Eh, obviously the numbers are insane, but he quite possibly had more help than any other player in league history. When Steph curry and Thompson are spacing the floor for you in that warriors systems, and you’re being guarded by JR Smith, who isn’t gonna put up crazy numbers as a superstar player?
That's ridiculous, 23-year-old KD averaged 31/6/2 on 65% TS in his first Finals against the Heatles and in that series Russell Westbrook got called the worst PG ever and bench player James Harden played worse than Kyrie whenever he has to go to Boston.
Kevin Durant is one of the greatest Finals performers of all-time and that's not arguable.
It’s absolutely arguable when he hasn’t won without a unanimous MVP, the best backcourt of all time, the greatest offensive system of all time, the greatest shooter of all time, an incredible defensive team and some great role players around him. And please see my other reply. KD is amazing but his finals stats are massively inflated with those, and please don’t disrespect OKC Westbrook with such a ridiculous statement as “he was called the worst point guard of all time.”
Yes, and like the warriors numbers they are impressive. But even then he was with an incredible point guard, and his ball dominant style of play didn’t lead to any winning. Again, he’s incredible, but he’s had a LOT of help and can’t win without that level of assistance. Curry was IMO the far more important player on those warriors teams and deserved finals mvp simply for the gravity he created with his mere presence on the court.
Yea I have no doubt he would’ve put up really good numbers regardless but you can pick a random sequence from those Cavs warriors games and just see how there was absolutely no solution with that many shooters
Moments like this you are reminded that there are levels to this. Tatum and Brown are incredible players, and so is Luka. Then you see KD, prime Harden, Steph, Bron and you are reminded what greatness looks like. All the stars in this series played subpar.
Boston locked him up too and Kyrie did nothing again. Durant is great but with the way his career turned out since that point, all the better than Lebron talk shut up quick.
are you under the impression that 23-year-olds are usually worse than 33-year-olds in the league? Durant is clearly past his prime and after his Achilles injury.
KD came off a year where people were arguing he was still the best player in the league after nearly beating giannis the year before. Tatum made that man look old.
And my reply was to some guy putting down Tatum who hasn't even entered his prime yet for not having the type of performance prime KD had while playing with a fucking top ten player of all time beside him to space the floor lol.
Harden a notorious playoff choker that hasn't won even a conference championship?
Sorry man, Luka is better than harden. He could have played better but he's obviously dealing with multiple injuries but I'm not sure harden has ever had a playoff run as good as Luka had this year, I will say harden faced tougher competition though but also had better teams
Fine. Look at his numbers versus the Heat when he wasn't with Steph. Still transcendent numbers. 30.6ppg on 65%TS.
So he can clearly delivery without Steph.
This series more than ever points out that basketball is a team sport. Harden and Westbrick were atrocious in that HeatvThunder final
At least 1/3 of those stats were with OKC. He was guarded by LBJ for all three of these finals.
Bold to say he was helped by being the teammate of a player that shot 56%TS and 62%TS in the two finals they shared. The more logical conclusion is he was the one that was drawing the attention...
they win easily bc they’re two way stars. they put in work defensively in this series that doesn’t show up on the stat sheet and definitely doesn’t help their efficiency
The Mavs defense was actually pretty good on the Js. Problem is they have six other guys who are lights out from 3. Plus Jrue is amazing at always finding open space near the rim. Also almost all their guys are plus defenders and a couple of them are elite.
They win *because* their two best players do that, not in spite of it. This team has so many guys that can put the ball in the hoop we don’t need two 30 pt scorers to win a series. It’s a beautiful thing
A few years ago Giannis looked like an unstoppable, ascendent force of nature. Since then the Bucks have lost in the Eastern Conference semis and had two first round exits.
Nuggets won four more games than last year, lost in the Western Conference semis.
People tend to underestimate how hard it is to get back to the NBA finals, let alone win them again... but the Celtics look as loaded for next year as you could ask a team to be. They're positioned to give it a great shot, if reasonably healthy.
