Point Gawd: It was many highs and lows this season, but the highs definitely outweighed the lows. What we thought last year this time was a breakout year for Steph Curry was light. This season he’s been an upper echelon savage. He’s lead the Warriors to the all time best regular season record (73-9) and broke a few more records along the way. I’m a Laker fan that’s been blown away by the stunts Curry and his team has been pulling. How the hell do you hit 402 threes in 79 games? Dog…..he sat out plenty 4th quarters. If he chose to pad stats he could have touched 450 easily. The closest to that total this season is his teammate Klay Thompson who is silently 3rd place all time for most three’s in a season with 126 less. Crazy CRAZY CRAZYYYYY!!!!!! Back to Back MVP, highest PER increase for a returning MVP, scoring leader, steals leader, and back in the NBA Finals again. I can go all day about all the stuff Steph and Golden State did this season but it’s plenty more to cover.
Farewell Kobe: Early in the season I knew it was the last ride for the OG. He spent more time wrapped in ace bandages and getting treatment from the team medical staff than he spent on the court. Years of wear and tear on the body caught up with him. Numbers declined but his commitment to the game was next level. In a lost season this man dislocated his finger, popped it back in place, and went back in the game like nothing happened. As fans we ain’t give a fuck about him shooting bricks. We were just happy to have Kobe back on the court. He showed us flashes of greatness from time to time, but truth is my guy is old and his body is beat to hell. It was hard to watch him struggle, but when he had one of the 25+ nights my shit talk was at its peak! I understood my team had to tank to keep our draft pick so I wasn’t expecting wins. In his last game the Bean went off for 60 on 44% shooting with the go ahead basket in the clutch. Vintage Mamba night to close out a great career. Kobe Bryant owes the sport nothing. He’s a true product of hardwork.
The Rise Of Kawhi: Kawhi Leonard heading into his 25th birthday is currently the NBA’s newest superstar. No real flash to his game or personality. Just a cold blooded assassin when he’s on the floor. Aside from winning the Defensive Player Of The Year award Sugar K Leonard was one of the most accurate scorers this season. When that boy pull up just head to the other end of the court because it’s a good chance that it’s going in. 51% FG, 44% 3pt, and 87% FT to be exact. Dude has a swaggerless aura to him that makes you keep watching him hoop in hopes that he shows some type of personality or emotion. Instead he’s given us a Tim Duncan-like persona like most guys that are lifelong gym rats. If he’s a virgin that’s never been to a nightclub I wouldn’t be shocked. Whatever he has to do to stay on top of his game I hope he keeps doing it. He’s a straight up baller that does more than score and I’m cool with that.
James Harden’s defense: I’ve seen this man literally run behind someone and yell “AYE” in a real life NBA game instead of intentionally fouling to stop a free run to the basket in the 4th quarter of a close game. Thinking about the lack of effort he puts into actually trying to keep his man out of the paint annoys the hell out of me. Harden can score with the best of them and defend with the worst. Don’t let the steals total fool you. James Harden defends like he’s point shaving. Look for more of the same next season with Mike D’Antoni coaching the Rockets.
The Return of Paul George: Last season Paul George only played the final 6 games of the season. It wasn’t clear if he was going to fully bounce back from his leg injury. This season he had a career high in points, steals, and assist. When I saw him drop 40 on the Wizards in the beginning of the season I knew he was going to perfectly fine. Not enough can be said about how glad I am to see that he was able to return and play at a high level. To make this story even greater Paul George will be on the cover of NBA 2K17. I hope Larry Bird can build another strong squad around him again because if he doesn’t there’s no doubt in my mind he’ll leave Indiana in free agency as soon as he has a chance.
Game Of The Year: Warriors vs Thunder Sat. 2/27/2016. This game lived up to all the hype surrounding it. OKC started off strong and put the pressure on Golden State to match their intensity. It was a dogfight till the very end. This game had some of the most clutch moments you could ask for as a fan. In real time I’d say I was standing up yelling at the TV at the bar for at least 45 minutes. KD ended up fouling out and Westbrook was forced to either hold it down or take that L. The score eventually was tied at 118 and Westbrook missed a jumper, Iggy got the rebound, he passes to Steph, a very poised Steph takes 3 dribbles, pulls up from damn near 40 feet, and hits the game winner with 0.6 seconds left on the clock. At this point I’m the loudest one in the bar yelling “oh my fucking God did you see that shit” drawing the attention of people that could care less about basketball who saw the replay and damn near reacted the same as me. That game was an instant classic. Curry hit 12 three pointers and had 46 points. No true basketball fan was left disappointed.
