ya, streaky isnt the right word I would use to describe our team last year..
the first half, yes we were a sub .500 team....but winning 70% of our games to end the season and playing some of the best defense of the big 3 era is not streaky....in the end injuries/age just got to us.
if we go on another 60-70% win streak once bradley comes back, I think we would be contenders then as well.
That statement is good to pick out, because itīs one of the arguments I meant that I donīt want to get into.
No, it wasnīt just us being streaky, itīs never just one thing.
And we didnīt just win because AB was an "impact player" all of a sudden. If anything, Docīs stroke of genius to change our set-up completely mid-way through the season played as much of a role as the turn-around of individual players for one last hurrah after hitting rock bottom. Teams had to figure us out once again, an advantage that quickly vanished once we were locked into a 7 game series with a good team. It might sound cliche, but most of the game is still played in the head.
Exactly one year ago, everyone and their mother called Bradley a bust. Then he played a few months, was injured, now heīs the saviour. Youīre in for a rude awakening.
That even a smart guy like Who considers AB a solution to our problems after only 4 months of NBA play is all you need to know...and I like Bradley as much as the next guy.
You remember Rodney Stuckey? He was the saviour for that 2010 Pistons team.
Isnīt it funny that now that all the excuses of last season are null and void, ABīs absence is the best we got?
I also donīt want to get into all the other reasons why bringing up a percentage win record for the closing games of a shortened season is also nonsensical.
in the end injuries/age just got to us.
Yeah, who wouldīve thought?
Itīs almost as if regular season wins donīt matter at all. Oh wait, they donīt.
In my opinion, that is exactly the kind of twisted narrative that leads to this assertion that "we still got it". Age isnīt going away. Injuries are more likely to get to us than other teams. Other teams lost their star players at just the right time, we lost only bench players, yet itīs apparently a viable argument to say we still got it because we made it to the ECF, and even worse, to extrapolate our luck last season into this season.
These discussions are a textbook example of how even well-managed teams find themselves in the middle of a 10-year-rebuild plan all of a sudden. You canīt be a bit over the hill, just like you canīt be a bit pregnant.