Thats a ridiculous statement. Oladipo and Sabonis are in a completely different situation, they are now focal points on a terrible team with no championship aspirations.
Yea because thunder had any championship aspirations. Pacers are more of a threat in the playoffs than thunder last year. The only aspiration the thunder had last year, was securing the MVP with the most obvious stat padding to make him happy and sign the contract extension.
Whatever you say. I'll take Russell Westbrook as a 6th man against the Warriors, next to CP3 and Harden for 48 minutes, thank you.
Oh yea because one of the most delusional people on planet earth will A: take the 6th man role B: not chuck 20 shots as soon as he enters the floor Just face it, westbrook will never win anything other than stat awards. I prefer winning basketball games over individual performances. It’s okay with me if you don’t. This season in OKC is the perfect example to prove my point. He continues to chuck stupid ass shots late in games. He has that completely r****ded „every shot i don’t take is a missed shot“ mentality that causes teams to lose games that matter. „The ball is my only friend................... and of course my teammates“ - Westbrook
The Pacers future suddenly looking alot brighter now. Oladipo is only 25 and under contract for 4 years. Myles Turner and Sabonis are only 21.
The ‘terrible’ 16-11 Pacers are better than the 12-13 Thunder despite their “championship aspirations.”
This my friends is called Hyperbole. For me personally, I would take Russell Westbrook over Eric Gordon If all I wanted was a championship. By no means is he a perfect player, but he is still a truly great one. Not as great as James Harden, Kawhi Leonard or Lebron James, but still, a great player. I remember wishing last year in the SAS series that we had Westbrook instead of Harden, especially when Harden died in the second half of game 5. We could have used some of that reckless abandon that he is famous for. All in all, it would take Black Jesus to make Carmelo look like a net positive basketball player at this point, so I really can't blame Russ for all their struggles, as much as angry Rocket fans want to. For me the problems are more in this order: 1. Carmelo Anthony is a terrible fit with the starters. If you put Ryan Anderson in that spot they would be significantly better. 2. God awful bench. Truly, truly terrible when Fatty Felton is your best bench player. 4. Westbrook & George. If you convince Carmelo to be a 6th man, and start Abrines instead, I personally think they are CLEARLY the 4th best team out West, but that's just me.
Where are the people talking about how Indy took on Victor's "bad contract" now? Wait 'til Ryan Anderson drop 47, haters.
Westbrook was HORRIBLE in the 4th quarter in R1 thanks to that "reckless abandon" 14/49 FG. 28% 4/21 3pt. 19% 19/27 FT. 70% net rating: -23 We would have never had a game 6 collapse tho, because with westbrook we lose in 5
OKC winning percentage last year: .573 Indiana winning percentage this year: .593 Which was the terrible team without championships aspirations? You can say Both (which I agree with, which makes the MVP of Westbrook even more ridicolous). Are you seriously trying to say the way Westbrook played lat year did not have a negative effect on his teammates?
Not sure if I can agree or disagree with that, I recall reading a few articles about PG13 not being a very capable game winning shooter a few years back. PG isn't going to stay in OKC, not unless Melo decides to come off the bench or revamps his contribution to be more effective towards the team winning. PG's probably going to LA -> Clippers or Lakers so he can get more media attention. Who knows, he can definitely be the franchise player over there starting next year.
Why was he terrible? Could it have been our defense, and the fact that we wore him down, similar to Harden in SAS? Or i it just because Russ is a bad player? For me, it's the former. I give us more credit then I take away from Russ. But hey, I'm a Rocket fan. He was a monster, and scary to play against in that playoff series, flawed or not.
No, Orlando essentially traded him for Terrence Ross lol (who they traded Ibaka for mid season). And when George Bolts OKC in free agency, OKC would have delt another allstar SG In Dipo, for even less value then they got back for Harden (Adams). Not only will OKC be left with nothing, but they also traded their lottery pick in Sabonis who looks like a solid young player as well. I just love it when a plan falls apart for our rivals.
Russ is not a bad player. He is a dumb player. That is what we have been saying. And Dumb players generally do not advance far in the play offs while being the first option. Russ had good teammates who could shoulder the load. Westbrooks fourth quarters were some of the worst basketball I have ever seen. And if he was so tired (which I expect was the case) he could also pass every now and then (it is not like Oladipo is a bad scorer as we can see now that he is actually involved in the game). Everybody with a set of eyes could see that what Westbrook was doing was not helping them win games. I believe that if you switched the support cast that Harden would still advance further than Westbrook. Harden Would have made Adams and Oladipo monsters. Harden really makes his teammates better. Westbrook makes its teammates worse. I really do not understand how you can argue against this (other than being a troll).
Are we just gonna ignore how good Domantas Sabonis is this season?? 12.1 PPG 8.5 RPG 54% FG 46%3FG #nohelp