₦airaland Forum

Skrrrrrrr:
Oga, the James Harden the sixers got is a James Harden that has decided to shape his game inorder to win a Title. Harden knows Hero ball won't win him a chip and he has done that for years. Its little wonder his assist numbers are rising.
Lillard is not half the player Harden is. Lillard that does not even have a scoring title.
I only mentioned all those guys because unsteady your friend up there, keeps mentioning a Klay thompson that has not been exceptional since 2018.
Use your tongue to count your teeth.

You are someone who knows he is wrong but just thinks admitting it somehow belittles him. Dude learning is a continuous process and we all continueto learntill the day we die.
there is nobody who knows basketball who will tell you that the Harden in Philly is the same as the one in Houston, his first year with the Nets, he was playing the same style that he has been doing with the sixers, but you know what, he was in the MVP conversation before he got hurt. In case you don't know, players grow old and their level of performance tends to drop-off with age.
If you want to bash, players for failing, give concrete examples and I will happily join you in adding fuel to the fire.
If you don't know examples of players failing I can help you out, Lebron losing to the Mavs, Kawhi achieving nothing with the Clippers, CP3 failing the Clippers,Shaq and Kobe authoring the worst finals loss is recent history,etc. I can go on and on, listing examples of where management built a good enough team and the best players choked. But this hill you are trying to die on is laughable.

Khanben:
He was in his prime when they won, 3 and even if you want to argue he was the 3rd or 4th best player in the 4th ring, that only goes to buttress the point that Steph had a lot of help too for that championship. In the last finals out of the 6 games, playoff klay came out just once, but he put up 2 other games where he was the 3rd best player for the GSW on the night, so he still chipped in enough to be the 3rd best player.
Don't get me wrong Steph is an all-time great, if he and Dame were theoretically put in a similar situation with equal level talent, I'll bet on Steph team doing better in the long run, but the reality is Dame has never been given the caliber of tools to work with through out his career that Steph has had consistently for a large portion of his career.
Dame had never had even one all-defensive team caliber teammate, he's never had a team mate who was an all-star while playing in his team, his is him not winning with such mediocre talent somehow his fault.

My argument is.
Winning goes beyond just assembling a group of stars.
We have seen lots of teams crumble with stars.
People have had better Teams and won nothing.
The clippers and the nets are a perfect example.
The 2015 warriors were not better than the Blazers with Prime Lillard and CJ.
Ever wonder why everyone seems to play better around steph?
Do you think Wiggins would be an all star if he was traded back to the wolves today?

Skrrrrrrr:
Lol
Was Klay an all defensive caliber player last season
I know the all defensive Team of last season and save for draymond who was in the second team, mention the other warrior players in the team.

Did I mention last season, I said for the first 3 chips. You know your arguments are weak but you are just grasping at straws bro.

Skrrrrrrr:
My argument is.
Winning goes beyond just assembling a group of stars.
We have seen lots of teams crumble with stars.
People have had better Teams and won nothing.
The clippers and the nets are a perfect example.
The 2015 warriors were not better than the Blazers with Prime Lillard and CJ.
Ever wonder why everyone seems to play better around steph?
Do you think Wiggins would be an all star if he was traded back to the wolves today?

People play better around Steph because the GSW brain trust actually put together players with the skillset that fits their best player. If you want us to break it down together, I have a bit of time and we can go back and forth as long as you are willing to have a honest conversation.
Honest question describe Steph's playstyle?

Khanben:
Did I mention last season, I said for the first 3 chips. You know your arguments are weak but you are just grasping at straws bro.

You are intentionally missing the point bro.
I am saying your theory falls flat when you consider that klay was not all that in 2015 and wasn't influential last season.
And the warriors won the chip.
The warriors of 2015 and 2022 were not an assembly of superstars.
You can be dishonest all you want but facts are facts..

Khanben:
People play better around Steph because the GSW brain trust actually put together players with the skillset that fits their best player. If you want us to break it down together, I have a bit of time and we can go back and forth as long as you are willing to have a honest conversation.
Honest question describe Steph's playstyle?

