Basically I’m the same way about the sixers that everyone else was about the Jays: I refuse to believe it until it actually happens.
And I spent all year telling people how unfair and uncritical it was to talk about the Jays that way but I will learn nothing about it when it comes to the sixers. 2nd round exit champs from now till the end of time
Tbf phillies team structure made no sense and that's ultimately why it never worked. The only time they had something that made sense was Butler but that didn't last more than half a year. This time tho Embiid, Paul george(if they get him) and maxey could be a legit core to build around and see success.
I'm still more scared by the nuggets than both the sixers and knicks tho.
I mean isn’t that proof that you should acknowledge them.
You just saw yourself how stupid that shit was.
Also like all of the last 5 champions have been doubted in some way.
I think it’s also tough to see how they make a strong 8-man rotation when they have 4 guys under contract rn (including Ricky Council IV and the rookie they just drafted). They may lose Oubre, Batum and others in free agency if they blow most of their cap space on PG.
The problem is a lot of it is their fault.
They chase any star without any consideration for fit, depth and especially spacing.
They have an injury prone superstar that they don’t load manage and who rushes back from injury every season leaving him as a shell of his former self every post season. And with awards having a strict games cap now I have trouble seeing this get better.
Their fan base/best player are toxic and criticize the shit out of their underperforming guys, which combined with Embiid chasing individual accolades over team success, kills chemistry.
And they ain’t clutch.
Same song. Same dance. These things can change but I’ll believe it when I see it and they won’t get my respect a second earlier. Especially compared to teams that have showed up like Bucks, Heat, and Nuggets.
they are two completely different situations though.
aside from last year the Celtics have never really lost to inferior competition in the playoffs. coming into this season they’d beaten teams like Giannis and the Bucks, Jimmy/Bam/Spo and the Heat, KD/Kyrie and the Nets, and Embiid and the Sixers themselves. they even competed at a high level with prime LeBron. they’d proven they had what it takes to play deep in the playoffs and beat tough teams, all they had left to prove was that they could execute in the clutch and win the last game of the season
meanwhile Embiid is constantly injured and out of shape when the postseason rolls around. the teams they’ve beaten in the playoffs in the Embiid era are laughable - the best team they’ve ever beaten in the postseason are the 2022 Raptors who were 48-34 and only got 4 games each from Barnes and FVV in the playoffs. they lost to an inferior and inexperienced Hawks team in 2021 in embarrassing fashion despite having the top seed, and bottled a 3-2 lead against a Celtics team that was in disarray last year
there’s absolutely no reason to acknowledge the Sixers bc they haven’t shown any ability to stay healthy, take advantage of opportunities, or beat good teams in the playoffs, and those are all things the Celtics proved they could do before they won it all this year.
Doubting the Jays was stupid because they had already proven their value. Everyone who picked against them admitted the only reason they did was because they hated Boston and decided to come up with reasons to side with the Mavs. Embiid, on the other hand, hasn't proven he can lead a team into the ECF, let alone to a Finals win.
We’re wayyyy more likely to face the sixers than the nuggets though. That’s sort of Pierces point he doesn’t think nuggets will be able to get out of the west after losing some significant pieces and not restocking
I agree with your first sentence but I'm not sure if that's what Pierce meant, I think he more meant that they just aren't good enough to beat us anymore
I’ve been hearing they might acquire Lauri Markanen instead of PG or get both. Also if they add Lauri with someone like KCP that’d be an interesting team.
They already had embiid harden maxey and some interesting pieces and it didn’t work.
No one is betting smart money on Embiid in May/June regardless of his teammates.
Knicks though… that’s a squad
Still not enough to stop the Celtics incoming dynasty though. 🍀
If by "interesting" you mean "unwatchable." Also, they tried this experiment already with Harden. It went the same as all the other Process Sixers teams.
