Agreed about Duncan, he was still the best player on the Spurs in 2007.. But shows you strength of those teams.. If you recall Duncan after a great first 2 games, struggled shooting the ball out in Cleveland. I mean Duncan shot 4/15 in the closeout game 4.. Tony was brilliant in that series. Averaging 25 PTS on 57%.. So it just shows you how well rounded those Spurs teams were.. Good for us.. We got 5 rings..
Lowry has taken his own hits from fans, and the media for failing to step up in the playoffs before last season. The Raps with DD were flawed, and the East was weak, but Spurs fans seem to give him unwarranted . He is not KL, obviously he can't replace a top 3 player in the league. But You are the high scorer on a team that is winning 59 games, you are a winning player.. He is losing to Lebron and the Cavs.. For me Winning is not just about did you get the ring? It's hard when you are such a central focus is mostly my point. People undervalue that.. There is only 1 champion each year..
Of course, and I have tried to give that context.. Some players have been blessed with a great situation, coaches, team-mates. Others have not.. So looking at things like All NBA selections, MVP Awards, Reg season success, playoff runs etc are factored in. How much help do you have? And what are you up against? What is your role?Context is key to everything. Just spouting so and so has "(insert however many rings)" or "won an MVP(s)/Finals MVP(s)" or "averaged 25 a game" or whatever, doesn't mean a whole lot.
Take S bag, for example. He undeservingly wins his first Finals MVP as a role player on an all-time great team, in what was essentially a nod to James. Then his second, he intentionally destroys his value to the point of a trade occurring and team forming that never would have otherwise, then lucks into the best team in the league have 5 of their top 7 (including best player) injured in the Finals and now all of a sudden he's made out to be unassailable.
He is an asshole.. But he did deserve the finals MVP.. Played very well out in Miami in the games 3 and 4 blowouts.. I wanted Tim to get that badly, because he would have got the 2013 Finals MVP.. But I'll take the chip.. The Asshole helped..
Perfect example. Duncan was easily the best player and the real Finals was the WCSF (Suns). If the league had playoffs MVP instead of Finals MVP, like they should, Duncan wins hands down. If we're going to play the Finals MVP game though, we all know Ginobili had a case in '05. So had the arbitrary vote went his way and not Parker's, would that mean the former was "carrying the team" at a time and the latter wasn't? That's nonsense.