You guys would rather die than give curry the credit he deserved.
Instead of admitting curry's ability to elevate the guys around him, you are giving the management the credit.
You see life.....

Skrrrrrrr:
My argument is.
Winning goes beyond just assembling a group of stars.
We have seen lots of teams crumble with stars.
People have had better Teams and won nothing.
The clippers and the nets are a perfect example.
The 2015 warriors were not better than the Blazers with Prime Lillard and CJ.
Ever wonder why everyone seems to play better around steph?
Do you think Wiggins would be an all star if he was traded back to the wolves today?

You know that GSW had another player whose carrer was just like Wiggins, namely Iggy.
Wiggins, Iggy, Blake Griffin, Joe Johnson, these are all very good players who were being asked to do, what was beyond their capacity and because of those expectations people think of them as failures.
People were expecting Wiggins to live up to his hype as a prospect and sadly few players ever do. That does not make them busts, or scrubs, the trick is finding where they are excellent at and letting them trive in that role. Wiggins is a player who at his best is a guy you want to average 15pts a game and play elite defense. He has, both the length, athleticism and iq to be the primary perimeter defender against the opponents best wing, while giving you good offense most nights. That is all GSW is asking him to do and you know what he is thriving in that role.

Skrrrrrrr:
You guys would rather die than give curry the credit he deserved.
Instead of admitting curry's ability to elevate the guys around him, you are giving the management the credit.
You see life.....

Look at all my posts about Steph never have I belitted him, I give him credit where credit his due, but also acknowledge just like every great player that winning championships never starts on the court, but in the boardrooms where management put together the players that fit.
One of Steph's best ever season ended up in him missing the playoffs, why? because the talent around him was not good enough.
People like you never want to admit that team sports is not golf or tennis.

Khanben:
You know that GSW had another player whose carrer was just like Wiggins, namely Iggy.
Wiggins, Iggy, Blake Griffin, Joe Johnson, these are all very good players who were being asked to do, what was beyond their capacity and because of those expectations people think of them as failures.
People were expecting Wiggins to live up to his hype as a prospect and sadly few players ever do. That does not make them busts, or scrubs, the trick is finding where they are excellent at and letting them trive in that role. Wiggins is a player who at his best is a guy you want to average 15pts a game and play elite defense. He has, both the length, athleticism and iq to be the primary perimeter defender against the opponents best wing, while giving you good offense most nights. That is all GSW is asking him to do and you know what he is thriving in that role.

Nobody ever said wigs was a bust.
I said he was not a star.
And curry won with him as the second best player.
Which nullifies the argument that Curry wins because he is surrounded by stars...

Skrrrrrrr:
You are intentionally missing the point bro.
I am saying your theory falls flat when you consider that klay was not all that in 2015 and wasn't influential last season.
And the warriors won the chip.
The warriors of 2015 and 2022 were not an assembly of superstars.
You can be dishonest all you want but facts are facts..

My theory is sound, Klay last year was no longer the player, be used to be, but you know what GSW had a new star in his role named Wiggins, who if you can search my posts on his finals run, I said IMHO was the 2nd best player on that team.
What that did was allow for a limited to Klay to be the 3rd or 4th best player depending on how the night goes, which based on where he is now in his career is a great team to have.
If present Klay is the 3rd or 4th best player on your team, especially on a team where the players fit, that is one hell of a roster

Khanben:
Look at all my posts about Steph never have I belitted him, I give him credit where credit his due, but also acknowledge just like every great player that winning championships never starts on the court, but in the boardrooms where management put together the players that fit.
One of Steph's best ever season ended up in him missing the playoffs, why? because the talent around him was not good enough.
People like you never want to admit that team sports is not golf or tennis.

Again, you are shifting the burden of responsibility completely away from the player.
Style of play is one skillet that is not captured in the box score.
Hero ball won't save you even if you are surrounded by good players.
This is the point.....
The difference between steph and Dame et Al isn't just their supporting cast, steph possesses a lot o qualities that those guys do not have or even have the capacity to...