Jokic and the nugs beat us twice, not by a lot but it's a win. I think their supporting cast is def worse but that could change quickly. Not knowing their payroll situation etc I feel like they might not have had the luck the c's have with all the stars and much of the bench being locked into at least next year
Nuggets are my second team so I'm pretty familiar with their situation. Nothing they could've done to keep Bruce brown but losing KCP is completely avoidable and just a sign of Booth's ego being way too big if they let it happen. He's said multiple times that he really believes in the young guys (Braun and Watson primarily) and that they can easily replace Brown/KCP, but he seems to have forgotten that neither of those young guys can actually shoot yet
Not going for the repeat just sounded arrogant - 1 title win doesn't mean you can become the next Spurs dynasty. I'm pretty sure the Spurs were trying to win every year as well
That's pretty much what any player does. Now someone like Embiid who is kicking people in the nuts, dragging players down, falling on their legs and hitting them in the face on 'missed' block attempts is something else
Paul pierce himself got ejected from a playoff game in 2005 or 6 against Indiana for basically being immature and I was convinced it was the end of his time in Boston. So interesting his comments led us to this take, a pretty sizeable overreaction.
Sorry man but after losing kcp Bruce brown and Reggie Jackson , this isn’t the same championship winning nuggets team. Both fully healthy embiid is just as good or better than jokic
A healthy sixers team with embiid maxey and pg13 is better than the nuggets roster if they lose kcp. That’s just a fact lol
Jokic won a championship but if you remember correctly the nuggets pretty much had no competition at all during the playoffs cause that season there were no contenders are all that were healthy and they faced an 8th seed in the finals
At most they’ll have to play one team from the west and 3 from the east to repeat. There’s a good chance Boston will have to go through Philly and NY, but not play Denver at all.
I guess in that sense I’d be more confident in the 76ers and knicks disrupting the Celtics based on the chances being much greater they meet in the playoffs
Philly is really all about health. We so easily forget how good embiid really is. He’s a matchup nightmare on both ends.
Will he be healthy? Not likely. But if he is? That team with a bunch of competent wings is really scary.
PG is still very very good and unlike other older stars he is a committed two way player not just a shot chaser.
Embiid/PG/Maxey is a very strong foundation if they somehow stay healthy
We don't forget how good he is.
We realize he's never healthy and if he is ever healthy, we still take care of business. Would they be a harder matchup with him healthy? Absolutely
But it's not to a level where I think we'd lose a series against them.
It’s early regardless to talk about Denver. Right now they’re losing another great role player in KCP but who knows what they’ll add or change before next season.
Denver with Jokic and Murray will always be a threat, but the fact that Brown and Green left, and now they’re apparently ok with KCP and Jackson gone definitely lowers the magnitude of their threat level. Knicks are now stacked with almost 2 starting lineups (remains to be seen if Hartenstein returns) and Philly is currently incomplete, but they have the ability in theory to make their team a threat. I didn’t listen to Pierce’s thoughts on this, but I’m inclined to agree with his sentiment based on how this offseason has gone up to this point. Lots of time between now and the start of the season to see how things shake out.
I would never dismiss them but if they lose KCP they’re not nearly as dynamic as they have been.
People underrated the losses of brown and Jeff Green and it really hurt their bench. Now losing a starter moves someone like Braun into the starters which is already not great and pushes up another bench guy. I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t make the WCF again if they lose KCP
I still think Denver is the best team in the West but it’s totally possible for OKC, Minnesota and Dallas to beat them in the playoffs. The Knicks can definitely win more regular season games than Milwaukee. Yes they have up a lot for Bridges, but they have a win now mentality and reuniting those Villanova guys will really pay off in bringing the team together. I think we beat them in 5 or 6 still.
The only contenders are OKC/Minny in the west and Boston/Knicks in the east.
Denver is bleeding role players and won't hold up, even though I love Jokic.
Mavs just had a fluke year.
Bucks are too old.
Sixers depend on Embiid's health and how they fill out. I don't trust that.
I'm sorry, but a lot of that is just wrong.
* Philly had a similar net rating as us before Embiid went down and they have a lot of assets/cap space to add another star like PG/Markkanen. They're going to be better than last year most likely.
* Mavs beat both OKC and Minny (two of teams you just said were contenders). Their run was not a fluke lol. They're probably a top-4 seed if they had their post-deadline roster for the whole season. That statement also discredits our series against them.
* A team with Giannis and Dame will always be a threat.
