Not again. They had this all time game changing player in Draymond Green games 6 and 7 and how did that work out. Dude averaged a triple double in the greatest finals of all time and looks like the most dominant athlete in any sport right now. Time to accept the facts, rather we like them or not. And they SHOULD wreck them! They broke an NBA record then added Kevin flippin Durant! But if they don't..............well, you know. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I agree with everything here except that GSW SHOULD wreck the Cavs. The regular season means less in the NBA than in any other sport, no matter how impressive that win total was. Plus, after adding Kevin flippin Durant, they had a worse regular season record, so that kind of negates the argument. The Cavs are an incredibly talented team with more depth than they've ever had. They also have the best player on the planet. It should be a good series, and the Cavs will almost certainly even be favored.
I will be interested to see the series prices. I still think the Warriors are a slight fav, however I would bet on the Cavs. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Hopefully we'll have a 7 game series. I don't have a dog in this hunt. I don't really care who wins. I respect both teams.
Isiah Thomas JR to miss remainder of playoffs. Damn. They would've won if that wouldn't of happened, right Matt? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
we are witnessing the best offensive team in nba history. I still dont think they beat the Heat superteams, the defense was that damn good.. but i never seen an offense like the cavs and Golden State have been rewriting history in that area but the Cavs tops them in my eyes. Golden State just doesnt have what it takes on the painted area besides Durant. In the cavs they have three above average to elite finishers at the rim.
It sounds immature and cliché, but I really believe GS is mentally weak and soft. LeBron intimidated the **** out of them after Klay ran his mouth. To me that was no accident. And let's not forget, Andre Igudola was the MVP in 2015...no splash brothers, no game changing Draymond. I promise you I will be able to tell you the outcome of this finals after game 1 Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I've had the "anyone but Cleveland" mindset, but I'm starting to think I might rather the Warriors lose. It would be awfully funny for Durant to join that team only to lose again. That would also probably lead to an interesting offseason.
Definitely going for Cleveland, I'm over hating them. Do you know any warriors fans? They're terrible.
I honestly dont care who wins and i dont hate either team. Klay Thompson is one of my favorite players to watch and i love watching lebron play. I was really rooting for the Spurs tho because Kawhi is probably right below Wade as far as favorite players in the NBA goes.
Actually, the two Warriors fans I do know are pretty cool. But they were fans before the team was good. Personally, I'm not over hating the Cavs. Their fans are awful, and I don't like many of the players on the team. But I don't like the Warriors either, and I'm not opposed to LeBron adding to his legacy. And like I said, I think it will be hilarious if Durant went there only to lose. Also, as much as I dislike him, I wonder if that would open up the possibility that he would come to Miami in the offseason.
Seriously doubt it. In his mind, if he can't beat bron with GS then I doubt he thinks he can beat him in Miami. Even though I think he can.
I doubt it too, but would you trust Riley to build a team that fits Durant best? And do it on a team that, as is, has given LeBron arguably the most trouble since he went back to Cleveland? If the rumors that Miami was a serious suitor last year are true, you never know. I think Miami would have to trade away some players to do that.
Of course. I think our team as is would've been a better ECF challenge than Boston. Can you link me the KD rumors? I never really saw much. If we let both Dion and JJ go, it wouldn't be enough?
Spurs need to get rid of some of those sloppy roleplayers... patty mills was so useless today and dont get me started with Aldridge.. that guy sucks
That MJ never faced a team like GSW is patentedly false. Barkleys Suns with KJ, Majerle, Tom Chambers etc were loaded. I don't think any of the teams today really compare to the 90's era because the game was just harder and much more physical then. You might be too young to really have appreciated how much tougher the game was. I completely disagree with your assessment of MJ's leadership skills. Maybe not as verbal as some others but MJ was that one who never showed fear, never was intimidated, never backed down no matter how many times you hit him. I don't believe Lebron has a place in the top 5 of all time discussion...not a chance really....I don't even consider him the best of his era. I would take an in his prime Wade or Kobe over him.
