I really dont understand any hate for the Rockets strategy here. Even if the least optimistic predictions are true, teams with MVP level players need to go all in. If the rockets *aren’t* going to do this, they should trade James Harden.

The warriors are unfairly good. That doesnt mean every team trying to improve is…

Yes, and I bet Monfils could throw the ball into the guys butt pretty easily too.

I’m not saying this is super hard, but hitting something out of the air into a target is very different. Baseball batters are heralded as masters if they can control which side of a giant field they hit the ball into

what a fucking joke

didnt all the negative freedom guys become neocons? And lead us into iraq?

And that is all of fucking life. Whatever perfect world you want where all political decisions are made out of logic alone is never going to exist. All that exists is personal beliefs.

You cant protect free speech without infringing on someone else’s right to not hear hate speech. In our current system, you can’t…

I dont think it’s that PG is even better than Love in a vacuum, but as a third option, he’s the far better player.

Third options always get relegated to standing around and waiting for the ball. Either way, you’re not getting 100% of Love or PG. But George also provides value on defense, and especially does so against…

I do agree that it’s hard to beat the Warriors by playing their style, but that doesnt mean they don’t play the optimal style. The 2014 Spurs won a title without more than one superstar (and I’m not sure Kawhi was there yet either) because they played perfect selfless basketball. They hunted for the best shot, over…

Which wouldn’t even be a bad thing. There are plenty of potential owners. The Clippers aren’t missing Sterling. Let the market actually be a market, and interesting things would happen.

The examples of overpayment you give would lead for opportunities for others to build deep teams. There’s still the same amount of cap…

You’ve identified the problem without realizing it. The problem is max salaries. Those 5 guys should have to turn down 50 million to form a super team. In a league where Gordon Hayward makes the same as Durant, you will never have parity.

With no max salaries, you could occasionally see a team of low-tier stars on…

About DBPM, that’s totally fair. I’m pretty sure my first post did concede that Durant was likely the better player right now because of defensive impact (the same way prime Jordan or LeBron still were better than Curry 2016, no matter how much you value efficiency).

I’m also partial to the idea that defensive…

My point was about offensive value added, and how, accounting for GS’s dominance, Steph is in historic levels. I was trying vaguely intimate at stats to buttress that point. But then you pretty much called me out, and I had to actually go get the stats. So here they are.

Look, I honestly didnt mean to champion BPM. That was tossed off, and not thought out.

I meant to champion the idea that steph makes his teammates better more than anyone else in the sport. That he raises the level of play of his teammates more than anyone else, and that he’s consistently done that for the last 3…

You’re right, I was confused by something i read earlier this year, that looked at added points per possession accounting for team strength. Once you account for the quality of teammates, Steph lead this year (quite easily), with LeBron second.

Of course Russ lead in BPM, he plays on a garbage team. It’s far easier to…

The gravity thing means that Steph warps the court more than Durant, which is true. He has the best +/- in the sport (this year and every year), and makes his teammates better more than Durant does.

But Durant has been better in these finals, and is probably better all-around because of defense.

But “gravity, whatever…

What you’re not accounting for is that the Warriors also have one the best defenses in the league. It’s far easier for their role players to step up than the Cavs guys. Especially because Kerr’s strategy is literally “don’t let the role players beat us.” They’re helping, but they’re not doubling. He bet that letting…

The whole is absolutely not less than the sum of its parts here. That’s true of the Cavs, because Kyrie plays garbage pickup basketball—Kevin Love will never get a chance to be his best self again.

The Warriors play like the 2014 Spurs, but with the talent of Team USA. They are *more* than the sum of their parts, and…

Here’s the entire list of top 20 MVP recipients under 30 in 1998, in order of their vote share:

4. Shaq
5. Tim Duncan (rookie season)
8. Vin Baker (top 8 MVP votes Vin Baker)
9. Grant Hill
(2016 cut-off)
12. Antoine Walker
14. Jason Kidd
19. Michael Finley

So 7 of the top 20 guys werent old, one was a rookie who Jordan would…

I would argue Steph and Klay were just a product of a league that undervalued 3pt shooting. It’s not that they got great out of nowhere. They did improve, but they were already the two best shooters in the league (maybe ever), they just needed a coach who was going to empower them.

They weren’t decent guys who…

who cares though? LeBron’s talent is in getting the best shot for his team every time down the court. He played well enough to win. It’s not his fault they were -12 in the 2 minutes he took a rest.

MJ can be the best at taking the last shot, there’s no way to know MJ wouldve had the game that close in the first place.…

I agree, but there’s no other solution either. The unfair thing for LeBron is, the only chance the Cavs have is if he plays 45 minutes and scores a 40 point triple double while guarding Durant. No one can do that. Which is why the Warriors are forcing him to.

It’s like watching LeBron trying to beat team USA. That’s…