Quote:
Originally Posted by Assani Fisher
I don't. Curry/Wade/Bosh plus role players is gonna be really bad defensively.
You're claiming you ignore box score stats and focus on team basketball, yet your analysis seems to be so focused on the offensive end. Steph is an average defender and can only guard one position. Durant is a great defender who can guard 4 positions and can help protect the rim.
But PG defense matters so much less, and you can still have the #1 defense ITL with Steph, so I don't think that argument matters as much as has been cited. What do you think of the following argument that I posted earlier?
I don't think the line has to be superteam, in terms of having other superstars, it just has to have other regular stars. For example, on the 2015 Warriors, if you replace Curry with Durant, which team would be better?
Curry/Klay/Iggy/Dray/Bogut
Livingston/Klay/Durant/Dray/Bogut
Or smaller units of:
Curry/Klay/Barnes/Iggy/Dray
Livingston/Klay/Iggy/Durant/Dray
I would say that the Curry team is better. The defense of 2015 Klay/Iggy/Dray/Bogut is just so filthy that I'd want Curry's offensive orchestration, shooting, gravity, spacing, etc. Basically, the defense is already so good that you want Curry's offense. The offense wouldn't be nearly as good with Durant.
And you're not just trading Curry for Durant, it's more like Curry+Iggy for Livingston+Durant, due to the lineups you would use for a large number of minutes. There's such a large dropoff in 3's from Curry+Iggy to Livingston+Durant, as well as ball movement, spacing, etc. And the defense is arguably not even any better, you're not really going from Curry to Durant on D, you're going from Curry to Livingston, and Iggy to Durant, which is arguably worse.
The above even applies to LeBron, if you switched Curry for LeBron on that team, I don't think the defense would improve as much as people have said earlier itt about a similar situation. The Warriors already had the #1 defense in the league, and as mentioned, Klay/Iggy/Dray/Bogut is fantastic defensively. Changing that to Klay/LeBron/Dray/Bogut doesn't move the needle as much as Curry+Iggy vs Livingston+LeBron moves the needle offensively, ball movement, 3's, spacing, etc.