Durant's efficiency going to shit without Westbrook

[konex]

I hope all the haters on Russ now realize how important he is. IMO they win this series easily if he's there.

Grizz only have 1 lockdown perimeter defender (sorry Tayshaun) and Allen can't guard 2 guys.

[WWRWestbrookDo?]

I hope all the haters on Russ now realize how important he is. IMO they win this series easily if he's there.

Grizz only have 1 lockdown perimeter defender (sorry Tayshaun) and Allen can't guard 2 guys.

only an idiot would say the Thunder are better without Westbrook. How can you lose a top 5 player and be better. :facepalm

[imdaman99]

you lose 1 superstar, how often does a team not get worse? :facepalm

btw, what are these westbrook haters aka skip bayless and coach prick bballsbreakdown saying now?

[Jacks3]

He has a 60% TS in 9 games without Westbrook...

[KG215]

And right now he's playing one of the 2 best defensive teams in the league. And they're basically resting Tony Allen, the best perimeter defender in the league, the first 3.5 quarters by putting him on Jackson, Martin, Fisher, or Thabo; and then letting him loose on Durant in the last 5 minutes of the game.

I mean hell, even after his 10/27 game tonight, his efficiency is still better than what you typically see from Kobe or Carmelo against a good defensive team in a playoff series.

[Jax]

He has a 60% TS in 9 games without Westbrook...
With them bullshit free throws :coleman:

[Jacks3]

I mean hell, even after his 10/27 game tonight, his efficiency is still better than what you typically see from Kobe or Carmelo against a good defensive team in a playoff series.
Except Kobe has torched plenty of teams that are better defensively than this Grizz team. Try again.

[KG215]

you lose 1 superstar, how often does a team not get worse? :facepalm

btw, what are these westbrook haters aka skip bayless and coach prick bballsbreakdown saying now?
With Westbrook, OKC probably wins in 5, and takes out the Spurs or Warriors in 5 or 6. One thing I've learned over the last 2-3 weeks is that OKC is pretty clearly the best team in the West with a healthy Westbrook. His haters have gone real quiet since he got hurt.

[Chuckbrook]

I hope all the haters on Russ now realize how important he is. IMO they win this series easily if he's there.

Grizz only have 1 lockdown perimeter defender (sorry Tayshaun) and Allen can't guard 2 guys.
No one said Chuckbrook wasn't important to the Thunder. People were just saying that OKC would be better off with a "real" point guard. Not one that chucks the ball every time he touches it.

[KG215]

Except Kobe has torched plenty of teams that are better defensively than this Grizz team. Try again.
And Durant's torched this team 2 out of 4 games, and was still pretty good in a 3rd. Tonight was his first truly bad game, and he didn't have someone like Shaq or even Gasol to take some pressure off of him.

And what better defensive teams has Kobe torched? He was shit against the Pistons in '04 and the Celtics in '08. I can't think of another team he's played in the playoffs that were clearly better defensively than the Grizzlies this year. I guess the Spurs whatever year it was he torched them? Still not the same since he had Shaq to take some of the focus off of him.

[ZenMaster]

only an idiot would say the Thunder are better without Westbrook. How can you lose a top 5 player and be better. :facepalm

It's not about having Westbrook vs having to play Jackson/Fisher, it's about having Westbrook vs a Rondo type point guard on the team instead.

[Segatti]

only an idiot would say the Thunder are better without Westbrook. How can you lose a top 5 player and be better. :facepalm
The same idiots who said Lakers were better without Kobe

[Jacks3]

The 04 Pistons and 08 Celtics were 2 two of the five best defenses in NBA history. Grizz aren't even in the same stratosphere. :oldlol:

And Kobe destroyed the 01/02/04/08 Spurs. The 09 Magic. 2002 Nets. All defenses as good or better than the current Grizz. lol @ at putting him and Carmelo in the same sentence. :oldlol:

[secund2nun]

Except Kobe has torched plenty of teams that are better defensively than this Grizz team. Try again.

Durant is far more efficient than Kobe ever has been. The man has never even reached 47% fg in the regular season despite prime Shaq taking up double teams, and we know how Kobe's level of play drops in the playoffs.

[secund2nun]

The same idiots who said Lakers were better without Kobe

They were the same without Kobe. Swept by SA, swept by Dallas 2 years ago, beat in 5 by OKC last season= same thing.

[Lateralus]

The curse has spoken. 100 TS% next game :bowdown:

[Jacks3]

And none of that has anything to do with what I said.

And lol @ using FG% to measure efficiency.

