What is up, fellow thermonuclear a efforts. I am Damp Valley coming at
you with our third of six installments on this NBA what If project very quickly.
If this is your first time listening to the podcast, episodes aren't always
this short. This is just meant to sort of some digestible audio content,
which also coincides with a stretch of time in which I'm traveling. But please
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retweet you at Hardwood Knox, I'm at Damp Valley, FA v al E.
All our socials are in the description as sort of a brief refresher before
we get started. I'm going through these quick what ifs for every franch eyes.
I did this project for Bleacher Report. You can find the full article
with every team's results in the podcast description. I ask people who cover,
follow, or root for every single NBA team what their biggest what if is
for the organization. A lot skewed more recently, that was totally fair game
looking at just the you know, not recency bias, but just recent recent
history. I think that matters. Some went a little bit more into the
past. It was all very informative and it forces us to kind of think
about these ripple effects, what could have beens. Are some franchise franchises even
still reeling or filling the feeling the I don't even call it ill effects,
but the ramifications of these one ifs. It's an instructive exercise. Let me
know what yours are for these teams, whether you're fans of them or just
rooting for the NBA in general. I think they bring up some interesting discussions,
but I think it's a good time to really cannonball into the Central Division.
We begin with the Chicago Bulls, and I spoke with Morton stig Jensen
from TV to play in the NBA podcast for this. He ended up disagreeing
with my moment, but you know, like, let's just start this off.
What if Michael Jordan never retired the first time? What if Derek Rose
never towards ACL during the twenty twelve playoffs. What if we were all spared
from the three Alpha's era. What if the organization had mercifully moved on from
the Gar Foreman and John packs in front office regime, unaffectionately known as gar
Packs much sooner. Those were the flash Bowl moments that first went off inside
my mindful when brainstorming for these Chicago Bulls. But Mort he came up with
something different. He disagreed. This is what he wrote to me. I'd
like to go back to the twenty seventeen NBA Draft, when the Bulls decided
to trade Jimmy Butler after inexplicably pairing him with Rajon Rondo and an aging Dwayne
Wade this season before. Because every time you set up your star player to
fail, you've got to do it right gar Packs. In the trade,
mort continued, The Bulls also inexplicably forked over the sixteenth pick in the draft
to the Minnesota Timberwolves. Given that the former Bulls front office regime consisted of
horrible negotiators negotiators, excuse me, Let's use our what if card on that
and ask what if the Bulls got the twenty seventeen NBA Draft right, Assuming
they wouldn't have given up number sixteen, the Bulls who would have then acquired
Chris Dunn, Zach Levine, and Minnesota's seventh overall pick for Butler would have
been armed with the seventh and sixteenth selections. Instead of going for lowry Marketing
at number seven, the organization could have gone all in on bam Adebayo,
who would have given them a proper two way big man instead of the one
dimensional Marketing who provided nothing but frustration to the Bulls fan base for four seasons.
While the general public was surprised to see Adebayo's full game in the NBA
compared to the limited version they saw at Kentucky, most scouts had seen him
during practices and new there was more to him. Proper scouting from the side
of the Bulls could have unearthed that, and with the sixteenth pick, the
Bulls could have swung a trade with Denver, who dealt the thirteenth pick to
Utah for Trey Lyles and the twenty fourth selection. Relinquishing the sixteenth pick in
that trade as well as Denzel Valentine, who still had hope in twenty seventeen
for anyone who was wondering, would have been a far more attractive package and
allowed the Bulls to pick Donovan Mitchell for themselves. If Denver wanted Bobby Portis
and Klamer Titch instead. So be it if you're keeping score at home,
the what if Bulls now have a new core of Levigne, at a,
Bio and Mitchell This intrigues me. Jenten also noted that the Bulls Lord also
noted that the Bulls Cash consideration their way out of the number thirty eight pick
in this draft, a selection that could have technically been used on Dylan Brooks,
Isaiah Hartenstadt, Monte Morris, or even Thomas Bryant. My issue here
is this is a complicated set of transactions that no team probably hits on in
full. It's also a worthwhile vortex to journey down. Knowing the Bulls extracted
plenty of championship equity from MJ and that pre injury d Rolls d Ros always
would have ran into the Big Three era heat. It sort of makes the
idea that they got this two thousand and I'm sorry, this two seventeen draft
wrong hits that much harder. What would be your biggest one for the Bulls?
Let me know. We move on to the Cleveland Cavaliers, though thinking
about the sheer number of what if moments for the Cleveland Cavaliers since Lebron James
entered the league can get overwhelming. What if he never left the first time?
