Moderators: Rich Rane, NyCeEvO
Hello Brooklyn wrote:Milwaukee is really not that good anymore in my view. I don't see Middleton solving all their problems offensively.
Boston is the biggest concern in the East for sure.
therealbig3 wrote:I mean, KD is a massively overrated playoff performer, with a ton of unearned reputation that got built up in GS when he was 2nd fiddle to Curry. This is definitely true.
He had a ton of struggles in the PS while in OKC, and even in 2021, he had monster games against Milwaukee, but he also had some bad ones. It wasn't like he dominated the entire series and we lost because he was outgunned. Our 3 losses prior to game 7 were all winnable, and he didn't play well in any of them. And we don't even have to talk about last season.
He's a great player, and he's overall decent in the playoffs. Any talk of him being some dominant or legendary playoff performer is just media narrative though. He's disappointed more often than not.
MrDollarBills wrote:GTR11 wrote:MrDollarBills wrote:We outscored them 55 to 38 in the 2nd half. Yall need to relax
Exactly.
This is offensively challenged and undersized team that needed to be blown out.
Instead they exposed our ISO KD and Kyrie freestyle plays.
But since they only had CJ to score we get the win.
How is that going to work vs legit PO contender that is healthy?
Don't share your enthusiasm.
That's fine. It's January. No one will remember this game.
YamaChan wrote:therealbig3 wrote:I mean, KD is a massively overrated playoff performer, with a ton of unearned reputation that got built up in GS when he was 2nd fiddle to Curry. This is definitely true.
He had a ton of struggles in the PS while in OKC, and even in 2021, he had monster games against Milwaukee, but he also had some bad ones. It wasn't like he dominated the entire series and we lost because he was outgunned. Our 3 losses prior to game 7 were all winnable, and he didn't play well in any of them. And we don't even have to talk about last season.
He's a great player, and he's overall decent in the playoffs. Any talk of him being some dominant or legendary playoff performer is just media narrative though. He's disappointed more often than not.
I mean, this is a freezing cold take, but I'll bite.
In 2011, KD was absolutely dominant and "Mr. Reliable" when he had to be. Against the Nuggets, in the close-out game, he scored virtually every Thunder point in the final 5 minutes and closed out a forgotten but very deep and dangerous playoff team.
It was the first playoff series win of his career, and he only put up 41 points on 63% true shooting to win the series.
Against the Grizzlies, after the worst game of his professional career against an upstart Grizzlies team that had beaten the Spurs as an 8 seed, and featured probably the most stout defense of that decade, with Tony Allen and Shane Battier hounding KD on the perimeter, he came through in Game 7 and carried the Thunder to a dominant win to close out the series.
To the tune of 39 points on 67% true shooting.
Ton of struggles, huh?
In 2012, KD literally had two game winning baskets in two consecutive rounds against the defending champion Mavs and then the Kobe/Gasol Lakers. In the Western Conference Finals, while he had his struggles against a team that had won 24 straight games, regular season and playoffs, he was once again unstoppable in the must-win Game 7, putting up 34 points on a 72% true shooting percentage.
In the 2012 Finals, with Shane Battier and LeBron as his primary defenders, he only averaged 33 points on a 65% true shooting percentage for the entire series.
For some reason, I'm not seeing a lot of playoff struggles yet. Funny, where's the media narrative?
Do you know anything about his career at all to be making these ridiculous assertions about him?
I'm going to do some quick-hitters now.
2014. First round against a Grizzlies team that could've easily been the top seed if healthy the whole season. "Mr. Unreliable" series. Must-have game 7. A ho-hum 34 points on 80% true shooting percentage.
2014 again. Close-out game against the Clippers. A disastrous 39 points on 72% true shooting percentage.
Jump to 2016, against a Spurs team that won 67 games and had, by far, the best defense in the NBA that season, against a peak Kawhi Leonard. Averaged 28 for the series and shot 50% from the field. 60% true shooting for the entire series.
Even in the closeout loss to Golden State in Game 7, the worst loss of his career, he put up 27 points on 65% true shooting.
I don't think I need to continue. I could go MUCH deeper than this, with way more detail than you or this thread deserve, but my point is that people really forget who Kevin Durant is and what he has done.
One bad series against Boston, and for ****'s sake, one bad shooting night in a WIN where he made enough winning plays to counter his bad shooting, is not reason to try to crap on his legacy or call him a choker or second fiddle to Curry during his Golden State days (which ABSOLUTELY isn't true).
This man is the most efficient offensive player and one of the best defensive players in the league this season. Why all the hate?
wtf is going on in here GTR11 wrote:YamaChan wrote:therealbig3 wrote:I mean, KD is a massively overrated playoff performer, with a ton of unearned reputation that got built up in GS when he was 2nd fiddle to Curry. This is definitely true.
