dcstanley wrote:Joey Wheeler wrote:Lebron and AD over Harden/Durant/Kyrie every day of the week. Lakers duo has a GOAT level offensive player and a GOAT level defensive player and they compliment each other well on both ends.
For the Nets trio, Durant is imo the GOAT scorer along with Jordan, but that's the only GOAT level skill they possess (and overall Lebron is superior as an offensive player) and the other 2 guys are primarily scorers too. You have 3 big time scorers, you can't maximize all 3. None of the 3 are able to anchor a defense + none of the 3 is the off ball juggernaut on offense AD is.
Offensively the Nets might be a bit better than the Lakers (remains to be seen) just on sheer talent alone, but there's no way they can remotely approach an AD-anchored Lakers defense. If the Nets trade Kyrie for someone who can anchor their defense, we might have to consider their chances against the Lakers but as currently constructed no way...
I know KD is supremely skilled but how exactly is he a better scorer or offensive player than Harden?
He's the most versatile scorer of all-time, deadly from every area of the court and his combination of size and quickness he can get a high % look any time he wants, bigs are too slow to guard him and he can just shoot over smaller players. Harden's scoring ability doesn't really hold a candle in the playoffs.
That's another big issue for the Nets actually; to maximize their offense, it needs to be built around KD's outlier scoring ability, with Harden ISOs as the primary form of attack only when KD is on the bench. But I'm not sure Harden will take a backseat after all these years of doing whatever he wanted at Houston...