Hoops

NBA Finals: Cavs vs Warriors, Game 3

Cartwright had 13ppg 6reb over a 16 year career. You don’t do that being average. Draymond Green has career averages of 9ppg and 7rebs. To say the bulls were not stacked with him as a starter shows a lack of knowledge. He was also a very smart player —- hence why he has been coaching in the nba for many years. Sure he wasn’t a Ewing Olajuwon or Robinson, but the guy could play and had basketball smarts.

Harper averaged 20ppg 6 Rebs the season before going to the bulls.

The bulls had heaps of good players.

MJ was a killer who went hard always. LeBron coasts through away games to give 100% at home. Some call it body management in the modern game but contrast that to the MJ flu game. Yeah, I know who I'm taking.

and Ron Harper was never the same play at the Clippers after he did his knee.

So Cartwright was an all star 11 years before he won a title with the Bulls... well bugger me

Because back then it still felt like anything could happen because the competition was genuine and the sport was a bit more pure. It felt that way.

Considering manning and Wilkins both played half the season for the clippers as they got traded for each other, I’d say harper was overall the best player for that season as he played almost every game.

Bill Cartwright has career averages of 13ppg and 6rebs. Was also an all star in 1980. I’d take that!!! Was also a great defensive centre so saying he wasn’t good shows ignorance.

You've nailed it MACDUB. It's way too commercial now and sanitised by way of weak defence.

"5. Listening to Kobe's sudden big involvement with talking basketball which unfortunately reeks of an attempt to get attention/stay relevant in conversations."

HAHAHHAHA agreed with all these points but this one I didn't really think of in this way but you are right. He wouldn't be doing it for the money.

My two cents on why I think people didnt mind the 72-10 Bulls and their 90s dominance;

Because back then it still felt like anything could happen because the competition was genuine and the sport was a bit more pure. It felt that way.

The competition aspect has been taken away with GSW and the commercialisation of sport and money focus has contributed to that.

I.e. its harder to feel the competition when you have the $ involved in sport now. Sport just feels a bit more manufactured now whereas back then sport felt like a pure more even footing contest.

Its why I often love watching amateur sport on Sat mornings. So pure and all in the contest. We bet a rugby team 24-5. They came back and beat us 17-0 a few weeks later. Anything to bring me back to the high school days of sport.

Anon...the Jordan era was stacked with teams full of dynamic duos though & most teams had at least 1 legitimate star (established or on the rise).

I'm not going to list them all but if you are a Basketball fan you will know.

Add to that, the NBA has moved from a purists version to an entertainment spectacle for the casual supporter. However, true hoops fans prefer the purist days where travels were called & defenders were allowed to defend.

5 things more interesting than this finals series:

1. The Ben Simmons-Blake Griffin-Tinashe-Jenner romantic square;

2. Seeing how many free finals games and perks Rachel De Mita can get for not really being talented or good at anything except being good looking;

3. The value of LBJs shorts-matched suit;

4. The memes that JR provided from his game 1 brainfade;

5. Listening to Kobe's sudden big involvement with talking basketball which unfortunately reeks of an attempt to get attention/stay relevant in conversations.

Tornado the term you are looking for in sports management terms is “uncertainty of outcome”. It’s why as stated above English Premier League has become ho hum... but having said that their wasn’t this complaint about the NBA when Jordan and the Bulls went 72-10. Having said that, Houston were a Chris Paul hamstring away from knocking GSW off this year.

The biggest mess was the salary cap rise for the 16/17 season (I think it was) - went from something like $70m to $94m in one season!

One season around 2015 or 2016 the Warriors are paying $80m (Still over the cap at that stage) and the next they are paying $111 (a 38% increase on its cap from a year ago!).

Just quietly...this is how the NBL is heading too.

Isaac...my apologies and I agree. It not only brings back that element of doubt as to who might win night in night out but it also holds coaches and front offices more accountable as they have to rely a lot more on drafting & developing talent.

