umm...I don't know a single person in the world who gave Miami any chance of winning this series. That being said, Wade's greatness alone is making them competitive in this series, and he is playing hurt. Either way, if you are basing your evaluation of him on this series alone, then you are just a blind hater. I mean I know he regularly punked your boy Franchise, but still try to have some perspective.
the people saying he should be MVP. We're talking about Atlanta oh wow, I didn't know this was personal. edit: mvp consideration
The man does what it takes. With his knees he is smart not to dunk. D-Wade is elite, along side Kobe and the James Kid. Roy is a level down; great, superstar, more on the par with Joe Johnson. Where oh where might TMac be?
Roy is better than JJ because JJ doesn't have the mentality to maximize his tools. He'd be an elite 2nd fiddle, but as a lead player, JJ doesn't cut it.
I am a huge fan of his, and even I never said he deserves the MVP. That title clearly belongs to King James this season, and no one else. Heck, Dwight Howard should probably garner more votes since he led his team to a pretty good record. I am guessing it will be Lebron then Kobe, Dwight and Wade. At least that would be my ranking. Moreover, I never equate "MVP" with best player in the league. The MVP award has pretty much become synonymous with "the best player on the team/one of the teams with the best record". Dirk won a couple of years back, no one in their right mind thinks Dirk is anywhere near the best player in the league, at any point of his career. Do the two overlap at times (i.e. best player along with the MVP)? Sure, once in a while. But they are two different things altogether. And Atlanta is a good team, and very talented, and very athletic. That combination is a bad matchup for Miami, despite the fact that they could still win the series (which is surprising to me). I honestly think Miami would have fared much better in the matchup had they stayed with Marion. It is not, I just enjoy taking digs at you and Rocket River ;-)
I should add that A_3PO is one of the reasons I don't post around here much anymore. He echos my thoughts on most issues, so I am pretty much reduced to 'redundant' status.
So you'd give the edge to the player who's in the playoffs for the first time over the guy who has already been a Finals MVP? Or do you just mean this year?
It's not that hard to drive into a player with no fear when the refs will bail you out by calling the stationary big man for a foul just about every time there is contact.
I've watched Roy since his days at Washington since he's a PAC10 guy and I've followed him since his rookie year since I live in Portland. He's a fantastic player and I think he's even better than what he's portrayed this series thus far. With that said..... I love both. Theres a couple things to consider though. #1 being experience and #2 being age. Dwyane Wade is in his 6th year and he's 27. Roy is in his 3rd year and only 24. Of course Wade already has a ring but I truly think Brandon is the better team player and overall leader. Roy is also an extremely hard worker as evidenced by his scouting report coming out of college mostly everything was based off of what HE COULDN'T do rather than what HE COULD DO. People were saying such things as... He's not great at one thing he's just decent at all of them. He doesn't have the athleticism to be a great player. He was injury prone. etc etc. Obviously none of those are true. As for D.Wade I don't think there's any doubt that he's the better overall basketball talent with his athleticism and god given attributes. He's also pretty fearless and can dominate for longer stretches than Roy at this point. Key phrase at this pont due to Wade's greater body of work from more experience. I'll take Wade right now since he's the bonafide superstar. Roy is a slight notch behind but he has a chance to be truly special as well going at this rate. Especially since he has a great supporting cast where the core are all similar in age he will benefit tremendously for years to come.
Setting aside number of years in the league (because of the jump from HS), it is very weird/sad/tragic/nostalgic to think that Tracy (at 25) at the time of the trade, was just a year older than the super crop of Williams/Roy/Paul that is the envy of every GM in the league. Assuming they all turned 24 this year, put it this way, trading for Tracy McGrady was like trading for one of those three guys this upcoming summer, and he was better. It's safe to lament about here within the friendly confines of the NBA Dish, but that's just tragedy folks. You don't just luck into young talent like that but once maybe a decade if you are lucky.
Speaking as a Blazer fan, I would put Roy below Wade, but above Joe Johnson. He's not that great of a passer - most of his assists are because he's willing to distribute the ball and a lot of offense runs through him. What makes Roy outstanding is his body control, pace, and competitive drive. What I'm most interested in is if he'll continue to improve. From day one the knock has been that he's already as good as he's going to get. The next season he got better. Same thing was said again, then this season he got better. Now maybe he really is approaching that peak, but if he's not, I'm very curious how good he can get.
It means nothing. D-Wade already proved himself with him helping Miami get a Championship. Atlanta is a very talented team. Miami is talented but D-Wade is surrounded by a bunch of young guys playing big roles on that team. Jermaine O'Neal is obviously not like he used to be. If Wade does not get out the 1st round it does not mean Roy's better. Hell Roy may not get out the 1st round against Houston. Both are 4/5 matchups and Portland had homecourt unlike Miami.
Yeah I post on Atlanta's football message board and there are a bunch of Hawk fans on there. They are all disappointed with JJ saying they wished he had the drive to become an elite player. He has disappeared way too many times this season.
Man, I don't know. We've got threads in the hangout where people discuss which NBA players they think they could take 1on1.
Yea it just pains me to think what could have been with this guy. He is as athletic if not more than any of those guys, not to mention that he also longer and also a much better passer. If Tmac would have dedicated himself to the game of basketball, he would be mentioned among the all time greats.
