Ryen Russillo is joined by The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor to discuss which of the current contenders in the East and West they feel the best about heading into the postseason.
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27 Comments
when will this bucks shit end
the safe bet is a finals rematch. a healthy bucks will always have a legitimate chance to knock off anyone but as good as some other teams are looking, i wouldn't bet on any of them over these 3 teams.
I get what ryen is saying about Luka and harden. It's amazing the stats they can put up but it's just not winning basketball.
Phoenix is missing there SECOND best player??????????
If Milwaukee's healthy throughout the playoffs, they're winning it all. And I think they'll go through the Warriors to get there.
Warriors are not making it out of the first round. celtics/bucks and nuggets/clippers are the only 4 teams i can see getting to the finals
Just as they talk about Tatum and Brown playing all the time, Jaylen is out for 1-2 weeks at least lol
If Grant Williams is 3rd best player on Mavs, then why r we arguing about who the MVP is?
L kawhi take. He is clearly reserving his energy on defense and coming back on his own time. Put up damn near a virtuoso against the mavs. Not trusting the clippers or the health is fair, but if the stars align on health they are my pick
West= Denver, Memphis, Golden State.
East= Milwaukee, Boston, Brooklyn.
Kind of surprise with the Grizzlies. They look for real.
Imagine thinking no one fears The Nuggets even though every coach they play has said something like “there’s nothing you can do against Jokic.” And after Draymond sang Jokic’s praises during their series last playoffs.
I think New Orleans and the Clippers are the best teams in the west if we're not including injuries
When he said jaylen brown is too 25 I stopped watching. Horrible
Dude is definitely top 15 if we’re talking this season. Look at the numbers
Nobody fears the Nuggets?! Lol. Ok.
If the Lakers had a competent FO then they would be apart of this conversation. It seems as if they put together this team in five minutes and it’s somehow working better than everyone thought. Imagine if they had another wing..? Even that would help them significantly. It’s crazy that they don’t want to make a move even with how wide open the west is.
East all teams need prove it
Philly harden in playoffs is shit. Embid need be at paint more ,his huge. He loves flopin just use that. Cant stand it some1 that big but thats him.
Heat too old .
Bucks had hard time beatin nets without Kyrie .greakfrwak will be rdy in game 2 for some reason but will 50/50 middleton be?
Nets only matter health . Cavs missing a 6 8 guy like a oneal then a way better chance then before
Boston tatum need play like his size an cant be last in fg nba history in a Series worst then shaq in fgs just bad . Love how no1 brin that up an thier the best team in nba. God no they need prove it the most
West
warriors top 2 team easy but can they stay healthy klay is old now . Cant forget that
Nuggects if murray plays how he play last playoffs runs + how jokic playin right now an gordon + every1 else . Peolp forgot what murray did in playsoff im guessin .
he beat lebron james in mins 1 year in playoffs . Thats nuts . top 2 easy with warrios forsure .
Suns drama queens nothin goin happen there.
Grizzle need stop talkin an win games . At this pace they goin lose to warriors if they vs each other in playoffs. They did all that talkin cant even beat them in regule season without curry .Mind set is off vsing them. Fix that then top 3 team.
Clippers old rusty seem like they turnin to lakers lol old kawl legs are bad . U cant change that .
Dallas luka cant do everythin . Too much hard team front him . He aint lebron level yet lol
Stop sleepin on Nuggets. Look up how many 50point game murray did couple years ago in playoffs wen it was joker team.
L take by Russillo… Crazy to say that nobody fears the Nugs. As a Nuggets fan I wish that was the case…
"When you stop chasing the wrong things, you give the right things a chance to catch you." –Lolly Daskal
I think Denver adding KCP, Bruce Brown, and Christan Braun helps sure up their perimeter defense without sacrificing on the offensive side of the ball.
Fresh cut Kevin
My two thoughts on the Clippers and Warriors vs Denver. 1, the Nuggets would WELCOME a matchup with the Clippers and the Clippers absolutely cannot matchup with Denver. They have Zubac and absolutely nothing else behind him to try to guard Jokic. Jokic already showed he can break their defense (see: 16, 22 and 12 triple double in a game 7 win among others, and he's a better player now than he was then). Marcus Morris is absolutely not an option to guard Jokic going small. Robert Covington tried to guard Jokic at times in the playoffs when Portland matched up with the wounded Nuggets sans Jamal Murray and he was food every time. After that it's… what, are you gonna ask Kawhi Leonard (if he's even available) to guard the best center in basketball? Are you going to ask Moses Brown? Good luck. Jamal Murray also doesnt fear anyone on that team at all. Reggie Jackson and John Wall wont be able to guard him in a playoff series – so if you're gonna guard him with PG and/or Kawhi, that means one of AG and MPJ are going to have lesser defenders on them. The Clippers offense also just doesnt stress the Nuggets defense at all – it's too much isolation and simple, stagnant basketball. That's not how you beat Denver. The Nuggets would win that series in 6 games or less.
The Warriors have similar problems now with the losses of GPII and OPJ and Bjelica and JTA. They have no hope to guard Jokic (I mean, Jokic averaged 33 13 and 6 against Dray last playoffs without MPJ and Jamal, what's he going to do WITH those guys?). Without OPJ/GPII, the Warriors are also very poorly equipped to guard Jamal Murray, AG, MPJ, KCP, Bones Hyland, and the other weapons Denver has. Steph and Klay battle on defense, to be sure, but no one would confuse Steph with a stopper, and Klay has clearly lost more than a step. Wiggins is an awesome defensive player. But he's one guy, and Dray is gonna be doing all he can against Jokic. Soooooo again – it's not a good matchup. You might say the Warriors can blitz Denver 5 out, but I'd encourage you to go watch the last 3 games of the series against Denver last year. All 3 games were very close and down to the wire. The Nuggets are better now than they were then (on both ends) and the Warriors are worse.
Kev Ooooh! Killian Hayes is starting to percolate dunn. Noooot quite the best in his class but,. looking like he indeed, is, going to be a very good talent down the line. Loving what I'm seeing from the kid.
That kid Trey Murphys going to be an All-Star Yo.
The pelicans depth is wicked when they're at full strength.. Denver's depths is crazy also and they look like they can be unstoppable when they're clicking on all cylinders.,. ….. And then you have Memphis…………..Ptssss". The West playoffs is going to be bonkers man
“No body fears the nuggets” “they blasted the clippers… I mean they BLASTED them” ok lol
Grant Williams is better than Spencer Dinwiddie? Shit I’d rather have DFS than him
Grant Williams is NOT better than Dinwiddie.