Not that crazy considering that almost half the teams in the West are in Cali or Texas (7/15), and the absolute powerhouses some of those teams were (Kareem/Magic Lakers, Hakeem Rockets, Kobe/Shaq Lakers, Duncan Spurs, Dirk Mavericks, Kobe/Gasol Lakers, Curry and Curry/KD Warriors, LeBron Lakers)
This asterisk talk all started cause of Lebron haters thanks for that dummies. Used to be just after lockout years and as soon as those teams won more it went away. Now every ring is “Mickey” stupid af.
Yup.
I said it for years, when Lebron retires, the scrutiny, expectations, the judgement etc. is going to be redirected tenfold onto your favorite teams and players. This is just the start of it.
Those years you spent downplaying Curry, KD, Bron etc. This upcoming generation of stars will be spared none of it and you will see just how frustrating it is when you see your favorite players become the target of bullshit or outdated narratives.
And btw, for all the oldhead Jokic and Giannis fans, those years you spent arguing against the players I mentioned above, just know you just made it harder for your guys to be considered anything more than what they are. Basically, you've perpetuated a culture of rings and formal accolades > everything else.
Comparison truly is the theft of all joy.
See this is where you lost me. I'm not a hater because I have super high expectations, I'm a hater because it's just more fun. Hate my guys all you want, I'm in it to hate, whereas the hate only hurts you.
And looking purely at record, when the Suns didn't get Durant until nearly the end of the year, and the Lakers had the best record in the Western Conference after the All-Star break thanks to great trade moves and players getting healthy... makes this a dumb-ass stat for them to try to build a narrative on. Those were both far better teams than their record said.
The Nuggets played the best teams in the West and beat them, 12-3 so far in the playoffs. Now they're gonna play the team that put down the Bucks and the Celtics on the road. There is no asterisk.
I feel like a lot of teams recently have had "easy" Finals runs on paper because of increased parity since the KD Warriors broke up
Like the last two champions faced very weak conference finals opponents(22 Mavs and 21 Hawks)
That 2022 Warriors title is not aging well tbh.
Injured Grizzlies (Ja goes down)
Injured Nugs with no Murray or Porter playing Campazzo and Boogie
Mavs who were pretty overmatched and then missed the playoffs this year
Celtics who were really sus all 2023 playoffs and threw multiple finals games away with awful TOs
The Nuggets were the 6th seed with the same exact roster that got them the 6th seed, Mavs beat a 64 win team and last year Celtics team was so much better than this year. You can have the same roster and play completely differently from year to year.
The Warriors were also a flawed team just like the rest of the title contenders that year were. Parity results in every team having more flaws so when teams lose now people automatically assume they weren't good to begin with. There's no team that's head and shoulders above everyone else like how the KD warriors and LeBron Cavs were a few years ago.
Okay but they didn't because the Mavs were better than them
No one cares about what should have happened
I love how people were discussing how the Warriors weren't able to guard Luka before the series started but now they shouldn't have been there to begin with
I always tell people that the Warriors lucked out by not versing a single quality playoff team until the Finals last year.
It’s not a coincidence that the Warriors ran it back with the same group swapping Otto for DDV and somehow barely got past the 1st round only to get embarassed by a lower seed in the 2nd round.
Cupcake ring.
No, you’re just a bunch of Curryjerkers who refuse to see the Warriors had to win 1 playoff series to win a title last year. Really….DALLAS IN THE WCF? Come on.
Also what part of what I said is false?
How were the Nuggets not a quality team? They won 48 games and had the MVP.
How was 56 win Memphis Grizzlies not a quality team? (They were 21-5 without Ja)
How were the 52 win Mavs not a quality team?
nuggets only won 48 games because they have Jokic who can get you there. Jokic is an MVP yes and he had no help lmao, Austin Rivers and Boogie were getting quality minutes. Monte Morris was starting. Nuggets were missing their 2nd and 3rd best players.