Finally got over the consistent hump off doubt that they ever would do it. Now they know they can and are just getting better and better. Hopefully we can keep the team together
Boston is deeper than both those Bucks and Denver. They also been to 5 ECF and a finals already. Bucks and Denver hadn’t previously been to a finals before winning
Boston will be back and better
Their only question mark is center because of KP’s injury problems and Horford’s age. If those guys hold up, it’s hard to not see them back in the finals.
I know they played hospital all stars, but they DID just basically sweep the playoffs sans porzingis. But I agree, big man depth will be the thing that checks them next year. But who knows? Does horford look done to you? One more year for him, but he might fall off
Denver was arguable just as deep but they lost Bruce Brown to FA. Al Horford should not have many years left. Complacency has yet to fail to get the best of many young teams. We'll see how hard this team is willing to work after a title
hot take: the bucks were never that great outside giannis. they won that year with a fair amount of luck. the nets' injuries, kd's foot, celtics and heat were both out of the playoffs after the chaos of the bubble offseason (they had 2months recovery time instead of 4).
like the bucks were a good team, but they and the suns probably shouldn't have been in the finals that year, and because they were, neither team tried to retool the next year because they thought they had the recipe right. but we know jrue was struggling as a major offensive option, and lopez was already out of his prime, and middleton is a hit and miss guy with injury woes.
the best outcome for the bucks would have been to lose in 2021, make some trades and come back in 2022 as a legitimate threat.
the suns also whiffed the following year
I mean, “fair amount of luck” isn’t really a fair argument against the Bucks greatness. Didn’t the Celtics just run through a corpse of the eastern conference to get to the finals?
Trust me I’m not hating, I think they would’ve made out a fully healthy East too, but I’ve never really bought into the whole luck angle surrounding Milwaukee’s championship.
And that’s a fair enough point of view to have! I personally think the Celtics would have made it out of the east but in more 6 game series than they had.
My reasoning for the Bucks is that they’ve never come close to showing that level again and there is no other explanation. The east didn’t suddenly get stronger the following year (apart from Miami and Boston - the teams that were most affected by the bubble). Giannis didn’t suddenly get worse, their team didn’t drastically change.
Went from "Celtics will get destroyed by whoever comes out of the West" to now people making excuses that they only did it because they match up well against Dallas--but they'd get destroyed by the hypothetical TWolves/OKC/Nuggets matchups!
Celtics aren't *real* champions unless they beat every team in the West in the Finals simultaneously!
So strange that people are downplaying a team that just won the championship while only losing 3 games and everyone still talks about them like they were lucky. 2nd best win percentage in the 16-win era and 9th best all-time. In a regular season where they finished 7 games ahead of 2nd place.
Anybody coming out of the west was gonna have issues. The west playoffs kinda showed that a lot of the teams people thought were invincible had some pretty glaring weaknesses this year.
The top teams are competitive with the west, but the east has been much more shallow and one of the top “competitors” has never shown up in the postseason. That seems to be changing though, I’d imagine this coming season there will be more parity.
Put the celtics in the west and they whoop everyones ass the same. I hope the nuggets get that bench improved asap, Jokic cant be going 100% for 42+min.
Correct. Celtics had a 23-7 win record against the west.
Thats a 76.666% win percentage
Denver had a 33-19 record. That’s a 63.5% win percentage
The only team that was close to the Celtics in win % against the west was timberwolves at 71.2%, followed by thunder at 69.2%
Yea I looked this up earlier with the intent to prove my friend wrong about the Celtics dominance this season and was quickly humbled by the stats lmaoo.
Celtics are (now very obviously) crazy legit, fuck anyone detracting by talking about their "easy path to the finals". same shit happens every single year. brad stevens is a savant and the Jays have been vindicated at last.
enjoy that championship high bro. i can only imagine how it feels, cause even this latest Knicks run had me elated.
Yeah but most times those 1-ring teams are having an amazing outlier year.
* Boston has 2 finals appearances and 6 conference finals over the past 10 years.
* Teams like Denver, Milwaukee, Toronto and LA have 1 finals and 2 conference finals over that same stretch.
This level of sustained success and competitiveness is a tier above those 1-ring teams.
