KD and Kawhi vs Magic and Bird

[durantbird]

Which dou would you rather build around?

[No-more-rings]

Anyone picking KD and Kawhi have some explaining to do. Bird and Magic both are more durable and have higher peaks.

[MyUniBroDavis]

If both are healthy I’m assuming right?

[Ginoboleee]

Anyone picking KD and Kawhi have some explaining to do. Bird and Magic both are more durable and have higher peaks.

Yeah, and they are also better too.

Starting a team for 5-on-5? This one is clear.

But for playing a game of 2-on-2? Then the answer flips.

[MyUniBroDavis]

Anyone picking KD and Kawhi have some explaining to do. Bird and Magic both are more durable and have higher peaks.

Yeah, and they are also better too.

Starting a team for 5-on-5? This one is clear.

But for playing a game of 2-on-2? Then the answer flips.

Kawhi and durant would be absurd 2 on 2 lol, I can’t think of many combos I’d put ahead of them

[Ginoboleee]

Anyone picking KD and Kawhi have some explaining to do. Bird and Magic both are more durable and have higher peaks.

Yeah, and they are also better too.

Starting a team for 5-on-5? This one is clear.

But for playing a game of 2-on-2? Then the answer flips.

Kawhi and durant would be absurd 2 on 2 lol, I can’t think of many combos I’d put ahead of them

You should start a thread!
(I'm a noob - I'll just get ignored.)

1 on 1, who you got?
2 on 2, who you got?
3 on 3, who you got?
4 on 4, who you got?
Ten players total.
Fun wrinkle would be that you have to choose 10 different players, no repeats.

Hey, in hockey don't they do something like take a player off the floor in overtime or something like that?
It would be comedy if in regular season NBA, the first overtime is 4 on 4, and if a second overtime were required it would be 3 on 3, etc. etc.

[uberhikari]

Magic and Bird.

Kawhi will never be a top 30 player. He's already missed 2 FULL prime seasons to injury (2018 and 2022) and has had two deep playoff runs ruined by injury (2017 and 2021). In the last 7 years, Kawhi has only played 3 full seasons including playoffs: 2016, 2019, and 2020. 2016 was a good run but before he reached his offensive peak. In 2019 he had one of the highest peaks ever. But in 2020 he choked a 3-1 lead in the WCSF. So, Kawhi has 1 all-time playoff run in his entire career.

[oaktownwarriors87]

KD and Kawhi.

I don't think you squeeze the most out of Magic and Larry by sticking them together. Magic Johnson needs the ball in his hands to be Magic Johnson. Without it he's just Earvin Johnson.

[Proxy]

KD and Kawhi.

I don't think you squeeze the most out of Magic and Larry by sticking them together. Magic Johnson needs the ball in his hands to be Magic Johnson. Without it he's just Earvin Johnson.

I don't think Bird would be taking the ball out of Magic's hands as much as you might think tbh, he's such a great off ball player and only took a split second to make decisions. Magic was also fine with playing alongside a bunch of other player archetypes(like post scorers), they might be even less of a redundancy on offense than KD and Kawhi tbh. The defense is way more concerning

[OhayoKD]

KD and Kawhi.

I don't think you squeeze the most out of Magic and Larry by sticking them together. Magic Johnson needs the ball in his hands to be Magic Johnson. Without it he's just Earvin Johnson.

larry bird barely touched the ball.

[Cavsfansince84]

Magic and Bird would both work together and dominate like few other duos would imo. With them I think they would win a title every year they were healthy(which was pretty much every year of their primes on top of 82 games in the rs). With Kawhi and KD I'm not so sure they win even when healthy due to poor/passive leadership & general discontent and then you have Kawhi's missed games/injuries on top of that.

[ivorytower]

There's way more overlap with the KD/Kawhi pairing, and you definitely still need a lead playmaker on that team. Pretty easily Magic and Bird here.

[OhayoKD]

Magic and Bird would both work together and dominate like few other duos would imo. With them I think they would win a title every year they were healthy(which was pretty much every year of their primes on top of 82 games in the rs). With Kawhi and KD I'm not so sure they win even when healthy due to poor/passive leadership & general discontent and then you have Kawhi's missed games/injuries on top of that.

is kawhi a poor leader? i think kawhi's quiet approach works well and kd won't really need to do anything but ball. KD will also be the secondary focus of the defense, so he can probably do what he did at gsw as long as they get a good playmaker. Kawhi's also a strong defensive wing and kd's pretty solid so it shouldn't be too hard to build a great defense and offense around them.

OTOH, i think your defense is going to be problematic if you have bird and magic in your lineup. Also don't think bird's scoring(especially shooting) translates very well here which is a problem when magic is going to be trying to pressure the rim to score/create.

I go with kd and kawhi pretty easily tbh, even if kd is not as good of a peak relative to era.

