60 Comments

I won't mind if CP3 gets a ring now since it would be a slap in Harden's face. Ideally, Giannis or Trae will win it all (those years of rooting against Lob City and Houston are hard to put aside), but I'll grudgingly admit that Paul makes his teams better.

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I'm I wrong to think the Point God ought to get one Chip before he retires. He has been a great villain, he is a fierce competitor, and he never sold out and went went full super team. ATL, Travis & Trae have already won by getting this far, the Clips have no soul, MIL? Yes, I would like Giannis to get off the snide, but then we would be stuck with Bud for another 4 years and we will miss what Giannis could become under a coach who knows what he is doing. In the meantime, you got Book playing with a broken nose, ditching his face mask, Ayton and the rest of the team playing chippy bar fight basketball ... against a team I really don't like. Of all the guys left in the 'offs, it does feel like Chris Paul's career deserves one last piece of hardware.

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I don't mind CP3 winning. Out of all the villains we've had he might be the most bearable. It would also give me some strange satisfaction to see CP3 win before his former team (Clips, forever the villain team) and teammates (Blake and Harden, who are much more unbearable) get one. And while he's a villain, he didn't join a mercenary team... he even led an underdog OKC team to within 3 points of knocking off the Rockets in 7 games in 2020. If it was Blake or Harden, they'd force a trade and/or sit out for sure...

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Yeah, as villains go, I almost don't consider Paul a villain anymore. After you beat him so many times, the villain shine kind of rubs off. And what he did for OKC AND PHO? C'mon, you gotta tip your cap to the guy. Man has mad leadership skills on the court.

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If the bucks win, it will have meant that bud can learn to make adjustments… and if they win, those adjustments will have been successful, and bud will see the value and go back to them… and maybe even try new ones to get more from Giannis

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Another look. If ATL or PHO wins the Chip, the story will be "They earned it." If LAC win, the story will be: ahh, who cares. Screw the Clips. If MIL wins: "Giannis finally gets his, Bud keeps his job by making just enough adjustments to squeak by in a game 7" But, unless they really make a statement, it will kind of feel like they backed into the title, rather than earning it. I like MIL, but their brand of basketball is a little uninspiring.

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MIL isn't winning the championship if they don't learn how to make adjustments one way or another, so I don't think we have to worry about them "backing in" unless Young, Collins, Booker, Paul, and George go down with injury.

I'm still rooting for them to figure it out over the other teams that I dislike :-P I've seen enough little things from them so far, the playoffs are only halfway over for them, let's see how they respond to upcoming challenges.

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The real Point God is Magic Johnson. Terrible nickname. He doesn’t “deserve” anything any more than e.g. Stockton “deserved” a chip. (Stockton is a pretty good comp for Paul, actually).

I’m rooting for Giannis.

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I do like the Sun's not because of Paul but despite of him. Good youngish team and out of the 4 left I would not be mad if they took it all.

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Just rewatched game 6 of 2019 finals n goddammit I'm so grateful I'ma Klay, curry, green fan over some of these other players, Paul George could barely get any buckets all fourth quarter, Klay put up 30 on 12-18 in 3 quarters before going down. I really believe he has the will power to come back and be his same self.

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I have no doubt Klay will come back swinging (once he gets into basketball shape) ... there's no way he'll allow himself to be a shell of himself. I bet he'd probably walk away from the game before he lets that happens.

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Klay will be powered by sheer force-of-will, as well as full suite of yellow headbands strapped to his ankles, thighs, biceps, and of course head. He will be completely unstoppable.

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My main takeaway: Wiseman in next year's WCF Game 4 will also have 19 pts 22 rebounds, guaranteed.

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Oh fer the love of Odin, DeMarcus has got to know the rules on how to miss a free throw. PG13 *just* did it 10 seconds ago

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Let’s just say he tried the fast pitch to catch everybody off guard and missed badly

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The Suns are folding on us, folks :(

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Actually both teams suck. I thought the West was bettah than l'East this year?

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Suns should be sweeping the clippers without kawhi

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Well they kinda were and then they were not!

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If Chris Paul wins a ring, the narrative should be, “Imagine what he could’ve accomplished if he didn’t have to play in the Steph Curry era.”

I can live with that.

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This is still the LeBron era to most NBA fans, you know

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Lol it's crazy how there's no debate Steph is better than CP3 even though CP3 has been doing it for longer

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Bench CP3 and I'll root for the Suns. Payne had a better game 2 and Paul comes back, has a bad game and they get beat and Payne got off the bench for about 5 minutes. I will cheer for Booker at any rate. Clippers don't have a chance with me. I don't like Kawhi or PG13. Or Lue.

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I do like Batum, but only as a Warrior. LOL So Clippers need to lose this series to make that happen.

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Jun 26, 2021Liked by punk basketball

Liked for having the good sense to mention me by name again. I feel like at this point, you’re just trying to please the search engines and capitalize on my brand.

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Capturing that key “goofus” search SEO

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Can't wait until the season is over with. All of the supervillains have been eliminated. There's no more excitement. I honestly do not care if the Clippers win the title or not that franchise has been pathetic for decades they might as well win one now and go back to the shadows forever.

