Worst Conference Finals Round Ever?

[PhoSita]

I blame the embarrassment that is the East. OKC might have made the conference Finals in the East. Forget about Utah, Memphis or the Clippers.

I agree. There were at least a few teams out West that, if healthy, could've taken a game off Cleveland at least.

[PhoSita]

Yes I have lost some interest in the league this year. Obviously the cap stuff was horrid for the league. They also need to address vet buyouts. The contending teams shouldn't be able to get starter level players going and signing on for cheap after they get paid by a bad team

That's an interesting point. I hadn't thought of it that way, but bad teams basically pay these veterans to play for a ring elsewhere.

I wonder how that could be fixed.

[KGs Knee]

Whole lot of whining and crying in this thread. If it was the Celtics who were the "superteam" no one here would be upset.

Get over it.

The bottom line is the league is at its most profitable when teams like Cleveland and Golden St exist. I'd put money on this year's Finals setting all kind of viewership records.

[Ogaju]

My favorite part of all this is the hypocrisy by the league. Stern vetoed the cp3 to the Dwight/kobe Lakers for basketball reasons, but now its all allowed

I could honestly see d wade, rondo and Melo joining the cavs for the minimum or exceptions or something

How many people still do not understand Stern did not veto the trade. Cuban and Gilbert did.

[Denis998]

I would say so

[Ogaju]

 No doubt. Absolutely horrible playoffs so far. Celtics vs Wizards the exception.

 Hopefully the heavyweight matchup in the finals makes up for it.

 30 teams is wayyy to many. Watered down garbage. Need to cut 8 teams, and the league would be much better.

I agree with everything u wrote...I alway said 30 teams is way to many..24 be bout right

He wants 22 teams, you want 24. So you really do not agree with everything you he had to say.

[KGs Knee]

My favorite part of all this is the hypocrisy by the league. Stern vetoed the cp3 to the Dwight/kobe Lakers for basketball reasons, but now its all allowed

I could honestly see d wade, rondo and Melo joining the cavs for the minimum or exceptions or something

How many people still do not understand Stern did not veto the trade. Cuban and Gilbert did.

Do you still not understand that the league made the right decision for the New Orleans franchise, and that is the real reason that trade was vetoed?

[Ogaju]

NBA must do something about the super teams.
Just makes the league bad .

my ideas is every teams allowed to have so many players in a certain salary slot.
For example u can only give one player 25-30mill
Another player 20-25
And so on... more layers under lower slots.
One exception would be team draft picks .

Good idea that will not work as long as you have ring-chasers. Great players that will take less money to get a ring will blow a hole through your plan. MY PLAN has always been better, not perfect because I see openings for abuse, but a nice place to start. Here is the plan. You assign a salary scale to every player based on the highest offer they get in free agency. So  that crazy case of Malone and Payton going to the Lakers would not have happened because Malone would have been assigned his true market value which would have put the Lakers over the cap.

[Ogaju]

Jalen Rose and Wilbon said it always been this way but I think they are way off base.  The Celts and Lakers dominated the 80s but they had competitive series to get to the finals.   Right, now it might as well be a two team league.  Our team is little more than a practice squad.

Those two are paid millions to propagate a bad product. What else is new.

[Ogaju]

My favorite part of all this is the hypocrisy by the league. Stern vetoed the cp3 to the Dwight/kobe Lakers for basketball reasons, but now its all allowed

I could honestly see d wade, rondo and Melo joining the cavs for the minimum or exceptions or something

How many people still do not understand Stern did not veto the trade. Cuban and Gilbert did.

Do you still not understand that the league made the right decision for the New Orleans franchise, and that is the real reason that trade was vetoed?

the league did not make the decision. This argument is not whether it was good or bad, the arguments is about who nixed the deal. You want to argue about whether it was good or bad dont join that with an ongoing argument.

[KGs Knee]

My favorite part of all this is the hypocrisy by the league. Stern vetoed the cp3 to the Dwight/kobe Lakers for basketball reasons, but now its all allowed

I could honestly see d wade, rondo and Melo joining the cavs for the minimum or exceptions or something

How many people still do not understand Stern did not veto the trade. Cuban and Gilbert did.

Do you still not understand that the league made the right decision for the New Orleans franchise, and that is the real reason that trade was vetoed?

the league did not make the decision. This argument is not whether it was good or bad, the arguments is about who nixed the deal. You want to argue about whether it was good or bad dont join that with an ongoing argument.

Your argument is faulty. You clearly have zero clue about what you speak on.

