The MVP (Most Valuable Person) on the Spurs is Gregg Popovich not Kawhi Leonard. As long as he is in San Antonio the Spurs will be a good/great team. Just like Belichick he operates within systems. As people get old/retire, Pop just finds someone new to plug into that system.
NBA 2016-17
- Thread starter ArmchairCritic
- Start date
I think Westbrook is MVP going by that criteria. Obviously I am biased but without him the Thunder are a lottery team. Similar with Harden but I think his supporting cast is slightly better. Without Durant the Warriors are still #1 seed in the West - maybe 2nd seed depending on a few factors. So he probably doesn't get it IMO - despite being the second best player in the league. Despite LeBron coasting in the regular season I think it is pretty clear he is the best player.
LeBron is not playing better than Durant. I think that Durant has clearly been the best player in the league this season, but on the other side, without him Warriors are a great team anyway (not seed 1 though, they would have lost a couple or more matches without him, one being last night). I don't think that there is much between Durant and LeBron when they are at their best, but LeBron has proven it all, while Durant hasn't done so, and he needs to win rings to be comparable with LeBron.
Anyway, last night game was great. Pistons played as best as they could, but really it is too hard to defend against Durant and Curry, and they decided that they are going to win on the last quarter. And even if you somehow defend against them (doubling them or whatever), then there is Clay who can shoot from any position. It is too early to say - obviously - but this team should win the next few rings
MVP voting is done by members of the media... Hard to see Leonard getting the MVP, the Spurs for the most part fly under the radar during the regular season.
Some good Christmas basketball. Loving the fact we can spend the next 6-7 hours watching top quality NBA and all games tonight look like they could be quite competitive. Spurs have the ability to roast Bulls but Bulls have actually risen to the occasion quite a few times already this season.
Good half between the big two, great intensity from both teams
Incredible comeback by Cavaliers! Love it!
Some of the officiating in games is so inconsistent
Exactly. Tech on Jefferson but not LeBron? No foul on Durant here at the end? And other calls either way throughout the game.
Great game, but it reminded me why I don't watch NBA too often live. A 48 minute game is stretched to almost 3 hours...
Surely Durant was tripped at the end?
Surely Durant was tripped at the end?
Also how did Curry get subbed out on the Cavs last offensive set with no timeout?
Amazing game, absolutely terrible officiating though. Warriors choked it away though, just couldn't get anything from most of the team. Absolutely terrible on fast breaks, there were 5-6 steals on which Warriors just gave the ball back including one at the very end. These two teams are by far the best 2 teams in the league.
Another lead, gone.
Any idea why it wasn't foul in Durant in the end of the match?
Curry is definitely not playing as MVP. Durant needs more help if Warriors want to win the title.
Curry is definitely not playing as MVP. Durant needs more help if Warriors want to win the title.
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It's awful how much influence the refs can have on a NBA game. Couple that with the playoff system they have and the result is unfairness. They're lucky that fans over there don't seem as crazy as european or south american football fans otherwise things would get ugly.
Should've been called, but the refs rarely do in late game situations. They were horrible overall though.
24.4ppg is good enough. Curry sucks on Christmas Day so it's not really surprising he was off today.
Playoffs system is fine for that league. Having a normal league system would end up with 27 teams playing for absolutely nothing for the last 3 months of season. Having a 'cup' system is the way to continue excitement up until the final game of season.
Yep, playoff is a great thing for that type of league. Referees might be a bit shit (like today) but it is something that happens in football too.
He's probably refering to the East-West inequality.
No, I meant that even though the playoffs bring excitement it isn't really a fair way to do things. Especially given how much influence the refs have.
But now that you say that I don't really know how I'd make it fairer considering the number of teams and the travel distances. I drank a bit too much Moscatel so I'm not in condition to think about it clearly either
It's overblown at the minute. You have one great team in the East and one very good team (Raptors), the rest is a bit meh but have some nice players and can surprise on their day.
You have one great team in the West, one very good team (Spurs) and some nice teams who are threatening on their day but will ultimately not come close to Warriors over 7 games (Rockets, Jazz, Clippers despite their great start). The 8th seed right now is 6 games behind .500.
Give it some time and it will be closer too.