No, you're one of THOSE people. I feel like anyone over 30 should be able to understand just how much better the game was them. Your boy has walked through a conference that has been predominantly trash and couldn't beat the west teams so he had to collude with other players and form his own super team because he couldn't get it done. FACTS! Don't ever come at me with some nonsense like that. Your boy is weak and so is this eras style of play compared to the 90's and early 2000's. You didn't have a down year in the east...you've had a down decade and a half.
Lol another one....if you consider the most iconic shot of MJs career the shot over ehlo, that's your decision. Maybe that's the most commercialized one. I'd opt for the one over Byron Maxwell. But at least MJ has a wide selection unlike Lebron. You bring up the weight of the player like Lebron would have been able to guard Ewing. Laughable. You're leaving out two things...one is that Ewing would have posted him and hit that drop step turnaround all day because secondly, in that era big men actually played like big men. They took smaller players in the post and punished them. You say MJ never played against zones...there is a reason they didn't allow zone defenses then. It is a lazy way to compensate for talent at a professional level and to compensate for weaknesses. And yes, I realize that as a Syracuse basketball fan for over 30 years that sounds funny but the fact is it works in college because players can't shoot but at the pro level they can. The fact that zones weren't allowed is practically irrelevant as their impact on the NBA game is similarly irrelevant. Your narrative and assessment of that situation is a blatant attempt to alter facts. FACT: At the Olympics Lebron wanted Wade and Carmelo to join him in Miami. Melo opted for his extension so Bosh became the 3rd piece. Fact: Jackson left the Bulls because he and everyone else was tired of GM Jerry Krause acting like a douche to Pippen, MJ and himself. He left because his fued with Krause had grown to the point where working with him became impossible. Maybe this will provide a more accurate refresher for you http://www.nba.com/bulls/news/jordanhof_yearfourteen_090911.html/
Fact is there really isn't a person alive that is going to tell me the game now is better then it was then. It just isn't. Everything about the game is worse from the rules to officiating to the style of play. The fact is golden state choked. But the GOAT, or Duncan, or Russell etc never got down 3-1. The Warriors broke an NBA record in an era when they wouldn't have won 50 games 20 years earlier. As for your opinion they should wreck them because they added Durant....I guess that shows how much faith you have in the Cavs that you feel a team full of smurfs should wreck them.
Not a chance. Boston has no business in a conference finals. Maybe if they add Melo and Jimmy Butler in the offseason but that team as it is, is only there cause no one else was good enough to beat them in a horrible conference. You realize Boston would have been like a 5 seed out west right? Better then GSW? No. Better then SAS? No. Better then Houston? No. Better then LAC? No. Maybe not even better then Utah.
I wouldn't be able to find them now, but there were some tweets at the time from NBA insiders saying Miami was a team he was legitimately interested in. Again, it's a long shot at best, but we'll see. Them losing would give us a better shot than them winning IMO. I do not believe letting Dion and JJ go would be enough to free up two max contract spots. I don't think there would even be room for one currently if you sign both of those guys (unless they take favorable deals). If you trade Johnson and Justise, you might be close, but even then I'm not sure that you could afford two max deals.
We're just going to have to agree to disagree on the Suns being even close to as good as this GSW team. This team has 2 of the 4 best players in the league, and probably 3 of the top 10. I also think the "no team in this era compares to 90's team because it was more physical" is a cop out. Was it more physical? Sure. Were the players as big, fast, and athletic? No. And while Wade is my favorite player, and his 2006 Finals performance was one of the most impressive individual performances in a playoff series I've ever seen, there's no way I can put him even next to LeBron, let alone above him. Wade himself even realized this, and stepped aside for LeBron when they teamed up in Miami.
Boik, you're like all old people: you think everything was better when you were younger. By the way, I'm 41, I remember when Jordan couldn't win a playoff series. I also remember those terrible Knicks teams that played the ugliest, least skillful basketball ever. You wanna glorify that ******ed brand of basketball, be my guest. But the game wasn't better in the 90s. Sorry.
