I have never liked Morey's "asset" mentality. Until he landed Harden and Howard I thought he was on the way out the door. He had "shuffled" the deck for several years without appreciable results. Now, he is the magic man, but he still has the bean counter mentality. I understand that pro basketball is a business, but it is still a "team sport" as the Spurs have so ably demonstrated. Building an identity, team loyalty, and having a history together are still worthwhile goals. They do not seem to be Morey's priority. I still don't care for him, but he got Harden and Howard, so he gets a pass for the immediate future. However, if the Rockets continue to be a first round casualty for the third straight year, I think he is officially in trouble.
This post is laced with so much bull****, I even prefaced my post with the Lakers bit. Bynum wasn't a part of their big 3 and wasn't an All Star till 2012, when the lakers were done. Their attack was always centered with Kobe/Gasol, thats why Kobe/Gasol duo was able to make it to the NBA finals when Bynum didn't play. Parker/Ginobili/Duncan....? Are you kidding me? They haven't played like All Stars in a really long time, and the only title where all 3 of them could be considered All Star calliber players was in 07 and maybe in 05. I already gave you the Heat and Celtics. Why would you need to look at the last 10 years? Well there is only 1 champion every year, your going to have a small ass sample size by going over the last 5 years. The championship a team won in 04' isn't much different from a championship won this year. Actually, the two teams that did that couldn't be more similar, the Pistons and this year's Spurs. If you're going to assign a big 3 as liberally as you are, the rockets already have chandler Parsons who more than fulfills your standard. So here are the last 10 teams to win a ring: 04: Pistons (no big 3, along with this year's spurs, most balanced team) 05: Spurs (Duncan/Manu were All Stars, Parker would come into his own next season, he also had a terrible series against the Pistons) 06: Heat (Wade/Shaq) 07: Spurs (You can say there was a big 3 at this point TP/Manu/Duncan played like All Stars) 08: Celtics (Garnett/Pierce/Allen--Extremely complementary big 3) 09: Lakers (Kobe/Gasol) 10: Lakers (Kobe/Gasol) 11: Mavs (Dirk) 12: Heat (Bosh/Lebron/Wade) 13: Heat (Bosh/Lebron/Wade) 14: Spurs (no real All Star play , Leonard being FMVP illustrates that) So tell me, where does your you have to have a Big 3 come in? Unless you're going to use the Big 3 term loosely enough to include role players that you yourself deem to be important when you want, and unimportant when you want.
It's hard to believe you have been the Rockets/NBA fan for 15 years. NBA has always been a players league, stars players get the treatment, and win the games. But I do have doubts about Melo & Harden on the same team, not sure there will be enough shots to keep both of them happy.
Ginobili has made an All Star team as recent as 2011..Duncan and Parker have been All Stars since then...by the time the Celtics got together..I guess you had your TV on mute as San Antonio made their run and the media mentioned the SA Big 3 era... No All Star play? Duncan was on one of the All NBA teams in 2013 and Parker was All NBA in 2013 and 2014..no All Star level play? Some people consider Tony Parker the best PG in the world including Charles Barkley.. You my friend are a joke. Their stats are down because they play limited minutes due to Pop. Do not get it twisted..if their Big 3 need to take over a game, they do..Bynum was most definitely the 2nd best C in basketball behind Dwight..and Lamar Odom was an Olympian and 6th man of the year who sacrificed to be on the Lakers...they were not a 2 man team whatsoever. Get your facts together and give it another try. A Big 3 is not about stats. It's about having 3 people who are so good that at anytime they can take over, whether for small stretches or long ones. Any 3 top level players playing together are not gonna maximize their stats when playing together. That does not mean the talent isn't there. Somebody always takes a backseat. Ginobili, Bynum/Odom, Bosh, Ray Allen were all the 3rd wheels who were capable of more when needed. At this point you are wrong wrong wrong..you just are.
Tim Duncan 5× NBA champion (1999, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2014) 3× NBA Finals MVP (1999, 2003, 2005) 2× NBA Most Valuable Player (2002–2003) 14× NBA All-Star (1998, 2000–2011, 2013) NBA All-Star Game MVP (2000) 10× All-NBA First Team (1998–2005, 2007, 2013) 3× All-NBA Second Team (2006, 2008–2009) All-NBA Third Team (2010) 8× All-Defensive First Team (1999–2003, 2005, 2007–2008) 6× All-Defensive Second Team (1998, 2004, 2006, 2009–2010, 2013) Tony Parker 4× NBA champion (2003, 2005, 2007, 2014) NBA Finals MVP (2007) 6× NBA All-Star (2006–2007, 2009, 2012–2014) 3× All-NBA Second Team (2012–2014) All-NBA Third Team (2009) Manu Ginobili 4× NBA champion (2003, 2005, 2007, 2014) 2× NBA All-Star (2005, 2011) 2× All-NBA Third Team (2008, 2011) NBA Sixth Man of the Year (2008) NBA All-Rookie Second Team (2003) No All Star level play since 2007 from the Spurs Big 3? I guess the above honors never happened. I must be dreaming.
This is especially true when the player is Melo. What is the point? Another iso guy with lazy D. We don't have enough ball to share to 3 ios/post guys? The rest of the team will do what? If the player is Love who can score, defend, rebound and hit 3s, I can see the merits for excitement. Not Melo. What has his last 2 teams did with him in the team? He will be just another Harden. Perhaps he will not take that long to pass the ball to his teammates like Harden does. 5 seconds is better than 3. LOL.
Between 1998 and 2006, the league had no big 3's on any team except for that last hurrah in LA that ended with Malone's injury, the talent was diluted and just plain sucked compared to both after and before. Since then, 4 teams have won the nba title, the only team who didn't have at least 3 all nba caliber players on their team was Dallas (although one could argue Chandler and Kidd were close). Between 1991 and 1998, only 2 teams classify as "big 3's", the Bulls from 96 to 98 and our retirement home over the same period, the Bulls won every title. Prior to this, big 3's (or more if you count Detroit's bad boys) had won every title for a decade because 3 or 4 such teams had existed at the same time. Big 3's don't always exist, but when they do, you're probably not beating them, you might get lucky once in a while, but if there happens to be multiple of them, you're never getting through the gauntlet.