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Rooting for a Suns vs. Hawks final so we can officially usher in a new era. Bucks vs. Clippers are more like remnants of the "Warriors ruined basketball, now what?" era. Booker and Trae are the "that's what" IMO.

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I hear you, but also like Giannis and respect him for staying and NOT joining a Frankenteam. It would be nice for him to be rewarded with a ring, especially if it’s not against GSW.

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This

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Im on this same boat. I don't think any of these remaining teams will be serious contenders next year, at least not in the top 3, so it probably won't matter who wins these finals

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Rooted for the Clippers to expose the Jazz last series and they rewarded me. Rooting for them now because they have battled with a ton of adversity and have a lot of individual players with intriguing storylines. George, Batum, Kennard, Mann, even Cousins a bit when he plays. And Reggie Jackson is the most fascinating of all to me, he was out of the league at one point a year ago and now he's playing like a superstar.

Unfortunately for them, I think the Suns are just a better team if healthy. Clippers really could have used Ibaka in this series against Ayton, let alone Kawhi.

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I root against Kawhi. Go Suns!

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I do too, but also against CP3… I just hope the bucks win

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Jun 26, 2021Liked by punk basketball

“if I can get Steph Curry the ball for a f**king shot, why would I shoot?” Draymond Green on criticism he doesn’t take shots 🙄

That really piss me off, Draymond can work at least on his floaters , mid range or open shots, it’s easy to have +10 assists when you have Curry , why doesn't he commit to work?

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Wanting to get the ball to the best shooter in the history of the game doesn’t mean you can’t/haven’t been working on your own offensive game.

Draymond understands the game better than any of us. He’s clearly doing what he thinks is best for the team, while kind of tacitly admitting a lack of confidence in his own offensive game.

We’d all agree there are times when he fails to take shots he probably should, but I think that’s better than a player who takes shots he probably shouldn’t (unless you’re Steph Curry). At least his pass first/shoot second mindset is inline with the spirit of Kerr’s “everyone is involved and touching the ball” philosophy. And usually, his passing up a shot to get it to Curry is an example of “pass up a good shot to get a great shot”.

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I mean if he was looking to make shot instead of pass in the play in game we might be in the wcf right now

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How do you get from what he says to what you accuse him of? You think Draymond has a poor work ethic?

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We have the second best shooter of all-time coming back and this is what you are upset about? Draymond’s focus on playmaking is going to yield big rewards the way it has in the past. Where am I mistaken in this thinking?

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i don't know man, i have the same right of being upset than you living in wonderland.

i’m very happy that Klay back, but i think everyone needs to lower their expectations, he’s coming back from 2 of the worst injuries in sports, of course , i just want that Klay coming back happy and well like i just want that Curry be happy, but reading about Dray saying this, yeah, it piss me off.

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During this “recovery” season, I’m expecting something along the lines of Kyle Korver in his early 30’s, with increasing usage as the season progresses. That player would be really useful on this team.

He’ll still be be a sniper, but with less quickness. His ability to drive and defend will be physically diminished, but he’ll still have the smarts to be effective in a crafty way. The really great news is that Klay’s game wasn’t built around athleticism, so even if he only gets to 85-90% physically by the end of the season, Mamma Mia!

/chefs kiss

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Of course you have a right to be pissed off. But it seems impractical. I suppose that’s just the Wonderland talking.

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Lol that "wonderland" thing was weird. It's like it's delusional to be optimistic about a sports team and it's players

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The obvious response is "what if you *can't* get the ball to Steph Curry?".

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Then that probably means someone else who shoots better than Dray is open, or can be made open, and no one sees that better than him.

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His fg% 2pt% and ft% were all above his career averages this past season. When Curry is in MVP form, it makes sense that Draymond is going to shoot less. I imagine his percentages will go up again next season with the added space, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he also shoots less.

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Still rooting against the Clippers, there has to be some sort of negative karma, no matter how small, for acquiring a fortune through a life of crime as Ballmer et al did, doesn't there?

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It probably cancels out though because that's true of every other owner in the NBA as well.

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Jun 26, 2021Liked by punk basketball

I’m just confused here. I guess I can root for the Suns as long as Paul is out. But how could I possibly root for the side step and stop king of annoying foul creation, who taught Harden everything he knows about how to age gracelessly while leaning on the refs gullibility to succeed? Was Harden truly the foul hunting flopper legend before Paul went to the rockets? I think Paul’s done more to re-ruin the league than any other player of this era.

Go Suns! Just so they can blow the series when Paul returns.

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Harden was definitely doing that before Paul

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Because this season might be the last gasp of that kind of play, if the refs actually do clamp down on it next season as expected. Let CP3 or Trae have their momentary burst of relevance. Next year it will be harder for players of that ilk.

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Just like when they were going to clamp down on off-ball contact. And didn’t.

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They don’t need more rules. They just need refs to not blow the whistle like suckers when offensive players create contact.

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I’ll believe it when I see it. I still believe they won’t clamp down that much… is that going to be reviewable?

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Yes, Harden has already evolved into his foul hunting self

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I can't believe that he would not know that rule. I have to assume that he was trying to do it quick to catch the suns off guard, and just missed badly.

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That's how it looked to me.

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Moron.

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Holy crap, the 2nd clip is nuts

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Yikes

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