Khanben:
My theory is sound, Klay last year was no longer the player, be used to be, but you know what GSW had a new star in his role named Wiggins, who if you can search my posts on his finals run, I said IMHO was the 2nd best player on that team.
What that did was allow for a limited to Klay to be the 3rd or 4th best player depending on how the night goes, which based on where he is now in his career is a great team to have.
If present Klay is the 3rd or 4th best player on your team, especially on a team where the players fit, that is one hell of a roster

Present klay is not the 3rd best player. He is the second best player.
Last season Klay however would be the 4th best player in just about any team...

Skrrrrrrr:
Nobody ever said wigs was a bust.
I said he was not a star.
And curry won with him as the second best player.
Which nullifies the argument that Curry wins because he is surrounded by stars...

I am not saying you said Wiggins was a bust. But the general media talk, after like his 3rd year in the league is that he his not what he was projected to be, which was a true number 1 option.
People called him a bust, they said all sorts of things about him, like he cannot play winning basketball, he is just a numbers on a bad team guy, he his a cheap calories player.
That what his reputation before GSW traded for him.
My point has always been a great player will elevate good players especially if they fit together, but at the same time I don't care how great a player is, in a team sport if the other team is blowing you away on the talent and fit metric, then you are more or less going to be on the losing side. Sport is in its very nature a talent acquisition track meet, with one caviet, the talent must fit together.
Name whatever player in any team sport, MJ, Messi, CR7, gresky, TD, Kobe, Shaq, Bird, Magic, if they are only the vastly less talented team, or in a team that the talent does not fit, they are more often than not going to be on the losing side

steady986:
He's played with an all-time great player in KD
He's playing with an all-time great shooter in Klay
He's playing with an all-time great defender in Draymond.

Lets take this one by one:

- He won 2 rings without KD, KD hasnt won any without him, even on a stacked team, so we see who is the head honcho here.

- Was Klay a great shooter or all time great last year? No. But they still won ring with younger core that was inexperienced. Again, Curry was in the mix

- When Curry was injured and only Draymond was playing, the team sucked, as did Draymond's defense. So Curry is the all time great here, not Draymond who is good, but regardless of how you want to exaggerate him, Draymond could not move the needle one iota by himself. I dont see greatness there. Unless you want to redefine it. In which case find us a GM that will give him max type contract.

So, we see its the Curry effect right? What do you think Curry would have done with McCollum, and even Nurkic. Way more than Lillard ever did. Or you want to argue that too?

Skrrrrrrr:
Again, you are shifting the burden of responsibility completely away from the player.
Style of play is one skillet that is not captured in the box score.
Hero ball won't save you even if you are surrounded by good players.
This is the point.....
The difference between steph and Dame et Al isn't just their supporting cast, steph possesses a lot o qualities that those guys do not have or even have the capacity to...

Please this write up is in good faith, try and read it for what says.
Dame is a small combo guard, who is bad defensively, who is a great shooter. You know who that sounds like, Steph.
So please let's go through this one after the other,
GSW covered up Steph lack of defense by surrounding with elite to very good defender, remember the death line up, every player on that 5, in a great to very good defender,
What did the Blazers do for Dame, the best team he has ever had, had only one plus defender in faroq aminu, every other player on that squad was a negative on defense, CJ is a sieve on defense, both bigs cannot only guard elite bigs on the inside, and at the same time they are bang average at best defensively on the perimeter as well.
Playmaking, GSW knowing that Stephs strength is his shooting, they surrounded him with a big who is a phenomenal playmaker on offense, you know what that does for Steph, it allows him to go offball and the team creates set-up shots which are the most efficient 3pt shots for the greatest shooter of all time.
Dame has never had this luxury, he himself came out and said it on the Jj Reddick podcast, that he has never being able to take set shots in Portland because the team was not built that way, so you have a great shooter and a large majority of the shots he takes are off the dribble shots, Dame is the only guy who has a claim to being a top 5 shooter of all time who has the least percentage of set shots. If you think about Reggie Miller, Steve Kerr, Ray Allen, Klay, Steph, Korver, you can always pick a substantial amount of the 3pts they take where all they do is run around a screen and just take the shot, they get this luxury year in year out. Dame has had a decade plus in Portland and not once can you say that there was a season where the team was built in such a way that a substantial amount of his shots are set-up, even though that is the most efficient shot for his skillset.
Finally, try this test if you have time, go through the teams that Steph has had since getting into the nba and do the same for Dame. Ask yourself, if you remove both guys from their team and let what remains play themselves in a 7 games series, I will bet you, you might not find one year where you pick the Blazers.
Yes, great players have to be great, but you don't give a guy, a knife in a gun fight then complain that he did not win

