The Problem With Recency Bias
Recency bias can happen in almost everything in life. Weather it’s first impressions or what you hear from somebody else, there is no avoiding it. But it is especially annoying in basketball. After the 2020 NBA Bubble and Playoffs, I’ve been hearing some absurd things from the basketball community, and it’s all because of recency bias. Here is what I hate about recency bias and some prime examples.
A lot of things changed after the 2020 NBA Playoffs, with lots of players going up the ladder and many players going down. Players like Jamal Murray and Paul George have seen very positive and negative boosts to their NBA status because of the bubble. Today I will be going over things that I have seen that are prime example of recency bias.
Anthony Davis = Tim Duncan
Anthony Davis was great during the bubble, as he was arguably the best player on the Lakers en route to a title. He was amazing. But he’s not Tim Duncan. Like, really. Duncan is the greatest PF of all-time and Davis has done nothing near to what Duncan has done. Duncan was one of the most dominant players of all-time with his shot-blocking and interior scoring. So the fact that I even heard this is absurd. AD is only a one-time champion and Duncan was years away from Davis at this time. And the people who say this didn’t watch a prime Tim Duncan in the early 2000s. They watched him in 2013 and 2014, when he was good and not great. They don’t know the real Tim Duncan.
I don’t even want to go into stats because Duncan to top-10 all-time and Davis is a great player. But not that great yet.
Kawhi Leonard Isn’t Top 5 Anymore
After the Clippers lost disappointingly in the 2nd round to the Nuggets and Kawhi struggled in Game 7, people immediately started to drop Kawhi down their lists which is insane. This is the first time Kawhi has played bad in a series, and people seem to think that he is washed. Like most people have moved Kawhi down from a top-3 player to not even top-5. And the most absurd thing is Kawhi wasn’t even the problem with the Clippers. Most of the problem with the Clippers was their system, and if they get an actual system, they will be fine.
Kawhi is one of the best players in the league and was my #1 player in the league coming into this season (he’s #2 now behind Mr. Lebron). Kawhi is very talented and he had one bad series. All superstars have series like this. Lebron James had a bad year in 2011, and it really did nothing to his best player in the league status (or at least it shouldn’t have).
So I think that people need to chill with Kawhi. He’s different than Paul George because he hasn’t choked multiple times in the playoffs. This is his first time. So let’s chill before we saw he isn’t a top 3 player in the league.
Giannis Doesn’t Deserve MVP Because of His Playoff Loss
And, the best for last. Giannis again lost early on in the playoffs, as him and the Bucks lost in the 2nd round to the Heat. And now people seem to think this was all Giannis’s fault and that he doesn’t deserve the MVP that he actually deserves. First of all, the MVP is a regular season award. So no matter how bad the Bucks were in the playoffs, no matter how bad Giannis was, he was the best player in the regular season by far. He deserved that MVP. So lets get that out of the way first.
And then the fact that Giannis let his team down is also wrong. Giannis did all he could with a very flawed Bucks teams. Giannis was never put in positions in to succeed as he was continually tasked with handling the ball up top. This allows teams to build walls and makes Giannis shoot, something that he struggles with. He was also never used in the pick and roll and then the Bucks didn’t make any defensive adjustments and let the Heat shoot at will from 3. This was mostly Mike Budenholzer’s fault, not Giannis’s.
So that’s why the Giannis slander is very invalid. For the past two years Giannis hasn’t been put in situations to succeed and people expect him to with a flawed system and roster. It’s not all his fault. So just leave him alone until he actually chokes with a good roster and coach on his side.
So these are some of the topics that arose from the bubble, all examples of recency bias. It happens a lot in basketball, with mostly all of them being overreacting. I hate it when “takes” are made so quickly with just one piece of “damning” evidence. Very, very annoying. So anyway, recency bias will likely never die, so I’ll likely have to do this again. So just make sure you don’t overreact to every little thing that happens in the basketball world.
What Are More Examples Of Recency Bias? Leave A Comment Down Below!
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