2021-22 NBA Season Discussion

[BIGJ1ER]

I think phoenix was just a very well coached team that relied on sets to create advantages, their primary creators were CP3 and Booker, and cp3 is 37 and isn't an elite scorer anymore, and generates almost no rim pressure. A lot was made of their elite of their elite offence that didn't generate many rim shots or threes (the threes they did take were good looks though), but that really came to the forefront in the playoffs imo.

Booker was wildly overrated this year imo, and his lack of rim pressure, elite efficiency or playmaking was really brought to light in this series. Also his improved POA D also got overrated imo, while he's definitely trying harder, we saw brunson attacking him multiple times after game 2 and booker really wasn't an effective cover, which they needed him to be with crowder slowing down and being effective against bigger slower players nowadays, and bridges having to usually take on the elite perimeter threats.

Ayton and Bridges were also dissapointing this series and I'm a huge bridges homer. I think I'll have to go rewatch the tape, but Bridges seemed to miss a lot of good looks from three, especially the corners, and that hampered his impact, and he really wasn't a good matchup for luka.

Ayton's defensive impact was nowhere to be found, with Biyombo looking the more effective pick and roll defender at several points throughout the latter parts of the series, and while he had a strong scoring output in game 6, there are multiple clips of him having strange decision making at times and not going up strong when he can. There are debates wether this be due to slow processing speed, pre planning his moves before he makes them or "soft" mentality (which I don't agree with), but it was a problem at times, and this offseason has just gotten a lot more interesting with Sarver's known cheap mentality, Ayton and Monty's apparent argument in the game and PHX's meltdown here, whether they'll cough up the max which it will likely take to keep him.

Multiple teams would love to have Ayton at the 5, as I think he has value as a centre that doesn't really get played off the court, and I think there is untapped potential on the offensive end with him, even if I don't think running a fulltime post offence through him is the answer. Earlier in the season, I wondered if Cleveland would entertain a sign and trade for JA, but at this point I think JA's defensive output seems greater, and with his contract, I don't think they'd go for that anymore.

Atlanta with a sign and trade for capela (although I really like Okongwu) , Dallas (who I don't think can fit him, but would be an upgrade over powell albeit very costly and not sure they want to tie big money to another risky big), Toronto (The easiest fit with a glaring hole at the 5, again Precious looked good to close the season though), San Antonio and Detroit look the strongest contenders for his services imo.


In regards to POY voting, I think Jokic and Giannis are most likely going to be my 1 and 2, barring something incredible happening from Curry who is also almost a top 5 lock for me even with his subpar series against memphis.

Tatum, Doncic, Butler and Embiid look like the only other top 5 candidates, and I wouldn't be shocked to have Embiid outside of my top 5 when it's all said and done.

[Texas Chuck]

so we can debate how good Luka is(is he really worse than Jayson Tatum?!?!) or how good he can be? (GOAT candidate, really?!?!?), but one thing we can't debate is that he is born for the big moments. We saw in Europe, in international play, and in the playoffs in the Association.

And not just that, he thrives on the best opponents. When Dallas plays the Lakers, he has defended Lebron a lot. And held his own. And worked to get Lebron switched onto him instead of more obvious targets like Melo or Howard.

And in the first round its clear he didn't see Spida as an equal. No Gobert was the object of his affection. In this series, Booker tried to make it about the 2 of them and Luka kept laughing him off. But now? Steph? Oh yeah I think Luka is likely finally you brought me a worthy challenger. And Draymond a nice secondary target since he's the defensive legend.

I expect Luka to have an absolutely spectacular series. How Dallas fares will come down to if Sweeney can come up with the right defensive plan and Bullock, DFS, and Kleber can keep presenting a masterclass in execution and if the Dallas role players can make shots. But Luka? He is going to be a dominant force because that is who he is.

Crazy to think about in a conference finals with Steph and Draymond playing, but I will be stunned if Luka isn't clearly the best player in the series.

[Doctor MJ]

Crazy to think about in a conference finals with Steph and Draymond playing, but I will be stunned if Luka isn't clearly the best player in the series.

So, what I look forward to is the extreme contrast in styles between the two teams, but what that also means is that I think Luka will look like the best player on the court to many people even if Curry is the more valuable player.

I'm not saying Luka can't be the best by every possible outlook, but I can definitely foresee a fortnight into the future a major chunk of the basketball populace saying Luka's the best player on the court regardless of the scoreboard as long as he's scoring a lot...and I certainly expect him to score a lot.