birdman:
Lets take this one by one:

- He won 2 rings without KD, KD hasnt won any without him, even on a stacked team, so we see who is the head honcho here.

- Was Klay a great shooter or all time great last year? No. But they still won ring with younger core that was inexperienced. Again, Curry was in the mix

- When Curry was injured and only Draymond was playing, the team sucked, as did Draymond's defense. So Curry is the all time great here, not Draymond who is good, but regardless of how you want to exaggerate him, Draymond could not move the needle one iota by himself. I dont see greatness there. Unless you want to redefine it. In which case find us a GM that will give him max type contract.

So, we see its the Curry effect right? What do you think Curry would have done with McCollum, and even Nurkic. Way more than Lillard ever did. Or you want to argue that too?

I will just address the Draymond thing, you can read what I just posted on the Blazers team building to address CJ, and Nurkic. IMHO Draymond is not a hall of fame, but he is a guy who all his skillset fits perfectly with the number 1 option on his team. If Draymond was drafted by any other team other than GSW or the Blazers, he would never have signed any contract that pays him an average of 8 figures IMHO.
As for will Steph win with Nurkic and CJ, we have seen it all ready, steph missed the playoffs with Poole and Draymond, no iggy, klay and the other savy vets and he had his highest scoring average but missed the playoffs.

PS: Another addition to the Draymond thing, I remember coming across a YouTube short, where guys were saying Draymond was better than Blake and my jaw dropped. The thing is, Draymond will probably have a better career than Blake, but for me how I judge who is the better player is not based to team success, it is based on, if I build a team of equal components theoretically where Draymond and Blake are the 1st options who will be better. The fact is Blake can sub as a weak 1st option, and that team will make the playoffs, but any team where Draymond is the 1st option is picking in the top 3.

steady986:

Victor is not in the league and he is already driving views. I am one of those hoping the dude, lives up to the hype because it will add more spice to a good product

birdman:
Lets take this one by one:

- He won 2 rings without KD, KD hasnt won any without him, even on a stacked team, so we see who is the head honcho here.

- Was Klay a great shooter or all time great last year? No. But they still won ring with younger core that was inexperienced. Again, Curry was in the mix

- When Curry was injured and only Draymond was playing, the team sucked, as did Draymond's defense. So Curry is the all time great here, not Draymond who is good, but regardless of how you want to exaggerate him, Draymond could not move the needle one iota by himself. I dont see greatness there. Unless you want to redefine it. In which case find us a GM that will give him max type contract.

So, we see its the Curry effect right? What do you think Curry would have done with McCollum, and even Nurkic. Way more than Lillard ever did. Or you want to argue that too?

This your analysis ehn. Lol. If Steph was really that guy when they were together, why did KD win the two FMVPs? Steph was good no doubt, but it was clear who the best player on that team was. But this in not even an argument about who was better, all I'm saying is you can't dismiss that having KD on that team was what propelled them to those 2 championships. If not, why didn't Steph win it when KD got injured the third year?

And talking about last year, there were 3 all-stars on that team. Steph, Wiggins and Dray. You can say what you want about Dray, but when a guy averages 7/7/6 and still makes all-star, then there must be something fantastic he's doing on the court. Then you add a Klay who was at 75%. I say 75% while recognising that his numbers were similar to what he was having pre injury.