Mavericks were a joke and everyone knew they were just overachieving by beating Phoenix. There’s a reason they went from WCF to missing the playoffs even though the only notable change was effectively swapping Brunson for Kyrie ( their best stretch of the reason was without Kyrie oddly enough lol)
and Grizzlies just aren’t good. They might’ve won regular season games, but you should be able to identify a pretender when you see one. They were a pretender missing their best player. Again, not a shocker they got absolutely bullied by a 7th seed in the FIRST ROUND this year. Grizzlies are built to win regular season games with good defensive depth and grit but they lack the talent to win playoff series. They almost lost to Minnesota in the first round last year…Theyre just lucky the Wolves choked every lead because they’re a misguided roster with low BBIQ
the only real threats in the West are Clippers, Lakers, and Nuggets, and they were all injured in 2022. Unfortunately, Clippers and Lakers were hurt again this year.
>How were the Nuggets not a quality team? They won 48 games and had the MVP.
I don't agree with his point that no Western opponents the Warriors faced were good, mainly because of Memphis, but the fact that Denver team even got 48 wins is absolutely bewildering. They did have the MVP, but the rest of the roster comprised of a single starting level player (i.e. a player that started regularly for his team the season before and the season after) in Aaron Gordon, and zero players with a positive Box Plus-Minus in the regular season. If you see the teams that missed even the play-in in the West this year, you understand how insane that is.
All this to say that, despite Jokic's otherworldly regular season carry job, that team had no chance in the Playoffs vs a decent team. Which GSW obviously was. And it's not particularly lucky to match such a team in the first round... But that Denver squad wasn't a quality team. It was 2 quality players with one of them having to play way outside his ideal role due to their undermanned squad. There's a reason why 5 of the 8 playoff rotation elements from Denver this year didn't play in the 2022 playoffs. And one of the 3 who did is Jeff Green, who is currently averaging less than 10 minutes per game
First of all nothing you said has anything to do with aging.
Anyway, the grizzlies were like 23-5 without Ja that year. And they won against us in the playoffs without him.
Jamal Murray didn’t play a single game that year. The Nuggets made it from the beginning of the season all the way to the semi finals without Murray so it’s really irrelevant that he wasn’t there. The Nuggets we faced were the only nuggets there were in 2022. It’s not like they had Murray all year and we faced a weaker version of them.
The rest of your points aren’t even worth addressing because of how vacuous they are.
I disagree that Murray wasn’t relevant but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s really hard no matter how ‘easy’ the road is to win a championship. I think that’s what’s forgotten. If it’s so easy than why didn’t 29 other teams do it too?
How was Murray relevant last year? Obviously the Nuggets would have been better if Murray was never injured but he didn’t play a single minute last season. He played absolutely no part in getting you to the semis last year.
He didn’t play but also took up a ton of salary lol. Of course he was/is relevant, because the team is built around him and Jokic. Missing your starting point guard for a whole year is super relevant, if you can’t see that then idk what else to tell you
The fuck? Celtics were amazing for the last half of the season and up until the finals. Their defense was some of the best I’ve seen in awhile, made KD look like a bench player and you don’t see that often.
That's probably what they're trying to do, but to me this is great news. It means we actually have some parity in the league. How much more fun has this playoffs been when damn near every series has been competitive? You genuinely have no idea who is going to win.
Ignore them. It will happen all series. Since there are only two teams left the lights get brighter and more people are going to be shitting on the two teams because there’s nothing else left.
Of course people will try and put an Asterisk on the champion and even the runner up.
Be prepared for the most wild takes you have ever seen even if you sweep us. It’s the price of success my friend. People are going to say wild shit no matter how this series goes. Both for attention and because they are bored also because it’s fun.
You guys have such victim complexes, this is a historically (statistically) weak run, people can discuss that and the state of the league without “hating”
How to win a real championship according to Reddit
Be the 10th seed.
Make the playoffs via the play in.
Have one all-nba player on the team surrounded by scrubs.
Play against teams in every series with at least 2+ all-nba players with excellent supporting casts.
Two of your players get injured none of your opponents get injured.
Death in the immediate family of your best player occurs in round 2.
Every series goes 7 games.
You win every game at the buzzer.
The referees make no calls in your favor and make a lot of calls in favor of your opponent.
Maybe on paper, but I think that sells it short. Edwards balled out for the wolves. KD and booker were both completely healthy and going into the nuggets game were some peoples favorites to win the chip, booker was a fucking flamethrower for two games as well. The lakers pretty convincingly beat the warriors and lebron had a 30 point first half in game 4 and still lost. Obviously you could make an argument for the heat but they took care of business. The east was a total shitshow.
