After silently judging as I scrolled through posts riddled with hot takes from 5 years ago I thought…
What are your hottest takes about how the NBA will look 5 years from now? (Go wild with your guesses, nobody will be judging you…)
My hot takes are
- Josh Giddy will be in the MVP race
- The Booklyn Nets will have either made or won the finals due to Bridges and Ben Simmons showing out
- LeBron will continue to refuse to retire, while still putting up 18/4/4. And will blame it on wanting to play with his wife’s uncles barbers daughters stepson 17 years from now.
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Jokic will be in GOAT discussion
Jokic and Giannis will add MVPs, Rings, and Fmvps. That will elevate them to Top 20-15 all time discussion.
The suns will be struggling to stay competitive halfway through their decade of no draft picks by Isaiah Thomasing terrible contracts to aging/injury-prone players.
Both expansion teams will be playoff teams.
Curry wins 2 more rings easily cementing him over Shaq, Kobe, Duncan, Bird, LeBron, and of course Magic.
It’ll still exist
There will be no repeat champions.
Next 5 years champions.
Celtics. Sixers. Mavs. OKC. Spurs.
Nuggets may even repeat this year
Sixers 😂😂😂
Leaving a comment for posterity
Wemby will be pretty good
In 5 years:
Lebron hasn’t retired and plays on a Vegas expansion team.
Jokic is retired with 2-3 rings.
Kyrie, Harden and Simmons are out of the league sooner rather than later.
Ja Morant is dead.
OKC fail to keep all their young core and fuck up again in some way like they did with Harden.
Wemby is the best player in the league but is yet to win a ring - Gets early Lebron-like criticism.
Zion is having a part-time career like Kawhi. Looks unstoppable when he plays.
It is not unusual for players to be still in their primes at 35.
Durant is still playing at a high level 20+ ppg.
The Bulls are still mid.
The Cavs young core never make an ECF.
The Knicks still haven’t made an ECF.
The Clippers continue to be cursed.
Hornets still suck.
76ers collapse and enter another rebuild.
The Warriors have one more deep playoff run.
Booker and Doncic somehow become teammates.
I think history will show no matter what era it is, it is extremely difficult for lanky 7 footers to stay healthy.
Facts. Just 7 footers in general tbh (Cries in Blazers).
Wasn’t Mark Eaton a bit of an Ironman for a 7’4 guy?
I have to imagine it’s because he naturally had some mass to him. Dude was 274 which sounds pretty reasonable and safe for a guy that height in a contact sport; not too heavy, not too skinny
But that extra weight puts so much more stress and pressure on the ankle and knee ligaments though, especially in a fast paced setting like that
According to Basketball Reference he only missed 9 games in his first 10 seasons, pretty good. He was also 0 for 2 from the 3pt line for his career.
i mean i don’t think gobert ever been injured. some aren’t injury prone
Gobert has hurt his knees a couple of times (it’s why he wears huge braces on each leg), but he also really takes care of his body.
He may or may not work on his offensive game all that much, but he’s absolutely in great shape every single year.
Gobert got hurt after agreeing to play in the FIBA cup, and specifically advised Wemby to skip it this year.
KEVIN DURANT
Idk, the flexibility that Wemby has shown has made me optimistic that he’ll be alright for the most part.
Ugh this take is so tired. Lebron is more dedicated to taking care of his body than any one in the league and his injury history has shown that. Victor is just as dedicated. None of the other lanky 7 footers have had his flexibility, other than Kareem and he was fine.
Lack of flexibility isn’t what makes it hard for 7+ footers to stay healthy, it’s taking one of the largest human bodies ever to exist and then putting it into the abuse of an NBA basketball game several times a week.
Being big itself introduces a ton of complications into your health that a normal sized person doesn’t have to deal with, let alone trying to play a professional sport
Come on now. There is no way you can make this claim at this point in time.
This is why as a Celtics fan I want nothing to do with Porzingis. Some fans are excited for his potential on this team but my concern is pretty valid and simple: we have literally never seen anyone in the history of the NBA that looks like Porzingis help lead a title contender. Every single lanky/goofy big dude over 7’2" inevitably has injury/durability issues and they never hold up to the demanding workload of a regular season + a long playoff run.
And he’s the highest paid player on the team, so if he goes down it’s not like they can replace him with a decent backup. If he goes down the team is fucked.
Kareem?
that looks like Porzingis
Just looking for white dudes? KP used to look like Kareem but he got hurt and put weight on and slowed down, I thought you were asking for dudes 7’2" and above, not white guys
extremely similar build.
Their bodies literally look alike, r u just openly racist or what
Smart take, but do you think maybe his role as not the #1 star player on the team might mean he can rest and avoid injury a bit more? My boss (a celtics fan) describes him as more of the really good horse instead of the unicorn… so maybe he could thrive being 2nd/3rd option? Still think you guys have an insane team this year
i dunno i wouldn’t bank on that. he’s one of only 2 solid bigs on the roster and the other is 38-year old al horford. the team doesn’t have guys like grant williams and smart to do all the dirty work and banging down low with dudes like embiid and giannis anymore. don’t see how they can get away with just resting porzingis and minimizing his role. he’s the highest paid player on the team, he’s kinda expected to have an impact night-in and night-out.
also “just keep him healthy for the playoffs!” is something fans love to suggest before a season, but things never play out like that in real life. aside from the 2022 warriors pretty much every single championship team has all their rotation guys play like 80+ games (reg season + playoffs). porzingis needs to get reps in and build rapport with his teammates, and then plays pretty much every game of an intense 20+ game playoff run. if the celtics go to the finals this year then it’ll be the most demanding and impressive thing porzingis has ever done in his career.
They actually do have a guy like smart… jrue holiday
i love holiday and there’s not a more perfect player to fill smart’s role, but one place they definitely differ is their size/strength and ability to guard bigs. that’s probably marcus smart’s biggest defensive strength - his versatility. jrue is also a great defender but he’s much better on the perimeter and he uses his length to swallow up guards. he’s also 33 and he and porzingis have the highest salaries on the team, so if he gets hurt doing that dirty work smart did then it’ll be a huge blow to the team.
KP needs to get on Wemby’s yoga regimen. I swear it’s always the stiffest players who get hurt.
7’2 is an interesting cutoff point because Kareem completely invalidates your point.
I said that awhile back and got eviscerated over in r/NBAtalk lmao
that sub and /r/nbadiscussion are the same as /r/nba except with fewer links and more shitty text posts
Average player height goes up an inch. Sengun is all-star. LeBron gets another ring.
The NBA season / playoffs structure will continue to change. The NBA will have to decide on a next generation structure, as more tournaments / play-in’s get added into the schedule.
Expansion is likely within that time frame. Most likely two teams in the west, and Minny moves to the eastern conference.
Every NBA franchise will have a GL team, and with expansion there will be more than 34 GL teams.
The NBA will be less popular in the US due to LeBron retiring and the continuing rise of players from overseas.
Matas Buzelis will be the goat
I saw some maniac that said that the WNBA and NBA would merge within 5 years because the women are developing at a high rate.