Swear to God, I was on the phone w/a friend near the end of regulation and said, "Kevin Martin has 48 seconds to eff this up." He did not disappoint. :-/
McHale held Martin accountable frequently by benching him for Courtney Lee when Martin fails to defend and play hard.
I don't remember that too well, probably because I see a certain bearded "spookie" that is hung over, not defending well, or playing hard and still never gets an ounce of discontent...
I was thinking of a dream more along the lines of this, but for G-rated purposes yea lol. Love Pecker combined for over 70 pts, so I'm sure they aren't too happy about it. <iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/ZO7-QJGVdM4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
i don't want to hear any more that Rubio is a good PG, seriously 0 point in 39min? that's beyond pathetic.
It's unfathomable to me that a basketball player can't "learn" how to shoot. C'mon Rubio. And that applies to a lot of players.
..... one of his "historic" numbes is his RAPM, which indicates that duncan has a much bigger impact on winnng than love and yet also that kevin love has a top 10-ish level impact on winning also. you make it seem that tim duncan won a championship with a roster roughly equivalent to the one love currently has. the numbers say love's roster is quite a bit worse.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/bjFQ8UFtbu4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> r/nba
I think this overvalues Duncan, and frankly the whole era. Though I've argued this before in depth on this BBS. Take the end of the Jordan run in the late 90's through the mid 2000's and start of the new Big[x]... and eh?? Not that impressed. An era dominated by generally selfish scorers, and with few teams with multiple multiple HOF level talent... which is what you had in the 80's/90's and today. This is how the Nets ended up in the Finals multiple times, how the Pacers ended up in the Finals (when this board has had Reggie Miller HOF arguments... he is a HOFer, but you can at least argue it and he was their best player). So when you say Duncan beat the Lakers in the middle of their dynasty with no one around him. Well.. I guess. Except it was the END of the Lakers "dynasty"... since that team did NOT win any more titles and fractures were beginning with personalities... and Duncan didn't have anyone else around him in much the same way Shaq/Kobe didn't as well. yes, Shaq/Kobe had each other, but after that not a single meaningful contributor with a PER higher than 12.4. The Spurs meanwhile had every one of their top 7 players with a PER over 14.5... except for Bruce Bowen... who's impact obviously doesn't show up in that stat. It was Duncan plus an extremely young but really good and future HOFer Tony Parker plus an extremely old but still very very serviceable and certain HOFer David Robinson plus other supporting cast. But again, that was the era. That 02/03 team probably was the team that had the hardest route to the title.. but that's not saying much of anything. The only other meaningful team they played was the Lakers. But then... look at their other 3 title runs. I could make a cogent argument that of the 16 series they played in those four years they only played 2 series of note - 02/03 versus the Lakers and the Finals in 04/05 versus the Pistons. I personally think today's great teams - from the Celtics Big 3 to the Lakers Kobe/Gasol/Bynum/Odom+ to the Heat, Thunder, and even today's Spurs are better. With the Spurs specifically, who were oh so close last year, much of this is due to Duncan's continued brilliance, granted. But they also have the now sure fire HOFer, top whatever PG in Parker playing at his best (at least he was in playoffs least year), and EVEN deeper teams of role players Don't get me wrong, Duncan is obviously an all-time great... and if you want to call him the greatest PF of all time... well, I guess so. I think the biggest thing in his favor is how he continues to perform today, at nearly 38... and of course his defense and leadership. In his prime he would clearly dominate today... like players back then in their prime did dominate. But conversely, I again point to his competition as a whole. And I point to the fact that he's really a center playing at PF. Yes, yes.. tired argument, but Duncan is much more a center than Hakeem ever was if we are to go by either physical measurements or playing style. As a center, Duncan joins that list of top 5 that you argue about over position (Wilt, Russel, Kareem, Hakeem, Shaq and now Duncan). Long-post... but to get to the meat of the Love-Duncan and winning debate.... I mean circumstance REALLY does play into it a lot. Take Kevin love today and put him on those Spurs teams in the early 2000's and do they win championships?? I'm not sure, but I can picture the answer being yes, to at least one. Conversely, does prime Duncan have the Twolves in the playoffs? Yes... absolutely... because he is so much better defensively and that's what the TWolves lack. But he's not getting super far, against today's competition, on that team, with that coach, etc, even with prime Duncan. Imagine if you made Tony Parker a little bit better passer, but he was completely incapable of scoring/shooting ala Rubio? Then take that Spurs team, and make everyone else allergic to defense. Your star player can only drag you so far. I'm not claiming Love is equivalent or better than Duncan in any way. But aside from Love, the Twolves have 2 players over that 15 "league-average" PER... and when you understand PER's weakness and inability to properly gauge defense, and realize that both of those guys - KMart and Pekovic are horrible defensively.. and then add in Adelman who isn't exactly a defensive wizard... you end up with the TWolves. Granted, Love would benefit tremendously from serious serious serious personal study of great defenders (ala Duncan, Rodman, Hakeem, etc.), and from leadership that includes holding himself and his teammates and coaches much much much more accountable to that side of the ball... but it is what it is. What am I saying here? Not sure!! Hope you enjoyed :grin:
I'm loving this thread. My schadenfreude is smiling today. Adelman is an azzhole, Morey was vindicated, and McHale has the superior team. Ha ha! Adelman wants to be GM. He gets what he deserves.
