Big 3 (Boston v. Miami)

kgfor3 · Post #1 » by **kgfor3** » Thu May 16, 2013 2:09 pm

We are talking each individual playing in their prime. Not the prime of the big 3 actually playing together.

I think its pretty close. If I was ranking the 6 players I would go...

LeBron
KG
Pierce
Wade
Allen
Bosh

Gomagic44 · Post #2 » by **Gomagic44** » Thu May 16, 2013 2:17 pm

Magic fan here. You gave us some tough runs, but I feel the Miami trio is more powerful.

kgfor3 · Post #3 » by **kgfor3** » Thu May 16, 2013 2:22 pm

Gomagic44 wrote:Magic fan here. You gave us some tough runs, but I feel the Miami trio is more powerful.

Keep in mind I'm talking about each individual player being in their prime. Not the prime of the big 3 actually playing together. Although I do think it would of been an interesting 2008 matchup.

GrandTheftRondo · Post #4 » by **GrandTheftRondo** » Thu May 16, 2013 3:13 pm

Probably Miami's big 3 just.

LeBron is the best player by a fair margin, toss up between Wade and KG for second best, then Pierce and then Bosh.

PP 4 Three · Post #5 » by **PP 4 Three** » Thu May 16, 2013 3:18 pm

GrandTheftRondo wrote:Probably Miami's big 3 just.

LeBron is the best player by a fair margin, toss up between Wade and KG for second best, then Pierce and then Bosh.

In their prime? It isn't close, KG > Wade.

GrandTheftRondo · Post #6 » by **GrandTheftRondo** » Thu May 16, 2013 3:36 pm

PP 4 Three wrote:
GrandTheftRondo wrote:Probably Miami's big 3 just.

LeBron is the best player by a fair margin, toss up between Wade and KG for second best, then Pierce and then Bosh.

In their prime? It isn't close, KG > Wade.

Actually yes true. 1.30 am here. I'm
Not thinking straight.

greengoggles · Post #7 » by **greengoggles** » Thu May 16, 2013 3:38 pm

Miami's trio is the more talented group, but the Boston Big Three fits together much more seamlessly.

2Mas · Post #8 » by **2Mas** » Thu May 16, 2013 3:42 pm

GrandTheftRondo wrote:Probably Miami's big 3 just.

LeBron is the best player by a fair margin, toss up between Wade and KG for second best, then Pierce and then Bosh.

Not even close. KG is closer to LBJ then Wade. I don't even think a Heat fan would say that.

People don't realize that the best player KG had was a 20 year old Steph Marbury, or a 34 year old Sam Cassell. He didn't have a Shaq to help him to a nice little playoff run.

The order is right though. I'm taking Bostons big 3. We could just zone them lol. CB was super soft too then.

Sorry dude.. didn't see your other post lol/

ermocrate · Post #9 » by **ermocrate** » Thu May 16, 2013 4:27 pm

In their prime

KG > LBJ
PP = Wade
Ray > Bosh

If you compare them by roles

Ray=Wade

PP < LBJ

KG >> Bosh

And we are talking about overall players, talent wise in not even comparable in my opinion...

sunshinekids99 · Post #10 » by **sunshinekids99** » Thu May 16, 2013 4:48 pm

Prime I'd give the edge to the Celtics. I would have loved to even see how the 08 team would matchup against this Heat team.

15th overall · Post #11 » by **15th overall** » Thu May 16, 2013 7:52 pm

greengoggles wrote:Miami's trio is the more talented group, but the Boston Big Three fits together much more seamlessly.

Totally agree with this. They took them to 7 games (despite HORRIBLE officiating in games 1 and 2) when they were all 35+ years old. If we'd gotten our guys together when they were all 27-28 we'd have won at least 4 'chips and thats a conservative estimate.

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Slightly OT but I heard Sean Grande on WEEI a couple weeks ago (with John Ryder late night) talking about comparisons between the Pierce era Big 3 and the Bird era Big 3 and he was saying you'd have to imagine that the trades for Chief and the McHale draft pick never happened. So the entire mid 80's would have been Bird/Maxwell with Kevin and Chief playing elsewhere.

So factoring in ages it would be the equivalent of us trading for Chief/McHale in 1985. The post '85 Celts won the same number of championships as Paul/KG/Ray... HOWEVER, if you compare the 2012 Celtics with the early 90's ones it's not even close as to who the better team is.

So basically if Paul/KG/Ray were given the same timeframe that Bird/McHale/Chief had they would've had a much longer period of dominance. I thought it was an interesting take.

soxfan2003 · Post #12 » by **soxfan2003** » Thu May 16, 2013 9:24 pm

I'm a huge Lebron fan in large part since I think Jordan got overhyped a bit and I like Lebron's emphasis on team play. Jordan, an incredible player, won championships with an extremely talented team in an era watered down at times due to expansion. (I think Shaq/Wlit/Kareem and even KG should all get more consideration as the GOAT player. And Lebron should be entering the conversation as well. If analysts are going to dismiss Russell since he played with a bunch of HOFers, why not give credit to Wilt for at least giving Russell very tough battles without nearly as much talent in his prime) I thought Lebron had a great chance to be legitimately be the greatest basketball player of all time not named Shaq/perhaps Wilt when I saw him play in high school.

That being said, I think young KG in this era especially with true franchise talent around him compliments a team more then Jordan, Lebron, Duncan, Hakeem, Bird etc.

