KayDee35 wrote:Bergmaniac wrote:KayDee35 wrote:KD relies on efficiency and defensive impact for his value while WB relies on high usage and energy for his impact. Those two types of players don't usually work well together when they are the top dogs. See Kobe-Shaq in their Finals against the Pistons for reference.
So the three-peat they achieved earlier doesn't count?
Come on, now. I referred to one particular playoff series, not their body of work together, because if you watched it you could see the tug-of-war between Kobe and Shaq and how that worked out. There is a way that the Kobe-Shaq combo worked against good teams and part of it involved getting the high efficiency guy the ball in the right spots and getting the high usage guy to be more judicious in his shot selection and commit to moving the ball more.
Shaq was Finals MVP for their three-peat. The Pistons played him one-on-one for the most part in that Finals which was unheard of at the time.
I'll let Chauncey Billups lay it out for you:But, if we’re going to play Shaq straight-up, [the Lakers'] eyes are going to get big, which means they’re going to keep throwing it down there. We’re telling Ben the whole time, "Take fouls when you need to, but don’t get yourself into foul trouble. You need to give up a layup, cool, we’re going to get what we want on the other side." But what’s going to happen is Mr. Bryant is going to get a little discouraged with getting no touches and now the second half comes around…now he’s pressing. He’s going to start coming down and just breaking the offense. When you do that, you’re done—you’re playing right into our hands. Even if you start making those shots, you’re finished.Durant's improvement in TS% is directly related to running fewer iso's. He might do it more than he should but he's way down from his tenure with OKC.Bergmaniac wrote:He runs fewer ISOs because his team is stacked and has a bunch of great passers. of course he'd take more good shots on the most stacked team ever. Not sure how that proves that he and Westbrook were a bad duo.
WB and KD weren't used well together, imho. If you believe they were used to their full potential and there was no room for improvement as a combo, then you should also be willing to accept that they were at their absolute ceiling and just needed more help.
I thought there was significant room for improvement especially late in games.
What I've always disliked about this is how short-sighted it all is. Westbrook and Durant probably beat the 2008-2010 Lakers, and they probably beat the 2009 Magic, or the 2008 Celtics, or maybe even the 2007 Spurs. They were a championship caliber team that went up against an inexhaustible bench with a flawless system. It took a miracle game from Klay Thompson. I don't think KD and Russ were used to their best potential, i think Westbrook has taken a step forward this year with late game management, he's won a lot of close games. They prob. beat GSW this year if they stayed together, now that super-curry is erratic.