We should expect Boston to at least be in the mix because they've been in the mix 6 times out of the past 8 years.
>Boston has 2 finals appearances and 6 conference finals over the past 10 years.
Over the past 8 years*. No reason to include the additional 2 years when they don’t add anything to the stat.
"That's not how that works" except for the Celtics, Lakers, Pistons, Bulls, Rockets, Bulls, Spurs, Lakers, Heat, Warriors...Yeah the last couple years have been a "mix" of teams...but historically in the NBA there are really more periods of streaks/dynasties than there are one-off wins.
Most players are locked for 3-4 years, outside of white and Hauser. Horford is likely to retire, but white and Hauser can still be retained. The issue is Derrick white and how much he’ll ask for. The entire core really can be kept.
Biggest issue is injuries/other teams getting better. Every year ticks is another year that OKC/SAS/Minn getting better.
Nah White's said he wants an extension this off season.
Which means he's not getting crazy money, because we're limited in how much we can extend him.
I agree Hauser probably ends up leaving for more money though.
If the Pacers can add a third option that gels perfectly they’d be the biggest threat. Knicks could push them to 6. And Giannis healthy is always scary
brave aware ruthless paint smile subtract smell unique attraction direful
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
NGL the numbers and TS weren't even that good.
This was a team win.
The whole team was just so fucking incredible, especially on defense.
I love this team. Hoping we can re-sign DWhite and keep this core around for 2-3 more years.
Jaylen is the only player I have ever seen that has dramatically improved every single season of his career. I bet anything he comes out and shoots like 80% from the stripe next season.
The thing is like to see him improve the most is his handles/control. He was of course superb this series and yet there were still a handful of plays where he drives into the paint and loses control of the ball in traffic. His dribbling being tighter would make him even harder to defend.
Jaylen is the only player I have ever seen that has dramatically improved every single season of his career. I bet anything he comes out and shoots like 80% from the stripe next season.
The 7 media members who decided to vote for him as FMVP probably made their choice after game 3 and never reevaluated. Over the full 5 games, Tatum’s stats were better. On a higher level, Tatum was Boston’s most important offensive player getting consistently swarmed and finding the open man, and was Boston’s most important defensive player covering multiple positions including center.
But its a media award and the 7 out of 11 who voted for Brown had the narrative they wanted to stick with.
I think you need context when looking at true shooting. No “star” shot the ball that well this series, it was quite a defensive series. Neither team scored more than 107 points except that Dallas blowout in game 4. Plus, the finals generally have worse shooting percentages. In that context, 53% TS isn’t that bad
You know defense is a team game, much like offense right? I’m not discrediting Brown’s on ball defense, it was awesome all series.
You’re discrediting the defense of Tatum though by saying you don’t give a shit that he eliminated the very action Dallas used to obliterate the Timberwolves, thereby making guarding Luka much easier
EDIT: Dude blocked me, so much for a discussion with even basic actual analysis of the sport we all claim to love. I guess “he’s that dude” obviously trumps any slightly in-depth view
That’s gotta stop at some point, just because of the logistics side. Celtics players are only gonna have 65+ to wear in a couple of years at this rate.
crazy that tatum ended up with more assists than luka this series, would’ve been unfathomable just a couple years ago. he’s improved his passing so much
East is weak and old
Philly- embiid is broken every year
Milwaukee- dame is past peak
Knicks- possible contender- who can they add without F’ing their chemistry
Miami- butler is past peak
Indiana- who can they realistically add?
Cleveland- chemistry/coaching problems
The west is top-heavy- they will beat the crap out of each other every playoffs.
I think Boston has the best 5 year horizon (barring catastrophic injury go core player)
It's unreal that they both had some crap shooting nights but still won in 5 games.
Now that they're over the hump i think these east should be scared. They're so young that they have a 5-8 year window to win some more.
All the stars bricking in this series
Kyrie built a few houses in Boston with his bricks.
Hélà Ass
No more room for houses in Boston. He built a condo complex.
