Bulls considering Kenny Atkinson for HC

[dougthonus]

You misconstrued what I said. I clearly said it took the Warriors 3 studs and Iggy plus Draymond to sweep the Cavs. That was not me saying the Warriors contained LeBron, that was me saying that the Rockets didn’t have the fire power to stop LeBron when the Warriors even in a deep had to utilize a massive dynasty to do so.

What was LeBron going to do against the Rockets? 50/12/12 for the series? AT 38.5, 8.5, and 10 against the Warriors that may have been the best statistical playoff series of his career (if not, it has to be pretty close). Rockets had a lot of good defensive wing options too, your point just seems a bit nonsensical. I'm just not sure how much better you think LeBron was realistically going to be.

[MrFortune3]

You misconstrued what I said. I clearly said it took the Warriors 3 studs and Iggy plus Draymond to sweep the Cavs. That was not me saying the Warriors contained LeBron, that was me saying that the Rockets didn’t have the fire power to stop LeBron when the Warriors even in a deep had to utilize a massive dynasty to do so.

What was LeBron going to do against the Rockets? 50/12/12 for the series? AT 38.5, 8.5, and 10 against the Warriors that may have been the best statistical playoff series of his career (if not, it has to be pretty close). Rockets had a lot of good defensive wing options too, your point just seems a bit nonsensical. I'm just not sure how much better you think LeBron was realistically going to be.

I don't think he was going to be statistically better necessarily. I just don't think the Rockets would have been able to counteract all of the things he would have done to put pressure on their defense. I think he would have had a easier time elevating his teammates against the Rockets defense vs the Warriors.

In that sweep, the Warriors beat the Cavs by 10, 19, 8 and finally 23 for the sweep.

Of course, I have to again say that I am no fan of D'Antoni and I don't believe his style of basketball will ever win a NBA title. So that clouds my judgement on him.

[dice]

I don't see anyway the Rockets were going to take LeBron James out of his comfort zone. The Warriors had 3 absolute studs + a former finals MVP in Iggy and a game Draymond when they sweep the Cavs that year.

Harden and Paul alone wasn't going to get that team past LeBron and co. I know Gordon is good but again, no one on the Rockets was checking LeBron.
That team was built exclusively to stop the Warriors and it took Iggy missing 4 games and they still didn't beat them.

Harden...ugh. That's just not basketball.

the rockets won 65 games that year. the cavs won 50. and got swept by the warriors. and got taken to 7 games by the celtics. and got taken to 7 games by the pacers. did the celtics and pacers have a "lebron stopper"? not even close

and you act like the warriors held lebron in check. they didn't. he demolished them. 34/8.5/10 on high efficiency. they still swept the series. it wasn't the 31 year old iggy that did an admirable job against lebron in 2015. it was the 34 year old iggy

the rockets would have been significant, but not overwhelming, favorites against the cavs in the finals. they beat them both times in the regular season, including a blowout in cleveland. lebron was terrible in that game

You misconstrued what I said. I clearly said it took the Warriors 3 studs and Iggy plus Draymond to sweep the Cavs. That was not me saying the Warriors contained LeBron, that was me saying that the Rockets didn’t have the fire power to stop LeBron when the Warriors even in a deep had to utilize a massive dynasty to do so.

and that makes no sense. the warriors "firepower" didn't stop lebron, so the rockets not being able to either makes no difference. they would have outscored the cavs just like the warriors did

[MrFortune3]

the rockets won 65 games that year. the cavs won 50. and got swept by the warriors. and got taken to 7 games by the celtics. and got taken to 7 games by the pacers. did the celtics and pacers have a "lebron stopper"? not even close

and you act like the warriors held lebron in check. they didn't. he demolished them. 34/8.5/10 on high efficiency. they still swept the series. it wasn't the 31 year old iggy that did an admirable job against lebron in 2015. it was the 34 year old iggy

the rockets would have been significant, but not overwhelming, favorites against the cavs in the finals. they beat them both times in the regular season, including a blowout in cleveland. lebron was terrible in that game

You misconstrued what I said. I clearly said it took the Warriors 3 studs and Iggy plus Draymond to sweep the Cavs. That was not me saying the Warriors contained LeBron, that was me saying that the Rockets didn’t have the fire power to stop LeBron when the Warriors even in a deep had to utilize a massive dynasty to do so.

and that makes no sense. the warriors "firepower" didn't stop lebron, so the rockets not being able to either makes no difference. they would have outscored the cavs just like the warriors did

Warriors had Durant, Steph and Klay firing at all cylinders and during the sweep it was 10, 19, 8 and 23. Rockets didn’t have near the firepower nor the defensive ability of the Warriors.
More to the point, a hobbled CP3 wasn’t getting them over the hump and beating the Cavs.

[dice]

You misconstrued what I said. I clearly said it took the Warriors 3 studs and Iggy plus Draymond to sweep the Cavs. That was not me saying the Warriors contained LeBron, that was me saying that the Rockets didn’t have the fire power to stop LeBron when the Warriors even in a deep had to utilize a massive dynasty to do so.

and that makes no sense. the warriors "firepower" didn't stop lebron, so the rockets not being able to either makes no difference. they would have outscored the cavs just like the warriors did

Warriors had Durant, Steph and Klay firing at all cylinders and during the sweep it was 10, 19, 8 and 23. Rockets didn’t have near the firepower nor the defensive ability of the Warriors.

the rockets had the #1 offense and #6 defense that season. the warriors were 3rd and 11th, respectively. so that statement is detached from reality

More to the point, a hobbled CP3 wasn’t getting them over the hump and beating the Cavs.

that's a fair point

[dougthonus]

More to the point, a hobbled CP3 wasn’t getting them over the hump and beating the Cavs.

The discussion started with the premise that if Paul wasn't hurt, the Rockets could have won the title, so in this scenario, they wouldn't have had a hobbled Chris Paul. We know the Rockets didn't win obviously. My only point was they caught a tough break and without doing so would have had an excellent chance of winning. I think there are a lot of teams that is true of throughout history of course. I'm not crowning them for it or anything.