Does KD have what it takes to lead a team to a title?

[HornsRuleU]

Anyone care to revise their statement? Or is it too early to ask?

Big Mo swings to Oakland. One last chance to finish off the Warriors. Meanwhile, the Cavs rest and heal up.

It's looking like a repeat, for the Finals. SMH

 

[wadster]

Westbrook is THE most frustrating player I've ever seen. So much talent, so little control.

 

[jsto60]

FYI Okies, Durant on a 7-0 run in the last 3 mins. He is the only thing keeping OKC in the game. And he has had 2 defensive stops contributing.

I hope they lose, and he leaves. So you cry babys can taste life without him.

 

[jsto60]

And already I am honestly glad I'm wrong. I've always wanted Kevin to bring home a title. America loves Steph Curry, they admire but don't love LeBron, Tom Brady, even Peyton the way they do Steph. They did not want to realize that Steph has glaring weaknesses, they're already making excuses about him being injured. But consider this just two weeks ago he scored 17 points in three minutes in Portland. Just last week he scored 15 points in less than two minutes against the Thunder. But people are going to forget that.

It took a new coach to bring out the talent that is there in the supporting cast, to get a couple of alpha males blended in with the rest of the team and now you're seeing the results. And the thing is people aren't going to notice something about Russ. They see someone who seems to be rude, arrogant. What they don't see is this is the most vicious competitor in the NBA now that Kobe has retired. If he plays tonight like he has in this series he will have destroyed pretty boy. And we're seeing it in KD to. He's a forward so he doesn't guard Curry but so far he has destroyed the GS front court within the first two minutes of the second quarter he had both of their centers with three fouls each. He's blocked so many of their shots, yet another indication of how wimpy the GSW are when it comes to scoring in the paint. Best of all they have exposed Draymond Green for the cheap and ugly bully that he is. He pissed of KD and his team for that kick on Adams they have responded to it and on Tuesday they absolutely humiliated Draymond and he couldn't made any kind of response. Like I said just a cheap and ugly bully.

And how about the way Adams has responded from that kick? Did you see that fb pass he threw to Roberson for the assist? Now I know who the real man is on the court. Dyk that Adams got a testicular contusion from that kick? Scary, real scary.

Can you cry a little more?

I hope Durant goes to a real city when free agency happens.....you know like ANY of the other teams in the league. Even Philly would appreciate him more than you half breeds do. Cry us a river when he is gone.

 

[HornsRuleU]

Hard to believe that they'd lose 3 in a row, even to Golden State.

 

[RoboCocks21]

Just unbelievable man....just gave it up that easily

 

[OULegacy76]

I don't think anyone hates Durant, just frustrated with his lack of killer instinct that other super stars usually possess. He definitely isn't solely to blame on tonights loss but disappeared way too much for my liking. He appears to be a little soft mentally and definitely physically. As for Westbrook there are times Thunder fans love the guy and others I'm sure they want to pull their hair out watching the guy. Extremely explosive but plays too selfish at times. Any chance thunder try and make a big trade before next year? Not Durant or Westbrook of course, but perhaps try and find another scorer?

 

[Okie70]

Earlier question about how GS got so good. Mostly lucky drafts (Thompson, Curry, Green on the second round, Barnes). Some good trades (Livingston, Igoudala). Biggest deal was trading Monta Ellis to Milwaukee for Bogut. That turned Curry loose.

 

[UTGrad87]

KD has holes in his game that get magnified in the playoffs. His finess style of play doesn't translate well to playoff BB and he knows it. That's why he goes in a shell for extended periods of time. He needs to watch tape of how Dr. J used to take the ball to the hole. KD is too soft and needs to dunk it in people's faces more. Hit the weight room a little!

 

[outhereincali]

They scored 96 points. They were 17 for 37 from 3 point range almost 50%. The rest of their offense was 20 for 48, barely 40%. When you add it all up that's 51 out of 96 points from three point range. Wth is going on here? They do whip the ball around and when they look like they want to take it to the hoop they pass it around to where somebody is all by himself and they knock it down. It also gives them some really impressive assists numbers.

But there's nothing special about them when it comes to rebounding and especially defense. You can't convince me they're not soft. Imo Andre Iguodala is the only good defender on that team. And before anyone says Draymond Green imo Curry and Thompson's shooting makes him a better player. I agree with Stephen A Smith on another team he's nothing special.

And yet they win 67 games and a title last year and they set a regular season w/l record this year and almost all of it is because of their three point game. And it's really not sour grapes Steph Curry is not a good defensive player and OKC proved that in the three games they won. They use him like a safety give him room to wander instead of having to guard someone.

Damndest team I've ever seen.

 

[elcapitan009]

I love Kevin Durant. I grew up in San Antonio and still bleed spurs silver and black. And I'm still happy if they continue to rack up some championship banners. But KD is my favorite player and because of that the OKC Thunder are my favorite team. It's like they're number one and the spurs are 1A.