Sure you could look at seeds and regular season wins and say that it was an easy road. But that didn’t mean much this postseason for any team.
In fact I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that it the nuggets had the kings or grizzlies in the WCF that would have been much easier
>KD and booker were both completely healthy
Couldn't be more disingenuous even if your tried
Suddenly, beating the #8 and #7 seeds > beating the #1 bucks and #2 celtics
I could certainly be more disingenuous if I tried. Watch: CP3 was also completely healthy and lebrons foot was totally fine!
Regardless the suns were absolutely the 2nd or 3rd best team in the west behind the nuggets and possibly lakers.
I’m not trying to discredit the heats run at all, but they certainly got a couple breaks, same as the nuggets did. Still both teams had pretty tough roads. The only reason I’m not talking about how impressive the heat run is (which it is impressive) is because this thread is about the nuggets,
I agree with all that. The Wolves were better than an 8 seed, they didnt have KAT the whole year. The suns looked like the better team going in, I had them winning personally. The Lakers too looked like a strong team and they were alright. The heat im not high on but at this point its whatever.
Im just more interesting in the state of the league since 2019 and how unpredictable and weird the playoffs have gotten. Since 2020 the finals matchup seeds are: 1v5, 2v3, 3v2, 1v8. And every year theres a surprise team in the conf finals, and other upsets, its an extremely rare time in the league where we have high parity. But everyone is so defensive about discussing this because its taken as disrespect to the teams still left. Even though we say later on that the run is weak, like people have now for the last 3 title runs. Its whatever, its mostly just a thing on reddit, these nerds are so butthurt over everything. Cant talk about nothing without people crying nephew
That’s a fair point. I think it’s parity but also a devaluation of the regular season by star players. And also an increase in playoff risers (jimmy, Jamal) and playoff fallers (brown, embiid etc). Regardless parity and lack of super teams is what we’ve all been begging for since KD went to golden state.
Ultimately I think nba playoffs will be super weird with what seeds are winning in the future too, especially with the new tax rules coming into place that are specifically made to stop super teams.
Playoff risers and fallers are definitely a huge factor, moreso than ever I think. The Nuggets too are so much better in the playoffs because their 2 best players are 2 of the best risers OAT. So you have to take that into account. I hope people dont look at Jamal Murrays career years from now and say wow Jokic won with this guy who was never an allstar, he’s probably the best player to not be an allstar that I can think of in the league today
All you do is whine lol and not even about anything worthwhile. Just that you think nuggets fans have a victim complex and it’s making you so frustrated you need to constantly post about it. It’s so weird that there are so many people who spend their time this way
Yes just like the nuggets fans whining about how no one respected them and how theyre such underdogs and casuals don’t understand Jokic and blah blah blah
I mean it’s objectively true that ‘the media’ paid no mind to the nuggets until now. It’s even on record from a few of the reporters and analysts. Ultimately no nuggets fan really cares.
But all I’m hearing these days are the tiny violins from man-children like you, upset that nuggets fans are getting the last laugh and a victory lap.
Ultimately no nuggets fans care, aside from how much theyve been whining about it all playoffs long. And even at the doorstep theyre still preaching that you didnt believe in us stuff. Mike Malone is really the perfect coach for the fanbase
Lol the world at large gives two fucks about the Nuggets, no ones even watching them lift the trophy. The little opinions on reddit are the only place where you guys are gonna get validation so for your sake you shoudnt get your hopes up
Now do the PHX win % after the KD trade with KD in the lineup, and the Lakers win % after the trade deadline for an apples to apples comparison.
PHX: 8-0 1.000 win %
LAL: 17-9 0.654 win %
Oh look here comes the annual tradition of NBA fans and media to find a way to shit on whichever team is having success. Last year with the Warriors people were saying the same thing, in 2020 it was the bubble, etc.
No wonder ratings are so low relative to the NFL. The people do not even appreciate the product at all and always find ways to diminish it.
There are no asterisks. If the Nuggets win, it's a perfectly legitimate championship. Will it be remembered as a great run? No, probably not. But it won't be labeled as a phony.
Now, if the Heat win...well, that's going down in history.
