Dream Team 4: Golden State Warriors

Lyst said:

The whole argument is based around Recent shit. Within the past 10 years. Why bring up something when the whole league was different at the time?

Also, was Tyson Chandler not a top 3 bigman in the league at that time?

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You have to do a lot of qualifiers on this stuff to make your theory work. If there are exceptions there are exceptions. The Dallas series is one where the less talented team won, and personally I think the Cvas win in 2016 was similar.

It's cool man. Do you, but you really shouldn't be so adamant because there are exceptions to your rules, and figuring out who is and isn't a star is really silly.

Stars are made after they step up big time, so Chandler really became a top 3 big man after they won against Miami. I genuinely don't think anyone considered him top 3 until after that series. Remember how much shit people talked about him when he was in New Orleans?

Cassity14 said:

Who was Kobe/Pau's third star? Bynum? Please.

This "big 3" bullshit is self-perpetuated because people search to claim the third 'star' on every team that wins anything.

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Exactly. Winning a championship makes you into a star. Last year people were talking about TT like he was a star because of the impact he had in the finals.

Btw, it's definitely interesting that after Durant left their lazy and status quo organization, they started flipping the script and and making huge roster changes to get more stars on the team (Paul, Anthony). They realized their errors, and did not want Russ to leave and so grew a pair of balls and took risks.

Akin to when Cavs failed to put enough stars around Lebron so he left, when he came back it wasn't enough to have Kyrie we made big trades to get K-love on the team.

The error in the Thunder organization was they did not try hard enough. Superteam era, being in the West, they just did not do enough to compete.

Keep telling me how great they did putting players around KD and Russ but the facts are they only made the finals ONCE and that was when Harden was on their team, who the Thunder let go because they did not want to pay.

Lyst said:

Btw, it's definitely interesting that after Durant left their lazy and status quo organization, they started flipping the script and and making huge roster changes to get more stars on the team (Paul, Anthony). They realized their errors, and did not want Russ to leave and so grew a pair of balls and took risks.

Akin to when Cavs failed to put enough stars around Lebron so he left, when he came back it wasn't enough to have Kyrie we made big trades to get K-love on the team.

The error in the Thunder organization was they did not try hard enough. Superteam era, being in the West, they just did not do enough to compete.

Keep telling me how great they did putting players around KD and Russ but the facts are they only made the finals ONCE and that was when Harden was on their team, who the Thunder let go because they did not want to pay.

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I think the Cavs in the old Lebron era was different than the Thunder. The Thunder have always been cheap, but the Cavs just had a hard time getting stars because no one would commit without Lebron committing so it was more a product of bad drafting and dumb mistakes a la Boozer who I don't think would have gotten us a championship, but could have been a valuable trade asset.

Thunder Drafted really well, but they screwed up by paying Ibaka and trading Harden.

The Thunder team that made the finals was the future of the League remember. At that time they were on top of the world similar to the GS team that lost to the Spurs in 2014.

Lyst said:

Lol, delirious Cavs fans overrating the Thunder Roster

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Give LeBron KD's Thunder roster (any year) during his first Cleveland stint and I guarantee you he wins 2 titles minimum.

Lyst said:

You want to underrate K-Love all you want.

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I didn't underrate K-Love at all, I was stating facts. His contributions were negligible in the Finals and he was outdone by the likes of Tristan Thomopson and Richard Jefferson. You want to dispute that, fine, but the facts aren't in your corner.

Lyst said:

Like it means nothing that LBJ and Kyrie had someone like Kevin Love to back their asses up.

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How much support did Love give LeBron and Kyrie that series? Great player who had a monstrous playoff run for us but he had a bad Finals. No rewriting of history by you to support some cockamamie theory is going to change that.

Your theory also completely disregards the "level" of star player. As in, a solid team of role players headlined by LeBron and Durant would have no chance against a similarly-structured team led by the likes of Kyle Lowry, Gordon Hayward and Andre Drummond

Get out of here with that noise.

He's shooting 29% from 3, if this stays as is and his defensive athleticism does wind down, there is a real chance.

Real Deal said:

He's shooting 29% from 3, if this stays as is and his defensive athleticism does wind down, there is a real chance.

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Unfortunately, it'll probably be the case that if the Cavs meet the Warriors in the Finals, Draymond and Iggy (who have both struggled in the regular season) will suddenly begin shooting 90% from 3pt range and playing Dennis Rodman/Ben Wallace level defense.

Cavatt said:

. Thunder Drafted really well, but they screwed up by paying Ibaka and trading Harden.

The Thunder team that made the finals was the future of the League remember. At that time they were on top of the world similar to the GS team that lost to the Spurs in 2014.

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As a fan of the game, I don't think I'll ever get over them letting go of what has gone on to become the top 3 guards/wings in the NBA. Westbrook, Harden, Durant each had the makings of a superstar i.e. they did things at their position that others were incapable of replicating or even approaching the skill level that these guys had upon entering the league.

I watched Harden play some at ASU and his control of the game was unreal, vision extrodinary, not fast or an elite leaper, but quick and explosive in spurts. His pace was unlike anyone else [He played with the demeanor of a 15 year veteran PG or that wily vet at your local Y (same trait that's readily visible from tape of Donçic)]

But the thing that was obvious, even at that time, was the Thunder bought high on Ibaka and sold low on Harden. Yes, the team had more inside out balance, but Harden was unreal in his scoring efficiency and taking the 6th man role into the next stratosphere.

Maybe they figured their personalities would boil over with time and become an issue, but they were on pace to reach the Finals for the forseable future.

I'm still waiting for someone on this team to suffer a significant injury. It's unbelievable how healthy they've been over this four year run.

ACisKING said:

I'm still waiting for someone on this team to suffer a significant injury. It's unbelievable how healthy they've been over this four year run.

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yeah we need to go back to the 0 injuries, steel ankle Curry title of this thread.

This guy Bertans for the Spurs is playing Durant pretty well.

Spurs are pushing it on them and attacking the basket despite 9 blocks.

This whole Spurs team is awesome at rebounding. Cavs have to block learn to block out.

Also Golden State swats at everything. They get so much benefit of the doubt that they get 9 blocks a game.

Any team that wants to beat Golden State should watch this game. Even if the Spurs don't win, they have played a fantastic team game.

Refs just said San Antonio touched the ball before it went out of bounds when it literally landed on Draymond's stomach while he was laying out of bounds.

Cavatt said:

Any team that wants to beat Golden State should watch this game. Even if the Spurs don't win, they have played a fantastic team game.

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Getting Curry out of the game was brilliant strategy, too