Since the NBA is officially back, I figured I let you in on a little brotherly wager. During the latter half of the 2018-19 season, my brother kept running his mouth about how the Lakers were going to get Anthony Davis and go to the Finals in the 2019-20 season. I’ve been in quite a few spirited discussions with my brother about the NBA. He frequently touts that Ben McLemore is a good NBA player and I disagree by mocking his oft-said phrase, “He nice though!” Back in 2012, I said that I’d prefer Greg Monroe over Demarcus Cousins because of Cousins’ attitude. I was clearly wrong about that. Bobby loves Carmelo Anthony and couldn’t stop talking about “Hoodie Melo” when he joined OKC, and I always countered that the persona doesn’t mean shit. Guess what? It didn’t
Anyway, he was talking all this ya-ya about the Lakers so I felt the need to speak up. I boldly stated that the Denver Nuggets would make it farther in the playoffs than the Lakers in the 2019-2020 NBA season. Bobby said I was crazy and we decided to put $10 on it (I know, high rollers). Mind you, this was before Kawhi and Paul George joined the Clippers. My rationale was the fact the Nuggets had heady two-way guards Will Barton, Gary Harris, and Monte Morris along with sharpshooter Jamal Murray and All-NBA First Team center Nikola Jokic. I added the caveat that Michael Porter Jr. would have to play 55 regular season games in 2019-2020 season for the bet to still be valid. MPJ has played in 49 games at the time of this writing with seven games left to go in the bubble.
The Lakers ascent to the #1 seed in the West has made me a little nervous. Moving Lebron to point guard full-time has been a revelation. The three-pronged attack of Anthony Davis, Dwight Howard, and JaVale McGee has been a defensive menace. Danny Green has continued his three-and-D ways. However, Avery Bradley opting out of the bubble and adding J.R. Smith and Dion Waiters looks like a net negative for the Lakers, but will it be enough of a negative to actually affect the results of the games.
The Nuggets have a ton of potential, especially with the addition of Bol Bol, but the chemistry just isn’t there yet and it will take until the playoffs to help build that chemistry. The funniest thing about this bet is that I predicted the Clippers to win the title at the beginning of the year. The Lakers, Clippers, and Nuggets are the top three seed in the West. Unless a major upset happens in the first round of the playoffs, there’s no way that my prediction will be correct AND I win the bet with my brother. So, this’ll be fun.
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