Eastern Conference and Western Conference Finals Predictions

EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS/Knicks in 6

Game 1-Knicks over Cavaliers

Game 2-Cavaliers over Knicks

Game 3-Knicks over Cavaliers

Game 4-Cavaliers over Knicks

Game 5-Knicks over Cavaliers

Game 6-Knicks over Cavaliers

WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS/Spurs in 7

Game 1 freebie-Spurs over Thunder/Great game btw

Game 2-Thunder over Spurs

Game 3-Spurs over Thunder

Game 4-Thunder over Spurs

Game 5-Thunder over Spurs

Game 6-Spurs over Thunder

Game 7-Spurs over Thunder

Give your series MVPs.

San Antonio Spurs VS Oklahoma City Thunder

I don't like Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren as a big 3.

They are Sengun level or worse.

Spurs have a big 4, and other good players.

Spurs in 4.

MVP : Wembanyama

Cleveland Cavaliers VS New York Knicks

I am not going to trust Bridges and Anunoby.

Cleveland could have the better front court.

I am still go to keep picking someone to lose all their home games.

Cleveland in 5.

Cleveland

Cleveland

New York

Cleveland

Cleveland

MVP: Surprisingly James Harden

Teams took too many 3s in the 4th quarter of Spurs vs Thunder game 1.

This was like Hakeem losing MVP to David Robinson, for Wembanyama.

Give your series MVPs.

Wemby and Brunson

Good comparison. Who are the other 3 of the Spurs big 4? Fox, Harper and Castle?

Good comparison. Who are the other 3 of the Spurs big 4? Fox, Harper and Castle?

Yes. Harper might be the 2nd best player within 2 years. Potentially better two way player than Castle.

I hate Cleveland. Why do they keep taking crossover threes and threes when the other team is on a run?

My prediction looked good when Cleveland had that large lead. If they're going to lose, don't play stupid. Play the right way but just miss shots if you're going to lose. How can Harden have no free throw attempts when New York is on that run? He's supposed to be one of the games best foul drawers.

This is why you play to win as opposed to playing not to lose. Like you said, instead of trying to kill the clock and taking 3's, why not keep attacking the rim?

When it was clear that the Knicks were hunting Harden on defense, what would you have done if you're coaching the Cavs? If you ask me, I'd take him out and put Keon Ellis in the game. Have Mitchell be my lead guard then have Ellis take some of the ball handling pressure off of him. Insert Merrill when outside shooting and/or free throws to ice the game is needed

97 - 99, let's see if my pick of San Antonio winning game 2 can happen.

When it was clear that the Knicks were hunting Harden on defense, what would you have done if you're coaching the Cavs? If you ask me, I'd take him out and put Keon Ellis in the game. Have Mitchell be my lead guard then have Ellis take some of the ball handling pressure off of him. Insert Merrill when outside shooting and/or free throws to ice the game is needed

Agree, those would have been good moves.

OR, run a few plays for Mobley.

Get a few lobs for Jarrett Allen.

They ignore their bigs too much.

There was a theory that Harden helped Zubac.

Well, Harden now has two bigs that are even better, and he's done very little in playing with them. Which might mean, maybe Zubac's improvement was more on Zubac himself.

I wasn't as impressed with Wembanyama's game 1 as others.

He still looks like he has to work harder on offense than he should.

Also I would have been more impressed if he had a game where he shot 68%+.

Game 3 against Minnesota was probably more impressive. Better shooting, more blocks, less turnovers.

Game 4 against Portland might have also been more impressive, with the 7 blocks and 4 steals.

Are we going to get a close game in any conference finals game this year again?

Philadephia is proving The Process works, after donating one of the players they obtained during The Process, to San Antonio. I guess they didn't know part of The Process is to keep your good players.

Although to Philadelphia's defense, McCain's PER had declined a lot this year, before the trade. But, that was only a 37 game sample size. Maybe they had injury concerns, since he had major injuries last year and this year.

Great observation. He definitely utilized his own post moves which had nothing to do with the beard. It will be interesting to see what he does in Indy with a healthy roster. I hope he's poised to play well and downplay the lost lottery pick as a result of bringing him in

I'm still 100% against that trade. OKC had 3 lead guards before that trade and now have 4 while Philly has nobody now to back up Maxey. I'm guessing this was purely a trade to get from under one of the taxes but I'm not even sure about that. Just speculation on my part

He still dribbles way too much and takes too many off balance shots. This runs contrary to Pop's demand of always passing the ball if someone else has a better shot than you

He still dribbles way too much and takes too many off balance shots. This runs contrary to Pop's demand of always passing the ball if someone else has a better shot than you

Maybe that also aligns with my observation that he looks like he has to work harder on offense than he has to.

Right now, I am not that afraid of a Wembanyama offensive run, because I think he makes things hard for himself and won't have an efficient stretch within a short period of time.

This was also true of Jokic at one point. Over the years, Jokic improved his FG% from 51 to 52 to 56 to 58 to 63.

When he got it to at least 56, that's probably when he had more dominant offensive stretches.

Wemby needs to let the game come to him. Off balance shots are the most obvious result of someone who isn't letting the game come to him. Set picks. Roll to the basket or pop out for a 3 pointer. Do this and see what happens before taking off balance shots

Agree.

Forgot to do trophy presenters.

For Cleveland I would have done Mark Price.

For San Antonio, Greg Popovich.  Wonder if a former coach has ever been a conference or NBA Finals trophy presenter before.

@Trueblood, get in your trophy presenters.

@Trueblood, get in your trophy presenters.

David Robinson for the Spurs and Nick Collison for the Thunder

Patrick Ewing if the Knicks win the whole thing

Lol I remember talking about teams with retired players, and Nick Collison is the worst retired jersey out of all teams.