Stern nixed the deal because it was a bad trade for New Orleans that would have set that franchise back and made it much more difficult to sell.

End of discussion. Your conspiracy theories are bizarre.

[Moranis]

Jalen Rose and Wilbon said it always been this way but I think they are way off base.  The Celts and Lakers dominated the 80s but they had competitive series to get to the finals.   Right, now it might as well be a two team league.  Our team is little more than a practice squad.

in the early 80's the Sixers were a real threat and at then end of the 80's the Pistons were but the rest of the league was very subpar in the 80's.  I mean seriously look at any season in the 80's and there were at most 3 teams that could realistically win  the title barring injury.  Same as today.

[Ogaju]

My favorite part of all this is the hypocrisy by the league. Stern vetoed the cp3 to the Dwight/kobe Lakers for basketball reasons, but now its all allowed

I could honestly see d wade, rondo and Melo joining the cavs for the minimum or exceptions or something

How many people still do not understand Stern did not veto the trade. Cuban and Gilbert did.

Do you still not understand that the league made the right decision for the New Orleans franchise, and that is the real reason that trade was vetoed?

the league did not make the decision. This argument is not whether it was good or bad, the arguments is about who nixed the deal. You want to argue about whether it was good or bad dont join that with an ongoing argument.

Your argument is faulty. You clearly have zero clue about what you speak on.

Stern nixed the deal because it was a bad trade for New Orleans that would have set that franchise back and made it much more difficult to sell.

End of discussion. Your conspiracy theories are bizarre.

Your argument is a non-sequitor I keep telling you. You are clueless and fail to understand the nuances of that situation.

First of all my position is not conspiracy based.

Second, whether Stern nixed the deal or the owners does not change the utility of the decision.

Now let me explain exactly what happened.

At the time that deal went down, the team was owned by the league and yes the league was trying to sell the team. Because the league owned the team Stern had a dual role here. He was commissioner of the league and he was in charge of running the NO league-owned franchise. Regarding the Paul deal, the GM had orchestrated the deal subject to approval by the OWNERS not the league office. This is where folks like you do not understand the nuance. Cuban and Gilbert as part OWNERS of the NO team led a revolt and got Stern in his capacity as the caretaker of the team to nix the deal. When Stern nixed the deal he was acting in his capacity as caretaker of the team, not his capacity as commissioner.

I will repeat I am not arguing with you or anyone whether the decision was good for the league or not. If you really want to know my opinion on that just ask. The fact that needs to be driven home is that Stern nixed the deal as caretaker of the team, not as commissioner.

[liam]

Jalen Rose and Wilbon said it always been this way but I think they are way off base.  The Celts and Lakers dominated the 80s but they had competitive series to get to the finals.   Right, now it might as well be a two team league.  Our team is little more than a practice squad.

in the early 80's the Sixers were a real threat and at then end of the 80's the Pistons were but the rest of the league was very subpar in the 80's.  I mean seriously look at any season in the 80's and there were at most 3 teams that could realistically win  the title barring injury.  Same as today.

The 80s were stacked with good teams. The Bucks had some very good teams.The Bucks won 50 games or more for 7 seasons, reached the conference finals four times. That Atlanta series we had that featured the Bird/Wilkens shoot out is an all time classic. The Pistons were good. The Bulls had Jordan. The Knicks had Bernard King. The East was very strong in the 80s otherwise The Celtics would've  won like 6 tittles instead of only 3. In the 80s all of the rounds of the playoffs were worth watching not just the finals.

[Ogaju]

Jalen Rose and Wilbon said it always been this way but I think they are way off base.  The Celts and Lakers dominated the 80s but they had competitive series to get to the finals.   Right, now it might as well be a two team league.  Our team is little more than a practice squad.

in the early 80's the Sixers were a real threat and at then end of the 80's the Pistons were but the rest of the league was very subpar in the 80's.  I mean seriously look at any season in the 80's and there were at most 3 teams that could realistically win  the title barring injury.  Same as today.

The 80s were stacked with good teams. The Bucks had some very good teams.The Bucks won 50 games or more for 7 seasons, reached the conference finals four times. That Atlanta series we had that featured the Bird/Wilkens shoot out is an all time classic. The Pistons were good. The Bulls had Jordan. The Knicks had Bernard King. The East was very strong in the 80s otherwise The Celtics would've  won like 6 tittles instead of only 3. In the 80s all of the rounds of the playoffs were worth watching not just the finals.

This !!!!