He had a ton of struggles in the PS while in OKC, and even in 2021, he had monster games against Milwaukee, but he also had some bad ones. It wasn't like he dominated the entire series and we lost because he was outgunned. Our 3 losses prior to game 7 were all winnable, and he didn't play well in any of them. And we don't even have to talk about last season.
He's a great player, and he's overall decent in the playoffs. Any talk of him being some dominant or legendary playoff performer is just media narrative though. He's disappointed more often than not.
I mean, this is a freezing cold take, but I'll bite.
In 2011, KD was absolutely dominant and "Mr. Reliable" when he had to be. Against the Nuggets, in the close-out game, he scored virtually every Thunder point in the final 5 minutes and closed out a forgotten but very deep and dangerous playoff team.
It was the first playoff series win of his career, and he only put up 41 points on 63% true shooting to win the series.
Against the Grizzlies, after the worst game of his professional career against an upstart Grizzlies team that had beaten the Spurs as an 8 seed, and featured probably the most stout defense of that decade, with Tony Allen and Shane Battier hounding KD on the perimeter, he came through in Game 7 and carried the Thunder to a dominant win to close out the series.
To the tune of 39 points on 67% true shooting.
Ton of struggles, huh?
In 2012, KD literally had two game winning baskets in two consecutive rounds against the defending champion Mavs and then the Kobe/Gasol Lakers. In the Western Conference Finals, while he had his struggles against a team that had won 24 straight games, regular season and playoffs, he was once again unstoppable in the must-win Game 7, putting up 34 points on a 72% true shooting percentage.
In the 2012 Finals, with Shane Battier and LeBron as his primary defenders, he only averaged 33 points on a 65% true shooting percentage for the entire series.
For some reason, I'm not seeing a lot of playoff struggles yet. Funny, where's the media narrative?
Do you know anything about his career at all to be making these ridiculous assertions about him?
I'm going to do some quick-hitters now.
2014. First round against a Grizzlies team that could've easily been the top seed if healthy the whole season. "Mr. Unreliable" series. Must-have game 7. A ho-hum 34 points on 80% true shooting percentage.
2014 again. Close-out game against the Clippers. A disastrous 39 points on 72% true shooting percentage.
Jump to 2016, against a Spurs team that won 67 games and had, by far, the best defense in the NBA that season, against a peak Kawhi Leonard. Averaged 28 for the series and shot 50% from the field. 60% true shooting for the entire series.
Even in the closeout loss to Golden State in Game 7, the worst loss of his career, he put up 27 points on 65% true shooting.
I don't think I need to continue. I could go MUCH deeper than this, with way more detail than you or this thread deserve, but my point is that people really forget who Kevin Durant is and what he has done.
One bad series against Boston, and for ****'s sake, one bad shooting night in a WIN where he made enough winning plays to counter his bad shooting, is not reason to try to crap on his legacy or call him a choker or second fiddle to Curry during his Golden State days (which ABSOLUTELY isn't true).
This man is the most efficient offensive player and one of the best defensive players in the league this season. Why all the hate?
This is KD of years past on different teams before Achilles injury.
Wake up it's 2023 in Brooklyn NY under Jaque Vaughn.
YamaChan wrote:GTR11 wrote:YamaChan wrote:
I mean, this is a freezing cold take, but I'll bite.
In 2011, KD was absolutely dominant and "Mr. Reliable" when he had to be. Against the Nuggets, in the close-out game, he scored virtually every Thunder point in the final 5 minutes and closed out a forgotten but very deep and dangerous playoff team.
It was the first playoff series win of his career, and he only put up 41 points on 63% true shooting to win the series.
Against the Grizzlies, after the worst game of his professional career against an upstart Grizzlies team that had beaten the Spurs as an 8 seed, and featured probably the most stout defense of that decade, with Tony Allen and Shane Battier hounding KD on the perimeter, he came through in Game 7 and carried the Thunder to a dominant win to close out the series.
To the tune of 39 points on 67% true shooting.
Ton of struggles, huh?
In 2012, KD literally had two game winning baskets in two consecutive rounds against the defending champion Mavs and then the Kobe/Gasol Lakers. In the Western Conference Finals, while he had his struggles against a team that had won 24 straight games, regular season and playoffs, he was once again unstoppable in the must-win Game 7, putting up 34 points on a 72% true shooting percentage.
In the 2012 Finals, with Shane Battier and LeBron as his primary defenders, he only averaged 33 points on a 65% true shooting percentage for the entire series.
For some reason, I'm not seeing a lot of playoff struggles yet. Funny, where's the media narrative?
Do you know anything about his career at all to be making these ridiculous assertions about him?
I'm going to do some quick-hitters now.
