Simmons' Ranking of "Stomach Punch"-eligible Teams

rofl...Bill Simmons is among us! Hi Bill!

 

No offense man, but that is kind of the point. If Oden was healthy I don't think many would second guess the decision to take him at #1.

 

he'll be healthy next year.

 

Yes. Now leave this forum and the Blazers forever and promptly make your way here.

 

I don't care. I really don't. I know everybody is supposed to bow down before the greatness that is Durant (particularly as he's actually massively improved his adjusted +/-, so that he's not actually a huge net loss when he's on the court), but he leaves me cold. Maybe that's my fault. But Glen Rice left me cold too. Give me a Jason Kidd type over those guys every time. Or even Dikembe Mutombo. Because I just don't get a huge kick out of a guy hitting lots of jump shots and not doing all that much else.

(And what's with the "TO HIS KNEES"? Would it matter less if it was TO HIS FEET? Or TO HIS PELVIS perhaps? You do know that Jason Kidd, Amare Stoudemire and newly-minted all star Zach Randolph have all had serious surgery TO THEIR KNEES?)

Why is it so hard to see that adding a volume scorer to a team doesn't mean instant improvement? Haven't we learned anything from the Iverson-to-Denver experiment? I never liked Carmello either, and he's still better than Durant, even though he's not flavor-of-the-month any more.

 

Didnt TMac play with some guy by the name of Yao Ming?

 

look at all the titles Jordan and Kobe have!

 

Also- did Iverson or T-Mac ever play with a team as deep and talented as the current Blazers? Did Iverson or T-Mac ever play with a Brandon Roy?

 

Barely. They were rarely healthy at the same time and they hardly had the depth of this current Blazers squad.

 

Well it's not entirely up to either Durant or Oden. It's a team game and the player with the best team will win a ring first. I think Durant would have a better team in Portland than he currently has in OKC.

 

Was he? Durant was College Player of the Year.

 

The truth of the matter is this:

If we had drafted Durant, we would be a 55-60 win team this season and the Thunder wouldn't win 20 games in any of the last three seasons.

 

Durant grabs more than 7 rebounds a game. He also averages 3 assists, 1.5 steals, and 1 blk. Shoots 48% from the field and 87% from the free throw line.

It is obvious to me that we would be a better team with Durant. You can't have too much talent. If Boston can make Pierce/Allen/KG work, we could've made Durant/Roy work. It's not about whether or not they still would've gotten gaudy stats. It's about the talent they bring to the floor and their ability to make each other better.

Nothing wrong with having more than one good player.

 

Yup. Scouts were pretty unanimous that Oden was a once-a-generation center, and they had felt that way since Oden was a junior in high school. Prospects like that are historically rare...there's a College Player of the Year ever year (though I'd say Durant was one of the better ones among that group).

 

Jordan was the G.O.A.T. and Kobe is top 5 (plus had the Most Dominant Ever aka MDE in Shaq) for 3 rings.

 

If Oden was drafted by the Sonics, I believe the Thunder wouldn't exist right now.

 

and Oden took his team to the NCAA championship game.