The OP's argument about this style of basketball ruining basketball is pretty funny seeing as how evolution in sports in general have evolved. You see it in football too, professional sports has put more importance on safety in regards to players (when you see someone getting fouled or penalized, they seem to be protecting the star players more because who wants to watch a game when star players are injured). This mindset does make is reasonable in my opinion because why would I want to watch a game (basketball, football, baseball etc) where the star players who have the best talent to make unbelievable plays not play because of injury? Same thing goes for this brand of basketball, how much of the general population last year enjoyed the match up against the Cavs and the Warriors? Was it really that exciting to watch GSW vs LeBron James? LeBron James has been the person to beat in the Eastern Conference if you want to make it to the finals. It's too bad that he's now trying to shed the superteam label. Anyways I digress, either stop watching basketball or start to enjoy it. The general consensus for fans is more scoring, means more 3's and fast break points, throw in some defense in there and we might make something happen again next year. Hopefully Harden realizes that if he passes the ball, he will eventually get it back so here's hope for that.
In other words, it's just the NBA being the NBA. They've always propped up teams, the Warriors are just the most recent team they've decided to do that with. If you can watch multiple Warriors games and still not see it, then you shouldn't be trying to talk about basketball. The league has been corrupt for a LONG time and it shouldn't really surprise anyone.
I've long felt that way too but ever since seeing the Draymond vs Dahntay Jones suspension debacles, I'm full tin foil hat with you on this. The league goes out of its' way to make more money if it can, and always has, thus the preferential treatment for large market teams when they get good. Sure the Warriors are phenomenal on their own, but it's obvious the league has been helping along the way this postseason.
If you think the league is rigged, you shouldn't be watching basketball. What's the point? The fact that you do still watch and care is evidence that you don't really believe it's rigged. You just use the claim to try and belittle teams when we don't get to be the top dog. Let me guess--when the Rockets won their titles, the league wasn't propping them up, right? The league only props up non-Houston title winners.
Warriors are my most hated team ever probably but I am honestly really impressed watching this series. Who would've thought chucking threes would be so effective given people used to always preach about not settling with long jumpers. more than half of their three pointers are considered "bad shots" but these bad shots is spooking teams into changing their entire way of playing defense. I can see the nervousness and confusion in OKC everytime a screen is set because one bad switch and you get get a three pointer drained on you and you lose momentum.
After watching the epic fail this season was for the Rockets I have to admit I do enjoy watching a team work together on both ends of the floor. I think they've shown the league what having your players buy into a system while trusting one another can do.
For sure, how many times does he get suspended this post season if he played for anyone else? It's crazy that some don't see anything wrong with him getting away with this <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">After he retires from basketball, Draymond Green will join the WWE. <a href="https://t.co/x1znLNWCmp">https://t.co/x1znLNWCmp</a> <a href="https://t.co/rxwQOZngW1">https://t.co/rxwQOZngW1</a></p>— SB Nation GIF (@SBNationGIF) <a href="https://twitter.com/SBNationGIF/status/737465429401075712">May 31, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> and this <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="und" dir="ltr"><a href="https://t.co/W7ZdbdW0DL">https://t.co/W7ZdbdW0DL</a></p>— gsmovingscreens (@gsmovingscreens) <a href="https://twitter.com/gsmovingscreens/status/736064979233689600">May 27, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> and this <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Literally just kicked him in the face <a href="https://t.co/UsHksTKS7J">https://t.co/UsHksTKS7J</a></p>— gsmovingscreens (@gsmovingscreens) <a href="https://twitter.com/gsmovingscreens/status/736054007165161472">May 27, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> and this <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="und" dir="ltr"><a href="https://t.co/kBBEDFE8iK">https://t.co/kBBEDFE8iK</a></p>— gsmovingscreens (@gsmovingscreens) <a href="https://twitter.com/gsmovingscreens/status/735596484704362496">May 25, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> and this <blockquote class="twitter-video" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">This is the same person that called what happened last night an "accident." <a href="https://t.co/KZyF6AWs21">pic.twitter.com/KZyF6AWs21</a></p>— Jhérrueche (@JayBeActinUp) <a href="https://twitter.com/JayBeActinUp/status/734789209882525698">May 23, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> and this <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Draymond Green gets Steven Adams in the kiwis. <a href="https://t.co/66jbmxTRnZ">https://t.co/66jbmxTRnZ</a></p>— RealGM (@RealGM) <a href="https://twitter.com/RealGM/status/734546695837646851">May 23, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> while all along letting their team get away with this <blockquote class="twitter-video" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">And this MOVING ASS SCREEN lead to a 3 pointer <a href="https://twitter.com/NBA">@NBA</a> ???? <a href="https://twitter.com/gsmovingscreens">@gsmovingscreens</a> <a href="https://t.co/24yXgreUJ6">pic.twitter.com/24yXgreUJ6</a></p>— LOVE (@ImOnMyLovell) <a href="https://twitter.com/ImOnMyLovell/status/737451521466499072">May 31, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
i like the warriors and admire curry and thompsons insane shooting but green really is such a dirty mofo
Is any other team getting away with this? <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="und" dir="ltr"><a href="https://t.co/rb8l2ImjB4">https://t.co/rb8l2ImjB4</a></p>— gsmovingscreens (@gsmovingscreens) <a href="https://twitter.com/gsmovingscreens/status/723380347497373696">April 22, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> How about this? <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Seems like a good time to point out Andy and Delly were bff's on the Cavs. Delly taught him a thing or two <a href="https://t.co/Fcvlq3vl9y">https://t.co/Fcvlq3vl9y</a></p>— Mike Goldfarb (@Shaqtin_A_Fool) <a href="https://twitter.com/Shaqtin_A_Fool/status/726883536481964038">May 1, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> How about this? <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="und" dir="ltr"><a href="https://t.co/5K6tjudjM3">https://t.co/5K6tjudjM3</a></p>— gsmovingscreens (@gsmovingscreens) <a href="https://twitter.com/gsmovingscreens/status/730167898644209665">May 10, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> If you can't see that the Dubs are officiated differently than any other team in the NBA then you....well you're exactly what the NBA wants, people who can't see behind the curtain.
