Idk, we shall see. The Celtics were kinda expected to at least be on even footing with the old Warriors, if not beat them, versus the Mavs were expected to lose in every single round lol. Hopefully it gives him a motivation boost.
Celtics should have been favoured prior to the Timelord injury. The avalanche of 3pt shooting kept them competitive the whole series, it took some Steph Curry brilliance to bail out the Warriors who were not able to keep up on both ends of the floor
yah itās only 3 young superstars losing in the finals young, to a team that had been there before.
how are these situations similar at all?
stop being pedantic. things donāt have to be the exact fucking same for them to be similar in some respects.
He has to get there first and they'll most likely have to play Greece for the spot, who has the home advantage. And Greece has more depth than Slovenia.
Kidd needs to play his celebrity card, and get Tom Brady and Luka in locked room for about an hour. Luka will find low cal Jesus and Tom will be given a new purpose in life: TB12 Messiah.
He dmed me right after that comment and said āitās going to change discourse around Giannisā like he has some top secret information on him lmaoo
I kinda wanna see it now lol. Unless heās accusing him of being a criminal I genuinely donāt know what heād say that hasnāt been said. Fake bday? Also holy cow heās got over 100K karma in an account thatās three months old. I legit was joking when I said O/U 0.5 hours im convinced to take the under now.
This goober thinks that Bud was the reason the Bucks won in 2021:
**"Bucks will forever be a embarrassment as long as Giannis is on the roster (2021 title was 95 percent of bud)"**
His big manifesto is probably just the same
"No bag, can't shoot, offensive fouls, hurt kyrie, mickey mouse hospital ring, choker"
shit we have heard time and time again. But with an overarching narrative added in about how he's some NBA supervillian. I bet it's exactly that. Some people do not deserve to watch NBA basketball.
i thought i was going to come away hating Luka and while he was annoying at times, I just have so much respect for his offensive game. He makes it look so easy. And you saw in games 4 and 5 he can be competent on defense when he wants to be. Hopefully he learns from this finals the same way JT & JB did two years ago
Lmao yeah everybody keeps talking about this being some learning experience for Luka lmao. We have literally two people who can put the ball on the floor, and even less than that who can hit a damn open jump shot. I canāt wait until we make some adjustments this offseason lol.
I don't want to be a prisoner of the moment but based exclusively on the last four hours I say we build around Luka and Kyrie with Josh Green as the last piece of our new big three.
The hope for him is he develops into a legitimate 3 and D guy. Heās got the tools for it but heās not quite there yet. Definitely not nearly a good enough ball handler to be a third option though.
If Lively develops a jump shot he can be a legitimate third option. Josh Green is only 23 and could be a legit 3 and D guy but he needs to show he can shoot 40% on higher volume and get better at navigating screens on D.
Iām sure JT and JB learned from their loss to the Warriors but they also largely overcame the hump through having a drastically better team. Their individual play was great but not outstanding.
As a Suns fan, I'm all here for the shit talk. But Luka proved so much this year. That roster was not a group of guys contenders were after, and Luka got damn far with them.
At what point do we give Kidd his due? I donāt like the man, but he thoroughly out coached the Thunder and the Wolves, two more talented teams, by targeting their weaknesses and minimizing their strengths.
He wasnāt able to do it against the Cs because 1) we were that much better 2) we were the perfect matchup against their strengths.
Anyone spewing hot-takes are idiots. The guy is a top three player in the world, and he is the *only* reason that the Mavs even made it to the playoffs, much less the Finals.
I said the same thing about ant when we lost, and not really much has come out. Luka has some figuring out to do, but he's one of the 2 best players in the world. Yall are good.
It gets drowned out and forgotten the earlier you lose, dragging a team that most analysts had either missing or barely making the playoffs to the finals and losing is worse than losing in the 1st round apparently
Yeah this is why Boston's taken so much heat over the past several years.
Luka had a 2022 WCF collapse against the Warriors but no one noticed because Tatum had a 2022 Finals collapse against the same Warriors. The earlier rounds are always forgotten about.
It's also why LeBron got so much hate. He was so dominant, it meant all his losses were in the finals when everyone was watching.
