Hello NBA fans, we are suffering through a break of no basketball and it rang to me that no one is speaking about
Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving suiting up together next season. I’ve never been the biggest Kyrie Irving fan, he suffered a season-ending injury but I will give him his due by saying he would’ve got the Brooklyn Nets in the playoffs this season if he had remained healthy. Spencer Dinwiddie and Caris Levert have done a fantastic job in his absence and assuming the season resumes they will be tasked with assuring the Nets lock up one of the lower seeds in the Eastern Conference. On to Giannis who has had a historical season with a PER approaching 32 which is absolutely elite. He has lead the Bucks to the best record in the East and some believe they are the favorites for the Title, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar believed they were going to be the Champions last season due to the Bucks not losing more than 2 games in a row last season. Giannis will be a free-agent soon and I think he should be asking himself how he will look to compete against Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant next season.
I’ve been a longtime NBA fan and can confidently say I started watching in 1997 and I have seen how great of a scorer Kyrie Irving could be assuming he is healthy and watching Kevin Durant score 66 points at Rucker Park made me follow him in his days with the Oklahoma City Thunder. I remember Kyrie Irving’s shooting display against the Spurs in which he scored 57 points, I also remember Kevin Durant leaving Lou Williams and Patrick Beverley in disbelief at what they had to guard in the first round last season, they tried everything in the book and nothing worked as Kevin Durant scored 48 points on the Clippers. I love Giannis’s game, he is an elite rebounder and has developed into one of the best play-makers in the game but this reminds me of LeBron James going up against the Big-4 Celtics all over again in the late 2000’s. By no means am I saying the Nets will be favorites for the Title next season but Giannis will need more to beat the Nets next season, I still recall a game against the Mavericks in which Giannis went off for 40 plus and no one else provided much scoring the whole game. The Bucks lost that game and Luka Doncic was injured for the game who has been the anchor of the Mavericks the whole season.
There have been rumors the Nets will look to add a third piece to put themselves in the conversation for the Title and they should because Kyrie Irving last won a title with LeBron James, no disrespect to Kevin Durant but he is not the game manager LeBron James is and kept make up for Kyrie Irving’s deficiencies as a play-maker so the Nets must do their due-diligence as they search for a coach who can actually coach Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant. Just think about it, Kevin Durant got to the Finals got there with Westbrook and Harden. He won 2 championships but played alongside Curry,Klay,Green, and had an exceptional coach in Steve Kerr. Kyrie Irving is not better than Stephen Curry and no player on the Nets is on the level of a Klay Thompson on the Nets right now, although I still have hope in Caris Levert. Durant originally wanted to play with Levert so his desire to play in Brooklyn was about much more than just playing alongside his friend Kyrie Irving.
I can’t predict the future and can’t tell you what Giannis will decide 2021 but if he wants to win championships and become a Top 5 player all-time possibly he will need to leave Milwaukee. I’ll assume Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant stay together the next 2 seasons at least and make the Finals over the coarse of those 2 seasons and assuming this season resumes I still have my doubts about the Bucks making the Finals and even if they do I don’t see them beating who ever comes out of the West. Giannis is a great player and has blossomed before our own eyes into the Greek Freak but I don’t feel the Bucks can execute consistently enough in the playoffs in the half-court to beat a team like the Lakers or Clippers in the NBA Finals. Giannis began willingly shooting 3 pointers the 2019 NBA Playoffs but I don’t see anyone on that Bucks roster that can take pressure off Giannis off the dribble. Khris Middleton fleeced the Bucks for $178 million, he is a Tier 2 player at best and although he is shooting 50/40/90 if he is your second option you are in trouble. Brook Lopez is shooting below 30 percent from 3 point range this season compared to the 37 percent he averaged last season and at this point Eric Bledsoe is what he is, solid but won’t make the leap into an all-star because of he inconsistent shooting.
To conclude maybe if the Bucks trade for Chris Paul I’ll give Giannis Antetokoumpo a shot at an NBA Title over the next 3 years but they don’t have a guard who can make teams pay off the pick and roll, watching Bledsoe shoot jumpers coming off screens is cringy to say the least and if they had kept Malcolm Brogdon I would have gave them more of a shot this season. Brogdon is an efficient point guard with great size at 6’5 and exceptional defender, not to mention he can create his own offense and is an exceptional play-maker. I think Donte DiVincenzo has done a phenomenal job of providing play-making and isolation offense for the Bucks and with Giannis on the court the Bucks’s pace is ridiculous, end to end they swing the ball around quickly and play unselfish basketball which is reminiscent to the Golden State Warriors but even the Warriors ball movement became stagnant and Kevin Durant had to carry the Warriors offensively against the Rockets the 2018 West Finals, Giannis is not the scorer Durant is leading me to think Giannis will be left watching Kyrie and Durant shred him out of Milwaukee. For all I know Giannis retires in Milwaukee but I wouldn’t bet on Giannis winning in Milwaukee, till next time.
D-NBA 