OKC Thunder make NBA finals (Seattle: between, great, owners)

[YouJustHatetheTruth]

Originally Posted by civic94

apparantly people "kingged" lebron before he played 1 nba game. He does have to prove to everyone he is king. OKC in 5 or 6. the thunder is too complete of a team not to beat the heat's 2 and a half men.

Yup. That is, of course, the other reason the Heat won't win. Outside Lebron and Wade (and the still-injured Chris Bosh), the Heat don't have any other roleplayers. They are -- quite literally -- a team built on three big names, with very little in the way of a supporting cast.

Now, you could argue that that can work. I mean, Boston took a much older big three and won a championship a few years back (was that 2008?). But -- and this is key -- Boston's big three actually worked well together. IE, between Garnet's inside presence, Pierce's slashing ability, and Allen's sniper's eye for the three ball, they weren't stepping on each other's toes. Lebron and Wade have done little else than that for the past two years.

So, yeah, OKC is a complete team, and complete teams win championships. I also, frankly, think Durant is a better player than Lebron. I mean, three shooting titles in the past three years for someone that young says a lot. Damnit, why can't they still be wearing Sonics colors?

[civic94]

Originally Posted by YouJustHatetheTruth

Now, you could argue that that can work. I mean, Boston took a much older big three and won a championship a few years back (was that 2008?). But -- and this is key -- Boston's big three actually worked well together. IE, between Garnet's inside presence, Pierce's slashing ability, and Allen's sniper's eye for the three ball, they weren't stepping on each other's toes. Lebron and Wade have done little else than that for the past two years.

I was born in boston and moved to seattle for 12 yrs, im a big celtics fan, I gotta admit, I didnt believe the celtics was going to win over the lakers in 08, but the celtics absolutely lucked out with rondo and perkins. rondo is really good point guard that makes the right passes, allen is the three point king, pierce can create his own shot, KG is KG, and perkins had the big body down there that plays hard defence. Boston had a complete team, when they traded al jefferson as part of the deal with garnett, they traded youth for veteran, to win now instead of wait. They thought jefferson was a 20 and 10 guy, which he was, for 1 season.


the heat, really lacks a PG, Center, and a bench.

[W & C]

Did anyone hear David Stern's meltdown on Jim Rome's show earlier today ?

The sooner this egomaniac retires as commissioner, the better off the Association will be

[Apathizer]

Originally Posted by YouJustHatetheTruth

So, yeah, OKC is a complete team, and complete teams win championships.

The Thunder do have one weakness: Low-post scoring. Fortunately for them it's also a (more significant) weakness for the Heat. This is the first Finals I remember seeing in quite a while where neither team has a strong low post game.

For the Heat this weakness didn't prevent them from making it to the Finals because no one else in the East has much of a low-post game either. At this point in his career KG doesn't dominate the post like he used to.

I'm surprised the Thunder made it to the Finals considering they went through The Lakers and Spurs - two teams with decent low-post scoring and great half-court offense (esp the Spurs).

In terms of low-post, half-court execution, neither the Thunder nor Heat is that great. But the Thunder have so many players who can score in every other way they're able to overcome this, esp Durant: I saw most of the Western Con. Finals and he made so many difficult, contested shots - he just killed the Spurs in game 4.

I'm surprised so many people originally picked the Heat to win this series. Both teams are very similar, but to me the Thunder just looks like a superior, younger version of the Heat. [Or you could say the Heat is a weaker version of the Thunder.]

[pw72]

The next three are in Miami. I see Miami taking 2 of them and winning in of all places, OKC. Absolutely no disrespect to the fans who have no blame in all this, but Bennett deserves to lose on his highly prized home court.

[pw72]

And Miami takes game 3, so 2-1. I will still maintain that the Heat will take 2 out of 3 in Miami, and will win it in OKC.

Seattle fans should take this series as incentive to bring a new NBA team to the city. And they will be called "The Sonics", probably by the 2013-14 season, or at the worst, the 2014-15 season. Mark my words!

[W & C]

Lebron sure seems to be determined. KD and Westbrook may have to wait another year, again. IMO, they have a better team now, but if Lebron is hungry enough, he can rip it from them

[beenhereandthere]

Originally Posted by eddie gein

As a native Oklahoman I watched the documentary and really didn't learn anything new about the situation other than he loss of the 30 million in the settlement.

I think the most succinct perspective came from the Donaldson guy (Seattle Center) who said that Bennett took a calculated risk that Seattle and the state of Washington wouldn't build a new building.

It is important to note that OKC built an NBA ready arena on it's own back without even having a team. I think Bennett knew after seeing the Hornets in OKC when they were there that NBA would work in OKC.

From my perspective I truly believe that Bennett would have been forced to stay in Seattle had the arena been built. In that way Bennett couldn't lose in this deal. Have a nice shiny building in a big time market, or have a team in his home town that was begging for a professional franchise.

With no arena on the horizon what should Bennett have done to suit Seattle Sonic fans?

In the end I don't understand why people in Seattle are so angry with Bennett when this whole thing could have been avoided with the funding a new arena.

Shultz might not have sold; Bennett would not have been interested or perhaps would have been forced to stay; A local buyer might have been interested so that Shultz might have not have had to sell to Bennett.

Come on. All the proposals that Bennett offered to local governments around here, never specified, how much he and his goons were willing to put in. That's why they all got shot down.
Any effort to try to defend Bennett is really a stretch.

[pw72]

Heat win again, now 3-1. Very rare for a team to come back down 3-1, so I'm convinced OKC will lose either in Miami on Thursday, or at home. (Kind of rooting for the home loss as mentioned earlier).

[Howest2008]

Originally Posted by pw72

Heat win again, now 3-1. Very rare for a team to come back down 3-1, so I'm convinced OKC will lose either in Miami on Thursday, or at home. (Kind of rooting for the home loss as mentioned earlier).

LBJ ..D Wade....C Bosh and role players are as hungry as straving LIONS , in other words they are desperate every moment that they are on the court. If OKC doesn't make theirs " free throws " and knock down" wide open shoots " they are history for this season. KD...Westbrook...Hardin didn't know how hard it is to win a NBA Finals Tittle and now they do , they are 22 and 23 years old and aren't OUT Hustling Miami " old aging super stars " OKC just isn't desperate and hungry enought to make " the 50/50 plays" and get the "tip ball plays" and" loose balls plays" .....OKC would've SWEEPTH MIAMI 4 - 0 had they made theirs FREE THROWS and wide open shots.