₦airaland Forum

KarnThornheart:
Yeah lets just forget him injuring his groin at a pivotal stage. Just when they were starting to click. The lakers would've made the playoffs if he didnt get injured period. And with how weak the west is they would have made the WCF if they avoided golden state.

Why would he need the avengers to beat a KD less, bench less, plague infested team in the finals?

The pivotal stage was returning before All-star break with all to play for. If he couldn't beat poverty teams like the Suns, Grizzlies, Pelicans, Knicks why am I supposed to believe they would have gotten to any yeye playoffs never mind the WCF. Let me know when you're ready to come out of that Fantasy land

They are so bench less we saw Kerr go 10 deep and win on the road against these same Raptors. What planet does the bench show up every night? If they did they wouldn't be on the bench

Speaking about bench the Raptors bench is Ibaka and Van Vleet. That's it!!

KarnThornheart:
You literally just asked why arent other teams in the playoffs.

No I was talking about teams with heralded benches eg the Bucks

KarnThornheart:
But klay missed game 3 and they lost. Who says they wouldnt have won after winning game 2?

I'm not in that business. Who says the GOAT wouldn't have won a Four-peat if he didn't retire after 93? We can only work with what we can see and that the Warriors have lost 2 of the 3 games Klay played in, probability suggests the Warriors are likelier to have lost had he played

KarnThornheart:
Not before he got injured they werent. Not before lonzo got injured and the ingram. You are still denying the lakers wouldve made the playoffs if lebron didnt go down? LOL!

Lmaooo they were two games ahead of the 10th seed FFS. Stop repeating this tired line. He came back with two and a half months left and just two games to make up the playoffs and your boy couldn't hack it. The Lakers weren't making no bloody playoffs whether LeNomad was healthy or not

KarnThornheart:
LMAO! Stop it, you are trying too hard. The point is the raptors were good without him period, stop deflecting from the point.

Clearly not good enough else they wouldn't mortgage their future to get him

KarnThornheart:
No, the mavericks took him cause they saw potential based on what he did pre finals. The kings took him cause they had a young good team and they thought barnes would add to that and push them over the edge. Plus they know hes better than nothing which is basically what the warriors have now.

The same Mavericks that up till Luka Doncic had not drafted any decent player since Josh Howard. They are not exactly the gold standard of talent evaluation and we can see the Mavs have remained rubbish even with him on the roster. Well the Kings also thought wrong, did Harrison Barnes push them over the edge?

In this league the only thing worse than possessing scrubs in your roster is overpaying them. The great teams know this while the ones that don't pay Nicholas Batum $120mil for 5 years. There is nothing right now that suggests Harrison Barnes would help this present incarnation of the Golden State Warriors and they would have been stuck with a middling player earning way too much

KarnThornheart:
Of course they would've been exposed without kawhi they arent good enough. But they're good enough to win regular season games without him and thats better than lebron can say.

That's neither here nor there. With this present Lakers squad their record is 28-27 with LeNomad so LeNomad's arrival did not provide any dramatic improvement needed to win more regular season games.
The point is Kawhi did not need a gang of Avengers to get to this point

KarnThornheart:
LOL! Maybe they're not in the finals cause they didnt have kevin friggin durant for half the playoffs.

They didn't add KD to just make the Finals did they? Ensuring dominance was the purpose of adding KD

KarnThornheart:
I'm saying maybe they would and maybe they wouldnt. Warriors had another game at home after draymond returned, the warriors may not have the same luxury with klay. They're down 3-1 not up 3-1.

Arguing for either stance is pointless. If they lost multiple games even when both guys played both on the road and at home then whether they played doesn't matter. Draymond missed a game but they lost Games 3,6 and 7 where he played. Same goes for Game 1 and 4 that Klay played

KarnThornheart:
They're kids. They should've proved the werent without lebron.

By comparison, the raptors are 17-5 without kawhi, 13-0 against non playoff opposition and 4-5 against playoff opposition.

Even with LeNomad they were 28-27. There is enough blame to go round

Your post shows the Raptors are sub .500 without Kawhi against playoff level opposition so maybe they are not as good as you're suggesting same way the Warriors are 1-6 in their last 7 finals games sans KD. The Warriors that went for KD and the Raptors that dumped DeRozan for Kawhi are not stupid. They know why

KarnThornheart:
Theres also a reason the mavs paid him 20 mil plus. Theres also a reason the kings took him off their hands.

Yes because they had excess cap room and had to spend it on somebody. Absolutely no one expected anything from the Mavs when they signed him. That's why the Mavs quickly traded a 26 year old rather than letting his deal enter the final year. The Kings have excess cap room to spare, we will know if the Kings rate him when his present deal expires and they offer him more than he was getting at the Mavs

KarnThornheart:
I literally didnt even say anything close to that. Dont deflect from the point. Kawhi missed multiple regular season games which the raptors won so this team is actually good without him and even better with him.

