I thought the broadcast crew did a great job during the 4th Q of last night's Rox/GSW game. Bill heaped effusive praise on Draymond - and deservedly so given how he played down the stretch. Great lines such as, "he's always there, he's always there" when he grabbed a key offensive board for an easy putback, etc. One line in particular resonated with me, Bill called Draymond, "one of the great competitors of our generation." Wow. Just wow. I thought about it in more detail later as I tried to make Draymond my baseline for "competitiveness". The best I can come up with is a competitor plays closest to his max level all the time. Not just max effort, but max output/results. For an elite competitor, your theoretical peak output and your actual performance has the smallest divergence. Succinctly, a guy who brings his absolute best every night. For example, guys like Anthony Randolph and Stromile Swift are the ultimate anti-competitor(s). Who are some of the other elite or great competitors of our generation? Who would be the 10th guy picked on the playground only to be the MVP of the game? The trap here is not to fall for guys who have below avg athleticism but above average output and consider that competitiveness. It could just be, like Jokic, they've designed their game to mask their deficiency.
Still have little respect for Draymond, the way he behaves himself is just like KG --> full of myself, I don't care about respecting the game or anyone, do dirty since I can get away with it. The worst part is not owning up to it. At least Rodman owned up to his craziness and he wasn't that dirty, only to the Malone's and Stockton's who deserved it.
Related to this, I don't watch the HOU broadcast feed much. Usually watching the other team, just to get a feel for all the other team's broadcasters. I'll say, the Houston team based on last night has improved a bit. I'm sure they still have nights where they act like complete homers... but they were pretty fair and impartial yesterday. I mean nobody typically gives the Warriors announcers much flack... but I have found them to be pretty horrible actually...
in his prime years of Chicago. J. Noah was an absolute non stop competitor with very little actual basketball skills. Effected the game with hustle and energy alone
Last night I was thinking that Bill and co. were making a concerted effort to not be homers on NBA TV. I'm all for being objective on foul calls and for giving credit where it's due, but frankly, all the effusive praise for Green, Curry and Thompson last night from our guys was grossing me out.
the fact draymond kicked steven adams in the nutz and tried to upper cut leflop james in his nutsack should make him a national hero.
Honestly, waving your arms and yelling a lot =! Competitiveness. The reason draymond is so consistent is because defenses plan for curry and klay first. The defense's approach to draymond rarely changes, regardless of personnel on the other team. I do think he's extremely competitive. I also think that every person in the top 1% of their craft is extremely competitive. All star NBA players included.
He is the only one on his team who showed up in game 7 last year, if nothing else he deserves credit for that. He's still a POS though
Mm, I think it was the game plan of the cavs to purposefully leave him rather than curry/klay ... but credit to him, he made his 3's. I just think people overvalue him. He's the best role player you can have (unless you value integrity). But he's no star. He competes at a high level and makes the most with what he has. I just have a problem with him thinking he has more than what he has. Don't get me wrong though. I mean, he's perfect for that team, and is able to really thrive playing off of the best trio of shooters in the game. A lot of ppl with the same talent as him wouldn't do with it as much as he has done. But ... let's no confuse this with being one of the best indvidual players in the league haha
Having defense drawn away is super underrated. Remember that kyrie was getting zero attention before the big three.
Why are you guys talking about the defense drawn away by Curry and Thompson? His "competitiveness" has nothing to do with his scoring. It's not like Green's reputation is a prolific scorer. Green is a dirty player and I don't' like him. But sometimes I see people hating on a player and throw in lots of irrelevant things to dismiss his game.
