That's not true. What people miss with the Warriors is that no one is on ball. What is also missed is that their offense has a lot of movememt. It isn't just bring the ball up and be at the same place all the time like the offense was with the Rockets. Players are allowed to think for themselves, read and react, and make choices with the Warriors. I think that would have been missing with Harden since he is capable of doing all of those things for the team himself. Which is absolutely amazing, but not always the best thing.
I wouldn't say that he's offensively handicapped, he's reads the defense about as well as anyone in the game, and makes ridiculous passes. He can't shoot for **** though. I am still scarred from his PnR against us in 2019 game 6. They ran that play 18 times and scored on like 10
But its also a myth that Harden cant move off ball. The dude does what the coaching staff asks. He's just so effective with the ball, he cant afford to give it to anyone else more. On the Warriors it would be different.
It's like people forgot how Harden played before 2016-17 when D'Antoni came and said, "I'm just gonna exclusively put the ball in Harden's hands and have him create everything". Here is Harden hitting Curry in the FIBA World Cup for the same off-ball 3 we've seen Klay make a bajillion 3's on. And people saying he Klay wouldn't be able to do the same stuff he does now in Golden State alongside Harden? Same game Harden moving without the ball and catches a cut from Derrick Rose And Draymond wouldn't have been able to do the same alongside Harden? A lot of the bad tendencies Harden got were from D'antoni needing Harden to make him look good.
That is false btw. Their system is definitely based on off ball movement, but it doesn't mean they didn't struggle with it at times in the playoffs. They actually have Draymond on ball a lot in the high post to create more consistent offense. I am talking about pre-Durant days by the way. When the defense clamped up, their system is very turnover prone because of the amount of passes they make. That's why Cleveland and OKC were able to match up with them just by playing iso basketball, and it became a grind fest which Lebron/Kyrie came out on top. When we switched everything in 2018 and 2019 their offense stalled too, and Curry, Durant and Klay all took turns either iso'ing and or playing simple PnR. My point is, there doesn't exist a system where you don't need a on ball pure scorer/play maker like Harden, it's easy baskets mathematically. Curry and Klay would feast on open 3's, and Harden would benefit as well
the warriors recruited kd because steph and his crew knew they couldnt beat lebron raymone james in a fair fight. lebron went 6 with em in 2015, missing kyrie and love. The very next year they walk em down in the finals. At that point the series between the cavs and warriors was 1-1.. if the warriors was so confident they could have won again, why not run it back with the same rosters. why go and recruit kd. Its because they was scared and LeBron had those boys shook
People forget how Game 7 of the 2016 Finals came down to a Iso Ball grindfest, and Curry couldn't even get a shot off on Kevin Love. All that ball movement when out the window, and it came down to a Kyrie Iso stepback 3.
Yeah, playoff basketball is different. There was that back and forth between Curry and Durant about the Warrior's offense back when they played together. Durant thought it was fine up until a point, that point being the final rounds of the playoffs; Curry thought iso ball is fun, but won't win championships. They were both right. Curry knows the tremendous benefits of system play and that hero ball doesn't win. We all know that if we know the history of the NBA. Durant being the perfect weapon mercenary that he is knows that individual greatness wins championships. There's a balance between the two philosophies that they struck and made them unbeatable.
This makes zero sense. If you have the chance to improve your roster by adding one of the best players in the world, why wouldn't you?
Not even Wilt, Kareem, Jordan, LeBron, Bill Russell, or Magic could do it all by themselves bro. You gotta see what your guys can give you on that night and pick up the slack. Gotta use your team man...
Curry also wasn't 100% coming off the MCL. He showed in 2015 and 2019 after Durant got hurt that he didn't need Durant. But Durant needs him (3-4 so far)
Please dont make that excuse for him, he played bad the end. No he really didnt prove it in 2019. He was ass against us and basically closed out the last quarter and one game. That doesnt prove anything. Durant's team just beat his ass head to head on opening night. Or do you think the Warriros are gonna be better than the Nets or that they have another championship coming anytime soon? Unless a major trade happens, I doubt it.
Those guys have all had reliable teammates who could create for themselves. We'll see what happens this year as it seems SIlas wants the other guys doing more.
Beating a Cavs team without it's 2nd and 3rd best player (and even going to 6 games against them), then losing to that team the next year, and losing in the 2019 Finals didn't necessarily show he didn't need Durant. Curry probably only has 1 Ring if Durant never came to the Warriors.
We rarely see top 5 players, or the type of players that Curry is mentioned with, miss the playoffs. No matter if they are playing with garbage or not. We saw Hakeem drag crap the playoffs for the majority of his prime. I don't see why the standards for Curry should be less, no matter if he is surrounded by garbage (and he isn't). So yes, we expect Curry to get to the playoffs. That's the expectation for players of his stature.
I believe this. But I also think about all the things that happened that contributed to that comeback. Starting with Curry's injury earlier in the playoffs, then Draymond's suspension, Bogut's injury, Igoudala's injury, and finally Kyrie's shot and overall play against Curry. All of those contributed to their defeat. All of those things make LeBron's claim that beating them made him the best ridiculous, too. Back to the point, I do believe that only Draymond isn't afraid of LeBron, but Curry's mindset was probably something like, yeah, I can't take you, but I ain't alone. Adding Durant was overkill and robbed us of a Warriors vs Cavaliers tie breaker.
Well he also beat the Rockets in 2015. In 2019, he beat the Rockets again (with Chris Paul) after Durant got hurt (series was 2-2, Harden went into hiding as Curry erupted), then swept the Blazers, and was 1-1 with Toronto when Klay got hurt. Klay and Durant were kind of redundant. Durant of course also lost to Curry in the playoffs 2016 while shooting poorly so I guess didn't think he could beat him.
But he lost the finals in 2019 so he didn't get a ring and that's all that matters. Just like Harden was up 3-2 on the Warriors with Durant before Chris Paul got hurt, but nobody cares about that.
