I think that this lineup could have beaten the Heat -
Rondo, Stephenson, Pierce, Bass, and Garnett, with Ray as the 6th man because of his injury. We would have beaten them with Bradley, and I see no reason why Lance could not have contributed the same, or more, on both ends. Unlike Avery, Stephenson can guard Lebron and Wade, and, coupled with the contributions of Pietrus, I think that we could have done it, with or without Bosh from game 1, because we were beating Miami convincingly with Bradley. Thoughts?
I fully agree. Bradley's absence really cost us that series against Miami. Ray was absolutely useless and the whole year was just bad as far as injuries go but it was sure a heck of a ride that year. Heck, didn't Steimer only play limited minutes in the playoff due to injury? I swear he was injured as well. Or maybe I'm thinking Kristic of the year before.
I don't know if Ray was useless, because he did a pretty good job on Wade, but his bone spurs sure as hell didn't help us, and we still came back from 0-2. Everyone talks about Lebron's game 6 performance (and rightfully so), but our guys had no legs and our strategy didn't change (thanks Doc!). That game was still very doable, with Rondo answering Lebron, but, and, admittedly, I just thought of this lol, do you think that the result would have been different if we'd changed the defensive matchups, ie, putting Bass on Lebron, Pierce on Wade, and Ray on Battier? As we saw in game 7, Bass more than held James in check in the first half, and that might have been all we needed. I know that everyone wants to trade the guy, but I wish that people would appreciate Bass's contributions over the past 3 seasons. Watching him stop Melo and Lebron, combined with his automatic midrange game, great free throw shooting, and outstanding speed, lateral quickness, and athleticism that allows him to finish in traffic against size (Bynum and Gasol), I really wish that we could have had him in 09-10, instead of Davis. Bass was a free agent that year and had played tremendously against Melo (surprise, surprise) and Denver in the 2009 postseason, he didn't punch his friend and miss the first two months of the year, and he's never had a weight problem. His ability on both ends might have been the difference that year, but I still think we needed more off the bench, which could have been had for close to nothing, quite honestly (I'll have to make a thread about this later). We would not have been an elite defensive team in 11-12 without Brandon Bass. Period.
As for Steimsma (why does everyone call him steamer, btw?), I don't think he was hurt, so you're probably confusing him with Krstic, who, I always thought, didn't play a lot because of his severe defensive deficiencies.