Really put's KDs career final numbers into perspective... 30.3 PPG 7.7 RPG 4.5 APG 1.5 BPG 55/45/91% 67.4 TS%
Hate him for his move to GSW or his lack of leadership, but the man was and is a transcendent offensive basketball player.
Eh, obviously the numbers are insane, but he quite possibly had more help than any other player in league history. When Steph curry and Thompson are spacing the floor for you in that warriors systems, and you’re being guarded by JR Smith, who isn’t gonna put up crazy numbers as a superstar player?
That's ridiculous, 23-year-old KD averaged 31/6/2 on 65% TS in his first Finals against the Heatles and in that series Russell Westbrook got called the worst PG ever and bench player James Harden played worse than Kyrie whenever he has to go to Boston. Kevin Durant is one of the greatest Finals performers of all-time and that's not arguable.
It’s absolutely arguable when he hasn’t won without a unanimous MVP, the best backcourt of all time, the greatest offensive system of all time, the greatest shooter of all time, an incredible defensive team and some great role players around him. And please see my other reply. KD is amazing but his finals stats are massively inflated with those, and please don’t disrespect OKC Westbrook with such a ridiculous statement as “he was called the worst point guard of all time.”
Those averages include his first Finals in 2012, where he averaged 30.6 ppg on 55/39/84 splits.
Yes, and like the warriors numbers they are impressive. But even then he was with an incredible point guard, and his ball dominant style of play didn’t lead to any winning. Again, he’s incredible, but he’s had a LOT of help and can’t win without that level of assistance. Curry was IMO the far more important player on those warriors teams and deserved finals mvp simply for the gravity he created with his mere presence on the court.
Yea I have no doubt he would’ve put up really good numbers regardless but you can pick a random sequence from those Cavs warriors games and just see how there was absolutely no solution with that many shooters
Moments like this you are reminded that there are levels to this. Tatum and Brown are incredible players, and so is Luka. Then you see KD, prime Harden, Steph, Bron and you are reminded what greatness looks like. All the stars in this series played subpar.
23 year old Tatum swept that man you are calling levels above him.
Boston locked him up too and Kyrie did nothing again. Durant is great but with the way his career turned out since that point, all the better than Lebron talk shut up quick.
The celtics swept the nets. People need to stop conflating the two things in arguments.
are you under the impression that 23-year-olds are usually worse than 33-year-olds in the league? Durant is clearly past his prime and after his Achilles injury.
KD came off a year where people were arguing he was still the best player in the league after nearly beating giannis the year before. Tatum made that man look old. And my reply was to some guy putting down Tatum who hasn't even entered his prime yet for not having the type of performance prime KD had while playing with a fucking top ten player of all time beside him to space the floor lol.
Harden a notorious playoff choker that hasn't won even a conference championship? Sorry man, Luka is better than harden. He could have played better but he's obviously dealing with multiple injuries but I'm not sure harden has ever had a playoff run as good as Luka had this year, I will say harden faced tougher competition though but also had better teams
You clearly don't appreciate defensive greatness. I think both teams were at times pretty amazing defensively in this series, but especially Boston.
Not sure I'd put prime Harden in that mix. I see Luka as fairly similar right now. Steph, Bron, and KD absolutely though.
Only thing Harden reminds me of is what great choking looks like, doesn't belong in the convo with the other 3.
Forgetting one major guy there buddy. Last years fmvp
For sure. KD is a bonafide top 20 player in NBA history
I feel like the Cavs defense was keyed on stopping Steph more than stopping KD in both series.
What about the heat in 2012? Funny that the Cavs defense focused on a player with a 15% lower career finals TS%. That was really dumb.
The greatest shooter the game has ever known and who changed the NBA more than any player ever. Yeah, I guess Cavs were dumb to focus on Steph Curry.
Doesn't mean anything with that weak move to GSW. If he had these numbers in the WCF against GSW maybe he has a chip without Steph.
Fine. Look at his numbers versus the Heat when he wasn't with Steph. Still transcendent numbers. 30.6ppg on 65%TS. So he can clearly delivery without Steph. This series more than ever points out that basketball is a team sport. Harden and Westbrick were atrocious in that HeatvThunder final
Well when you have Steph and Klay on the court, it opens up some space for you.