But over the last few seasons I've noticed that the thunder can not close out games and this is especially noticeable against the elite teams like last Saturday. Yes KD had a great game offensively and had his best game of the year from the three point line. With 18 seconds to go he hit a three pointer to put OKC up by 4. But Golden State hit a basket and with 11 seconds to go it was down to 2. But the thunder did not call a to. And KD panicked under pressure he threw a down court pass that was intercepted and with less than one second to go he fouled Andre Igoudada. AI is a career 60% free throw shooter but naturally he made both to send it into ot. KD's attempt at a game winning basket was short. And then one minute into ot he fouled out and OKC had to play the rest of the game with KD on the bench. He's done this before in playoff games most recently two years ago in game 6 of the western conference finals against SA. It was so frustrating to watch. The thunder led pretty much the whole game. But down the stretch they shot 2 for 11 from the field and GS shot 6 for 10. I hate to say but even with a three with 18 seconds to go KD once again wilted under pressure.

Also KD and Russell Westbrook are the thunder. But OKC is one of the worst teams when it comes to to's. And for all their talent KD and RW average anywhere from 12 to 15 to's a game between them. OKC had 22 to's against the warriors and it came back to haunt them. Since the all star break they've lost 4 out of 5 and in three of them they didn't close it out not even at home against a mediocre Indiana Pacers team. I predict they'll make it out of round 1 and then they will lose to the spurs.

OR

are the Golden State Warriors just that good? I mean I can't believe it. They started the season 25-0. The best single season record was when one of Michael Jordan's teams went 72-10. But the warriors are currently 53-5, That's a winning percentage of over 90%. They have 24 games left, 17 of them home where they are undefeated so far. If nobody gets hurt they will obliterate that 72-10 record. I can't believe it the thunder led for all but 10 seconds. They out rebounded GS 62-32. And for once the thunder supporting cast raised their game especially Serge Ibaka and SA native Andre Roberson. But once again to's killed them like it does in every game they lose. They're normally a good free throw shooting team but they were 50% from the charity stripe and this was on a night when GS was'nt hitting free throws either. It's like you have to play a near perfect game to beat the warriors. It's like they can't do anything wrong. They didn't lead the whole game. Nobody but SC was hitting three pointers and then they start hitting them in the last minute and ot.

How did the Warriors get that good. They were a playoff team but they never went past the second round in fact before last year they hadn't made the conference finals in 39 years. But they fired their coach and brought in Steve Kerr and they signed AI as a free agent. SK had never coached in his life I think he spent a couple of years as general manager of the Phoenix suns. Since he retired as a player he's spent most of his career as an analyst on TNT. But now he's Red Auerbach, Phil Jackson, and John Wooden rolled into one. I mean everybody on that team can score. They can all play defense and pass the ball. Draymond Green went on a profanity laced tirade at halftime, he ended up scoring one point and yet he had a double double with rebounds and assists.

But mostly its Steph Curry. Has anyone watched him this year? He can't miss especially from the three point line. Reggie Miller was the best three point shooter Ive ever seen. Not anymore. A good three point shoother is usually 40 %. He's over 50!!!!! He's already broke his record for three pointers from last year and he still has 24 more games to play. His last two games he's had 23 three pointers including 13 for 16 against the thunder the last one the game winner from 30 feet. I mean the man is making it from everywhere. He's a good passer too and a decent defensive player. I knew he was an all star and a good player but now he's playing like Michael who? I mean Magic, Kareem, Larry Bird, Bill Russell, Michael Jordan's team have never played like this. I can't believe this dramatic transformation form SC and his team. There are four outstanding teams in the NBA. Besides GS, and OKC, there's SA, and Lebron's team. They beat the spurs by 32 in the only game they've played so far. They destroyed Lebron's team by 34 in Cleveland. The cavs fired their coach the next day.

They might as well stop the season and just give it to the warriors now.

Forgive me for not reading through the posts of guys who haven't watched basketball all season outside of "Go Spurs Go":

The Warriors are good AND they caught fire. Thunder play awesome defense and hustled on every play. They switched on shooters the entire series and gave C&T problems with their length. C&T were not getting open looks. They were taking difficult shots. The difference was that they caught fire and they started falling. It was a hell of a series and they couldn't close them out but that's why it's difficult to beat them in 7 games. They have 2 guys that will wind up in the Top 3 for 3PM (if healthy).

 

[outhereincali]

I just don't know about KD's future in OKC. I don't go along with the small market stuff. I mean wth is Oakland, CA? If you look at the 6 teams in the four tier one cities non of them are run efficiently. There's no reason to believe that any of those franchises are on the up and up. So why not stay in OKC he's just as marketable there a he would be anywhere else.

I don't know what to make of the OKC Thunder. Right now I think Billy Donovan is a keeper. He did a lot to raise the other players games especially Steven Adams and Andre Roberson. They need to cut Dion Waiters loose given Donovan's proven ability to raise a players game they could not bother to sign DW and give Cameron Payne playing time he needs a year in the weight room and I think he'll be a good one. As for Serge Ibaka, Russ, and KD, one of them is not going to be on the Thunder and I don't know who. I have no problem with Russ' game. He's unafraid, and he can't be intimidated. He's the alpha male and maybe he should be the number one guy and maybe KD should be the number two.

I can't figure them out. He will NOT sign with Spurs. They already have Leonard, and Aldridge.

 

[Scholz]

He can play guard. Spot up 3-ball shooter. Tall Jim Paxson.