The Point-Fourward: Entertaining Losers

Four points I’m thinking about the NBA…

What players do we want to watch in the playoffs? With most teams having about 12 games remaining to fulfill their tanking dreams, accidentally make the bracket, or properly position themselves to ultimately lose (ok, other than that singular team that grabs the trophy), the final couple weeks of the season will go a long way to deciding our May Netflix schedule.

1. Mercifully, the Chicago Bulls have lost eight of 10 to slip two games behind two fun Eastern conference late seeds. The surging Milwaukee Bucks and Miami Heat have pick and rolled their way into the seventh and eighth spots, running past a boring Reggie Jackson led Pistons squad and the aforementioned Chicago Sadness.

Sure, it could be argued that it would be in the Cavaliers’ best interest to avoid jilted superstars, Mathew Dellavedova or Dion Waiters in a grind it out playoff series (I kid, but it wouldn’t be relaxing to watch Delly bodycheck Kyrie Irving. It would be fun, however, to watch Dion try to beat the Cavs on his own!), but NBA fans deserve the opportunity to watch legit superstar, Giannis Antetokounmpo try his hand at meaningful basketball. Since Kris Middleton returned to essentially replace the injured Jabari Parker in the Bucks rotation, the Greek Freak has been freed to operate with better floorspacing in the half-court. Not only a good outside shooter, Middleton is a also an underrated playmaker, particularly in contrast to the ball dominating Parker. The defensive length and positional flexibility of a jumbo Middleton/Giannis backcourt is more than a little intriguing.

2. Depending on how things shake out, LeBron could be making business trips to South Beach against the suddenly frisky Miami Heat. Clevelanders may focus on Waiters’ Island, but the real hero of Erik Spoelstra’s group has been Goran Dragic. Free to run at will, the Dragon has returned to his All-NBA quality of play. He learned to “Nash it” early in his career, and has consistently been tracked as one of the fastest players in the entire Association. He is simply relentless attacking the paint. Throw in a career year from long time C:tB favorite, James Johnson, and the Heat have a couple players who could compete with Uncle Drew and King James.

Clearly, Cavs fans would rather have a boring first round devoid of drama. It’s true playing stiffer competition isn’t outwardly ideal. But, the Boston Celtics would have to play one of those teams as well. The Bucks, with their insane length, would be a particularly difficult matchup for Isaiah Thomas. Cleveland will take care of whatever first round matchup they get in a maximum of five games. If the other branches of the bracket have to work a little harder, it ultimately helps the Cavs’ chances.

3. Which brings us to the Western Conference lower seeds. When the New Orleans Pelicans dealt for DeMarcus Cousins, it was assumed that the new twin tower pairing of Cousins with Anthony Davis would assure a playoff birth. It was also fun to speculate on the hilarity of watching Boogie backdown Draymond Green. Would Green have the stones to kick Boogie’s stones? Who would get tossed first? Alas, despite Boogie’s 41 and 17 breakout performance last night, it seems the Pels are on the outside looking in.

And, I am totally fine with that. The world needs to watch Nikola Jokic play basketball. For those without League Pass, the Joker is still largely an unknown (you’ll get a better look when the Cavs play in Denver tonight). Fans who love RAPM look quizzically at his statistical domination, hesitantly singing his praises without truly believing their stats. RAPM or not, the 22!! year-old Serbian is as good as any big man in the league. Jusuf Nurkic was moved to Portland (more on them in moment) in order to open up minutes and mental space for Jokic. Since being completely handed the team from coach Mike Malone, Nikola has been a superstar point center, running the break and dishing in traffic. Though the Nuggets lost both ends of a home and home against the Rockets, Jokic continued to flash his ridiculous handle, post game and delightful water polo inspired finishes. Jokic is clever enough with his defensive footwork to hang with the Warriors, and strong enough to give the Spurs a headache. I want to see this.

4. I also want to see the Blazers, but for very different reasons. I admit they have played a far more balanced game since acquiring Nurkic. Something about the sheer presence of that terrifying man has led to more space and a slight uptick in passing. Still, I just don’t believe in a CJ McCollum/Damian Lillard backcourt. I seem to beat this horse as much as Bill Simmons beats the smelly carcass of the Harden trade, but it bears repeating. For all of his offensive mastery and leadership abilities, Lillard is a catastrophically awful defender. It might not make any difference, but I would hope that a great playoff series or an awful series performance from either Dame or CJ would expedite a trade by Portland. CJ is good enough to run a show somewhere. This experiment needs a result sometime soon.