You have nothing to back up you're claim of Butler being a good defender other than a SB Nation article that the writer claimed that the undersized SF in Caron Butler was "supposed to be their defensive stopper". Not even a quote from Carlisle or anyone in the organization. You have no basis for your claim, and then when I back up my argument with some substance, you claim it's "misleading" and "defense can't be measure with stats". Well, it shouldn't have to be. For someone that claims to have watched that Dallas team as much as anyone, you should be able to realize that Marion, Kidd, and Chandler brought much more to the defensive end than Caron fucking Butler.
Dirk wasn't Top 5 in MVP voting that year. But dude, I think we agree on more than you think. I thought that Dallas team was awesome. And I loved all the players you mentioned. I think their sweep of the Lakers was my favorite playoff series of all time, including anything the Blazers have done.
Exactly. Our team was no longer a playoff contender once Wes went down. We essentially lost our 1st and 2nd string SGs to injury, and already didn't have a lot of depth (I know Afflalo played, but his shoulder was fucked and he wasn't the same).
Yet, his Per 36 stats we're basically identical to the year he won MVP.
This is the funniest quote from this argument.
Our third string SG, CJ McCollum was awesome. We should've been able to at least compete in the series but Aldridge and Batum were garbage and that had nothing to do with Wes being hurt.
Derrick Rose won MVP easily. And when Dirk DID win MVP, his team got bounced in the first round by an 8 seed in 6 games. Not very MVP like.
Even if Batum and Aldridge played well, do you really think we were gonna win that series? We let Beno Udrih demolish us. Hmm... Maybe not having our best perimeter defender was part of that problem?
So? You're the one using MVP voting to determine whether a player was playing at an MVP level or not.
Oh my gosh, Udrih TOTALLY dominated us. I was at that first game. It was ridiculous. But if Batum and Aldridge play well, of course we win especially when you see how well CJ and Meyers played. That series was why Meyers got his money. The following year, he was injured in the playoffs so that summer I think Neil was actually giving 2015 Meyers the money but he's never played like that since. Sucks.
Absolutely. But doesn't change that Rose ran away with the award in the voting. It was basically best player on best team though. Chicago had a better record than Miami and LeBron had Wade. So it made sense.
this
No, we don't win if they play well. We got blown out in Memphis both games. Yes the series probably goes 6, and maybe 7, but you're also ignoring the context of Memphis being a GREAT defensive team that regularly held stars in check and made players like Batum and Aldridge struggle. That's a credit to Memphis. We weren't as good as them, and we couldn't win the ugly, low-scoring games because we didn't have Wes, who is the type of player that excels in those type of games.
Ehh, his team defense wasn't great though, was it? And he regressed the year before he got hurt. I'm not even saying he was a bad defender, he just wasn't a great defender like Marion, Kidd, and Chandler, which is what makes them better players than Butler, why they were able to absorb his loss, and why we couldn't (we didn't have players like that).
Back when everybody and their mama's were rated 80+ in 2K.
If that's the case, then we agree. I was looking at your posts above about "waaay overrated" and stuff and just wanted to poke in. Prime Chandler and back-end-of-prime Marion were good on D, no doubt. And Caron had come from a supremely dysfunctional situation in WAS for the last couple of years before the trade, so I don't doubt that his team D stats may suffer (Flip wasn't Thibodeaux on D anyway, even if people like Jamison and Arenas and Stevenson were fired up for D, which they weren't).
He was talking as if he compared to Marion and Chandler, who were lockdown/great all-NBA defenders. Caron was decent, but no where close to Kidd (people forget just how good he was on that end), Marion, or Chandler.
Congrats it only took you a month to figure this out!
Sir, you aren't allowed a conjugal visit until you have 5K posts!