What if he never came back? What if the Golden State Warriors never
added Kevin Durant twenty sixteen? How many titles would Lebron second go round in
Cleveland? Feature? Would Kyrie every never request a trade? Will Lebron never
be incentivized to join the Los Angeles Lakers? My head hurts. Justin Rowan
of the Chasdown podcast felt a similar way when I posed this exact question to
him. Here's what he wrote. This is a ridiculously tough one, as
there are so many what ifs, right down to if the Calves trade for
the Marcus Aldridge instead of Kevin Love in twenty fourteen? Did the Warriors get
to execute their Plan A and trade some combination of Harrison Barnes, Draymond gen
Green and Klay Thompson for Love In the end, though, Rowan settles on
the mega what if that is the twenty fifteen finals, when Kyrie suffered a
fractured left kneecap after Love was already sidelined with the shoulder injury, and the
Calves fell to the not yet Dynastic Warriors, so many issues between Kyrie and
lebronlossomed from that moment. Rowan wrote with Lebron questioning whether Kyrie was hurt throughout
the playoffs and feeling like he'd play through it. A lot of the reporting,
even at the time, suggested that when Kyrie went down it created a
significant fissure in the relationship. There's the immediate question of whether they would win
in two and fifteen if Kyrie was healthy, but the long term implications are
fascinating as well. I agree with Rowan, this feels like the right call,
though I still can't shake the Katie element of everything. How many titles
do the Calves win if he doesn't go to Golden State. His twenty sixteen
free agency decision, made possible by an unprecedented salary cap spike didn't directly involve
the Calves, but it's sure as hell impacted them more than any other title
contender at the time. Next up, the Detroit Pistons. When I posed
this question to Lazarus Jackson of SPI Nations Detroit bad Boys, I said something
to the effect of, it's clearly the Pistons decision to take Darko Militates in
two thousand and three over Carmelo Anthony right wrong. This is what Las wrote
Darko over Chris Bosh, not Carmelo Anthony is up there for sure, and
I've been on that for a while. He then proceeded to point out how
I was wrong a second time. This is what he wrote. But I'd
like to bring up another one. What if Isaiah Thomas didn't turn his ankle
in Game six of the nineteen eighty eight Finals. Everyone remembers the forty three
point heroics on that turned ankle. The visual of the shortest guy on the
court limping up and down the floor willing his team to stay in the game
is etched into NBA lore. But the Pistons lost Game six despite Isaiah's best
efforts, and he had nothing left in Game seven, when he had ten
points on four of twelve shooting with seven assists. Still last continued. The
Pistons only lost Game six and seven by one and three points, respectively.
What if Isaiah didn't turn the ankle and the Pistons won Game seven on the
road in the forum instead of a mere back to back, Detroit would become
at the time, the third NBA franchise to win three consecutive championships, and
the first to do it since the nineteen sixties. Isaiah wins three in a
row, something Larry Bird and Magic Johnson never did, and beats both of
them in the playoffs to do it while going two and oh against Magic in
the finals. Is he the greatest point guard of all time? With that
resume, this was a fantastic rabbit hole by Laz. I've personally always used
the Isaiah Thomas injury as typical collateral damage of a larger championship window for a
team that won multiple titles, but the implications it had on how he and
the Pistons are remembered today, it hasn't really, Honestly, It's seldom,
if ever, crossed my mind. The greatest point guard debate in particular probably
sounds extremely different, and here's what Laz had to say about that. Detroit's
championships are often thought as in terror gendums. That was a fantastic word.
By the way, little whips between the real story of the NBA, the
Celtics and the Lakers and Michael Jordan. The two thousand and four Pistons are
still the asterisk champions everyone remembers those finals as one the Lakers lost, as
if they didn't get their asses whooped for the entirety of that series. A
three peat in Detroit, during theba's ascension into the global entity it is today,
was scarely squarely etched the Pistons into NBA lore in a way I think
more accurately represents just how good this team was. I have zero qualms were
alternatives to go against laz at this point. That was a fantastic pick and
he outlaid outlined it beautifully for the Pistons. Next up is the Indiana Pacers.
The most powerful what ifs are those that invoke emotions not just for the
particular moment and its implications, but many of its predecessors. What doesn't happen
can sometimes be a culmination, the apex or conclusion in a long line of
nagging memories that combined a sense of what could have been and business unfinished to
gnaw at your fandom. Indie corn Roses Caitlyn Cooper, otherwise known around these
parts as the Goat, found this what if moment for the Indiana Pacers.