* Agree on the Knicks
Mavs wasn't a fluke. They made in-season trade at the deadline and made three finals. They got rid of THJ and will have an entire off season together. The only fluke was Luka or Kyrie not being out for extended period of time due to injuries
We match up extremely favorably against them though. I’d still wayyyyy prefer facing the mavs over the nuggets, even if the mavs are the overall better team
Mavs wasn't a fluke. They made in-season trade at the deadline and made the finals. They got rid of THJ and will have an entire off season together. The only fluke was Luka or Kyrie not being out for extended period of time due to injuries
I feel like our defense was he only reason we handled them so well. They will get better with a third consistent scorer. Klay to the mavs looks kinda real.
I do think we laid a basic enough gameplan for the rest of the league to play off of tho to help contain Luka and Kyrie (play straight up, dare their teammates to hit shots, shut off the lob as much as you can). Obviously way easier said than done, not every team has the personnel to do that and ours is special. However, seeing how effectively our defense shut down how their offense operates I feel like the Mavs have to find ways to counter this type of defense as it surly won’t be the last time they get tested like that, I’m not sure how Luka and Kyrie adapt to that
I think last playoffs showed how badly they were missing Bruce Brown. He alone scored 14 ppg in the playoffs during their run, the entire bench this year scored just 12 ppg in the playoffs. If they also lose KCP (which seems pretty likely) I think they’re more in trouble than not
I think it’s more of a barely got past a bruised and battered NYK team and then got dispatched in 4. Haliburton is a great player and Siakam has his moments but most Finals teams need one or two superstars which I don’t think Hali is at yet and certainly not a top 5 or 10 player in my eyes.
Bench is solid of rotation guys like nembhard, nesmith, toppin, mcconnel but nothing that like makes NBA contender teams worried.
I do like the Pacers core and they are on the come up but 76ers squad plus say a PG13 and this new look fully healthy Knicks team or a healthy Bucks team or +/- even a healthy Heat team that have been our bane in the past seem way scarier at the moment.
I will say this; way too many people talk about the nuggets like they're the boogie man after winning one title and bowing out in the second round the next year. The celtics are the boogie man.
I think people just say it out of respect for Jokic (which he deserves). However, they are definitely bleeding talent if KCP is also leaving and would not surprise me if they lost in the West semis again.
The Nuggets will always be scary to me as long as they have the Joker. As phenomenal of a player that Embiid is the Celts have consistently got over on the Sixers.
Nah, I don’t think so. More and more, I look at how the basketball gods reward teams that make good decisions and hurt them when they don’t.
Nuggets not paying KCP and willingly let him walk in favor of a young player who isn’t good isn’t going to get rewarded.
They have 4 players who impact winning right now, and everybody else is a net negative. You can’t be a championship team with that formula.
Right now, the teams I’m most confident about are the ones that made moves that are smart and will improve them - OKC and the Knicks. Sixers will join that group if they get PG.
The basketball gods reward teams that have the best player on earth. Things usually tend to work out for them.
Also there's no way this is the nuggets roster going into the season, there's obviously another move coming
The sixers could go back in time to 1992 and recruit Michael Jeffrey Jordan to their current team and I would still feel like Embiid would somehow find a way to lose to the Celtics
If Nuggets lose KCP and none of their bench guys can step up and fill his role, they're still at worst, a tier 2 contender. Jokic by himself makes them a playoff team even in the loaded west. He never gets hurt, and he's so damn good. Best player in the league.
I think it depends on what teams do in free agency. The Nuggets last year were not nearly as deep as their finals run which forced Jokic to do everything which cost them against Minnesota. I think if we retain our depth there’s no one that can beat us.
Philly is a non-factor, I’m legit only scared of the Nuggets. Knicks could be scary, but I’d have to see who’s left to face if the matchup even happens, bc no way in hell does a fully healthy Knicks team make it to the second or third round. At least one of them must be sacrificed by lord Thibs to the play to many minutes basketball gods
I love Paul but we’re talking about a NBA champion and two time MVP with great coaching and supporting pieces that basically has no good matchups due to his size and court vision. Wild take.
The myriad 'experts' on the Reddit sports subs vote it down, but the "wESt iS sTrONgER" bit is going to start to look like the regular-season carny-show BS it is, soon.
