₦airaland Forum

nairamaniac:
Yeah, I admit, I was wrong to have said it that way. All I meant was Miami didn't have a clear direction on who was the leader of the team. Who the offence should run thru. My statement was solely by my observations on how equally James and dwane shared the ball. It was just too damn equal and most times in their first season together, their strategy was going one on one against their primary defender one after the other.
For the fact that James was runner up MVP, doesn't dispute that.

Hope u would admit that it kind of changed from the following season till James left for cavs.

raumdeuter:
looks like Dortmund is codedly pursuing Dahoud as a replacement for Gundgan. I heard his twitter handle recently started following some Dortmund guys

Also the heist pulled on City for Sane for 50M or there about is deserving of a prize. Sane is good but he isnt 50M good nor is he ready. He should still be at Schalke playing regularly. Maybe wait for Sane to flop well now buy him for 15M loan him to Schalke with first option to buy, We need to be smarter in the days of 100M market

For Robben make we just extend the guy, he has us by the balls, there is nothing we can do, His quality when fit is very hard to get in the market.

Moreover its cheaper to extend the guys you have than looking for new buys.

Assuming we want to buy a player of Lewandoski caliber in the open market, we will pay 100M easily and still give him wages similar to what Lewy is making now. When you now think of the time it will take him to settle and potential of being a bust then its better to extend

Draxler is in poor form but if we are looking for a top form AM in the mould of Bale Neymar, Griezmann even Carrasco na 100M dem dey start the pricing

raumdeuter:
Robert Lewandoski extends to 2021
[img]http://pbs.twimg.com/media/CzkBSZBXAAAMz_B.jpg:large[/img]
[img]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CzkBSZBXAAAMz_B.jpg:large[/img]

pickabeau1:
hmm.. can you explain this?

Donlittle:
The guy even conveniently said the pacers were better than Miami. Like what?

Donlittle:
The guy even conveniently said the pacers were better than Miami. Like what?

nairamaniac:
From all 4? U are wicked. He lost his two best players prior to 2015finals. Both Dwane wade and bosh were finished 2014. They both couldn't even make the playoffs without lebron the following year.
No vex, iv accepted my mistake for 2011. Yes, he flopped. I just didn't put the entire blame on him.
I think I remember those last 3games they lost to dallas, miami's scoring was going thru Dwane Wade more than it was thru Lebron.

But please leave 14 and 15 finals out of this.

And mind you, I'm not making excuses for lebron in order to place him at par with Jordan. They r not mates.

frenchwine:
Tonight seems like its gonna be a dull one on-court. Not soo interesting match ups.
Anyone has an interesting pick?

Donlittle:
Dudes be forgetting lebron plays in the ECF, he makes the finals, he makes the finals, you are damn right he should. How many superstar they the ECF? I go wait.

nairamaniac:
It's blasphemy to place kobe ahead of Kareem, Shaq and magic. Kareem and Shaq had the most bankable-2points the league had ever seen. Magic is clearly the best point guard ever and he contributed in scoring unlike other great point-guards like John Stockton and Chris Paul.
If Jordan didn't come out of retirement to win 3more titles, the world would have been divided between Jordan and magic johnson.
Please don't say this in L. A.
Magic was something else.
Kobe isn't best even close to being best laker.

Now picture this, like u sed, kobe had poor teammates. During his peak years after Shaq left. But lebron equally had poor team mates in Cleveland when he led them to the finals in 2007. That was just his forth year in the league.
Kobe had been in the league for 9years. And could lead the lakers to playoffs in 2005.
I'm talking bout playoffs and not NBA finals.
Do u think there's any team in the league in the past 15 years that a Shaq or lebron or a Jordan or Kareem wouldn't have led to playoffs?
"Impossible" my brother.

