southsil4lil said:

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Not directed at you @southsil4lil ..but what is the point of these old trade possibilities coming up now?

This dude Tim Hardaway Jr isn't even in the rotation anymore. He will most certainly be traded. Let's see what Dallas can pick up.

If that’s a little too ifs-and-buts for you, consider also some of the circumstances that prevented recent champions from repeating.

Kawhi Leonard left a perfectly good team in Toronto that actually had a better winning percentage without him a year later. Milwaukee’s 2022 title defense was scuppered by a Khris Middleton injury. Finally, there’s a nearly inexhaustible supply of all the wouldas and couldas from the Brooklyn whinasty with Durant, James Harden and Kyrie Irving.

Events needed to break a very certain way to give us a scenario in which no champions repeated. Lady Luck looms large, too. In a 30-team league, fortune is always going to play a role in May and June unless a team builds a Durant-Stephen Curry–Draymond Green–Klay Thompson level of steamroller.

Boston is possibly at that level, but nobody totally trusts that idea yet, and we won’t really know for at least two more weeks. Other teams could maybe get there soon, especially Oklahoma City and San Antonio.

Building that level of team in any era is extremely difficult, but we are entering a new reality on top of that. Now it’s hard to build such a team and equally difficult to maintain it for any appreciable length of time. Age, injuries, contracts and the apron all conspire to make succeeding at the 55-win level difficult but possible for a “run” of several seasons. But getting to the high-60s level of being nigh unbeatable? That just hasn’t been a thing since Durant left the Bay.

Again, Boston can make a case that it’s an exception to that rule if it wins the title this year. The Celtics seem exceptionally well set up for a multi-year run at a high level; extensions for Tatum and Derrick White would have Boston’s five best players signed through 2026, the exact type of two-year run above the second apron that I talked about above.

On the other hand, Boston has one crucial weakness most other dynasties didn’t: The Celtics don’t have the best player in the league. As good as Tatum is, they won’t have the best player on the court in the finals.

Then again, wouldn’t that be the perfect demarcation of our new parity era? Having the most dominant team of this stretch be the one who had one player (barely) make first-team All-NBA and instead beat you by signing smart contracts and going six-deep with true quality?

With or without a Celtics reign, however, this year’s Mavs are the latest example of another strong trend that is likely to be an enduring takeaway from this era: If you’re good enough to get to the second round, anything can happen. In an NBA in which seemingly 20 teams are “going for it” each year, the game within the game has become getting into that final eight.

5th Letter said:

Our front office is getting raided

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That's unfortunate brother

JJ redick getting to coach the lakers with no coaching experience is crazy when you think about it.

Sony Montana said:

The Heat are accepting new fans

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