Hello readers, welcome to the latest issue of O For 4. Thank you if you are a repeat reader. This week is going to be very basketball-centric as there were several headlines around the sport to help fill this otherwise relatively quiet portion of the year. And just so this week’s issue is not all basketball, I will be talking about the Stanley Cup Finals as well.
1. The Celtics Are Champs: Was It Impressive?
The Boston Celtics captured their 18th NBA Championship on Monday night when they vanquished the till-then red-hot Dallas Mavericks. I had predicted that series would go to the Celtics in six games; it only lasted five. Let’s get the formalities out of the way. Congratulations to the Celtics. They were the best team in the regular season and the best team throughout the playoffs.
Beyond that, the question I am asking myself is how impressed am I with this team. I will happily admit I have been a fan of this team for a few years now and am happy to see them win that elusive title. There are a lot of likable players and they usually play an entertaining brand of hoops. In the very first issue of O For 4, I called Jaylen Brown “one of the best Robins in the NBA.” After earning the Larry Bird and Bill Russell trophies for being the MVP of both the Eastern Conference Finals and the NBA Finals, it would not be an unreasonable question to ask if Boston actually has two Batmans. Jayson Tatum, while not being his best self in the Finals until the clinching game five, is still an all-world player. Jrue Holiday proved he was worth the assets which Boston gave up in the trade for him last offseason. Kristaps Porzingis made the most of the games he was available in the Finals and certainly contributed to the ease with which Boston finished off their last opponent. When Porzingis was out, 17-year veteran Al Horford played like a man ten years younger. Even Sam Hauser, Payton Pritchard, and Xavier Tillman made contributions in their bench minutes. This Celtics team is arguably the most complete team we have seen in a few years.
But are they truly great? As much as I say I like this team, I will say I was not impressed by the run they had in these playoffs. In round one, they faced a Miami Heat team whose best player, Jimmy Butler, missed the entire series. In round two, the Cleveland Cavs were without their star, Donovan Mitchell, for the final two games. And in the third round, the Indiana Pacers lost their starting point guard, Tyrese Haliburton, who just averaged a double-double (20.1 PPG, 10.9 APG) this past season, in game two. So yeah, going through the East Playoffs with a 12-2 record against those depleted teams was not that phenomenal, in my book.
In the Finals, Boston was not the recipient of any beneficiary opponent injuries. Rather, they benefited from the disappearance of Kyrie Irving’s offense (whose 19.8 PPG in the Finals was well below his regular season and playoff averages), and, even more circumstantial, the uninspired play of Luka Doncic. Going back to another previous blog, I was ready to anoint Luka as the undisputed Alpha of the NBA. In the end, he did end up being the biggest storyline of these Finals, but it was not for the reasons he would have liked. Rather, he was catching flak from all angles for his poor (even absent) defensive efforts, his complaining and his yelling at referees (not to mention his own sideline), and his suddenly ice-cold three point shooting (he shot 15% below his regular season rate in the Finals). Luka will have to wait to claim that throne. For now, it probably remains vacant. But back to the Celtics, when you are not the biggest story in your own championship-winning series, that brings into question how good you truly were.
I do not think Boston’s success in 2023-24 will be duplicated. I think this will be another case of a team reaching the mountaintop and then not sniffing it again. We have seen it yearly lately with the Toronto Raptors (who borrowed Kawhi Leonard for a year from the USA), the bubble Lakers (who won that title in the late Kobe Bryant’s honor), the Milwaukee Bucks (who may have benefitted from the amazing play of Trae Young in those playoffs as the Atlanta Hawks got the 1-seed Philly 76ers out of the Bucks’ path), the Golden State Warriors (who finally put it all back together after Durant left only to fall apart that offseason beginning with the Draymond Green punch), and the Denver Nuggets (who we will see if they can come back after only making it to round two in their title defense season). I think the trend continues and an improving Eastern Conference, and hopefully a healthier one, will stop the 2024-25 Celtics’ attempt to repeat. Enjoy your summer of celebrating, Boston. It will not happen again next year.
