Lesser team have been called superteams. The Bucks and Celtics aren't as top heavy but are deeper/more rounded. The Suns gave up their wing defense but still have a Big 4. Superteam is a fair label.
The Kevin Durant Conundrum...
- Thread starter murksiderock
- Start date
murksiderock
Superstar
I guess my thing is, is this Nets roster w/KD substantially worse than the '22 Warriors who won it all? That Nets rotation without the Durant trade looks like this:
DURANT
Claxton
Dinwiddie
Harris
O'Neale
Simmons
Curry
Warren
Mills
Finney-Smith
Watanabe
This squad sans Durant is good enough to be a play-in team. They were still the 5 seed until two nights ago. Durant should be great enough to hold that 5-6 seed range and stay outta the play in with this roster, and then I'm a Rd1 series vs either Philly or Cleveland, do we really trust those guys over this Durant team?
If he outplayed Giannis and was close to advancing two years prior with similar roster limitations around him, an I supposed to believe it would be impossible to defeat Milwaukee this year?
That's what I wanted to see as well. It's his career and I get it but would've loved to see him overcome the challenges at least once.
Greenhornet
A God Among Kings
he's great, but like most players this generation he took the easy way out
OKC fukked him up... the 2012 finals against Heat and Lebron were some of the last exciting ones to watch pace wise
Nash was good friends with him around this time... Nash went on to be shooting coach at GSW... KD eventually landed there too...
probably had the bug in his ear from Nash about not winning a ring ever... and the fact that KD and Lebron were looked at as the top stars of this generation at one point. So KD took the easy ring and knew he would bounce.
he goes with Nash to Brooklyn and already has Kyrie buying in... now he's got Lebron's side chick so he probably thought it would give him a 1up in that little bullshyt battle. It didnt end well
Lebron grabbed Westbrook, KD's old sidepiece and that didnt end well either. So both them nikkas really fukked up worrying about eachother. Now they both have to run up that hill doing the same shyt theyve been doing while other teams build up and fight through. KD is still looking for easy W's and better situations because he has no real home now.
I wouldnt say these guys are better or worse for it skill wise... but none of these rings mean as much (to me at least) In 10 years I will look back at the ones won by Giannis etc more than the ones with stacked odds and teaming up. To keep it a bean, Lebron and KD might has well have teamed up
it would have saved them both time and trouble in the backend. But most of these guys are dialing it in and not competing superhard. The teams you named like Celtics, PHX, etc are grinding hard.. but they are outmatched by deeper teams. 76ers were grinding well too, but they have too many average players and Harden set them back to an even less competitive mindset. KD did grind against Bucks that one year but with no real team or chemistry... you get these ISO superman performances off ripped Achilles... its just not built to work like that.
Its just nice having the NBA spread out a little bit more than it was tbh
OKC fukked him up... the 2012 finals against Heat and Lebron were some of the last exciting ones to watch pace wise
Nash was good friends with him around this time... Nash went on to be shooting coach at GSW... KD eventually landed there too...
probably had the bug in his ear from Nash about not winning a ring ever... and the fact that KD and Lebron were looked at as the top stars of this generation at one point. So KD took the easy ring and knew he would bounce.
he goes with Nash to Brooklyn and already has Kyrie buying in... now he's got Lebron's side chick so he probably thought it would give him a 1up in that little bullshyt battle. It didnt end well
Lebron grabbed Westbrook, KD's old sidepiece and that didnt end well either. So both them nikkas really fukked up worrying about eachother. Now they both have to run up that hill doing the same shyt theyve been doing while other teams build up and fight through. KD is still looking for easy W's and better situations because he has no real home now.I wouldnt say these guys are better or worse for it skill wise... but none of these rings mean as much (to me at least) In 10 years I will look back at the ones won by Giannis etc more than the ones with stacked odds and teaming up. To keep it a bean, Lebron and KD might has well have teamed up
it would have saved them both time and trouble in the backend. But most of these guys are dialing it in and not competing superhard. The teams you named like Celtics, PHX, etc are grinding hard.. but they are outmatched by deeper teams. 76ers were grinding well too, but they have too many average players and Harden set them back to an even less competitive mindset. KD did grind against Bucks that one year but with no real team or chemistry... you get these ISO superman performances off ripped Achilles... its just not built to work like that.Its just nice having the NBA spread out a little bit more than it was tbh
desjardins
Veteran
Guess I don't understand why there's a need for all this debate over KD
Is anyone saying he has a chance to be GOAT or even ranked in the top 5?
Why can't he simply be an all time great who has a skillset that fit into good teams and leave it at that
The way he does his ring chasing is kind of corny but again it's not like anyone is putting him over dudes who took harder paths. Basically his place in the game is being properly assessed by most ppl
Is anyone saying he has a chance to be GOAT or even ranked in the top 5?
Why can't he simply be an all time great who has a skillset that fit into good teams and leave it at that
The way he does his ring chasing is kind of corny but again it's not like anyone is putting him over dudes who took harder paths. Basically his place in the game is being properly assessed by most ppl
you’re typing like someone who hasn’t watched that nets team play once this year and just holding on to name value.
claxton turned a corner and looks legit, but still needs work offensively.
nobody in the world is winning with fukking dinwiddle as your 2nd option
the harris from old is long gone and complete garbage now
ONeale is a decent 5th option, regularly bricks wide open shots
i don’t even need to comment on ben fukking simmons
curry and mills are defensive liabilities to the point that they can’t get playing time
i know you want to get your lebron stan fukk KD narrative off, but nobody in this world is winning anything with that squad.