That's immaterial when brought to the crucible of playoff basketball. The playoffs was where the deficiencies of the Raptors have been exposed. Don't bring regular season into this matter. They didn't bring Kawhi for the regular season

KarnThornheart:
As for KD, again, klay missed one game and if they didnt have KD they'd spend his money on a better bench. Not saying they're better without him, but they wouldn't be this bad.

Their bench as it stands is competent. Who are the teams with so-called better benches? Why are they not in the NBA Finals. Didn't Milwaukee have a loaded bench? Why didn't they get to a Game 7 even with home court

KarnThornheart:
One of their core players still didnt play. 1-2 is still better than 1-3.

You're assuming they win if he played. The evidence doesn't agree with that. It's as pointless as suggesting the Warriors would have beaten LeNomad's Cavs had Draymond not gotten suspended

KarnThornheart:
So why would he want to trade them?

Are Kuzma, Ingram, Ball bums?

KarnThornheart:
I'm sure curry would've killed to have harrison barnes in game 3.

Lmaooo don't remind me of Harrison Barnes please. There is a reason the Mavs traded him mid-game

KarnThornheart:
One game which the warriors lost and curry actually showed up. Why should we drop that argument?

This is moot. He could show up and Klay doesn't. The Warriors still would have lost. What we do know is Klay has played 3 games and the Warriors are 1-2

KarnThornheart:
And the other good players you just mentioned?

I don't recall anyone suggesting they were bums

KarnThornheart:
KD hasnt played in this series. What i'm saying is without KD at all the warriors would have done better to account for his absence since his money would be used to make up for the bench. So this isnt the same team as the 2016 or 2015 warriors just because KD isnt playing.

They would have probably had to overpay Harrison Barnes or add bench guys that may or may not have delivered unless their names are Lou Williams. Across the league you would struggle to find any team that has gotten value for money like Golden State

KarnThornheart:
Because toronto is a good team and has a winning record without him?

In the playoffs? This is the same narrative people were peddling about the Warriors being better without KD. They are now 1-6 in their last 7 NBA Finals games

KarnThornheart:
You mean unlike every other superstar that has ever won bar dirk nowitzki?

That's immaterial what counts is Kawhi didn't get to Toronto and tried to trade half his roster for All-NBA level talents.

KarnThornheart:
Kyle Lowry, Siakam, Marc Gasol, Ibaka, Van Vleet, KD injured, Klay injured, no bench (Kd money would've been bench money). Wow, what an underdog. I wish lebron was ever this kind of underdog against the warriors. Why are you lot obsessed with lebron? you literally have 5 all stars on your team and you are talking about assembling avengers?

Siakam, Gasol, Ibaka, Van Vleet are all good players. At this stage of their careers they are not all-stars though. Even Kyle Lowry is barely at all-star level if we are being honest

Klay missed one game bruh. I can also argue Kawhi is not 100% so let's bin that argument.

Based on this season the Raptors have just two all-stars and some will even tell you Kyle Lowry is not an all-star.

Looney, Cook, Jerebko, Mckinnie are decent players. And drop that bench argument quickly! How can a team with KD, Boogie, Steph, Klay and Green be complaining about lack of bench. Wetin make other teams talk?

The Raptors are essentially playing with a 7 man rotation as Powell and McCaw are borderline unplayable and you're talking about depth

steady986:
It sounds funny coming from a guy who supports a team that has 3 and a half superstars, and whose team also can't win with 2 and a half superstars against a team with 1 superstar.

Oga make we hear word. If Kawhi wins it would be on record that he did it with Kyle Lowry/Pascal Siakam as his second player and without needing to assemble the Avengers unlike your Fulani nomadic herdsman. Never mind beating Philadelphia (Embiid,Butler,Simmons,Harris) Milwaukee (Giannis, Middleton) on the way

Khanben:
If Raptors win this finals it will IMO add more fuel to the belief that kawhi's camp has that he doesn't need another superstar.

Unlike that Fulani nomadic herdsman now playing for the Lakers

steady986:
Lol, it's so easy for you to say this because KD is out. At least you people have something to leverage on when the trolling starts pouring in proper

And this also means that all your titles weren't well deserved, because you people wouldn't have won if it wasn't for those injuries to opposing players

Maybe you have me confused for someone else. I have always maintained the Warriors needed KD.

Even when the media hype was on overdrive and the likes of Shannon and Chris Broussard were foaming and frothing in the mouth. I pointed out that lost in the sweep of the Blazers were the Warriors coming behind from double digits three times. But for that 18-0 run in the third quarter of Game 2 we're potentially talking about a sweep

You can beat the likes of McCollum, Lillard and Harden sans KD but when you're facing LeNomad's Cavs, Kawhi's Raptors you will surely run into problems

What titles were not well deserved? Go and cancel it now. Orisirisi

Greatihex:
"Often, a dribble brings more joy than a goal," Hazard once said. "That's when the people stand up to applaud. It's part of my reflex. People want the show, they pay for it. You're an actor. So let's bring them pleasure. When I start a match, I tell myself I have to dribble. Today isn't the day to score, it's the day to dribble. This is my main quality."