Even with someone like Bruce Bowen on the Spurs, he had 3 top 3 DPOY finishes, including 3 #2's.

He was also in my favorite Nike campaign, where they gave various players anthropomorphic qualities.

Rasheed Wallace = fire

Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, and Bruce Bowen = a school of swarming fish

Dirk Nowitzki = eagle

That campaign seemed to last less than 2 months. I guess others didn't like it as much. I would have done that campaign for a few years.

I wonder why Duncan wasn't in that Nike commercial, since he was also a Nike guy. He could have been in with the other Spurs.

I bet the Knicks want Spike Lee to do it, but the NBA won't let him.

Oh wow, I don't remember this. Maybe youtube has one of those commercials. I check to see

I wonder why Duncan wasn't in that Nike commercial, since he was also a Nike guy. He could have been in with the other Spurs.

But the other guys were smaller, quicker players hence why they would qualify as swarming fish. Duncan would've been more of a whale or shark

Oh wow, I don't remember this. Maybe youtube has one of those commercials. I check to see

Rasheed Wallace - Fire:

I like how there's a defensive highlight, with the blocked shot. You rarely see defensive plays in a commercial. Not even for video games.

Bowen, Parker, Ginobili - Piranhas

The YouTube description says they're not just fish like I had stated, but Piranhas. Do they look like piranhas?

Dirk Nowitzki - Eagle

Oh wow, there's several more that either I forgot about, but didn't remember.

Steve Nash - Tornado

Never seen this Steve Nash one.

LeBron James - Lion

I might have seen this one the least. What's the narrator saying at the end? "It end in done?"

I might have only seen this one once or twice, as compared to seeing the first 3 a lot.

Earl Boykins - Frog

I remember this one as much as the first 3.

Again, I can't make out the narrator's last sentence.

Do you think this is a specific species of frog?

But the other guys were smaller, quicker players hence why they would qualify as swarming fish. Duncan would've been more of a whale or shark

That is a good point.

Do you think they could have / should have changed the anthropomorphic symbol to fit him too, or give him his own symbol?

I think this could have been the only time 4 Spurs were in the same commercial, so it would have been cool to see.

Great stuff. I honestly don't remember any of those and I have a good memory. I may have just been fast forwarding through commercials or if I was watching live, happened to always miss it as I was doing something else. Then again, that was a tough year with Hurricane Katrina and some personal issues. I probably watched less games than usual that year

Rasheed was good although that would've worked better for when he was on the Blazers being that fire equals a blaze

While I mentioned those Spurs guys work well as smaller fish since they are perimeter players, I think of swarming fish as an equivalent of a team that is always pressing and in your face, similar to this year's Spurs more so than from 20 years ago

Not sure if I see the Dirk/Eagle comparison. I would think more of a player who could jump and hang in the air like Vince Carter for that era

I guess Nash works as a tornado but Shaq had his own move called "the black tornado". Then again, Shaq was with Reebok so they couldn't have him

Lebron as the Lion obviously works given that a Lion is the king of the jungle

Good question about the frog. Not sure what type of frog that is. I'm surprised that Boykins had his own commercial though. He was good but was he good enough to warrant his own commercial. I guess he stood out due to his height. Muggsy and Spud were gone by that time so he was the shortest guy in the league. I do remember him being a great closer in 2002-2003 for the Warriors. They actually came to Staples and beat the L word and he finished them off with a bunch of floaters down the stretch

And yes, Duncan definitely qualified as someone who could've just had his own commercial while his teammates shared another one

Maybe they should have used highlights from that game, in the Boykins commercial.

For Dirk, this is how I saw it. Eagles are known for long range eyesight. Dirk is known for long range shooting.

Not a perfect fit, but good enough. Not sure what else would work for long range shooting.

I think this campaign lasted less than 2 months. I was surprised it was so short. I was thinking they could have even extended it to next season, and had some new players. And for the existing players, have a sequel with different footage and highlights.

For Rasheed, maybe they should have shown a clip of him getting a technical. That symbolizes "fire".

One of the national broadcasters always called Nash a "whirling dervish". Maybe that was Kevin Harlan.

Then, in that commercial, they show him doing a 360 dribble spin. I think that captures tornado.

That's what I was thinking. I would usually equate basketball and a tornado to someone doing a 360 dunk but Nash's drives work for that too

Yeah, that game had a lot to due with the contract he got from Denver in the following summer. Denver wanted to take both Arenas and Boykins from the Warriors but decided to get Andre Miller from the Clips and have Boykins be his backup. Washington had just enough cap space to entice Arenas while the Warriors were powerless to do anything about it due to only having his early bird rights as opposed to full bird rights. That's where they came up for the idea of the "Gilbert Arenas provision" in the following cba negotiations

Yeah, you're probably right about Dirk and the eagle. That makes sense

I think what I like about the campaign, is that it does a rare feat of:

1). Showing personalities of players.

2). Showing their highlights or signature moves.

3). Setting a competitive tone. The world is a jungle, and every creature is trying to outlast another.

The same can be said for the sport of basketball. Every player / team is trying to outlast the other.

I also like the editing and music.

Other famous campaigns usually lack some of these qualities. Some focus more on comedy, and omit actual basketball moves or highlights. Others focus on shoes.

I wonder if they could have done Greek Fire for Giannis Antetokounmpo. Some overlap with Rasheed Wallace, but having the Greek aspect to it would have made it still unique.

Who are some current or past Clippers that were Nike ambassadors?

Good question. I want to say that Elton Brand was Nike but I'm not sure

That is a good synopsis and it rubs off well on the NBA as a whole as it shows the league in a competitive standpoint as opposed to the goofy individual stuff we see from time to time

Did the Spurs not have a special trophy presenter? That's weird.