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I just prefer to draw a line and make sure we are not kidding ourselves to think these players are any less than amazing in basically all aspects of the game.

Tristan Thompson: amazing FT shooter
Steph Curry: Amazing shot blocker
JR: Smith amazing defender
Ezeli: amazing scorer
That's what you are implying.

Now Ezeli would score about 90 points a game in Japan's pro league, but in the NBA....he is no scorer that is for sure!!

Then he should play in Japan

Curry has had some highlight blocks in his career.

So has Fat Kid A in middle-brook elementary... So have you. That does not make him Hakeem Olajuwon, Dikembe Mutumbo, or Ben Wallace

JR Smith played good defense that game. He really did and has done so throughout his career, as has James Harden. Neither of those guys do it every game or play though, that is for sure!!! I think JR Smith would make the all defensive team in Japan's pro league with one hand tied behind his back the entire season.

Maybe him and Ezeli can be on the same team.

If I knew how to teach 7 footers to shoot FTs...I'd be working in the NBA. FT shooting has been an issue for bigs since Wilt. Its not a one lazy guy phenomenon....again if I knew WHY all this bigs struggle with it so much and had a solution...I'd be working for the NBA.

You teach them the same way you teach anyone. take the ball, put it in the hoop. FT distance doesn't change wheter you're 3'6 or 8'1. You're the same distance away from the hoop. shooting at the same height you shoot every other shot you shoot from. You don't grow taller, or shrink.

Also, not all bigs do struggle. Love has been quite good in his career. Nowitski wasn't bad. Peja Stojakovic, etc.


MY point for the people going to Japan sir. Is they don't play in the Japan league. They play in the NBA. Your comment there is as idiotic as me saying Nate Robinson would be the leading shot blocker in the WNBA. He doesn't play there, he won't play there, so the point is moot.

You may as well say JR Smith will retire from NBA, go to college, and then play college bball there. Pure fantasy. Pure stupid.

sorry to double reply, but just trying to find the middle ground here.

My point is these guys abilities are relative, and maybe I misread you and that is also what you are saying, you mean in NBA context. I am just trying to say that these guys are not just trying to score or pass etc., they are trying to do it in the NBA finals, the bar is higher. If Lebron goes 1-10 in a finals game people will say he is a choker. Or if he has back spasms he is a wuss. It's just not fair. I just want people to see the context of these things and disagree.

A lot of people now come out and say also that the NBA is a joke, or GS is a joke or a fluke or a trick or not real basketball, or not team basketball, or they don't play defense, or they travel all the time etc. etc. etc.

I think you said some of those things.

These blanket statements i disagree with on principle and I like to have the opportunity to explain to people why and what they might be missing about why the NBA is real, and why the defense, team play and skills are very very real and without question not only the best in the world but the best that have ever existed to this point in history.

Fair enough I'll elaborate.

For me personally. The NBA became a joke, when HOF players Perennial All-stars, and potential legends, all started trying to create "superteams" Like Garnett, Pierce, Allen. James, Wade, Bosh. Carmello, Amare, whoever guy 3 was. Etc. etc. etc.

The NBA became a joke to me, when the best players in the league joined together to win rings. Rather than played against each other for rings.

It used to be a player only did that at the very end of their careers. Now, they do it for the duration of their careers. That makes the NBA a joke to me.

This to me puts an asterisk next to everyone who wins a ring like that. You don't think Jordan would be 6-6 in Finals, if say... Reggie Miller decided he'd take a pay cut, and Malone would take a pay cut, and Stockton would take a pay cut, and they'd form a super team.

or if Barkley took a pay cut, and Ewing took a pay cut, and Payton took a pay cut, and they played together.

etc.

THAT is when the NBA became a joke to me. Because I no longer see the NBA as 82 games + playoffs of a competition of skill in every game. I see it as: chisel these teams in stones for playoffs, period, no matter what, chisel these teams in stone for sucking, and we'll actually see basketball in the playoffs. 82 game season is just to fill owners' pockets with money. And to leech money out of fans.

The Cavaliers really played... 7 games this season. 13 if you include the Raptors series. Obviously they played more... but there was only "doubt" for those 7-13 games.

Last edited by RamenQueen at 6/21/2016 10:21:21 AM

I'd be disgusted to think of Magic and Bird playing on the same team for 5 seasons for a free 5 championships essentially.

I'd be disgusted to think of Magic and Bird playing on the same team for 5 seasons for a free 5 championships essentially.

You act like these guys won without help. Bird played with all time greats like McHale and Parish, both named as part of the 50 Greatest players in NBA history. He also won with guys like Dennis Johnson and Bill Walton, both of whom had won the Finals MVP before joining the Celtics (Walton had even won the regular season MVP), and he had HOFer Tiny Archibald for his first championship.