Leonard ended second last year, in a year when Curry had one of the best individual seasons in the history of NBA.
It makes me all warm and fuzzy having people refer to the raptors as a genuinely good team, its been a long time coming
For MVP? That's very surprising.
'Great' and 'win the title' is a bit different IMO. For example, Spurs are a great team, but aren't going to win the title.
Another game, another loss. 1-10 in the last 11 but the team actually looked better without Lillard. Perhaps it's time to drop the two small guards formation and trade CJ.
Kings are winning games. Never expected them to reach an another playoff. Cousins really deserves a better team.
There is a good chance Warriors will get a team from 8th seed that will have a losing record. No one from 8-15 in the West right now looks like they are capable of going over .500.
He deserves everything he gets.
Kevin Durant - the blocks monster.
He gave a fantastic performance last nights. 22 points, 17 rebounds, 7 assists and 6 blocks (including a fantastic one when Raptors were coming close).
He gave a fantastic performance last nights. 22 points, 17 rebounds, 7 assists and 6 blocks (including a fantastic one when Raptors were coming close).
Durant was great last night but he was a big part of what almost cost the Dubs the game in the fourth quarter. He will insist on taking fade away jumpers during crunch time and last night he was 0-5 in the fourth with 2 turnovers. KD often tries to take over a game and most times its works but when it doesn't the ball movement suffers and the Warriors go away from playing Warrior basketball . Through 3 quarters they had 30 assists, in the fourth quarter - 3. However, it wasn't just him, in the fourth quarter Curry was the only starter who actually scored from the field. Fortunately the team played great defense and they held on.
The Dubs have really bent over backwards trying to integrate KD into the team and for the most part they have succeeded. However, if they are not careful they are going to lose what made them great in the first place - ball movement and the 3 ball. Yes, they have a lot of 30+ assists games, but when the pressure is on they seem to go away from that game plan. Curry has already been somewhat marginalized this season and to his credit Steve Kerr is actually making noises in the media about attempting to remedy this. I think things will eventually come good but the Warriors and Steph Curry in particular need to start reminding teams why they went 73-9 last year and why he was the first unanimous MVP.
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73-9 doesn't mean much considering that they lost the finals, and the unanimous MVP choked again in the finals. The 2015 win will always have an asterisk next to champions (if GSW doesn't win again) considering that Cavaliers didn't have Love and Irving.
Making Durant the main man is the right decision IMO. He's a better player than Curry and he has shown it for this entire season.
I'm not sure I disagree with that to be honest. What I have a problem with is that when the pressure is on the Warriors stop being the Warriors. Ball movement and the 3 ball are what they are known for. Sometimes late in the game KD seems to forget this. They have three great scorers, they need to use them.
As to the asterisk for 2015, I just wonder do the Cavs get one as well for 2016 since Bogut was out for the last 2 games and Steph Curry was essentially playing on one leg for the entire series? Injuries are part of the game - you win some you lose some. They helped the Dubs in 2015, they helped the Cavs in 2016. Hopefully both teams can be fully healthy if they play again in 2017.
Bogut was nowhere the same quality as Love and Irving though. Warriors fecked it up last season, being 3-1 and having the home advantage and still somehow losing.
About the Warriors stopping being Warriors when are under the pressure, I think that the same happened last season in playoffs. Thunders should have finished them if it wasn't for Westbrook being Westbrook, and then Cavaliers defeated them in the greatest comeback in NBA finals. They just seem to stop playing well when the pressure is high.
Totally agree that they have three fantastic shooters (all of them in top 5 when it comes to shooters in NBA) and they need to use them better. So far so good, but the losses against Rockets and Cavaliers (both games that they should have won) make me scared a bit that they might not win the title this year. Still, plenty of time for Kerr to improve them in that aspect.
Imaging Warriors coached from Jackson or Popovich!
I think Phil Jackson coaching them would be a disaster. The Bulls and the Lakers premier players were high intensity characters, the Warriors (apart from Draymond) are all fairly laid back. I'm not sure how well Jackson's schtick would go down.
EDIT: I actually think Steve Kerr is well suited to coaching this bunch. He believes in the up tempo style and seems to have an excellent rapport with the players. Gregg Popovich IMLTHO is the best coach I have seen in the 30+ years I've been watching basketball.
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