Ryoga Hibiki wrote:
you need a lot of luck and good breaks to win a title.
but seattle and philly showed that such strategy allowed them to cumulate A LOT of assets and talent in a very short time.
if anything, they are amazing success stories, especially if you are a non destination market unable to attract talent and very challenged in retaining it.
I appreciate this post. The Nets could have beaten Milwaukee if not for the Kyrie injury and when people talk about past titles, bad breaks are often ignored. The Knicks title in 73, and, I love my knicks and that was the first title I remember. I was too young in 70, but now that I read, (I didn't read newspapers at that age), I know that the Celtics lost Hondo (Havlicek to anyone who doesn't know the name) in the series and the Celts had a great team that year.
That's not good management or brilliant strategy when the other team has a key player go down, possibly the better team's player gets hurt - it's luck.
Lucky breaks (unlucky for the other team) plays a role often enough that any arguments of "this always works" should be taken with a grain of salt.
I love my knicks, but it's been an ugly 20 years. I think we have the worst record in the entire NBA over that 20 year stretch and often had the highest salary too - that's just bad. Leon has made mistakes for sure, but he's better than some other guys running the show that we've had in the past.
And I maintain, the Knicks paying a kings ransom for Mitchell, I don't think he's enough. I also don't think he's the best fit next to Brunson. I respect the heck out of what Ainge has done, even if this full dump and collect picks has never worked, no team has ever acquired as many picks as he did.
I respected the Magic when they did their full rebuild, adding Grant Hill and Steve Francis and added them to a young Dwight Howard. They added the wrong players, but their approach was, in my opinion, deadly and brilliant. Imagine if they'd gone younger, added T-mac instead (He wanted to go there) and another young player to grow with Dwight Howard and Turk and . . . that could have been a title contender, maybe more than one.
So . . . nobody knows the future, and they have to make good moves and be lucky going forward, but I 100% respect what Ainge has done this off-season.
I think the Wolves overpaid. I think everyone thinks that. I think the Cavs made a respectable gamble and I think Ainge has a ton to work with now. An absolute ton of future capital.
As for my Knicks . . . they need a miracle. Maybe Quickley becomes an all-star. Maybe RJ becomes a 40% shooter from 3. . . . but I see a team of role and support players, and giving up the farm for Mitchell, I'd see a team that's top heavy, too thin, not enough picks or defense and not well balanced. Knicks, in my opinion, did the right thing not meeting Ainge's demands for the swap.
Anyhoo . . . yes, my posts are too long. I know.
God invented war so Americans would learn geography.