@ comparing the fukking 22 warriors to this team. wiggins is better than everybody on this nets team besides KD and he isn’t even a top 3 player on that GSW squad.
The irony
Nobody had the '22 Warriors winning in October '21, they overachieved with their defense being enough for Curry to be him in the most necessary spots, as that was a down year for him. KD doesn't elevate others the way Curry does. I get trying to hold even standards but you already know and believe that KD isn't that guy.
If KD stays and holds #5, they have a 6/7 gamer with Cleveland. If they slip to 6, which I find more likely as the Knicks are hitting their stride, they'd run into Philly. They aren't beating Philly. As much as I knock him for turning into Randy Foye with playmaking badges, the Bucks still had to account for Harden being present on the court. Durant doesn't have such a teammate now.
Illin Degenerate
All Star
we're also not talking about 8 prime all star years together. theyre 4th year together they were both 23, how many duos have won a title together at that age? 5th year together russ injured, 7th year together kd injured, then in the 6th year together kd had to carry a ton of weight because russ missed 36 games. their history as a duo isnt even remotely comparable to any of the duos you listed because they were never on a similar timetable. their one absolute failure was blowing the 3-1 lead vs gs.
VegetasHairline
Veteran
Sorry OP but you be typing up a whole bunch of shyt and saying nothing at the same time.
010101
C L O N E*0690//////
he really told the world who he is
"the servant"
if you build a championship contender he'll be glad to clean house for you
but he will never build his own home
*
"the servant"
if you build a championship contender he'll be glad to clean house for you
but he will never build his own home
*
You talking about how bad the Bulls and Warriors were before MJ & Curry, do you think Seattle/OKC was some type of juggernaut before KD? They missed the playoffs 4 out of 5 years before drafting him and had the worst attendance in the league. They were completely irrelevant. KD is the one who changed that.
He carried them to 50 wins at age 21 with no other all-star on his team and finished as the MVP runner up and youngest scoring champ ever
Then the next year he leads them to WCF when nobody had them making it that far before the playoffs started
Even that 2012 Finals run, y’all easily forget that the Thunder were very much the underdog against that Spurs team. They had the best record in the league and were riding a 20 win game streak heading into that series. KD brought the Thunder back from down 0-2 in that series, averaged 30+ in those four wins while no one else on the team cracked 20. Westbrook was shytting the bed and getting outplayed by Tony Parker. But he was just a “bus rider” then too right?
2013, Westbrook gets hurt and he struggles against the best defensive team in the league while running with Reggie Jackson and Kevin Martin as his 2 and 3. If you want to say KD should’ve hulked up and bodied them single handedly then cool, but even if that did happen they wouldn’t have stood a chance against the Spurs in the next round.
2014 he kept the Thunder afloat with Westbrook missing half the season. They lost to a Spurs team that was just flat-out better than them, which is why they also ran Miami off the court
2015 was a lost season because of his broken foot
2016 sure I agree they should’ve finished the job against the Warriors but choked, and KD shoulder a significant amount of blame for it
As far as the Warriors years go, we can argue until we’re blue in the face about who was the bus driver, who was the leader, who needed who, but at the end of the day KD was the best player on the floor when it mattered the most so make what you will of that
2020 was a lost year because of his Achilles
2021, we all know if it wasn’t for injuries the Nets probably would’ve won the title. And even then in that series, KD left it all on the floor. If you came away from that Game 7 when it was all said and done saying that KD didn’t do enough you a fukking moron in my book, and just trying to push bad faith agendas
2022, he was terrible. I don’t think the Nets would’ve beat the Celtics even if he did play better, wouldn’t have got swept for sure but that was the worst series of his career that I can remember.
And again, I get it. You wanted to see KD have a Herculean against all odds Hollywood epic performance and carry Spencer Dinwiddie, Dorian Finney-Smith, Nic Claxton, Joe Harris & the ghost of Ben Simmons to a deep playoff run and beat Boston & Milwaukee. But let’s step off the agenda speak and think rationally about the situation. We all know that supporting cast ain’t shyt. This is not the weak East LeBron went against in Cleveland or the weak West Hakeem faced in the 80s
.
WTFisWallace?
All Star
Outside of the 2011 Mavs and 03 Spurs….Kyle Lowry and Siakam the worst complimentary players for a nikka to win a championship with. You probably gotta go all the way back to Hakeem’s Rocket before you find a roster that’s comparable or worse. Or I guess you can throw in the 99 Spurs.
Duncan, Hakeem, Dirk, and 06 Wade won with limited talent when compared to all the championship teams.
Shaq & Kobe both arguable top 5 all time.
All 5 of the Pistons starters are all stars.
Manu & Parker eventually turned into legit #2s.
Pierce & Ray Allen both Hall of Famers, and they had Rondo.
Gasol, Bynum, Odom is a great surrounding cast.
This might be my Miami bias, but Wade was arguably better than Lebron in 2011 and still a top 5 player in ‘12 & ‘13. And of course Bosh.
Klay and Draymond
Kyrie.
Bubble AD.
nikkas really looked at Toronto’s supporting cast as up there? They were easily worse than the ones listed above to me.