Anyone Watch Klay Score 37 Points in The 3rd Quarter?

Horford won back to back in college.

One thing that absolutely cracks me up is hearing people talk about superstars winning in the NBA. That's normally because the Superstars are often on the best team. When the league is down, the surrounding teams aren't that good and as such the superstar has more of an influence.

The thing about the NBA right now is that the depth of quality players is at its highest mark since the 1980s. The biggest difference between now and the 80s is that the league's best players (LBJ, KD) aren't on the best teams.

Take a team like Atlanta for example:

Forget what the numbers say, Horford is an easy All-Star and probably ranks right up there with the Gasols, Noah, and Duncan as the best pure bigs in the game at the 5 position (I don't include guys like Cousins who is more of a PF to me, Davis, or Dirk as comparables).

Millsap is a solid player that is at worst a fringe all-star player throughout his career. He's been a 17 and 8 guy for 5 straight years now ... solid player.

Jeff Teague is another guy that continues to grow a little bit each year and ranks right on the edge of being at worst a fringe all-star player. 17 and 7 for the last 3 years.

Kyle Korver is the premier shooter in the NBA when it comes to stretching the defense.

Their bench is full of unspectacular, but useful, role players that come into the game and contribute with solid minutes.

This is a strong team that is benefiting some by playing in the East. But at the same time, they know their identity. They know what works for them and what doesn't. And everybody on the team has some role that they play and they have all bought in. Very dangerous team as long as Horford is healthy. If he isn't, they torpedo quickly.

RaceBannon said:

I'm right

Half the NBA titles in history have been won by two teams. The rest are by multiple winner other than the Thunder and the Wizards who have one a piece. That's why superstars win titles, because they do. This isn't the NFL.

Watch and learn kids.

George Karl has how many rings? Same as the Hawks and Bulls players.

Why do you hate Pau Gasol?

And the whole concept of great players is just as easy discredited.

There were few players in the history of the game that had a bigger star associated with them than Dr. J. He won exactly one NBA title in the NBA ... and that was driven more from the zenith of Moses Malone than Dr. J.

The whole half the titles have been won by 2 teams is driven by the players that played for those organizations. The Lakers titles were driven by George Mikan (who required the rules of the games to be changed because of how dominant he was during the time he played), Magic, and Shaq/Kobe. Forgetting about Mikan for a second, the other 3 are 3 of the top 12 players to ever play the game. Mikan gets discredited today but when he played the gap between the best and next best player was night and day. The Celtics had great players but more of a team concept centered around the greatest winner in the history of the game in Bill Russell. They won a couple of titles in the 70s based off of solid team play with an aging Hondo, JoJo White, and Dave Cowens (who will never be confused with one of the 20 greatest players of all time). Then they won 3 in the 80s behind a Top 5 All-Time player in Bird (and a very balanced roster) and then 1 in 2008 with another balanced team effort led by some great players (KG, Allen, Pierce, and Rondo) but again, not one player that would be considered an all-time great.

The Lakers have won titles driven by star players and then surrounding them with supporting players. Celtics have won titles with solid teams and their big runs have come when they've had generational talent surrounded by those solid teams.

You can run off a massive list of great players in the history of the game that have not won titles.