I can appreciate your excitement, but the reason Dame was the constant, was because other teams had to stay honest on Nic and Wes on the perimeter and did not dare leave LA open down low. Right? These players on the floor with Dame this season will not demand the respect our old starters did......thus, MUCH more difficult looks for Dame this season. And if Wes, Nic and LA all had "weaknesses" that irritated you guys, how are you guys going to feel this season? On a side note, I like when I see Aminu up in the opposing players face hounding him and playing out in the lanes......I do NOT want to see him isoed on the wing trying to do his Kyrie dribbling impersonations.
One rebound gets you in the hall? 10 all stars dont mean nothing, IMO, it's all about context. He's been in the east the entire time it's been putrid. Now, if he was a 10 time all star STARTER (He's started in 4 of them) that'd be something different. Anyway, again, we'll agree to disagree. I love you, Eric. Go see Rocky Horror Picture Show with me. <3
Nic was not a good shooter last year, and CJ is just as good at 3s as Wesley. And LA rarely posted up down low.
Here are the only 10 time All Stars that have won 2 championships since 1991: Jordan Olajuwon D Robinson Duncan Shaq Kobe Wade LeBron Bosh That's it. 9 guys. And Bosh is one of them. Deal with it. Bosh is a HOFer. I would bet $1000 on it.
Great point. Now is Bosh a first ballot Hall of Famer? Probably not. But I'm 99.999999% sure he will eventually be HofF
Ummm no player in the NBA gets OPEN down low. But yes, Aldridge commanded double teams. IF anyone doubles Dame, he has a TON of very athletic very talented players to pass it to that can finish or hit the three. Batum was awful last year. Our opponents wanted him to shoot. CJ is as good a three point shooter as Wes. Meyers Leonard is extremely difficult to guard. To answer your question, I'm gonna feel great this year. We are soooo much deeper. If someone is having a bad game, we have someone else to step in. Not so last year. HCP- you overvalue Wes and Nic compared to who we have now. Aminu and Harkless are both better than Batum. Aldridge was a go to guy in the post yes but he took a lot of bad shots. We are getting better shots this year. ALL FIVE STARTERS FROM LAST YEAR didn't play for us last night and we looked great. Lots of great ball movement. Lots of open shots. Maybe Stotts is the guy who should be getting more of the credit.
I was comparing this year to lasts, and making the point that we won't be as good at the end of games. When I said Dame was the "one huge constant", I meant he is the only relevant player that is/was on both teams. And the other 3 positions all have less experience. As for Nic Wes and LA irritating us, I was simply pointing out they were not perfect, but still pretty good in crunch time. But lets face it, Neither Wes nor Nic attacked the basket with success like we would have all preferred. (And Nic did slump from the outside last year) LA 's weaknesses were too small IMO to list. But they did irritate others. Bottom line...there was really no excitement from me in my post. We will struggle in crunch time.
Of those that are eligible, zero. Larry Foust, with 8, has the most all-star appearances of any eligible player not in the hall. http://www.basketball-reference.com/awards/all_star_by_player.html
So wait.... Bosh has only played in 9 All-Star games. Is Eric just assuming that he'll be an All-Star this year? And two of the last three years he averaged 16 and 6........ talk about getting the nod on name recognition....
I've never really liked Rondo but he was certainly one of the top 5 PGs in the game for a few years, I don't see how anyone can deny that. That doesn't change just because he's not as good on different teams.
Honestly, I think you could have put Tim Frazier on that team and he would have looked good. Pierce, Allen, and KG were all still in their prime when they joined the Celtics. It was the tail end of their prime, but they were still some of the best at their respective positions.
Well I definitely disagree that Frazier would have done anywhere near as well as Rondo did, but that's a statement that can't be proven or disproven so there's not really much else to say.
I'm not saying Frazier would have looked as good as Rondo, but I think he would have looked good. He could have averaged 10+ assists per game in that offense. My contention has always been that Rondo does not have the skillset to carry a team by himself. If you put him on a team without a lot of weapons, he would look like shit. That's in his prime when he was healthy.
I really don't agree with what you're saying about Frazier at all. My contention would be that no other PG in recent times could look as good as Rondo did on that Boston team because he had the perfect skillset for it.
Eh........ Jason Kidd, Steve Nash, Chris Paul.... I do not agree. I think Paul would have had a field day on that team, especially back before he basically went bone on bone in one of his knees. I just really don't think Rondo was a special and unique snowflake.