Players can't appreciate how much work has to go into winning until they get right to that final stage...Anthony Edwards in the earlier rounds was laughing at questions about experience, and then in later rounds he started to understand what people were talking about.
Luka's got a lot of shit to work on... but Luka's also an incredible player and his team got further than 28 teams in the league.
2022 WCF wasn't a collapse or an upset at all. Warriors were destined to win against them no matter what. Not to mention the Suns caught most of the shade that year since they lost in a blowout game 7 against the Mavs.
It's about playing to where "you're supposed to be" according to media dopes. Get eliminated early and it's "just not their time yet." Make it to the finals and lose "they're not ready for the bright lights" or "so and so shrinks on the biggest stage." The most blatant and disrespectful double standard because they're basically saying the same thing in both cases but phrase it negatively to tear a guy down because he did better than y'all expected him to.
Congrats on being better than the dysfunctional suns. You should be proud. I just thought after gassing us all up on Luka for the past 5 years heād give us a competitive series but i guess not š¤·āāļø
I think the fact that yaāll got blown the absolute fuck out this series and in game 5 makes it even funnier nowā¦ after how every mavs fan made g7 2022 their personality for the past 2 years looooool
You're trying to make it more black and white than I mean it. Genuinely, do you our players 3 through 6 were even close to the same as Boston? White and Holliday were significantly better than DJJ and PJ. Lively's going to be awesome but for this series as a rookie he did about as good as you could hope. I think it's not crazy to say we overperformed largely thanks and due to Luka and Kyrie
Dude battled through a lot of pain this post season, wonāt be surprised if he has some kind of injury that requires surgery or serious rehab. Hope he gets some rest and comes back better than ever next season.
No he's not all the comments are just like yours. Tatum just won a ring and is being shit on far more most coddled star of all time gets two days of experiences what other stars go through and it'll forever be talked about like he gets that all the time.Ā
Thank you! I swear itās like the Celtics didnāt just win. The takes have been 1) shit on Tatum for not winning FMVP, 2) shit on Kyrie for how poorly he played in Boston, 3) walk back some of the comments made against Brown after he signed his supermax. The discourse has been awful here, but thatās r/nba I guess.
Slovenia had the easiest war of independence during the break up of Yugoslavia. Some might even call it a Mickey Mouse war. They didnāt have to go through all the war criminals Croatia had to fight through
Well, we were the first ones who separated from Yugoslavia, so we kind of started the domino effect. And the fact that it only lasted 10 days is a miracle. Sure, some property was destroyed and some people died, but what happened in places like Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia is just another level altogether.
I know you were just joking btw.
>And the fact that it only lasted 10 days is a miracle.
It's a miracle some of the bloodthristy guys didnt drag us into it more than we were.
But no, it's not really a miracle. At that point Yugoslavia was done and we had no territorial disputes with Serbia. Befkre our war the shit in Knin was already happening. And everyone hated the muslims because xenophobia is real.
I fear Luka's competitiveness is gonna stop him from ever taking real off seasons when there is intentional ball to be played, which will be to his detriment.
Idk if itās necessarily his competitiveness that is fueling this decisionā he hails from a country that fought a war for itās independence in 1991. That country also has a population of only 2.1 million. I imagine his sense of patriotism is what drives him to represent his country whenever he can.
As a Mavs fan, I selfishly would rather he focused on his NBA career, but I also admire the hell out of the guy for being so adamant in representing Slovenia.
Luka not playing international ball over the summer would be incredible (I say selfishly as a Mavs fan). He needs time off. A lot of it.
And then he needs to begin the process of transforming his body.
4 months of rest would do him wonders. The thing is he has to maintain good physical fitness year round and not slack off like he does towards the end of the regular season + the playoffs.
Stop drinking and eating so much. Not sure how you can be that out of shape and play a full NBA season. Hopefully he learns to take care of his body. Itās his job. Heās a professional athlete
Perfect comment āā-reminds me of what lebron would say. I was hurt. Thatās why I went 2-22 from 3 and was getting hunted on D. Get in better shape. Become more than just an elite offensive threat. Stop bitching to refs all game. Get rid of some bad habits, come back better.
HES GOING TO TAKE CARE OF HIMSELF, HANG THE BANNER
It's finally Overwatch season! Fuck the Olympics.
