Piece by: Alex Cuthbert
Looking at the Eastern Conference leaves us with one conclusion, three teams are set above the rest. The Milwaukee Bucks, the Philadelphia 76ers, and the Brooklyn Nets have shown throughout the season that they are the teams to beat in the East. Now, many people would say that the Brooklyn Nets are really the favorite to win the East, and I would agree that they are the most talented team. However, when the playoffs come, we know that the most talented team in the conference doesn’t always make it to the finals. The playoffs really come down to matchups and team wins over talent. And lately, I’ve seen some trouble brewing in Brooklyn; not because of personalities or egos clashing, but simply because the style of play the Nets like.
These Nets might very well be the most star studded team we’ve ever seen in the NBA with superstars to spare. It seems like every game, at least one of their big three is sitting out, yet they can still trot out two superstars who are capable of throwing up 30 points on a nightly basis and end up beating most teams by 20. Even when only one of them plays, the Nets are still a tough out. For these reasons and others, everyone has heralded the Nets as a lock to make the finals. But throughout the season, I’ve seen the Nets really struggle when they play physical teams.
Brooklyn has built its team around finesse and pretty basketball. While this style is really fun to watch, I don’t see it as a good strategy come playoff time considering the opponents they will face in the East.
When the playoffs start: the game slows down, the court gets smaller, and the refs start sitting back a little more. This really lends itself well to teams that play physical, in your face basketball. And when we analyze those top two teams in the East not named the Nets, we start to see bad matchups for the favorites. The 76ers led by Joel Embiid play really physical basketball with the big man dominating on offense, and co-star Ben Simmons playing at a DPOY level. The Milwaukee Bucks led by Giannis Antetokounmpo play really physical basketball with Giannis pounding the ball inside. Now, those two teams have historically struggled in the playoffs with early exits for both teams the last couple years. But both teams seem different now.
Obviously, the 76ers made moves to get more talent surrounding Embiid and Simmons, but the progression of those two players into who they are this season is really what sets this sixers team apart from those underperforming teams of the last couple years. Also, the introduction of Doc Rivers as the new head coach was an underrated hire, I think he was exactly the right coach to get this team on the right track. Going into the season, there was a lot of talk about the two stars: their fit together, how they could play complementary basketball, and how they could possibly make it work in Philly.
But seeing them this season, I think Doc Rivers has figured it out. Embiid is so talented on the offensive side that he is going to suck up touches because why would you not want the ball in his hands? And this seemed to take away from what Ben does as he likes to distribute the ball to his whole team and use the lane for himself. Playing Ben Simmons the way he wanted was forcing Joel Embiid to play on the perimeter too much and be less effective than he can be. Then Doc Rivers came in, basically told Ben that he’s not the guy on offense and needs to set his ego aside, and it actually worked. Ben’s role has shifted to being the leader on defense, and he’s really excelling in that role.
With both of these incredible players accepting their roles and buying into Doc Rivers’ plan, this team looks poised to turn around their underperforming reputation and make some real noise in the playoffs. In terms of the playoffs, the Sixers match up really well with Brooklyn and could cause a lot of trouble for them if they match up in the Conference Finals. However, as the seeding stands, the Nets would have to beat the Bucks before they can even get to Philly, and there’s a good chance Brooklyn doesn’t even see the Sixers.
The Milwaukee Bucks and more specifically Giannis have looked small in the playoffs the last two seasons. As the 1st seed each year, the expectations were sky-high for the MVP of each season, and he shrunk each time. Teams learned that they just had to clog the lane with big bodies and stop Giannis from getting to the paint with ease forcing him to play on the perimeter where he really struggled. But this season seems different for the Bucks with Giannis developing that perimeter game, and with the introduction of Jrue Holiday to this team. I think that the tactic that teams employed to stop Giannis before won’t work anymore as they can beat you multiple ways. The three stars in Milwaukee all play very physical defense and they will force players to take a lot of contested shots. And it is these Bucks that showed me what I needed to see to end up at the conclusion that the Nets will really struggle in a series against this team.
The back to back games that the Nets played against the Bucks, both wins for the Bucks, showed that their style of play is capable of slowing down the Nets enough that it's actually possible to out score them. Granted, James Harden sat out both of those games with an injury, and he is the catalyst on offense for Brooklyn, but I don’t see the addition of Harden making much of a difference as he plays the same style of basketball as the other superstars on the team. I really like Harden as a player: he might be the most complete offensive talent we’ve ever seen in the NBA, but him coming back to this team won’t change enough to make a difference.
And speaking of injuries, the three superstars in Brooklyn have barely had any time to play together and figure out everyone’s role as opposed to the established cores of the other top teams. It’s yet to be known how healthy any of these teams will be come playoff time, but if the Nets go into the playoffs without having any time to prepare with all three of these guys on the court together, it could add to the potential for this team to be knocked out of the playoffs early.
Considering all we’ve discussed, I believe the Milwaukee Bucks are the team that will come out of the East. This team just has a different look this season: they aren’t this incredible regular season team, Giannis isn’t doing everything himself, and Jrue Holiday might have been the most impactful addition of the season which is really hard to say as a big fan of Chris Paul and James Harden. Most members of the media are counting the Bucks out because of their milquetoast regular season compared to the last two years, but I think that actually bodes well for them as a championship contender.
The Nets, on paper, look like the greatest team ever assembled, but from what I’ve seen, they won’t make it out of the conference playing how they are; especially considering the real possibility of playing the Sixers right after the Bucks if they can survive the second round. If Brooklyn secures the one seed, then their prospects get much better with one of those two teams taking out the other. But as it stands, the Nets will have a really tough road to the finals, and I don’t see them being able to overcome the challenge of playing tough, physical basketball teams in the playoffs.