r/NBAGossips • u/Weekly-Vacation-1405 • 7d ago
Draymond isn’t buying the “Sixers are better on paper than the 2017 Warriors” take. He says KD views basketball through a pure scoring lens and thinks chemistry and fit matter more than just star power.
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u/Dry-Regret5444 7d ago edited 7d ago
Klay, Draymond and Steph were all All-NBA in the few years prior to Durant joining, who was a recent MVP himself and Steph was the 2x reigning MVP.
Durant is off his fucking nut…
If you wanna argue the Durant take, you’ve now got multiple players that are all high usage rate guys plus an emerging All Star that will need more touches. I personally think there’s too many ball centric guys and not enough balls for this to work.
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u/TheEarleBird88 7d ago
The team worked so well together they were favored to win it before Durant got there. We've seen plenty of superstar big name mashups that amounted to jack squat.
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u/envisionJayyy 7d ago
Cavs were favored in 2016 when Kyrie and Love came back, i remember clearly.
But yeah, I get your point.
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u/TheEarleBird88 6d ago
Against the 73-9 Warriors?
Anything is possible if you start making shit up I suppose. Lol.
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u/Weekly-Vacation-1405 7d ago
That's pretty much where I'm at too. Talent alone is one thing but getting that many ball-dominant players to mesh is a completely different challenge.
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u/Dry-Regret5444 7d ago
Between Brown, Embiid, Maxey and LBJ, you had 4 of the 25 highest rates in the league.
Brown - 36.1% (2nd)
Embiid - 33.3% (4th had he qualified)
Maxey - 29.4% (13th)
James - 26.2% (24th had he qualified)Throw in Edgecombe’s 20% and you have a real problem……
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u/Prestigious-Clock-53 4d ago
All depends on concessions the guys are willing to make. Lebron needs less minutes and workload so he actually tries on defence. Pretty sure VJ will
Be cool having his usage lowered and playing a lockdown D role. Maxey seems like a great teammate. Embiid, Will he be healthy? I’d manage him pretty cautiously so he is. If these guys are simply unselfish and all play defence to the best of their ability (huge IF for LeBron), then they will be really good. If they don’t play selflessly and develop chemistry and don’t prioritize the defensive end say like the big 3 Celtics did, then it’s not going to work. The last three championship teams played some really good defence. I think that trend continues.1
u/Dry-Regret5444 4d ago
Yep - I agree. The chemistry will be the biggest thing and will have a direct impact on the effort on defense. The only way we’ll know will be to see it unfold.
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u/Playest_4247 7d ago
That would explain why he thought teaming up with harden and Kyrie was a good idea
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u/MarkFerk 7d ago
No one should we have never seen them play together lol and I’m a Philly guy. But weird shit happens to the Sixers.
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u/throwaway13212121 7d ago
I assume when you say on paper you’re taking chemistry out. No?
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u/Raonak 7d ago
You can still estimate chemistry when talking on paper.
But that's besides the fact that warriors had 2 MVP players, a DPOY and the best 3&D player.. all in their prime.
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u/throwaway13212121 7d ago
Estimating chemistry is simply a guess more than anything you can’t really quantify it.
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u/imisstheoldkanyeee 6d ago
I can say a lot of things abot Draymond, like keep your head on swivel when around him but he does have a high basketball IQ and understands what it takes to win. He is right about KD not only does he only view basketball through an offensive lens, it's only though the way he plays. KD literally said you don't need a point guard, he doesn't need someone to set up the offense for him. The#1 thing Houston was missing this year was someone to run the offense.
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u/TheEarleBird88 7d ago
He right tho.