Magic played with Kareem, who many consider to be the second greatest player of all time. In 1982, when the Lakers were defending champs, they also had the first overall pick. Imagine that happening today, if the Cavs had the number one pick this year. The Lakers used their pick on James Worthy who was also selected as one of the 50 Greatest players in NBA history. The 1987 Laker squad, considered the best Laker team of the Magic-Kareem era and one of the best teams of all time, had 4 former first overall picks playing for them.

When MJ retired in 1993, his team won 55 games without him (a drop of two games from the previous season). I don't think any team Lebron's played on would've won 55 games without him. When Lebron left the Cavs in 2010, they won 19 games (a drop of 42 games) and won 3 of the next 4 draft lotteries. For all this talk of the Heat being a superteam, when he left them in 2014, they won 37 games and couldn't even make the playoffs in the East. Over the past two years, the Cavs are 4-14 without Lebron.

Now I'm not saying I think Lebron is better than MJ or Magic, I just think its unfair to fault him for wanting to play with help. Other all-time greats had the good luck to have excellent management who built great teams around them. Also, stars joining to form superteams isn't a new concept. Back in the 60s, Wilt Chamberlain, the then reigning MVP wanted to leave the 76ers and teamed up with fellow all-time greats Jerry West and Elgin Baylor. These 3 guys are all in the top 6 for career PPG, which is pretty crazy if you think about it.

And remember, Barkely did team up with Hakeem and Clyde in Houston to try and win a championship.

Last edited by Mountaineer at 6/21/2016 5:49:11 PM

There's a fine line between playing with help. (Or in Wolph's scenario of Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant, 2 players drafted by the same team.) Between playing with help, and communicating throughout a season, and making plans to take pay cuts to play together and form a super team.

Larry Bird was not out there on a golf course (because he loves golf) with McHale and Parish when they were playing for a different team going "Guys, let's all take pay cuts and play together".

There's a big difference between a GM getting help and building a roster around their star player. Than there is, their star player, going out, and playing GM themselves with other star players, and then going to a GM and being like. Okay, now make this happen, and for role players we need... a "mike miller" type or a "mo williams type" etc.

I'll give you a cross sports example:
How many people would still watch football if the Los Angeles Rams (big media market) just had... Von Miller, muhammed Wilkerson, JJ Watt, Khalil Mack, Patrick Peterson, Richard Sherman, Earl Thomas, Kam Chancellor, Chris Harris, Lavonte David, Aaron Donald, Luke Kuechly, Joe Thomas, Tyron Smith, Mashall Yanda, Alex Mack, Zack Martin, Le'Veon Bell, Todd Gurley, Cam Newton, Antonio brown, Julio Jones, Dez Bryant, Rob Gronkowski and Jimmy Graham. All say they'll come there and all just play for 2 million guaranteed for 3 years together. And that all you got to do is fill in the back-ups/reserves/replacements for injuries.

And that they'll just go to their 3-4-5 whatever consecutive super bowls and take their chances there. And just make up the difference in money in endorsements and the post-super bowl circus of media events.

Would you still watch NFL as passionately? Would you think NFL isn't a joke anymore?

as to your Barkley point-out. Again, that was at the end of Barkley's career. An "overweight" player at age 33. And If I recall... Barkley played 4 of his worst seasons ever there in Houston.

I would give you more merit on this one had Barkley done it in the prime of his career. EX: LeBron, when he left Cleveland was 26. he returned to Cleveland 4 finals and 2 titles later at 30.

The Boston Celtics example would have been a good one as Paul Pierce was 30, Garnett was 30 and Ray Allen was 32. Garnett played 8 seasons after that move, Allen played 6 more after that move (including his 2 waning final years with James, Wade, and Bosh), and Pierce played 8 more seasons after that happened. So it wasn't exactly the end of their careers either, you could Argue they were still in their prime except for Allen maybe.

You act like these guys won without help.

You are also putting words in my mouth and making assumptions and trying to pass them off as fact.

Last edited by RamenQueen at 6/22/2016 12:10:57 AM

is Anyone tuning in to watch a team made up of every superstar at their respected position from each country of a World Cup team. Are we going to watch a game of the super-star lineup to play a long regular season vs the Barbados national team? or the national team from Kuwait?


Or how about we have the 5 "best" real life basketball players that use buzzer beater. play against the starting 5 of any of the NBA play off teams? Does that sound like a fun watch? Do you think there's any suspense?

Would anyone read a book that had a movie made from it, if there were ZERO differences between the book and the movie? Its not fun or entertaining to watch something where you already know the outcome.

I like the NBA playoffs as much as the next girl, but to say that the regular season is enjoyable to watch. I personally (that's the key here boys. my personal feelings, and emotions, and opinion here) is that the regular season is a complete joke, and a waste of my time from october-march.

Last edited by RamenQueen at 6/22/2016 12:00:09 AM