NBA contracts are getting stupid now. So hard to wrap my head around a player that isn't even the best player on his own team eligible to make $60M a year. Wow.
Reggie Miller said the tone was set from Tatum's ankle injury from the beginning. That's only partly correct. In fact, it's an excuse for their defeat. They had a fair amount of weapons. All star Brown, Smart, White ( who played his part), and even Brogdon as another point guard. The Williams ' and Al couldn't defend a lick and the Heat snipers took good shots methodically. This led to the downfall of their perimeter defense. Tatum was also able to give them something too. I'm not saying Udoka is a genius. They clearly missed him though. The Celtics and the media can't hide their weaknesses with words. They're the laughing stock out of the contenders imo. They got outplayed by undrafted and unheralded players like Caleb Martin, Gabe Vincent, Duncan Robinson and Max Struss by 19 points on their home court. The Heat had only one real superstar throughout the series in Jimmy Butler.
The only way this works out for them is if Scoot falls to 3 and the Hornets 100% pick Miller or Amen as I think Scoot has the best chance of becoming a star out of those 3, even more so than Miller or Amen. Let us assume Miller or Amen becomes at least borderline All Star. Even then Scoot needs at least 2-3 years to contribute and those are 2 to 3 years wasted on Tatum’s timeline. Could Simons bridge the timeline in the meantime? That is highly risky.
I remember thinking that Boston must've been thrilled that Miami lost the play-in game to the Hawks. At the time, I thought it just saved them an extremely tough series in the first round, but it actually saved them a first round exit.
Honestly it's crazy they wilted in 3 straight games and then took it in 7. Gutsy. I would've bet against them.
Not sustainable. They are a good 3pt shooting team but so are The Nuggets. ---Nuggets--- Murray regular season 3pt % = 0.37 / PO = 0.40 MPJ = 0.42 / PO = 0.40 KCP = 0.37 / PO = 0.38 Jokic = 0.35 / PO = 0.41 Jeff Green = 0.34 / PO = 0.36 ---Heat--- Caleb Martin = 0.36 / 0.40 Butler = 0.32 / 0.35 Adebayo = 0.13 / 0 Strus = 0.37 / 0.34 Gabe = 0.34 / 0.36 Lowry = 0.37 / 0.34 D.Robison = 0.40 / 0.40 Pretty much anyone can make 3's in Heat but with Jokic creating open looks for his teammates they are gonna make their shots. The Nuggets are not gonna get Celtics'd.
