Quote :

"^^^ Fanboy it up, but you paid out the wazoo for a guy that wasn't even the best player on the team he left."

they actually kind of got him for cheap considering how insanely great he is combined with how much money is coming into the league

and they're both top 5 players, so attempting to shit on him for not being the best player on his team (which is bullshit) is nothing but splitting hairs

12/7/2016 12:11:37 PM

wow goodlife disagrees... that's surprising

you still crying over the election?

[Edited on December 7, 2016 at 12:12 PM. Reason : I can only hope]

12/7/2016 12:12:49 PM

seriously?

12/7/2016 12:14:52 PM

seriously

12/7/2016 12:15:27 PM

No politics in sports talk please.

12/7/2016 12:22:12 PM

which alias are you again?

12/7/2016 12:22:47 PM

I'm somewhere on this planet.

12/7/2016 12:25:42 PM

seriously?

12/7/2016 12:25:55 PM

Quote :

"I'd argue Klay is the 4th best player on that team..and yeah he scored 60."

Same. DG is a DMVP candidate this year without question. I love Klay, but DG is the key to the Ws defense.

Quote :

"What is your definition of well-rounded?? We get it...Durant is a tall guy that can shoot...which honestly isn't that special anymore. Now he's the best tall guy that can shoot...but what else makes him well rounded? He grabs boards...but he rebounds at a rate that a long, 6'9" guy should. He's not exactly a great distributor. He's a decent defender, but mainly because of his length. He's definitely not locking an opposing team's top scorer (that's what Klay and Draymond do."

I mean I've watched the vast majority of Ws games this year and he's the best player on the team. He quietly comes close to averaging a double double every night on a team that scores 120 PPG. He does it all. He fits in pretty much perfectly to the Ws system. I get the love for Westbrook's athleticism, rebounding, and ball distribution, but the dude is a turnover machine who doesn't really play very good defense. What's KD's glaring weakness? I can't really think of one, so please tell me what I'm missing.


[Edited on December 7, 2016 at 12:35 PM. Reason : I can't believe the goodlife and I are actually agreeing on something... ]

12/7/2016 12:26:05 PM

Not really answering the question...but whatever.

You're also not the only one that watches Warriors games...but I think you're the only person that watch ONLY Warriors games. Your perspective is a bit skewed.

12/7/2016 12:34:00 PM

That's not really true. I don't watch as many EC games because I live out West and I teach until pretty late, but I have seen plenty of Clippers, Spurs, OKC, Portland, etc games this season too. And yeah, I get you follow players, not teams, but forgive me for following my local team made up of all stars and lottery picks that's produced amazing basketball over the past 3 years...

[Edited on December 7, 2016 at 12:38 PM. Reason : .]

12/7/2016 12:37:09 PM

^^^ he's 7 foot and averaging a career best 8 boards per game. Being out-rebounded by multiple PG's in the league is a glaring weakness for a supposed top 5 player.

[Edited on December 7, 2016 at 12:39 PM. Reason : .]

12/7/2016 12:38:51 PM

PER isn't the end all be all of judging a player individually, but Durant is currently second in the league in PER

he's really, really, really great

^ not all 7 footers are created equally. he's a 3 who guards the perimeter. he shouldn't be expected to live in the paint and rebound all game

[Edited on December 7, 2016 at 12:43 PM. Reason : .]

12/7/2016 12:40:31 PM

^^ KD has one, Westbrook has three (turnovers, mediocre defense, poor/forced shot selection at times)

3<1

The Warriors blew a 3-1 lead.



[Edited on December 7, 2016 at 12:47 PM. Reason : .]

12/7/2016 12:43:37 PM

Durant also has the 2nd lowest usage rate of the top 12 PER guys. Westbrook's usage is through the fucking roof and he's still #3 in PER. That is insane to keep that quality up with that high of a usage rate.

