I'm in China on vacation. I didn't realize there was a requirement that I check back at specific intervals, in the event I had the gall to ask a question. As has already been noted, Griffin and Paul were both hurt for two of their games against Memphis. Until this year, I've always thought Griffin was vastly overrated. Even though he has made all-NBA teams the last few years, I never thought he deserved it. After last years elimination, he seems to have grown some extra depth to his game and has turned into a very nice player. Finley was never even all NBA (1st, 2nd or 3rd teams), though he did make the all-star team twice. I never thought much of him, and never would have ranked him a top-10 guy. As for the Spurs, I would probably agree with you. But that year, neither Duncan nor Parker made any all-NBA honor. Ginobili did. Duncan hasn't been on an all-NBA team since about 2010. But I will grant that their early exit that year was an example of a pure upset. As for my "point", as you put it. I'm not sure I had one. I was partially asking the question in a somewhat provocative manner to get an answer. I actually didn't know how common it was for teams with two top-10 guys to go to early elimination. I suspected that it was not common at all, and that where it happened, at least one of the top-10 guys was overrated. I think that was the case with Griffin last year, whether or not he was hurt. And I think it's the case with Harden on the Rockets. No D at all. His ability to create shots on his own was exposed down the wire in these playoffs, and that's supposed to be what he excels at. On the plus side, he is unselfish, and I think he has potential to grow into a more rounded player. But for right now, like T-Mac, like Wilkens, like Alex English, like Bob McAdoo, he's a scorer whose abilities doesn't translate into success. There have been a ton of them in the NBA over the years, and I've never been impressed.
It felt like Dwight was half assing a lot of the regular season, but he seems to have learned how to switch it on when necessary.
he doesn't play enough for me to put him in the top 10 (although he probably would be in if he played 35 min a game). Also, the spurs would probably still had the 1-2 seed without him IMO
1.LeBron James 2.Kevin Durant 3.Chris Paul 4.Blake Griffin 5.Tim Duncan (yes still) 6.Dwight Howard 7.James Harden (if he even played mediocre d he would be # 4) 8.Stephen Curry 9.Kevin Love 10.Paul George It amazes how after all this, Duncan still manages to be underrated. He finishes in the top 7 in Xrapm every freaking season. People need to look past stats and highlights, and start paying attention to results.
if the spurs lost their best 2 players, they still might make the playoffs, and if you took the best 2 off every team, they'd surely finish first, whereas we'd probably finish 12th or so. Holy ****, our bench is killing them said nobody supporting Houston
Chris Paul led the league in assists and steals this year. And he's got the best assist to turnover ratio in the history of the NBA. He's also 1 of 2 players in the NBA that is on the first team All NBA as well as All Defensive. I don't know how that's overrated. Does he also need to lead the league in scoring and rebounds to be considered top 10 without being called overrated?
Another thing to note is the Rockets got beat by a team with two top 10 players. So your point is still meaningless as your so called rare event was going to happen again this year no matter what And Duncan was top 10. Also I purposely did not mention TMac and Yao because it is so sad
Aldridge and Lillard were both 3rd team all-NBA this year. So by that figuring, neither of them were top-10. If you go by the sentiments on this board, less than 1/3rd of those posting put Aldridge in the top 10, and Lillard got zero top-10 mentions. By what measure do you say they are both top-10 guys? I agree with you that Duncan was top 10. I think he may still be a top 10 guy, or close. I said that I agreed with that above.
Yeah I'm fine saying Aldridge and Lilliard aren't both top 10, according to consensus voting. Sorry for my obnoxious post last night. I liked your post at the too of this page. I might say I disagree with you about TMac though. I was always impressed by him. And his playoff stats are off the charts, albeit no winning success. And his defense was great when he did it. JVG said this too
T-Mac was a strange case because he clearly had the ability to do it all, and showed flashes of it. But he could never do it all with any consistency, nor for any extended stretch. How many times did he go up 2-0 in a playoff series and then have the team blow it? I know at least once before he got to the Rockets, and twice with the Rockets. Also, with T-Mac, and the other guys I mentioned above (and Melo as a current example), there's little to no evidence that he made players around him better. If you look at the Stockton/Malone Jazz, you will see example after example of players everyone thought was good, who went on to be busts after they left. Shandon Anderson anyone? With the Bulls, Horace Grant seemed like a great player, but was never much of anything after he left. Same goes with present day Spurs. With folks like Melo, good players come to play with him and turn into scrubs. T-Mac was more neutral in my opinion, but he definitely didn't lift up the play of the guys around him.
^^. Good post. I agree TMac was a special case. How does someone jump their stats in playoffs vs regular season at Hakeem levels, but never win. It's weird. So you're right. It points to he didn't make anyone else around him better.
I know you're an LA fan and I don't know if you're trolling or not but if you don't understand the differences in roles/responsibility/amount of usage/skill between Dwight Howard and DeAndre Jordan and just go off of a few hand-picked stats, then I don't even know what to say...
