MagicBagley18 wrote:DarkXaero wrote:MagicBagley18 wrote:
Lost in your response is that that growth would never have came with kyrie
There's no way of knowing that. Even during this playoffs run for the Celtics, Kyrie has been in touch with Tatum to encourage him, and Tatum considers him a big brother figure. Marcus Smart loves Kyrie as well. You guys need to stop vilifying Kyrie for everything, and acknowledge that there were other major issues with that Celtics team as well.
1) I haven’t villafied kyrie for everything...many issues last year. Kyrie was one of many issues but he failed miserably in Boston. Doesn’t hold all the blame at all but he also can’t be overlooked like many of your fan base Tries to.
2) being friends or a mentor to someone doesn’t correlate to on court production/ cohesion/chemistry or being a leader in the locker room. So that’s cool that him and Tatum talk and that’s nice of kyrie. I have friends I talk to all the time and our my boys but I couldn’t work with them on a day to day basis.
3) there is a way of knowing that because I’m watching it happen live. Tatum has grown exponentially. He’s getting the ball at the end of games down the stretch. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t but he’s learning from it and getting the opportunity. Part of what makes kyrie so good is that he will take the big shot but he also would never ever defer at end of games like kemba would. Brown also made a leap.
4) luck, circumstance, what have you facts are facts. Cavs trade kyrie they still make finals, kyrie gets hurt Celtics still make ECF w/ out him, kyrie leaves Celtics and their in the conference finals without him. That’s a blemish on his resume no matter how you look at it. IT as a starting point guard =ECF, Rozier comes in = ECF , kemba= ECF.
1) Everyone failed in Boston last year, Tatum had a very subpar sophomore year, Brown wasn't very good, and you had guys like Rozier & Morris also being detrimental to the locker room chemistry. Kyrie hasn't done anything in our locker room yet, so I don't know what's being insinuated there by us overlooking things.
2) In this case, their relationship starts with basketball, it absolutely matters. They got to know each other being coworkers, and that's how their relationship started. Your personal analogy doesn't apply here.
3) Tatum has taken a huge step this year, that's actually the biggest reason for Celtics improvement. If he performs at this level last season, it would be a very different story. Kyrie deferred to Lebron plenty in Cleveland, and he also took his shots, it worked extremely well. I don't see any evidence that Kyrie would not have worked well with this version of Tatum, especially since Kemba is still getting the ball down the stretch, but not doing much with it. Going from an average player to an All NBA player is a huge leap, and it's what Tatum did from last season to this year. That can't be discounted.
4) That's a very narrow minded view of looking at things and I can do it too: Cavs with Kyrie = championship, Cavs without Kyrie = no championship. That's like removing all the context and circumstance, and putting out a blanket statement.