You wouldn't know if some of these front offices are good at their job or not...it's too easy to just throw cash at the best players and get them on 1 team for instant success.

Jordan and pippen both part of dream team.
Rodman - one of the best rebounders and defenders in history of nba
Armstrong and grant - both all stars
Ron Harper - clippers best player before going to bulls
Kukoc- rated best euro player at the time
Longley - while overall average he was one of the best passing centres

NBA should have put a hard cap in years ago. A fundamental non-act that has resulted in what we have now.

Bulls had a lot of very good players play there during Jordan’s years there. There were not any real super teams back then but having 2 dream team players (only Utah had 2 in 92 team) was a huge advantage back then. Throw in Rodman later on and you have a team that borders on a super team. Would love to see Jordan play on a team without any other stars. Only time we really saw this was at Washington when he was out of prime.

Jordan and pippen both part of dream team.
Rodman - one of the best rebounders and defenders in history of nba
Armstrong and grant - both all stars
Ron Harper - clippers best player before going to bulls
Kukoc- rated best euro player at the time
Longley - while overall average he was one of the best passing centres

Not stacked? Your kidding.

Horace Grant and BJ Armstrong only became all-stars the year after Jordan first retired, and they only made one appearance each in their careers. The first three Bulls titles hardly came from stacked teams - it was Jordan putting on the most phenomenal Finals performances.

Looking back at that Miami team, I think they weren't quite the superteam we made out at the time.

Bosh was terribly overrated..Wade was obviously still an AS but if you look at his numbers his scoring output reduced (18ppg one year!)

The problem is as identified above GS could roll easily for the next 3 years. Id hate to see the state of the NBA if this continues. I really cant see any teams coming up in the next few years to dethrone them. Only way they go down is if they break up because of $ issues or other teams make some big FA moves

Got a respect lebron as the best player possibly ever. Cavs must be regretting not trading Irving for George when they had the chance. Now lebron basically got love and junk to carry.

Jordan has all stars in pippen Rodman grant Armstrong plus Harper and kukoc.

Warriors got 4 all stars

Spurs did it with Robinson Duncan Parker ginobli - although they got some huge draft steals. Managed to get kawhi Leonard for George hill!!!

It shows even the best players need a couple of all stars to be a championship chance.

NBA should have put a hard cap in years ago. A fundamental non-act that has resulted in what we have now.

Owners and teams will happily pay luxury tax to have a successful team as jersey sales, sponsorship and air time simply offsets the luxury tax. I mean the luxury tax can't be too much of a deterrent if team(s) are still incurring it?


Its one of the reasons I cant get too excited for the NBA results..you've got teams winning who have a $135m payroll against teams who are spending $90m. Shock Horror. Similar to thw hollow Man City EPL results. P.s. to clarify im not saying Cavs payroll is $90m.

Spurs are the all class team

Anon #691711, Durant is no way the greatest scorer of all time. Today was his highest ever playoff points total wasn't it? That says a lot

GSW need to enjoy this one .....Banners are going to be Boston green next season.

Exactly our point. It would mean less inevitability of GSW winning, i.e. more interesting.

I am neither here nor there for super stacked teams.

As a Celtics fan I got to enjoy the Boston Three Party.

Although the Miami Super-Friends ended the Boston run, they were still fun to watch and didn't have it all their own way Eg. Game 7 against SAS.

But do you guys honestly believe that the Golden State Warriors would be better (to watch, to follow) with Harrison Barnes instead of KD?

Why would anyone want Harrison Barnes on their team for $23m when you can have Kevin Durant for $25m?

You are basically saying that GSW would be 'better' if their roster was a bit shittier so the Splash Bros can do their thang.

If Harrison Barnes were on the roster, Cleveland might have won the Championship last season.

If Harrison Barnes were on the roster, Houston would be up 2-0 against Cleveland right now.

Isaac exactly - it was because GSW from being a hopeless franchise for years became the top team organically via the draft. No super team shennanigans. All of a sudden you had Klay, Curry and Green who weren't projected as stars forming an incredible team.

