Aldridge...WDWHA
Comments
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I am very specific. They won't win the West. I said they would win 50 - that's a contender for whatever that is worth which is nothing.
Is Leonard Bias or a one hit wonder? His performance against the Clippers left something to be desired. -
Senile Uncle Race is off his rocker a bit ...
As RoadDawg so accurately pointed out, the extension of the mid-80s Celtics team was going to be the transition into Len Bias and the ability to lighten the load for the remaining front court players for the Celtics.
The 87 team saw its championship chances get burned by McHale's broken foot (from which he never really recovered from) and Magic's sky hook in Game 4.
The 88 team just flat out lacked depth that was an extension of the 87 team.
Bird gets hurt in 89 and the Celtics trade Ainge to extend younger front court depth by getting Joe Kleine ... ouch
What many forget though, is that when Bird returned for the 89-90 season until his retirement in 91-92, the Celtics won 52, 56, and 51 games. Even the year after Bird retired the Celtics won 48 games.
So when you really break it down, the reasons for the Celtics dynasty falling apart had 3 major factors:
1) Len Bias OD
2) Retirement/Fall of the Big Three (Bird in '92, McHale in '93, Parish leaving in '94 as a free agent)
3) Death of Reggie Lewis -
Dennis Dixon thought that post was stupid.
Lot of doogs here today
What many forget though, is that when Bird returned for the 89-90 season until his retirement in 91-92, the Celtics won 52, 56, and 51 games. Even the year after Bird retired the Celtics won 48 games.
isn't that what I just said the Spurs are? Why yes it is -
The projections place them as a mid 60 win team right now ... not in the 50s.
Leonard is a Top 10-15 player in the league right now. Duncan can dial up his play when needed. Aldridge gives a 2nd option to score on the interior. Both bigs are good passers. Add to that David West who can do much of the same with Boris Diaw and the Spurs have best front court in the league at this point.
I do question their guard play a little bit and would feel a lot better if they got someone in that can defend some of the better PGs in the league in case Parker is really done.
But at this point, I'm not going to go as far as saying that the Spurs are the favorite to win the West or the NBA Title, but they are on a definite short list.
When talking shit about them last year, the series they played with the Clippers was 1-2 rounds before when it should have been played. Both teams were better than the Rockets (I don't care that the Rockets won the series against the Clippers ... that was a super fluke event).
I don't see a single team outside of the Warriors that I view as being in the same class as the Warriors/Spurs right now. Memphis is probably the next best team. Houston has some serious issues to me and I don't think that they've gotten better in the offseason (most likely worse). I like some of what the Mavs have done but I need to see it first. Clips with a massive hole without Jordan that is a huge problem given that they don't get cap relief to go replace him. OKC could get into the top 2-4 discussion in the West but there are far more unknowns with them than the other 3 teams at this point.
The West will be very top heavy next year. -
So you don't think the Warriors or Spurs win the West again. Or is it that the Warriors just won't win it all?
I don't think you are giving G Pop enough credit. Leonard looked amazing in the finals 2 seasons ago and I think Lamarcus is a huge pick up for them. -
Aldridge < Gasol. Gasol was the best player on the 2010 title team in the finals.
The Spurs are finally too old and may have peaked this year. Their vets will fall off suddenly and be done within a year or two. Already saw signs of it in Parker and Ginobli in playoffs. I watched every game of LAC/SA and SA was outplayed almost the entire series except the one blowout game. Leonard is not a #1 guy on a championship team. West and Aldridge will keep them in the chase but Parker and Duncan can't go multiple rounds in long series, which they will be in the West.
Warriors had a real easy path to the title. Didn't face a healthy point guard the entire time and avoided both SAS and Clippers.
OKC is the most interesting. This could be their year to really breakthrough. I don't trust them though. Westbrook doesn't make the other guys better as much as he potentially could and Durant is a bit overrated in my opinion.
My early pick would be Cavs over Thunder.
The top of the East may be even weaker next year and whoever wins the West next year will have a much tougher path than GS this year. Cavs should naturally be better in the second year with an overhauled roster and will have the entire season to tinker with lineups and prepare for a title run. -
The guy that thinks Pau Gasol was better than Kobe agrees with Race. Nuff said on that.
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Gasol arguably had the best finals. He was nothing close to the best player on the team in the finals. This is like the Igoudala > Curry argument. If Gasol got the defensive attention that Kobe got and Kobe got the defensive attention Gasol got it would not have been close.HeretoBeatmyChest said:Aldridge < Gasol. Gasol was the best player on the 2010 title team in the finals.
The Spurs are finally too old and may have peaked this year. Their vets will fall off suddenly and be done within a year or two. Already saw signs of it in Parker and Ginobli in playoffs. I watched every game of LAC/SA and SA was outplayed almost the entire series except the one blowout game. Leonard is not a #1 guy on a championship team. West and Aldridge will keep them in the chase but Parker and Duncan can't go multiple rounds in long series, which they will be in the West.
