NBA 2019 Playoffs Thread

[KGs Knee]

I would not be surprised if Durant now just takes a 5 year max from GSW.  At this point, they'll be begging him to come back.  He's earned his validation.  Those last two titles were clearly his.

[ozgod]

No empire lasts forever. Dubs just look tired and out of gas, Curry particularly. He had a terrible game. The barbarians from the north are at the gates.

[ObjectivityOverBias]

I would not be surprised if Durant now just takes a 5 year max from GSW.  At this point, they'll be begging him to come back.  He's earned his validation.  Those last two titles were clearly his.

This is my thinking as-well.

[ozgod]

Listening to Steph and Klay's post game presser...Steph sounds as dispirited and demoralized as I've ever heard him.

[SparzWizard]

It's the end of a dynasty for the Warriors.

[gouki88]

Listening to Steph and Klay's post game presser...Steph sounds as dispirited and demoralized as I've ever heard him.

Yippee!

[gpap]

I would not be surprised if Durant now just takes a 5 year max from GSW.  At this point, they'll be begging him to come back.  He's earned his validation.  Those last two titles were clearly his.

Never understood why he would want to leave in the first place. He's got it made in Golden State. Two championships already on his mantle with likely more to come. Moving into a new arena. Playing with the best backcourt in the NBA. Palm trees and beautiful weather year round. And to leave all that to play with the miserable Knicks? Never made any sense to me. Especially where he chose to go play there as a free agent.

[LilRip]

No empire lasts forever. Dubs just look tired and out of gas, Curry particularly. He had a terrible game. The barbarians from the north are at the gates.

If Curry was a Celtic, we’d be seeing “trade him” threads right about now

[gouki88]

I would not be surprised if Durant now just takes a 5 year max from GSW.  At this point, they'll be begging him to come back.  He's earned his validation.  Those last two titles were clearly his.

Never understood why he would want to leave in the first place. He's got it made in Golden State. Two championships already on his mantle with likely more to come. Moving into a new arena. Playing with the best backcourt in the NBA. Palm trees and beautiful weather year round. And to leave all that to play with the miserable Knicks? Never made any sense to me. Especially where he chose to go play there as a free agent.

I think you're severely underestimating how fragile and thin-skinned he is. From warring with 15 year-olds using burner accounts on Instagram to his constant technicals and ejections, he's really shown himself to be a very childish man.

He clearly hates that people discredit him and (rightfully) don't respect him for being a coward, and I think this definitely eats at him.

I think he's gone. He hates that people who say it's Steph's team are so vocal. It's irrelevant that GSW is losing now because the people who are anti-KD will just point to injuries.

[SparzWizard]

Paul Pierce third time is the charm. He may have nailed this one with the Raptors lol

[ozgod]

I would not be surprised if Durant now just takes a 5 year max from GSW.  At this point, they'll be begging him to come back.  He's earned his validation.  Those last two titles were clearly his.

Never understood why he would want to leave in the first place. He's got it made in Golden State. Two championships already on his mantle with likely more to come. Moving into a new arena. Playing with the best backcourt in the NBA. Palm trees and beautiful weather year round. And to leave all that to play with the miserable Knicks? Never made any sense to me. Especially where he chose to go play there as a free agent.

Everyone has different motivations these days and they may not always be about rings. I was reading an article from Howard Beck on Bleacher Report. I don't usually take B/R seriously but I like Howard Beck and he made some interesting points about today's superstars (KD, Kawhi and I would include Kyrie) moving from "better" teams to worse ones in an attempt to find happiness or satisfaction.

The two biggest stars in the 2019 Finals—Durant for the Warriors, Kawhi Leonard for the Raptors—might be playing their last games in these uniforms. Both are free agents in July. Both are considered likely to leave. Both could be joining unproven (or even rebuilding) teams.

Rampant superstar migration has become the norm in today's NBA. But ditching a contender for a lesser team? That's a jarring new wrinkle.

"That is strange," said Celtics legend Paul Pierce, who is covering the series for ESPN. "But that's the landscape of the NBA we have now."

