Anyone would. A healthy Yao alone is worth Harden+Lin. But a healthy Yao doesn't exist, so it's an impossible hypothetical.
The weird thing is that after years of complaining about Morey's lack of loyalty and the need for stability, we're finally doing this the one year when we basically started from scratch. Either stability is the hugely overrated, or this coaching staff is the best chemistry builder in the NBA. Morey basically put together the team like a video game and for whatever reason they'll gelling.
and I was a witness........ Great game sat a few rows behind the worrell and bullard. After the game when they were interviewing T.Jones i kept yelling they unleashed the beast from D-league let the guy play extremely loud. I was hoping i was yelling loud enough where they you guys would hear it. Bullard kept laughing and nodding.
It couldn't be the coaches, so don't even suggest that. We have one of the bottom 5 coaches in the world, let alone the NBA right? In reality, it's probably a bit of both - the personnel and the coaches. Hats off to all of them for outperforming my expectations and exceeding the 9 win barrier. The Lakers are a good representation of our model antithetically going wrong. I wouldn't advise doing it every year, but we seem to be doing alright with it!
If only Yao & TMac could get healthy for one full season. Still felt like smacking Adelman's head for playing Yao close to 40mins/game.
Talent is by far the #1 factor, though experience as a unit also helps significantly. Take Miami, for example, that team had a great first season together, but even they started that first season slowly and it took until year 2 for them to work out all the kinks.
They won 60% of the games that Tmac Played in irrespective of if yao played. So a prime Tmac + Yao >>>> Harden
yao/deke scola/landry/hayes artest/battier tmac/vafer brooks/lowry if that team could have 3 years healthy window, I firmly believe they could have won a title.