May 30, 2015

Dwight Howard is basically the Jay Cutler of the NBA. Talented as f---, but he's a head case that will never reach his full potential and NEVER be a champion.

 

May 30, 2015

Dwight Howard will never be Shaq

Anyone not giving the Cavs a shot is stupid

Anyone who questions LBJ's greatness at this point is stupid. He took an awful team to the finals while sweeping the Hawks too. MJ is no doubt the GOAT, but LBJ is right behind him

Cavs in 7

 

May 30, 2015

Really shows how overrated Carmelo is, he had some of these same players around him in NY earlier in the year and the Knicks were one of the worst teams in the league. Sure he didn't have Kyrie but still, it's not like Kyrie's done incredible in the postseason and he's even missed some games. Bron takes them to the finals and makes these guys look a lot better. Of all the 'star' players, Melo's gotta be one of the worst imo. He's still only been out of the 1st round once. He puts up good scoring numbers but this isn't fantasy basketball so that's not all that matters.

Also can you imagine how pathetic the east would be if Lebron was in the west? It'd be basically 100% irrelevant and the west finals would be the real NBA finals each year. It's really amazing how the east has only had 1 great team and maybe 1-2 very good teams each year over the past 15 years or so, pretty pathetic.

Bron's team is basically a lock to make the finals every year and that will probably continue in the next few years unless a few big free agents jump to the east.

 

May 30, 2015

I mean all it really takes is a few of the stars to come to the East and not just to join up with Lebron but to go to another team. They don't want to come out to the s--- climates in the East though.

Who knows maybe this is the offseason where a couple of these guys us their brains. Kon if I'm you I'm happy your team is in the West, you don't have a 2nd pick in the draft otherwise. So much easier to tank in the West and easy to stay mediocre in the East where you never get big name FA's and pick in the middle of the 1st round for years. Celtics might have already gotten to that point by luckily they have a million picks.

 

May 30, 2015

True, I remember about halfway through the year (or around there) the Lakers and Celtics were pretty even in the standings, I was watching the Boston scores hoping they'd win so the Lakers would have a better lottery spot. Celtics obviously got pretty hot and ended up making the playoffs, that wouldn't have happened if they were in the west.

Hopefully I don't have to worry about tanking again anytime soon though. I definitely won't worry about it this upcoming season even if the Lakers are disappointing since they'd have to finish top 3 in the draft to keep their pick and I can't see that happening. They have 20+ mill this year in cap space, 60+ mill next year in cap space most likely and a good core of young players so hopefully the tank watch is over for a while for me.

But yeah it's gotta be hard to tank in the east with teams like the Sixers who seem to have that mastered every year.

 

May 30, 2015

Lebron is about to be 2-4 in the Finals. He's the GOAT, though, right?

In all seriousness this is the first Finals in ages where I have no clue what will happen. Either team could sweep, win in 5 or 6, or it could go 7 and I wouldn't be surprised by any of those scenarios.)

Who would thought the Cavs would be where they're sitting because of Timothy Mosgov, J.R. Smith and Matthew Deledova as opposed to Kryie and Love. (The 2 week steroid vacation LeBron took in January didn't hurt either.

 

May 31, 2015

Nobody is even calling him the GOAT. Everyone agrees that MJ is the GOAT. But you cannot deny LBJ is right behind him.

 

May 31, 2015

There's a lot of people that consider him the GOAT. And if by right behind MJ you mean behind MJ, Kobe, Magic, Bird and Shaq then sure, I agree.

 

May 31, 2015

MJ is the GOAT and Lebron is right behind him. LBJ is far past those other names

 

May 31, 2015

Titles aren't everything.

 

May 31, 2015

They are when comparing legendary players though.

Also I think it's annoying that it's supposedly 'common knowledge' that MJ is the best ever. I mean I agree he probably is but others like Wilt, Kareem, Magic, Bird and Kobe are on the same level and hardly ever get mentioned in that discussion while everyone just acts like it's undisputed that Jordan's the best. It really shows how strong of an influence the media has.

Also Lebron's gotta keep going at this pace for another 5+ years before we can say without a doubt he's on that same level, he'll most likely get there but it's not a sure thing yet. Gotta see what happens when he loses some athleticism and if/when he has serious injuries, guys like Kobe and MJ adjusted when they lost athleticism, it remains to be seen how Bron will do with that.

Saying he's 'far past' Kobe, Magic and Bird already is idiotic and jumping to conclusions since you don't know how the rest of his career will go.

 

May 31, 2015

I disagree man.

This isn't necessarily what you said, but to say that measuring championships against different competition with different teammates is somehow equal is wrong IMO. A lot of the problem with debating the GOATs is that everything becomes hypothetical. If you put Kobe on the late 00s Cavs, they're not touching the Finals. He wasn't even the best player on the Lakers for arguably 3 of those rings he won. Do those count when debating then? There's like 13 players that have more rings than Jordan. Bill Russell comes to mind when I think about rings. Is Russell better than Jordan? Because that's two arguably top 5 players OAT aka legendary.

I don't mean to sound like a d-ck if I did, but as a LeBron fan, I've dealt with this debate a lot and have become fairly passionate about it lol.

 

May 31, 2015

It's common knowledge that MJ is the greatest ever, that has nothing to do with the media. And the 96 Bulls are the greatest team of all time. Can't top 72 wins

 

May 31, 2015

Robert Horry > Michael Jordan?

 

May 31, 2015

Yep, cuz that's really what I said....lol. Fine they are when comparing similar legendary players, guess I should have been more specific. Horry's not a legendary player by the way, he's one of the best role players ever....Obviously isn't on the level of those other names.

Kobe was as important to the 3peat as Shaq by the way. Bill Russel is also an all time great and could be listed among the best ever, his championships are a big reason why.

