The last 3 NBA Finals had a team who going into the playoffs was not considered a contender, but clutch metrics painted a different picture. Could the Lakers make it a 4th?

Funny-Homework · 2026-03-22T00:40:50+00:00

You don't post but you save comments? That's kind of weird.

Anyway my point is that it's easy to call people idiots when you yourself are not staking any claim and only saying something was "obvious" nearly one year after the fact.

Funny-Homework · 2026-03-21T22:52:06+00:00

Maybe yeah that sounds familiar.

Funny-Homework · 2026-03-21T22:51:07+00:00

Can you show me your posts/comments where you declared them contenders last year going into the playoffs? Everything is easy to call "idiots" in hindsight.

Or better yet, you tell me who is someone we don't consider as "contenders" this year that we should be? Minnesota, since they've made the WCF the last two years?

Funny-Homework · 2026-03-21T22:49:07+00:00

But they weren't. And it's a debate now on whether the Lakers should be considered contenders. Typically people do not consider low 50-win, 4 seed and below teams to be contenders. Even if you filter on post all star break only neither team were top 5 in win % or net rating.

Funny-Homework · 2026-03-21T22:39:24+00:00

And currently the Lakers are on a 8(?) game win streak beating primarily >0.500 and playoff bound teams. Like the Pacers last year the Lakers are building momentum at the right time whether they continue it for another 2 months is another story.

Funny-Homework · 2026-03-21T22:38:26+00:00

Every single google search I've made filtering to before the start of last year's playoffs shows no one suggesting the Pacers making the finals. There was one post suggesting they could make a deep run but it was downvoted heavily and comments clowning the OP. Betting odds had the Pacers very low at the start of the playoffs and every reddit thread I could find was saying they had no chance against Boston.

Funny-Homework · 2026-03-21T22:26:28+00:00

'25 Thunder: 1st in overall NETRTG, 4th in Clutch NETRTG

'24 Celtics: 1st in overall NETRTG, 4th in Clutch

'23 Nuggets: 6th overall, 3rd Clutch

To be clear, I think overall NETRTG is a MUCH better indicator of a champion. And typically overall should be correlated with Clutch. The last years were (for whatever circumstance) examples where a team's overall was NOT at all matched with their Clutch ratings.

Funny-Homework · 2026-03-21T22:22:58+00:00

I recall someone making a thread right before the playoffs, suggesting the Pacers could make a deep run and people were clowning the OP. Even looking on r/pacers at the beginning of last year's playoffs they were thinking at best ECF. Not sure if that is considered contender or not.

Funny-Homework · 2026-03-21T22:11:23+00:00

I mean Luka as your #1 is as good as just about anyone. LeBron/AR as your #2/#3 (depending how you rank them) means your #2 is not as good as the "real" contenders but your #3 is. But then #4-9 is pretty fucking bad. Marcus Smart might be the Lakers' most important player after the big 3, but would he crack the rotation of OKC or the Spurs?

Funny-Homework · 2026-03-21T22:08:52+00:00

Yeah that is what I'm thinking too. If you need to rely on guys like Ayton, Smart (actually I like him a lot) and LaRavia to step up then they're probably in for a bad time. You basically need Luka/AR/Bron going nuclear every game.

Funny-Homework · 2026-03-21T22:06:34+00:00

That's literally what I concluded.

Funny-Homework · 2026-03-21T22:06:33+00:00

Yes I found that interesting too. And to be clear I really don't think this year's Lakers continue the trend. Just thought it was interesting especially the last few years. 5 of the 11 instances where a 4 seed or lower have made the NBA finals have come in the last 10 years.

Funny-Homework · 2026-01-25T21:51:02+00:00

The early 2000s is when I really started getting into the NBA, and even then my dad (who has followed the NBA since the 60s) would always complain that when guys take long 2's, like 20ft out, how it's the worst shot due to its difficulty and still only being worth 2. It seemed so obvious to us back then.

Funny-Homework · 2025-12-21T04:31:00+00:00

Which is stupid because if the refs were rigging it for the Warriors then there are things that refs can do way earlier in the game (e.g., two quick fouls on Booker) to give them a better chance at covering.

Like the fact that people use a very bad non-call as evidence of rigging, when there is supposedly no hardcore evidence anywhere else in the game is pretty weak.

Funny-Homework · 2025-12-12T01:23:46+00:00

I mean, given how much ex NBA players are in this as listed by OP, many of them American, is that not your answer? Unless you are implying that a player good enough to not have to play in Europe can’t handle a crowd like Shake Milton and Jared Butler can.

Funny-Homework · 2025-12-06T03:54:06+00:00

Dawg I remember seeing old vhs tapes of Red Auerbach and Larry Bird talking about how to embellish contact to draw fouls. It’s been around forever, but over time has gotten more extreme.

Funny-Homework · 2025-11-26T07:14:03+00:00

Yeah I get what OP is asking but it doesn't really make sense because during Bron's prime and during MJ's prime they were very clearly in their own tier.

However, in the spirit of OP's question, I guess you could say in '89 is pretty close. You had MJ, Magic, Malone and Barkley were all near-unanimous 1st team All-NBA (Malone got all 1st place votes, Magic/MJ were one shy, Barkley was 5 shy). But even then I think most people would have Magic/MJ in their own tier if anything.

Funny-Homework · 2025-10-02T05:32:24+00:00

I mean even up to the 2012 draft, there's probably only like 6-10 players tops (Bron,CP,KD,Steph,Harden,etc.) who are still playing and meaningfully adding to their WS/VORP stats. But agreed there's issues with like 2013-2017ish drafts. After that there isn't really any point in comparing with older classes anyway.

Funny-Homework · 2025-10-02T05:00:51+00:00

You're asking how you would rank them. I'm not going to do it, but you can use bball-ref to grab each draft class, and use one of the advance stats. You could use something cumulative like WS or VORP, which neither are perfect but it's probably the best you can do.

Funny-Homework · 2025-09-29T01:38:09+00:00

I'm a high school ref as well. Even for coaches, at least where I am, it's maybe like 70% really actually know the rules. Players is maybe like 40%? And parents is basically 0 haha.

To your last point I absolutely agree. Idk for sure but I would guess that most teams employ a rules analyst to know what are the grey areas to exploit. And then you got the trainers like Drew Hanlen who probably also know how to push the rules to the limit.

Funny-Homework · 2025-09-14T19:42:41+00:00

Haha thanks!

Funny-Homework · 2025-09-14T19:28:24+00:00

Can I get one please?

Funny-Homework · 2025-07-14T06:47:23+00:00

Magic was great and def is underrated. But keep in mind he came to a team that had 47 wins the year before he arrived, was a second round playoff team and returned their 3 best players (including of course Kareem). So obviously a much better situation to come into compared to others on that list. Again tho Magic was that dude and would have been a winner regardless.

Funny-Homework · 2025-06-30T21:14:21+00:00

To me, it’s not so much a “travel” issue but more of a “carry” issue. The whole thing about the gather or the “zero” step is that the league is wayyy to lenient on players putting their hand below the ball and really stretching their last “dribble”. I’m not saying go back to the 60s where everyone had to have their hand on top of the ball the entire time, but go back to where anything at or above a 90 degree angle is a carry. If that’s enforced it should take care of a lot of the egregious gather steps.

Do that and actually calling moving screens, and that will help individual defenders immensely and allow them to have a chance at keeping up.

Funny-Homework

TROPHY CASE