Kyrie, Kevin Love, and LeBron

Discussion in 'Portland Trail Blazers' started by tlongII, May 20, 2017.

  1. BoBoBREWSKI

    BoBoBREWSKI BURP!

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    True. And they probably wouldn't of come back vs G.State last year and won the championship without Love.
     
  2. Minstrel

    Minstrel Top Of The Pops Global Moderator

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    Hello darkness, my old friend
    Love is a really great (offensive) player. He looks a lot worse in Cleveland because--you know what they say--there's only one ball to go around. The Warriors made it work because they run a dynamic, passing-dependent offense that hunts the best shots no matter who gets them. The Cavaliers are basically a souped-up version of the old Thunder, where James and Irving take turns isolating. It works better when you have arguably the greatest player of all-time (and James is honestly willing to distribute), but it still marginalizes guys like Love.
     
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  3. Pinwheel1

    Pinwheel1 Well-Known Member

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    Lebron played great (as did Kyrie) but the Warriors averaged 122 points in 5 games. I am not really sure they cared how much Lebron and Kyrie scored because they knew as a team they could not play at the Warrior's offensive level for 48 minutes. Hell for some stretches of the game they had guys like Livingston covering Lebron. But when you see Curry out hustling Lebron for a rebound late in the game like last night, you can see how much opposing players eventually wear down again them. Which makes the comments about certain Blazers players choking in the 4th against them ridiculous.

    The Warriors were spectacular all season long with Durant in the line up. They were blowing teams out on most nights which is why I said before the Blazer series not to read too much into our performance. (especially without Nurk) The Warriors tend to embarrass a lot of teams. The only way the Cavs could have won this series was for the Warriors to get hurt or suspended.
     
    Last edited: Jun 13, 2017
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  4. Nate

    Nate #itsokaytobewhite #wakandaforever BANNED

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    The cavs had some garbage lineups out there last night...

    At one point they had:

    Korver, Smith, Williams, Shumpert, Kyrie....

    Another lineup that I was confused about was.

    Lebron, Korver, Jefferson, Williams, and Smith/Thompson

    Lebron makes scrubs look good.

    I remember lookin at the warriors and they had curry, Thompson, green, Andre, and someone not named Durant...

    Lebron should've won the MVP.
     
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  5. Boob-No-More

    Boob-No-More Why you no hire big man coach?

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    Kinda hard not to give it too the guy whose team won with him averaging 35.2 ppg on .698 TS%.

    Yeah, LeBron had a great individual series, but so did Durant - and his team won 4 games to 1.

    BNM
     
  6. Nate

    Nate #itsokaytobewhite #wakandaforever BANNED

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    It's not about who won the championship, it's about who was the most valuable player.

    Switch lebron and KD and the warriors sweep the cavs by 30 every game.
     
  7. Boob-No-More

    Boob-No-More Why you no hire big man coach?

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    So, who is more valuable, the guys who averages 35 ppg on the winning team, or the guy who average 33 ppg on the losing team?

    Winning matters. If it didn't, they wouldn't keep score. Durant's team won, and he had one of the greatest series in NBA finals history. He deserved the MVP.

    BNM
     
    Last edited: Jun 13, 2017
  8. Pinwheel1

    Pinwheel1 Well-Known Member

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    Kind of hard to give it to LeBron when his team got their asses kicked. The games were not that close.

    Lebron played great, but lets face it the Warrior's game plan did not appear to focus on stopping him like most teams do. Of course Durant benefited from the same thing since the Warriors have so many weapons. Both often got single coverage because of it.
     
    Last edited: Jun 13, 2017
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  9. Minstrel

    Minstrel Top Of The Pops Global Moderator

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    Durant also guarded LeBron James well, in most of the games, whereas James was not that effective in guarding Durant.

    I'm someone who believes that James has a very strong argument for GOAT, but I think Durant was a very defensible choice for MVP of this series. He had an amazing series, he arguably played as well as James did. Durant won the series because he had other guys playing well, too, but he basically matched James on his own.
     
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  10. Orion Bailey

    Orion Bailey Forum Troll

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    That lineup of Durant, Iguodala, Curry, Thompson and Green.


    I don't know a team in the NBA that can be that. Now, then or in the future....

    Iguodala can drive to the hoop and dunk in your face and hit a three the next time down... and his defense...
    wow. Someone blow this team up please....
     
  11. Minstrel

    Minstrel Top Of The Pops Global Moderator

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    Hello darkness, my old friend
    I've come around to the idea that they'll likely trade one of their stars (almost surely Thompson) when they're staring at $300M+ payrolls, as Green and Thompson come up for "super max" contracts in 2019 and 2020.

    So how sustainable this team is will partially depend on how well they execute that deal and what types of (presumably young and cheap) assets they get back in return.

    Of course, even if they botch it, Curry/Durant/Green is still a pretty good core.
     
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  12. BonesJones

    BonesJones https://www.youtube.com/c/blazersuprise

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    The only way this team will get blown up is if the team takes a trip to Syria. So I wouldn't exactly wish for that.
     

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