NBA Playoffs 2013-2014 - Page 160

On June 01 2014 12:41 AgentW wrote:

I know you're speaking somewhat tongue in cheek, but I think there is underlying legitimacy here. I'm not sure Durant's an alpha dog. I think Westbrook is, I just don't know if either of those is a good thing.

On June 01 2014 12:36 On_Slaught wrote:
If aliens came down only for this series, or the playoffs for that matter, not a single one would say Durant was the MVP of the Thunder, let alone the whole league. Everything you see on the court in terms of heart and leadership tells you this is WBs team, not KDs. In this series, they'd probably even put Ibaka in front of KD in terms of importance, though they'd be wrong since the Thunder are so poorly put together they literally only have 4 people that can consistently score on the ENTIRE team.

Blow it up!

On June 01 2014 12:51 Haiq343 wrote:
I think you are confusing 'wanting to win' with 'wanting the ball' with 'feeling comfortable taking the last shot' with 'being the primary ball-handler at the end of games'. You could clearly see at several points Durant was frustrated with teammates (mostly Jackon/WB) for not getting him the ball when he was open. Just because he doesn't throw his teamates! under the bus publicly doesn't make him not a leader. Or is Lebron back to not being a winner because he passed to an open Bosh in the corner and then they lost?

OKC had no depth, and frequently no offensive playbook, I don't see how either of those are failures of KD.
How many points did OKC end up with from their bench? Was it just the one Fisher 3 or was their more at some point?

E: Kudos to Jerubaal for predicting the close game in spite of grief from the community, you would make this happen more often.

On June 01 2014 12:51 Haiq343 wrote:
I think you are confusing 'wanting to win' with 'wanting the ball' with 'feeling comfortable taking the last shot' with 'being the primary ball-handler at the end of games'. You could clearly see at several points Durant was frustrated with teammates (mostly Jackon/WB) for not getting him the ball when he was open. Just because he doesn't throw his teamates! under the bus publicly doesn't make him not a leader. Or is Lebron back to not being a winner because he passed to an open Bosh in the corner and then they lost?

OKC had no depth, and frequently no offensive playbook, I don't see how either of those are failures of KD.
How many points did OKC end up with from their bench? Was it just the one Fisher 3 or was their more at some point?

E: Kudos to Jerubaal for predicting the close game in spite of grief from the community, you should make this happen more often.

On June 01 2014 13:02 Haiq343 wrote:
I know no one's really looking to cut into Durant, and that this is how we talk sports as a culture. But it seems silly for the entire perception of a player to be determined by team success while ignoring the surrounding circumstances (i.e. teammates). We make up these narratives and usually their just bogus /soapbox.

Maybe KD leaves OKC. That would be glorious retribution for Sonics fans. I need to add it to the list of sports things I wish would happen but never will.

On June 01 2014 13:07 Ace wrote:
The problem for KD these playoffs besides some weird offensive droughts vs players you wouldn't expect, was his defense was horrible. WB is usually the one with the defensive mistakes on a grand scale.

@On_SLaught: He does. And KD has been on loaded teams from the get go that Kobe/Wade/Lebron/Paul didn't get. All of those guys got absolutely dogged for not winning vs superior teams with subpar casts. If KD loses again the wolves will probably be out.

On June 01 2014 13:08 Zorkmid wrote:
When Russell was out earlier this year, OKC was a better team.