I want to talk about something more broad than the individual games themselves. After watching the first round of the NBA playoffs, something has become very evident, very obvious. Playoff seeding doesn't matter anymore at all. There was a time where teams would scratch and they would claw to try
to get home court advantage in the playoffs. I mean, after all, we've been told for decades that having home court is a difference between life and death, between cant coon and a deep run in the playoffs.
That's just not true anymore.
That's not the Miami Heat. We're a playing team, not just a playing team. They lost their first game in the play in tournament. They were down by double digits of the Chicago Bulls. Scratched in clawed just to get the eight seed. And you know what they did. They just beat a team that won two years ago the NBA title. Yes, there was no Joannis for two games, but it didn't matter.
They didn't have Tyler Hero.
Either, one of their best shooters. They made quick work of them in five. Everybody thought that the Heat were gonna get bounced in four.
Nope.
Duncan Robinson has emerged from the crypt. He had fourteen threes in four games after the Tyler hero injury fourteen. Steph Curry his performance, Jimmy Butler's performance was pretty good too, fifty six points. The Bucks are done. Bud might get fired, He might have dismantled the Milwaukee Bucks. Jimmy Butler an eight seed.
The Warriors.
The fact that they were a six seed joke Jokeville made no sense. They were always We said this all year. The Warriors are a wolf in sheep's clothing.
Do not sleep.
The only thing that the Warriors are pretending is that they're not contending.
That's it.
There was all this talk, Oh, Warriors are old. Oh they're done, they're road records trash. Are they gonna win in the playoffs that they can't win on the road?
That was some bullshit. Did you see what they just said?
They got two wins against the Sacramento Kings, one of the toughest places to play.
In the NBA.
Oh, they don't have youth on their side. But the truth is what we now know. This is a fact. Fact nobody's talking about. The Warriors don't have a tank for the regular season anymore.
They are old.
Their tank is twenty eight games, the amount of games that the playoffs are.
That's their tank. We'll give you some good games in January. Maybe we'll see.
You a couple of good games in February. We'll get up for our home crowd. But where we go on the road, you're not getting our a squad, you're not getting our a effort. And if we lose to Detroit Pistons at Little Caesars Arena, be thankful that we didn't give you our full force, because when we have it, there's no one on the planet who can beat us. And that's what Draymond said, I can barely get out of bed in February. Jesus Christ, did you see the
performances that he had in the playoffs? He had twenty something points, one of the most efficient performances in saying defense, Yeah, he did stop someone in the chest.
Turns out that was pretty effective for them too.
When he got suspended, unlocked the things that they needed to know in order to have better spacing.
That's the kind that's the kind of bad luck that the.
Warriors have, bad luck that ultimately turns into good luck. You've got Steph thirty five, Clay thirty three, Draymond thirty three, they're not mustering up the energy to play defense against the Detroit Pistons, Are.
You kidding me?
No, So the next time the Warriors are in February and they're like a borderline fringe playing team, just remember they're still a title team.
They are never dead until one of them leaves, one of those core three leave. Maybe that's this offseason. I don't know.
And I have Kevon Looney, who I think maybe the best center we've ever seen, the best rebounding small center.
He had more what was that tweet?
I saw this? Kevon Looney has had as many twenty plus rebound games in the first round of this playoffs. Then David Robinson, Hakeem elijahu On, Karl Malone to Kembe Mutumbo, and Bill Walton had in their entire playoff careers just shy of one hundred and twenty eight, which is Bill Russell for most all time.
That's that's unbelievable.
There were people who said it, not me, said Sabonis would eat Kavonloney for lunch. No, Sir, Sabonis got eaten for lunch from kavan So yeah, it doesn't really matter to Golden State. They just wanted to avoid the playing tournament, which honestly, even if they made it.
To the play in tournament, they probably would have stilled.
They probably would have played the Nuggets and beat the Nuggets in six. This is the potency. It is a team that is built for the playoffs. Do you want to play the Warriors? Ever, the answer is no. The answer along your path. That's why I didn't want the Kings to play the Warriors in the first round, because they are at the end of the day, inevitable. This is the trend though, of the future for me. I
think you're seeing this with Lebron. Lebron just takes full plays off in the middle of the game to conserve his energy for winning time, because.
That's the only we are not allowed. We're not gonna go, go go. They're not robots.
Their tank isn't just completely unlimited where they can be their game seven fourth quarter winning time south in the middle of a random Tuesday game against some bottom feeder team.
Absolutely fucking not.
Remember when Lebron James broke the scoring record and they lost to OKC and we thought that that was meaningful in any way.
It was not.
This was a team given up for dead at the trade deadline below five hundred, Lebron James injured, Anthony Davis injured. In other words, they were cooked. Rob Polinka pulled something out of his hat. I don't know who he has pictures on where he was able to make those trades, but retooled the roster, reinvigorated the team, and now that they now they are scary. I think this is the trend of the future. It is now called the conservation of star power. All of this means the regular season is.
Just not very meaningful anymore. Doesn't mean it's not fun.
It doesn't mean teams can't build on regular season success. It doesn't mean that we should just cancel it all together. It means that guys like Lebron and Steph and Draymond cannot be judged by their individual performances or team performances until playoff time.
That's it.
Because if you can go off for fifty in a Game seven after being embarrassed and straight up flattened in Game six on the road.
Who gives a fuck what you do in February? Who cares?
That's gonna mean skipping Tuesdays against Utah and not really trying that.
Hard till April. That's it, that's that's that's the takeaway.
M