It's probably a pipe dream, but you realize if he takes the minimum this year and Miami gives him a max deal next year with more years, he'll actually end up making more money in the end, right?
And yet OKC had them right where they wanted them and it took a pretty epic chokejob in game 6 for GS to win it. GS is the best team in the league for a couple of years running now for the reasons you posted but there is no doubt that OKC had a golden opportunity to get to the Finals.
Wade is 34 turning 35, chances are hes going to take a long term deal now. The guy isnt going to want to risk taking minimum and then end up with injury or something that prevents him from getting a long term deal at 36.
Thunder shot 10-50 (20%) from 3 over the last 2 games. Warriors shot 38-82 (46%). If OKC can just shoot their season average (35%) from 3 they probably win that series. Role guys had tons of open looks, just didn't knock em down.
They will need to crash the boards as well as OKC did AND have a key role player step up beyond his means to have a shot. They also must win game 1 IMO.
I think Durant and Westbrook let the team down, no ball movement....bad shots....they tried to carry the team offensively and just failed.
I'm sort of interested to see what happens with Draymond in the Finals. League more or less saying they won't suspend him / give him a flagrant, and he's just gonna keep playing like this - does he force their hand at some point? Or does Draymond get a pass simply because he's Draymond? Cuz if that's anyone else, they'd have missed a game by now.
and the story ends with...."They still lost." Hey..the 13' Heat was a MACHINE.....66 wins while resting players, then won 27 in a row.....and...had to come back from down 2-3 to the Spurs to win the title. This "winning" stuff is hard.
I wouldn't put it just on them. Those two did take some really bad shots. But there were also times when they did move the ball and the others passed up open shots.
IMO the Cavs have to out-rebound them like OKC did and shoot better than OKC did. They also have to force TOs. The Cavs have to penetrate with Irving and Lebron and kick out to their 3 pt shooters. Those two are capable of penetrating, but I see their outside shooters as too streaky. They also have to defend the 3 pt line consistently. The splash brothers can get their shots regardless of very good defense and I find the Cavs' defense to be inconsistent. GSW has to avoid TOs and rebound decently. In the end I think it will come down to which team shoots well. I trust GSW more in that regard. The Cavs have certainly had their great shooting moments and should in this series as well so they can get a few games. My guess is GSW in 6, but I can't say I'd be shocked if it went 7.
Last year Wade was supposedly looking for 3/$45 million. We already paid him $20 million. We "owe" him $25 million more bucks to make him whole for his sacrifices. I think a case can be made for him accepting less this year with a promise of a 1 year makeup. I think his max in 2017 is almost $40 million which we could go over the cap to pay. It's a lot to ask, yes, but has benefits.
What is this? A Tannehill thread! I'm joking, but I did not mean it was ALL their fault but the two guys expected to play well for their team to win struggled in 6-7
The thing is, you look at the quality of some of those threes that OKC took and they were just bad shots. They saw GS making those shots and tried to match them. The thing is, GS makes those shots regularly. OKC should be taking 3s within the flow of their offense.
Reality is that in team sports most of the time putting the majority of the blame on one or two guys is wrong, so I can see the thread similarity. I thought Westbrook took more WTF? shots, but he also had a ton of assists. It seemed like he got desperate when GSW made their run. I'm more forgiving of Durant b/c when you're 6'11" with that ridiculous wingspan you almost always have an open look. He's Curry-like in that regard where they can take shots that would be "bad shots" by anybody else. I also have that kick-out by Durant to Roberson where Roberson passed up an open look fresh in my mind. Personally, if I were allocating blame I would put the highest percentage on Westbrook and split the rest between Durant and the role players. I might even lean towards putting more on the role players than Durant.
Le Batard (who has great knowledge of the inner workings of the Miami Heat) on dismissing KD to Miami:
This is the most rested LeBron we have ever seen in the Finals. Wouldn't be surprised to see his best Finals performance. Going to be a great series.
Over the last 2 games, they shot 8 of 34 on 3s where there wasn't a defender within 4 feet of them! 7 of 36 on 3s where they took zero dribbles!
Durant to Miami has to be considered a long-shot. In fact, I would argue that Durant to anywhere but OKC should be considered a long-shot. But I would rate Miami's odds as highly any team outside of OKC.
I would be shocked if it was.. his shot is broken and Golden State has the tools and his nemesis to defend him well.
I don't have the stats, but in watching those games, when GS made their runs it seemed like OKC was forcing contested or pull-up threes.
Have we ever seen a Finals matchup between two point guards who are so incredibly skilled offensively, but horrendous on defense? I was going to post something about how Kyrie will not be able to guard Steph, but then again, Steph can't guard Kyrie.
Football is much more of a team sport than basketball. Individuals on the basketball court absolutely deserve the majority of the credit and blame, it's a superstar league. Now that is not to say every time a superstar loses a game that it's his fault, but those guys collectively deserve some criticism for the way they played the last two games
Agree that football is more of a team sport just due to the number of participants that affect any given interaction. That's why I find the Tannehill blame threads so tiresome. And I also agree that every time a superstar loses a basketball game it's not necessarily his fault. That's why I gave my specific opinion as to whom I would blame most for the OKC losses.
I wouldn't say that Steph is horrendous on D. He's not Gary Payton, but he makes some plays. I wouldn't be surprised to see GS put Thompson on Irving, though.
This is Stephen Curry in the playoffs: 11 games played, His opp is shooting 40.4% against him with 3.5 makes on 8.6 attempts. The average FG% of the players he has guarded: 45.6%. So his Opp is shooting -5.2% against Him. Now for Kyrie Irving: 14 games played, his opp is shooting 50.7% against him with 4.9 makes on 9.7 attempts. The average FG% of the players he has guarded: 43.7%. So his Opp is shooting +7.1% against Him. (That is the worst mark in the NBA So in other words, Steph has been good defensively vs. Very good competition, Kyrie has gotten roasted vs. below average competition as per FG%. In the regular season, not much is different, Steph is -3.1% for top 5 PG's on the ball, and Kyrie is at -0.6% right at league average.
*see the numbers I posted* then there is this: (up to game 5) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry...en-currys-defense_us_57485fb7e4b0dacf7ad4a737 So yeah..Russell Westbrook laughed at the guy that was shutting him down every time he guarded him. http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/12648764/how-stephen-curry-developed-top-flight-defender
So the lesson here kids is this: Don't look like you are 12 years old or be skinny or small. Because it will automatically mean you are bad defensively. THIS is why I love analytics. Cuts through the bull****.
Thanks for that. I had heard that Curry had a poor defensive rep, but whenever I watched games quite frequently I would think to myself, "Curry defended that well". It happened so often that I had made a mental note to check his defensive stats b/c what I was seeing didn't match the rep. Your post saved me the effort. It also verified what I'd seen with Irving and part of why I believed that Cleveland's stars were poor defensively. (Of course, I'm probably just surreptitiously hating on Lebron, LOL)
I don't find basketball and football analytics to be as analogous. Passer rating tends to be more of a measure of team passing efficiency than individual efficiency while basketball analytics can more specifically measure individual performance. That's what I wish the whiners in the mains would grasp.
Problem for Cleveland is I don't think Lebron can carry them by himself. No matter how great he plays it will take clutch plays by everyone else on the team to beat GS. That isn't a shot at Lebron.
It certainly sounds that at the very least, KD is going to listen to what other teams have to say. He isn't talking like a guy that plans on staying in OKC: http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/1...durant-says-started-think-pending-free-agency