Then they added an unnecessary piece that took away from the Klay & Curry offensive show and further weakened other NBA teams. What a shame and a waste. Just another super team now.

I preferred the Warriors before too. They're still a superb team-oriented team, but something about the dynamic for Curry and Klay was more interesting to watch in the past.

Any championship KD gets is worth zero

"Any championship KD gets is worth zero"

This. GSW were so much more enjoyable without him and didn't need him to win titles. What a waste of talent. Worst of all he couldn't beat them when at OKC the minute after he lost to them he bails to them! Spineless!

I can see Warriors tanking next game so they can win it in front of there home fans.There's no way Warriors are sweeping 4-0 as the league won't allow it to happen(MONEY),so watch out for a lot of dodgy calls in favour of the Cavs and against the Warriors.

The Warriors have the 3 greatest shooters of all time, one of them is the greatest scorer the game has ever seen. draymond is allowed to get away with whatever he wants even when he gets a tech the refs are scared to give the next one that was clearly deserved.

Any championship KD gets is worth zero

Isaac...unfortunately Lebron is a victim of his own circumstances. I don't think the rules should be changed now just to suit him?!

durant ruined the NBA, go damn

We all know le bron is the best player going around,but,his attitude towards people stinks.

FCF...Boston were, but they were 3 guys nearing the end of their careers and that team lasted what, 2 years with 1 title?

As for the Lakers which era are you referring to?

The point still remains...in the Lebron era, teams felt they needed to follow suit to challenge where as in the era's of the Boston team other teams didn't feel they needed to go that route to be competitive.

And for those that think LBJ is the GOAT over Jordan need to refer back to some footage. Look at the defense LBJ plays against today (and often whinges) compared to that which Jordan had to endure. It was a lot more physical in Jordan's era and the rules have been changed since to allow for more free flowing offense because at the end of the day the NBA today is modelled for the spectator.

Good points. That's why MJ is the GOAT.

Isaac...unfortunately Lebron is a victim of his own circumstances. I don't think the rules should be changed now just to suit him?!

The moment he decided to start this influx of super teams over at Miami and was bragging about winning 5, 6, 7 Championships without even having played a game, he and the NBA lost me.

Lebron and loser just doesn't go in the same sentence.

I am not a LBJ fan but I recognise whe efforts he is putting in dragging this carcass of a team all the way to the GF is a huge achievement in itself.

If people only look at Lebron's GF win/loss then they are ignoring a lot of other facts.

Isaac...unfortunately Lebron is a victim of his own circumstances. I don't think the rules should be changed now just to suit him?!

The moment he decided to start this influx of super teams over at Miami and was bragging about winning 5, 6, 7 Championships without even having played a game, he and the NBA lost me.

Other teams had no choice but to build super teams of their own in order to compete. The amusing thing is, the Warriors predominantly drafted their team unlike Miami at the time.

This super team era has diluted the talent pool & made the NBA predictable and boring, in my opinion.

Those in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

NBA is loving this as this means LeBron will have to bail on the Cavs they can't get the pieces around him that he needs to compete vs. GSW. At least the drama of where he goes during this off season is going to make up for the boring outcome of this NBA season. KD ruined everything.

My heart breaks for Lebron.

My yawn is for the inevitability of this series.

Totally agree re: LeBron what else can he do vs. these stackers.

Also savage.

Ah, the brilliant specimen of human that is "The bear" who can't appreciate that someone just played 47 minutes, had a 33/10/11 triple double with a couple of steals and a couple of blocks, and couldn't get his outclassed team over the line. Who can't appreciate that the opposition is stacked so much rules should be changed to prevent their assembling (two MVPs, a Finals MVP and a DPOTY, oh and a guy who scored 37 points in a single quarter). Who can't find a decent way to express their opinion. And who can't remember the difference between "your" and "you're".

Loser, indeed. Your ursine pals would be proud.

There was nothing about that KD dagger that was yawn. Absolutely savage.

*YAWN*

Which team will be the tallest overall?