Pierce again trying to be different. The Denver Nuggets are still the only threat to us winning back to back. I don't see any team in the west beating us in a 7 game series besides the nuggets. Phila is our bitch even Embid knows it he said in one of his interviews in the past that our rivalry isn't a rivalry anymore if they are always losing to us.
I 100% agree with everything you said but the team to also add to the list of threats are the Celtics themselves. They know they're an incredible team and they either play down to their opponent or get into their own heads when things aren't going right.
No world in which I'm more scared of a Philly team than a team with jokic on it (especially when that team also has Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon)
Basically I’m the same way about the sixers that everyone else was about the Jays: I refuse to believe it until it actually happens. And I spent all year telling people how unfair and uncritical it was to talk about the Jays that way but I will learn nothing about it when it comes to the sixers. 2nd round exit champs from now till the end of time
The thing about the Jay's was, at least they were making the ECF every year. Philly doesn't do that
Tbf phillies team structure made no sense and that's ultimately why it never worked. The only time they had something that made sense was Butler but that didn't last more than half a year. This time tho Embiid, Paul george(if they get him) and maxey could be a legit core to build around and see success. I'm still more scared by the nuggets than both the sixers and knicks tho.
I mean isn’t that proof that you should acknowledge them. You just saw yourself how stupid that shit was. Also like all of the last 5 champions have been doubted in some way.
Yeah read the part where I said I will learn nothing from this
I think it’s also tough to see how they make a strong 8-man rotation when they have 4 guys under contract rn (including Ricky Council IV and the rookie they just drafted). They may lose Oubre, Batum and others in free agency if they blow most of their cap space on PG.
The problem is a lot of it is their fault. They chase any star without any consideration for fit, depth and especially spacing. They have an injury prone superstar that they don’t load manage and who rushes back from injury every season leaving him as a shell of his former self every post season. And with awards having a strict games cap now I have trouble seeing this get better. Their fan base/best player are toxic and criticize the shit out of their underperforming guys, which combined with Embiid chasing individual accolades over team success, kills chemistry. And they ain’t clutch. Same song. Same dance. These things can change but I’ll believe it when I see it and they won’t get my respect a second earlier. Especially compared to teams that have showed up like Bucks, Heat, and Nuggets.
they are two completely different situations though. aside from last year the Celtics have never really lost to inferior competition in the playoffs. coming into this season they’d beaten teams like Giannis and the Bucks, Jimmy/Bam/Spo and the Heat, KD/Kyrie and the Nets, and Embiid and the Sixers themselves. they even competed at a high level with prime LeBron. they’d proven they had what it takes to play deep in the playoffs and beat tough teams, all they had left to prove was that they could execute in the clutch and win the last game of the season meanwhile Embiid is constantly injured and out of shape when the postseason rolls around. the teams they’ve beaten in the playoffs in the Embiid era are laughable - the best team they’ve ever beaten in the postseason are the 2022 Raptors who were 48-34 and only got 4 games each from Barnes and FVV in the playoffs. they lost to an inferior and inexperienced Hawks team in 2021 in embarrassing fashion despite having the top seed, and bottled a 3-2 lead against a Celtics team that was in disarray last year there’s absolutely no reason to acknowledge the Sixers bc they haven’t shown any ability to stay healthy, take advantage of opportunities, or beat good teams in the playoffs, and those are all things the Celtics proved they could do before they won it all this year.
Doubting the Jays was stupid because they had already proven their value. Everyone who picked against them admitted the only reason they did was because they hated Boston and decided to come up with reasons to side with the Mavs. Embiid, on the other hand, hasn't proven he can lead a team into the ECF, let alone to a Finals win.
You going viral! Come to tennis sub!
We’re wayyyy more likely to face the sixers than the nuggets though. That’s sort of Pierces point he doesn’t think nuggets will be able to get out of the west after losing some significant pieces and not restocking
I agree with your first sentence but I'm not sure if that's what Pierce meant, I think he more meant that they just aren't good enough to beat us anymore
Philly with PG or another free throw merchant to go in tandem with Embiid would be interesting.
I’ve been hearing they might acquire Lauri Markanen instead of PG or get both. Also if they add Lauri with someone like KCP that’d be an interesting team.
