He has a lot of teammates who care a whole lot less about the game and making a playoff run than he does. I have no problem with anything that he said. He sounds fed up, but it shows that he's got heart and isn't just collecting a paycheck, unlike lots of other players. And just because his team sucks, he's not personally dogging it like Vince Carter did in Toronto, for example. I don't find anything in this report that makes me think any less of KG, in fact I appreciate him a little more.
kg needs to look at himself in the mirror. watch how he close out close games for instance. I get tired of people giving the guy a free pass because they like his game, everyone likes his game but it takes a little more than a nice game to get a team over the hump.
KG has no one on his team. Switch Tim Duncan and KG and KG would be the one with all the titles and TD with all the dissappointment. KG is one of the few players in the league who gives it a 110% every SINGLE second he is on the court. He and A.I. should play together because they are in similar situations although A.I. has more pure talent around him. I feel bad for those two dudes.
no one is saying he should have rings. and the talent hasn't been that bad, I bet if hakeem had a player like wally on his team in the late eighties he would have had better success.
I'm gonna have to disagree with you there. Garnett, while a capable scorer, doesn't have a post-up game that's nearly as refined as Duncan's. I agree that if Garnett had Duncan's supporting cast, he may have advanced past the first round several times. However, I doubt he would've won titles. Slasher/low-post hybrids like David Robinson and Garnett have had difficulty winning the big one in the past...whereas effective pure low-post players like Duncan, Olajuwon, and Shaq were able to. I'll admit the NBA has changed a great deal in the past 5-6 years though. An effective low-post player used to a near "must-have" to win (granted there were a few rare exceptions). Nowadays, many of the elite teams don't even have one.
I think it's very inaccurate to characterize David Robinson as a "slasher low post hybrid" especially if you're going to call Duncan a "pure low post player" .Simply because he COULD play facing the basket and did it a lot from 94-98 or so doesn't mean he couldn't (and didn't) play down low. He did, and did frequently. Hell Duncan likes to face up a lot too - his go-to bank shot seems to come almost exclusivley from facing up on the left side. Hakeem did it too when he felt like it. Just because Robinson wasn't good enough to get past Hakeem doesn't make him a "slasher low post hybrid".
I never claimed Robinson lacked the ability to play down low. Bottom line is when I take a cross section of all the things I've seen Hakeem do, the majority of them seem to be with his back to the basket. In contrast, when I take a similar cross section of Robinson's game...he wasn't nearly as effective with his back to the basket as Hakeem. I concede that Duncan faces up a lot, but in my opinion he does it more now than he did 3 or 4 years ago. From my point of view, he's just significantly better with his back to the basket than Garnett is.
one of the few times i agree with pgabriel. KG is a very good player make no mistake. but in critical situations, he folds under pressure. Troy Hudson. Sam Cassell. Latrell Spreewell. Those guys have carried the Wolves and KG's butt over the years in the playoffs. They were the ones that weren't afraid to take the last minute shots. KG fades like no other superstar does during crunch time. And I am pretty sure if the Wolves were playoff bound, I would see a lot more Ricky Davis highlights than KG highlights.
You're going to have the explain to me how that debunks my theory. If anything, you just validated it. Both Robinson and Duncan have better post-up ability than Garnett. As a result, they've both had more success in the playoffs. IMHO, Duncan is a better post-up player than Robinson and also played in an era when the premiere post players were in decline. Hence, he was able to win titles as the go-to big man when Robinson couldn't. Fine...you don't think of David Robinson as a "slasher low-post hybrid." I do. I'll agree that he's less of a "slasher" than Garnett is, but the way I see it, he still plays more like a "slasher low-post hybrid" than Olajuwon or Shaq....and the Duncan of 4-5 years ago Are you just in a fractious mood or something? I don't even know what you're disagreeing with.
The only thing I'm disagreeing with is characterizing Robinson as a "slasher low post-hybrid" - I didn't weigh in on anything else. But as a general rule I don't think that "slasher low post-hybrids" or whatever are in any way more or less likely to win championships or playoff games - i just don't see too much evidence of that
For those who say KG needs a Kobe or T-Mac to win, I agree. But so did Shaq. For those who say they wouldn't give KG the ball for the winning shot, I agree. But I wouldn't give the ball to Shaq either. For some reasons, nobody is dissing Shaq for not being able to "lead" his team to championships. Yeah, I know, Shaq actually won some rings. But KG never has a teammate like Kobe.
KG has never been shut down since he was in the NBA . Probably the best rebounder in the NBA. Good for 22-25 a night. And an incredibly unselfish passer.
the thing is no matter where shaq goes his teams go deep in the playoffs. even his rookie year the magic went from one of the worse teams before he came to a 41-41 team. i guess you think he was just lucky to have penny, kobe and wade. maybe it's like what most people already think: he made them what they are because of his presence. when he isn't with them anymore, his team does better than theirs.
The one year that KG actually had a legitimate team around him, with Cassell and Spree, guess what, they had the best record in the NBA and went to the conference finals, only to bow out because Cassell got hurt. And btw, KG was forced to play POINT GUARD in that series against the Lakers and routinely rang up near triple-doubles the whole series. People can rag on him for all the early playoff exits, but the fact is great players can't do it by themselves (see Houston's own McGrady). KG is a superstar who is completely unselfish and comes to play every night. I just hope he gets the hell out of Minnesota so he can get the respect he deserves.
Penny got hurt. Kobe is still Kobe. Wade was already pretty good and maturing when Shaq arrrived. Of course, these guys need Shaq to win too. The point is, both Shaq and KG need great perimeter teammates. Shaq gets a free pass because he got them. KG gets dissed because he didn't.
