My perspective softened a little between those posts. And I don't want anyone to get hurt. Klay is a Blazers fan, after all. But I'm damn sure going to roll around in the glory of the accuracy of my farcical prognostication.
I think the Thai National Women's Team might be a timelier analogy builder than Angola basketball.
2019 NBA Playoffs Poll
- BottenFieldofDreams
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- 33anda3rd
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Re: 2019 NBA Playoffs Poll
I feel like there's a lot of underselling KD on the board. He didn't lead a team, even though he was the best player on two champs. He's somewhere between best and worst. I'd say he's indisputably top-10 all time.AWvsCBsteeeerike3 wrote:guy named kd that ranks somewhere between the best basketball player to ever live and the worst ever
6th all time Pts/G with a legit shot to finish his career 3rd.
Probably the best 2P shooter in history.
15th all-time in FT%. Money at the line.
11th all-time in True Shooting % behind guys like DeAndre and Tyson Chandler who live at the rim--Curry and Reggie the only guys ahead of him who were legit shooters.
Four scoring titles--only Wilt and Jordan have more. KD got his 4th at age 25, youngest to four.
One of 12 players with two Finals MVPs, and one of only 6 with back-to-back MVPs. He was the best player on two champions. The list of guys who can say that is pretty short in the era of the NBA being a legit league--Kawhi, KD, LeBron, Duncan, Kobe, Shaq, Jordan, Hakeem, Magic, Bird.
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- The Last Word
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Re: 2019 NBA Playoffs Poll
I won't dispute him being a top 10 player, all-time. That's a pretty elite list, and we're talking about players from different eras, so that's tough.
You'll never convince me that he led anyone to a championship, though. Was he the best player on that team? Probably. He was the best player on the 2016 Olympic team, too. I don't buy that he "led" that team to the gold. They would have won it easily without him.
The Warriors won the championship before he got there. The Thunder failed to come close to a championship while he was there. The math here is pretty easy.
You'll never convince me that he led anyone to a championship, though. Was he the best player on that team? Probably. He was the best player on the 2016 Olympic team, too. I don't buy that he "led" that team to the gold. They would have won it easily without him.
The Warriors won the championship before he got there. The Thunder failed to come close to a championship while he was there. The math here is pretty easy.
- 33anda3rd
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Re: 2019 NBA Playoffs Poll
In the 2017 Finals v CLE he scored 38. 33, 31, 35, and then 39 in the closeout. There was that dagger three with 0:45 left in Game Three with the Dubs down by two that took the series from 2-1 to 3-0 and took all the wind out of Cleveland's sails.Socnorb11 wrote:You'll never convince me that he led anyone to a championship, though. Was he the best player on that team? Probably. He was the best player on the 2016 Olympic team, too. I don't buy that he "led" that team to the gold. They would have won it easily without him.
Then a year later, up 2-0 vs CLE in the Finals, with 0:50 left, Durant hits a dagger three from almost the exact same spot to ice the game and put the Dubs up 3-0 again, again taking all the wind out of Cleveland's sail. In that 2018 postseason in the Conf Finals v HOU, the team that a lot of people thought would beat the Dubs that year, Durant scored 37, 38, 25, 27, 29, 23, 34. Curry averaged 25 that series. Durant did a lot more though, and for all intents and purposes led the team to victory.
Did Steve Young not lead the Niners to a Super Bowl win? After all, that elite D and Jerry Rice were already in place when he took over for Montana. And they were already champions without him. Or do we have a sliding scale when the guy piloting the team is a QB* instead of a PF**?
*who plays half the game and just hands the ball to someone else for half of that half
**who contributes heavily on O then often goes and guards the other team's best wing player on the other end
- lukethedrifter
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Re: 2019 NBA Playoffs Poll
You’re not going to convince. I guess trying is the point.
- 33anda3rd
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Re: 2019 NBA Playoffs Poll
I feel like there's a lot of KD slander, and that's my point, I guess. There used to be a lot of LeBron slander. It's often--and that's not the case with Socnorb or most of our other posters--accompanied by some kind of jersey burning and/or emasculating language like "he's a little b---h "or "p---y." This is usually from people who are fans of organizations not players, even though it's a players' league and seriously why on earth are you watching NBA if you root for laundry when something like 60% is the games and like 40% is the culture of the league and the players who define it at this point?lukethedrifter wrote:You’re not going to convince. I guess trying is the point.
What happens if KD doesn't come back in Game 5 to get hurt, he misses the Finals then just leaves for Brooklyn? He's a goat. But he came back and sacrificed a year of his career to a ruptured achilles for his team in a series they lost and no one wanted them to win, so people will probably warm up to him...because he got hurt and went back to non-champion status. Even though he's the same guy.
Durant is by any objective measure a top-10 all-time player. He's a legend. He's accomplished everything. But folks are reluctant to give him his due. That kind of irks me, because there are so many more worthy players of villain status.
He never won in OKC? Maybe b/c Russ is a loser and KD was stuck with him, with a bad coach to boot in Brooks? He's ruining the NBA? Maybe it's Harden with the flopping that makes the game a free throw shooting contest, maybe he's the bigger villain? He and Russ have won MVPs in two seasons when KD was a better, more valuable all-around player. But KD is the villain. "They wouldn't have won v Houston last year if Chris Paul didn't get hurt." Chris Paul seems to get hurt in the playoffs a lot. Has he ever gutted one out like KD did when KD blew his entire 2020 season for 13 minutes in Game 5? But Chris Paul--also an Olympic grade whiner and now reportedly having a lot of trouble getting along in HOU as the 2nd fiddle now that he's old--is not the villain KD is in a lot of minds. It just bugs me. He doesn't do what someone wants him to do with his short career, so they slander him and discount his incredible talent.