PostScript Sports

Game 7 Thoughts

As the season concluded with an unsatisfactory Game 7 injury to Haliburton, the rightful team won. The Thunder from pre-season to hoisting the Larry O’Brien looked like and played like the best team in the league. A young team led by the league’s MVP, was challenged mightily in the playoffs but fought and scrapped through to lead the Thunder to their first title (Seattle keeps it’s history in my books but I may be more than a little biased).

I lead with the Thunder’s victory and not with the Pacers loss and playoff run, but this is one of those teams that we will not forget, even though they didn’t win the Larry O’Brien. This is not the 2000’s Pacers that gets lost behind the Lakers three-peat. This team started off insanely slow after a surprising Eastern Conference Finals run last year and then almost at an instance in March turned into one of the league’s best. They came from behind and won games no team had any business winning and pushed a Thunder team to the brink. The Game 4 loss felt like the end of this run and it proved to be true. With the injury to Haliburton and now departure of Myles Turner it’s likely the Pacers are more of a team trying to get into the play-in at best and it might be a team that may even tank for the opportunity to select high in a draft with a few very talented prospects.

As The Finals has concluded and the always busy NBA off season has kicked off we’ll talk about the real league changing moves, talk winners and losers and try to make sense of what has been a whacky few weeks.

Kevin Durant to The Rockets

The second large move of the NBA off-season after the Desmond Bane trade was the move of Kevin Durant that seemed almost guaranteed since about mid-April when it was clear the Suns were not a competitive team.

The question was more of where Kevin Durant would land and how much would the cost be? The Suns gave up a treasure chest of picks along with Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson to acquire the future Hall of Famer. But now a few seasons have passed, Kevin Durant is a member of the 2007 draft class and the Suns had failed to do anything of meaning these previous two seasons.

The Rockets felt like one of three teams that had a chance and made any sense for Durant. The other two being the Spurs and Timberwolves. For a moment it seemed he was San Antonio bound but the Rockets were able to acquire Durant for what in my opinion is a great deal. The Rockets get Durant for Jalen Green, Dillion Brooks, the #10 pick (used on Duke center Khaman Maluach) along with 5 second round picks.

Jalen Green coming off a dismal postseason seems to be at a crossroads. There have been flashes of scoring prowess and athleticism that rivals just about anyone in the league but he seems to consistently fall flat and there are real questions if he is anything more than a spark plug scorer or an eventual “good stats bad team” kind of player. Brooks is a fine role player and I do like the potential Phoenix gets with drafting Kaman but the Rockets have a roster that could rival any teams next year and have the depth along the wing to keep the aging Durant healthy for a possible deep playoff run.

This seems like a huge win for the Rockets and a real: where does Phoenix even go from here moment in time?

The Bucks Did What?

In what feels like a surprise to everyone including the player(s) involved, the Bucks have waived Damian Lillard and are stretching his contract out over multiple years to free new cap space and sign Myles Turner.

Lillard, going into his age 35 season, was owed $112,000,000 over the next two seasons, one of which he would not be able to play in after sustaining a torn achilles in the playoffs. The Bucks decided it was time to move on and from reports to the frustration of star Giannis Antetokounmpo.

I know good teammates will always have the support of their teammates and as much of a surprise of this move is. I don’t hate it for Milwaukee and with that move being the catalyst to obtain Myles Turner it seems like the right play. The Bucks sit in an Eastern Conference with no clear front runner. Much like the Magic’s decision to bring in Desmond Bane, Milwaukee has to be sitting in these meeting rooms looking around the East saying we have the best player in the conference and we only get him for so long. If there was a time to make a short term play the season to do it is this upcoming season.

For Lillard he now has the ability to sign with a competitive team and when healthy hopefully get one last run to win a championship. What he’ll look like at 36 off an achilles tear will have to be seen.

The Draft!

After #1 and #2 went as expected, the draft provided a few surprises and a few interesting story lines for next season to keep an eye on.

I felt like the most notable thing of this draft was move from New Orleans to trade up and in doing so gave up their first round pick for next season with no protection. They ended up acquiring Derik Queen out of Maryland who coming out of high school was one of the top-prospects and had a relatively strong freshman season but with obvious questions about his game that brought him down to the back end of the lottery.

The reason this move stands out is the Pelicans not protecting the first round pick for next season. This is not a team in the East that has a realtively high floor, this is a team that again has to deal with the Western Conference and finished with the fourth worst record in the league last year. It’s no secret when Zion Williamson is healthy the Pelicans are a competitive team but it’s also no secret he’s played over 65 games only 1 time in his career and has missed a full season of action. This move just has so much risk for a player in Queen that is likely never to be an All-NBA caliber guy.

A few extra quick hitters and questions from the draft would also include:

Can someone get Ace Bailey a real agent? Bailey falls to the Jazz at 5 (where he clearly did not want to go) after refusing to work out for team and maybe arrogantly pushing teams away created a stigma around himself. Bailey has as high of an upside as anyone in the draft but his first appearance in the league does have to make you think.

Flagg to the Mavericks still feels so wrong. The Mavericks even with the absence of Kyrie might be able to scrap and be a viable team in the West. With Anthony Davis now accompanied by the ultra-competitive Flagg. The Luka trade still looms over this team and front office, it still feels fishy but for Maverick fans who lost their star I’m at least happy they were given some hope.

Harper and Edgecombe go #2 and #3. Both of these guys seem like they’re going to turn into great players. The NBA family ties of Harper and the drive and want you can tell Edgecombe has makes me feel these guys will both make the most of their clearly high potential. The questions with these guys is fit and I’m excited and curious to see how Harper can play alongside Fox and where Edgecombe fits in besides Maxey and McCain in Philly.

The offseason of the NBA almost seems like their largest news cycle and it sure seems like there a few more very large moves coming the leagues way.