They weren’t expected to make the finals though. The Spurs were on an 18 game winning streak before the WCF began.

Mainly because of the 2011 finals and the narratives around LeBron. The Thunder also beat three straight would be favorites in the defending champion Mavs, the previous defending champ Lakers, and the 4 time champion Spurs

Betting favorites

Moving up in multiple drafts will do that to ya.

Tatum is only 18 so he’s still got time to get there.

But a Cooper Flagg, Cade Cunningham, Luka Doncic, Hakeem Olajuwon, Shaq, David Robinson, Tim Duncan, LeBron James, Dwight Howard, Derrick Rose, I can go on

Tanking literally got us wemby

It got the Spurs Wemby, so not sure why you think it doesn’t ever get someone like that.

Don’t I know it.

He could have offered every pick they have and the answer would have been no. Any offer not starting with SGA for arguably the greatest prospect ever would be a no

Prove they’re match fixing lol. That’s always the issue- it’s pretty much impossible to prove that a team isn’t just terrible

The players do

Yea but you might as well try. In this league you need a superstar player to win and the only way to get them is through the draft.

I mean everyone was expecting wemby to be the best player in the league at some point if he could stay healthy, and people were putting him in goat talks before he got in the league.

I doubt many of them consider it a hot take

Many people, even outside of Wolves fans have been saying Ant is getting an MVP sooner rather than later for years now, and he has playoff experience as a riser, and improving all around every season. While Wemby has yet to play a series, lower MPG than a traditional superstar while rotations tighten up a lot in the playoffs, and some (albeit being freak) injuries at so young.

He has a stinker of a series or gets hurt again, even this young, people will be having much different narratives next year around this time even if they are the 2 seed again. And this isn’t meant to be a knock on him. Many are just waiting to see how he does in the playoffs. Wolves and Ant went thru this same thing with Ant as an emerging young superstar who ultimately couldn’t live up to it (yet)

Yea next season is probably a crazy take, but one day for sure it possible. He seems to have the talent. Wemby is my personal face of the league right now. Really hope we get to see how good he can be.

You know how it works in the media, new shiny toy for the media, suddenly everything Shai, Luka, Jokic, Giannis if healthy did over the years means nothing and Wemby is the best. Even if he’s exactly the same player next season

Also depends on what Shai does this postseason. If he dominates and leads okc to a repeat, I think he’ll keep the crown unless Wemvy just goes crazy with like a 30-10-5-3-1 season 

SGA is proven best player on the best team. He fits OKC so well and vice versa. It doesn’t mean he’s the best player in the world - it’s a team game so it’s very hard to know if Jokic is comprehensively better. Wemby obviously isn’t in their tier offensively.

Oh that yes absolutely, it’s fun to watch him playing around like a kid in a sandbox but he will get more reserved and polished. Hopefully he chills out before any injuries 

This is happening even right now tbh. In the first 2 years and the first half of this season, he definitely still had those bad habits of trying to do everything at once. But in their last stretch of 20 or so games he’s found his groove.

Ez clap

I have no doubt in Wemby’s mentality being solid in the playoffs. what we are yet to see is what teams will come at him with when they have a week or longer to prepare specifically against him. of course scouting and game plans have an impact on the regular season, but we have not seen him in a true playoff environment where the other team is throwing everything they possibly have at him. I expect he can still be a great playoff performer, but ill have to see it to be sure

yeah, but the ultimate test for best player in the league or the planet is ability to consistently overcome great teams when they are focuses on you… and to do that, and still win a lot. It would take more than a few good games in the playoffs before I personally take Jokic off the top.

An NBA playoff series is different than a single-elimination tournament, there are teams adjusting their plans from game-to-game and tightening up their defense to stop a specific player. It’s a different beast entirely.

Even the greatest players of all time took time to adjust to playoff intensity. That doesn’t mean they are straight cheeks but they can get shot down or made extremely uncomfortable. Jordan, Bron, Kobe. They all struggled in their first couple of playoff runs one way or another.

I agree with you that he probably won’t shrink in the moment, but tell me a team like the Celtics would not make his life absolute hell in a playoff series.

This is a good point. On Sunday’s podcast with Bill Simmons, Lowe said something like “these playoffs would be the most important and high pressure games Wemby has ever played.” This might be true, but I think for the non-US players, especially in the countries like France and Germany that can somewhat compete, the Olympics are probably even more important than the NBA. Maybe Lowe is right if the Spurs reach the finals, but at that point they would have defeated OKC and so would already have the requisite “playoffs scars” and would have shown that they can hang already.

Did we not see players underperform in the playoffs before? I am confident Wemby will be ok, but its a different environment. You’ll have to play against better schemes, teams fouling you more without getting called for it, better defenses.

You’re a drone

I think people just need to see the numbers to really be convinced. if he doubled his minutes and had 40 PPG even with the same exact record he’d be the MVP

That people pencil in dynasties just because a team looked dominant in a run (including us, which we still have a lot to prove as far as a dynasty goes). People want to give multiple hypothetical rings to Wemby before he’s even played a playoff game

Just crowning the next before it happens

We aren’t allowed to say that until Shai wins… wait a minute

It’s because Wemby is also on pace to be one of the best defensive players ever, if not the best

Who tf is yall???? Steph in my top 10 all time players