And that is the difference between elite scorers and non elite scorers in the league. The reason some players keep their averages so high is even when having a bad shooting night they will get to the line in abundance. In the games where they are scoring in abundance, the line gives them the added points to make it an elite scoring night.
Too true. If I could have Brandon do one thing this off-season it would be to watch about 100 hours of Durant video to see how the guy draws contact. Sure, I think he gets some special treatment by the refs, but I also think that Brandon could improve his technique of taking a hit so that it's more obvious and harder for the refs to ignore. Flailing your arms after the play's dead isn't going to get it done.
Just a correction. That wa a 4th "seed" due to the random tie-breaker rules. Technically speaking, our healthy team finished tied for 2nd in the West. And that was with a 70% moving Oden due to his microfracture recovery time and Blake instead of Miller at the point and Outlaw instead of Camby at the backup PG spot. So it isn't logical to make a statement that a 2nd place healthy team with an inferior PG and backup PF and a much worse Oden would make sense around 5th. That's just making a statement looking for some attention you think you can raise out of it.
Too many times have I seen Brandon Roy get hammered going to the basket, and not a peep from the officials. Durant's fragile little frame gets sneezed on and the ref's break out the riot gear. If Brandon got the same treatment as Durant, he'd average 27-28 PPG. He shouldn't have to sell anything, sadly. When is a foul not a foul? In the NBA of course. If anything he should take lessons from Andre, now there is a guy who knows how to draw a foul. Unfortunately, you can't learn preferential treatment in the off-season. Agreed.
Regular season records are only relevant in as far as they effect the play-off seeding/HCA. The 4th seed is the 4th seed. That 54 win team had a healthy Roy (not a given). Predicting Oden will be healthy is dream casting. I will grant you that Miller and Camby are an up-grade to the supporting cast - but that is more than off-set by concerns over Roy's durability.
I don't care if we win 48 games. As long as we're healthy DURING the playoffs I'm confident this team will win at least one series. That's all I ask for this year. Win a playoff series...anything more is a overachieving.
The bottom line for this season? No Outlaw, no Webster, no Blake. Our 3 favorite kicking-stools are out of here, and the bench is going to have a new look. Can't wait to see it.
You can spin it however you want in your head, only you can satisfy your own heart. That said, a coin still has a 50% chance of landing heads no matter how much you wish it to be tails or how many times it has been heads previously. But no amount of history changes that facts that as we sit there is only a 13% chance that Oden gets injured and a 13% chance that Roy gets injured, and likewise a 13% chance Durant gets injured or Kobe gets injured. It will happen to someone, but unfortunately we don't get to control that and likewise we don't get to use any history when that 13% landed on us to attempt to adjust the facts that it will still only be 13% for all teams equally in the future and thus projections cannot logically be altered accordingly. But that still will never mesh with some minds, so I'll quit wasting your time and mine.
If we're healthy come the playoffs, unless we see the L*kers in the first two rounds, the baseline goal should be the WCF if not the NBA Finals. We have the talent and now we have the experience. There are no more excuses.
I think it has more to do with how the refs call the game. Durant is a current golden child of the NBA. I don't know how it isn't painfully obvious.
Seriously get out of my head dude. This is like the second prediction post where you had everything I thought. Eerie!
Shh...that's the NBA's secret sauce you're talking about there. This is a star driven league! Shut up and buy some Laker Gear already. Remember commissioner Stern is not as forgiving as I am:
Not just him. All the "elite" players get calls. I for one, am looking forward to the possible influx of new blood into NBA reffing by foreign refs I read about this year. But then again, it might be all for naught.
If we're talking about the quality of the team, which we were, it's far more correct to say that Portland was tied for second in the West that year, not that they were fourth. Tie-breakers hardly point to meaningful differences in quality. Regular season record is perfectly relevant as the largest sample size referendum on the team's quality for that season. You're capable of providing logical dissent...why do you go out of your way to undermine that with semantic games aimed at underselling the team? Instead of always trying to be devil's advocate to counter what you probably view as homerism, why not aim for being as objective as possible? That includes seeing the positives of the situation. Your attitude is identical to what it was during the John Nash years, despite radically different results. Doesn't that give you pause. if you're trying to argue in good faith?