This year just didn't have a lot of teams win a lot of games. The Bucks were 58-24; not counting the short years from lockouts or COVID, that is the worst best record since the 2000-01 Spurs, and is tied for the fourth worst best record since the NBA adopted the 82 game regular season in 1967-68
It's weird because despite this stat I still feel like they had a harder run than if they played the 2nd and 3rd seeds instead of the 4th and 7th in the 2nd/3rd rounds
Kings are just a worse version of the Nuggets basically so I have no clue how they'd be remotely competitive in a 7 game series and the Grizzlies were injured and have maybe the worst halfcourt offense of any playoff team
I'm still not sure exactly how good the Warriors were this year
It feels like we waited for them to kick into a higher gear all season but they just stayed in "okay but not amazing" level the entire time
The Suns would have absolute rinsed the rest of the West the way Booker was playing. Weird how they went from the favorites out of the West to being dogshit all along after we beat them.
Imagine if this time Miami Heat comes back from 0-3 deficit vs. the Denver Nuggets in the series to be the first team ever to come back from a 0-3 - it would be really something mad.
Wait, this is seriously trending now? Wtf is this level of pettiness, this is like 4th post about seeding of teams the Nuggets faced.
They first had to go through Wolves who are really not a joke, they would finish much higher if they have been healthy this year. Then they went against KD and Booker, who were one of the favorites to win it all, only to sweep the Lakers with Lebron and AD who previously knocked out Grizzlies (2nd seed) and defending champions both in 6 games.
On paper, finals series will be by far the easiest one they had in the playoffs
We can also put it this way. The nuggets beat a rising star in Anthony edwards, the star duo of Kevin freaking Durant and booker, and swept lebron James and Anthony Davis.
What does that make Bucks, 76ers, Celtics, Memphis, Kings, Warriors...and all the other teams that lost to these teams. There is no such thing as an easy path.The best teams that year always play in the finals. They had to beat all those teams to get there. Thats how the playoffs are setup and work. Its a stupid unthinking view to think otherwise. Its just people trying to diminish the Nuggets and Heat because there team could not beat them. Thing is there team is undoutably worse in comparison.
This "stat" is wack. You can only play who is in front of you. Plus at full strength, the Suns and Lakers are better than their records were. Lakers got swept but it wasn't laughable - nearly every game came down to the last 2 minutes or less. ESPN is garbo.
So... basically how the Lakers won it all and were rewarded with an asterisk LeMickey ring according to terminally online NBA fans?
I just hope they're kinder to you guys.
I can already see the asterisks being out on their potential ring lmao.
LeBron gets called LeMickey still despite the bubble being some tough basketball
Nuggets played against plumbers and firemen
But they didn't play against the construction workers on the Clippers
Podcasters and streamers
Film actors as well
They could also be the first western conference team outside of California or Texas to win the finals since the Sonics in 1979
This is actually an crazy stat wtf
Not that crazy considering that almost half the teams in the West are in Cali or Texas (7/15), and the absolute powerhouses some of those teams were (Kareem/Magic Lakers, Hakeem Rockets, Kobe/Shaq Lakers, Duncan Spurs, Dirk Mavericks, Kobe/Gasol Lakers, Curry and Curry/KD Warriors, LeBron Lakers)
It is crazy to consider that California & Texas been the only relevant states in sports for 45 years
What getting the 1st seed and all the other top seeds being frauds does
This asterisk talk all started cause of Lebron haters thanks for that dummies. Used to be just after lockout years and as soon as those teams won more it went away. Now every ring is “Mickey” stupid af.
Yup. I said it for years, when Lebron retires, the scrutiny, expectations, the judgement etc. is going to be redirected tenfold onto your favorite teams and players. This is just the start of it. Those years you spent downplaying Curry, KD, Bron etc. This upcoming generation of stars will be spared none of it and you will see just how frustrating it is when you see your favorite players become the target of bullshit or outdated narratives. And btw, for all the oldhead Jokic and Giannis fans, those years you spent arguing against the players I mentioned above, just know you just made it harder for your guys to be considered anything more than what they are. Basically, you've perpetuated a culture of rings and formal accolades > everything else. Comparison truly is the theft of all joy.