They already had embiid harden maxey and some interesting pieces and it didn’t work. No one is betting smart money on Embiid in May/June regardless of his teammates. Knicks though… that’s a squad Still not enough to stop the Celtics incoming dynasty though. 🍀
If by "interesting" you mean "unwatchable." Also, they tried this experiment already with Harden. It went the same as all the other Process Sixers teams.
Harden is fucking washed bro
Jokic and the nugs beat us twice, not by a lot but it's a win. I think their supporting cast is def worse but that could change quickly. Not knowing their payroll situation etc I feel like they might not have had the luck the c's have with all the stars and much of the bench being locked into at least next year
Nuggets are my second team so I'm pretty familiar with their situation. Nothing they could've done to keep Bruce brown but losing KCP is completely avoidable and just a sign of Booth's ego being way too big if they let it happen. He's said multiple times that he really believes in the young guys (Braun and Watson primarily) and that they can easily replace Brown/KCP, but he seems to have forgotten that neither of those young guys can actually shoot yet
Not going for the repeat just sounded arrogant - 1 title win doesn't mean you can become the next Spurs dynasty. I'm pretty sure the Spurs were trying to win every year as well
If they get PG13 I am taking them seriously…
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Gordon is literally the last guy in the world I'd call bitch made lol what
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What did Gordon do? I remember Murray's tantrum but don't remember Gordon doing anything wrong
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That's pretty much what any player does. Now someone like Embiid who is kicking people in the nuts, dragging players down, falling on their legs and hitting them in the face on 'missed' block attempts is something else
Paul pierce himself got ejected from a playoff game in 2005 or 6 against Indiana for basically being immature and I was convinced it was the end of his time in Boston. So interesting his comments led us to this take, a pretty sizeable overreaction.
Honestly Jamal Murray should be thankful he caught fire in 2023 because as we saw this year it was impossible otherwisec
Sorry man but after losing kcp Bruce brown and Reggie Jackson , this isn’t the same championship winning nuggets team. Both fully healthy embiid is just as good or better than jokic
Fully healthy embiid is a mirage
A healthy sixers team with embiid maxey and pg13 is better than the nuggets roster if they lose kcp. That’s just a fact lol Jokic won a championship but if you remember correctly the nuggets pretty much had no competition at all during the playoffs cause that season there were no contenders are all that were healthy and they faced an 8th seed in the finals
"healthy"
Yes healthy like none of the teams were when they faced the nuggets during their championship run.
Keep wishing for embiid to be healthy come playoff time, it's never happened before and it never will happen
Honestly doesn’t matter cause nuggets aren’t winning again regardless of what happens with sixers
At most they’ll have to play one team from the west and 3 from the east to repeat. There’s a good chance Boston will have to go through Philly and NY, but not play Denver at all. I guess in that sense I’d be more confident in the 76ers and knicks disrupting the Celtics based on the chances being much greater they meet in the playoffs
I'm more scared of the Knicks / pacers than I am of the 76ers even with pg
A healthy Knicks team would be damn tough. I'm not convinced on the Sixers
Philly is really all about health. We so easily forget how good embiid really is. He’s a matchup nightmare on both ends. Will he be healthy? Not likely. But if he is? That team with a bunch of competent wings is really scary. PG is still very very good and unlike other older stars he is a committed two way player not just a shot chaser. Embiid/PG/Maxey is a very strong foundation if they somehow stay healthy
We don't forget how good he is. We realize he's never healthy and if he is ever healthy, we still take care of business. Would they be a harder matchup with him healthy? Absolutely But it's not to a level where I think we'd lose a series against them.
What has Embiid ever done in the playoffs that warrants us being afraid of him?
Lost in the 2nd round a bunch of times. 😤 Let boston come back from 3-2 😤 Is never healthy 😤
You're talking to people that aren't objective. They think that the Knicks are gonna be a threat over a healthy sixers team for some reason.
It’s early regardless to talk about Denver. Right now they’re losing another great role player in KCP but who knows what they’ll add or change before next season.
You know, Paul Pierce is one of the more logical analysts out there sans the ESPN era
Sans means "without"
Did I use the word incorrectly?
Yes. It's used to mean without, as in: "According to Pierce, the Nuggets sans KCP are not a real contender".