[Cavsfansince84]

is kawhi a poor leader? i think kawhi's quiet approach works well and kd won't really need to do anything but ball. KD will also be the secondary focus of the defense, so he can probably do what he did at gsw as long as they get a good playmaker. Kawhi's also a strong defensive wing and kd's pretty solid so it shouldn't be too hard to build a great defense and offense around them.

OTOH, i think your defense is going to be problematic if you have bird and magic in your lineup. Also don't think bird's scoring(especially shooting) translates very well here which is a problem when magic is going to be trying to pressure the rim to score/create.

I go with kd and kawhi pretty easily tbh, even if kd is not as good of a peak relative to era.

I would say he is. I was sort of open to see what he could do as a Clipper but if you recall his first season there thhey had major locker room issues which were in large part due to him and then after that they continueed to have chemistry issues on top of him sitting out so manny games and the 3-1 collapse to the Nuggets where thy lost 2 games I think after getting near 30 pt leads. So imo Kawhi is a poor leader. There are quiet guys who I considere to be good leaders(such as Duncan and Kareem to some degree) but Kawhi isn't one of them.
Regarding defense, I don't think Magic and Bird are bad defenders and that it wouldn't be hard at all to havee good defensive teams built around them. Nearly every team they played on was top 10 defensively if not top 3.

[OhayoKD]

is kawhi a poor leader? i think kawhi's quiet approach works well and kd won't really need to do anything but ball. KD will also be the secondary focus of the defense, so he can probably do what he did at gsw as long as they get a good playmaker. Kawhi's also a strong defensive wing and kd's pretty solid so it shouldn't be too hard to build a great defense and offense around them.

OTOH, i think your defense is going to be problematic if you have bird and magic in your lineup. Also don't think bird's scoring(especially shooting) translates very well here which is a problem when magic is going to be trying to pressure the rim to score/create.

I go with kd and kawhi pretty easily tbh, even if kd is not as good of a peak relative to era.

I would say he is. I was sort of open to see what he could do as a Clipper but if you recall his first season there thhey had major locker room issues which were in large part due to him and then after that they continueed to have chemistry issues on top of him sitting out so manny games and the 3-1 collapse to the Nuggets where thy lost 2 games I think after getting near 30 pt leads. So imo Kawhi is a poor leader. There are quiet guys who I considere to be good leaders(such as Duncan and Kareem to some degree) but Kawhi isn't one of them.
Regarding defense, I don't think Magic and Bird are bad defenders and that it wouldn't be hard at all to havee good defensive teams built around them. Nearly every team they played on was top 10 defensively if not top 3.

i'd say magic/bird were nuetral for their era, but rn when they're probably being played as bigs with a spaced out floor, i think they're definite negatives. Even in the 80's teams like the pistons were able to hunt him to get layups and easy 2's. Think you've got real ptoblems with two bigger players who don't have good lateral agility and can't really protect the paint.

what lockeroom issues did kawhi cause witht he clippers? was it the load management thing?

[Cavsfansince84]

i'd say magic/bird were nuetral for their era, but rn when they're probably being played as bigs with a spaced out floor, i think they're definite negatives. Even in the 80's teams like the pistons were able to hunt him to get layups and easy 2's. Think you've got real ptoblems with two bigger players who don't have good lateral agility and can't really protect the paint.

what lockeroom issues did kawhi cause witht he clippers? was it the load management thing?

With regard to Bird, his defense definitely drops off after like 84 or 85 but I'm not sure we can assume he has the same injuriees if he starts out as a rookie today seeing as we have better medical treatments, star players play far less minutes and get load management, then also make far more money so I think Bird is more likely to shell out 10 grand for a new driveway for his mom than do it himself. All of that also has to be taken into account.
Regarding Kawhi, there were issues ovre he and PG getting preferential treeatment and being very stand offish with teammates. It created a toxic environment and we saw how it played out.

[MyUniBroDavis]

Yeah, and they are also better too.

Starting a team for 5-on-5? This one is clear.

But for playing a game of 2-on-2? Then the answer flips.

Kawhi and durant would be absurd 2 on 2 lol, I can’t think of many combos I’d put ahead of them

You should start a thread!
(I'm a noob - I'll just get ignored.)

1 on 1, who you got?
2 on 2, who you got?
3 on 3, who you got?
4 on 4, who you got?
Ten players total.
Fun wrinkle would be that you have to choose 10 different players, no repeats.

Hey, in hockey don't they do something like take a player off the floor in overtime or something like that?
It would be comedy if in regular season NBA, the first overtime is 4 on 4, and if a second overtime were required it would be 3 on 3, etc. etc.

The contingency of Michael Beasley being a top 3 player in the nba in the 4th overtime would be hilarious

[JordansBulls]

Magic and Bird not sure how it is debatable