Playoffs, Playoffs, Playoffs, Who You Got?
Swish Weekly - April 13th
It's all about the playoffs this week, as well as a few regular season award ballots. With the season concluding on a wild Wednesday night that saw the final spot in the West up for grabs between Denver and Minnesota, it was certainly shaping up to be one of the best Swish Weekly weeks ever. I certainly believe it delivered and I hope you enjoy the content we gathered for you. Take a peek down below and don't forget to order your Swish Weekly t-shirts ASAP!
https://www.theringer.com/2018/4/12/17228626/emergency-nba-playoff-preview
Emergency NBA Playoff Preview - The Ringer - Justin Verrier, Bill Simmons, Jason Concepcion, Kevin O'Connor, Haley O'Shaughnessy
This week is all about playoffs, playoffs, and more playoffs, and what better way to start off than a complete rundown of each playoff matchup? The answer: nothing. The Ringer's NBA writers and personalities go through each clash in detail (except for San Antonio-Golden State since it was deemed "too boring") and what some of the best storylines that have come up from the playoff matchups. It's a great podcast to get a feel for each matchup and what will be the keys to each team's success.
https://www.theringer.com/2018/4/12/17229352/nba-playoffs-first-round-matchups
Five Individual Matchups in the First Round We're Excited to Watch - The Ringer - Johnathan Tjarks
Obviously, we're going to be digging deep into playoff matchups and scenarios in this week's newsletter and this piece by the Ringer's Johnathan Tjarks is no different. In his piece, Tjarks goes over five of the best individual matchups that will be on full display in the first round of the playoffs. My honorable mention goes to LeBron James vs. Victor Oladipo, even though I know they probably won't guard each other too often, it's still a fascinating duel between two team leaders.
5-on-5: Breakout Stars, Round 1 MVP, and bold playoff predictions - ESPN - NBA Insiders
These types of articles run rampant around this time of year. You'll see publications ask a few questions to their best people and then publish the answers as an entire piece. I personally am a fan of these as they give you multiple perspectives and boil down information in a quick and concise manner. Don't sleep on some of the bold predictions made in this one, especially from Marc J. Spears who has the Bucks beating the Celtics in the first round.
The Trolls, Tweets and Memes that Defined the NBA Season - ESPN - ESPN.com Staff (Illustrations by Joel Kimmel)
We had to break up the monotony of constant playoff previews and predictions with this gem of a story. It's a history of the social media season that was and how quick we can be to forget things that were making waves earlier in the season. What were your favorite memes and social media memories of this season? We'd love to hear your thoughts.
2018 NBA Playoff Mega-Preview with Ryen Russillo - The Ringer - Bill Simmons and Ryen Russillo
I respect the opinions of these two guys probably more than most, but both Simmons and Russillo have solid amounts of knowledge and clearly are more than just "blog boys" as Kevin Durant has coined. In this episode of the Bill Simmons podcast, Russillo and Simmons break down each playoff series in depth along with a number of other great topics that the two dive into. This episode is absolutely hilarious and definitely worth a listen even if you don't care about the breakdowns (which let's be honest, you do care about).
http://www.espn.com/nba/story//id/23107445/zach-lowe-2017-18-picks-nba-mvp-defensive-player-year-rookie-year-more-awards (Part 1)
http://www.espn.com/nba/story//id/23131464/zach-lowe-2017-18-picks-all-nba-all-defensive-all-rookie (Part 2)
NBA Awards Ballot Parts 1&2 - ESPN - Zach Lowe
If you've been subscribed for a while, you know how much I love Zach Lowe and his pieces. This two-parter is no different. Lowe simply sees the game on a different level than most reporters and digs deeply into things that the layperson wouldn't ever see. He appreciates the little things and it shows in his descriptions and breakdowns of players and games in general. While I don't necessarily agree with all of his picks, he lays out convincing arguments for each and every one of them and I found myself realistically being swayed. Definitely worth the read, or at least a skim.
https://steemit.com/nba/@toddcast/nba-playoff-preview-podcast-with-brandon-p
Podcast With Toddcast here on Steemit!
Lastly, a quick shameless plug. This week 
There you have it folks. Another short newsletter this week, primarily due to the fact that the playoffs are finally upon us and I didn't want to throw in a bunch of content that was geared toward predictions of what could happen to teams before the playoff matchups were set. I hope you're as excited for some playoff basketball as we are, and I can't wait for things to start happening. Who do you have winning each series and which team do you think has the best chance to win the finals? Can't wait to see your predictions.
As always, don't forget to follow us on all of the social media! We're @SwishWeekly everywhere!
Last, but certainly not least, we just wanted to remind you that Swish Weekly t-shirts are now available on Amazon. Links to those are below. It's a great way to help keep Swish Weekly going!