Hazard must be very stupid to make this kind of statement. I never knew he said something like this.

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/11736232/eden-hazard-to-real-madrid-assessing-his-chelsea-legacy

And you wonder why he has 4 goals from open play after 7 years in Chelsea while small small boys like Salah, Mane came to England and won Champions League under his nose without Ronaldo or Messi as teammates. Thank God Madrid will not tolerate his Shakushaku dancing

donlittle25:
With KD, Max is 5 games tho. KD changes everything. Although, I want the raptors to win, nothing spectacular about what they are doing at all.

If KD started the series I struggle to see the Raptors winning more than 2 games. That whole Kawhi is the best two-way player flies out the window with KD on the court. With him out now Kawhi can eat on both ends of the floor

Without KD the Warriors are done. With him they at least have a puncher's chance

KarnThornheart:
Just to piss off a currysexual

Someone from Akron voted Iguodala. Tearssssss inna mi eyes

Manutd19:
Can Warriors win 3 of 3 even with KD against this Raptors?

With a healthy KD I think they can take it to 7 at least. It's not that these Raptors are spectacular. Steph just played like a bum tonight till it was too late

Steph will never live down tonight's performance if the Raptors go on to win this

Steph just being lazy with these fouls now
Kawhi I understand but If Ibaka is cooking it's probably not your night

Roland17:
I can agree with that but let me remind you that the Warriors got away with a lot of home cooking calls in game 3. Make we talk truth.
Today, Curry is being reffed poorly it must be said but the others have not stepped up either. The Raptors are basically running game 2 last minute defense on Curry.

I agree. I was very specific about this game. It's rare for the home team to get so many calls against it. The treatment Steph got today is a throwback to the era of the GOAT and would have been par for the course. My only issue is if it were the regular season they would blow these fouls so why are they swallowing whistle now

Ewuro4:
KD left a huge vacuum in that team men. I was blind now I see lolzz

You don't mean it. You were part of the Warriors don't need KD bandwagon??

This game is slipping away from the Warriors at this point

Draymond getting torched man

Roland17:
What exactly are they (Iggy and Dray) complaining about? Those are blatant fouls!!

Not this one but over the course of the game. The frustration boiled over

Eruditor:
Just keep playing.

The calls have been crazy.

I was going to say your complaints are very legit based on today. Steph is being butchered out there it has to be said

Steph needs to step up big time. This is season on the line.

Basilona:
Hello Everyone,

I am Idongesit Basil, a Market research analyst with Sagaci research, a Pan-african market research company. An ardent but silent follower of this thread. And I must say this is one of the most stimulating threads on Nairaland.

I write because Sagaci research is conducting a focus group discussion session as it relates to sports and sports fandom. The key focus of the session is to understand how sport fans in Nigeria(like yourselves consume and interact with digital content in the context of professional sport (with extra focus on basketball). And I believe a lot of the contributors on this thread (esp. [/b]eruditor, steady 896, Karnthornheart, A40, khan ben[b])would be suitable participants of this session.

To this end, we request your kind participation in the focus group discusssion session.

The session detail refers....

Date - Thursday 13 june, 2019
Venue - Adeniyi Jones, Ikeja
Time - 11 am - 1pm

The session is billed as an informal discussion where there are no right or wrong answers and everyone’s opinion matters.

Your participation in the research is voluntary. You may choose not to answer any or all questions, and you may stop at any time .

A small honorarium will be afforded participants for their time.


Please anyone who is interested in being a part of this session should kindly signal their interest with their emails/phone number/or contact me on 08182052486(text/whatsapp). or if there's a more suitable/private way we can reach you


Note: Mods please permit to do this as I am not sure if I am breaking any rules with this message


Regards,

Idongesit Basil

Most participants on this thread are scattered around various parts of the world never mind country. Have you considered doing this online via the numerous platforms we have.

Just frame your questions and mail to every interested party and those of us interested would definitely get through to you.

Nice concept. I'd send a PM

CuteRedd:
Guys look at how low that ice pack is? Looks like an Achilles injury to me.

There is talk of him being rushed to be ready for Game 4 (still think it's a ruse to keep Toronto guessing) but if it's legit I hope this doesn't end in tears. It's a good sign too that he is moving on his own but that injury didn't look like a calf strain ab initio.

From what I read up, his recovery period would suggest it was a grade 2 strain (assuming it was a calf strain true true) but the ice pack location odikwa suspicious

This would be one of the weirdest Finals MVP votes yet.

Steph keeping the Warriors in this

Roland17:
Naaa. Take a 2nd look.

Just did y'all were right

KarnThornheart:
My initial thought was goal tend. Seems iblocker still has the street cred.

Clean block