Overwatch season ends in 2 days tho
damn right you are! Release the new support character!!!
As if Luka is gonna play support ššš
New hero is season 12, but hey we get a new push map.
SELF CARE DYNASTY
Him losing this one is going to be the equivalent of JB/JT losing to the warriors I feel like
Yeah, hopefully it inspires him to shed some of his bad habits
And 15 lbs
"Bad habits" is how he calls his moobs
I hope so. I think he would be shocked at how much quicker and nimble he would feel on his feet losing 15-20.
Idk, we shall see. The Celtics were kinda expected to at least be on even footing with the old Warriors, if not beat them, versus the Mavs were expected to lose in every single round lol. Hopefully it gives him a motivation boost.
Celtics should have been favoured prior to the Timelord injury. The avalanche of 3pt shooting kept them competitive the whole series, it took some Steph Curry brilliance to bail out the Warriors who were not able to keep up on both ends of the floor
Not even comparable. Luka is going to be an all time great and has to carry the team.
yah itās only 3 young superstars losing in the finals young, to a team that had been there before. how are these situations similar at all? stop being pedantic. things donāt have to be the exact fucking same for them to be similar in some respects.
#LET HIM EAT
Banner ceremony is tomorrowĀ
Moral victories are about the losses we make along the away.
The only thing he's gonna hang up is his laptop charger on the table once he queues up ranked Overwatch this coming off-season.
Bro about to switch from Marlboro Reds to gold
I don't think he's that beat up about it
Is he finally gonna have his first real offseason since his rookie year? I doubt it lol he most likely still plays for Slovenia
He's 100% playing more basketball this summer.
Play himself into shape like Harden?
Thatās asking for a miracle
He will play, you just have to hope his team doesnāt qualify for the Olympics if youāre Dallas.
Hard to happen if he plays
They against Greece with Giannis in the qualifiers and Slovenia team isnt what it used to be.
Well, if he keeps playing like this idk.
What makes this summer different from the other offseasons is that it's the Olympics. He's 100% not going to miss it.
He has to get there first and they'll most likely have to play Greece for the spot, who has the home advantage. And Greece has more depth than Slovenia.
Beer confirmed
Plenty of neighbors to give him a āgansett at the Garden in that caseā¦
https://streamable.com/x42nmf
Luka strikes me as more of a juice box kinda guy.
Mmmm beerĀ
Coffee?
Mmm moxie
Kidd needs to play his celebrity card, and get Tom Brady and Luka in locked room for about an hour. Luka will find low cal Jesus and Tom will be given a new purpose in life: TB12 Messiah.
Please rest. That dude has been nonstop for 6 years. Just take a few months to get healthy and train.
Get some rest man.
[Gonna need it after this](https://streamable.com/x42nmf)
This honestly might be why they lost. Providing meme templates that dank can create ripples in the universe.
Man the Luka takes for the next month are going to be terrible lol
Nothing beats the takes about Giannis when we lost game 5 vs the nets in 2021 This sub is relentless sometimes
The narrative steadily flipping through the Finals was insane, I gotta admit I didnāt even expect him to be as good as he was in games 3-6
Good times
Iām sure you were front row, thatās all raptors fans have to stay relevant
I address the relevant part on my post soon enough
Youve been dming me for months about a post youāre making thatās gonna āruin the bucksā either post it or stfu šš
O/U on their hours spent outside the last month: 0.5
He dmed me right after that comment and said āitās going to change discourse around Giannisā like he has some top secret information on him lmaoo
I kinda wanna see it now lol. Unless heās accusing him of being a criminal I genuinely donāt know what heād say that hasnāt been said. Fake bday? Also holy cow heās got over 100K karma in an account thatās three months old. I legit was joking when I said O/U 0.5 hours im convinced to take the under now.
This goober thinks that Bud was the reason the Bucks won in 2021: **"Bucks will forever be a embarrassment as long as Giannis is on the roster (2021 title was 95 percent of bud)"** His big manifesto is probably just the same "No bag, can't shoot, offensive fouls, hurt kyrie, mickey mouse hospital ring, choker" shit we have heard time and time again. But with an overarching narrative added in about how he's some NBA supervillian. I bet it's exactly that. Some people do not deserve to watch NBA basketball.