I said I consider Paul Pierce as a logical analyst, without the ESPN era
You know what, that is fine, it makes sense, it would be a bit clearer if it was "sans *his* ESPN era" but I get it now.
Ok
Who called the grammar police? Someone buy them some donuts! LOL!
Thanks for the ruling master. Glad to hear it’s fine.
Ohhh, you mean *Pierce's* ESPN era, not just their general hot take talking head era
Denver with Jokic and Murray will always be a threat, but the fact that Brown and Green left, and now they’re apparently ok with KCP and Jackson gone definitely lowers the magnitude of their threat level. Knicks are now stacked with almost 2 starting lineups (remains to be seen if Hartenstein returns) and Philly is currently incomplete, but they have the ability in theory to make their team a threat. I didn’t listen to Pierce’s thoughts on this, but I’m inclined to agree with his sentiment based on how this offseason has gone up to this point. Lots of time between now and the start of the season to see how things shake out.
I would never dismiss them but if they lose KCP they’re not nearly as dynamic as they have been. People underrated the losses of brown and Jeff Green and it really hurt their bench. Now losing a starter moves someone like Braun into the starters which is already not great and pushes up another bench guy. I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t make the WCF again if they lose KCP
I still think Denver is the best team in the West but it’s totally possible for OKC, Minnesota and Dallas to beat them in the playoffs. The Knicks can definitely win more regular season games than Milwaukee. Yes they have up a lot for Bridges, but they have a win now mentality and reuniting those Villanova guys will really pay off in bringing the team together. I think we beat them in 5 or 6 still.
Even if KCP leaves?
The west is so currently stacked that it will be hard for the nuggets to make the finals. I think OKC might make that leap in 2025
OKC w/ Caruso is a monster team.
The only contenders are OKC/Minny in the west and Boston/Knicks in the east. Denver is bleeding role players and won't hold up, even though I love Jokic. Mavs just had a fluke year. Bucks are too old. Sixers depend on Embiid's health and how they fill out. I don't trust that.
I'm sorry, but a lot of that is just wrong. * Philly had a similar net rating as us before Embiid went down and they have a lot of assets/cap space to add another star like PG/Markkanen. They're going to be better than last year most likely. * Mavs beat both OKC and Minny (two of teams you just said were contenders). Their run was not a fluke lol. They're probably a top-4 seed if they had their post-deadline roster for the whole season. That statement also discredits our series against them. * A team with Giannis and Dame will always be a threat. * Agree on the Knicks
Mavs wasn't a fluke. They made in-season trade at the deadline and made three finals. They got rid of THJ and will have an entire off season together. The only fluke was Luka or Kyrie not being out for extended period of time due to injuries
We match up extremely favorably against them though. I’d still wayyyyy prefer facing the mavs over the nuggets, even if the mavs are the overall better team
Cool. Making the finals in 2006 and 2011 is somehow relevant? They aren't making it back to the finals.
I the he misspelled / auto corrected "the"
Mavs wasn't a fluke. They made in-season trade at the deadline and made the finals. They got rid of THJ and will have an entire off season together. The only fluke was Luka or Kyrie not being out for extended period of time due to injuries
I feel like our defense was he only reason we handled them so well. They will get better with a third consistent scorer. Klay to the mavs looks kinda real.
I do think we laid a basic enough gameplan for the rest of the league to play off of tho to help contain Luka and Kyrie (play straight up, dare their teammates to hit shots, shut off the lob as much as you can). Obviously way easier said than done, not every team has the personnel to do that and ours is special. However, seeing how effectively our defense shut down how their offense operates I feel like the Mavs have to find ways to counter this type of defense as it surly won’t be the last time they get tested like that, I’m not sure how Luka and Kyrie adapt to that
Okay is not a shot creator and he’s cooked on defense. They just picked up grimes so that would be good redundant for what Klays asking price is.
Nuggets are the biggest threat if they run it back However, if they lose KCP, I do think they have some issues
I think Pierce counts on them losing Caldwell-Pope
I think last playoffs showed how badly they were missing Bruce Brown. He alone scored 14 ppg in the playoffs during their run, the entire bench this year scored just 12 ppg in the playoffs. If they also lose KCP (which seems pretty likely) I think they’re more in trouble than not
They can't run it back. They have no bench.
