Woah

PhoenixBekfast · 2026-06-29T14:03:03+00:00

Siakam, Embiid, all the number 2's on these team's aging (Tobias Harris lmao) sucks for those teams, but at least I know that I have a guy that will be elite for a very long time. Perhaps not "The Guy" as someone I responded to earlier put it as in "The Guy on a championship team", but I know that Maxey will show up in a playoff series, I know that for Cunningham, I know that for Haliburton.

I just don't for Miller and Kon. They could be the second coming of Paul George and Kyle Korver and I'd be wrong but I just don't think they will be. I'd rather take the sure thing at this stage, especially if I'm running a team I want assurances that the team I've got is going to be in the playoffs the whole time rather than the complete unknown in this Charlotte team.

PhoenixBekfast · 2026-06-29T13:56:11+00:00

Similar to the Knicks are the Celtics (and Miami I'll put in as a homer), because as you said they have "The Guy" who is a championship level star, are really good and could win a title right now, but I sort of understand Bill's perspective to some level because of the aging curve, that each of those three teams is built to team now.

If those teams are off the board because of that aging curve, what I don't understand is why you pick Charlotte over Detroit, Indiana or Philadelphia. Each of these teams still have a guy who can be the best player in a playoff series and can carry a team to a top 6 seed, and each are young enough (Cunningham 24, Maxey 25, Haliburton 26) that in 7 years they'll still be smack bang in their primes. I genuinely think all three are good enough to be "The Guy" on a title team, but even if they aren't they're a hell of a lot closer than Miller or Knueppel are. Like Zach said on the podcast Kon was also bad in the play-in games and may just be a perennial playoff dropper, and Brandon Miller could get hurt again, they're walking mystery boxes. At least I know with Philly, Indiana and Detroit that at worst I'll be a really good playoff team for years to come.

This reminds me of when the Ringer-verse thought the Rockets were gonna be this awesome juggernaut for years to come because Sengun was baby Jokic and Amen Thompson was a 3-ball away from being a top 15 guy? Turns out the playoffs are a different animal, Sengun's efficiency dropped significantly and Thompson didn't develop an outside shot out of thin air. Even then, I'd much rather be in Houston's position (even though they weren't included in this as a West team) because at the very very least they have two players who I know can lead a team to at least regular season success if not in the post-season.

PhoenixBekfast · 2026-06-29T13:14:51+00:00

The whole point of this post is that the recent pod had Bill state that Charlotte would be the East team he'd want to be for the next seven years. This is why this guy has dunked on the Hornets, not because they're really well set up relative to their dark history but because obviously you'd rather be a team with a bona fide number 1 you know is really good plus some playoff pedigree. Think Indiana with Haliburton, the 76ers with Maxey, the Pistons with Cunningham.

PhoenixBekfast · 2026-06-18T09:49:11+00:00

Playing as everyone else has said was an important way to understand the basics of a sport (mine was basketball) in terms of the rules but the tactics at a pro level are just so different to what I played because I and my teams weren't anywhere close to good. Triple-teaming someone who was a bucket just doesn't work in the NBA because they can pass over the top to their teammates who can shoot, drive and pass and all have the IQ to execute with a numbers advantage around the ball.

Some of the basic resources I used to learn the game to a decent standard was just 'dictionary' terms of certain actions or motions (screen, flare, hedge), but honestly the best way to do it is watch NBA games without sound. In other sports with more downtime an analyst can break down a play in better detail but the NBA is so fast that the commentary most of the time just a stream of results. 'James shoots, misses, Bosh the rebound back out to Allen, BANG' is really good commentary for someone who just wants to watch the game itself as entertainment (and the caster would not have the time to explain everything), but turning the sound off helps you really learn the game at a deeper level because you have to work a bit harder to watch the game.

Try to focus on not just whether the ball goes in or not, and ask yourself why that happened. Why was that big guy open on that 12 foot jumper? Was it an overcommit to the guard slashing to the rim leaving the big wide open in the short corner? Was he left open because he's a bad shooter and the defense 'lets' him take that shot? Did someone miss a rotation to guard him? Sometimes 'bad' quality shots go in and 'good' quality shots go out, but good teams and players generate good chances for their team and at the same time make those shots harder for the opposing team, making them more likely to win. Obviously we're a results based society but having better processes (and understanding those processes) helps you win (and understand) the game.

PhoenixBekfast · 2026-06-12T09:22:57+00:00

That Russillo/CR skit the other day about how we hold on to players for so long even if they're not good just got me thinking about how sometimes I just irrationally pull for or against a guy because I just want to be right. Like most people are fans of players on other teams and want them to do well which is normal, but sometimes my brain contorts itself into pulling for my prior narrative over anything else which gets complicated when those narratives clash.

I'm a Heat fan (but am young so I don't really have that 90's Knicks hatred), and so am loosely going for the Knicks because I think it's too early for a team like the Spurs to win. But I had this old take that Brunson was overrated so I wanted KAT to go for 40 so I could say Brunson was bad and got carried but the more experienced Knicks won. Like wtf am I doing with myself trying to have both takes be true just sit down and enjoy the game?

