If by model, you mean personnel, then for last season GS's model was the only one that worked. Now, I happen to believe that the Cavs had the best team. But the Cavs lost their 2nd and 3rd best players with injury. So they lost. But that was last year. This is this year. You have to be realistic about what other teams are doing. Just to carry forward this discussion, Atlanta has NO CHANCE of coming out of the East.....barring injury to Lebron or one or both of the Cavs other 2 superstars. Are the Hawks a good team? Yes Are they a great team? For sure if they win 60. Do they have good coaching? Excellent coaching Do they have some great players? Of course Do they have good role players? Yes Do they have a great system? Yes Can they win a championship barring injury? Nope. Not unless injuries strike down both the Cavs and whomever comes out of the West (probably GS unless injury strikes them down and then it'll probably be Spurs, Clips, Thunder, or Grizz). For as great as Atlanta is....they're not good enough to beat Cleveland in a 7-game series if both teams are healthy. Because Cleveland is simply a greater team with a greater superstar and a greater supporting cast. What's so difficult to understand about that? Isn't it relatively simple????
Stop this crap. Draymond Green is not a superstar and neither is Klay Thompson You lot throw around the word superstar way too often around here. By your noble definition of superstar there will be about 20 superstars in the league which is flat out wrong. There are only a handful of superstar in the league. I define superstars as those who can carry a team single handedly. LeBron, Durant, Westbrook, Curry, Harden, Griffin, Paul, AD are the superstars I can think of. I have probably missed one or two. Rest are all stars - high level all stars at best. Curry is the only superstar for the Warriors. What they have is excellent all around team 1-10 with an array of all stars and former all stars and young studs but Curry is what makes that team. In addition they have a great coach in Kerr (someone I wanted when he was available instead of McFail) with a great system and very competent assistants.
Can? The Feb deadline is a time to make a good deal. Right now, the coach need stop play both Harden and Lawson together.
Rockets never needed a pg, they already had one... James What they needed was a sg and they have one, but are not smart enough to understand that. Harden cannot operate without the ball in his hands, so their is no need to change his game... Put Thornton at the 2 and let them both play their natural position. Bring Lawson off the bench or you may have to trade Bev or Lawson. Some of this stuff is not Rocket science. I can't figure out how the coaching staff can't figure some of this stuff out when us average JOES on Clutch can see this.. T_Man
If I had to pick a power forward to add to this team today....I'd take Anthony Davis or Draymond Green. Not Bosh. Not LaMarcus. Not Griffin. But Draymond. Call Griffin a superstar and don't call Draymond a superstar. Doesn't matter to me. Doesn't change who Draymond is. He is flat-out a better player than a lot of so-called superstars. He's a superstar.
You said we need a definitive 3rd superstar to contend. No team in this league has 3 superstars. Not GSW and not Cavs, not OKC and not Clippers, Not Spurs
Torque the meaning of superstar all you want. Duncan, by your definition, is not a superstar. He's just another run-of-the-mill hall-of-famer I guess. Get real. Even in the diminished capacity of his age and the twilight of his career he's a superstar. The greatest superstars.........WIN. Draymond is a superstar.
So this league has 20 superstars? OKKKKKK...... If Green is a superstar, kawhi is a superstar, if Kawhi is a superstar, Butler is a superstar, If Butler is a superstar, Klay is a superstar, If Klay is a superstar, Wall is a superstar, If Wall is a superstar, Lowry is a superstar They all superstars....
Harden is a pg... He may not have the title.. but he's a pg.. He cannot operate with all the ball in his hand... He's not a catch and shoot type of player... T_Man
i also feel the word "superstar" has been used too loosely. a team's chance of winning it all in a particular yr depends on a lot of things. talent level, chemistry, system, luck (such as injury situation, etc.)... you name it. this is sports. anything could happen. the texans just beat an unfeated team at their house last night. to say things like atlanta has no shot at all doesnt make a whole lot sense.
He also left OKC because he wanted the max and they weren't going to give it to it. He never whined about being the NBA 6th Man of the Year He's under contract. He has no power to leave. If he is benched, and whines about it, and doesn't perform, then his stock will plummet. He has no say in the matter, if a coach wants him off the bench for a few games until he gets his head straight. If he turns into a selfish b****, then best to know that now.
You don't need 3 superstars to win a title in the NBA. The Mavs won in 2011 with one aging superstar. The Pistons won in 2004 with no superstars. The Heat won in 2006 with one superstar in Wade and another aging one in Shaq(who was on the bench when they made their run in Game 6 to finish off the Mavs). And the Spurs in 2014 had a budding star in Kawhi and 3 aging stars in Duncan, Parker, and Ginobili. What did those teams have in common? They had solid supporting casts, great coaching, and a consistent defense. Right now the Rockets have neither of the latter two and have disappointed with the former. But this notion that without someone like Kevin Durant to compliment Harden and Howard, this team has no hope of competing for a title much less beating the likes of the Nets or Mavs(sans their 3 best players) at home is absurd. If anything, what you're saying is a serious indictment of how pathetic Harden and Howard are as alleged superstars and McHale is as a head coach.
Those are all superstars with the exception of Lowry(star player in light of other talent at PG position) and possibly Klay(borderline). Draymond is actually either the second best (my opinion) or best (a case could be made) player on the Warriors team. He's a superstar every bit as much as Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman were superstars!!!! And he'll wind up in the hall-of-fame just like they did if he and the crew stay relatively healthy. Because the Warriors are going to be doing a lot of winning over the next several years.
he is not a pg. he's a natural sg who was forced to play the position and I've said it before it was a luxury that he was able to do it. harden's #1 ability is scorer not handling the ball and trying to facilitate. He is not the player who will be setting up the offense and running it. He only handles the ball so much because he has to and theres no other player to do it. he's done plenty of catch and shoot in his career. Only the ones that follow Harden as of last year believe he has never done it before. Theres plenty of film throughout the years of him playing catch and shoot.
