I tell you who is over-rated? Doc Rivers He won a championship with 3 possibly 4 future HOFer's and suddenly he is rated amongst the top coaches. Rubbish.
I don't believe any player is doomed to failure. Everything you say about Chris Paul went double for Allen Iverson, but with the right coach, the right complement, and the right system, he got pretty close to winning a ring. I don't know if the Clippers have the right formula this year, but it's possible to make it with Chris Paul.
The whole coaching thing to me is overrated. I think a good coach is someone who can keep personalities from clashing. Players deserve more accountability, JVG always talks about this. Doc is a good coach, Phil Jackson is a good coach, Pop, Eric Spul from the Heat, and yes even our own Kevin McHale. There is a reason the Clippers will not win, and its the PG. Someone made a great reference earlier. Beating the Clippers is easy, as the Grizzlies showed. Slow down the one guy who controls the game for them, and that is that.
And the team that won with Chauncy was also lead by a point guard. Also the Spurs last chip, Parker was the finals MVP, not Duncan. Lots of teams have been lead to the finals by their point guard, going back to Bob Cousy.
Allen Iverson was a SG. And Allen still did not win a ring. Teams win rings. The Clippers are a one man show filled with a bunch of flash. The better team always wins out. Dwight Howard got the Magic to the finals because he was surrounded perfectly.
Were either of those PG's ball dominant? NOTTTTTT A CHANCE! You are missing the whole point. Billups didn't control the game.
What exactly is your point? At first, I thought it was that ball dominant pg's can't win championships, but Magic Johnson and Isiah Thomas proved that argument wrong. Can you clarify?
There's a limit to how ball dominant a guy can be playing 30 minutes and getting 10pts and 5 assists.
So you are thinking the same for Phil Jackson, Gregg Popovich and Erik Spoelstra? I think it takes more than just an average coach to guide 3-4 HOFs to one or more championships. Maybe Rivers is "just" a motivational coach like Phil Jackson, but this still doesn't mean he is not a good coach. He needs a specific team to lead, which Clippers probably are not. But even if he fails them, it doesn't make him a bad coach.
Difference is PJ, Pop and Spo won multiple championships. I'm not saying he is not a good coach but he is definitely over-rated and should never be put in the same category as Pop or Thibs.
But he would if the core stayed the same for few years like in Pops and Jackson's case. Anyway, I argued he is not an overrated coach (ok, if a media compares him to Pops, they overrate him, but I'm not talking about such knuckleheads). Different teams need specific coaches. Doc and P.Jackson probably wouldn't win a championship with Detroit, while on other hand maybe Thibs wouldn't win anything with Miami because he doesn't give any freedom to their players like Spoelstra does.
30 Years ago LOL. Different league. Please. Isiah was not a PG. More of a SG. Magic and the show-time Lakers played team oriented ball. It was spread around.
This is a knee jerk thread. Saying the Clippers are doomed to fail after ONE game is like saying the Lakers are contending after ONE game. Chris Paul is not overrated. He almost singlehandedly brought the Clippers back on the map. I don't like Paul because he's a floppy whiny nut-hitting douche. But he's as good a PG as you can get. If you swapped him with Harden, we'd still be as good, maybe better.
Pacers won 49 games last season. Before that Pacers won 42 games (42-24) and projected to be 52 wins in an 82-game season. Despite George's breakout season, Pacers actually regressed by 3 games with George taking Granger's place. Its very unlikely George will improve on the same curve as he did last season. If that happens, he is heading into LeBron's territory in 2 years. There was never as much hype about the Pacers as there is now. No one expected them to advance to the Finals 2 years ago, even though they had a better W-L record. If Granger is not healthy this season, this is virtually the same team three years straight. Unless Lance has a breakout season, his win contribution will be minimum. Don't believe the hype about Lance!
Knee jerk thread? Look at his career. Look at Steve Nash, John Stockton, Jason Kidd, etc Need I go on. I don't think we would be as good, because we would lack the scoring.
you all must be kidding ... Chris Paul is a great player. Blame Sterling. Have you seen his teammates? He doesn't have a 2nd star to play with. Griffin and DeAndre are too limited.
It sounds like you never watched prime Magic play. The ball was spread around b/c Magic chose to spread it around. Make no mistake...he was a ball-dominant point guard. It's one thing to use the "different eras" argument for guys like Chamberlain/Cousy/Russell/Havlicek. It's another to use it for Magic/Bird....
