It feels flat-out wrong to have a postseason without Stephen Curry, but regardless of how good he still is, that's the way the cookie crumbles when you don't give him an adequate supporting cast. Hopefully the Warriors will take the summer to retool a clearly insufficient roster.
We may well have seen the end of the Big 3 era. It's going to be super weird when Klay is cantering around the Chase Center floor in a Utah Jazz uniform and Draymond is, ahem, working out his frustrations in Detroit.
We were meant to be watching a newly acquired Marcus Smart transform Ja Morant, Desmond Bane, Jaren Jackson Jr and company into a group capable of going deeper into the playoffs. Instead we got an endless spate of injuries: just last week, Memphis listed 13 players out for their game against the Lakers, which seems almost impossible.
But that's not really because of their team. It's because of Victor Wembanyama. He's the most exciting player absent from this postseason and this may be the only time in his career he misses out. The 7ft 4in Frenchman is on the shortlist for Defensive Player of the Year and All-NBA Third Team, despite the Spurs winning just 22 games. He's an alien.
The Minnesota Timberwolves have had a truly impressive season, and Anthony Edwards will clearly be sitting atop the league's star power rankings for years to come. But they drew an absolute worst-case-scenario first round opponent in the Phoenix Suns a high octane offense buoyed up by All-Star vets with tons of experience in the postseason.
[
add
]
[
|
|
...
]