I can put Steph and KD in the top 4, I can't put Klay or Draymond higher then 20ish. The Warriors are loaded right now but comparatively speaking the entire league is in a place where it was in the Magic/Bird era in the early and mid 80's where they have 3-4 good teams and everyone else basically sucks. I love the NBA but the league is not in a good place right now in terms of the competition. That's my opinion. I disagree that the players were not as big especially since that era was a golden age for great big men. And the entire league executed fundamentals much better. It's just not a real debate for me.
The early 90's Ewing Oakley Mason teams were much more physical than skilled. The Ewing Houston LJ Spree teams were VERY skilled however. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I'm 38 and no I don't think everything was better back in the day. Way to generalize. I don't think Hockey or baseball was better then. I have a general disdain for the way the game is played now with almost every offense running pick and rolls all game. I miss defense and bigs who can post cause outside of a half dozen guys (Dirk, Pau, KP, KAT, Boogie, Etc) there aren't any. Every player has their growing pains in trying to get over the hump. MJ wasn't an exception as he had to get through birds loaded Boston teams and the bad boys in Detroit. Your memory is very different then mine. While those Knicks teams weren't exactly loaded with offensive studs, they were defensively awesome to watch...no layups and they wanted every loose ball. No blood, no foul. I loved that. It was better and it wasn't even close. Thankfully, I know I'm not the only one who feels that way.
I agree about the league overall, but GSW is as talented a team as there have ever been. Going through them is an impressive feat, especially if he does it twice or more. It was the golden age of big men, and many teams are going "smaller" in the front court, but it's really not that smaller than the 90s, and every other position is so much bigger. When you are under 6'3'' as a PG, you're now seen as undersized whereas John Stockton was 6'1'', Hardaway was 6'0'', Kevin Johnson was 6'1'', Isiah Thomas was 6'1''. Today you have wing players pushing 7 feet. And while they did execute better fundamentals, I'd take a team in today's NBA over one of those teams to win because they make up for it with athleticism and finishing ability. To me, though, regardless of which era is better, I don't think there is a significant enough difference to really knock a player in today's NBA for playing in this era.
Well that game was something else.. +17 covered so easily lol And suddenly Isaiah's hip feels 100%. I expect him to be back for game 4..
My gut told me to take it but I just couldn't do it. Maybe one of lebrons homies put 7 figures on the moneyline.
Eh, it's impressive but only cause there's nothing better around. It won't happen though IMO. Smaller? Maybe but certainly tougher. Pippen, Dumars, Michael Cooper, Sidney Moncrief would crush the players now who are conditioned to a different and softer style game. You call a guy like Westbrook or a Harden a Pg? I don't. They're SG's. Especially a guy like Westbrook who is simply lost without the ball. The difference between the guys you listed and most modern PG's (save for CP3 and maybe 1-2 others) is they could dominate a game without scoring. They simply put their teammates in better position which is lost on most modern PG's which is terrible since that's the entire function of the position.
That WAS their entire function. The game changed, like all sports change. Personally, I don't have a problem with that, but I realize some do. I don't think the evolution of the game is hurting the product, I actually think it's more fun to watch. To me, what's hurting the game is the lack of parity. There are two superteams, one really good team with a all-time great coach, and a bunch of other teams ranging from mediocre to awful. The regular season became meaningless years ago, but it's gotten to the point where most of the playoffs are meaningless, and that's a problem.
Yes that was their entire function. And the game is better that way. The ball moves, there's less stagnation and the PG essentially takes on a role of a quarterback, getting his teammates involved and scoring basically when everything else isn't working. I disagree that this is evolution of the game. It is regression in terms of product quality. The game of basketball wasn't meant to be played 1-1 with 8 guys standing around watching which is how so many of these guards play now. One of the most intelligent things the NCAA ever did was put a timeline in for how long a player can simply hold the ball without making a basketball move. Other then that we agree.
