speedrun

Great article, but I'm not so sure that graphic is helping anyone understand or learn lol

It's great to see these kind of success stories, where teams don't panic and continue to let their players grow. That said, I can't help but wonder if the Nuggets were actually benefiting from their previous bad luck. Would this level of patience have been extended if Murray didn't get hurt? That built-in excuse made it much easier to keep the core together and try again.

So many teams wind up breaking apart due to perceived failure in the postseason, and you have to wonder if any of them could have had success if they had stuck together for a bit longer.

Western Conference playoff contender

Oof, that's a painful descriptor. And this kind of a pivot at the absolute nadir of Zion's value is an interesting choice. I could definitely see Portland jumping at the chance if they offer either Zion or Ingram, but I don't really understand where that would leave the Pels going forward

An interesting subplot is that since Kawhi's 2020 Raptors run, none of the finals teams have had a dominant, heliocentric wing. Maybe Boston, but even that team didn't quite rely on Tatum in the same way that other teams before had. Since the Heatles, the consensus has basically been that wings are the most important position in modern basketball, allowing teams to play 'positionless' and spread the floor.

But over the last three years the best teams have bucked that trend, instead being lead primarily by guards or bigs. Going into next season, most people would probably have a couple of centers at the top of their best players list. And in the last 6 NBA drafts, the only dominant wing player to be taken was Ant. Interesting to see the league pivot so quickly, considering it was only a few years ago that Ballmer went all out and built almost a whole team with 6'7" - 6'9" guys

Absolutely deserved, clearly the best team in the league at the end of it all.

Can't wait to see how they follow it up, this team feels eerily reminiscent of the 2015 Warriors - lots of talk about how the competition wasn't that stiff and they might not have gotten the chip in other years. Would be fun to see the Nuggets come out on a heater next year too

Deep Rock Galactic is always one I like to mention to friends. Basically the modern Left for Dead, and it's fantastic. I will say that as someone who's logged well over 1k hours on it since the early days, this next season is the first time I've felt like the game is starting to stagnate. Since the move to a season pass there's been less and less content compared to years past in general. Nonetheless, for a new player there is all sorts of stuff to keep you occupied and having fun. And there are absolutely no scummy practices or microtransactions involved

Also as much as it pains me to recommend Blizzard, I've been having an absolute blast with Diablo 4

As a note, for anyone who's waited this long to play Cyberpunk, it might be worth waiting just a bit longer. CDPR is releasing an 'expansion' which sounds like it's going to completely rework a lot of the core systems and fix many of the issues that were most commonly talked about. https://www.videogameschronicle.com/features/cyberpunks-expansion-totally-overhauls-the-original-game/

I was able to read the whole thing, so seems to be working! I also had the 'you were gifted this article by a Post subscriber' message at the bottom

In case it winds up paywalled for others: https://archive.md/qwwBa

Disappointing to hear of the success, but not entirely unsurprising. I imagine it's a matter of time before all the other streaming giants follow the same path

the off-season and rumors are already starting to hit

That's just NBA busy season, the boring part where we had to play/watch the game is finally over.

As for the rumors, I think the Blazers ones might be a bit credible. While I don't think Ayton is the answer to their questions it certainly feels like the kind of move Portland would make. Don't see any world in which the CP3/Harden swap happens, that's horrendous for Philly. It might even be better for them to let him leave for nothing with how big CP3's contract is.

7 Lakers on that list - they're going to have a whole new squad next year lol. Even if they don't want to bring back all those guys, the success of their playoff run is definitely going to help most of them get a bigger bag. Rui and Reaves in particular really upped their stock

Yup, having a name is a pretty important aspect of growth. And while the fediverse could certainly work, it's not very intuitive for new users and also covers such a broad range of functionalities that it won't help people who are specifically looking for a Reddit alternative. Sure 'lemmy' is a misnomer, but it's better to have a name being used incorrectly than no name at all.