After 2005, we all thot it was just a bad year for kobe. But the next two seasons, he couldn't lead lakers past the phoenix suns in first-rounds. And this was a 10 to 11year old veteran.
After staying 11years in a league, no great player had an excuse not to lead his team beyond the 1st round in a playoff series. Not qualifying for it is unheard of.
Except you are a Tracy macgrady. And that's why he's rated so low in the ranks of greatest players.
If iverson could lead that sixers with Eric snow and Oldman dikembe to best record (top seed) in 2001. I see no reason why kobe can't do half of that.
Iverson went even further to lead them to the nba finals.
I can go on and on and on. Brother, with those weak-ass team mates, kobe should have done much more. Those years should count against him, rather than for-him.

nairamaniac:
In lebron's first year in Miami, he was still being respectful to Dwane wade and to Miami. Never wanted to steal the shine from wade. It was obvious in his plays. He was kinda laid back. Leave stats aside, several analyst saw and sed the same. Lebron was being half of his usual self.

nairamaniac:
He should also get a pass for 2011finals when they faced mavs. The team had no direction and no clear leader as at then. Both himself and dwane wade were just taking turns offensively. Their style was bullshit. When the team submitted the offence to lebron to run thru him, we saw what they did from their second year together?

A40, I thot lebron also led both teams in points, assist and rebounds in 2015 finals against warriors.

SIRcumalot:
where do you rank James now sef ?
things must have change since the last final

nairamaniac:
Kobe should be flattered for being at number 11. If not for the effect of the greatest coach ever (Phil jackson), he wouldn't have gotten all those rings.
Walai, If lebron had a coaches as good as Phil, or popovich or pat Riley or lenny Wilkins, he surely would have gotten at least 5 rings.
Those are coaches that revolutionised game plays and strategies.
Those coaches were the second most important personalities in their teams, next to the star players.
If u played the game professionally on any level you would understand and interpret easily what these coaches draw on those boards.
Take it or leave it, the coaching crew of the warriors are way above our era of basketball. I'm not a warriors fan. But what we seeing in them today is equivalent to what we saw when Pep Guadiola took over Barcelona in 2008.
Warriors wouldn't have been this good without Steve kerr. He played under 2 of the greatest coached ever.

nairamaniac:
Like I mentioned to A40, those finals losses should completely count against Lebron.
If they should count against him, then we should applaud the number of finals he has led a team to. At times, he leads both teams in scoring, rebounds, assist and even defence. That's incredible.

frenchwine:
ESPN is made up of many writers and editors, some of whom are also writers for the NBA website.
Agreed many were wowed by his more explosive years but over the past two years, his fan base has been heavily diluted by emergent stars.
And bias aside, his stats speak volumes. At least we can't put that on the NBA (referees)

frenchwine:
Agreed Jordan was a phenomenon but LeBron is still on his upward curve with no sign of tanking. Going by the ESPN rankings in which LeBron sits pretty at No. 3, say, what would be our take 4-5yrs from now when LeBron would have shattered whatever record is still left of him to attain, and perhaps added 1-2 more rings?
LeBron isn't my man crush, not for once but we can't but admire and appreciate his contributions to the game.

lolawilliams:
LeBron is the best baller in the NBA right now. MJ was and nothing can change that.. Can you prove any of this wrong?

1- Right before or during his Ring in the 90's. There were like 6 new teams that were added to the league and we all know that new teams rarely win matches due to the fact that the team has to fill their teans with complete new players that has never play prof sport before. I stand to be corrected, Grizzles;Raptors,Heats,Timberwolves, Hornets, Magic were all new teams during MJ's era. Btw 1988-1996, 6 teams were added to the league and MJ won his ring brw 91-98 which made it abit easier


2- A40, You said he didn't really play in a system that emphasized on P.G and Point forward play. Mj is a ball hog, He averaged about 5assists per game in hos career, he was a huge ball hog, often taking as many as 30 shots a game in the 86-87 season alone.. more reason y he couldnt make it out of the first round of the playoffs his first three seasons in the league.


3- We keep saying LeBron had to team up with Wade and Bosh to get his ring, Lets not forget that MJ averaged 37.5 points in his third year in the league which is one of the highest point total average of all time out of all NBA players. In his first 3years in the league, the Bulls made it to the Playoffs and despite averaging 43 PPG in the 1986 playoffs, as well as incredibly high scoring numbers in 1985 and 1987, he still couldnt make it out. So i can as well say that MJ teamed up with Pippen to gt his rings. Yes Who wouldnt win with a person considered one of the grestest defender in the league

AdisaOwala:
Arsenal playing at home in the 2nd leg is a Significant advantage IMO...

