I agree that CJ was definitely ready, he was playing great before the Afflalo trade. The thing with Afflalo is he, Dame, and Wes could play on the floor together. Was their schedule a lot harder during that stretch? Could have something to do with it.
Those guys were all good. They're one of my favorite teams of all time and obviously it's an understatement to say they were still good without him, but when Butler went down, he was the second option on offense.
No "harder" schedule is an excuse for going 6-11 especially after starting the season 30-8. I mean what the fuck?
6-11 is a specifically selected sample. Every good team usually has a stretch somewhat like that. I remember us having an extremely easy schedule to start the season and then us having a very tough stretch. Definitely could've played at the same level, and during a tough stretch against harder teams, a couple of balls could bounce their way and all of a sudden we have a poor stretch. It happens.
Yes but that's all he brought. They won the championship because they have good two-way/all-around players. Gotta value more than scoring.. For that reason I wouldn't claim him as their 2nd best player since they obviously had no problem scoring without him. Wes brought much more than offense.
Every good team has a 6-11 stretch? Have we even had an 6-11 stretch this season? I don't know if we have. It's simply a very disappointing stretch after going 30-8. The Warriors kept playing well and won the championship and we collapsed, fell to 6th, and lost the first round in 5 games. Very frustrating as a fan.
We was our third best player at best. Butler was an All Star. We had two All-NBA players still on the team.
I said somewhat like that. A couple bounces in two games is the difference between 8-9 and 6-11. We have a 6-9 stretch, probably a worse one. Why did we collapse though? Wes... What is the debate here?
So you admit to not posting objectively during the season. Perfect. So now when you say 'gsw won't make the playoffs because they got blown out by utah by 30'. We can say KS, be objective.
The 2-8 stretch that accounted for the majority of the losses in our "downward spiral" ended when RoLo returned from injury. When healthy, the 14-15 team was a contender. If you're objective, you can see that.
I don't know...I feel like if we had a 6-11 stretch come up right now this place would fucking explode with drama and trolling. "Trade errrrbody!" "Fire Stotts!" "Dame and CJ can't play together!" "Don't re-sign Nurk!" "Why TF isn't Biggie getting more minutes?!" And we're just a team that most have pegged as a .500 club, not one that should be fighting for HCA in the first two rounds.
Butler was an all-star 3 years prior... Should the Lakers be playing better since they have 3 all-stars (Deng, Lopez, Thomas)? In 29 games during the year, Caron Butler was averaging 15ppg, 4rpg, and 1.6apg, on a non-efficient 52TS%. Not all-star numbers at all. And he was a worse defender than Chandler, Kidd, Marion, Stevenson, etc. For reference, Jason Terry averaged more points per game, on better efficiency, with more assists. Tyson Chandler was a top 3 defensive center in the league. Jason Kidd was a very good defender who got almost 8apg. Shawn Marion got 12.5ppg on better effiency with better rebounding and great defense Caron Butler was the 6th best player on that team.
After that. Because every team will have a lull and it's false to claim that we were going to continue playing that poorly if Wes remained healthy.
I have maintained for weeks now that the trash warriors will make the playoffs but that I'd be shocked if they get by the first round.
You make some good points but Butler WAS their second best player when he went down. He was hitting game winning shots and was the second option in the starting lineup. That you don't remember that doesn't make it not true.
I didn't say they would continue to play poorly but the 6-11 stretch was awful and it happened with a healthy Wes and it all but cost us the 1 seed.
