The Biggest Takeaways From The 2026 Playoffs
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The Clock Starts Now
What felt like a couple years away is like a lot of what Wemby has already done: Ahead of schedule. Beating OKC, a team that felt as if they only scratched the surface of their dominance last year, ended in a close but demoralizing loss.
Outside of Wemby's dominance, Harper's emergence is more surprising than anyone else's. Throughout NBA history, guards his age are figuring out how to run any kind of offense consistently.
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Even The Best Roster Creation Still Can't Stop Wemby's Rise
Now being without J-Dub and Ajay Mitchell are the primary reasons for the Thunder's loss to San Antonio, Wemby is going to get better. If Oklahoma City had another shot to go back to glory again, this was the year.
While still having the shot to return, this year was their best chance before San Antonio becomes even better and that still wasn't able to be done. By the end of the series, you saw a team that has no consistent creation outside of SGA and hopefully a more healthier team going into next year can calm the panic from this series.
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Detroit Won’t Get Far Without Another Guy
While winning their first playoff series in more than a decade, Orlando's pitfalls were more of the reason for that win than their own dominance. Cleveland was a headache of a team to watch but could still get it done unlike Detroit.
Tobias Harris being the second best scoring threat is not a capable option when looking at a chance at the title. Any player that steps foot on the court for Detroit should be put there for one purpose at this point, the player needs to make Cade's job easier.
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Minnesota Just Isn’t Good Enough
While losing Donte DiVincenzo in the first round, Minnesota still even with him doesn’t have the ammo to compete with what looks like the leaders of the conference in OKC and San Antonio. In their second round series against San Antonio, they were exposed for the same issues in last year’s exit that unless their is a clear advantage for Randle against bigs he loses the secondary scoring ability that is greatly needed.
Along with that, once Donte got hurt it became clear outside of Naz Reid and sometimes Terrence Shannon Jr how lacking the bench is. The plan this prior offseason was to have guys who can replace Nickeil Alexander Walker in the aggregate but instead those players have become end of bench contributors. If this team wants to play up to the level of those teams, a true second option needs to come in or emerge.