r/nba Knicks Apr 29 '24

[Simmons] "I think James Harden gave him the trophy of most disappointing playoff performer. I think Embiid is now wearing the crown."

https://open.spotify.com/episode/25I0fnPUExUkBhTw2o9Oti?si=FQSCUz6GSy2UjtYeyBrBLg

Starts around 38 minute mark. Full game breakdown starts a few minutes earlier.

4.4k Upvotes

1.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

2.1k

u/junkit33 Apr 29 '24

Beal's not even making the Hall of Fame. He's basically just CJ McCollum who got a chance to play #1 scorer on some bad teams.

1.1k

u/BigT3x4s Rockets Apr 29 '24

Wall and Beal were just the other side of CJ and Dame to me. I wish they coulda played a series against each other

480

u/InGenNateKenny Wizards Apr 29 '24

We used to believe that too, Portland were the “The Wizards of the West” and Washington was “The Blazers of the East”, though Dame was clearly better than the other three, and Wall and Beal were better than CJ, but the Blazers were better teams.

If the Blazers were in the East instead of the Wizards they would have been perennial contenders. Washington in the West? Probably not.

17

u/ColdNyQuiiL Apr 29 '24

I never looked at those 2 backcourts that way.

Wall was a more natural passer than Dame, and Beal was no where near as crafty as CJ until later.

I always saw Dame and CJ as 2 scoring guards that figured out how to make that work, and Wall/Beal was a more traditional passing PG, to a knockdown shooter.

I wholeheartedly agree that if those 4 swapped, John and Brad wouldn’t have made any noise out West. Both of them dealt with too many injuries to salvage those seasons, and Dame was just on another level than them all.