How the 2021 NBA Playoff Standings Determined Championship Contenders
Looking back at the 2021 NBA playoffs, I can't help but marvel at how the standings didn't just reflect team performance—they actively shaped championship trajectories in ways we're still seeing today. As someone who's followed basketball for over two decades, I've rarely seen a postseason where the bracket alignment mattered this much. The way teams landed in those final standings created matchups that either amplified their strengths or exposed fatal flaws that would haunt them for seasons to come.
The Brooklyn Nets' position as the Eastern Conference's second seed perfectly illustrates this phenomenon. Their first-round matchup against the Boston Celtics seemed straightforward on paper, but watching James Harden go down in the opening minutes of Game 1 felt like witnessing the championship window slam shut. The Nets ultimately survived that series, but the physical toll fundamentally altered their playoff destiny. I remember thinking during those games how much championship aspirations can hinge on a single moment—a lesson that resonates with Cone's recent comments about being careful with Brownlee for Gilas Pilipinas. Just as the Nets learned the hard way, national teams understand that protecting key players isn't just about immediate games but preserving their long-term competitive viability.
What fascinated me most about the 2021 standings was how they created this perfect storm for underdogs. The Atlanta Hawks, sitting at fifth in the East, leveraged their position to dismantle the New York Knicks in five games before stunning the top-seeded Philadelphia 76ers. Trae Young's emergence wasn't just about individual brilliance—it was about how the playoff structure gave his team the right opponents at the right time. The Hawks faced teams whose defensive schemes played directly into Young's strengths, something that might not have happened with different seeding. From my perspective, this demonstrates how championship contention isn't purely about being the best team, but about being the right team for the specific playoff landscape.
The Western Conference told a different but equally compelling story. The Phoenix Suns' journey from bubble team to second seed represented one of the most remarkable turnarounds I've seen in modern NBA history. Their position allowed them to avoid the Lakers until the first round, where they benefited from Anthony Davis' injury. Some might call this lucky, but I see it as the reward for their consistent regular season performance. The Suns won 51 games with a .708 winning percentage—numbers that gave them the strategic advantage of facing wounded giants rather than peaking contenders.
Meanwhile, the Utah Jazz's league-best 52-20 record became something of a poisoned chalice. Their first-round matchup against the Grizzlies forced them to reveal their defensive schemes early, making them vulnerable against the Clippers in the second round. I've always believed that the number one seed carries unique pressures, and the Jazz's collapse reinforced that theory. Their system, which relied heavily on Rudy Gobert's rim protection, got exposed when opponents spread the floor with five-shooter lineups—a tactical adjustment that might have been less devastating in earlier rounds against different opponents.
The championship ultimately went to Milwaukee, whose third-seed position created what I consider the ideal playoff path. They faced Miami's declining Heat, Brooklyn's injured superstars, and Atlanta's overachievers before meeting Phoenix in the finals. This wasn't the toughest possible route, but it was the right one for Giannis and company to build confidence and rhythm. The Bucks' 16-11 playoff record doesn't scream dominance, but it reflects how they grew into champions rather than arriving as finished products.
Reflecting on these dynamics, I'm struck by how much the 2021 standings resemble chess positions rather than mere rankings. Each team's placement created specific challenges and opportunities that determined not just who won, but which organizations would emerge as legitimate contenders moving forward. The Suns and Hawks established themselves as future forces, while the Nets and Lakers began retooling after their standings-induced disappointments.
This brings me back to Cone's approach with Brownlee—there's wisdom in understanding that competitive success isn't just about winning today's game, but positioning yourself for sustainable contention. The smartest coaches and general managers, whether in the NBA or international basketball, recognize that strategic preservation and calculated risk-taking often matter more than short-term victories. The 2021 playoffs taught us that championship windows open and close based on these nuanced decisions, making the standings not just a measure of current success, but a blueprint for future contention.
We are shifting fundamentally from historically being a take, make and dispose organisation to an avoid, reduce, reuse, and recycle organisation whilst regenerating to reduce our environmental impact. We see significant potential in this space for our operations and for our industry, not only to reduce waste and improve resource use efficiency, but to transform our view of the finite resources in our care.
Looking to the Future
By 2022, we will establish a pilot for circularity at our Goonoo feedlot that builds on our current initiatives in water, manure and local sourcing. We will extend these initiatives to reach our full circularity potential at Goonoo feedlot and then draw on this pilot to light a pathway to integrating circularity across our supply chain.
The quality of our product and ongoing health of our business is intrinsically linked to healthy and functioning ecosystems. We recognise our potential to play our part in reversing the decline in biodiversity, building soil health and protecting key ecosystems in our care. This theme extends on the core initiatives and practices already embedded in our business including our sustainable stocking strategy and our long-standing best practice Rangelands Management program, to a more a holistic approach to our landscape.
We are the custodians of a significant natural asset that extends across 6.4 million hectares in some of the most remote parts of Australia. Building a strong foundation of condition assessment will be fundamental to mapping out a successful pathway to improving the health of the landscape and to drive growth in the value of our Natural Capital.
Our Commitment
We will work with Accounting for Nature to develop a scientifically robust and certifiable framework to measure and report on the condition of natural capital, including biodiversity, across AACo’s assets by 2023. We will apply that framework to baseline priority assets by 2024.
Looking to the Future
By 2030 we will improve landscape and soil health by increasing the percentage of our estate achieving greater than 50% persistent groundcover with regional targets of:
– Savannah and Tropics – 90% of land achieving >50% cover
– Sub-tropics – 80% of land achieving >50% perennial cover
– Grasslands – 80% of land achieving >50% cover
– Desert country – 60% of land achieving >50% cover