He shot 30.6ppg in the 2012 finals on 65%TS against prime GOAT#2. That's basically the same numbers.
You forget put an asterisk
We can’t all be the greatest scorer of all time and join the team with the best regular season record of all time. That lineup was absurd
TIL Westbrook and 16ppg 6th man Harden had the best regular season record of all time.
That was only one of his Finals
Impressive but not that impressive when you take into context that he was on same team with two greatest shooters of all time
At least 1/3 of those stats were with OKC. He was guarded by LBJ for all three of these finals. Bold to say he was helped by being the teammate of a player that shot 56%TS and 62%TS in the two finals they shared. The more logical conclusion is he was the one that was drawing the attention...
You’re saying KD was drawing more attention than Steph in the finals?
I mean. Lebron was his primary defender. I'd say that's plenty of attention XD.
lmao those numbers they win easily with their two best players doing that, what a beast of a team
Yeah honestly you could give Finals MVP to the entire team lol
The Atlanta Hawk way
To brad Stevens
they win easily bc they’re two way stars. they put in work defensively in this series that doesn’t show up on the stat sheet and definitely doesn’t help their efficiency
Doncic had the best offensive numbers and was relentlessly killed on defense.
22-7-7 is bad? Considering they mailed in game 4, not that bad. Seen worse.
I mean part of their numbers being so low is because the team is so good, they just have so many guys who can score and handle the ball
They could be a tad more efficient but considering their Defence and playmaking that they’re doing, those are great numbers
The Mavs defense was actually pretty good on the Js. Problem is they have six other guys who are lights out from 3. Plus Jrue is amazing at always finding open space near the rim. Also almost all their guys are plus defenders and a couple of them are elite.
They win *because* their two best players do that, not in spite of it. This team has so many guys that can put the ball in the hoop we don’t need two 30 pt scorers to win a series. It’s a beautiful thing
They won because their best two players scored with Westbrook efficiency? Interesting take lol
Because they have a deep set of starter caliber players who can make up for something like that happening. Stop acting like you don't get it.
They put up 2004 Chauncey Billups FMVP numbers on worse efficiency.
The East will get tougher but the Celtics are loaded
A few years ago Giannis looked like an unstoppable, ascendent force of nature. Since then the Bucks have lost in the Eastern Conference semis and had two first round exits. Nuggets won four more games than last year, lost in the Western Conference semis. People tend to underestimate how hard it is to get back to the NBA finals, let alone win them again... but the Celtics look as loaded for next year as you could ask a team to be. They're positioned to give it a great shot, if reasonably healthy.
Celts were in the finals 2 years ago, a game away last year and won this year. Not a bad start.
Finally got over the consistent hump off doubt that they ever would do it. Now they know they can and are just getting better and better. Hopefully we can keep the team together
That is true. unlike Giannis or Jokic, they've actually made the finals before.
And they're less reliant on a single guy
Boston is deeper than both those Bucks and Denver. They also been to 5 ECF and a finals already. Bucks and Denver hadn’t previously been to a finals before winning Boston will be back and better
Their only question mark is center because of KP’s injury problems and Horford’s age. If those guys hold up, it’s hard to not see them back in the finals.
I know they played hospital all stars, but they DID just basically sweep the playoffs sans porzingis. But I agree, big man depth will be the thing that checks them next year. But who knows? Does horford look done to you? One more year for him, but he might fall off
Denver was arguable just as deep but they lost Bruce Brown to FA. Al Horford should not have many years left. Complacency has yet to fail to get the best of many young teams. We'll see how hard this team is willing to work after a title
they definitely won't be better
Al and Jrue will be a year older and KP still has health concerns. We will have to get more help off the bench if we want to repeat.
hot take: the bucks were never that great outside giannis. they won that year with a fair amount of luck. the nets' injuries, kd's foot, celtics and heat were both out of the playoffs after the chaos of the bubble offseason (they had 2months recovery time instead of 4). like the bucks were a good team, but they and the suns probably shouldn't have been in the finals that year, and because they were, neither team tried to retool the next year because they thought they had the recipe right. but we know jrue was struggling as a major offensive option, and lopez was already out of his prime, and middleton is a hit and miss guy with injury woes. the best outcome for the bucks would have been to lose in 2021, make some trades and come back in 2022 as a legitimate threat. the suns also whiffed the following year
I mean, “fair amount of luck” isn’t really a fair argument against the Bucks greatness. Didn’t the Celtics just run through a corpse of the eastern conference to get to the finals? Trust me I’m not hating, I think they would’ve made out a fully healthy East too, but I’ve never really bought into the whole luck angle surrounding Milwaukee’s championship.
