(3) Timberwolves vs. (6) Suns First Round Playoff Series Thread

[tontoz]

You really think it's a teammate issue? Over the years he's been paired with a Who's Who in basketball. The standard response when a star loses is "help". You have to look a little deeper to find the real reason.

No that is just excuse the Curry troll was using. Durant is what he is, a 1 on 1 player.

[Axe]

You really think it's a teammate issue? Over the years he's been paired with a Who's Who in basketball. The standard response when a star loses is "help". You have to look a little deeper to find the real reason.

[SaltyMeatballs]

Suns are screwed going forward with Beal's disgusting contract

[Xiao Yao You]

Tough time to be a troll

[tontoz]

Wolves have definitely been the most impressive team in the first round. Sweeping a healthy, veteran team tells the league they mean business.

[j3lademaster]

Suns are screwed going forward with Beal's disgusting contract

Gonna assume he’s signed to 2027 because why the hell would he not opt in for 57mil. There will be tanking teams who will be willing to take on Beal by then…for the next two years? Yeah, not looking too hot. The Suns need a legit defensive anchor and a playmaker who’s also great at game management. These go for $25mil/year per player on the cheap side, and you get what you pay for and the Suns need those pretty badly. That’s a lot to still need after you pay out 3 $50 mil contracts. $50mil guys should check multiple boxes which include scoring, none of the Suns big 3 have any of the intangibles.

[SouBeachTalents]

You really think it's a teammate issue? Over the years he's been paired with a Who's Who in basketball. The standard response when a star loses is "help". You have to look a little deeper to find the real reason.

Whoosh

[Manny98]

Durant elevated his legacy tonight and went out like a gladiator.

33/10/5 82% TS against the best defensive team of this era.

Worst teammate luck you'll ever see. Individual brilliance though

Empty stats

[j3lademaster]

Damn, apparently Beal has a no trade clause so you can’t even necessarily trade him to a rebuilder looking for a tank commander. Good thing the nba has certain rules to “fool proof” teams or the suns won’t own any picks until 2030, but the picks they do own (24, 26, 28, 30) are subject to swaps(I think the Wizards own them).

Edit:
First-round picks after pick-swaps
2024 — Least favorable of own pick, Wizards (conveys to Knicks if 13-30) or Grizzlies
2026 — Least favorable of own pick, Wizards (if not conveyed to Knicks in 2024-25) or Magic
2028 — Least favorable of own pick, Wizards (or 76ers if 9-30) or Nets
2030 — Least favorable of own, Wizards or Grizzlies

Those are just the picks the Suns actually still own. Talk about mortgaging your future.

Wizards are looking like a prime destination for young stars. Every championship team needs young guys who can contribute while on rookie contracts and it seems like the Wizards are set in that regard for the foreseeable future. Imagine getting top 10 lottery picks while having a 60 win season. Washington can do that.

[ArbitraryWater]

When Durant left GSW I said he was never going to win a title. People were hyped about Brooklyn with Kyrie and Harden. Nothing happened. Same with Suns with Booker and Beal.

If you pay attention to both sides of the court, you know why. Durant is a liability in team defense and team offense; while he excels in individual offense and is above-average on individual defense. All four matter.

I get on every player that doesn't work on the 'team' side- setting screens, being a decoy on offense, moving without the ball; on defense, you have to take your assignment seriously, you can't wander around in improvised zone. You end up breaking the team defense. The average fan doesn't notice but it kills the team. GSW made up for Durant's deficiencies, few teams can or will.

Good players like Durant and Booker excel in 1 or 2 of the 4 areas. Great players commit to all four. They don't excel in all four necessarily but they take all four seriously. Those are the guys leading their team to champsionships.

You will never see that with Harden, Durant, Booker, Doncic.

You might see in the future, depends on various factors- but they at least have a chance: Edwards, Tatum Brown, Williamson. And of course the usuals- LeBron, Giannis, Jokic, Curry etc. Those latter are bound by their team but they've proven to be complete players.

lol at making a point about how Brown, Williamson, Tatum, are more inducive to winning a title than Doncic.


What about brains? What about balls? Scoring greatness?

You cant just sum players into 4 categories and say they tick it off or not and whoever ticks off more boxes is better.


Life doesnt work that way.

[dankok8]

There's been a lot of talk of how the Wolves' defense has stopped the Suns but there should be way more talk about how the Wolves' offense couldn't be stopped by the Suns. Phoenix had a good +2.8 rORtg but a horrific +12.5 rDRtg in the series sweep.

[bison]

Phoenix:

-Second tax apron kicks in
-Cannot aggregate players in trade (i.e. combine big salaries to get equal value back)
-Can't take back more salary in trade than sent out
-No Mid Level Exception this summer
-Can't trade Beal because of no trade clause
-Basically can only sign minimum contracts, draft picks and their own free agents



But according to kblaze this is okay since money grows on trees and someone more underserving on some other team will eventually get more money than beal, so why even bother having a team accountant

[AlternativeAcc.]

Empty stats

2 FMVP's speak for themselves. Not a KD fan or anything, but he's a winner

[warriorfan]

Phoenix:

-Second tax apron kicks in
-Cannot aggregate players in trade (i.e. combine big salaries to get equal value back)
-Can't take back more salary in trade than sent out
-No Mid Level Exception this summer
-Can't trade Beal because of no trade clause
-Basically can only sign minimum contracts, draft picks and their own free agents



But according to kblaze this is okay since money grows on trees and someone more underserving on some other team will eventually get more money than beal, so why even bother having a team accountant

k blaze gonna have to make a wall of text so big to try to explain his insane take it’s gonna crash ish forever

[ArbitraryWater]

2 FMVP's speak for themselves. Not a KD fan or anything, but he's a winner

just reading this sounds so wrong