NBA Open Thread
By 
Another night of playoffs means another NBA and general sports open thread.
The games tonight are not necessarily that interesting–the Celtics are going to eviscerate Cleveland again. Mavs-Thunder could be interesting, but Luka hasn’t played that well lately and isn’t that healthy. The Mavs just don’t have enough pieces if that’s the case. Good job moving on from Jalen Brunson Mavs! I do feel people are really sleeping on the Thunder, which makes sense I guess given the attention to Minnesota-Denver. But I would be feeding on this if I was OKC.
I do want to go back again to talk about the whining by players and coaches these days. First, does it shock anyone that Jamal Murray turns out to be a whiny asshole? It should not! I get he’s playing hurt and is frustrated, but throwing things on the floor during live action and then not even taking ownership of it after the fine is pretty bad. He’s a fine second banana, but he’s not a first banana and he’s hurt too often to put up with too much of this. I mean, of course I would sign him to the max after this season because what else is Denver going to do? But this is a real bad thing. He should have been suspended, despite what it would have meant to these playoffs. He needs a serious talking to by management and, frankly, by Jokic. One thing about Jokic though–he’s astounding, but I am not sure he really controls that locker room like Jordan or LeBron.
This leads me to another point, which is thinking about what Denver will do this offseason. I think Minnesota is going to win in 5 or 6 at the most. Denver is in a weird position. They already have zero depth and zero size behind Jokic. You have to sign either Murray or Gordon to the max deal. But can you sign both? Does it even make sense to since it hamstrings you financially where you can’t build the depth you need to be back on top? The Nuggets have the best player in the world, which is a good place to be. But he’s not enough and while the pieces around him were good enough to win the title last year against a bunch of teams that won less than 50 games, a scenario unlikely to repeat itself anytime soon, they don’t seem good enough to win now. I guess the question is this–do you sign Murray or Gordon and then what do you do? I don’t have the advanced degrees necessary to understand the insanity of the NBA salary cap, but I do know that this team needs to figure something out in a West that isn’t getting any easier with the rise of the Spurs and Rockets.
Back to my original point, which is the goddamn whining. Can the Pacers please shut up? Giving the league office a dossier of 78 supposedly missed calls from the first two games sounds like they are on to something, but I don’t think they are. First, if the NBA was tipping the market for big market teams, the Lakers would have defeated Denver instead of blowing game after game. Instead, you have Oklahoma City, Minnesota, and Denver as the only logical possibilities to win the West (sorry Dallas). Three small markets, two of which are historically very marginal teams in cities at the bottom end of popularity among players.
Second, did the Pacers receive the bad end of some marginal calls? Sure, OK, though the offensive foul at the end of Game 1 seemed like a fine call to me. But that happens to everyone. Third, if the Knicks wanted to appeal marginal calls, how many could they come up with? Not 78 maybe, but probably 50. Fourth, even if the refs did want big market teams to win, what difference does it make when Boston is going to win over either of these teams in 5?
I am getting sick of the whining. Here’s one solution. Anytime a player calls for a replay after getting called for something, he gets a technical foul for delay of game. It’s happening after every call and it’s just ridiculous.
Refereeing is really hard! I am sympathetic to small market teams getting screwed. I am a Blazers fan with strong memories of the 2000 Western Conference Finals for God’s sake. But that’s not what’s happening here. Shut up and win. Or at the very least, just shut up.