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Big J wrote:

Mavrelous wrote:Winning a ring is overrated and has a great deal of luck with it, continually going to conference finals and finals (e.g. current Celtics, mid 2010s Cavs even if they didn't win in 16), but falling short is also amazing.

It might be great for the team, but as a fan it’s not great when your team continually goes to the conference finals but never wins.

Hmm i disagree. As a fan of the Raptors, i can tell you the Demar/Lowry raptors were way more fun than this current iteration. I knew that team wasn't going to win a title but it was fun to watch playoff games year in and year out. It was also a lot more fun than the tanking Raptors hoping that Bargnani or JV turned into superstars.

Jadoogar wrote:

Big J wrote:

Mavrelous wrote:Winning a ring is overrated and has a great deal of luck with it, continually going to conference finals and finals (e.g. current Celtics, mid 2010s Cavs even if they didn't win in 16), but falling short is also amazing.

It might be great for the team, but as a fan it’s not great when your team continually goes to the conference finals but never wins.

Hmm i disagree. As a fan of the Raptors, i can tell you the Demar/Lowry raptors were way more fun than this current iteration. I knew that team wasn't going to win a title but it was fun to watch playoff games year in and year out. It was also a lot more fun than the tanking Raptors hoping that Bargnani or JV turned into superstars.

Yeah those Demar teams were a blast. you can see how ecstatic Kings fans were just to make the playoffs. or Knicks to make the 2nd round. Being a great team consistently is hard. Some teams tank for years and will still never get to that level

NbaAllDay wrote:

Rafer24 wrote:Paul George is heavily underrated.

What would be a fair rating?

For me, he´s one of the best two-way players in the league since 2013.

I think people only look at his playoffs´s resume and overlook his impact in the game.

From reading throughout this thread my unpopular opinion is that KG deserves way more credit than people want to give him.

Besides that........

If the 2001 Bucks were around today they would be contending with the GSW of today's era.
If the 2021 Bucks were around in 2001 they would be contending with the Lakers of that era.

The Bucks had two great players that landed in the wrong eras but still prospered.

The NBA leadership cares too much about what the Govt of China thinks about what coaches and players have to say.

Along the same line Enes Kanter-Freedom should be playing some where in the NBA, there are some garbage bigs on teams and he's still pretty good.

October 2021, he condemned Xi Jinping, the Chinese paramount leader, as a "brutal dictator" and expressed his support for the Free Tibet movement on Twitter. In retaliation, the Chinese government stopped streaming all Boston Celtics games. Also in October, he led a rally in Washington, D.C., urging the U.S. Congress to pass the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, a law that would limit imports from the alleged areas where China has oppressed Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and Kyrgyz minorities

Source Wikipedia

nikster wrote:

Jadoogar wrote:

Big J wrote:
It might be great for the team, but as a fan it’s not great when your team continually goes to the conference finals but never wins.

Hmm i disagree. As a fan of the Raptors, i can tell you the Demar/Lowry raptors were way more fun than this current iteration. I knew that team wasn't going to win a title but it was fun to watch playoff games year in and year out. It was also a lot more fun than the tanking Raptors hoping that Bargnani or JV turned into superstars.

Yeah those Demar teams were a blast. you can see how ecstatic Kings fans were just to make the playoffs. or Knicks to make the 2nd round. Being a great team consistently is hard. Some teams tank for years and will still never get to that level

Ah, well I'm a Warriors fan and 2016 stings a lot more than 2020.

Big J wrote:

nikster wrote:

Jadoogar wrote:
Hmm i disagree. As a fan of the Raptors, i can tell you the Demar/Lowry raptors were way more fun than this current iteration. I knew that team wasn't going to win a title but it was fun to watch playoff games year in and year out. It was also a lot more fun than the tanking Raptors hoping that Bargnani or JV turned into superstars.

Yeah those Demar teams were a blast. you can see how ecstatic Kings fans were just to make the playoffs. or Knicks to make the 2nd round. Being a great team consistently is hard. Some teams tank for years and will still never get to that level

Ah, well I'm a Warriors fan and 2016 stings a lot more than 2020.

yes it's a lot different after your team has won 3 titles.

basketballwacko2 wrote:The NBA leadership cares too much about what the Govt of China thinks about what coaches and players have to say.

Along the same line Enes Kanter-Freedom should be playing some where in the NBA, there are some garbage bigs on teams and he's still pretty good.

October 2021, he condemned Xi Jinping, the Chinese paramount leader, as a "brutal dictator" and expressed his support for the Free Tibet movement on Twitter. In retaliation, the Chinese government stopped streaming all Boston Celtics games. Also in October, he led a rally in Washington, D.C., urging the U.S. Congress to pass the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, a law that would limit imports from the alleged areas where China has oppressed Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and Kyrgyz minorities

Source Wikipedia

If he was a better player, he would be playing. The NBA hasn't shied away from signing controversial people as long as they had the skills. Miles Bridges is going to play again. Kobe went on to be beloved. Jason Kidd had a HOF career and multiple coaching stints.

Minnesota will never feel forced to "deal with" the center position via trade. They may ultimately trade one, but it would be more due to addressing another need other than feeling like they need to get rid of one of them.

SOUL wrote:Some more (maybe) unpopular stuff:

1. NBA draft isn't rigged. People forget it's a lottery. It's in the name itself. You can find a compelling story to send a promising young #1 pick to any organization.

2. Silver is more harsh than Stern on domestic issues/violence/etc. Stern was heavy handed in some areas but was softer on issues that people say Silver is soft on.