If they manage to get a decent result in Germany.....

CC A40

AdisaOwala:
Guy - e no sure for una this season oh...

OohMpa:
[color=#808000]So Ooh Mpa should remove Griffin and put Kemba/Giannis?

Sweery, MVP is given to players that usually finish top 3 in their conferences. You can't play everything for your team,the team struggles to playoffs or don't and you expect to be given the nod.

Your list is more of the literal meaning of MVP than impact.

And if it's about impact, it doesn't get better than Durant, Leonard, Lebron and CP3. The stats do speak for themselves [/color]

nairamaniac:
there's no s.i unit for measuring intensity. The league was also extremely intense back then. I don't think we have ever had a team as intense or defensive as the Bad-boy-pistons in the history of the league which Jordan swept after meeting them in three straight playoffs.
I also don't think Lebron has faced a player to guard him one on one as much as Jordan did in a Gary Payton, in an NBA finals. Don't even mention kawhi leonard, Payton was tougher on Jordan.
About intensity, the NBA was harder driving jnto lanes back then. There was nothing like spacing and stuffs we have here today.
Do you know that Jordan's most offensive team mate pippen had career average of 16points. At his best, he averaged around 20 points. But with that he destroyed a Los Angeles lakers dynasty that had like 4 allstars in the 1991 finals. This is like saying Lebron defeating the warriors In the 2015 finals with Tristan Thomson and shulpert. I say this cos that particular year, 1991 were both pippen and horance grant's breakout year.
Well I may be wrong with the above comparison. But I think it's somehow close.

Let me also add that if it were Jordan in place of Lebron in this particular cavs team, I would have been 100percent confident cavs(with jordan) would destroy this current warriors.
I remember sometime in 1996 or there about, the miami heat assembled a team with Tim hardaway, alonzo morning and some other good players. Their game was so fluid. Then came playoffs, The bulls won the first three games. Miami was really good. They were fast and shot really well. They had great coach in pat Riley. After those three games, everyone was expecting a sweep. But surprisingly, miami won game 4.
Then came game-5. Jordan came in with red eyes. Refused to shake alonzo morning's hands. My brothers and sisters on Nairaland, what I saw that night from Jordan and the bulls in game 5, I have never seen it till date from any player and team. Jordan and the bulls held both alonzo morning and Tim hardaway to below 10 points. And they were both the highest scoring heat players.
That match alone convinces me whole heartedly, that a Jordan in place of Lebron would likely hold warriors below their normal scoring averages. Don't even say that bulls had a Dennis rodman and this Cavs do not. Jordan was both the defensive leader of the bulls and offensive leader. He led the bulls at both ends of the floor.

lolawilliams:
I'd leave Ring talk to otheer people. This guy can score, shoot, pass, steal, dunk and always in talks for MVP, But still gets all the hate. What a world


Pippen-" "Michael Jordan is probably the greatest scorer to play the game.But I may go so far as to say Lebron James may be the greatest player to ever play the game because he is so potent offensively that not only can he score at will, but he keeps everybody involved"

FBS:
So why did they renew is contract? Even after disobeying team orders they still cant do nawthing with him.

Mercedes have decided not to take action against Lewis Hamilton after he ignored team orders in Abu Dhabi.

RB7 was shoulders above the rest. Vettel could start last and still win the race. Newey was hailed as the best engineer out there. But guess what, during a race anything could and can happen. That we have the same car dont mean we will both finish first. Why? This is where driving style and bravery come into play.

raumdeuter:
Though its reported that Draxler is weak mentally, I think for 30M he will be a good deal

RObben wants a 2yrs I heard we are offering 1. I think we should give Robben anything that will make him stay

Maybe Redbull will go forhim. he is still within the Leipzig age range

TRendlona:
I'm now convinced... Guardiola is toooo overrated.

raumdeuter:
This ffoooll cant even understand what he is saying he is even confusing himself from Mustafi in Bayern to Mustafi in German team. Now tell us which injury made Mustafi to sit on the bench at the world cup

A fit Mertersacker and Boateng ensured Hummels sat on the bench for a number of world cup qualifier games too. I wonder hat a bumbling oaf like you have to say about that