As someone who’s been a fan of the NBA for a while I’ve noticed how flawed people’s evaluation of players and their overall impact can be.
Just as an example Giannis got so much criticism for his performances against the Raptors in 2019 and the Heat in 2020. Just a year later after winning a championship while being essentially the same player suddenly everybody flips their opinion on him. Sure he made improvements from the previous year but he’s still the same player with his same strengths & weaknesses.
Giannis actually played against that same heat team that he struggled against in 2020 and ended up being less efficient compared to the previous year, while having his worst series by far in that 2021 playoff run. The main difference in that series from the previous year was that the Heat and Jimmy Butler had a very poor offensive series.
My point here is that when players struggle and fail their value as a player are judged by their flaws, when they succeed they are judged by their strengths. 2020 and 2019 Giannis had some amazing playoff series, and he was more than capable of putting up monster performances against a team like the 2021 Suns but people acted like he was a much better offensive player in 2021.
A lot of performance in the NBA playoffs is matchup dependent, certain players matchup better against certain defenses or schemes in the playoffs. Kevin Durant having an amazing series against the Bucks in 2021 doesn’t mean that certain defenses and schemes don’t give him trouble, proven by his series against Boston the next year. Steph got so much criticism for his finals performances against the Cavs where he played either average or subpar relative to his standards, yet his two best finals performances where he played great, were against two of the most statistically dominant defenses over the past ten or so years.
TLDR: Players have strengths & weaknesses whether they lose or win these don’t change. The playoffs can be matchup dependent judging a player off one poor, or average series against one team doesn’t mean they aren’t capable of putting up great performances against elite teams in later rounds.
I think he’s saying more than that though.
It’s winning bias. If you win, people will emphasize and over-exaggerate the good. If you lose, people will emphasize and over-exaggerate the bad. Just in general, the way people talk about playoff basketball is so incredibly lazy
It honestly is pretty annoying and OP does have a point, but really that’s just how it goes. It’s human nature, people don’t always like using context and want things to be black and white rather than gray.