2. The Stanley Cup Finals: Can Edmonton Come All The Way Back?
I had remarked to myself the other day, when both the NBA and NHL Finals had had their respective game 4s, that the two leagues were clearly cost-cutting by consolidating their scriptwriting departments. Fortunately for all of us, the Edmonton Oilers went off script and have actually made these Stanley Cup Finals a highly entertaining series. I had predicted Oilers in six before this series began; now I am left to hope for Oilers in seven. While no team in NBA history has ever come back from an 0-3 series deficit (now 0-157 all time), it has happened on a few rare occasions in the annals of the NHL. There have been four such instances in hockey, including one time in the Stanley Cup Finals. Another Canadian team, the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs rallied back against the Detroit Red Wings in that year’s Finals to become the first team in NHL history to accomplish the remarkable feat. And three other teams have done it since, though not in the final round.
After avoiding the sweep with their 8-1 victory in game 4, the largest margin of victory ever for a team down 3-0 in a series, the Edmonton Oilers used a line from star Connor McDavid’s game four post-game interview as a rallying cry and it has been repeated in every show leading up to game five. They wanted to “Drag them back to Alberta”.
In the past, I have seen players make guarantees of a win. Most famously for me is Rasheed Wallace’s “Guaransheed” in the 2004 NBA Playoffs when the Detroit Pistons won game two of the Eastern Conference Finals. Even though McDavid did not guarantee a victory, this quote took it to a next level. For those Pistons, they went on to win the NBA Championship that year, so “Guaransheed” gained more fame. If the Oilers pull off the comeback and hoist Lord Stanley’s Cup, prepare to hear the quote repeatedly for the next few months. It will be on shirts and hats celebrating the Oilers’ championship. Oilers fans will use it amongst each other as a greeting the same way Alabama fans say “Roll Tide” instead of “Hello”. Eventually, the saying will transform and take on a new meaning, similar to how “crossing the Rubicon” is used today with no connection to its historical origin. In the future, anytime someone, in sports or elsewhere, can persevere despite facing a great disadvantage, especially against someone or something else, it will be said that they “dragged them back to Alberta.”
I am all here for it. Nothing against Florida and their rat-tossing fans (which by the way was a total knockoff of Detroit’s octopus-throwers), but I want to see the high-octane offense of these Oilers continue to light the lamp. I want to see McDavid continue to flirt with NHL records (he currently has 42 points in these playoffs and is chasing Gretzky’s record of 47 from the 1985 postseason). I want to see Canada get the Stanley Cup back for the first time in nearly three decades. I want to see the Oilers complete the comeback so that my Red Wings don’t have the distinction of being the only team in Stanley Cup Finals history to blow a 3-0 lead. And I want to see “Drag them back to Alberta” live on.
Let’s see if they come up with a catchy phrase for game six. Probably not. One per playoffs is enough. At this point, they do not need it. They have momentum on their side and they know what they need to do. Come on, Edmonton. Oilers in 7… please.
3. U.S. Men’s Olympic Basketball Team: Is Gold Inevitable?
On Wednesday, the roster for the 2024 U.S. Men’s Olympic Team was revealed. The 12-man list is a star-studded cast of NBA All-Stars, MVPs, and champions. The twelve men selected are:
Bam Adebayo
Devin Booker
Stephen Curry
Anthony Davis
Kevin Durant
Anthony Edwards
Joel Embiid
Tyrese Haliburton
Jrue Holiday
Lebron James
Kawhi Leonard
Jayson Tatum
Since the Olympics changed their rules and began allowing NBA players to compete in what had until then been purely an amateur competition, a sea change that led to the creation of the 1992 “Dream Team”, the USA has captured Olympic gold in every games except the 2004 edition from Athens, where they settled for the bronze. The US not winning the gold was the big story of those Olympics, deservedly so. Basketball is still the one sport where the USA is ahead of the rest of the world, though admittedly the world continues to get better, as evidenced by the growing number of foreign-born players in the NBA.
If I were to ask people if this year’s team will win the gold again, most would certainly say “yes” without giving it much thought. It feels almost like the inevitableness of the USSR winning hockey gold, as they did all but once from 1964 to 1992 (Note: the 1992 team was officially known as the Unified Team in the aftermath of the dissolution of the USSR and featured players from five of the the 15 former Soviet Republics).
But will this year’s team really just cruise to the gold? I think I have my doubts. To start, Embiid missed half this past season due to injury and Halliburton got knocked out of the playoffs for the same reason. Age is also an impact as Lebron James and Kevin Durant are each old enough to be playing in their fourth Olympics; somehow Curry has never played in one before, but he is no spring chicken either. And we need to see how much fatigue there is for Tatum and Holiday after their run to the NBA title just a month before the Paris Games begin.