[falcolombardi]

Crazy to think about in a conference finals with Steph and Draymond playing, but I will be stunned if Luka isn't clearly the best player in the series.

So, what I look forward to is the extreme contrast in styles between the two teams, but what that also means is that I think Luka will look like the best player on the court to many people even if Curry is the more valuable player.

I'm not saying Luka can't be the best by every possible outlook, but I can definitely foresee a fortnight into the future a major chunk of the basketball populace saying Luka's the best player on the court regardless of the scoreboard as long as he's scoring a lot...and I certainly expect him to score a lot.

on the other hand warriors winning doesnt automatically mean luka was not the best player

[Doctor MJ]

Crazy to think about in a conference finals with Steph and Draymond playing, but I will be stunned if Luka isn't clearly the best player in the series.

So, what I look forward to is the extreme contrast in styles between the two teams, but what that also means is that I think Luka will look like the best player on the court to many people even if Curry is the more valuable player.

I'm not saying Luka can't be the best by every possible outlook, but I can definitely foresee a fortnight into the future a major chunk of the basketball populace saying Luka's the best player on the court regardless of the scoreboard as long as he's scoring a lot...and I certainly expect him to score a lot.

on the other hand warriors winning doesnt automatically mean luka was not the best player

Certainly true. Team game.

[mikejames23]

A part of me marvels at the idea that Brunson, Dinwiddie and DFS are the main threats of this team. The Mavs did a spectacular job with the Porzingis trade, in retrospect, and certainly they have built a team without any conventional big names. Mavs FO deserves a little praise for this work.

[Texas Chuck]

Crazy to think about in a conference finals with Steph and Draymond playing, but I will be stunned if Luka isn't clearly the best player in the series.

So, what I look forward to is the extreme contrast in styles between the two teams, but what that also means is that I think Luka will look like the best player on the court to many people even if Curry is the more valuable player.

I'm not saying Luka can't be the best by every possible outlook, but I can definitely foresee a fortnight into the future a major chunk of the basketball populace saying Luka's the best player on the court regardless of the scoreboard as long as he's scoring a lot...and I certainly expect him to score a lot.

Yeah I'm not talking about that though. I'm talking about legitimately being the best player. In the same way he was against the Clippers the first time. Obviously Kawhi was absurd in that 2nd matchup.

I think even if Luka isn't anything special he's going to have the biggest statistical footprint because he basically always does. I'm talking about being the best player on the court.

And yes Curry is probably going to avg 45 a night and shoot 60% from 3 and shimmy Dallas right out the door in 5 now that I've made this bold prediction lol.

[falcolombardi]

if luka can bully the warriors defense like he did with suns then he is the real deal as a player with offense goat potential

players in their early 20's are not supposed to be so defense bullet-proof

[Peregrine01]

I foresee a ton of pick and roll to try to get Curry on Luka in this series. Warriors will do a lot of preswitching and Mavs will counter with anticipating who they preswitch with. Just a big cat and mouse game.

[falcolombardi]

draymond is gonna need to give his best version for warriors to hold dallas under control

[The-Power]

How do you guys feel as far as Giannis being the best player in the league after this series? Still on board with it?

Yes. It's between him and Jokic, but I'll have to side with Giannis here for the time being. He might not be the best option for any team but, to me, he is the best option for most. Him struggling with efficiency a bit against an elite defense with no reliable perimeter creator isn't something I'm concerned about – it's perhaps akin to LeBron in the 2015 Finals. If I had to pick one player to build around for next season or throw into a playoff elimination game on a random team, I'd absolutely select Giannis.

[eminence]

I foresee a ton of pick and roll to try to get Curry on Luka in this series. Warriors will do a lot of preswitching and Mavs will counter with anticipating who they preswitch with. Just a big cat and mouse game.

Feels like Poole would be the better target, but maybe those minutes are limited.

[Peregrine01]

How do you guys feel as far as Giannis being the best player in the league after this series? Still on board with it?

Yes. It's between him and Jokic, but I'll have to side with Giannis here for the time being. He might not be the best option for any team but, to me, he is the best option for most. Him struggling with efficiency a bit against an elite defense with no reliable perimeter creator isn't something I'm concerned about – it's perhaps akin to LeBron in the 2015 Finals. If I had to pick one player to build around for next season or throw into a playoff elimination game on a random team, I'd absolutely select Giannis.

Yeah I agree. There are guys that are better offensively and there are guys that are better defensively. But no one has the whole package like he does.

