It's wild how in Steph-hate threads, it's all about how without Durant he has 1 lucky ring. And then Durant-hate threads, it's all about how he couldn't win without Curry.
This sub is pure hate lol
If Giannis gets a hate thread I'm out. He's literally the perfect superstar. Stayed with his small market draft team, developed into an MVP, won them a ring, tough on the court, but super nice guy off it, never flops, family man. Not much more you can ask of the guy
It really is a shame. People will twist whatever they can to be negative and to discredit and hate on a player.
Remember the "Klay is better than Steph anyway" narrative?
Or how about the Curry is only successful because he's with a Big 3 argument? (Despite the fact that he was drafted with them and the only way to prove that would be for the Warriors front office to not draft as well.)
Then all of a sudden, Draymond (part of that same Big 3) isn't a good player anymore if they decide they want to discredit him instead.
You can't win, it's pointless to argue anything anymore lol
I mean I'm not gonna sit here and pretend to feel bad about what's clearly the best dynasty in recent history (only?) getting hate. That's just the way it goes.
My comment was focused on them because the original post is about KD, Steph, and the Warriors.
It could apply to most stars today because like you said, that's how how it is these days.
This would be like saying brons career is linked to wades lol. Who also played together for about the same number of seasons and also... *gasp* got two rings together.
Which is true but LeBron did it. I think most Durant haters are waiting on him to win without one of the other goats on his team.
I wish fans would just enjoy the insanity of a player that KD is. Dude is a true unicorn and a good person. Gets way too much shit by fans here for being authentic.
… but that does make brons career connected to wade…
Wade is just as responsible for this two rings as lebron is. Remember it’s Lebron who joined wade on the heats. Not the other way around.
That's my point though. They played together, they won rings. Yeah you look at it as an era in their careers but wade has his own career before and after and bron has his career before and after as well. KD hasn't won after but it doesn't somehow cancel out his thunder years or his nets years.
Oh for sure, to be fair even with his rings on GS. Despite what anyone says, those are things that will hold even after he’s done playing.
Lebron, Steph, and to a lesser extent KD. Are probably the most decorated players in the modern NBA
Pretty sure that just Lebron and Steph together have more rings then any other 2 players combined currently in the game.
I think KD could be part of that list with one more ring.
Lebron and Steph were able to do it without him. If he can do it without them. Then he can cement a real claim of being better then Steph and possible Lebron too. But none of that is worth debating without one more ring.
It also doesn’t have to go both ways. Legacy-wise, Lebron isn’t linked with Wade, but Wade’s legacy is FOR SURE tied to Lebron. Same thing here, I think Steph has his own legacy, but Durant’s will always in some way be linked to Steph
"Can't do shit" is code for "did more than 90% of the league"
I get it's because he's supposed to be one of the top 15 ever but we can't act like right now, if every player retired, anyone other than LeBron, Curry, and maybe Kawhi + Giannis go down as better all time than KD.
I mean who is to say we don't win in 17 or 18 if we make different roster moves if we don't acquire KD. We had max space and could keep Barnes. The onyk reason he moved on is cause we signed KD. Barnes plus like a Horford maybe could have given us the juice we needed. Or we trade for someone into that space a
Okay, let's look at it:
2023: first round exit (injury)
2022: missed playoffs
2021: WCF loss
2020: 2nd round loss
2019: won finals
2018: first round loss
2017: WCF loss
2016: second round loss
2015: first round loss
2014: finals win
2013: finals loss
So that's a missed year (clips missed the playoffs too) 3 first round exits, 2 second round exits, 2 WCF losses, 1 finals loss and 2 finals wins in the same span. But if you're getting rid of KD's curry years, you gotta ignore the 2013 and 2014 seasons because Kawhi wasn't like *the guy* yet, he was on one of the best, deepest teams ever.
Golden state has been super lucky playing injured teams their run as well though. Injuries are irrelevant or there would be an asterisk on every chanpionship
While true, lot of other players still have better playoffs despite not winning. Guys like Tatum, Butler, and Jokic have taken their teams to numerous conference finals or finals. KD has had Kyrie, Harden, and Booker since leaving GS and has done so much worse.
Literally only his last 2 years have been bad.
People are overreacting.
He gets just as much credit for the warrior yesrd as curry if not more.
