PeakMcOil
Loyal To The Oil
- Jul 25, 2008
- 3,709
- 753
Pretty simple, who comes out of the East this year?
If I had to put money on a team, it'd be Boston.
If I had to put money on a team, it'd be Boston.
The Raptors have far and away the best player in the Eastern Conference, while also having arguably the best bench. I can see Kawhi getting the Raptors over the hump and into the Finals.
Even when healthy and motivated Kawhi is not far and away better than Kyrie and maybe not guys like Tatum, Simmons and Embid depending their development.
Disagree with all of this.
The key word is far and away.
Kyrie is at worst the 10th best player in the league a guy who is 4-6th best isn’t far away better than that.
And as mentioned that is when he is healthy and motivated which there are reasons to believe he isn’t.
It's semantics, so fair enough.
Kawhi is clearly the better player. I'm not worried about the motivation this season. He has to play well to get paid and get to wherever he wants to go.
Lakers will give him the max unless he is seriously injured.
He doesn’t need to go all out to get paid and if that was his concern he should have signed with the Spurs to get way more money than he will going this route.
He basically sat all last year. The lakers would be dumb to pay him full max if he did that again or came back and didn't look good.
There's never been motivation issues with Kawhi Leonard - that was just something drummed up by San Antonio media/fans once the whole injury issues began.Even when healthy and motivated Kawhi is not far and away better than Kyrie and maybe not guys like Tatum, Simmons and Embid depending their development.
There's never been motivation issues with Kawhi Leonard - that was just something drummed up by San Antonio media/fans once the whole injury issues began.
Now, his health is definitely a question - however, IF he's fully healthy there is no doubt in my mind he is the 2nd best player in the world behind LeBron James. I think the gap between Leonard and Irving, with both healthy, is extremely significant and even more so compared to players like Tatum and Simmons.
Are people seriously forgetting just how good Kawhi Leonard is because they haven't seen him play in a season?
This is the dude that was averaging 26/6/4 with 2 steals shooting 49% from the field while being the best defensive player in the league.
I'm as leery of his injury issues as anyone else, but to me he is the clear-cut second best player in the world.
The gap isn't big between the two teams.It doesn't matter. Toronto still isn't anywhere close to Boston's level. Boston is unfairly stacked.
I just haven't seen a single thing from him that would have me rate him over Durant, in fact as I said I don;t think it is very close at all and that Kawai would be behind probably Harden and Curry for me as well but at least with them there is an argument.
It has nothing to do with not remembering his play and everything to do with Durant being a better player.
I could be wrong but I think you would be in the vast minority who had Leonard over KD. I can't think of a single reputable person that has made that argument. Even amongst the TO super homer media guys.
Even when healthy and motivated Kawhi is not far and away better than Kyrie and maybe not guys like Tatum, Simmons and Embid depending their development.