[KG215]

The 04 Pistons and 08 Celtics were 2 two of the five best defenses in NBA history. Grizz aren't even in the same stratosphere. :oldlol:

And Kobe destroyed the 01/02/04/08 Spurs. The 09 Magic. 2002 Nets. All defenses as good or better than the current Grizz. lol @ at putting him and Carmelo in the same sentence. :oldlol:
I wasn't saying he's on Carmelo's level. It was about efficiency. And the Grizzlies are a better defensively than the '09 Magic. I don't really remember the '02 Nets in terms of how good they were defensively, so I won't try and compare them to the '13 Grizzlies.

And like I said, against the SPurs, thourgh 2004, he had Shaq on his team. Durant has Serge Ibaka, Kevin Martin, Reggie Jackson, and Derek Fisher. Hell there's not even a player left on OKC's roster close to '09 Gasol's level.

[willds09]

leave K.D alone:facepalm

[TAZORAC]

I hope all the haters on Russ now realize how important he is. IMO they win this series easily if he's there.

Grizz only have 1 lockdown perimeter defender (sorry Tayshaun) and Allen can't guard 2 guys.

Every player who's ever played in the NBA has a weak point or a weaker point to their game. Durant and I said this 2 years ago, NEEDS TO GET STRONGER, because he's physically weak, he can't drive to the basketball at will or bump on the inside like Anthony or James.

[longtime lurker]

only an idiot would say the Thunder are better without Westbrook. How can you lose a top 5 player and be better. :facepalm

Lol you haven't been on insidehoops for long have you?

[Remix]

I don't understand how people act like having a Shaq on Kobe's team is supposed to increase Kobe's efficiency. If kobe and shaq were the only players on one half of the court they would double from the weak side. If someone like Fox or Fisher passed it in to Shaq they would double down, it's not like they doubled off of Kobe or perimeter players gave shaq more attention than Kobe. Whoevers job it was to defend Kobe would face guard Kobe, they wouldn't pay attention to what Shaq was doing.

[KG215]

I don't understand how people act like having a Shaq on Kobe's team is supposed to increase Kobe's efficiency. If kobe and shaq were the only players on one half of the court they would double from the weak side. If someone like Fox or Fisher passed it in to Shaq they would double down, it's not like they doubled off of Kobe or perimeter players gave shaq more attention than Kobe. Whoevers job it was to defend Kobe would face guard Kobe, they wouldn't pay attention to what Shaq was doing.
Take Shaq off those teams and every bit of help defense is focused on one guy. The Grizzlies are now using Allen or Prince to one-on-one defend Durant and using one or two of Gasol, Allen/Prince, Z-Bo, Conley, or Pondexter to shade over and double/triple team him when he gets in position in the halfcourt. Basically their entire defense can load-up and focus on Durant, especially in crunch time. It'd be no different if you took Shaq off those early 2000's Lakers teams. The bigs could almost ignore their man, shade over/out to Kobe more, and be quicker to help on penetration.

I understand where your'e coming from since it's a perimeter player and a post player with Shaq and Kobe, but it's still completely different if you take one of them off the team.

[ShaqAttack3234]

And Kobe destroyed the 01/02/04/08 Spurs. The 09 Magic. 2002 Nets. All defenses as good or better than the current Grizz. lol @ at putting him and Carmelo in the same sentence. :oldlol:

I wouldn't say the '02 Nets, '08 Spurs and '09 Magic were better defensively and the '01 Spurs lack of perimeter defenders has to be considered, though I think it's safe to say that it's easier to finish in the paint with Gasol/Randolph than it was with Robinson/Duncan(who Kobe was dunking over and finishing around).


Durant is far more efficient than Kobe ever has been. The man has never even reached 47% fg in the regular season despite prime Shaq taking up double teams, and we know how Kobe's level of play drops in the playoffs.

No we don't know that because it isn't true. Did his level of play drop in the postseason during the 3peat, or the 3 consecutive finals appearances and back to back titles from 2008-2010? In reality, he raised his game those years.

[TheBigVeto]

I hope all the haters on Russ now realize how important he is. IMO they win this series easily if he's there.

Grizz only have 1 lockdown perimeter defender (sorry Tayshaun) and Allen can't guard 2 guys.

Tayshaun used to lock Kobe easily in the NBA finals. His nickname is 'the prisonguard'.

[KG215]

Tayshaun used to lock Kobe easily in the NBA finals. His nickname is 'the prisonguard'.
Tayshaun is also 9 years older now than he was in 2004.

[konex]

OKC was lucky not to get swept. Durant with a JR Smith statline tonight

[deja vu]

Except Kobe has torched plenty of teams that are better defensively than this Grizz team. Try again.
2004

2008 (6/24) :roll:

[Chizdog]

OKC was lucky not to get swept. Durant with a JR Smith statline tonight

I tried to type that in google and it said Did you mean 'Durant with a Kobe Bryant statline tonight"

[Jacks3]

Memphis is -5.8 relative to league average DRTG.

04 Pistons were freaking -13.5 after the Rasheed trade.

Insane.

