Giannis in bloom and the elephants in the room: seven NBA Cup takeaways | NBA Cup

Antetokounmpo is having an MVP season

Giannis Antetokounmpo’s NBA Cup Finals opponent Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Denver’s Nikola Jokić have deservedly garnered a lot of MVP buzz a quarter of the way through the regular season. But over three days in Las Vegas, Antetokounmpo added to what is already a pretty compelling case for himself to take home his third NBA MVP trophy. He’s put up stellar numbers all season, averaging a torrid 32.7 points, 11.5 rebounds and 6.1 assists while recording a 19-rebound triple-double in Tuesday’s finale, a 97-81 win over Oklahoma City. But his stat line doesn’t exist in a vacuum; he looks just as dominant, if not more, than he ever has. And he’s been deadly from the midrange this year (like Kevin Garnett gave him props for on the weekend), which is a significant addition to his almost unstoppable inside game. In Tuesday’s showdown between the MVP frontrunners, Giannis looked like the best player on the floor.

The elephant in the room

Flying out of Las Vegas from Harry Reid International Airport, you find yourself shopping for magazines and water bottles amidst a sea of ​​blank-eyed zombies, and it always feels like there’s this weird unspoken elephant in the room: this is a place where almost all are hungover, but no one verbally admits it. It was hard not to notice the NBAs own elephant in the room in Vegas this weekend: that a clear succession plan for a post-LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant basketball world doesn’t really exist. The collective gasp from the NBA media machine after Curry’s Warriors were eliminated in the quarterfinals, thus ensuring that no bona fide, proven pinsetters would join the party in Vegas, was palpable. Last year’s inaugural tournament featured James and the Los Angeles Lakers: both of whom have sat atop the NBA’s popularity rankings for decades. This year had no such luck. While those four teams (Milwaukee, Oklahoma City, Houston Rockets and Atlanta Hawks) certainly made for entertaining basketball for hardcore fans, the brutal truth is that no next-gen star, not Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, not Antetokounpo, has even arrived close to reaching the popular heights of James or Curry. For reasons perhaps unknown, they just don’t have the juice. The NBA has a marketing problem with young stars that seems no closer to being solved than it was a few years ago, and as James, Curry and Durant get closer to retirement, the problem only becomes more pressing.

The Value of Isaiah Hartenstein

I’m old enough to remember just a few months ago when pundits were wringing their hands over Isaiah Hartenstein’s three-year, $87 million contract. If anything has crystallized over the past few days in Vegas, it’s that the 26-year-old center (whom the Thunder plucked from the clutches of the New York Knicks in free agency) was worth every penny. He’s a top-tier example of a jack-of-all-trades: the exact type of hard-playing Swiss Army knife center the Thunder so desperately lacked last season. Despite Oklahoma City’s blowout loss in Tuesday’s Finals, Hartenstein posted 16 points and 12 boards and at times looked as good as the Thunder’s second-best player. There is speculation that he will end up coming off the bench when Chet Holmgren, who is currently sidelined with a hip injury, is back in the lineup. But the Thunder would be wise to think twice as it’s become clear that Hartenstein will play a central role in any success Oklahoma City finds this postseason.

Amen to Amen Thompson

The Rockets had a bit of a disappointing showing in their first trip to Vegas for the Cup: They were decisively beaten by an Oklahoma City team that at times looked like a one-step-up version of Houston’s own young, athletic, defensive-minded template. But one clear bright spot was sophomore small forward Amen Thompson, who is not only an incredible defender and great athlete (which was clear as early as draft night), but a player who is really starting to come around as an offensive force as well . Thompson was the talk of the town after Saturday’s games despite the loss. Houston should absolutely consider him a fundamental part of any core with championship hopes moving forward.

You need a guy

There’s nothing like a high-stakes environment to highlight roster flaws, and the Rockets, a feisty and formidable young firework of a team, had theirs exposed this weekend. When the game gets tense as the minutes tick down, knowing you have the A Guy: the one person on your team who, when the ball ends up in their hands, can find a way is extremely important. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is that player for Oklahoma City. The Hawks have Trae Young and the Bucks have Giannis (and Damian Lillard too). Houston, despite an embarrassment of riches of exciting young talent, just doesn’t have it, and that fact was never more evident than on Saturday in their semifinal loss to the Thunder. With the trade season officially underway and names like Jimmy Butler and Zach LaVine reportedly on the block, the Rockets would do well to find their own Guy.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander the Great

There’s a lot of nuance to NBA awards voting, and it’s not uncommon for MVP front-runners to be more representative of compelling narratives (cough, cough, Russell Westbrook) than an actual time capsule of who was the best player in the league that year. But one such adjacent yardstick, beyond just literal price, is the evergreen barbershop debate about which players in the league could comfortably be expected to be the best player on a championship team. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, somewhat disappointing (by his immense standards) in the Cup final aside, has proven himself to tick that box. It really looked at times like he was playing the game with his own proverbial shooters turned all the way up against Houston in Saturday’s semifinals, slicing and slicing their formidable defense and getting the shot he wanted with remarkable ease, prompting the “oh ” and “ahhs” ” from the crowd with his ball handling finesse. One thing has become abundantly clear: Alexander is a surefire, bona fide superstar.

Trying to make ‘The Cup’ happen

Traditions often feel as if they have always existed, floating in a timeless space without needing a clear beginning. But the reality is that everything has to start somewhere, and nothing can replicate the weight that only years of history can provide. Even a prestigious NBA championship only carries its weight because we, collectively, decided it means something. Despite the NBA’s most persuasive Rosario Dawson-backed, Emirates-funded endorsements to the contrary, the NBA Cup doesn’t really matter yet. The artificial pomp and circumstance, and the copious amounts of sponsorship dollars and advertising surrounding it, is proof that the league really, really wants it to matter right-as-hell-now, but there’s no substitute for the passage of time. One day it will organically start to matter, but that time is not now. That’s why its legacy isn’t really about the players in this year’s Cup, or even next year’s. They ultimately do the dirty work of laying the groundwork and creating the history that will bring reverence to the event years from now.