May 20, 2017 Kyrie isn't talented enough to make up for Lebron's production. Regardless, you're too focused on individual production to understand what I'm saying. Steph's value isn't quantifiable by modern statistics. It's purely from the eye test. I've seen teams play without their stars. The Cavs just look bad without Lebron. But the Warriors playing without Steph actually looks WRONG. Once he steps back on to the court, everything seems to make sense again. I've never seen a player have that kind of impact before. There's nothing wrong with Lebron's value and any other player's value. But Steph's value is entirely different and new. It's the kind that may come along once in a lifetime.
May 20, 2017 This isn't some new phenomenon though. You take away a staple player from any team in the NBA, they're going to look off. Based on how much talent a team has will tell you whether they can adjust and continue to play good basketball or struggle. The warriors don't play without curry often so of course the couple times you have seen them play without him, they've looked off. The reality of the matter is, the warriors are way too talented of a ball team to not be able to make it work with KD, Green & Thompson eventually. It would take time and there would be some growing pains but that's still a team MORE than capable enough to compete for a championship without Curry. Suggesting otherwise is really far fetched imo.
May 20, 2017 It's not that they look off. It's that they look wrong. As if they don't make sense. Teams without their stars players normally just look bad, not wrong. The fact that they look so wrong even though they still have three all stars only proves my point even further. And it's really not far fetched to say that KD, Klay, and Green wouldn't be championship material without Steph. Any combination with Steph on the other hand IS championship material. But perhaps it's just me not believing all that much in iso ball. I think they would rely a bit too much on iso plays for KD, which funny enough is exactly what KD didn't want. He went to Golden State to play with Steph, so he would actually have a point guard who knows what he's doing(yes, that's me saying Westbrook is a bad point guard).