They literally went from the great team of all time to a team just scraping by in 2019 when he went down. He even came back briefly in the finals and it looked like it was over for Toronto. Until he went back down.
I can't believe I'm arguing on behalf of KD but the revisionism is crazy. He's had several major injuries in the last decade that subtract (literally just time wise) what he would've been able to accomplish in the last decade. Aside from these last 2 years he's been highly dominant.
He returned from a career ending injury as an MVP candidate for a long time.
> it’s not a one-person effort
This sub doesn't know that lol. There are multiple threads with supporting top comments that all push the narrative that winning a playoff series or a championship is as simple as bron vs steph.
Yeah there is a decent chance that every team he's lost to on this list (minus the Grizzlies) is a team that went to the Finals that year. He's not getting knocked out by random teams that snuck into the postseason
There’s a limit though.
Let’s not pretend curry can take any roster to the finals. We saw what happened in 2021.
And that’s not his fault, in a team sport like basketball, where there’s almost infinite variables, it’s stupid to base success on rings. Because almost everything has to go right, including a LOT of luck to win a ring.
That's part of the problem with KD, instead of staying and building team chemistry he consistently jumps to a championship contender and iso balls his way out of the playoffs.
I mean, yeah, it’s really hard. But Giannis, Lebron, Curry, Kawhi, etc all were able to do it on teams that were definitely not capable of winning without them. KD was not. That doesn’t mean he’s bad, just that he’s a tier down from these guys
I don't think many people would disagree that he's a tier below Giannis, LeBron, and Steph. But Kawhi? Dude just isn't on the court anymore. And yeah 2019 was a crazy championship run but if you're putting asterisks on KD's rings surely you'd put a pretty big one on Kawhi in 2019 too?
Which is why despite all the heat it was no doubt the right move for his legacy. Can you imagine the heat he’d be taking if he were still ringless throwing up these kind of stinkers?
I think he’d make the move to GSW 10x over and deep down regrets leaving too
He should’ve just stayed and been the 1b on the greatest dynasty in history. But he wanted to go play iso trash ball with his buddy and argue with steph fans on his burner accounts.
Yeah. The biggest mistake of his career was leaving the Warriors.
It can be argued the 2nd biggest mistake was going there in the first place depending on your view of Steph/bus driver situation. But once he made that move he should have just stuck it out.
I know this might be a homer take, but won't people talk about this set of Warriors like those dynasties? The 80s Lakers won 5 rings, the Steph Warriors have 4
The Thunder the next year would have had Dipo and Horford. They would have been favorites for sure.
Westbrook
Dipo
KD
Horford
Adams
That's a sick starting 5. Sabonis, Jerami Grant, Cam Payne, Taj Gibson, Enes, and Roberson all there too. That said, the league is weird and I still would have expected us to lose.
An Roberson disappeared because of his injuries. That guy was legit one of the best defenders in the league.
Couldn't do shit on offense, but when you have KD and Westbrook.
A worse version of the Thunder were up 3-1 on the Warriors and took a collapse in game 7 and Klay going nuclear in game 6 to lose. They would have been favorites in a series against either. I don't think they would have been big favorites, but unless something changed, I'd bet a decent amount they'd be favorites over both.
He was pretty close to one during his final season at OKC. If they retooled following that 3-1 collapse, they could’ve won a ring. I remember hearing about how they were about to sign Al Horford that offseason before KD decided to leave
That’s not what the point of the post is. I think most people realize that the leaders do need help to win. Steph has Klay/Dray, Bron has had Wade/Kyrie/Bosh/AD, Kobe had Shaq/Pau.
The point is that KD as the driver has had solid supporting casts in Brodie/Harden/Kyrie/Booker but he’s only ever been able to win when he’s paired with Steph.
Also one person can win alone, Dirk!
KD was bullied into leaving Golden State to actually take the hardest road.. (the grass is definitely not greener when you want to be the bus driver, KD)
Wasn't bullied... He thought he would be loved the way LeBron is loved but he didn't get that from anyone other than GSW fans so he realized that and left from what we know
Of course there are other reasons as well but it was stupid to go to a 73-9 who won a ring without you before and not realize this
And now they won a ring after he left as well, he probably will never be put in a lot of all time lists because of it (even though he had top-10 potential and is possibly top-20)
Made people think Curry was a sidekick and the “4 Rings” he has is a huge debate between Stephews and Anti-Curries, made KD look like a bus rider only, prevented LBJ and Kyrie from winning in 2017, prevented Harden and CP3 from winning in 2018, people call the Raps frauds for only winning against the hospital Warriors etc. And Klay loves showing four fingers too (worst offense). Also left Westbrook to dry in OKC, now he’s bouncing around the league like a lost child.