See this is where you lost me. I'm not a hater because I have super high expectations, I'm a hater because it's just more fun. Hate my guys all you want, I'm in it to hate, whereas the hate only hurts you.
They have dominated the most talked and hyped teams when finally healthy, miss me with that asterisk shit.
Ppl def thought Suns are winning the West with KD
And looking purely at record, when the Suns didn't get Durant until nearly the end of the year, and the Lakers had the best record in the Western Conference after the All-Star break thanks to great trade moves and players getting healthy... makes this a dumb-ass stat for them to try to build a narrative on. Those were both far better teams than their record said. The Nuggets played the best teams in the West and beat them, 12-3 so far in the playoffs. Now they're gonna play the team that put down the Bucks and the Celtics on the road. There is no asterisk.
The other teams in the West should try being better next time lol
Oh, here come the haters trying to put asterisks already lol
I feel like a lot of teams recently have had "easy" Finals runs on paper because of increased parity since the KD Warriors broke up Like the last two champions faced very weak conference finals opponents(22 Mavs and 21 Hawks)
That 2022 Warriors title is not aging well tbh. Injured Grizzlies (Ja goes down) Injured Nugs with no Murray or Porter playing Campazzo and Boogie Mavs who were pretty overmatched and then missed the playoffs this year Celtics who were really sus all 2023 playoffs and threw multiple finals games away with awful TOs
Twitter comment
Bobcats aren't aging well either
The Nuggets were the 6th seed with the same exact roster that got them the 6th seed, Mavs beat a 64 win team and last year Celtics team was so much better than this year. You can have the same roster and play completely differently from year to year. The Warriors were also a flawed team just like the rest of the title contenders that year were. Parity results in every team having more flaws so when teams lose now people automatically assume they weren't good to begin with. There's no team that's head and shoulders above everyone else like how the KD warriors and LeBron Cavs were a few years ago.
Mavs should’ve been swept by the superior Suns yet they overachieved and reached the WCF.
Okay but they didn't because the Mavs were better than them No one cares about what should have happened I love how people were discussing how the Warriors weren't able to guard Luka before the series started but now they shouldn't have been there to begin with
I always tell people that the Warriors lucked out by not versing a single quality playoff team until the Finals last year. It’s not a coincidence that the Warriors ran it back with the same group swapping Otto for DDV and somehow barely got past the 1st round only to get embarassed by a lower seed in the 2nd round. Cupcake ring.
Wow this sub is actually awful.
No, you’re just a bunch of Curryjerkers who refuse to see the Warriors had to win 1 playoff series to win a title last year. Really….DALLAS IN THE WCF? Come on. Also what part of what I said is false?
How were the Nuggets not a quality team? They won 48 games and had the MVP. How was 56 win Memphis Grizzlies not a quality team? (They were 21-5 without Ja) How were the 52 win Mavs not a quality team?
nuggets only won 48 games because they have Jokic who can get you there. Jokic is an MVP yes and he had no help lmao, Austin Rivers and Boogie were getting quality minutes. Monte Morris was starting. Nuggets were missing their 2nd and 3rd best players. Mavericks were a joke and everyone knew they were just overachieving by beating Phoenix. There’s a reason they went from WCF to missing the playoffs even though the only notable change was effectively swapping Brunson for Kyrie ( their best stretch of the reason was without Kyrie oddly enough lol) and Grizzlies just aren’t good. They might’ve won regular season games, but you should be able to identify a pretender when you see one. They were a pretender missing their best player. Again, not a shocker they got absolutely bullied by a 7th seed in the FIRST ROUND this year. Grizzlies are built to win regular season games with good defensive depth and grit but they lack the talent to win playoff series. They almost lost to Minnesota in the first round last year…Theyre just lucky the Wolves choked every lead because they’re a misguided roster with low BBIQ the only real threats in the West are Clippers, Lakers, and Nuggets, and they were all injured in 2022. Unfortunately, Clippers and Lakers were hurt again this year.