[Outside]

Strange moment in Monty Williams postgame press conference. He was asked why Ayton played so little (only 17 minutes) and he gave a short and somewhat snippy response -- "That's internal." Not sure what that indicates, but I wonder what was going on with Ayton. In the series, he'd been averaging 28 minutes, 17.5 pts (second on the team), and 8.8 reb (easily best on the team) and had the third best game score for both teams (behind only Booker and Luka).

[The-Power]

My gut reaction is that Jokic keeps his lead over Giannis in my POY standings with Giannis going out. Don't really see Tatum passing Giannis with this one though.

Other initial reactions?

They are pretty clearly #1 and #2 for me. My gut reaction would also be to have Jokic ahead still, but I'm at least considering Giannis. The only players with a realistic shot to take one of the two spots from them are Tatum and Curry, but both of them need to have a really great playoff run. Butler and Doncic have a puncher's chance, too, but they'd need to have a historic run all throughout the Finals to make up for the comparatively less impressive RS.

Also: what a game from Dallas. Wow, that was insane defense and their offensive trio of Doncic, Brunson and Spencer really showed up. Also a very tough game for the Suns – to have such a great season but completely crumble at home in a Game 7 after a blowout loss in Game 6? That's tough to swallow and will have to be internally evaluated.

[MartinToVaught]

Strange moment in Monty Williams postgame press conference. He was asked why Ayton played so little (only 17 minutes) and he gave a short and somewhat snippy response -- "That's internal." Not sure what that indicates, but I wonder what was going on with Ayton. In the series, he'd been averaging 28 minutes, 17.5 pts (second on the team), and 8.8 reb (easily best on the team) and had the third best game score for both teams (behind only Booker and Luka).

Ayton might end up being the scapegoat for this collapse. They were already reluctant to pay him before this. Now Sarver has the perfect excuse to cheap out while disguising it as making big changes after an embarrassing playoff loss. Of course, all this could have been avoided if he had just not meddled in the first place and let his front office draft Luka like they obviously wanted to do.

[Texas Chuck]

Strange moment in Monty Williams postgame press conference. He was asked why Ayton played so little (only 17 minutes) and he gave a short and somewhat snippy response -- "That's internal." Not sure what that indicates, but I wonder what was going on with Ayton. In the series, he'd been averaging 28 minutes, 17.5 pts (second on the team), and 8.8 reb (easily best on the team) and had the third best game score for both teams (behind only Booker and Luka).

Yeah it was odd. Pure wild speculation by me: Ayton looked at Dallas playing Dwight Powell, Maxi Kleber, Davis Bertans, and Dorian Finney-Smith in the middle and thought I should be getting a lot more touches and maybe finally tonight he started complaining about it a little too much and maybe even referenced his contract.

Again pure speculation but it made no sense to be playing Biyombo over him at all. If anything I might have gone with no center at all against Dallas and if Powell gets a few lobs so be it.

[sp6r=underrated]

Strange moment in Monty Williams postgame press conference. He was asked why Ayton played so little (only 17 minutes) and he gave a short and somewhat snippy response -- "That's internal." Not sure what that indicates, but I wonder what was going on with Ayton. In the series, he'd been averaging 28 minutes, 17.5 pts (second on the team), and 8.8 reb (easily best on the team) and had the third best game score for both teams (behind only Booker and Luka).

Fair question. Also, anytime you have a meltdown like this the coach has to take significant criticism. Phoenix was legitimately terrible for the last 2 games. Off top of my head, The best parallel I could find was the 01 Spurs no showing the LA games.

[eminence]

It is pretty much the biggest teamwide 'choke' I can remember in the NBA off the top of my head.

In some ways kinda nice that the whole team laid an egg, hard to scapegoat anyone.

[BIGJ1ER]

Strange moment in Monty Williams postgame press conference. He was asked why Ayton played so little (only 17 minutes) and he gave a short and somewhat snippy response -- "That's internal." Not sure what that indicates, but I wonder what was going on with Ayton. In the series, he'd been averaging 28 minutes, 17.5 pts (second on the team), and 8.8 reb (easily best on the team) and had the third best game score for both teams (behind only Booker and Luka).

Supposedly according to the Suns fan painted in orange you could see at every phoenix home game, Monty asked DA if he wanted to play and Ayton said "nope", which angered Monty to the point where he responded "What did you say to me?" and the two had to be separated by assistant coaches.

That fan was clearly at the game, and seems to be a fairly reputable source, and with this press conference just now, I'd tend to believe it happened.

This could massively change things in the offseason Ayton sweepstakes.