NBA

Playoffs are almost here... What do you all think? Finals rematch? Can Spurs beat GS?

It's too hard for me to tell. Cleveland was the best team and Golden State was horrible the other week. Now the Dubs are dominant without Durant and the Land can't play defense. NBA regular season is worse than baseball to me.

My Pistons are killing me. I really hope they make the playoffs. I'm hoping the first rounds aren't boring.

I really hope the Hornets don't make the playoffs. There is actually more than 1 quality player and a high pick could go a long way for a small market team that has never landed a marquee free agent.

I'm not in favor of tanking... Minnesota and other teams have done the same, got lottery pick after lottery pick and went nowhere. Also, instead of making the playoffs, attracting players, but most importantly, learning to win, having that mentality is more valuable (to me) than picking #15 instead of #16.

Charlotte has a good team, but I agree that having a small market, sometimes you have to rely on the draft, or trade for a guy with a few years on his contract.

I haven't really seen a lot of games this season, as that spineless coward KD killed all the fun for me.

Since second round is a reach for Thunder, I'm rooting for Kawhi and Spurs to win it all. Wouldn't mind Cavs repeating, but they haven't looked that convincing as of late.

Minessota is a strange team. They should be much better than they are, having an upcoming superstar in KAT, and very good scorers in Wiggins and Lavine. However their defense has sucked throughout the season and they're currently at bottom 5 in defensive efficiency. Still I'm willing to give coach Thibs some time, to fully implement his defensive philosophy, eventough he doesn't have as nearly defensively talented roster as he did in Chicago.

The team I pity the most are 76ers. Hinkie is one of the few GM's who tanked correctly. He drafted some great assets like: Embiid (future superstar), Simmons, Saric, Noel... But the luck their franchise has had with injuries is just unfortunate. They should be a good team when fully healthy.

Minnesota does have a good team, and I like their coach. But they haven't made the playoffs since Garnett, right? 2003?

Hinkie went too far, drafting only guys who were injured. Embiid is a great player, but can he play a full season. I saw Ben Simmons, great passer. They should have got rid of Okafor instead of Noel, but they had a logjam, fire sale.

Any surprises in the playoffs?

I haven't followed the NBA closely for the last several years but I've been keeping my eye on the Celtics recently. They have a good chance at the #1 seed in the conference and would get that seed if the season ended today. They seem to be a team that plays to the level of their competition so I think they could surprise in a good or bad way. Are Cleveland's struggles for real or will they turn it on in the playoffs? We'll see.

Celtics are a well structured team, with good managment and Isaiah Thomas has emerged into a true superstar this season. The future is definitely bright for them, as they even have a top 3 pick in this year's draft. Still they had very little success in the playoffs, since their big 4 departure. It'll be interesting to see how they do this year.

As for Cavs, I wouldn't put too much stock into their struggles. Lebron and Kyrie are a different animals in the playoffs, which should be enough for them to coast through eastern conference. The key for them will be Kevin Love. If he could return to his pre-injury form, from the beggining of the season, that would be huge for Cavs.

I'd keep my eyes on Jazz. They haven't made the playoffs since 2012, but they're very good team, with defensive menace in Gobert and a great 2-way scorer in Hayward. I could easily see them upset the Clippers, especially considering Clips reputation as huge chokers in the playoffs.

They also have the Net's first round pick next year and a couple of potential studs stashed in Europe.

Yeah, Ainge really robbed Nets in that deal.

Is anyone interested in doing playoff brackets? If at least 8-10 people sign up, we could have a little MoFo tournament.

https://www.nbabracketology.com/ - This site is the best for it.

Utah has a great team, and a great coach. Boston just needs a Gobert kind of center, put Horford back at the 4.

I don't mind doing brackets

Nice !
@cricket @doubledenim

Are you guys in for the brackets?

I don't see why not. Do I have to go to the other site or will it be here?

You'll just have to register and fill in the bracket. If enough people decides to join, I'll make the MOFO group and we'll have a little tournament for fun.

Ok I'll sign up in a bit.

I'm out for any brackets.