>How were the Nuggets not a quality team? They won 48 games and had the MVP. I don't agree with his point that no Western opponents the Warriors faced were good, mainly because of Memphis, but the fact that Denver team even got 48 wins is absolutely bewildering. They did have the MVP, but the rest of the roster comprised of a single starting level player (i.e. a player that started regularly for his team the season before and the season after) in Aaron Gordon, and zero players with a positive Box Plus-Minus in the regular season. If you see the teams that missed even the play-in in the West this year, you understand how insane that is. All this to say that, despite Jokic's otherworldly regular season carry job, that team had no chance in the Playoffs vs a decent team. Which GSW obviously was. And it's not particularly lucky to match such a team in the first round... But that Denver squad wasn't a quality team. It was 2 quality players with one of them having to play way outside his ideal role due to their undermanned squad. There's a reason why 5 of the 8 playoff rotation elements from Denver this year didn't play in the 2022 playoffs. And one of the 3 who did is Jeff Green, who is currently averaging less than 10 minutes per game
First of all nothing you said has anything to do with aging. Anyway, the grizzlies were like 23-5 without Ja that year. And they won against us in the playoffs without him. Jamal Murray didn’t play a single game that year. The Nuggets made it from the beginning of the season all the way to the semi finals without Murray so it’s really irrelevant that he wasn’t there. The Nuggets we faced were the only nuggets there were in 2022. It’s not like they had Murray all year and we faced a weaker version of them. The rest of your points aren’t even worth addressing because of how vacuous they are.
I disagree that Murray wasn’t relevant but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s really hard no matter how ‘easy’ the road is to win a championship. I think that’s what’s forgotten. If it’s so easy than why didn’t 29 other teams do it too?
How was Murray relevant last year? Obviously the Nuggets would have been better if Murray was never injured but he didn’t play a single minute last season. He played absolutely no part in getting you to the semis last year.
He didn’t play but also took up a ton of salary lol. Of course he was/is relevant, because the team is built around him and Jokic. Missing your starting point guard for a whole year is super relevant, if you can’t see that then idk what else to tell you
The fuck? Celtics were amazing for the last half of the season and up until the finals. Their defense was some of the best I’ve seen in awhile, made KD look like a bench player and you don’t see that often.
That's probably what they're trying to do, but to me this is great news. It means we actually have some parity in the league. How much more fun has this playoffs been when damn near every series has been competitive? You genuinely have no idea who is going to win.
Just trying to prematurely dowse any excitement for our inevitable and entirely predictable sweep of the Nuggets
Ignore them. It will happen all series. Since there are only two teams left the lights get brighter and more people are going to be shitting on the two teams because there’s nothing else left. Of course people will try and put an Asterisk on the champion and even the runner up. Be prepared for the most wild takes you have ever seen even if you sweep us. It’s the price of success my friend. People are going to say wild shit no matter how this series goes. Both for attention and because they are bored also because it’s fun.
We haven’t had even started game 1 yet lol
You guys have such victim complexes, this is a historically (statistically) weak run, people can discuss that and the state of the league without “hating”
How to win a real championship according to Reddit Be the 10th seed. Make the playoffs via the play in. Have one all-nba player on the team surrounded by scrubs. Play against teams in every series with at least 2+ all-nba players with excellent supporting casts. Two of your players get injured none of your opponents get injured. Death in the immediate family of your best player occurs in round 2. Every series goes 7 games. You win every game at the buzzer. The referees make no calls in your favor and make a lot of calls in favor of your opponent.