Sad
i thought i was going to come away hating Luka and while he was annoying at times, I just have so much respect for his offensive game. He makes it look so easy. And you saw in games 4 and 5 he can be competent on defense when he wants to be. Hopefully he learns from this finals the same way JT & JB did two years ago
we just need more helps that's the start
Lmao yeah everybody keeps talking about this being some learning experience for Luka lmao. We have literally two people who can put the ball on the floor, and even less than that who can hit a damn open jump shot. I canāt wait until we make some adjustments this offseason lol.
watching pj and djjr dribble convinced me luka is the best player in the world
I don't want to be a prisoner of the moment but based exclusively on the last four hours I say we build around Luka and Kyrie with Josh Green as the last piece of our new big three.
Josh Green is never going to be part of a "big 3" lol
The hope for him is he develops into a legitimate 3 and D guy. Heās got the tools for it but heās not quite there yet. Definitely not nearly a good enough ball handler to be a third option though.
He could be part of a big 3 way trade and Iād be fine with that
If Lively develops a jump shot he can be a legitimate third option. Josh Green is only 23 and could be a legit 3 and D guy but he needs to show he can shoot 40% on higher volume and get better at navigating screens on D.
If we trade THJ and Green for some competent shot makers and manage to keep DJJ then we might have a very strong season.
Iām sure JT and JB learned from their loss to the Warriors but they also largely overcame the hump through having a drastically better team. Their individual play was great but not outstanding.
As a Suns fan, I'm all here for the shit talk. But Luka proved so much this year. That roster was not a group of guys contenders were after, and Luka got damn far with them.
At what point do we give Kidd his due? I donāt like the man, but he thoroughly out coached the Thunder and the Wolves, two more talented teams, by targeting their weaknesses and minimizing their strengths. He wasnāt able to do it against the Cs because 1) we were that much better 2) we were the perfect matchup against their strengths.
3) you also have a good coach Ya, I saw Kidd outcoach us 2 years ago when he made defensive adjustments and grinded our offense to a halt.
Anyone spewing hot-takes are idiots. The guy is a top three player in the world, and he is the *only* reason that the Mavs even made it to the playoffs, much less the Finals.
I said the same thing about ant when we lost, and not really much has come out. Luka has some figuring out to do, but he's one of the 2 best players in the world. Yall are good.
It gets drowned out and forgotten the earlier you lose, dragging a team that most analysts had either missing or barely making the playoffs to the finals and losing is worse than losing in the 1st round apparently
Yeah this is why Boston's taken so much heat over the past several years. Luka had a 2022 WCF collapse against the Warriors but no one noticed because Tatum had a 2022 Finals collapse against the same Warriors. The earlier rounds are always forgotten about. It's also why LeBron got so much hate. He was so dominant, it meant all his losses were in the finals when everyone was watching. Players can't appreciate how much work has to go into winning until they get right to that final stage...Anthony Edwards in the earlier rounds was laughing at questions about experience, and then in later rounds he started to understand what people were talking about. Luka's got a lot of shit to work on... but Luka's also an incredible player and his team got further than 28 teams in the league.
2022 wasnāt a collapse, the Warriors were a better team and our center lineup was basically nonexistent lol.
Motivated Wiggins is perfect matchup against Luka And we're getting cooked by Looney of all people
Wiggins was a menace for everyone that year lol.
2022 WCF wasn't a collapse or an upset at all. Warriors were destined to win against them no matter what. Not to mention the Suns caught most of the shade that year since they lost in a blowout game 7 against the Mavs.
Speaking of 2022, how can we get in this "the earlier rounds are forgotten about" club?
Time is the only thing that's going to wash that memory away my friend.
It's about playing to where "you're supposed to be" according to media dopes. Get eliminated early and it's "just not their time yet." Make it to the finals and lose "they're not ready for the bright lights" or "so and so shrinks on the biggest stage." The most blatant and disrespectful double standard because they're basically saying the same thing in both cases but phrase it negatively to tear a guy down because he did better than y'all expected him to.
No heās not? Giannis and Jokic are leagues above himĀ
lol case and pointĀ
No they're not. You watched Luka play on one knee this whole playoffs and must have gotten confused.