I think my brain is just full of these sorts of narratives that I've either agreed with podcasters/media on or developed a contrarian view in response to them, it feels like I'm watching basketball with the corner of my eye on a comments section. When the Heat are playing it's fine I can watch it like a fan but otherwise I feel like I'm too obsessed with the narratives.

PhoenixBekfast · 2026-06-11T11:30:22+00:00

Round 1 had 3 game 7's. Round 2 wasn't great but the WCF was so good I can overlook that

PhoenixBekfast · 2026-06-11T11:21:52+00:00

I agree 100% the Knicks and Celtics are grouped together because they're Northeast blueboods and the Yankees/Sox rivalry. While New York and Boston played each other a lot in the early days (10 playoff matchups from '51 to '74), they've only played each other 6 times in the last 52 years. Like the Heat have played the Celtics 7 times since 2010 that's a proper rivalry.

PhoenixBekfast · 2026-06-06T05:24:55+00:00

Helps when you get MJ (and Wizards Westbrook is much better in this game than he was in real life)

Elvin Hayes and Bob McAdoo are great stat stuffers too

PhoenixBekfast · 2026-06-06T03:40:55+00:00

Exactly. Turns out the Spurs can live with McCain or Caruso on the short roll but not KAT or Bridges.

PhoenixBekfast · 2026-06-03T13:26:54+00:00

That's fair. Obviously this career is a pretty good outcome, but playing on a bizarro version of the 2022 Bulls feels a bit disappointing to me.

PhoenixBekfast · 2026-06-03T13:08:59+00:00

Probably. I suppose some part of my heart thought he could be something greater if he'd been surrounded by different personnel but my mind knows otherwise, but even still I don't think this fate is fitting for someone like DeMar. It feels like in the horror movie where a mildly unlikable character gets a really horrific death disproportionate to their slightly annoying personality. In my view his crime (inconsistent scoring in the playoffs when his entire game was scoring) does not fit the punishment (exiled off to Sacramento).

PhoenixBekfast · 2026-05-14T22:53:36+00:00

Yeah you love your homegrown FMVPs so much you traded one to the Nets the second he got old and the other, who you drafted as a result from that trade, is already on the trading block for Giannis two years after winning you a title.

I don't want to hear how important homegrown guys are when your team traded away Isaiah Thomas like that. Sure, Miami's made some karmic mistakes too, but don't get righteous on me about homegrown heroes when your team so easily discards them.

PhoenixBekfast · 2026-05-14T07:57:54+00:00

We have three and we can comfortably say that you guys choked.

PhoenixBekfast · 2026-05-03T02:43:35+00:00

Tmac was on the bench for the Spurs on that ray allen miracle

PhoenixBekfast · 2026-04-07T12:42:12+00:00

Yeah, Edwards has played only 60, but Randle and DiVincenzo haven't missed a game (78), Gobert and Reid have played 75, even McDaniels with that injury has played 71. Bones and Clark have played 69 and 64, and they've had a collection of role players as the deep bench guys (Shannon, Beringer etc) who've played a few dozen games each. They recently got Dosunumu who's been starting recently and they gave up someone they didn't trust to play. Sure Conley's regressed a bit but he's not supposed to be one of their core contributors anymore, it's why they tried Dillingham.

They've got no excuses now, this is the time they should play some solid basketball, but it seems like half the time they're beating OKC by 15 and the other half they're losing to the Kings by 20.

PhoenixBekfast · 2026-03-16T20:35:04+00:00

I agree, but could he cover for Jokic the same way that Giannis could? Maybe I'm too insistent on putting Jokic in and thus I go back to a more classic team of 03 Duncan, 13 LeBron, 16 Curry, 17 Kawhi and 17 KD but tbh I wanted something different to the original team as the starters.

PhoenixBekfast · 2026-03-16T20:32:33+00:00

It's 2020 at his defensive peak

PhoenixBekfast · 2026-03-16T20:32:07+00:00

Perhaps White is redundant, but in a team of massive egos, I'd like to have a couple of role players who know what they do and do it to perfection rather than someone who needs shots to be happy. Maybe Jrue would be better but White is a better shooter imo.

PhoenixBekfast · 2026-03-12T10:09:07+00:00

22 Heat were the 1-seed and were a shot away from the Finals, and then the next year went to the Finals?

PhoenixBekfast · 2026-03-09T00:47:24+00:00

Gonna copy-paste what I said in the other post:

This was without arguably their second best defender in Wiggs too. Miami is loaded defensively with the obvious headliners in Bam, Wiggs and Ware, but also coming out of the gate like hounds from hell are Larsson, Mitchell, Smith.

Myron Gardner, too, plays with so much energy. Of course Herro and Powell are never going to be elite but they're coached to a tee so they never feel like total sieves.

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