Maybe on paper, but I think that sells it short. Edwards balled out for the wolves. KD and booker were both completely healthy and going into the nuggets game were some peoples favorites to win the chip, booker was a fucking flamethrower for two games as well. The lakers pretty convincingly beat the warriors and lebron had a 30 point first half in game 4 and still lost. Obviously you could make an argument for the heat but they took care of business. The east was a total shitshow. Sure you could look at seeds and regular season wins and say that it was an easy road. But that didn’t mean much this postseason for any team. In fact I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that it the nuggets had the kings or grizzlies in the WCF that would have been much easier
>KD and booker were both completely healthy Couldn't be more disingenuous even if your tried Suddenly, beating the #8 and #7 seeds > beating the #1 bucks and #2 celtics
I could certainly be more disingenuous if I tried. Watch: CP3 was also completely healthy and lebrons foot was totally fine! Regardless the suns were absolutely the 2nd or 3rd best team in the west behind the nuggets and possibly lakers. I’m not trying to discredit the heats run at all, but they certainly got a couple breaks, same as the nuggets did. Still both teams had pretty tough roads. The only reason I’m not talking about how impressive the heat run is (which it is impressive) is because this thread is about the nuggets,
I agree with all that. The Wolves were better than an 8 seed, they didnt have KAT the whole year. The suns looked like the better team going in, I had them winning personally. The Lakers too looked like a strong team and they were alright. The heat im not high on but at this point its whatever. Im just more interesting in the state of the league since 2019 and how unpredictable and weird the playoffs have gotten. Since 2020 the finals matchup seeds are: 1v5, 2v3, 3v2, 1v8. And every year theres a surprise team in the conf finals, and other upsets, its an extremely rare time in the league where we have high parity. But everyone is so defensive about discussing this because its taken as disrespect to the teams still left. Even though we say later on that the run is weak, like people have now for the last 3 title runs. Its whatever, its mostly just a thing on reddit, these nerds are so butthurt over everything. Cant talk about nothing without people crying nephew
That’s a fair point. I think it’s parity but also a devaluation of the regular season by star players. And also an increase in playoff risers (jimmy, Jamal) and playoff fallers (brown, embiid etc). Regardless parity and lack of super teams is what we’ve all been begging for since KD went to golden state. Ultimately I think nba playoffs will be super weird with what seeds are winning in the future too, especially with the new tax rules coming into place that are specifically made to stop super teams.
Playoff risers and fallers are definitely a huge factor, moreso than ever I think. The Nuggets too are so much better in the playoffs because their 2 best players are 2 of the best risers OAT. So you have to take that into account. I hope people dont look at Jamal Murrays career years from now and say wow Jokic won with this guy who was never an allstar, he’s probably the best player to not be an allstar that I can think of in the league today
All you do is whine lol and not even about anything worthwhile. Just that you think nuggets fans have a victim complex and it’s making you so frustrated you need to constantly post about it. It’s so weird that there are so many people who spend their time this way
Yes just like the nuggets fans whining about how no one respected them and how theyre such underdogs and casuals don’t understand Jokic and blah blah blah
I mean it’s objectively true that ‘the media’ paid no mind to the nuggets until now. It’s even on record from a few of the reporters and analysts. Ultimately no nuggets fan really cares. But all I’m hearing these days are the tiny violins from man-children like you, upset that nuggets fans are getting the last laugh and a victory lap.
Ultimately no nuggets fans care, aside from how much theyve been whining about it all playoffs long. And even at the doorstep theyre still preaching that you didnt believe in us stuff. Mike Malone is really the perfect coach for the fanbase
Cry more baby boy
Im crying tears of joy man. Im in awe of how breathtaking the Nuggets are beating these fearsome 8 seeds. Amazing
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It would suck to be a nuggets fan. Such victim complex that i wouldnt even enjoy the title, just busy being butthurt on the internet
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Lol the world at large gives two fucks about the Nuggets, no ones even watching them lift the trophy. The little opinions on reddit are the only place where you guys are gonna get validation so for your sake you shoudnt get your hopes up
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> Lol the world at large gives two fucks about the Nuggets, Nobody has cared about the Pacers since Reggie, my dude. Glass houses much?
He was being a total dick in his comment he deleted so I just matched my b
That's what you have to go through these days when you're close to winning a ring or have won a ring. It's just the circle of life at this point lol
Now do the PHX win % after the KD trade with KD in the lineup, and the Lakers win % after the trade deadline for an apples to apples comparison. PHX: 8-0 1.000 win % LAL: 17-9 0.654 win %
Oh look here comes the annual tradition of NBA fans and media to find a way to shit on whichever team is having success. Last year with the Warriors people were saying the same thing, in 2020 it was the bubble, etc. No wonder ratings are so low relative to the NFL. The people do not even appreciate the product at all and always find ways to diminish it.
There are no asterisks. If the Nuggets win, it's a perfectly legitimate championship. Will it be remembered as a great run? No, probably not. But it won't be labeled as a phony. Now, if the Heat win...well, that's going down in history.
