They did it because their big guys sucked actually. They didn't want to. They kept trying to find a post player. Remember Curry/Oden/Andersen? Lebron and Wade had to play in the post because they couldn't pay a decent post player to come there after the Heatles ate up the entire salary cap. Doh!
Nonsense. They did it specifically because Wade wasn't a floor spacer and needed the ball in his hands, whereas Bosh was capable of functioning as a spot-up big. Hint: that's exactly why Bosh's role on offense became increasingly marginalized and drew him further away from the basket.
The comparison isn't silly. You disagree with it which is fine. Unfortunately you just unilaterally pan the suggestion without any support for your claims. "They don't have it in their game." Like it's a recipe and you're tasting for the subtle hints of coriander. Did you mean they lack the ability to play small ball? Well the small ball unit from last season (Durant-Sefolosha-Westbrook-Ibaka-Jackson) was a +50. Much better than the Durant-Sefolosha-Westbrook-Ibaka-Perkins unit at -15. Seems like they might have it in their games eh?
Westbrook and Durant don't have the post games of Wade and LeBron. Am I supposed to provide numbers showing that Westbrook and Durant can't post-up to the same level of Wade and LeBron? Watch the tape. Their post games aren't as advanced. That's clearly what I'm referring to, considering, you know, I even said that "Wade and LeBron do the work down low for Miami."
Please explain why a very talented NBA starting SF wouldn't improve OKC. You might be right but I would have no idea because you don't say why.
"I actually mentioned that. It was my second sentence. Did you not make it to the second sentence?"
Very solid logic. I'm sure that Corey Brewer should be a better player than Anthony Davis because he's been in the league longer.
This would be a useful snide rebuttal if, you know, Corey Brewer and Anthony Davis were both regarded as role playing prospects. But nice attempt at a red herring. B+ for effort.
Perkins wasn't the primary post player. Actually Durant was their primary post player, not only in shots taken in the paint but also in percentage of shots made in the paint. Perk shot 48% in the pain while Durant put in 65% of his baskets.
... that does not mean Durant is the primary post player. Durant's not primarily getting fed the ball in the low-post and he's most certainly not parking himself around the basket on offense.
Klay Thompson would improve the Celtics. He's a really good player. If I grant you that our biggest problem is the lack of a true starting center, even then I don't think that is our only problem. I'm not going to say that Klay would make as good as say, Anthony Davis. I am going to say that both players would significantly improve our roster and our talent level. This just seems obvious. Why talk about these things like they're mutually exclusive?
Klay Thompson would be the best shooting guard on this roster. Klay Thompson wouldn't change the fact that the Celtics would continue to have very weak interior defense. It's a very simple concept. They'd have a solid shooting guard who's still one less guy who can help stop shots at the rim.
I guess if OKC thinks that Adams is their long term solution in the post then maybe they wouldn't want to trade him. I have no idea why they'd think that. He had worse numbers Tyler Zeller did last season.
Gee, I dunno, maybe it has something to do with the fact that
his numbers were already largely better than those of their current starting center, despite the fact that Adams was a 20-year-old rookie? Or maybe it has to do with
observable improvements during the playoffs in his defense and tenacity? Or maybe it has to do with
observable improvements in his game during summer league? Or perhaps it's his
on-going performance in preseason, where he's showcasing a veritable offensive game, including last night's game where he scored 12 straight points to bring the Thunder from deficit of 11 to a lead of 1?
Couldn't even begin to possibly fathom why the Thunder might be thinking he's the center of the future.
Also, did you even look at those stats you just linked to? Or did you merely note that Adams scored fewer points (... on fewer shots) on lower percentages with a lower PER than Zeller just to make the ridiculous generalization that "he had worse numbers than Tyler Zeller did last season"? Because, if you look at them, you see that - *gasp* - there are certain areas Adams did better in (ORtg/DRtg differential, blocks, offensive rebounding, and so on). Meaning... that link doesn't prove much of anything you seem to be implying. Zeller had better numbers in some regards, Adams had better numbers in other regards. Whoopty-doo.
Correlation doesn't not equal causation. Trading Jeff Green and the rise in Ibaka's numbers might have happened at roughly the same time (it didn't actually but whatever) but that doesn't mean it was the cause of it. His scoring actually went down slightly the next year, his rebounds remained the same and his mpg remained the same. The 2012-13 season is actually when Ibaka became a noticeably better player for OKC and that corresponded with the trading of James Harden.
Let me guess: you say 2012-13 is when Ibaka became "noticeably better" because he got more shots and thus scored more than he did in 2011-12. Which is why Steven Adams also had generally "worse" numbers than Tyler Zeller, right?
(Because, otherwise, there's no improvements in his stats from 2011-12 to 2012-13 that are particularly any more notable than the improvements observed from 2009-10 to 2010-11, 2010-11 to 2011-12, and 2012-13 to 2013-14.)
It's cool that you know the phrase "correlation does not equal causation," I guess.
So Denied...I guess. Ibaka could easily play along side Green right now. Actually it would be amazing to watch. See, we can all say things with no evidence to back up our claims. It's easy!
The fact that you can't understand what I'm saying as it pertains to OKC because you don't actually pay enough attention to the Thunder beyond being able to read Basketball Reference numbers is no fault of mine.