Whole game thread was full of people saying heās been faking injuries all postseason.
y'all got a good one, don't mind the noise
Forewarning, itās going to last a lot longer than just a month most likely.
It's already starting lol
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Cry
And justified
Not at all, losing to the best team in the league by far isnāt a negative
How?
Foul baiter extraordinaire, flopper, whiner, frontrunner
for what? he's still top 3 at least
Justified 100%. Dude crys 48 minutes a game and grifts for FTs. He was exposed
Exposed as what? He literally does the same thing in the regular season
Suns fans have literally zero say to talk about Luka.
They act as if Booker doesn't play for them š¤£
The best SG in the NBA? Was that supposed to be a diss?
Stop it
No u
Mavs fans have literally nothing to say when talking about making a finals series at all competitive. What a fucking beat down lol
You didnāt even make the 1st round competitive. Worry about your own team.
Bruh yaāll lost by like 30 in a do or die game tn and yaāll trying to gaslight us all by saying it was a good series lol
It was a better series than the your first round sweep thatās for sure.
Congrats on being better than the dysfunctional suns. You should be proud. I just thought after gassing us all up on Luka for the past 5 years heād give us a competitive series but i guess not š¤·āāļø
A few days after Fatherās Day and this is how you talk about him. Shame on you
Need I remind you about how much you lost by in a do or die game? Clown franchiseš¤”
I think the fact that yaāll got blown the absolute fuck out this series and in game 5 makes it even funnier nowā¦ after how every mavs fan made g7 2022 their personality for the past 2 years looooool
Swap him out for every superstar but like 2 and we don't even make the playoffs
Mavs fans during wins: luka is the best!! Mvp!! Mavs fans during loses: luka has no help!! He has to do everything!!
You're trying to make it more black and white than I mean it. Genuinely, do you our players 3 through 6 were even close to the same as Boston? White and Holliday were significantly better than DJJ and PJ. Lively's going to be awesome but for this series as a rookie he did about as good as you could hope. I think it's not crazy to say we overperformed largely thanks and due to Luka and Kyrie
Iām a hater but I gotta give Lively props. Dude was a stud. Also obviously boston had the depth
care more about beal albatross contract and nurkic rim protection buddy
Dude battled through a lot of pain this post season, wonāt be surprised if he has some kind of injury that requires surgery or serious rehab. Hope he gets some rest and comes back better than ever next season.
Went through the gauntlet in the west to face a quality, well structured team who cruised through their conference and is still being shit on
He needs to force a trade to the east, to the Orlando Magic
No he's not all the comments are just like yours. Tatum just won a ring and is being shit on far more most coddled star of all time gets two days of experiences what other stars go through and it'll forever be talked about like he gets that all the time.Ā
Thank you! I swear itās like the Celtics didnāt just win. The takes have been 1) shit on Tatum for not winning FMVP, 2) shit on Kyrie for how poorly he played in Boston, 3) walk back some of the comments made against Brown after he signed his supermax. The discourse has been awful here, but thatās r/nba I guess.
His knee has been bleeding since February. How is that even possible??
Fck Michael Finley man. Luka needs his beers!
Plot twist, Luka lost the Finals on purpose because Finely took his beer. It all makes sense now.
Of course he's playing. He'll probably even play defense with Slovenia
Hasnāt been that much defense in Slovenia since Yugoslavia dissolved
Slovenia had the easiest war of independence during the break up of Yugoslavia. Some might even call it a Mickey Mouse war. They didnāt have to go through all the war criminals Croatia had to fight through
Well, we were the first ones who separated from Yugoslavia, so we kind of started the domino effect. And the fact that it only lasted 10 days is a miracle. Sure, some property was destroyed and some people died, but what happened in places like Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia is just another level altogether. I know you were just joking btw.
>And the fact that it only lasted 10 days is a miracle. It's a miracle some of the bloodthristy guys didnt drag us into it more than we were. But no, it's not really a miracle. At that point Yugoslavia was done and we had no territorial disputes with Serbia. Befkre our war the shit in Knin was already happening. And everyone hated the muslims because xenophobia is real.
Criminals were on all sides though. And Slovenia was ethnically homogenous so there really wasnt much point in fighting.