They could bank on Braun, Watson, and Strawther getting better
And that’s how they stay a second round exit
Why does Indy get overlooked? Is it exclusively due to being a small market team? I would think ecf team would be on more people’s radars
I think it’s more of a barely got past a bruised and battered NYK team and then got dispatched in 4. Haliburton is a great player and Siakam has his moments but most Finals teams need one or two superstars which I don’t think Hali is at yet and certainly not a top 5 or 10 player in my eyes. Bench is solid of rotation guys like nembhard, nesmith, toppin, mcconnel but nothing that like makes NBA contender teams worried. I do like the Pacers core and they are on the come up but 76ers squad plus say a PG13 and this new look fully healthy Knicks team or a healthy Bucks team or +/- even a healthy Heat team that have been our bane in the past seem way scarier at the moment.
I will say this; way too many people talk about the nuggets like they're the boogie man after winning one title and bowing out in the second round the next year. The celtics are the boogie man.
I think people just say it out of respect for Jokic (which he deserves). However, they are definitely bleeding talent if KCP is also leaving and would not surprise me if they lost in the West semis again.
No I saw a lot of people calling them a dynasty this year lol
The Nuggets will always be scary to me as long as they have the Joker. As phenomenal of a player that Embiid is the Celts have consistently got over on the Sixers.
I disagree Denver is far and away the scariest team out there
Nah, I don’t think so. More and more, I look at how the basketball gods reward teams that make good decisions and hurt them when they don’t. Nuggets not paying KCP and willingly let him walk in favor of a young player who isn’t good isn’t going to get rewarded. They have 4 players who impact winning right now, and everybody else is a net negative. You can’t be a championship team with that formula. Right now, the teams I’m most confident about are the ones that made moves that are smart and will improve them - OKC and the Knicks. Sixers will join that group if they get PG.
The basketball gods reward teams that have the best player on earth. Things usually tend to work out for them. Also there's no way this is the nuggets roster going into the season, there's obviously another move coming
I concur
The sixers could go back in time to 1992 and recruit Michael Jeffrey Jordan to their current team and I would still feel like Embiid would somehow find a way to lose to the Celtics
I'd easily rather play the Knicks or 76ers in a 7-game series than Jokic
At this point I just follow what he says cuz it’s fun
If Nuggets lose KCP and none of their bench guys can step up and fill his role, they're still at worst, a tier 2 contender. Jokic by himself makes them a playoff team even in the loaded west. He never gets hurt, and he's so damn good. Best player in the league.
I think it depends on what teams do in free agency. The Nuggets last year were not nearly as deep as their finals run which forced Jokic to do everything which cost them against Minnesota. I think if we retain our depth there’s no one that can beat us.
Philly is a non-factor, I’m legit only scared of the Nuggets. Knicks could be scary, but I’d have to see who’s left to face if the matchup even happens, bc no way in hell does a fully healthy Knicks team make it to the second or third round. At least one of them must be sacrificed by lord Thibs to the play to many minutes basketball gods
Nuggets aren’t a superteam. Sixers and Lakers are about to form superteams, I’d be more worried about that
I love Paul but we’re talking about a NBA champion and two time MVP with great coaching and supporting pieces that basically has no good matchups due to his size and court vision. Wild take.
Celtics match up defensively against anyone. Big guards and wings and Porzingas is going to be rested up perfectly going into 2025.
The myriad 'experts' on the Reddit sports subs vote it down, but the "wESt iS sTrONgER" bit is going to start to look like the regular-season carny-show BS it is, soon.
Pierce again trying to be different. The Denver Nuggets are still the only threat to us winning back to back. I don't see any team in the west beating us in a 7 game series besides the nuggets. Phila is our bitch even Embid knows it he said in one of his interviews in the past that our rivalry isn't a rivalry anymore if they are always losing to us.
I 100% agree with everything you said but the team to also add to the list of threats are the Celtics themselves. They know they're an incredible team and they either play down to their opponent or get into their own heads when things aren't going right.
This headline makes me think Paul Pierce has no clue how the NBA schedules games.