With just a few days left in the season, naturally, there’s been a lot of discussion recently of who should win all of the various post-season awards. Our Eric Walden has a great look at those races, for example, but all around the country, various papers, websites, blogs, front offices, coaches, and even the players are themselves having similar arguments.
But when you allow yourself to step back and think about the totality of what we’re seeing; well, it’s pretty remarkable.
Think about it: for MVP, we have two exceptional leading candidates. One — James Harden — is scoring like the absolute prime of Michael Jordan while also adding 7.5 assists per game. The other — Giannis Antetokounmpo — has the numbers and the dunking abilities of prime Shaq while also being a legitimate candidate to win the Defensive Player of the Year trophy while playing for the league’s best team.
Consider the other top players, too. You have Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, both of who play like evolutionary Scottie Pippen, but with even more scoring ability. Nikola Jokic plays with the scoring and passing grace of prime Bill Walton. Steph Curry has no legendary analog — but only because he’s the best shooter of all time, such that no one gets close. Damian Lillard might be 90% of Steph, Kemba Walker and Bradley Beal might be 85%.
Who do you compare Kevin Durant to? Maybe a stretched out Larry Bird with more Twitter accounts? We haven’t mentioned LeBron James — widely considered top-5 all time and put up 27 points, eight rebounds, eight assists per game this year — or Anthony Davis — 26 points, 12 rebounds, and a couple of blocks and steals per game due to their team’s bad seasons, much of which were out of their control. Russell Westbrook plays with Sonic The Hedgehog levels of speed and force, more energy than anyone I’ve ever seen. Karl-Anthony Towns would be wildly eye-opening for anyone 20 years ago, and how would you explain Rudy Gobert? Like Mark Eaton but actually good offensively?
And the style of play is fascinating, too, with some really beautiful and contrasting offenses and defenses. The Warriors have the Splash Brothers and a whirling system of cuts and ping-pong passing, the Bucks have Splash Mountain and the ability to attack inside at any time. The Nuggets play out of the post thanks to Jokic as everyone moves around him. The Jazz stifle teams with smothering defense, the Blazers get their best players open from outside, while the Raptors go inside, out, and back in again. The Rockets are the lone exception, boring in their isolations, but even that forces some pretty unique defensive approaches that are at least approach interestingness for nerds like me.
It’s also never been easier to watch the NBA. Remember when many games weren’t even televised, even on local channels? Now, you can subscribe to League Pass and watch every single NBA game at any time. You can watch any individual play on the NBA’s website, just look it up. Want to watch every Donovan Mitchell layup? It’s all just a search away. The league’s stat-keeping is at a whole new level, as is its reporting: rather than waiting to tune in for the weekly Peter Vecsey report on NBC, we have literally hundreds of reputable sources reporting on the thoughts of the league every day on Twitter.
Maybe it’s all of the different ways that the league can be viewed that has diluted TV ratings. The most-viewed NBA Finals ever is still the 1998 showdown between Jordan with the Bulls and John Stockton and Karl Malone with the Jazz. But the TV ratings for nearly everything have fallen in the last few years, and the 20 million that tuned in for the NBA Finals between the Warriors and Cavs is still pretty impressive.
The one caveat to the modern Golden Age is this: we’re pretty sure the Warriors are going to win every year. I think that will change after this offseason, as it seems that Kevin Durant is poised to sign elsewhere. But for the time being, if you’ll allow me to read from the decorative throw pillow section at Etsy for a moment, life is about the journey, not the destination. Or this one: life isn’t about where we end up, but who we spend it with.
So as we head into the 2019 NBA playoffs, let’s take a moment to enjoy the landscape. It’s one of the best we’ve ever seen.
from The Salt Lake Tribune http://bit.ly/2YRfz0x
Post a Comment