12/7/2016 12:50:41 PM

again, we're just splitting hairs, which is ok. this is what message boards should be.

the biggest question for the rest of the season is if what Westbrook is currently doing is sustainable. he is the most athletic dude in the league, but it's still such a huge workload, even for a freakish athlete.

it'll be fun as hell to watch

12/7/2016 12:54:17 PM

I think it would be a miracle if he got through the full season without injury (I think he did it last year?). I feel like he goes too hard for him not to get hurt.

Btw...his supporting cast in OKC is starting to look better as the season goes on. Oladipo is finding his groove...Sabonis is a baller. Kanter is Kanter and it looks like Adams is starting to come back to form. I've always thought Morrow should thrive with that team, and he's been really up and down (mostly down)...but is starting to be more consistent recently. I thought that they would be a 7/8 seed in the playoffs...but they're looking more 4/5/6 as the year goes on. Says a lot about Westbrook that he's bringing their level of play up.

[Edited on December 7, 2016 at 1:01 PM. Reason : .]

12/7/2016 12:58:28 PM

and if he does get hurt, he's the kind of guy who would come back way too early

and the Thunder have a bad history of allowing their players to rush back from injury

12/7/2016 1:00:05 PM

I think they are at a stage figuring out who is now the No. 1 on the team, which means, leader of the team. Very similar to the first yr when Bron moved from OH to FL. It's mostly inside the splash brothers and KD. This is a tougher situation than that yr actually because they don't have the bromance beforehand, mostly between KD and Curry.

I still don't understand why KD moved. He's not in a hurry chasing rings. And he divorced with West and hurt him. Harden left first, now it's him. He was lured by a big contract.

12/7/2016 1:18:48 PM

^ no he wasn't.

He wants to win and liked the chemistry the Dubs have. It's not that hard to figure out...

12/7/2016 1:27:08 PM

At OKC he still can win with West like Batman&superman or Batman&Robin or whatever. OKC is still a decent team even without him this yr. He's lack of patience.

12/7/2016 1:35:01 PM

Also didn't enjoy playing with Westbrook.

Also I imagine living in Oakland would be more fun for an NBA player than OKC.

12/7/2016 1:35:34 PM

He just wants a CHANGE.

So he's not OKC's Duncan anymore. He's GSW's Marco Berlinelli now lol.

12/7/2016 1:38:13 PM

^^ Oakland is amazing and so is the rest of the Bay Area. OKC would have given him a max contract, no questions asked, so this whole "salary chasing" suggestion is ridiculous.

12/7/2016 1:58:46 PM

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/18226416/nba-how-kevin-durant-became-most-efficient-self-yet

timing

12/7/2016 1:59:14 PM

what rest of the bay area?

12/7/2016 2:02:35 PM

There's enough good discussion going on in this topic that there is no need to response to shoot. Please refrain.

^^^ Nice articles and all...but he's more efficient because he joined a team that won 73 games the year before, has the two best shooters in the league (with him being the third), and they run a beautiful offense. He probably has to do a 1/5 of the work to get an open shot as he did in OKC. It's just easier. He's also playing the 4 a lot, which means a big man is chasing him around a lot.

It's not rocket science.

[Edited on December 7, 2016 at 2:23 PM. Reason : .]

12/7/2016 2:19:53 PM

that's all true, but it's much easier said than done, and he's doing it

12/7/2016 2:26:05 PM

Quote :

"There's enough good discussion going on in this topic that there is no need to response to shoot. Please refrain."

LOL. Why? I'm a negative force or something?

12/7/2016 3:02:30 PM

Quote :

"what rest of the bay area?"

SF, Berkeley, and Napa/Sonoma/Marin counties specifically.

[Edited on December 7, 2016 at 8:14 PM. Reason : .]

12/7/2016 8:14:04 PM

Like I said. People are REALLY sleeping on this warriors team. They are dismantling people

12/8/2016 12:35:22 AM

Same ole story. Clippers just ain't that great.