Here's what she wrote when Lebron James knocked down a three pointers time expired to
seal Game five for the Cavaliers in twenty eighteen. It immediately brought back shades
of his game winning lay up against the Pacers and Game one of the twenty
thirteen Eastern Conference Finals, not only because both nell biding and inexcusably uninhibited displays
of the four time MVP's greatness came at the heartbreaking expense of the Pacers when
they had the chance to take a series lead, but also because each was
in part the product of the sort of defensive breakdowns which forever leave a maddening
trail of unanswerable questions. Ignore the missed goaltend that would have put the Pacers
up ninety seven to ninety five. For a second, Lebron went for three
when the game was tied, and put aside whether Roy Hibbert should have been
in the game. Switching everything better allows for making snap judgment calls. After
all, just as Daddy Is Young got snagged on a screen, Kaitlyn continued,
allowing Lebron to shoot more comfortably. Moving to his left, Paul George
made an awful error in overplaying the generational talent, giving him the lane to
the basket. Meanwhile, Sam Young lacked the court awareness to slide over quickly
enough to take a charge, and Nate McMillan held on to a timeout and
a foul to give with Bowion Magdonovitch loosely contesting the inbounds pass rather than doubling
Lebron when fat already had five fouls. In both cases, Caitlyn finishes with
the sequel being a bad remake of the original. The Pacers are left to
wonder whether they beat themselves or cemented their status as tough outs against all time
greats. They lasted seven games against Jordan's Bulls, won three straight, only
drop game six of the NBA Finals against the Kobe shack Lakers, and lost
on a crucial end of game possession by once in a lifetime player. I
also think you could make cases for Malice at the Palace to appear here,
but aside from that being overdiscussed, it doesn't typify the Pacers's run as generational
irritants in the Eastern Conference. The moment and moments that Caitlin's outlined absolutely up.
Next. To wrap up the Central Division, we have the Milwaukee Bucks.
Shout out to the eurosteps Tie Windish for ensuring we didn't have any shared
moments between two franchises. Spoiler alert. One of the Warrior's biggest what ifs
has to be keeping Steph Curry in the Andrew Boga trade. I presoomed something
like, what if the Bucks had actually acquired Steph would be the choice for
windition of Milwaukee. It wasn't, and Ty went a route that I don't
think it was popular among the public, but I respect it and the way
that he explained it. Here's what he wrote to me. What if Jabari
Parker stayed healthy is my choice for the Bucks? Maybe just because I still
feel bad for Jabari based on how his career has played out to this point.
Given what Yannis Attenta Kopo blossomed into, there was no shot that that
Jabari would be the MJ de Yannis's Pippin, which is a pipe dream Bucks
fans held in twenty fourteen, but at the time, the whole hope of
the franchise was thrust squarely onto Jabari's shoulders. There was something truly special about
a top prospect wanting to play in Milwaukee. The same magic that swirls around
Yannis after he chose to stay the city was starting to get excited about the
Bucks for the first time in a long time when they got the second pick
and used it on him. Jabari's rookie year started slow, with some positive
signs he could be the alpha wing score he was billed as until he tores
ACL. He got back in time for most of his sophomore season and continued
to score well within the ARK, but it wasn't until his third season when
it seems like he had overcome the injury entirely and was developing into a dominant
talent, just as Jannis made his own leap into being an All Star.
They both averaged twenty plus points that season, and Jabari finally started knocking down
threes, going from around twenty five percent in his first two seasons to thirty
six thirty six point five percent that year, while also adding an assist per
game to his talian scoring better than ever within the ARC alongside Chris Middleton,
Jannis and Jabari seemed poised to be the next big homegrown squad until disaster struck
and Jabari toured the same ACL again. This is interesting to me imagining what
the Bucks might look like now had Jabari never suffered a second or initial acl
Tare almost feels impossible. Does he satisfy the requirements for a costar or do
the Bucks inevitably move him for someone else. I still think either is a
wild proposition for someone whom the Bucks eventually let walk for nothing. I still
would have probably picked though, what if Milwaukee had traded for Steph Curry in
exchange for boke It? I also might have gone with what if creamum Pools
your bar never left? But if fantastic stuff from pie Hope you enjoyed the
latest edition of MBA what Ifs. Until next time, remember to subscribe wherever
you get your podcasts, and also remember forever that we must leave you with
a shout out to the one, the only, the indelible Frank You like you