Yeah I think most people understand that 2021 playoffs were pretty weak because all the top teams from the year before had one of the shortest offseason in NBA history leading to a ton of injuries to their key guys and being worn down after playing an entire postseason then regular season pretty much back to back

It’s crazy that finals just stopped after the first 2 games and they just never finished…

yes all these are valid points but the important thing is the Mickey Mouse jokes annoy lakers fans

Well if you want to compare the suns roster that actually made it to the finals…

They won 64 games and were the 1 seed by 8 games in the following season (yes I remember how it ended 😭)

After that it was literally an entire new team.

Bucks and Clippers were unlucky since then and the Suns have been mismanaged to hell and back.

The socially-distanced fans in the stands is hilarious to look back on

Fun fact: only one Finals team has made the Conference Finals in the season after they made the Finals since the super Warriors and LeBron era ended (Celtics making the Finals in 2022 and then making the ECF in 2023).

The league is just in a rare era where there’s a shit ton of parity because it’s far more physically demanding on the body and going deep in the playoffs means you get a month or more less recovery time in the off-season.

We already know the Pacers aren’t making the playoffs (most likely). The Thunder have been looking more human lately and the that’s had their number in the Spurs are only a half game ahead of the 4 seed

The bubble was pure distilled basketball goodness. Everyone is just a hater because Lebron won it.

Yup.  That was the wonky year that made no sense.

I feel like I knew this instinctively but man 2021 really was just as weird as 2020.

It becomes less confusing once you realize Doc Rivers switched conferences. This had a direct impact on two of the teams in 2021 playoffs.

All the conference finalists of 2020 got hurt in 2021. The Lakers, Celtics, and Heat all lost in the first round in 2020. A Clippers team without Kawhi and a mediocre Hawk team made it to the conference finals in 2021.

I know injuries happen every season, but there was shortened offseason before the 2021 season, and I bet that affected teams that went on deep runs in the bubble.

also “utah jazz” were the 1 seed smh

but really, the injuries were insane. even the 2 teams that played in the finals, chris paul had a bum shoulder and caught COVID, and giannis looked like he was out for the season when he got his hyper extension, which was after trae young got the most inexplicable injury id seen in a minute where he just slips on a ref’s shoe in the ECF.

now, phoenix suns dominating the regular season the year after milwaukee bucks dominating the regular season the 2 years before makes me look back and deny that it was an outlier postseason. but with jamal murray, jaylen brown, harden, kyrie, trae, embiid, simmons (mental), AD, Kawhi, Ja, klay, somebody on the Heat idk who but it’s always somethin, and half of toronto dealing with some type of injury it would no doubt have a change in standings if half of these guys aren’t out

Both 2020 and 2021 were messed up. It doesn’t make sense to have 4.5 months off between the end of the regular season and playoffs, and then it doesn’t make sense to give the Finalists 6 weeks to recover before the next season.

It’s totally fair to say that the Bucks lucked out due to injuries to other teams that year. Let’s not forget KD’s large shoes too.

But I want to point out that Bucks got unlucky the following years with injuries. I don’t think it’s fair to clown on them too much after that year.

Instead clown on them today for keeping Doc

100% agreed 

I almost respect winning in the bubble more. You had to play under vastly different circumstances with no fans, friends, or family for most of it but it was just pure basketball. No distractions. Just ball. Was a hell of a time.

that was obvious in 2023

Unpopular opinion, but the Warriors-Cavs finals killed the league in the LONG TERM. They were too dominant where now single championships (over a small time frame) aren’t celebrated. The Pistons won 2004? Talked about to this day. Mavericks 2021? Talked about. Celtics win in 2009? Made careers. Now nobody cares about the championship Bucks team, nobody talks about the Nuggets team, the Celtics have been forgotten. The Lakers are the “Bubble” team. The Warriors ring gets respect, but that’s because it cemented Curry’s legacy.

They’re both outlier years along with 2022.

Bubble tax was real. All the teams that made a deep run in 2020 had a lot of injuries in 2021. The Suns and Bucks were like the 5th and 6th best teams that season.

Yes

Incontrovertible proof!

Both seasons were outliers and 2 of the weakest runs in nba history.

Every playoffs prob has a story of a contender/s that got unlucky with injuries. But 2021 and 2022 felt particularly weak.

Bucks vs Suns and Warriors vs Boston. All teams were GOOD. But that’s it. You kinda didnt know who was gonna win. There was no dominance in any of the teams.

I hope we get a healthy playoffs this season because i don’t think the league has ever been as strong. I’m expecting Tatum to come back too. The east needs Boston strong.

The Nuggets just added Aaron Gordon and they still had MPJ on a rookie deal. If Murray doesn’t tear his acl the Nuggets could have won 2021, 2022, 2023. Jokic and Murray had a +12 net rating in 1100 minutes and Jokic, Murray and Gordon had a +22 in 110 minutes. The minutes without Jokic were also a +3.9 that year and they just came off a conference finals run.

Stats are still stats. Lakers got their only chip in the bubble from LeBron James. That to me is the funniest anecdote of the LeBron career trajectory.

I hate when people bring up the suns finals run as some great accomplishment by chris paul. Literally every single team they played in the west was missing a key player to injury. They got lucky

bucks were easily the weakest champion of the last decade+ but with giannis being as coddled as he is (until now?) it was blasphemous to say