NBA Season 15-16: General Thread

[MavzMan]

OKC lacked the maturity to close out the series under a massive amount of pressure. You can't put the blame solely on one person but the majority definitely resides on Durant. I do agree with the TNT crew that KD would be stupid to leave given what they've built there and the quality of still young players. Honestly, I'm sure GSW will make a pitch to him, but he doesn't really fit with the rest of their team and may actually hurt more than help.

[TripleDipping]

Originally Posted by MavzMan

OKC lacked the maturity to close out the series under a massive amount of pressure. You can't put the blame solely on one person but the majority definitely resides on Durant. I do agree with the TNT crew that KD would be stupid to leave given what they've built there and the quality of still young players. Honestly, I'm sure GSW will make a pitch to him, but he doesn't really fit with the rest of their team and may actually hurt more than help.

But how much maturity period you can give a team? This OKC core (minus Harden) has been essentially there since '11 when Mavs beat them in conference finals. And you can draw similarities to the '11 WCF and '16 WCF: got close but not close enough and when the pressure mounted in a crucial game, they resorted to chucking bad shots or committed turnovers. The only difference is that both Westbrook's clothing and thrashtalking got louder over the years.

[tap2390]

Originally Posted by MavzMan

OKC lacked the maturity to close out the series under a massive amount of pressure. You can't put the blame solely on one person but the majority definitely resides on Durant. I do agree with the TNT crew that KD would be stupid to leave given what they've built there and the quality of still young players. Honestly, I'm sure GSW will make a pitch to him, but he doesn't really fit with the rest of their team and may actually hurt more than help.

I wouldn't say the majority of the blame is on Durant. He definitely needs to be more assertive at times, but Westbrook's ill-advised shots often results in a complete turnaround in momentum. Not to mention all the missed wide open shots by Roberson (2-11) and Waiters (2-9), both of whom combined to miss all 9 threes they took. And don't get me started on Donovan's rotation. Thunder were at their best when they moved the ball and had Adams or Kanter down low to clean up. I get that they wanted to make sure they were able to switch picks but you can't let the Warriors dictate what sort of game you're playing or you've already lost. 35 minutes for both Kanter and Adams is just not good coaching.