2014. First round against a Grizzlies team that could've easily been the top seed if healthy the whole season. "Mr. Unreliable" series. Must-have game 7. A ho-hum 34 points on 80% true shooting percentage.
2014 again. Close-out game against the Clippers. A disastrous 39 points on 72% true shooting percentage.
Jump to 2016, against a Spurs team that won 67 games and had, by far, the best defense in the NBA that season, against a peak Kawhi Leonard. Averaged 28 for the series and shot 50% from the field. 60% true shooting for the entire series.
Even in the closeout loss to Golden State in Game 7, the worst loss of his career, he put up 27 points on 65% true shooting.
I don't think I need to continue. I could go MUCH deeper than this, with way more detail than you or this thread deserve, but my point is that people really forget who Kevin Durant is and what he has done.
One bad series against Boston, and for ****'s sake, one bad shooting night in a WIN where he made enough winning plays to counter his bad shooting, is not reason to try to crap on his legacy or call him a choker or second fiddle to Curry during his Golden State days (which ABSOLUTELY isn't true).
This man is the most efficient offensive player and one of the best defensive players in the league this season. Why all the hate?
This is KD of years past on different teams before Achilles injury.
Wake up it's 2023 in Brooklyn NY under Jaque Vaughn.
The post I responded to was throwing shade on his entire post season legacy. So, uh, yeah, that's going to include the KD of years past before his Jones fracture and Achilles injury.
You don't have to love him, but you must respect his game.
No point in going back and forth anymore. We all know how this team would look without KD.
Look no further than last season during the 11-game losing streak that contributed to his desires for a trade initially.
GTR11 wrote:YamaChan wrote:GTR11 wrote:This is KD of years past on different teams before Achilles injury.
Wake up it's 2023 in Brooklyn NY under Jaque Vaughn.
The post I responded to was throwing shade on his entire post season legacy. So, uh, yeah, that's going to include the KD of years past before his Jones fracture and Achilles injury.
You don't have to love him, but you must respect his game.
No point in going back and forth anymore. We all know how this team would look without KD.
Look no further than last season during the 11-game losing streak that contributed to his desires for a trade initially.
Now show me what happened since ...
Again different team. How many times I have to say it to get my point across? You that dense?
YamaChan wrote:GTR11 wrote:YamaChan wrote:
The post I responded to was throwing shade on his entire post season legacy. So, uh, yeah, that's going to include the KD of years past before his Jones fracture and Achilles injury.
You don't have to love him, but you must respect his game.
No point in going back and forth anymore. We all know how this team would look without KD.
Look no further than last season during the 11-game losing streak that contributed to his desires for a trade initially.
Now show me what happened since ...
Again different team. How many times I have to say it to get my point across? You that dense?
...Uh? One of the best playoff performances in NBA History in a Game 5 where KD played literally every single minute and soloed a loaded Bucks team? Capped off by a losing effort in one of the best Game 7s in NBA History?
I already acknowledged the Boston series was his worst overall series since his very first playoff series. But if a player is forever trash after having one horrible playoff series, there are virtually no all-time great players other than Jordan. Everyone else has had a dud series, and KD finally had his in a very, very challenging season for obvious reasons completely out of his control.
Look, dude, I'm not even trying to contradict any of your overall assessments on the team. It's just completely overboard to go at KD like he ran over your cat and delivered the corpse to your front door with a post-it note attached that has a drawing of a middle finger.
I'm usually content to lurk these threads, but the crying was hard to ignore this time.
YamaChan wrote:...I'm usually content to lurk these threads, but the crying was hard to ignore this time.
GTR11 wrote:Hello Brooklyn wrote:GTR11 wrote:You need to read entire comments before stating what I said. Nit picking one thing means you dumb fuc* who comes here to either dic* ride KD or troll.
Youre having a meltdown about KD while hes having an MVP caliber season because of one poor shooting tonight.
Youre being ridiculous.
I've been watching and saying KD is hot trash for quite some time even during winning streak.
I'm just focusing on it more because teams adjusted. Will continue doing so moving forward.
He is liability right now. Whether you like it or not, he stagnates offense and cheats on rotations while being on D.
GYK wrote:To act as if Durant isn’t amazing is foolish. You’re literally faulting him for setting a standard of historic efficiency.
With that said if you fear the teams reliance on historic efficiency and an isolation playstyle understandable as we have no frame of reference that winning. I personally advocate the Simmons short roll being the base offense because we have the best “in case of emergency” option(tho it can be said the short roll could be brought out in the playoffs completely destroying the opponents gameplan).
Nevertheless KD has always been amazing. That’s nothing new. Or exaggerated.
Also your contender should be able to win ugly. For example Lakers 2010 and Warriors 15 Finals. Your defense should be able to win a series let alone a meaningless January game where opponents defensive players got more burn because of missing offensive stars.