[LEFT4DEAD]

And Kobe destroyed the 01/02/04/08 Spurs. The 09 Magic. 2002 Nets. All defenses as good or better than the current Grizz. lol @ at putting him and Carmelo in the same sentence. :oldlol:
ISH is getting worse and worse. Sometimes I cant believe what Im reading. Is this supposed to be the best NBA forum on the internet? :facepalm

[Jacks3]

:confusedshrug:

[Jacks3]

2004

2008 :roll:
Thing is, both the 04 Pistons and 08 Celtics are much defensively better than these current Grizzlies.

Which is sorta crazy when you think about it.

[KG215]

:confusedshrug:
Yes, his efficiency went to "shit" without Westbrook in this series. That was to be expected against a defense like the Grizzlies while being surrounded by a wildly inconsistent supporting cast.

I don't know why you're acting surprised or why it's some sort of firm indictment of the player he is.

[pauk]

Its only now he has figured out how hard it so to be a one-man-army doing literally everything, playmaking & scoring...

[Shepseskaf]

ISH is getting worse and worse. Sometimes I cant believe what Im reading. Is this supposed to be the best NBA forum on the internet? :facepalm
Some people just post crap, and treat it like gospel. Its a real problem when they aren't called out on blatant lies.

[Jacks3]

Maybe now people will give Melo some slack. He's going through the exact same thing. Playing elite defenses and getting zero help from his teammates. Of course his efficiency is going to suffer.

[KG215]

Maybe now people will give Melo some slack. He's going through the exact same thing. Playing elite defenses and getting zero help from his teammates. Of course his efficiency is going to suffer.
Only time I ever say anything about Melo is when I want to get a rise out of some of the annoying Knick fans/Carmelo stans who were trying to say Carmelo was/is better than Durant. I understand what he's going through this series. Playing a great defense with a supporting cast not doing shit.

However, up until this point, even after two bad games, Durant's still had a better series against the Grizz than Melo is having against the Pacers. And Durant's is having to figure out this new role on the fly in the playoffs. Melo has been playing with his team all season. But the NBA always has been and always will be about making shots when it comes to role players in the playoffs. If your role players don't make shots (choke, get cold, whatever) in the playoffs, there's not much the star can do. And it's only magnified and looks worse against really good defensive teams.

[MetsPackers]

The 04 Pistons and 08 Celtics were 2 two of the five best defenses in NBA history. Grizz aren't even in the same stratosphere. :oldlol:

And Kobe destroyed the 01/02/04/08 Spurs. The 09 Magic. 2002 Nets. All defenses as good or better than the current Grizz. lol @ at putting him and Carmelo in the same sentence. :oldlol:

No. Just no. The 08 Celtics have been getting wayyy too much credit as a defensive team. They may have been the best that year, but only people who started watching in the 2000s think they're top 5, probably not even top 10. And Kobe stans who want to justify him choking and chucking Shaq out of a 4peat. The 97 Bulls would light them up and shut them down. The Pistons were great defensively though, maybe top 5. And yeah that's kind of the point that against alltime great defenses Kobe couldn't score big numbers without taking going 8/22. But the main point is that you're really overrating the 08 Celtics I'm just trolling you calm down

Idk if someone else already said something but that really just jumped out at me

[Jacks3]

They had a -8.0 DRTG relative to league average. That's top 5 all time.

For comparisons sake, the current Grizzleis and Pacers are -6.0.

And there are plenty of people who have them top 5, not just "Kobe stans".

[Jacks3]

Durant is definitely a much better player. I just wish people would start to give some credit to these defenses instead of putting 100% of blame on the star. It gets ridiculous.

[MetsPackers]

I didn't even see the part about the 2002 Nets :roll: :roll:

Is that what people are really reaching for to prop Kobe up these days? Calling the 2002 Nets an all time great defensive team?

[Jacks3]

I didn't call them an all-time great defense.

But they were #1 in DRTG and -5.0 relative to league average.

I said they were as good or close to the Grizz, which is true.

SMH.

[Suguru101]

Elias Sports Bureau:

Kevin Durant shot just 5-for-21 from the field (24 percent) and committed seven turnovers in the Thunder's series-ending loss to the Grizzlies on Wednesday night. Durant is the only player to commit at last seven turnovers and make less than 25 percent of his shots from the field on at least five attempts in a game in which his team was eliminated from the playoffs. (The NBA began tracking individual turnovers in 1977-78.)

[RRR3]

Except Kobe has torched plenty of teams that are better defensively than this Grizz team. Try again.
Yeah, and it usually takes him 40 shots to "torch" said teams. Godbe.

[RRR3]

Maybe now people will give Melo some slack. He's going through the exact same thing. Playing elite defenses and getting zero help from his teammates. Of course his efficiency is going to suffer.
Yeah but Durant actually knows what a pass is