I provided you with a list of non-transcendent players who made the Finals - none of them are PFs. Include everybody and only 4 teams in the last 30 years were built around PFs (being generous and including the Payton/Kemp and Stockton/Malone teams that weren't truly centered around PFs, but were instead 1Bs).
Try again. 3 years. Pippen was drafted and traded to Bulls in 1987. Also- Jordan missed almost an entire year in there so he really only played 2 seasons without Pippen. Learn the game, dude. Then post.
This only proves my initial comment with more validity. Even with Pippen for 4 years, he didn't mature until 7 years in the league. Dame did it in year 2
You guys are throwing the word transcendent around too much. Jordan is and was the only transcendent player, a guy who was bigger than basketball. People who didn't even like basketball tuned into see him. Durant, LeBron,Dirk are not even close to Jordan. Fuck Durant didn't even get voted in by the fans, If you don't believe me about LeBron and the others, look at the ratings for the 6 Finals Jordan was in. Now look at everybody else. Not even close.
LeBron has that kind of pull, remember the decision? Everyone and their dog had an opinion. Everyone tuned in to see him fail.
ALL of the evidence doesn't need to support it. But the preponderance of evidence supports the idea that teams built around PFs don't make the Finals. Again, as with EVERYTHING, there are exceptions to the rule and nothing is going to be one way 100% of the time. And I'm not saying that I'd build a team around Iverson - I'm merely showing that, of the teams that have made it to the Finals over the past 30 years, the vast majority are built around guards/wings. Teams built around good guards/wings have a puncher's chance, teams built around good PFs generally don't.
Wrong!!!! http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/j/jordami01.html http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/j/jamesle01.html LBJ actually had averaged better PER than Jordan during their finals campaign. More LBJ fans than anyone in every gym Learn the Game... Then post
I'd ascribe the word to Jordan, Duncan, Magic, Bird, Hakeem, and to a lesser extent Kobe, LBJ, and Shaq (Shaq only because he was so damn big and dominant, not because of his skills). Right now we don't have that type of player in the league.
but you kind of countered this point when earlier you said of course it was easier to find failures because so many more teams were built around them. So then, naturally, you'd find a higher number succeeding. How many teams are built in general around PFs versus wings? How many percentage wise make the playoffs versus percentage of teams built around wings?
Well, now you might be on track to providing a meaningful counter-argument, but I'm not going to make your argument for you. Earlier in the thread I gave you a list of some of the best PFs that teams built around that didn't amount to much, which could be a good starting point. If you go down this route realize that you'll be comparing 3 positions worth of players (PG, SG, SF) vs 1 position worth of players (PF), so there's bound to be a good deal more teams built around guards/wings.
The difference is LMA puts up the same numbers whether the team is a playoff team or not. Guys like Love and Bosh all but disappear on their more "elite" teams. LMA is what makes the Blazers "elite". To me, it shows they are all about their numbers and not necessarily winning.
I guess you and I have a differing opinion on the talent level of that roster. I think Love should have been able to carry the Wolves to the playoffs at least once with that roster. He was never even close.
Dude. I'm talking television ratings. People that didn't care about basketball watched Jordan. Jordan's TV ratings WAY better than LeBron's.
Was that before or after the decision? Because LBJ Transcended when the decision happened. He did the ol' WWE Face/heel swap. They made a damn "Heat index" page on E!SPN just so they could have a whole section about him. I wonder what the finals ratings were from 08-14?