:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69115770/usa_today_15818312.0.jpg)
Every Monday at 5:00 PM Central this all-purpose thread goes up, and the comments section is where it’s going down. This is your place to discuss all the NBA’s action happening during the week when the Bucks are off-duty.
As we trundle our way towards the post-season, all indications point towards the NBA avoiding the need for another Bubble. By all indications I mean I haven’t seen any news about a Bubble since January. Trust me, I googled before I wrote those sentences.
Part of the fascinating talk about last year’s Bubble was whether a title there would be either The Most Deserved Ever or The Fakest Ever. Unfortunately for everyone involved, fans could construe teams’ results in the most exuberantly positive or catastrophically negative lights at the same time. The Lakers beat adversity, the Lakers are a fake superteam. The Bucks flamed out in mockable fashion, the Bucks were denied even a semblance of the home court advantage they were supposed to have. You get the point.
Assuming teams will be playing series in their typical 2-2-1-1-1 formats in their own arenas, and also assuming that arenas will be about 1/10th as full as usual, are we going to see the same type of “legacy-relevant” discussions as a year ago? There will be an inkling of home court advantage, but few fans may render that point moot. Shooting is up in significant ways across the league, and if a contender gets knocked off because players have gotten in a somewhat artificial groove over a season, is that a mark against said contender?
We’ll have to wait and see how things shake out before coming to any definitive conclusion, but I have an inkling that no matter the immediate take-aways, the title will come to be viewed as a semi-tarnished one-off. Whoever wins will have “deserved” it, but it’ll be reduced to nothing more than another strange blip in 1.5 seasons full of them.