Warriors had a real easy path to the title. Didn't face a healthy point guard the entire time and avoided both SAS and Clippers.
OKC is the most interesting. This could be their year to really breakthrough. I don't trust them though. Westbrook doesn't make the other guys better as much as he potentially could and Durant is a bit overrated in my opinion.
My early pick would be Cavs over Thunder.
The top of the East may be even weaker next year and whoever wins the West next year will have a much tougher path than GS this year. Cavs should naturally be better in the second year with an overhauled roster and will have the entire season to tinker with lineups and prepare for a title run.
And I agree Pau is > Lamarcus but it's not by much.
Memphis Pau was between 11th and 17th in the league in PER (not a perfect stat but the best advanced stat we have back then, and it's not like Pau was a defensive beast so if anything he looks better in PER than he should) with one spike year at 7th. LaMarcus was 11th in PER this year, and has been in the 13-19 range over the last four years with one off year in the low 20's (I think it was 22). Like Pau, LaMarcus isn't a defensive beast.
Pau might have been a slightly better acquisition for the Lakers but they're super similar players in the same tier. Great to have as your #2, not great to have as your #1.
And one more time, LOFL at Pau was worse than Meta, Bynum and Kardashian. -
Meta did hit that shot though.dnc said:
Gasol arguably had the best finals. He was nothing close to the best player on the team in the finals. This is like the Igoudala > Curry argument. If Gasol got the defensive attention that Kobe got and Kobe got the defensive attention Gasol got it would not have been close.HeretoBeatmyChest said:Aldridge < Gasol. Gasol was the best player on the 2010 title team in the finals.
The Spurs are finally too old and may have peaked this year. Their vets will fall off suddenly and be done within a year or two. Already saw signs of it in Parker and Ginobli in playoffs. I watched every game of LAC/SA and SA was outplayed almost the entire series except the one blowout game. Leonard is not a #1 guy on a championship team. West and Aldridge will keep them in the chase but Parker and Duncan can't go multiple rounds in long series, which they will be in the West.
Warriors had a real easy path to the title. Didn't face a healthy point guard the entire time and avoided both SAS and Clippers.
OKC is the most interesting. This could be their year to really breakthrough. I don't trust them though. Westbrook doesn't make the other guys better as much as he potentially could and Durant is a bit overrated in my opinion.
My early pick would be Cavs over Thunder.
The top of the East may be even weaker next year and whoever wins the West next year will have a much tougher path than GS this year. Cavs should naturally be better in the second year with an overhauled roster and will have the entire season to tinker with lineups and prepare for a title run.
And I agree Pau is > Lamarcus but it's not by much.
Memphis Pau was between 11th and 17th in the league in PER (not a perfect stat but the best advanced stat we have back then, and it's not like Pau was a defensive beast so if anything he looks better in PER than he should) with one spike year at 7th. LaMarcus was 11th in PER this year, and has been in the 13-19 range over the last four years with one off year in the low 20's (I think it was 22). Like Pau, LaMarcus isn't a defensive beast.
Pau might have been a slightly better acquisition for the Lakers but they're super similar players in the same tier. Great to have as your #2, not great to have as your #1.
And one more time, LOFL at Pau was worse than Meta, Bynum and Kardashian. -
Low tweakallpurpleallgold said:The guy that thinks Pau Gasol was better than Kobe agrees with Race. Nuff said on that.
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I was at an M's game against the Rangers that night. I remember it because there were maybe 4,000 people in the dome. Dude in my row just walked to the bullpen to area to get some dip from Jeff Russell.Tequilla said:Senile Uncle Race is off his rocker a bit ...
As RoadDawg so accurately pointed out, the extension of the mid-80s Celtics team was going to be the transition into Len Bias and the ability to lighten the load for the remaining front court players for the Celtics.
The 87 team saw its championship chances get burned by McHale's broken foot (from which he never really recovered from) and Magic's sky hook in Game 4.
The 88 team just flat out lacked depth that was an extension of the 87 team.
Bird gets hurt in 89 and the Celtics trade Ainge to extend younger front court depth by getting Joe Kleine ... ouch
What many forget though, is that when Bird returned for the 89-90 season until his retirement in 91-92, the Celtics won 52, 56, and 51 games. Even the year after Bird retired the Celtics won 48 games.
So when you really break it down, the reasons for the Celtics dynasty falling apart had 3 major factors:
1) Len Bias OD
2) Retirement/Fall of the Big Three (Bird in '92, McHale in '93, Parish leaving in '94 as a free agent)
3) Death of Reggie Lewis
edit: checked retrosheet and the attendance was 6729. 2:12. Mike Morgan with a complete game loss. -
The Bulls trading for Scott Pippen and the Pistons taking a Hall of Famer in the worst draft in NBA history were more important than any of those three reasons.
Lewis did not die until Jordan had 3 titles. -
I seem to forget the team that drafted Scottie Pippen
