Which is More Significant: Finishing 3rd in the West or the Playoff Sweep?

He no doubt had a great start of his career. Like you mention there’s still quite a few question marks though. I sure wouldn’t trade Dame for him right now.

 

Whether he's healthy is a question now but my biggest issue is whether he'll throw another team under the bus to become a Laker....that's the problem I have with the guy...I wouldn't trade franchise loyalty for rentals at all. No doubt he's a great talent...but he's shown some new feathers since that I wouldn't trust or give up our own franchise player for at all at this point.

 

My thought is, was he able to do this because he had three other all stars around him for other defenses to focus on him, so he put little energy into his offense combined with easy buckets(lack of quality D by the opponents due to them sticking with the other all stars) and able to have more energy on D because of it?

You have good points( as usual) that help me lean towards your opinion, but I still think he was and is over rated. It will never be a sure thing to know, as its all in the past. I hear ya. Just not sure I buy ALL of it.

 

The season I was referring to was 2015-16, after Duncan had retired. Parker and Ginobili were well past their primes (missing several games each and only averaging 10.1ppg and 7.5 ppg respectively). He did have a second all star in Aldridge, but Kawhi was clearly the No. 1 option on that team (averaging 25.5 ppg vs. Aldridge's 17.1 ppg). He was the guy opposing coaches game planned for, and yet he still had scored a very efficient 25.5 ppg (along with being 1st team all defense and 3rd in MVP voting). He was the guy who had SAS up by 23 on GSW when ZaZa took him out.

He was the best player, both offensive and defensively on a 61-win no. 2 seed.

I'm not saying he'll ever be that guy again (time will tell), but two years ago, that's exactly the guy he was.

BNM

 

Agreed, too many risks. Peak Kawhi was better than peak Dame (because of being one of the two best defenders in the league for 4 straight years), but we don't know if we'll ever see peak Kawhi again. It's a huge gamble for TOR, but one they felt they had to take with an aging roster they felt had maxed out.

With Dame, you know exactly what you're going to get. 1st team all NBA performance and world class leadership. In this scenario, I'll take the sure thing over the high risk. Although, it sure would have been nice to have them both...

BNM

 

Yes, that's why I referred to him as a flight risk. TOR took a huge gamble on many fronts.

BNM

 

As a Mariners fan who's never seen them play a playoff game, screw them. They finally had a great pitching outting tiday (shutout through 11), and it took them till the 12th inning to put runs on the board... rediculous.

 

It doesn't even make this list, but when I see people hear discounting POR's 49-win season (in an incredibly competitive conference), I think of WAS. Prior to 2016-17, they went 37 years without winning 49 games. 37 years!!! Half the posters here haven't even been alive that long. POR has won 49, or more, games in 3 of the last 5 years, including 50 twice. WAS hasn't won 50 games in 39 years.

So yeah, it could be worse - a LOT worse.

BNM

 

Good point. And, when I hear people complain about playoff success being the defining thing about a team's worth, I think of the Timberwolves. In their franchise history of 28 seasons, they've only made the playoffs 9 times. Eight of those were in the KG era, during which they were swept in the first round twice, lost in the first round five more times, and only advanced out of the first round once (to the WCF in 2004). After that, the team went into full rebuild mode and missed the playoffs for THIRTEEN SEASONS before finally making it back this year...where they won exactly one game.

So, if you are a Timberwolves fan who only finds joy in playoff success and are more than about 35 years of age, you would only have had a chance to watch 52 playoff games in 28 seasons, with an overall record of 18-34 and a grand total of just TWO playoff series wins.

Yeah, things can get a LOT worse.

 

I get you guys but you know what i got most of all???

I need to proofread my posts from my phone alot more!!!!!!!
Wow.
I cant believe someone didnt slap me around for that shit. Sorry for the forced deciphering. Lol

 

Im starting to really get on board with the diamond project.
Baseball was always my favorite sport to play. Probably because i was best at it compared to others. It kinda sucks to watch on tv now. But live games and the people watching you can indulge in in between pitches... yeah. Good times.

 

Wasn’t it 14 years of not winning a playoff series until 0.9?

It’s been 19 seasons since we made it to the wcf....Let’s not get all high and mighty about the VERY modest amount of success the blazers have had over the last 20 years.

We have been a mostly irrelevant in the nba in my lifetime maybe some of you can remember 91’ but for most of us young fans 1st round exits are all we know or really have ever known, and it’s gotten pretty old.

I don’t get the acceptance of mediocrity personally, but I get that other teams have had it worse.

I just have one question: why are we judging our successes against the worst teams instead of the best?

 

We've beaten top teams for the last 5 seasons....we've played worse against lottery teams at times...I enjoy each game they play for its own merits....when you've been a fan since the late 70s era, that's what you root for...one game at a time...sometimes just one quarter at a time. the competition makes it fun for me to follow...I can find something to enjoy in almost every game. I've cheered for underdogs in sports all my life...fortunately I got to see the Blazers win a championship

 

We're not claiming it hasn't been a struggle, but other teams have had it worse. The current Charlotte franchise has never won a playoff series. SAC currently has a streak of 12 consecutive losing seasons, with no end in sight. You think winning 49 games and a 1st round exit is bad, try winning 27 games every year and watching your GM fuck up 8 top 8 draft picks 8 years in a row. MIN also had 12 consecutive losing seasons prior to last year.

But yeah, this is one area where old age has it's advantages. I remember the 1977 championship. I was a teenager and didn't even live in Oregon at the time, but I was a huge Bill Walton fan, so I was cheering for POR over PHI in the finals. Of course, I also remember the early-90s teams that went to the finals twice. My ex-wife's company was a major corporate sponsor back then, so we went to most home games, often using her bosses season tickets that included VIP parking and the pregame buffet before home games at the MC.

It's not about accepting mediocrity. I don't think there is a single poster here, young or old, that doesn't wish the team was more successful. It's about appreciating and, and every success, no mater how small it may seem.

BNM

 

Everyone wants playoff success even if that success comes on the heels of regular season disappointment. However, you stand a vastly better chance of playoff success if you do well in the regular season. This is a fact and cannot be disputed.

 

Yeah, but I was disputing the notion that what one finds as more significant to them indicates how much of a fan they are.
I took your original post to say that one group aren’t real fans.

 

Sig worthy.

 

Just a bad match up. We'd have hung right in there with or beaten half of the teams in the conference.

The pelicans were one of the 3 teams we didn't want to see.

 

Bruh, I've been watching the Mariners avidly since I was like 7 and I've never seen them play in a playoff game... Nothing compares to how pathetic that is.

 

I feel you. I kinda stopped watching the M’s after ichiro left as a player. I’m starting to come around now that ichiro and Edgar are coaches. I fucking love those two.

On a side note, maybe Paul should take a page out of their playbook and bring back a beloved player to be a fucking big man coach. I’ll fight anyone who says sheed wouldn’t be a good mentor for Collins and toughen up Meyers.