[West] 2025 Playoffs, First Round

How many first round upsets? (5 over 4 counts as an upset)

  • Total voters
    6
  • Poll closed .
Tetsujin said:
It’s very simple, teams just need to get other teams to accidentally trade them a future MVP and all their picks for a podcaster.
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It helps when you have the hyper-convenient combination of an All-Star who wants to leave and has a specific destination in mind and the aforementioned destination has a ****load of assets that they're willing to part with in exchange for said All-Star. When the destination can say, "Actually, if we wait long enough, he'll come here anyway, so we not giving you nothing," it becomes slightly more difficult.
 
My favorite thing about that graphic they used to introduce the starting lineups:

Draymond Green has only played one fewer playoff game than Stephen Curry in his career.

That one game cost the Warriors a championship.
 
Give the Warriors credit, they only opened that window for a short time at best but this is what competent franchises do. They see the league shift and move with it, not against it. They got Butler and developed a nice crop of tough, physical role players like Santos, GP2, etc. Thankfully they've kind of bungled the development of Kuminga and/or he's stagnated a little because they could be scary otherwise.
 
The Oklahoma City Thunder were clearly not prepared for game 1 of the 2025 National Basketball Association Western Conference Round of 8.
 
Warriors not significantly improving from the Butler trade was one hot take from me I don’t mind fessing up to being dumb.

I guess I just thought he might’ve been cooked rather than just quitting on the Heat because he wasn’t having a great season before he started getting himself suspended
 
SacTownKid said:
Give the Warriors credit, they only opened that window for a short time at best but this is what competent franchises do. They see the league shift and move with it, not against it. They got Butler and developed a nice crop of tough, physical role players like Santos, GP2, etc. Thankfully they've kind of bungled the development of Kuminga and/or he's stagnated a little because they could be scary otherwise.
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have the Warriors really shifted all that much? They are still built around Steph, shooters and a good defense. Obviously Butler is a different type of player than Klay, maybe more Iggy like. Warriors always had good to great defenses during their primary run.
 
iowamcnabb said:
have the Warriors really shifted all that much? They are still built around Steph, shooters and a good defense. Obviously Butler is a different type of player than Klay, maybe more Iggy like. Warriors always had good to great defenses during their primary run.
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Yeah, because they extracted probably their biggest system guy in Klay to do it and Kerr has adjusted accordingly. Butler is pretty much the anti warrior historically in a lot of ways. A team doesn't have to necessarily change the entire roster to do it, it's about shifting towards trends if you are no longer or aren't the trend setter. It's like with the Kings back in the day, probably no player epitomized the style more than Peja and we saw the difference in changing just him out for Artest made. It was pretty much a completely different makeup just with that one pivotal move. Adelman also adjusted the system on the fly to fit also.
 
SacTownKid said:
Yeah, because they extracted probably their biggest system guy in Klay to do it and Kerr has adjusted accordingly. Butler is pretty much the anti warrior historically in a lot of ways. A team doesn't have to necessarily change the entire roster to do it, it's about shifting towards trends if you are no longer or aren't the trend setter. It's like with the Kings back in the day, probably no player epitomized the style more than Peja and we saw the difference in changing just him out for Artest made. It was pretty much a completely different makeup just with that one pivotal move. Adelman also adjusted the system on the fly to fit also.
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I guess I see Podz, Moody, Buddy replacing Klay in the aggregate but I see what you are saying.
 
iowamcnabb said:
I guess I see Podz, Moody, Buddy replacing Klay in the aggregate but I see what you are saying.
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They in a way do, and for sure they've always been competent in respecting the impact of role playing defense in particular at the guard spot. As they sit are they a contender regardless? Gosh lets hope not, haha. If the Kings have to slide and the Warriors remain good for the next few years that will just rub dirt in the wound lol.
 
Mr. S£im Citrus said:
But over the last decade I have been so soured by other fans watching these guys with hearts in their eyes, and wanting their GMs/ownership to copycat what they're doing, that I want to see them fail, just out of spite.
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The funny thing to me is the owner wouldn't pay his last big 3 and they've now arguably got 7-8 guys that are going to be hard to pay. Best GM in the league right now bar none. His recent hit ratio (especially if you decide to include SGA coming off one year as part of that) is off the charts. We could have all the draft picks in the world and it wouldn't matter if we make bad picks which we seem to do more often than we make good ones.

I'm neutral on OKC - I'd like to be proven wrong that they won't find a way to keep them together or that the NBA won't figure out a way to job them in favor of a big market in the WCF. But I certainly don't want them to be a decade+ dynasty since I would like the Kings to contend before I die.
 
pdxKingsFan said:
The funny thing to me is the owner wouldn't pay his last big 3 and they've now arguably got 7-8 guys that are going to be hard to pay. Best GM in the league right now bar none. His recent hit ratio (especially if you decide to include SGA coming off one year as part of that) is off the charts. We could have all the draft picks in the world and it wouldn't matter if we make bad picks which we seem to do more often than we make good ones.

I'm neutral on OKC - I'd like to be proven wrong that they won't find a way to keep them together or that the NBA won't figure out a way to job them in favor of a big market in the WCF. But I certainly don't want them to be a decade+ dynasty since I would like the Kings to contend before I die.
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I think the collective bargaining agreement will job them more than anything else. Contenders are going to have to let some of their talent walk come payday, and they'll be bargain bin shopping in the aftermath now more than ever since the rules punish top heavy teams so mightily. As the aprons get skirted by cost-saving franchises, talent will be redistributed across the league, and one can only hope that it isn't to the ultimate benefit of the larger markets.
 
Padrino said:
I think the collective bargaining agreement will job them more than anything else. Contenders are going to have to let some of their talent walk come payday, and they'll be bargain bin shopping in the aftermath now more than ever since the rules punish top heavy teams so mightily. As the aprons get skirted by cost-saving franchises, talent will be redistributed across the league, and one can only hope that it isn't to the ultimate benefit of the larger markets.
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Seems like there are possibly a few owners who would try to keep those guys (GSW, Phoenix (LOL), maybe Boston?) but yeah there's no way in hell OKC will. I wonder how Presti will handle it though - trading guys 4-7 before they come up for their 2nd deal and just continual reload?
 
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