If you had to narrow it down to one what-if per franchise, which one makes the cut?
I’ll give examples using the team I support (the Celtics):
Injuries - KG’s injury in 2009. The Celtics had a scorching start to the season, but lost in 7 to the Magic. KG’s absence let Dwight loose on the boards, & the next year when they did make the finals the Big Ticket had clearly lost a step.
Deaths - Len Bias in 1986. Red Auerbach had drafted a potentially transcendent player to back-up the greatest frontcourt in the history of professional basketball. Instead, a cocaine overdose killed him hours after being drafted No. 2.
Draft Picks - Kedrick Brown in 2001. Know who the Celtics had wanted to draft? Tony Parker. Unfortunately then-GM Chris Wallace was overruled by Celtics patriarch Red Auerbach.
Suspensions - Ime Udoka in 2022. Just months after taking the Celtics to the NBA finals, the former Spurs assistant was suspended for inappopriate relations with a female employee.
Made/missed shots - Artest’s 3-pointer in 2010. I will always believe we’d have stolen that game if Ron Artest Metta World Peace doesn’t drive that dagger through our hearts.
As a blazer fan I love these questions!!!
What If:
We drafted MJ in 1984
We won the coin flip and drafted Hakeem in 1984
We drafted Kd in 2007
We didn’t a trade a super young Moses Malone in the late 70a
We didn’t trade a super young jermaine O Neal in the early 2000/
Bill Walton doesn’t get hurt
B Roy and Greg oden have injury free careers
Arvydas Sabonis joins the team in his prime and is on those early 90s blazer teams
We traded for Barkley in 93
The hornets didn’t nix the CP3 trade to Portland in 2010 at the last second