And to your 3rd point. Lol. I still remember how Steph faked a wrist injury for an entire season. Lol. He too knew he couldn't do anything without Klay. So expecting Draymond (who isn't known for his offense) to lead a team without help is absurd. After all they both played the year they lost in the play-in, so what will you now say about that one?

Khanben:
Victor is not in the league and he is already driving views. I am one of those hoping the dude, lives up to the hype because it will add more spice to a good product

But this one he said he's not joining the draft this year. I hope he was joking.

As a less than serious aside, did Poole actually drop 500k on a date or is that another click bait head line

steady986:
But this one he said he's not joining the draft this year. I hope he was joking.

Wait, are serious or is this late time April fool joke.
The guy should play with men dem ohh

steady986:
This your analysis ehn. Lol. If Steph was really that guy when they were together, why did KD win the two FMVPs? Steph was good no doubt, but it was clear who the best player on that team was. But this in not even an argument about who was better, all I'm saying is you can't dismiss that having KD on that team was what propelled them to those 2 championships. If not, why didn't Steph win it when KD got injured the third year?

And talking about last year, there were 3 all-stars on that team. Steph, Wiggins and Dray. You can say what you want about Dray, but when a guy averages 7/7/6 and still makes all-star, then there must be something fantastic he's doing on the court. Then you add a Klay who was at 75%. I say 75% while recognising that his numbers were similar to what he was having pre injury.

And to your 3rd point. Lol. I still remember how Steph faked a wrist injury for an entire season. Lol. He too knew he couldn't do anything without Klay. So expecting Draymond (who isn't known for his offense) to lead a team without help is absurd. After all they both played the year they lost in the play-in, so what will you now say about that one?

Dude. No offence but you are either a Troll or just extremely dense. And I hope its the former.
The question should be why KD didn't win a Finals MVP on his own? Steph did that last season.
Why didn't KD win a chip without steph, steph won 2 without him. You do know we could interchange KD for say Paul George and the result would still remain the same.
As for the other part about Faking injuries, I won't even respond because that would amount to stooping to your level....

larride:
I don’t know how long PG will be out for but if Kwahi and Powell stays healthy enough, I’ll fancy their chances. If Wiggins get back and his head is in the game, I reckon GSW will be fav to win the west again.

You don’t rate Denver? 😂

Denver have a shot. Just something about that team I don't trust. I don't think they match up well with the Lakers.

Then there's players like Aaron Gordon that I don't trust will not be completely useless in the playoffs

The X factor is Jamal Murray. If he can regain that bubble form then all bets are off

A40:
Denver have a shot. Just something about that team I don't trust. I don't think they match up well with the Lakers.

Then there's players like Aaron Gordon that I don't trust will not be completely useless in the playoffs

The X factor is Jamal Murray. If he can regain that bubble form then all bets are off

You nailed the Murray thing, if he is even 90% of his bubble form and MPJ is making shots they will be a though side to beat

Skrrrrrrr:
Dude. No offence but you are either a Troll or just extremely dense. And I hope its the former.
The question should be why KD didn't win a Finals MVP on his own? Steph did that last season.
Why didn't KD win a chip without steph, steph won 2 without him. You do know we could interchange KD for say Paul George and the result would still remain the same.
As for the other part about Faking injuries, I won't even respond because that would amount to stooping to your level....

Last season ought to have ended the Steph/KD talk. The team that swept you Steph beat. Topic conclude

The Heat are getting butchered

A40:
The Heat are getting butchered

The Hawks are pouring it in. The Heat look indifferent and uninterested in this game. They are getting outworked.

I remember watching this kid Bey when he was with the Pistons and saying he is going to make it in the league.

Roland17:
I remember watching this kid Bey when he was with the Pistons and saying he is going to make it in the league.

Like what I am seeing from him, okongwu and the Johnson kid, length, quick feet and the willingness to play D

There is a reason I will continue to insist that winning is just not on the court but also from top down.
A team is having a one game stand-off, and somehow, it's on that day that there is a leak that they want to trade their franchise player. How unprofessional can some front office be

Capella is killing the heat on the board 19rbs and counting