4 full seasons and a lot of injuries have passed since then. Lewis and Turkoglu aren't stars, but they're exactly what you surround your Dwight with. The OKC supporting cast was built for Durant and Westbrook and then had to be repurposed on the fly for a single-player-centered offense, it's not surprising that they struggled. People were saying the same stuff about Lebron not being able to carry a team in Cleveland because the lineups were poorly built for playing with him. Look at him now. Look, I expect something of a Dwight resurgence myself but putting him over Durant after last year is ludicrous. Dwight will be lucky to be the best player on his own team.
I surprised with out many people favored the Celtics (based on comments in the thread), until I made my selection of Rockets and saw there are a lot more poll entries than comments. I look at it this way. Do you want a Championship? Absolutely! But at what cost? Pretty high. How high? That's hard to answer, but... I compare 4 years with 1 guaranteed championship and then guaranteed gutting and starting completely over with the following possibilities: - Our stars get hurt and we're mediocre again (yeah, that would be crappy) - We just flat out stink and don't make the playoffs (completely unrealistic) - We make the playoffs several years in a row, but never contend for a title - We make the playoffs several years in a row, and content a couple of times - We make the playoffs several years in a row, and we make it to the finals once - We make the playoffs several years in a row, and we make the finals multiple times - We make the playoffs several years in a row, and we win at least one or more championships Considering I have to compare the known verses the unknown, I just find it much more exciting to go with the unknown. Statistically speaking, we should be very good for a long time. You couldn't quite say that about the Lakers b/c of their age, but there is still the possibility that we look better on paper than we play. Furthermore, we have a fairly good change of being great to good (playoffs at least), for several years more than just 4--we are now in a position of attracting stars and trading for stars. I'll take that possibility, along with excitement to come for those number of years than to be back at complete rebuilding (and back to "can't attract a start" and "can't trade for a star b/c we have nothing great to offer") in a heartbeat. Can't wait to see what this year brings!
Give me what is behind curtain number 2! I will take the Rockets for the unknown but turning down a chip is hard to do