I suppose it's a matter of taste. I'm an old school fan of Hakeem, who could wow with shocking displays of agility, creativity, and athleticism. Curry can do that with his shooting. But the rest of their guys, as good as they are, are vanilla. Pump faking b/c someone was closing out on you is not hard. Attacking the rim in a 1v1 is not hard. What is hard is dunking over a triple team.
If these things aren't hard, every team should be playing nearly as well as Golden State. They generally play a very impressive brand of motion offense--they're not much of a 1v1 team, as you seem to imply. Curry can wow with both his shooting and his slashing...his finishes at the hoop aren't dunks, but they're often extremely high degree of difficulty. Not to mention his passing. Curry is just as much a genius in his own way as Jordan, Olajuwon or Magic, IMO.
Were the LAkers basically having Kobe go at his man and Shaq push around and bully other centers that much more fun to watch?
Thier style only works because they have 2 of the histroically best 3 point shooters in the game that can jack up 3s and make them at a .40% clip or better and the rest of their team shoots at 35% or better from 3. This is not a system that can be replicated. What's the chances of another team ever getting 2 three point shooting specialist like Klay and Curry.
Two of the best shooters that don't even really need the basketball to be effective either. This whole thread is grumpy cat.
Yes Curry is a genius, but that's a separate point. On offense they are a team with the all-time great shooter and another top shooter. Almost all of their action comes from the fact that those two stretch out the defense like it is made of cotton candy. In that thinned environment, no it's not hard for their role players to pound their way to dunks and wide-open threes. It's just like Robert Horry was awesome as a role player on great teams, but did very little on a mediocre Phoenix team. You seem to be arguing that GS is good because of their system and execution. Do you really believe that? Seems pretty obvious that their team is 60% Curry, 20% Klay, 20% Green. And the majority of their edge is the technical skill of 3pt shooting.
Of course. They installed a cheat code when they programmed Steph Curry and Klay Thompson so that they could just throw the ball up anywhere on the court and it would just guarantee to fall into the basket. Anyone who has played sport video games would know this kind of rigging.
I'm arguing that they have a few great players (Curry, Thompson, Green, arguably Iguodala), some really good supporting players (Bogut, Ezeli, Livingston) and some solid players (Barnes, Barbosa) and those players are maximized by a smart and dynamic system. Sure, the system wouldn't work as well without the talent. That's meaningless though...no system works well without the talent. That doesn't mean good systems don't exist. Kerr and his staff have built a humming machine that maximizes the greatness of Curry and the unique gifts of Green and Thompson, as well as the good supporting cast. The Warriors are one of the best cutting, passing and shooting teams ever. Yeah, the shooting has the largest effect, but they destroy teams with their cutting and passing.
More like paranoid fans being paranoid fans. Do good/great teams tend to get the benefit of more calls? Probably. But a lot of this is simply confirmation bias, in my view. There have always been players who are dirty and seem to get away with more stuff because of how they play. Remember the Utah Jazz in the 90s? Was the NBA desperate to see them in the Finals? Not particularly.
Well the NBA counts on people like you thinking that....it's why they get away with it even after a ref gets caught rigging games and he blows the whistle about it. You keep convincing yourself that it's just a coincidence that the calls always end up being one sided or that it doesn't impact games. You convincing yourself to buy into that BS won't affect me seeing what is going on when I watch the game. Hell I could post examples of things only the Warriors get away with all day long and some still wouldn't see it or they'd do their best to rationalize it away.
