Only two more weeks stand between the NBA fans and the playoffs. The days of hearing about minute restrictions and load management are slowly coming to an end. As enjoyable as the NBA playoffs are to watch, they can always be improved. No, I’m not about to make some case for doing away with conferences in regard to seeding or making the first round best of five. If you follow the NBA, you’ve heard all the points in support and against with those two debates by now. Instead, I want talk about four scenarios that would make this postseason more entertaining to watch.
LeBron & Anthony Davis in the playoffs
Whether or not you like Anthony Davis after how he handled his trade request or like LeBron James after…..well there’s a pretty long list of reasons as to why somebody might dislike him (The Decision, leaving Cleveland twice, leaving Miami, passive aggressive tweets, getting coaches fired, trying to trade his teammates, his horrible career as an NBA general manager, and more), they’re still two of the top 10 players in the league. I don’t think it’s outrageous to say having two of the top 10 players absent from the playoffs hurts from an entertainment standpoint. The Lakers were rejected worse than Jorah the Andal and Professor Snape combined when they tried to get Anthony Davis from New Orleans before the trade deadline. They could still get Anthony Davis this summer, but those chances seem pretty low with Ingram having a blood clot injury, the Celtics now able to make an offer (Who else is tired of explaining the Rose Rule?), and a team being able to offer the number one overall pick.
Very few outside of their fans want the Lakers to get Anthony Davis, but they’d be a better and more entertaining team with the Brow. LeBron and Davis on the NBA’s glamor franchise together is must watch television. Besides Dwyane Wade, Anthony Davis would be the best player LeBron’s ever had as a teammate. They probably would have made the playoffs this season depending on the players they would have had to give up in the Davis trade. The Lakers could have been the fresh face the Western Conference Playoffs desperately needs after the Warriors have been embarrassing teams in it for the last several years. LeBron and Davis in Hollywood could happen next year, but why should we as basketball fans have to wait for the entertaining postseason we deserve?!?!?!!?
Nets vs Celtics Series
There’s not much to say that hasn’t already been said about the disappointing 2019 Boston Celtics. They’ve significantly underachieved given their talent and have gone through more ups and downs than the Tower of Terror. Back when the future seemed more optimistic for the Celtics they had three unprotected first round draft picks from Brooklyn as part of their return from the Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce trade. They used these picks on Jaylen Brown (playing better recently), Jayson Tatum (regressed from his rookie year), and the third one was used in the package for Kyrie Irving (likely to leave this summer).
This season it’s all gone south for Boston while things seem to be trending upwards for Brooklyn. They have an All-Star in D’Angelo Russell, talented young players like Caris LeVert and Spencer Dinwiddie, and cap space flexibility. The future is looking bright for the Nets. The Nets somehow rebounding not long after making a disaster trade by winning a playoff series against the very team they made the trade with would be one of the crazier playoff upsets in a league that doesn’t have many. It would also be an incredibly happy moment for non-Boston sports fans who are simply tired of the city’s constant success in professional sports.
The good news for the Celtics is they’re pretty much locked in to a playoff matchup with the Indiana Pacers. Instead of potentially getting upset by the team they fleeced on draft night in 2013, they could get upset by the team that lost its best player to a season ending injury. I’m honestly not sure which option is worse. It’s a rough time to be a Celtics fan right now.
Have star rookies in the playoffs
Last year rookies were looking like future All-Stars in big playoff games. Jayson Tatum was the leading scorer on a Celtics team that was a couple minutes away from the NBA Finals, Donovan Mitchell led the Jazz to the second round of the playoffs, and Ben Simmons (who wasn’t really a rookie) had a great first round against Miami before falling apart to Boston in round two. This is very different compared to the current playoff outlook. The best rookie that we’ll be seeing in the playoffs this season is probably Landry Shamet.
The 2018 NBA Draft could be the first draft in which every team who picked in the top five is satisfied with their selection (2003 being the closest if it wasn’t for Darko). Unfortunately, for us viewers, we won’t be seeing any of these players in the playoffs. Watching Luka Doncic or Trae Young in the postseason would be much more exciting than the Orlando Magic or San Antonio Spurs. Who wouldn’t love seeing Doncic outplay veterans or Trae Young catch fire and make seven threes in a playoff game? We’ll likely see these two in the playoffs next year when Dallas gets Kristaps Porzingis back and Atlanta gets another (possibly two because of the trade with Dallas) lottery pick. I wouldn’t equate having to wait a year to watch these two in the playoffs to having to wait for Avengers: Endgame. It’s more equivalent to waiting a year for a good/entertaining comedy series like Barry to return for a new season. Doncic and Young won’t be playing in the playoffs until 2020, but Barry will be back this Sunday. Always take the bad with the good I guess.
The Warriors playing against the Rockets and Thunder
It would be great if the Warriors didn’t win the title. That would make all the commentary about the NBA being too predictable look overblown. However, the chances of them not winning it all are very low. That being said, I hope the playoff seeding ends up so the Warriors would have to face the Rockets and Thunder on their way towards a three-peat. Those two would be the top playoff opponents the Warriors could play in the West from an entertainment and competitiveness perspective.
I don’t need to see the Warriors dismantle the Spurs, Trail Blazers, or Jazz again in the playoffs. Some of those teams have major roster changes since the Warriors last beat them in the postseason. The Spurs replaced an injured Kawhi Leonard with DeMar DeRozan, and Utah has Donovan Mitchell instead of Gordon Hayward as their primary scorer. All of that is nice, but if we’re being honest, the Warriors would still demolish them. The Clippers are a fun team with a bunch of good players but they don’t have a single All-Star which poses a problem when you’re going up against a team that has five players on its roster that have made the All-Star team within the last two seasons. Denver has exceeded expectations this season. They have a bonafide star in Nikola Jokic but still don’t have enough talent or playoff experience that would make them a real threat to the Warriors.
Houston pushed Golden State to the brink last year in the Western Conference Finals. If it wasn’t for Chris Paul’s injury at the end of game 5 or the twenty-seven straight missed threes by Houston in game 7, LeBron could still be playing for Cleveland after winning his fourth championship and popular proclamations like “Kevin Durant ruined the NBA” and “James Harden is a playoff choker” could have become extinct. The Rockets are the only team that came close to beating the Warriors in a playoff series since Kevin Durant arrived in Oakland. Hopefully, they get another crack at the two-time defending champions this season.
Golden State vs Oklahoma City would also make the playoffs more entertaining. Kevin Durant facing off against his former team could have some sort of mental/emotional impact that can negatively affect his performance to make this series interesting. Playing against his former team could also mean nothing at all and just be an overblown narrative for sports talk radio. The main reason to want this matchup is obviously for Westbrook vs Durant. As good as Steph Curry and Paul George have been this season, watching two former teammates who at one point seemed inseparable (watch Durant’s MVP speech) go head to head is one example of why we dedicate countless hours watching games, following the league, and reading columns that have gone on way too long like this one. It does seem like the bad blood between these two is mostly over, but even though that’s the case I’m still signing up to watch them go head to head in the playoffs.