For years, Pierce stuck it out on inferior Boston teams, waiting for help. He got it in 2007 when the Celtics acquired All-Stars Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen in a pair of blockbuster trades. Garnett, who had remained stubbornly loyal to the Minnesota Timberwolves until then, accepted the deal because of the opportunity to win a championship.

The Celtics did win, in 2008, kicking off the modern superteam era. Since then, nearly every move by a top star—via free agency or forced trade—has been aimed at increasing the chances of contention.

Until now, it seems.

Durant has been widely linked to the New York Knicks, a team that won just 17 games this past season, has missed the playoffs for 12 of the last 17 years and lacks a single established star. Leonard is most often linked to the Clippers, a team that did make the playoffs this season and has some recent success—but also lacks an All-Star talent.

The Knicks and Clippers both have the means to sign a second star this summer, so there's a chance each could make a quantum leap next season. Still, considering where they are today, Durant and Leonard would indisputably be taking a step—or several—backward.

"It's a very interesting dynamic," Bosh said. "It's unprecedented."

Indeed, no NBA superstar has left his team immediately after winning the Finals in the league's modern history. And, in fact, few stars have even left the losing team.

If this is a paradigm shift, maybe it's a healthy one—away from "ringzzz" culture and toward a broader definition of career happiness.

We don't know for certain the motives potentially driving Leonard and Durant away from their title-contending teams. We only have a vague outline, sketched by sources around the league.

Durant, it is said, wants to break free of Curry's powerful orbit to re-establish his standing as a supreme celestial force in his own right. Saving the woebegone Knicks could provide a new challenge, and a new kind of glory.

The calculus for Leonard is simpler. He is presumed to want to go home to Southern California to be closer to family, friends and sunshine.

Indeed, Leonard vaguely hinted at his own happiness matrix during a recent press conference.

"It's just basketball at this point," Leonard said. "Win, lose or draw, I'm still gonna be living, still got a family. And this is all for fun."

"All for fun." It's not a slogan one could have imagined coming from Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant or James, whose careers were defined by an unquenchable, sometimes torturous, lust for titles. It's not that Leonard or Durant don't value winning—they never would have become elite if they didn't—but their goals as mid-career stars might be broader than simply chasing rings.

For the full article: https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2839769-the-finals-countdown

[jpotter33]

Well, Durant’s calf injury may be the best thing that could’ve happened for Boston, as it’s looking more and more like Durant is getting his validation this series with the Warriors’ struggles, perhaps leading him to resigning long-term.

Take a potential Durant pairing out of the picture and add a Boston AD trade, and from a basketball perspective there’s no real comparison to Boston. Granted, I think at this point it’s beyond pure basketball and about Kyrie’s weird personality.

[Ogaju]

THE irony here is that this repairs Durant's legacy.

Other than that it is nice to see Curry eat some of his medicine and for Kawhi to avenge that dirty Pachulia play that took him out the last time he was dominating the warriors.

Why do people hate Curry so much? Isn't he everything you claim to want in a star?

I am a fan of the Boston Celtics... I love the Celtics ....I pretty much could not care less about other team's players or players like Kyrie that play for but do not care a lick for the Celtics.

[SparzWizard]

Where's that one guy who said the Warriors will sweep with or without Kevin Durant 

[Ogaju]

Kawhi actually holds and dribbles the ball more than Kyrie does.

Kawhi can make himself a decoy and play as a role player when needed. Something Kyrie couldn't. Don't get me started with his defense and off-ball movement.

Don't worry, he will be gone in 2019 & you guys will go back to winning your 50 games never coming close to title contention.

Curry could not carry a team with Klay & Draymond against Toronto, what the heck makes you think Kyrie was carrying  a team full of lesser players?

Who is winning titles without at least two superstars? In like the last 30 years it happened once, Detroit. Kawhi is pulling this off because the other superstar is hurt.

 Ya'll need to get over it, your team was never that good. You lost  dang near all your road games on the path to your magical 2018 playoff run in which our lottery team bounced you in 7 lol.

You lost to a guy on the decline who can't make the postseason out west, and a now lottery team, let that sink in.

On topic, KD can salvage this season. He is that good.

Say what you want about the Celtics and Kyrie the bottom line is Kyrie Irving cannot carry Kawhi Leonard's jock when it comes to leading a team.