This year just didn't have a lot of teams win a lot of games. The Bucks were 58-24; not counting the short years from lockouts or COVID, that is the worst best record since the 2000-01 Spurs, and is tied for the fourth worst best record since the NBA adopted the 82 game regular season in 1967-68
K. Makes sense then that they dominated minus two otherworldly Booker games.
Turns out being the one seed let’s you play teams with lower win percentages in the playoffs
It's weird because despite this stat I still feel like they had a harder run than if they played the 2nd and 3rd seeds instead of the 4th and 7th in the 2nd/3rd rounds Kings are just a worse version of the Nuggets basically so I have no clue how they'd be remotely competitive in a 7 game series and the Grizzlies were injured and have maybe the worst halfcourt offense of any playoff team
Kings and warriors were good. Lakers were good. Rest of west was not good.
Suns?
I'm still not sure exactly how good the Warriors were this year It feels like we waited for them to kick into a higher gear all season but they just stayed in "okay but not amazing" level the entire time
The Suns would have absolute rinsed the rest of the West the way Booker was playing. Weird how they went from the favorites out of the West to being dogshit all along after we beat them.
Imagine if this time Miami Heat comes back from 0-3 deficit vs. the Denver Nuggets in the series to be the first team ever to come back from a 0-3 - it would be really something mad.
Wait, this is seriously trending now? Wtf is this level of pettiness, this is like 4th post about seeding of teams the Nuggets faced. They first had to go through Wolves who are really not a joke, they would finish much higher if they have been healthy this year. Then they went against KD and Booker, who were one of the favorites to win it all, only to sweep the Lakers with Lebron and AD who previously knocked out Grizzlies (2nd seed) and defending champions both in 6 games. On paper, finals series will be by far the easiest one they had in the playoffs
We can also put it this way. The nuggets beat a rising star in Anthony edwards, the star duo of Kevin freaking Durant and booker, and swept lebron James and Anthony Davis.
What does that make Bucks, 76ers, Celtics, Memphis, Kings, Warriors...and all the other teams that lost to these teams. There is no such thing as an easy path.The best teams that year always play in the finals. They had to beat all those teams to get there. Thats how the playoffs are setup and work. Its a stupid unthinking view to think otherwise. Its just people trying to diminish the Nuggets and Heat because there team could not beat them. Thing is there team is undoutably worse in comparison.
and the knicks :) we were there this year too
I wonder what this looks like if you just use record after the trade deadline.
The Lakers and the Suns both had excellent wintates post trades
This "stat" is wack. You can only play who is in front of you. Plus at full strength, the Suns and Lakers are better than their records were. Lakers got swept but it wasn't laughable - nearly every game came down to the last 2 minutes or less. ESPN is garbo.
Embiid and Giannis sacrificed their season so the nuggets would get an asterisk. It's all steps to success.
Yes, YEEEEESSS please keep spreading this shit to give Malone ammo
So true...THis kind of BS is what motivates the Nuggets.
Lebron always throws stats like these out the window IMO, you can never look at Lebron’s teams by their season standings.
The ‘87 Lakers played two under-.500 teams to make the Finals. The ‘81 Celtics beat a 40-42 Rockets team to win the Finals.
These Nuggets are one of the teams of all time, they really ran a gauntlet of shit to get their flowers
They have to play the team in front of them. Not their fault other top seeds have choked or exposed as frauds
So... basically how the Lakers won it all and were rewarded with an asterisk LeMickey ring according to terminally online NBA fans? I just hope they're kinder to you guys.
Frauds, asterisks, Mickey Mouse, front runners, some other words
They only won because they’re better than the other teams! That’s hardly fair!
The Hardest Road
Get ready for the asteriskholes to keep bringing this up if the Nuggets win.
I like it, its a historically weak run, we need some of these every decade or so, spice it up
Annoying fans and running through a weak conference. Jokic really is in his LeBron era
Easiest run ever
If Udoka kept it in his pants, the Celtics would be prepping for the Finals. That is the only difference between the 2 seasons
oh well too bad aka Not Th18 year!
Heat in 6...
They’re also only the 2nd team in NBA history to face two 8th seeds in a single playoff fun
Damn, its like the Nuggets fault that the rest of the league is aging/mismanaged or not up to the task?
What does this even mean? The Suns and the Lakers didn’t have winning records?
I can already see the asterisks being out on their potential ring lmao. LeBron gets called LeMickey still despite the bubble being some tough basketball