On a team with junk, Lebron, Bird, Magic may be better since they have more go to scoring ability but on a team with legitimate talent, I would have loved to see the 2004 version of KG. KG didn't need to take 18+ shots to dominate a game.

I like the Boston trio more but either team could win since both trios are obviously talented. In 2008, the Celtics trio was actually well past their respective peaks. Prime KG was around 2004 and IMHO prime PP/RA was even before that year when you consider defense as half of the game. Put those 3 together in their true prime with the rest of the 2008 roster and if they wanted to, they would have beaten the Bulls 72 win record with ease in an era with marginally better players overall on average.

Prime Ray Allen in his early to mid 20's was more then capable of playing PG if need be so him playing alongside PP would have been incredibly tough to guard. Throw in KG and it gets unfair.

PennyCELTICS1 · Post #13 » by **PennyCELTICS1** » Fri May 17, 2013 1:13 am

I DESPISE Wade but even I know Wade > Pierce. Wade is the better play maker, defender, scorer ( EFFICIENTLY) in their primes.

GreenBloodedC · Post #14 » by **GreenBloodedC** » Fri May 17, 2013 2:38 am

Do not underestimate Prime KG. It's closer to prime Lebron than anyone else would like to think

Lebron is definitely the better offensive player, but KG's overall impact is ridiculously great. No player comes close in this era in terms of impact in both ends of the floor. If a Celtic team w/ a 2008 version of KG dominated the league, Imagine what they'd do if we got the prime KG instead.

As for players, I'd rank 'em as

Lebron
KG
Wade
Pierce
Allen
Bosh

W/ KG's impact on the floor, Pierce as the main guy in the offensive end, and Allen hitting tough clutch shots, I'm definitely going w/ the Celtics.

If matched up, it would be
KG >>>>>>>>>>>> Bosh (KG, the double double machine and w/ his frequent triple double. And this is no ordinary double double, talk about 20 - 20 - 5 games on a regular basis)

Lebron >> Pierce (Offensively, Pierce is unguardable at his prime. And take note that the '08 and '10 version of Pierce went toe to toe w/ the Cleveland version of James)

Wade>>Allen (Allen at his prime is a physical specimen. Wade is definitely better but Allen could definitely hold his own against Wade. And remember that the '08 version of Allen did an okay job against Kobe in the finals)

I'm w/ the C's on this one, mainly because of KG.

ReturnofFlash · Post #15 » by **ReturnofFlash** » Fri May 17, 2013 2:48 am

Prime Big 3 would destroy our Big 3, perfect complimentary players. The gap between Kg and Bosh is just to big.

702Celtics · Post #16 » by **702Celtics** » Fri May 17, 2013 6:44 am

Pierce vs. LeBron: Edge to LeBron. However, Pierce could hold his own against LeBron in his prime. Look back to 2008 in the playoffs.

KG vs. Bosh: Edge to KG. Former league MVP, one of the greatest PF's of all time. Bosh is good, but can't compare him to prime KG.

Wade vs. Allen: Edge to Wade. When Wade didn't have knee problems earlier on in his career, he was considered a top 5 talent. Allen was good, but never had the overall offensive explosiveness Wade had.

That all said, if you surrounded these guys with role players. I'd still take Boston's Big 3 over Miami's, just because I feel that the KG/Pierce/Allen combo clicked so quickly when they first assembled.

DijonRondo · Post #17 » by **DijonRondo** » Fri May 17, 2013 10:03 am

Pierce and KG in their prime are just too good.

Wade can't shoot in his prime.

Lebron can't shoot in his prime.

Bosh can barely shoot in his prime.

Bosh can't hang with KG AT ALL. You try and double KG, he'll pass it out to Judas for the splash. Pick and roll with Pierce and KG. You stop the penetration, he passes it to KG for the splash/drive/dish to Judas.

Not to mention the fabled step back that hasn't worked for Pierce since 2008.

Marley2Hendrix · Post #18 » by **Marley2Hendrix** » Fri May 17, 2013 11:25 am

Simple.

LBJ/Wade/Bosh in isolation are the more talented trio.

PP/Ray/KG fit together beautifully and are so much of a more natural fit, that the sum of their individual parts exceeds that of the Miami trio. We are talking about six HOF'ers (slightly unfair to Bosh that no one else had to become a 3rd banana support player during his prime and take the hit to his stats) and while one group may be more talented by a smidge, the other blends magnificently and would be one of the best 3 man lineups that one could imagine.

Actually, that could be a fun topic. Choosing any combination of 3 players in his prime, what is the best trio that you all can come up with (soxfan, I'm expecting one heck of a trio of 3pt shooters from you, my man)?

Without giving it much thought, I think I go Bird, KG, Lebron.

165bows · Post #19 » by **165bows** » Fri May 17, 2013 1:30 pm

Miami4Life wrote:Prime Big 3 would destroy our Big 3, perfect complimentary players. The gap between Kg and Bosh is just to big.

That was my thought too, there is the biggest gap between Bosh and everyone else. He's a good player but not nearly on the level of the other guys. I think the competition would be extremely competitive, though.

greengoggles · Post #20 » by **greengoggles** » Fri May 17, 2013 3:08 pm

165bows wrote:That was my thought too, there is the biggest gap between Bosh and everyone else. He's a good player but not nearly on the level of the other guys. I think the competition would be extremely competitive, though.

Really? I tend to think of prime Bosh as being just as impactful as prime Ray, if not more so. His last season in Toronto he was putting up 24/11 on 60% TS. Maybe I'm underrating Supersonics Ray, though.

In their prime...