So yes, I think we could see the American team get tested more so than we are accustomed to. I do not think they fall short of the gold, but a loss or a narrow victory in the group stage, as a wake-up call, would not surprise me. I think the real question that needs to be asked, however, is whether the Olympics should continue this thirty-plus year experiment of allowing professional athletes (it has since expanded to Olympic hockey as well as other sports) to compete.
It is an easy “No” from me. It’s not even entertaining anymore, and the only suspense is who will get to lose to the USA in the Gold Medal Game. The US team is not proving anything with their dominance. The whole world gets it. Basketball is our sport. Let’s go back to inviting the top college kids to the Olympics. As I wrote that last sentence, the thought popped into my head that maybe the opportunity to play for their country will keep kids playing at the collegiate level longer, which I would be a big fan of. That may not be enough incentive though, not when the lure of millions of dollars is calling you, so never mind that thought.
My position remains though. I would be more impressed by seeing America’s top 18-22 year old kids winning gold then seeing Lebron and KD running it back for the fourth time.
Go Team USA! Just don’t be surprised if I do not watch any of these games.
4. Pistons Fire Head Coach Monty Williams: How Lucky Is Monty?
Let’s finish this week’s blog with some hometown coverage. As a Detroit native, I have seen more than my fair share of underachieving franchises. The Tigers had a span of over a decade from the 90s to the 00s without a winning season including one year where they set the AL record for most losses. The Red Wings, fortunately, have been good for most of my life, though they are currently in an eight-season run of missing the playoffs. Of course, there are the Lions who, until these past two years, were the epitome of a cursed franchise and remain one of four teams (and only one who has been around since the merger) never to appear in a Super Bowl. But for all that cellar-dwelling that Detroit teams have partaken in, I think what I have seen from the Pistons over the past decade and a half may be a brand new level of ineptitude, even by Detroit standards. In the past fifteen seasons, the Pistons have made the playoffs twice, and were swept out of the first round both times. They have actually finished dead last more than they have made the playoffs during this span. This era covers the end of one ownership and the beginning of the current one. There have been four general managers, with a fifth having just been brought on after this last season. And there have been a total of seven head coaches, the most recent who was fired after just one season.
The most recent coach, Monty Williams, probably deserved a chance at another year. He most likely would have kept his job had the Pistons not had a regime change and hired a new GM to try to steer the ship. Williams has been an accomplished coach in this league, even leading a team to the Finals previously. I put no blame on him for the league-worst season the Pistons had in 2023-24. The roster is an absolute trainwreck. And so I say to Monty Williams, “Congratulations.” I am sure he had a sense of optimism and belief when he accepted the job that he could get things turned around. Clearly, he bit off more than he can chew. Again, not his fault. He should be thanking his lucky stars that he got out after just one season. And that does not even take into consideration all the money he is still owed from his contract.
This brings me to my last take of the week. This was never a job he should have accepted. As accomplished as he had been in the NBA previously, he could have been patient and waited for a better opportunity to come along, even if it meant waiting a season or two. Monty, and coaches in general, really should be doing homework on a team thinking of hiring him just as the team does their homework on a perspective coach. If he would have looked at the roster and the track record of the front office, he should not have come to the conclusion that this was a good idea. This position, or any coaching job on a team stuck in a seasons’ long playoff drought, should be reserved for a first-time head coach, someone getting the bump up from being an assistant. I know that that is not what management may be looking for, that maybe they have already concluded that they need someone with proven experience, so I guess that is a bit of a catch-22 here.
I just do not like seeing accomplished and respected coaches being associated with such poorly managed teams and having their reputations tarnished. Leave “opportunities” like the Pistons one to someone new looking to make a name for himself, not someone who already has. I hope, if Monty Williams decides he still wants to coach, that his one-year tenure with the Pistons does not impact the decision of any other general manager considering him for their job. As for the Pistons, it is too bad that JJ Redick is reportedly getting the Lakers job. That would have been the right kind of candidate, in my opinion, as he has never been the HC before. He had been named in reports as a person of interest for Detroit’s brass. Here’s hoping they continue to look for someone new. Here’s hoping they get someone in next week’s draft (June 26 & 27) that can finally improve the quality of the lineup. Here’s hoping the new coach and the newest lottery pick can finally lead this team back to relevancy. And here’s hoping the Pistons can finally start following in the Lions’ footsteps. Oh, how I have waited to be able to say those words.
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