The whole point of playing in the NBA is to win a championship so if you don't factor those in when comparing all time greats, then I don't understand you...

 

May 31, 2015

Kobe led a team with Smush Parker, Chris Mihm and Luke Walton IN THE STARTING LINEUP to the playoffs in a very tough west and was up 3-1 on the Suns (one of the best offensive teams in a while), so I don't see why he couldn't have led the cavs to the finals in a very weak east?

The argument that Kobe's rings should be counted less cuz of Shaq is idiotic unless you want to also bring up other examples like Jordan having Pippen and Rodman and Bron having Wade and Bosh. No one wins a ring by themselves but obviously the star players are crucial to the team's success.

 

May 31, 2015

Came in here to post exactly this. If not for a Tim Thomas 3 pointer Kobe COULD have possibly taken a team that had mother f---ing Smush Parker and Kwame Brown to the FINALS in 2006. They would have beat a mediocre Clippers team in round 2 and I guarantee they would have beat Dallas in the conference finals. The Lakers won that season series that year and had Dallas had no answers for Kobe. Christ, he beat them by himself through 3 quarters of his 62 point game.

Either way if you put a f---ing 25 year old Kobe on the 2010-2011 Miami Heat? They'd be going for their fifth straight ring right now. He wouldn't have choked away the Finals in 2011 and the Spurs would have had no answers for him last year. Say what you want but he is the best scorer the league has ever seen. By a LONG shot.

How Lebron is in the GOAT conversation is beyond me. The guy couldn't do a f---ing thing in Cleveland so he went and teamed up with two future hall of famers who were also in their primes. Things got tough and he ran back to two different, younger superstars. Give me a break. Kobe led a team with Pau, Lamar and Bynum to three straight Finals appearances and two chips. Yes, they were good players but how well have they done without Kobe lmao.

Kobe is more skilled than Lebron in EVERY faucet of the game outside of court vision. I'll give Lebron that. Other than that you can f--- off. Can't wait until this overrated f--- is 2-4 in the Finals.

 

May 31, 2015

This still amazes me to this day, Kobe beat an entire team (an amazing offensive team by the way) by himself through 3 quarters. It was Kobe 62, Dallas 61. Has anyone else since maybe Wilt done that even through 2 quarters? I highly doubt it. It's amazing how deadly Kobe was offensively as his best. Also oops I meant Kwame not Luke Walton in my post although Luke was on that team too and sometimes started I think. Jesus that team was awful other than Kobe and I guess Odom lol.

Bron's speed+size give him an advantage no one else has really had before but there's no question Kobe and Jordan are much more skilled players, they can do anything. It also amazes me how poor of an outside shooter Bron is lol, that'll hurt him big time when he loses some of his athleticism. That's why I can't see him staying at the elite level he's at for as long as Jordan and Kobe did but we'll see.

Bron doesn't have the killer instinct and insane motivation that the other 2 had, that's one major disadvantage though. Bron's also not consistently an elite defender, not consistently great in clutch situations, still has to win some more rings and still has to prove he has the longevity to keep this up for another 5 years. If he does those things it'd be fair to put him in the MJ/Kobe discussion but not yet.

 

May 31, 2015

Also a lot of people act like Kobe's a volume shooter in comparison to Jordan but truth is it's the number of 3's Kobe takes compared to MJ that brings down the percentage, Kobe takes way more 3's. But for his career from 2 point range, he's shooting 48% which would be very similar to Jordan.


ChefTalkSports ‏@ChefTalkSports Mar 4
Kobe shoots 48% from 2P for his career. But his love for shooting 3 pointers Brings it down..which is sad.


Also @M Solo , found some amazing Kobe related stats recently, thought you may be interested, check these out.

Tommy Beer ‏@TommyBeer Apr 7
Kobe Bryant is the only player who has scored 40+ points in 4 consecutive games since MJ retired… And Kobe has done it 6 different times.





Chris Palmer ‏@ChrisPalmerNBA 27 Jan 2014
Kobe Bryant (25-day stretch in 2007): 65, 60, 53, 50, 50, 50, 50, 48, 46, 43, 39, 34


^Holy s--- at that 25 day stretch lol.

 

May 31, 2015

You realize that Tim Thomas 3 pointer was in game 6 right? There was a whole other game after that that they COULD have won too, but they lost that game by 31 points. Can talk all day about "could of beat this team, could of beat that team" but they couldn't even put the series away after being up 3-1.

If you put a 25 year old Kobe on the 2010-2011 Miami Heat that would just mess up the whole dynamic. The Lakers wouldn't even of been in the playoffs in the West, so maybe the Mavericks play the Hornets in the 2nd round instead and there's a different outcome since they were 2-2 for the season series. Say Hornets go on instead, they play the Thunder. Thunder beat them 3-0 in the season series, so we'd move them on instead. Heat/Thunder in the 2011 Finals. Obviously a team of Wade, LeBron, Kobe, and Bosh is gonna beat that team, as they beat them without Kobe the year later.

If you wanna say Kobe carried the Lakers with Smush Parker and Kwame Brown in the 06 playoffs, LeBron carried the Cavaliers with Big Z, Larry Hughes, and Drew Gooden to the NBA Finals in 2007. Just saying.

Kobe took the Lakers with 2 other all-stars to three straight Finals appearances and two chips.I mean I guess you can say Bynum didn't get an All-Star selection until 2012, but they were still defending champions coming into the 2011 season. LeBron took the Miami Heat with 2 other all-stars to four straight Finals appearances and two chips.Say Miami went out in the 2nd round during the 2014 Eastern Conferences Semis, it'd be very similiar to Kobe's Lakers did in the 2010-2011 playoffs. But that didn't happen.