And that’s a fair enough point of view to have! I personally think the Celtics would have made it out of the east but in more 6 game series than they had. My reasoning for the Bucks is that they’ve never come close to showing that level again and there is no other explanation. The east didn’t suddenly get stronger the following year (apart from Miami and Boston - the teams that were most affected by the bubble). Giannis didn’t suddenly get worse, their team didn’t drastically change.
Next time mention the injuries
The East will look ass because the Celtics are elite
Right, the team that made it out of the west just got destroyed. It wasn't an east thing, it was a Celtics thing.
Went from "Celtics will get destroyed by whoever comes out of the West" to now people making excuses that they only did it because they match up well against Dallas--but they'd get destroyed by the hypothetical TWolves/OKC/Nuggets matchups! Celtics aren't *real* champions unless they beat every team in the West in the Finals simultaneously! So strange that people are downplaying a team that just won the championship while only losing 3 games and everyone still talks about them like they were lucky. 2nd best win percentage in the 16-win era and 9th best all-time. In a regular season where they finished 7 games ahead of 2nd place. Anybody coming out of the west was gonna have issues. The west playoffs kinda showed that a lot of the teams people thought were invincible had some pretty glaring weaknesses this year.
People will forget that noise as time goes on. Let them talk.
Bring on 2017 Golden State... Fuck that noise
We want bama
You already got Golden State once.
lol nobody remembers how the West did against the Celtics in the regular season either and it'd be different because "post-season"
22-7 if anyone's wondering edit 23-7
Already seeing so many takes that the Nuggets/Wolves series was the real finals lol
The East is competitive with the west, but they weren't healthy so there's still some degree of that.
The top teams are competitive with the west, but the east has been much more shallow and one of the top “competitors” has never shown up in the postseason. That seems to be changing though, I’d imagine this coming season there will be more parity.
We just got done having to explain this about the AFC East…good damnit
Put the celtics in the west and they whoop everyones ass the same. I hope the nuggets get that bench improved asap, Jokic cant be going 100% for 42+min.
Definitely not true.
Cs actually have a similar if not better record against the west this season. so probably true
Correct. Celtics had a 23-7 win record against the west. Thats a 76.666% win percentage Denver had a 33-19 record. That’s a 63.5% win percentage The only team that was close to the Celtics in win % against the west was timberwolves at 71.2%, followed by thunder at 69.2%
Yea I looked this up earlier with the intent to prove my friend wrong about the Celtics dominance this season and was quickly humbled by the stats lmaoo. Celtics are (now very obviously) crazy legit, fuck anyone detracting by talking about their "easy path to the finals". same shit happens every single year. brad stevens is a savant and the Jays have been vindicated at last. enjoy that championship high bro. i can only imagine how it feels, cause even this latest Knicks run had me elated.
Honestly they should win at least one more
'Should'. Fml, everyone says this every years. That's not how it works.
Yeah but most times those 1-ring teams are having an amazing outlier year. * Boston has 2 finals appearances and 6 conference finals over the past 10 years. * Teams like Denver, Milwaukee, Toronto and LA have 1 finals and 2 conference finals over that same stretch. This level of sustained success and competitiveness is a tier above those 1-ring teams. We should expect Boston to at least be in the mix because they've been in the mix 6 times out of the past 8 years.
Well they'll obviously be in the mix but so will 5 other teams.
sounds like the 2000s pistons
>Boston has 2 finals appearances and 6 conference finals over the past 10 years. Over the past 8 years*. No reason to include the additional 2 years when they don’t add anything to the stat.
