the older Olynyk. Laughably stupid considering 2013 was ground zero for the rebuild. He passed on Jokic twice in the 2014 draft."

So did a lot of teams. It's really just a tired and lazy take at this point. There are very few teams who managed to unearth superstars in the late first round and second round, and singling Danny out as the lone GM who missed out on stars like those is just some incredible mental gymnastics He made up for it with the Brown and Tatum picks.

2) "And he traded for disgruntled head case Kyrie instead of staying with the rebuild and taking SGA or MPJ with the #8 pick they sent to CLE."

Again, relying on hindsight. He swapped an injury-riddled IT for another younger, more talented star in Kyrie. That's a great move on paper. IT's never been the same, hasn't he? Not Ainge's fault that Kyrie's a **** head case, he was probably banking on the Celtics' great culture under Stevens to temper down Kyrie's craziness, it just didn't work. People were clamoring for Ainge to unload his assets for Butler and PG13, and I swear, if he got PG on this team and he kept wilting in the playoffs, you'd still accuse Ainge of being a terrible GM for trading for a loser.

3) "The next year he passed on Sekou, Bazley, Clarke and Bol, leaving us with one of the worst benches in the league. That’s just his terrible draft day moves."

You really think any of those guys would've helped shore up our bench? I can see the case for Brandon Clarke, but I really think the only thing separating him from Grant Williams is minutes; Clarke is a starter in a rebuilding Memphis team, while Grant is playing on a loaded one that can't make use of his talents that much right now. And yet he's managed to carve out a role as some sort of mini-Horford with high BBIQ, offensive rebounding, solid defense, and with some three-point shooting sprinkled in. He helped us win Game 7 against the Raptors, and I think he'll be a major contributor to our bench for years to come. I'm pretty sure Clarke would provide the same thing for our bench, but that won't mean his production would separate itself that much from Grant's.

He also had some solid late-round picks in Time Lord, Terry Rozier, and Semi. I agree his drafting in the second round could be better, but it really is a crap-shoot from there.

4) "He also overpaid for Kemba in a panic move because he didn’t want to lose Kyrie for nothing, thus saddling us with a 6’ PG who is nearing 30 yo, injury prone, a massive defensive liability, whose game relies on his diminishing quickness."

This just strikes me as a heat of the moment reaction. Our future after last season was REALLY BLEAK. Tatum had regressed, Horford and Kyrie were gone, Brown looked like a bad contract, etc. Yet Ainge pulled the Kemba signing out of a hat, which allowed us to remain on contender status instead of a team with a murky future. Kemba's not performing at his best right now, but ask yourself, would we have gotten this far in the playoffs if it wasn't for him? His leadership transformed this team and excised all the toxicity from last year. I can't overstate how huge that is. I think he has 2-3 more good years on him, and he won't need to carry as much a load because of Tatum and Brown's ascension. But yes, let's just disregard how he's elevated this team to a championship contender just because opposing teams are game-planning the hell out of him right now in the playoffs which has led to some brutal shooting nights. Let's just pile on.

Seriously, Ainge did a lot of great things in this rebuild. He lured Brad Stevens out of Butler. He drafted Marcus Smart, so far the only player in the top 10 of that draft who has contributed to winning for his team. He stole IT from Phoenix with a second round pick, if I recall correctly. He enticed Horford and Hayward to sign here, the latter a direct result of his hiring of Stevens.

He drafted Jaylen Brown, a pick where he was laughed at because they thought he was a reach, well he's a borderline All-Star now on a ridiculous bargain of a contract. He drafted Jayson Tatum when people wanted him to take Fultz with the #1 pick, when he traded down people expected him to take Josh Jackson who's cleaning a toilet somewhere right now. He's made several solid signings like Marcus Morris, Aron Baynes, Jae Crowder, Gerald Green, Shane Larkin, and Enes Kanter, who have all contributed to winning in the playoffs. He plucked Daniel Theis and Brad Wanamaker from Germany, with the former being a HUGE part of our success right now because he filled the Horford void.

I don't want to come off as some huge Danny Ainge apologist because he's disappointed me a number of times before, but saying he didn't put us in the best position to succeed and didn't deliver anything at all is SOMETHING I WILL NOT STAND FOR. It's wrong, it's bullcrap, and it's frankly embarrassing.

[London2Boston]

Thought I would always be happy for Rondo, but I just can’t at the moment. Sucks he’s with the Lakers and Lebron.

[TheMartian]

in case anyone thought for a second that the NBA wasn't rigged lmao. They aren't even trying to hide it. They're desperate for the Lakers to win it all. Of course, anyone paying attention the past couple of decades knew this all along.

[threrf23]

PJ Dozier giving the Nuggets some good minutes

[threrf23]

Dozier!

[Feed Your Head]

Can’t get over PJ Dozier getting fourth quarter minutes in a conference finals lol.

[Tatumfor2]

Showing how soft Davis is.

[threrf23]

Dozier is schooling Lebron now. This is crazy.

[threrf23]

If only he could hit free throws

[floyd]

Howard is such a goon.

[zoyathedestroya]

One stop and score, Nuggs! Let's go!

[floyd]

holy ****! that tip was crazy

[jmr07019]

Amazing comeback by nugs but horrendous D to let the Lakers get an easy 2 without using any clock. You gotta make LeVron pick that ball up much earlier.

[jmr07019]

BEASSSST JOKIC! AD is softer than puppy ****.