Eruditor:


LOL, Brother Aliondo, I said that with more stars your team will be no different that Victor was not as bad as his numbers suggested and that Russell should be playing more to facilitate and not heroball his way into an MVP.

I stated repeatedly that Harden's 55 win season was more significant than Russell's 47 or 46. I stated repeatedly that Harden finishing as a 3rd seed was more noteworthy and that Harden even had close to a triple double so I could not understand how the extra rebound Russell had all of a sudden made his feat more laudable. The second best player in the rockets (E Gordons at the time) is not a franchise player, but Victor Oladipo today is the reason the Pacers got swept.

Khanben:



So in your words Messi was not the best player in the world during Pep's tenure in barca, That is really funny.
In 14/15 the team that won was more about the front 3 of MSN than the midfield.
So if he was not arrogant tell me why he benched KDB in the first leg. He specifically said himself that the second leg and matches against crystal palace, Tottenham in the EPL and man utd were of more importance.
Pep is a great manager but I see you adroitly ommited the 14/15 UCL games against RM where he elected to play a high line against the fastest attack line in Europe, same thing in both legs against Monaco with a speedster like Mbappe.
Every great coach has their flaws the issue who Pep is that in his barca days Messi's incredible finishing papered over those issues. Without Messi whose incredible conversion rate ensures that he can get away with making tactical mistakes

aliondo:


Please let's be honest...I watched OKC's games that season and Russ alone cannot be blamed for Oladipo's not-so-good performance. ..Oladipo is not a bad player but he didn't really play well for us...And besides nobody (including you) foresaw that he will be this great with the Pacers...

As for Harden, the same criteria that was used for Westbrook MVP's season was one of the criteria used this season for Harden winning MVP this season , in the sense that he carried the Rockets when CP3 and Capela were out.. I'm not really a fan of triple double but you can't take anything away from history that was created and a long-term record that was broken by Russ. The

aliondo:


Please let's be honest...I watched OKC's games that season and Russ alone cannot be blamed for Oladipo's not-so-good performance. ..Oladipo is not a bad player but he didn't really play well for us...And besides nobody (including you) foresaw that he will be this great with the Pacers...

As for Harden, the same criteria that was used for Westbrook MVP's season was one of the criteria used this season for Harden winning MVP this season , in the sense that he carried the Rockets when CP3 and Capela were out.. I'm not really a fan of triple double but you can't take anything away from history that was created and a long-term record that was broken by Russ. The

Khanben:


How will Oladipo play when the ball hog Russ kept the ball to himself

Eruditor:


I don't want to post too much on the issue. You can do your research and find me bigging Oladipo up. When I was here showing you people how Steve Adam's had become useless, I was hearing that Russell needed to rebound the ball and run up the court bla bla. The reason Harden is in MVP talks is not because of carrying the team when whoever was out. Harden had done so before. His numbers are historic and he was consistently doing those incredible numbers for a sustained period. I still want Giannis to win it BTW, but if you are referring to last season, Harden's team had 65 wins.

aliondo:


I know Russ is a ball hog but Oladipo had his chances sometimes and didn't take it...Russ alone cannot be blamed..

birdman:


Its all about rhythm. A good PG feeds into your rhythm - Russ wants to play PG and SG and rebounder (lol), and he disrupts other roles. For example, he steals rebounds that should belong to the center. In the same token, he took away clutch shots from Durant in those close playoff games. Its not hard to see how he forces an Oladipo to take a subservient role - Oladipo is explosive, a slasher even - if you give him the ball a split second late, defense is set already, negating his strengths.

Russ is not a a good PG, simple. Its not just about racking assists...he needs to sit down this offseason and study Curry, CP3, Jason Kidd, Stockton. Instead of shouting like a mad man everytime he makes a 3 pointer.

Eruditor:

You were not the only one on the Westbrook hype train. In fact, only Birdman and SmooshCHN shared the same sentiment as me. My argument then as it is now is that his style was not letting other potential players do diddly squat but you guys said he needed to play that way for OKC to have a chance. Victor Oladipo has now gone on to be the star I contended that he was yet OKC are barely winning any games beyond what they did during the triple double euphoria which implies that the triple double was glossing over the fact that I was stressing then.

Eruditor:

As per Pep, he is still shaking the ketchup bottle. It will soon Pop. It is a matter of time. I know how long RM sought the La Decima since 2002 and only found success in 2013. Good thing is the UCL is a competition he has already won twice so it is not like he does not know how to win it. The Benitez and co that someone else was mentioning have all gone to bigger clubs who had just previously won and failed miserably. Pep is only failing by winning everything else but it.

SIRcumalot:
That was some game
What a shot!!!!!

Hardetayour:
So I just switched on data and saw a 2 point lead with 1:20 remaining. Tried to get my stream up and saw they lost by 3 points.

A40:

Lmaooo suggesting Oladipo was a star at OKC being held back by Westbrook is tantamount to playing Monday Morning Quarterback. Nobody really predicted he will ball at Indy. Not even on this thread

My stance then was that the role players simply deserved a large chunk of the blame as well. This ongoing OKC game is a microcosm of that. Lillard is balling out of his mind but guess what? his backcourt partner is 4/14 while OKC even with Westbrook struggling but getting hot in spurts has role players shooting ultra efficiently from the floor

If we're arguing that Oladipo left OKC and became a star then we could also argue that PG came to Westbrook and became an MVP candidate, a feat he had never achieved previously.

You can't as the supposed second best player on a team be shooting 4/17 or 2/16 in elimination games and still blame others for such poverty shooting

Lmaooo Pep don cast. If you're telling people to wait 11 years good luck with that. I've observed Pep's pattern when it comes to CL Knockout round games and you can almost predict he is getting knocked out if he's drawn away in the first leg (Lol Monaco showed it doesn't really matter) but it's not even the big teams anymore, even the smaller teams have sussed him out.

Pep's financial backing has made it impossible to fail. When you can afford to spend £200m+ just on your back line in two seasons then you should know all fingers are not equal

chic2pimp:
Dame has got some serious Ice in His veins.