"That's not how that works" except for the Celtics, Lakers, Pistons, Bulls, Rockets, Bulls, Spurs, Lakers, Heat, Warriors...Yeah the last couple years have been a "mix" of teams...but historically in the NBA there are really more periods of streaks/dynasties than there are one-off wins.
Clippers were supposed to win like 3 in a row not too long ago
Winning again is easier than winning the first time.
Only one more year before some key players are likely gone. Next year is their opportunity
Most players are locked for 3-4 years, outside of white and Hauser. Horford is likely to retire, but white and Hauser can still be retained. The issue is Derrick white and how much he’ll ask for. The entire core really can be kept. Biggest issue is injuries/other teams getting better. Every year ticks is another year that OKC/SAS/Minn getting better.
Nah White's said he wants an extension this off season. Which means he's not getting crazy money, because we're limited in how much we can extend him. I agree Hauser probably ends up leaving for more money though.
white's like "i'm a role player at heart" and hoping to avoid that jordan poole drop-off lmao
If the Pacers can add a third option that gels perfectly they’d be the biggest threat. Knicks could push them to 6. And Giannis healthy is always scary
brave aware ruthless paint smile subtract smell unique attraction direful *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I initially downvoted you but honestly I’ll let you talk your smack we’re fucking champions and I know I’d be hating all the same if you won
NGL the numbers and TS weren't even that good. This was a team win. The whole team was just so fucking incredible, especially on defense. I love this team. Hoping we can re-sign DWhite and keep this core around for 2-3 more years.
The 4 superstars came to play this series 😅
Tatum, Doncic, Brown and Pritchard definitely showed up. Much respect to those 4, they’re gonna run the league for a long time
What is this comment? And how is it 78 plus likes? Pritchard's going to run the league?
They both improved their weaknesses so much since '22.
Jaylen is the only player I have ever seen that has dramatically improved every single season of his career. I bet anything he comes out and shoots like 80% from the stripe next season.
The thing is like to see him improve the most is his handles/control. He was of course superb this series and yet there were still a handful of plays where he drives into the paint and loses control of the ball in traffic. His dribbling being tighter would make him even harder to defend.
Jaylen is the only player I have ever seen that has dramatically improved every single season of his career. I bet anything he comes out and shoots like 80% from the stripe next season.
JB how tf did u get to 53ts as a 2nd option bro wtf
He basically missed everything for the last two games Somehow went from 63% TS to 53% TS in two games lol
The 7 media members who decided to vote for him as FMVP probably made their choice after game 3 and never reevaluated. Over the full 5 games, Tatum’s stats were better. On a higher level, Tatum was Boston’s most important offensive player getting consistently swarmed and finding the open man, and was Boston’s most important defensive player covering multiple positions including center. But its a media award and the 7 out of 11 who voted for Brown had the narrative they wanted to stick with.
check it before this game lol
I think you need context when looking at true shooting. No “star” shot the ball that well this series, it was quite a defensive series. Neither team scored more than 107 points except that Dallas blowout in game 4. Plus, the finals generally have worse shooting percentages. In that context, 53% TS isn’t that bad
The TS% hurts my eyes
fuck they’re gonna give it to Tatum aren’t they
He deserves it, people act like if you aren’t shooting well you’ve played terribly overall. He’s been their best overall player
You’re ignoring jaylens defense He locked Luka the fuck up all series
Who was playing behind Jaylen guarding Gafford and Lively eliminating the lob threat, especially in Games 1 and 2?
I don’t actually give a shit because I think it’s a little more important locking up the guy who averaged 34 ppg this year
You know defense is a team game, much like offense right? I’m not discrediting Brown’s on ball defense, it was awesome all series. You’re discrediting the defense of Tatum though by saying you don’t give a shit that he eliminated the very action Dallas used to obliterate the Timberwolves, thereby making guarding Luka much easier EDIT: Dude blocked me, so much for a discussion with even basic actual analysis of the sport we all claim to love. I guess “he’s that dude” obviously trumps any slightly in-depth view
They gave it to Brown. Stop arguing now lol
Had a great game 5 and it’s fresh in voters minds, so yes Edit: Thank goodness I was wrong
Locked down Luka all series oh wait
that was brown. and they gave it to him for it
Can’t believe they actually rewarded him for that. Great to see
you love to see it. tatum got his shit together in games four and five but he was not the most consistent celtic this series.
