Lol are you kidding me the reason they lost was because Scott brooks was a terrible coach and wouldn't double down on the post off either Prince or Allen. One of them was in the game the whole time, furthermore there was no need to play Thabo any minutes as there was no wing scorers. Durant struggled mightly from games 2-5 in the 4th quarter which he definitely needs to improve on, but they could have had a better chance if they played Martin more minutes, doubled the post everytime and didnt have bs calls on Collison so Perkins didnt have to play.
I think we all agree Lebron is better so let's be real about things. Durant is better now than Dirk was when he won the title.
No player has ever done it by himself. Lebron was the closest when he went to the finals with Cleveland. But no star has won without a legitimate top 10 player next to him. Lebron was the closest, going to the Finals in Cleveland, but we all know the East was really weak at that time.
Hakeem, Walton and the no superstar Pistons don't qualify? If you disagree, please name the other top 10 player for those championship teams.
Durant is exactly who we thought he was. The problem is the Thunder are not who we thought they were. Losing Westbrook(not to mention Harden) shows how useless most of their supporting cast is. Outside of Durant, no one on that team was capable of creating his own shot. And honestly I didn't see a lot of guys who wanted to take shots in crunchtime outside of Durant and Fisher.
NBA fans like the OP are demanding as hell. They had a system that worked around their stars and played off their stars strengths. No one expects a team to go far without them. TMac/Yao...even Rose.
Except Serge Ibaka and Kevin Martin are better than what he had in Cleveland. I don't know if he would have made it, but that would have been a better series for sure. Edit: Even though LBJ was swept in those finals, he at a positive +/- in two of the games and was a combined -4 on the court. Problem was, his 2nd best player was Daniel Gibson.
Personally, I think history would've looked much more unkind to Lebron's Cleveland years had they been in the west. Being in the west IMO does count for something. Of course, what ifs are kind of pointless. The Rockets last decade might've been considered a mild success had they been in the east and making to the 2nd rounds and conference finals, rather than continuous 1st round exits.
people need to stop ragging on those cavs. They had ilgauskas who at the time was a good center and even made the all star game. They also had Anderson varejao who was one of the best rebounders and defenders on the NBA. Mo Williams was also one of the best shooting point guards. Sure that team lacked stars, but they were defensively strong and didn't commit silly errors.
All ya gotta say is Kevin Durant can't take his team to the nba finals like Lebron did because Kevin Durant is in the western conference!!! The western conference has been the far superior conference for awhile...
As much of a knuckle head Barkley can be his analysis is usually spot on and he nailed it when he said Memphis would've won even if Westbrook played. That Gasol/Zbo combo ain't nothin to be messed with.
Ilgauskas sucked. He was a slow moving center that averaged 11.9ppg and 7.7reb. Sure he was an all-star, so was Jamaal Magloire. He made the all-star game shooting 44% as a center. Being an all-star center in the East was like being the smartest kid in your class, but you class being special education. Varejao didn't become a rebounding machine until after LBJ left, though he was never bad at it. Mo Williams wasn't on the team when they went the finals. Starting lineup included: Larry Hughes Ilgauskas Sasha Pavlovic Drew Gooden Bench: Varejeo Gibson Eric Snow Donyell Marshall Damon Jones
Memphis would not win if WB was playing. Memphis couldn't score to save their lives. I think they shot in the low 40% all series. A top 5 player like WB would have changed the series completely.
