Village Idiot wrote:Duke4life831 wrote:Village Idiot wrote:I recall the Blazers being jilted by Aldridge and we didn't get jack in return. Damian lead the team to the playoffs without any other all-stars. Last season, who was the other all-star?
At 26 Lillard just won 41 games with CJ as his #2 averaging 23 ppg on 48/42/91, 58 TS%.
At 21 Kyrie won 33 games with Dion as his #2 averaging 15 ppg on 43/36/68.
The person who took the 3rd most shots for Portland this past year was Crabbe who had shooting numbers of 46/44/84, 60 TS%.
The person who took the 3rd most shots for Cleveland in 2014 was TT who shot 47% from the field and had a 52 TS%. Im not sure what hand he was using to shot back then either.
And then Kyrie never had a guy like Nurkic (even though just for 20 games) who averaged 18/12/4. While yes Lillard hasnt played with another all star the past 2 years, having a #2 who averaged 23 points a game while flirting with a 50/40/90 season and a beast like Nurkic for the last quarter of the season is a hell of a lot more than Kyrie ever had while winning 33 games at 21.
And who, besides Aldridge, has Lillard played with who was an all-star?
Wasn't Varejao a lot like Nurkic? Wasn't Jamison a lot like Aldridge? Andrew Bynum? Luol Deng? seems like Kyrie had some decent teammates.
No...oh my goodness no..
I'm not sure that Jamison at his best was ever as good as Aldridge (for the Blazers), but the Cavs didn't have Jamison at his best. Bynum and Deng didn't even play a full season. Bynum barely played any games at all.
Varejao and Nurkic...seriously?? AV was a fan favorite, but he was not nearly as good as Nurkic. And by the time Kyrie had AV, he was getting injured every 5 games.
And while I guess we can say Dame doesn't have an all star playing with him now, he himself hasn't been an all star - obviously both he and CJ are all star talents. Before LeBron Kyrie never played with anyone as good as LMA or CJ. Swap them out and neither team misses a beat.
For anyone who wants to talk East/West, Kyrie's best games seem to come against better competition. He's generally performed better the past two years in the finals than against the East in the playoffs.