Exactly this. I was getting so tired of media going both ways, only bring up injury if he's having bad game... And on a side note where was he in finals last year with his MVP trophy... Oh that's right.. Iggy had it, haha (sorry had to throw that in too). I do agree though Curry on the offensive end has the best outside shot I've seen, I mean sometimes he does get aided by an illegal screen here and there, but even when he's double teamed those shots are better than playing a video game character. But you're right, I mean regular season he doesn't have to worry about both sides as much, it's hard for any player to play Westbrook and then Irving 7+7.
Switch Curry with LeBron and tmac1 the LeBron apologist will be defending him. You cant debate with a homer like this dude.
Curry wasn't "injured" but health is not binary, either 0% or 100%. He was noticably lacking explosion when he came back from his injury. All throughout the season, he was one of the best slashers, but that part of his game was mostly gone after his return. His shot came and went. He didn't have the lateral burst to escape defenders sideways to fire up threes, one of the moves that's made him unstoppable. He didn't face anything in the playoffs that he hadn't all season long, defensively--teams have always tried to be physical with him, make him work on the other end, double team across the halfcourt line, etc. It didn't work until his knee injury. "Short recovery time" means he was able to start playing after only a couple weeks--it doesn't mean that his knee was 100%. If it had been the regular season, there's no question they would have held him out longer. It's silly to claim it had no effect. And yes, the Warriors got injury luck the previous year. I don't think they needed it, but they got it. This year, their best player was limited. It mattered. It was impressive that they still almost won it all despite that. Saying, "Tough luck," is fine--saying, "He was his normal self," is just lying to yourself, IMO.
^^^^ False as false can be. In the regular season GS rarely faced teams with bigs athletic enough to switch on the perimeter and still get back to the paint on D. OKC had this with Adams and Durant, and CLE did with LeBron and Thompson (when both teams went small). Curry got to the basket in the Finals just like he did in the regular season, but he didn't have LeBron swatting his **** away. And even Kerr complained that his players were being held and pushed like they weren't allowed to be in the regular season, so I'm not sure why folks can't admit playoff basketball brought a different level of physicality.
Curry had no problems scoring on either team when healthy in the regular season. Yeah, sure, James' blocked shots had a major impact on Curry's numbers. I think he blocked, what, 50% of Curry's shots? Maybe closer to 66%? James should have just thought of blocking Curry's shots every time down in the regular season. Didn't occur to him til the playoffs. My god! A coach complained about the officiating in the playoffs to try and get an edge? Like every coach ever in every playoff series? Crazy.
Would have been Love or Thompson's job to do so. James coasts for the regular season to a certain extent. At this point in his career that's all he does. He only really turns it on for critical must win games and the PlayOffs and that's it.
Considering he said he "had something for Curry" prior to the Warriors annihilating the Cavs in Cleveland during the regular season (in response to Curry saying that Cleveland's visiting locker room "would smell a little like champagne," I'm pretty sure he wasn't coasting that game.
Correlating a trend during the regular season to the playoffs is a mistake. I've said it every season. Throw out what you know and reset expectations when the playoffs start. Teams tactically adjust, the pace is different, rotations are shortened, the refs call it differently, and the intensity is way up on every possession. You can tell when teams that don't adjust get hit big time like the Hawks a season ago.
Lebron HAD trouble scoring v. the Warriors in the regular season. It's called the regular season for a reason.
i did the mental gymnastics of reading the post that i was responding to. but yes, what fevered state of mind could have led me to concoct such an implausible scenario.
The regular season and the playoffs are completely different and a higher level of physicality is allowed for the latter. Regular season and playoff matchups are also different due to scheduling and more time to focus and gameplan for one opponent.
Good for the Thunder. http://www.forbes.com/sites/christo...-into-the-oklahoma-city-thunder/#4136367b5c9a
but they were 1 game from the finals against a 73 win team. they were really good. this isn't a 45 win team or anything. and even then, i don't think most are mad at durant for leaving, just who he chose to go to. sure it's his business. but fan reaction to what players do is what sports is about. no one is discussing if what durant did was legal or if it was his prerogative. we all understand that it was. it's about whether fans should like it or not, which doesn't really have anything to do with whether it was allowed or whether durant wanted to do it. athletes always do what they want to do and then fans discuss it. there were several reports indicating that horford might have joined if he knew durant was going to stay. that would have made them better. and the consensus is that oladipo for ibaka already made them better. he had the chance to be on a really good team without just joining a 73 win team. i don't imagine people would be too happy if lebron decided to not come back to cleveland after all and signed with the warriors as well because that's the only chance for a title. agreed. i think a lot of people would consider the thunder that was in the playoffs this year to be their best team yet. they beat the spurs just like the 2011-12 team did. and almost beat a 73 win team. and with adams improving and durant/westbrook in their prime and oladipo coming over, next year's team was gonig to be very good. they weren't falling apart or anything.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...um=referral&utm_campaign=programming-national And this is why KD made the choice he did. Jason Kidd still has nightmares about not signing with the Spurs after losing to them in the Finals.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Silver says he was fine with Durant going to Warriors: “In this case, he operated 100% within the system and so did Golden State”</p>— Fred Katz (@FredKatz) <a href="https://twitter.com/FredKatz/status/753037042817208320">July 13, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">NBA commissioner Adam Silver comments on some of the CBA factors that allowed KD to join the Warriors <a href="https://t.co/Sr1CpHabPE">pic.twitter.com/Sr1CpHabPE</a></p>— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) <a href="https://twitter.com/anthonyVslater/status/753039390125895680">July 13, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Adam Silver on having two super teams who are the prohibitive favorites: “I don’t think it’s good for the league."</p>— Fred Katz (@FredKatz) <a href="https://twitter.com/FredKatz/status/753039717470306304">July 13, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Adam Silver on Kevin Durant joining the Warriors: "Just to be absolutely clear, I do not think that's ideal from a league standpoint."</p>— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) <a href="https://twitter.com/espn_macmahon/status/753040154894282753">July 13, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
I think it's clear that the owners want to tweak the CBA agreement so that the Warriors can't resign Durant. I think ultimately, it will depend on how well the Warriors play next season. If they win it all and Durant garners a lot of awards along the way, I can see him taking a substantial pay cut to create the mega dynasty. I just don't see him going to a lesser team after a mega successful season even if he can get $10+ million more per.
I think that ship has sailed on the Durant situation. There is nothing they can do at this point to both give other teams an advantage at prying away Durant, and making it easier for teams to retain superstars... Well unless they get rid of the max salary and GS simply can't afford to keep both him and Curry. But my guess is, they'll go into the lux tax and sign Curry after they max out Durant, probably to a below market deal for Curry.