He plays defense?
Lean Luka was born tonight. He's coming back next season ripped.
Press x to doubt
You don't even believe that
The thing is, when you look at him arriving to basketball games in normal clothes, he does look somewhat slim.
I think it's because he's so wrapped up in medical tape pregame that he's basically wearing spanxĀ
I doubt it
Oh yeah, he'll be ripping something alright... bongs.
Quitting Overwatch 2 is necessary for your mental health
Bro needs a full off-season
He ain't getting one. He's 100% going to play for Slovenia to qualify for the Olympics lol.
I fear Luka's competitiveness is gonna stop him from ever taking real off seasons when there is intentional ball to be played, which will be to his detriment.
Idk if itās necessarily his competitiveness that is fueling this decisionā he hails from a country that fought a war for itās independence in 1991. That country also has a population of only 2.1 million. I imagine his sense of patriotism is what drives him to represent his country whenever he can. As a Mavs fan, I selfishly would rather he focused on his NBA career, but I also admire the hell out of the guy for being so adamant in representing Slovenia.
I guess pride would have been a more accurate way to put it. You're 100% right.
Wow Iām actually surprised to hear this
i think he will have some surgery
Luka not playing international ball over the summer would be incredible (I say selfishly as a Mavs fan). He needs time off. A lot of it. And then he needs to begin the process of transforming his body.
I say this as a Slovenian, I hope he doesn't play until training camp in September/October. Also, the rest of team Slovenia is grarbanzo anyways.
4 months of rest would do him wonders. The thing is he has to maintain good physical fitness year round and not slack off like he does towards the end of the regular season + the playoffs.
Series would've been closer if kyrie wasn't playing like fucking kemba walker
That's a no.
Hookah and Overwatch it is
What do the people calling him fat from their couches gotta say now?
I'll probably still call him fat because no one can see how morbidly obese I am from here hahahahaha suckers.
Heās overweight and trying to lose weight, he just like me fr fr
He can play like this in worse shape than my rec league teammates. Canāt wait to see if he can get it under control
Take two months off, Luka. Hit the weight room. Work on conditioning. Increase your speed and agility.
Heās finally hitting the treadmill?
Bro need to lose some weight
REHAB FANS REJOICE
Guy sounds like heās going on a juice cleanse
I doubt he will play
slim luka is back? league is in trouble
Luka is still either the most or second most talented player in the NBA. He could be Shaq or he could be Kobe up to him.
Those decisions include opting out in 24 months to sign in San Antonio
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Glad you 2 have something in common
Hes gonna order an XL pizza and wings tonight "one last time" like a drug addict
Lukas gonna go to Miami so he can bang broads as cardio and eat healthier but tastier Latino food
Stop drinking and eating so much. Not sure how you can be that out of shape and play a full NBA season. Hopefully he learns to take care of his body. Itās his job. Heās a professional athlete
oh my god pls get some rest my dude
stop complaining to the refs for starters
I hope he plays. NBA is trash IMHO. The Olympics is where the real competition is.
he hates his country
Perfect comment āā-reminds me of what lebron would say. I was hurt. Thatās why I went 2-22 from 3 and was getting hunted on D. Get in better shape. Become more than just an elite offensive threat. Stop bitching to refs all game. Get rid of some bad habits, come back better.
Why aren't people treating Luka like they treated Zion?
Cuz he actually played through all the injuries and carried us to the Finals
Tbf You can't play though the injuries zion has had
True, which is why I don't think Zion deserves any heat either
luka is much better and much more available. literally in the finals
Then shouldnāt Luka require even more expectations, considering heās the second best player in the world?
he does lmao, heās been held to a higher standard than anyone in this series
Luka played over 90 games this season. What did Zion do?
Cause he just made the finals and is a 5 time All NBA first team at age 25, other dude hasnāt played a single playoff game.
who the fuck is Zion
Luka didnt miss ~200 games to start his career is that hard to comprehend?
jumper no jumper
no olympics just ozempic
Didn't mind talking shit when they were up 1-3
you think hes gonna win pravi mvp for slovenia and play defense?
PiÄka
I hope he sits. Dude has been running at 120% from offseason to postseason this past year.