Totally agree. The Spurs depth looks meh and the Clippers look equally as good on paper as Houston. OKC needs to prove they can stay healthy before I put them ahead of LAC and HOU.
True, he does have some notable moments, but being a high profile player, it happens. I want to know how we are all defining "flopping" btw. I think there is some miscommunication here. I think of flopping as pretending a foul occurred where one didn't. What lots of players often do, including LBJ (and Harden!!) is SELL a foul that DID happen. Look, if you slo-mo watch every play, there's like a foul or traveling happening every time. Refs simply do not call a lot of the stuff that happens, which is fine. But smart players will try to sell fouls in order to get that whistle, or else how would you get the ref's attention? Harden does a TON of this, but yet a good portion of what he does, I would not consider flopping as he DID get fouled. He just over-exaggerates it to get the whistle. LBJ flops some, rightly exaggerates others, and even taking all that at a whole, from all the games I have watched, he gets a lot of improper non-calls relative even to the calls he does incorrectly get his way.
How about G1 and G2, where even broadcasters slowed it down and everyone could see (heck, even broadcasters said) the blatant crunch time fouls LBJ didn't get? Any one of those would have helped him either win G1 or close out G2 sooner. Both were in OT and/or very late in the 4th. I just don't think you can convincingly say the nba has an agenda of giving LBJ special calls when they have such CRUCIAL, playoff Finals possibly game-deciding non-calls go against him. It's just not believable. Bias + focus really are more realistic reasons. It's like a lot of the crap we read out there about Harden and HOU today. Most of it is wrong when it is by writers that aren't reporting on HOU regularly because it follows bias and a narrative. Which is fun and nice and all, but still untrue.
I would almost agree with those rankings, I would rank OKC a little higher, with a healthy lineup they are in the top 4. 1. Warriors 2. Thunder 3. Spurs 4. Cavaliers 5. Rockets 6. Clippers
You might want to brush up on how up to date your information is. LeBron is not as clutch as Jordan statistically, but he has hit more clutch shots. Kobe on the other hand, is not nearly as clutch the media would have you believe. It's not even close actually. Kobe's "clutchness" is actually very mythical; he takes quite a bit more of those types of shots so people remember that he has made quite a few. Also, Love+Irving >>>>>>>>>>>> PBev+D-Mo and it's not even remotely close. As hurt as we were, Cleveland was a lot more hurt than us in terms of player impact of those who where hurt.
My prediction: 1. Warriors 2. Spurs 3. Cavaliers 4. Rockets 5. Thunder 6. Clippers NBA finals: Spurs vs. Cavaliers Cavaliers likely are going to lose it again.
I am personally reserving judgment on OKC mostly because the OKC we remember...was last fully healthy like what, a year and a half ago? That's a long time! They've been on a downward decline ever since giving up Harden + Bev's infamous Westbrook takedown. Potential and nostalgia can only take a team so far for so long...
I agree I think a lot of teams like houston, gsw and the clippers have not only caught up but surpassed them even at full strength. The thunder are litterly 4 deep and one of the four is awful on defense. I know they have KD and Westbrook but we have harden gSw has curry clips have cp3. if being unbiased as fans all those guys are in the same class of player as durant and Westbrook not to mention all those teams are deep with second and even boardline 3rd Allstar caliber players. The thunder are not just going to run off 60+ win seasons anymore. That was back when the west was 2 deep (thunder and Spurs) no way there winning that many games when you have 6 maybe 7 50+ win teams you have to play 4x a year.
In most nba games they can't make it too obvious that they are giving favor to one guy throughout a entire game in the first two games Lebron pushed off on offense those whole games then when it was time to hit a crucial open three he misses... people were asking why didn't he drive... well late in those games they started to call that. So Lebron is managed by the league a certain way but they do take care of him because he is their biggest marketable asset. His game isn't as superstar strong as they lead you to believe. That's why he will stay in the east where it's way weaker.
I'll go with: 1. Warriors 2. Spurs 3. Cavaliers 4. Thunder 5. Rockets 6. Clippers But I think it is a fairly tight top 6. Many of these guys could be separated by just a few games. OKC of course is the real wild card. Could be the best of these 6 or the worst. Better coach, no doubt, but how healthy is everyone? Who knows.
Interesting that people put OKC at 6 because of injuries threat, but Warriors first, who were injured for the last decade with one exception year. If we base teams on potential, then lets apply same rules to everyone. OKC for me is #1, Warriors #2, Spurs #3, Cavs #4, Rockets #5.
So your argument is...LBJ's obvious non-call in crucial G1 and G2 of the nba FINALS, where it could have led to his win (in G1) was because, while the league has a secret agenda or purposely trying to give LBJ more calls going his way, they don't want it too obvious and thus miss some crucial ones...because you know, small ones along the way all add up to a non-call that is potentially game winning, right? And note that some of these non-call fouls were obvious, in front of the ref, where even the broadcasters were like hm. And not as superstar as the league "leads" us to believe? LBJ is easily the best player in the nba right now. I mean, rewatch the Finals lol. Carry...hard. Now is he top 5 GOAT? Quite debatable there, etc., but to pretend any other player brings as much to the table RIGHT NOW as LBJ is just...wrong. Your conspiracy theory is like most conspiracy theories, really weak.
Recency effect. Just like anything in life, things that happen more recently gain more weight. If someone won a running contest 3 yrs ago, but since then has been injured (but is now healthy again)...and someone else who was injured 3 yrs ago, but got healthy 2 yrs ago and then just won a running contest...you mean to tell me you would actually think the two are equal? That the guy who just won it doesn't have the obvious edge? Come on... OKC is at 6 or whatever because they haven't proven anything in nearly 2 yrs and have only been on a decline since almost 3 yrs ago. GSW's trajectory is the EXACT opposite. You'd bet on them to switch places in 2015-16? Not saying you'd necessarily be wrong, but it'd be playing against the odds and common sense, and a terrible bet lol.
Were there, what seemed like, obvious non calls on LeBron, sure...but you could make the same argument for Harden. There were plenty of calls in the first two games at GS where he didn't get any fouls called. Had they called them, the Rockets might have won the first two games at GS too. Sure a lot of guys push off a bit here and there...what I meant was, the way LeBron pushes off, nobody else can. Harden pushes off way less than LeBron and gets called for it more than LeBron. That's all I was saying. LeBron travels A LOT and usually doesn't get called for it. So while, they have missed a few calls here and there, they also swallowed their whistles in LeBrons favour a lot. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsLoph7VfMo --> take the last play for instance - yeah the refs missed an obvious foul but AGAIN LeBron travelled. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4_PiG59bbs --> obvious travel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFOZY0227-g --> had to post this one..i had to LOL so hard when I watched that game...yeah he got fouled, but he actually hurt himself flopping.
There is no conspiracy with the nba. The nba does what it wants too. Lebron gets the same opportunities Jordan and Kobe got but Lebron is not the superstars that those guys were. Like Dennis Rodman said Lebron is Dominique Wilkins in our era. Yeah he's a beast but he's not as skilled within the fundamentals of basketball as the greats to me. He's playing in a good time where the nba is weaker not some conspiracy it is what it is. As far as calls go he will get the benefit of the doubt most times because he's the one right now in the nba. Jordan and Kobe got that too but the difference is Lebron isn't as cold-blooded as those players late in games especially when it comes to shooting.
I know its a personal opinion but why do you have Clippers ahead of the Warriors and the Heat in the list?
I know you are entitled to your personal opinion but I gotta tell you, your personal opinion sucks, lol. sorry.