3. 80s/90s athletes would get criticized/hated as much as today's athletes if they/society had access to social media like today's stars. Nostalgia blinds a lot of people.

I never thought it was rigged until the Cavs got 2 #1 picks back to back years. The face of the league leaving his hometown team? I could see the league trying to correct for that. There's no reason the real lottery by Ernst & Young can't be shown live on TV yet it's likely that'll never happen.

I agree with #3 totally though. They're so lucky social media wasn't around back then.

mariller wrote:

sammo89 wrote:Best of 7 was a desperate move to juice ratings for an upcoming league. Now that the league is established, best of 1 playoffs would be better in every way for everyone (except oldheads clinging to the past as usual)

Not for everyone - that's a lot less money. Also less view time for fans. Also a lot of luck is involved in best of 1 series, not some much in 7.

This is such an easily disproven fallacy. If best of 7 was the only way to make more money, all sports would have adopted it. There is also the option of hiking prices for the ads and the TV subscriptions. After all, the hype for a best of 1 is orders of magnitude higher than the hype for a best of 7. And the hype sustains well over just a few weeks. Best of 7 playoffs can drag on for months, there's probably a huge dropoff in casual viewership in that time

Mavrelous wrote:Winning a ring is overrated and has a great deal of luck with it, continually going to conference finals and finals (e.g. current Celtics, mid 2010s Cavs even if they didn't win in 16), but falling short is also amazing.

It is a shame we don't celebrate this more in the NBA. We do seem to put some stock in making the finals, but no one does in the conference finals.

If the league expanded to 32 and split into 4 8-team conferences I wonder if the narrative would change a bit. One of my favorite parts of baseball is how winning the pennant is legitimately seen as an achievement for MLB teams, or how NHL teams win the Presidents Trophy for the best regular season record.

Another unpopular opinion: basketball is a fundamentally broken game which needs a huge rulebook to be played as intended and therefore it cannot be officiated properly

ArtMorte wrote:Lonzo Ball is faking his knee injury, because he doesn't want to play basketball any longer, but still wants to get paid his contract.

And the entire Bulls medical staff is in on the scam ?

ArtMorte wrote:Lonzo Ball is faking his knee injury, because he doesn't want to play basketball any longer, but still wants to get paid his contract.

wouldnt be surprised if he miraculously comes back healthy after 2years off & playing well just in time for a new contract as the cap spikes

Big J wrote:

nikster wrote:

Jadoogar wrote:
Hmm i disagree. As a fan of the Raptors, i can tell you the Demar/Lowry raptors were way more fun than this current iteration. I knew that team wasn't going to win a title but it was fun to watch playoff games year in and year out. It was also a lot more fun than the tanking Raptors hoping that Bargnani or JV turned into superstars.

Yeah those Demar teams were a blast. you can see how ecstatic Kings fans were just to make the playoffs. or Knicks to make the 2nd round. Being a great team consistently is hard. Some teams tank for years and will still never get to that level

Ah, well I'm a Warriors fan and 2016 stings a lot more than 2020.

I'm sure 2016 stings but it's still better than the previous 40 years of Warriors history.

nikster wrote:

Big J wrote:

nikster wrote:Yeah those Demar teams were a blast. you can see how ecstatic Kings fans were just to make the playoffs. or Knicks to make the 2nd round. Being a great team consistently is hard. Some teams tank for years and will still never get to that level

Ah, well I'm a Warriors fan and 2016 stings a lot more than 2020.

I'm sure 2016 stings but it's still better than the previous 40 years of Warriors history.

Eh, none of those previous 40 years hurts as badly as 2016.

Ryoga Hibiki wrote:Not sure how unpopular here, but Manu Ginobili was a significantly better player than Allen Iverson.

This is why I love this thread ... you'll never hear opinions like this. He didn't just say better, he said "significantly" better. Those are fighting words to an Iverson fan lol.

Jadoogar wrote:

basketballwacko2 wrote:The NBA leadership cares too much about what the Govt of China thinks about what coaches and players have to say.

Along the same line Enes Kanter-Freedom should be playing some where in the NBA, there are some garbage bigs on teams and he's still pretty good.

October 2021, he condemned Xi Jinping, the Chinese paramount leader, as a "brutal dictator" and expressed his support for the Free Tibet movement on Twitter. In retaliation, the Chinese government stopped streaming all Boston Celtics games. Also in October, he led a rally in Washington, D.C., urging the U.S. Congress to pass the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, a law that would limit imports from the alleged areas where China has oppressed Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and Kyrgyz minorities

Source Wikipedia

If he was a better player, he would be playing. The NBA hasn't shied away from signing controversial people as long as they had the skills. Miles Bridges is going to play again. Kobe went on to be beloved. Jason Kidd had a HOF career and multiple coaching stints.

Well all Miles Bridges did was beat up and strangle a woman, he didn't do something egregious like criticizing the CCP.

Note to those not familiar with sarcasm, Bridges should be suspended for the whole season minimum.

John Murdoch wrote:

ArtMorte wrote:Lonzo Ball is faking his knee injury, because he doesn't want to play basketball any longer, but still wants to get paid his contract.

And the entire Bulls medical staff is in on the scam ?

No, of course not. It's just Lonzo telling them that the knee still hurts. I saw comments some time last season, I don't remember was it from a doctor treating him or someone in the medical staff, saying something like "we don't know what's wrong with it and why it's not healing". Something to that effect.

If he had a long career behind him, I wouldn't give it a second thought, but the guy's 25.

I think he's been forced by his father to devote his life to basketball, secretly hates it and this is his way out (while still getting paid his $80m contract).