12/8/2016 12:59:50 AM

GSW just needs to balance the usage of their stars so they are fresh going into the playoffs. Last year they chased 73 so hard especially during the last month. It felt like they were in playoff games at the end of the season when Steph, Clay, and DG should have been playing preseason minutes. That caught up to them as the playoffs wore on. This team is insane though in terms of firepower. Cavs, maybe SAS, look like the only real threats to them again.

12/8/2016 5:55:12 AM

I mean...they dismantled everyone last year too. They crushed th Cavs on Christmas Day...and we saw how that turned out.

With that being said...they're nasty.

12/8/2016 7:39:33 AM

Can we talk about the fact that Draymond Green was the leading scorer for most of last night and Curry didn't make a single three and they still blew the Clippers the fuck out?

12/8/2016 3:29:31 PM

Can we talk about the fact that Draymond cannot keep from flailing his freakin legs and kicking people seemingly on purpose?

12/8/2016 3:46:03 PM

I mean we can, but it's not very interesting. He obviously didn't learn much from last year, although the flagrant he got called for against Houston didn't seem intentional to me.

12/8/2016 4:10:30 PM

I mean...the Clippers played like dog shit and the game was over in the second quarter. I wouldn't take much from this game if I were a fan of either team (although I guess Clips fans should be concerned with their team's effort...Paul's "spirit" comment was weird).

12/8/2016 5:12:15 PM

one game sample size...

12/8/2016 5:19:41 PM

yeah it's one sample size, but the Clippers have consistent problems matching up with Golden State period. They haven't beaten them in seven straight games. They're also on a pretty bad skid in right now. The thing is, they're definitely much better bench-wise this season, so I kinda think it's coaching more than anything.

12/8/2016 5:38:14 PM

They lost to clean last year because green got suspended.

Otherwise it was a relatively easy 5 game series.

Bogus and Iggy proceeded to get injured in game 5 and 6 and it opened the door for a Cleveland comeback.

Look everyone knows I picked Cleveland to beat the Warriors last year and I was really the only one who even thought they COULD do it.

But this year? Can't see it. They can't play love against gsw. That's tough to ignore

12/8/2016 5:49:01 PM

Good God Westbrook.

I wish I could find the old arguments where everyone said Kyle Lowry sucked and I steadfastly maintained he was great and gonna be a superstar. Unreal this year.

12/24/2016 12:24:14 AM

I wonder if there's any chance the JR injury gives Toronto or Boston a shot at the 1 seed? I think it definitely means Lebron and Kyrie play more minutes. Huge, huge injury.

12/24/2016 2:02:09 PM

Toronto had a shot anyway, they're playing great.

Smith had been awful this year and shumpert is playing great. But yea I wouldn't expect much out of smith this year .

He's potentially waaaay overpaid for the duration of his deal

12/24/2016 7:41:12 PM

that's gotta be the best Christmas game ever

just absurd how good they both were

12/25/2016 5:16:09 PM

Yup, ridiculously high level of play. The more I see them play the more I think the dubs actually are a bit vulnerable. I think this team has a higher ceiling and a lower floor than last year because they're worse defensively. The lack of rebounding and rim protection could hurt them, but they're going to be able to just outscore almost everyone.

12/25/2016 6:11:59 PM

Still pissed about that game. Any time you blow a 14 point lead in the fourth quarter you deserve to lose though, so GG Cavs.

12/26/2016 10:08:29 AM

more than a third into the season and it's absolutely absurd what Westbrook is doing this season

both in old school numbers and new school analytics

12/27/2016 1:06:21 AM

I watched the Christmas rematch game highlights again and again. Best one in a decade maybe? They made all other teams boring to watch. They two are playing like above on another planet. It could be the 3rd consecutive time they meet in this yr's final. If Curry find a new way playing with Durant, Cavs can't come up from behind again like this game.

12/31/2016 6:03:01 PM

Didn't realize that Bzzzzzz was the defensive guru in Houston now

1/5/2017 9:07:01 PM