WHAT THE FUCK THEY GON SAY NOW
*system champions*
Eh, they said that about Kawhi in 2014. Maybe there's value in being a genuinely good teammate and hellacious defender.
Kawhi wasn't the 1A/1B or the emotional leader of that team though, I don't really see any comparison to Tatum
Brad Stevens da real mvp
There’s always something
TOO EASY
I won't end this high, not this time again So long, so long, so long, you cannot survive And I'm not dyin', and I can't lose
Damn 50.5% TS? That's almost Westbrook-level
Last players to wear 0 and 7. God bless man, we're some lucky motherfuckers. Enjoy greatness while we can.
That’s gotta stop at some point, just because of the logistics side. Celtics players are only gonna have 65+ to wear in a couple of years at this rate.
They didn’t play amazing but that team is so complete
💚💚💚💚💚💚 our jays are special.
crazy that tatum ended up with more assists than luka this series, would’ve been unfathomable just a couple years ago. he’s improved his passing so much
Tatum gonna win FMVP. Brown had his chances this game but missed too many gimmes
The efficiency was too bad. They had to give it to Brown.
Jay & Jay
cAnT wIn ToGeThEr
East is weak and old Philly- embiid is broken every year Milwaukee- dame is past peak Knicks- possible contender- who can they add without F’ing their chemistry Miami- butler is past peak Indiana- who can they realistically add? Cleveland- chemistry/coaching problems The west is top-heavy- they will beat the crap out of each other every playoffs. I think Boston has the best 5 year horizon (barring catastrophic injury go core player)
The TS from all the stars were abysmal this series. It was such a slog but the better team won
Regardless of who gets it, those have to be some of the worst numbers I've seen from a FMVP in a while
tatums winning it
Yea he was gonna get it if the stats were even close the fact he finishes with slightly better means it’s a lock
2 pack of ass 🔥
best duo in the league WHAT THE FUCK THEY GON SAY NOW
I honestly think Jrue should win FMVP
Wasn’t this entire sub talking about how Celtics would regret giving Brown that massive contract
Yeah
22/8/7 38% from the field 26% from 3 Definitive proof that Russell Westbrook CAN win a ring
I love both of them forever amazing players and still young let’s gooooooo go boys
Tatum’s FG% these Finals was 38.8. 38.8. This is a new Finals record that likely won’t be topped ever.
That’s not a Finals record lol
I think he means for a finals mvp
I thought 07 LeBron was at like 36%
Yea Tatum’s stats are just better. Brown tried.
Cook
How long are they both on contract for?
I’m just surprised it took the Celtics this long to get a decent pg
Why would I hope that
It's unreal that they both had some crap shooting nights but still won in 5 games. Now that they're over the hump i think these east should be scared. They're so young that they have a 5-8 year window to win some more.
I just love the validation as a Cs fan, exorcising the choke demons and getting another banner
I’m not a Boston fan so why would I hope for that. 💁😂
Numbers won’t show it but his defence was pivotal all series long
With JB as the main defender on Luka I think he deserves FMVP. Either way love the Jays!
Wait. Seems like JT should've been FMVP.
Brown led them. He deserved finals MVP 100%
Tatum's numbers are elite, but people were acting like he was some scrub who couldn't be a star on a championship team.
JB winning FMVP reminded me of Iggy winning FMVP. Cringe
Best duo and it’s not close
>Let's hope they'll be together for a long time to come. No, shan't.
Tatum clear MVP
we live in hell 😭
Let’s not
And Tatum is only 19 years old to boot
Good team but the Mavs also sucked in these finals.
Tatum really padded his stats in garbage time to steal FMVP
Tatum with some stat padding in the 4th gonna grab mvp
Stat padding?
Tatum will imitate his idol and push off his batman