It’s the worst kept secret. Lebron owns 2 houses in LA. PG is coming too. We did it boys! #kobe

The point is the reason they didn't have a lot more equity is because it's really hard to win against great teams when you have a extremely high usage chucker as your #1 or #2 option.

If you look at the top 12 highest usage players all time, the ones that do and don't have a title are pretty easy to delineate between those who are efficient and those that are not.

1) MJ-33.26-57% TS% regular/57% post
2) RWB-32.7-53%/51%
3) DMC-31.98-54%/never played in the playoffs
4) KB-31.85-55%/54%
5) AI-31.83-52%/49%
6) Wade-31.6-56%/55%
7) LBJ-31.54-58.6%/58%
8) Carmelo-30.88-54%/51%
9) Wilkins-30.27-54%/51%
10) KD-30.25-61%/59%
11) Gervin-29.63-56%/56%
12) Shaq-29.48-58%/57%

Other than Gervin, all the other dudes who have 56%+TS% in the postseason/regular season have titles at this high a usage rate. Kobe is on the low end but obviously played with Shaq. It's hard to win titles with high usage, low TS% stars.

bah. not sure i can support him on the lakers....crossing my fingers it isn't true.

Yeah, we agree, it's hard to win titles with high usage/low TS players. I just don't see the point in using the results of OKC's run to help conclude this. They could've easily won 2+ titles with better injuy luck and different outcomes in a few close games, but then we'd just be saying "but Russ played with KD" just like Kobe playing with Shaq.

I'm just tired of everyone concluding that the KD/Russ combo was a failure and they couldn't win together just because they actually didn't win a title. To me it's almost as lazy as saying Kobe is better than Lebron because he has more rings. I was just trying to make this point, I didn't even mean to specifically reply to you.

It's honestly hard to win a title with just 2 stars nowadays no matter how good they are. The minimum seems to be 3 guys in their prime who are AS/HOF level (Heat/Cavs) or more (GSW). Not sure how to properly evaluate SAS but I'm guessing most would have it more in the 3 range than 4.

KD/RWB equity would have been much higher if they found a way to keep Harden IMO especially if RWD could find a way to defer a little more to KD/Harden as the efficient scoring duo (likely the best all time especially for wing players).

In the 90s and early 2000s you could win titles with just 2 big time stars albeit in both cases you had 2 top 25 players all time (Chicago/Houston/LAL). Boston created the big 4, LAL's later two titles really had 3 stars + Odom.

The # of stars needed really is dependent on what the rest of the league has and basically having 1 more. Boston/LAL had what 3/4 stars in the 80s.

A year or two ago he bought a 20 million dollar house in Brentwood.

My friend had been convinced for a good week that LeBron was going to the Lakers. I'm gonna have to give him props.

Now it'll be exciting to see what else happens. PG13 (Lakers #13 is Wilt's retired number) coming along, possible signing of Nerlens Noel, what they do with Randle, unloading of Deng's contract, do they keep Lonzo, do they try and trade their youth for Kawhi, etc.

I wonder why the Knicks' odds improved to +750 (and 3rd best odds).

I did some googling and couldn't find a reason why.

I created an NBA Offseason thread:
https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/4.../#post53922648