Breakthrough Season: Not only was this the Raptors 1st time reaching 50 wins this was also the 1st time they’ve reached the 3rd round of the playoffs. Their 56-26 record is a franchise best. For the last few seasons their playoff Kryptonite has been Paul Pierce. Now that he’s out west with the Clippers the postseason curse has been lifted off of Toronto. The all star backcourt consisting of Demar DeRozen and Kyle Lowry both had career highs in points and provided highlights all season long. The city of Toronto really showed their support all season by making this the 2nd time in franchise history that they completely sold out their season tickets. Now after a 7% value increase the Raptors are worth close to a billion making them a 14th most valuable franchise in the NBA. Progress on the court and in the market is hard to deny. Now the big question is will DeRozen sign back with them after recently opting to become an unrestricted free agent. Only time will tell….
New Season Same Outcome: The Basketball God’s least favorite team and player still can’t crack the Da Vinci Code. From 1970 to present day the Clippers franchise has a total regular season record of 1469-2255. That’s 39%. This season Blake Griffin only played 35 games due to injury. Chris Paul put the team on his shoulders and finished with a 53-29 record putting them at 4th place in the Western conference. In the 1st round of the playoffs the Basketball God’s were like…..”nah fam” and within a 3 minute span Chris Paul broke his hand and Blake Griffin who was just returning from an injury injured his left quadricep. I expected great regular season efforts and a quick playoff exit and….well that’s what happened once again. My opinion I think they should blow up the roster and start over but as a Laker fan they can lose all they want. I’m perfectly fine with the Clippers being the Clippers.
The Kids: Call me crazy but I loved this rookie class. These kids went through their growing pains as expected and managed to show potential. We even got to see Jahlil Okafor whooping ass in the streets of Boston. The future is bright for this particular group of young hoopers. Seeing big men under the age of 30 with solid post moves almost made me shed a tear. Winslow looked like a future all defensive player for most of the season while Booker became one of the best 3 point shooting rookies I’ve ever seen. Russell showed glimpses of his passing and scoring ability throughout the season, but Karl Anthony-Towns shined the brightest on the pro stage and won Rookie Of The Year. I can’t wait to see what all these guys become in about 5 more seasons.
Tanking: I think the greatest tank job in history is the Spurs tanking for Duncan. I used to be against it but look….some teams just suck and nobody is thinking about them during free agency. It’s the cheapest way of getting a possible superstar. The top 2 picks will be paid 23-25 million salary. Let’s say the pick turns out to be a great impact player it’s hard to deny that you got more than your money’s worth. On the flipside you could end up with Anthony Bennett. This year the targets are Brandon Ingram and Ben Simmons. Ingram is a smart player that can adapt to any defense thrown at him quickly. He has potential to be a great scoring threat and with his 7’3 wingspan he could be a problem on the defensive end. Simmons has great all around game, great passing ability, and has 0 issues getting to the paint and scoring. He had 23 double doubles without playing 1 tourney game. Seeing him have a 43 pt, 14 reb, 5 stl, 7 ast, and 3 blk game as a freshman pretty much screamed out MONSTER!!! Choose wisely…..
The Playoffs: shit was trash….NEXT!!!!!
NBA Finals: After 6 weeks of probably the weakest playoffs I’ve ever witnessed we end up with the same teams as last season. After game 1 it was looking like the rest of the postseason. Golden State went to the bench mob and handled the Cavs easily. Game 2 Golden State smacked the Cavs by 33. At this point I just wanted this postseason to end. Cleveland came out strong at home and took game 3. I figured it would end in 5 games so I wasn’t shocked at all. Game 4 comes and Golden State comes out swinging! Everything was going perfectly for the Warriors then suddenly….BOOM Draymond Green and Lebron James get into a little mix up. It didn’t seem like much at the time, but it led to a 1 game suspension for game 5. Game 5 Lebron and Kyrie both scored 41 a piece and Andrew Bogut got injured. A night to forget for those of us who expected a close game. Game 6…..more of the same. Curry was hit with some bad fouls and eventually fouled out and lost his damn mind! He cussed out the ref, threw his mouthpiece at the owner’s son, and was ejected. Even his wife snapped. Game was pretty much done by then. At this point I’m blown by the fact that Golden State blew a 3-1 lead and this horrible series goes to game 7. None of the games were even close. Then Game 7 arrives. Draymond Green is on fire and the Warriors start strong. Cavs manage to make runs to stay in the game. By halftime I needed 2 shots of 1800 to calm my nerves. The game comes down to a Kyrie vs Curry iso. Kyrie steps back and drops a dagger from 3 that finishes off Golden State.
After 11 ties and 20 lead changes it was a wrap. Lebron wins the MVP of the Finals and now we get to see JR “Club Legend” Smith party harder than ever to cap off a great season of NBA basketball that was unfortunately followed up by a TRASH postseason that came down to a 4 point game 7.