Boik, I suggest you read this. : http://www.theroot.com/on-those-too-stuck-on-90s-nostalgia-to-appreciate-grea-1790855507 There exists a sizable (and loud) segment of sports fans who are unable or unwilling to enjoy today’s NBA because they spend so much time stuck in the ’80s and ’90s. “The game sucks today,” they’ll say. Or maybe, “The players don’t try hard anymore.” Or maybe they’ll contradict themselves in the same breath by saying, “The players aren’t fundamentally sound,” and then, “I hate how soft it is today with all this great shooting and fancy ballhandling.” And when this argument starts, facts don’t matter. It doesn’t matter that, while blatant hand checking is no longer legal, defenses are actually better and more sophisticated now because teams are allowed to be creative with zones. Which makes it harder to score. Which means that certain adored stars from the ’90s (Anthony Mason of the New York Knicks, for instance) would have trouble just staying on the court today because no one would guard him and he’d ruin his team’s spacing. It doesn’t matter that decades of advances in training, medicine, rehab, coaching, drilling, scouting, weightlifting, diet and video would naturally suggest that today’s athlete is more fine-tuned and efficient and likely to reach his athletic potential than athletes in the past, and that this increase should continue. And don’t even suggest to one of these people that, perhaps, their perspective of the past and the memories/feelings crafted from that perspective are skewed because consuming something with 15-year-old eyes in 1995 is much different from consuming something with 35-year-old eyes in 2015. Nope, everyone was better in 1993 and that’s that!
There are so many incorrect stances in that thread I'm not even sure where to begin but here it goes... 1. I'm not against ball handling and shooting. Nor did I say players today don't try hard. I did say that zone defenses don't have much impact, especially when players shoot well. And I say that having been a Syracuse basketball fan for 30 plus years and watching Jim Boeheim dare players at the college level to shoot well consistently. 2. I also said that the physicality of the game has declined. If you're going to the hoop and you know you're going to get hammered and maybe you get 2 foul shots then you're going to be hesitant to go back to the hoop. But if you're going to get 2 shots for every tick tack foul...you're going to go to the hoop every time without fear or consequence...especially when any hard could is a flagrant 1. 3. Anthony Mason was the original Draymond Green. He didn't quite have 3 point range but it was solid mid range. He wasn't quite LaMarcus Aldridge but he was a very good passer, rebounder and defender. Is this idiot actually telling me that guys like Mason, Rodman, Oakley, etc couldn't play compared to these guys? And what about Mourning, Ewing, Shaq, Olajuwon, Mutombo etc all of who were physical defenders from that era? 4. It's clear that the author of said article, and possibly yourself as well, simply don't understand why the game was better then. Points were earned. Fouls were legit fouls not ticky-tack nonsense. Yes, I realize that we have "The Malice in the Palace" to thank for the NBA changing their rules, but that doesn't mean that those rules weren't better. The league took preventative steps to prevent that from ever happening again. The league has an image and a monetary responsibility to their owners. It still doesn't mean that the style if play wasn't better. I'm just thankful I got to watch the league when it wasn't full of wimps and babies.
You are obviously entitled to your opinion, but I don't agree. Just as the function of point guards have changed slightly, other positions have taken on a greater role in that area. You have the Warriors center doing it, the Cavs SF, the Bucks SF, etc. I don't see more 1-1 than there was in the 80's. The best teams move the ball just fine. It's exactly how the Spurs beat the Heat in the finals.
Lol betonline didnt even have the ML available for me. I took the +17 because i never seen that number before in a conference finals game, ever. I also took kevin love over 30.5 pts+rebounds. That cashed in the third quarter.
My last word: I understand that reasonable people can disagree what era was better. But I believe basketball in the 90s was a worse product than it is today. You, however, refuse to acknowledge that the 90s Knicks sucked and played ugly basketball and Anthony Mason had zero skills other than bashing dudes who drove the lane.