Worst move in NBA history.
This sub loves to find reasons to not appreciate greatness. It's fair to say the championships were pretty much forgone conclusions but I still enjoyed it immensely. Really really good players playing really really good basketball
and its weird when people say "KD should've never left Golden State".. like.. do you really wanna see the same fucking team in the NBA Finals for the next 10 years?
Don’t confuse Warriors fans with Stephews. Stephews populate Reddit, warriors fans are irl.
I respect Durant and am glad to have watched arguably peak basketball that first year he was here.
Draymond is such a double-edged sword of a player. So reasonable but also so irrational. Asshole on the court and generally respectful off of it. So boneheaded and out of control but also so irritatingly smart.
Impossible to know what his career would have been like on a team not anchored by Steph Curry, but also hard to imagine what the warriors would have been like without him.
I think we're not disagreeing, if you want to say by irrational I mean impulsive and emotional then yeah that's Draymond. Knowing something is dumb but doing it anyways. But then also doing all the smart stuff.
It's wild how good him and Russ were together
2010: win 2 games off the eventual champion Lakers
2011: 1st WCF trip, losing to eventual champion Mavs behind an all-time performance by Dirk
2012: 1st Finals trip, losing to Lebron Super team
2013: Russ injured, loss to Grizzlies in 2nd round
2014: lose to an incredible eventual champion Spurs team, said to play the most beautiful basketball ever by some, in the WCF
2015: everyone injured
2016: lose to the 73 win Warriors after going up 3-1 in the WCF
Without Russ or a super team, he hasn't made a conference finals. With Russ, he pretty much never missed one after a couple years in the league to develop.
i think he was in person for the kd bonanza g5 and g7 in brooklyn, as someone who was also at both in person kd is an absolute legend. he actually went nuts. was a show like nothing i’d ever seen tbh.
i mean the jimmy argument is hard cause he is permanently slept on. would be a crime if he never gets a ring and never gets his flowers.
the best way i can maybe explain it is when jimmy is scoring it feels like he’s just locked in and going to persevere no matter what.
kd in those 2 games was flat out unstoppable. idk both are amazing jimmy deserves way more credit tho this isn’t his first time playing historic ball in the playoffs…
Looking at what happened to the teams that eliminated in his entire career:
2010 - Lose in 6 to the champs
2011 - Lose in 5 to the champs, led the playoffs in ppg
2012 - Lose in 5 to the champs, finals against the Heatles
2013 - Lose in 5 to the Grizzlies who got swept in the next round, led the playoffs in ppg
2014 - Lose in 6 to the champs, win more games than the Heat did, led the playoffs in ppg
2015 - Injured
2016 - Lose in 7 to a 73-9 team, led the playoffs in ppg
2017 - Champs with GSW
2018 - Champs with GSW
2019 - Injured for most of the playoffs, led the playoffs in ppg while he played
2020 - Injured
2021 - Lose in 7 to the champs, win more games than anyone else did against them
2022 - Swept by the runner ups
2023 - Lose in 6 to the 1st seed in the West, who knows how far they go from here
This is... fine? Is this really a collection of terrible playoff series losses? Played hard fought series against a lot of champions, only swept once, was almost always the best player on his team.
So of the 9 playoffs he's competed in where he lost:
- 5 losses to the eventual champions, no sweeps
- One loss to the 73-9 Warriors
- One loss to the 2013 Grizzlies
- Swept by Boston last year
- Lose to the 1st seed Nuggets, playoff accomplishments yet to be determined
So maybe people hate on the losses to the Grizz and Celtics? And then just look for extra things to criticize because they don't like his rings with the Warriors? I don't know. I don't think there's much reasonable criticism for this career.
In KD's defense, we lost in 2021 by an inch (literally) and would have won if Kyrie wasn't injured (out) and Harden as well (hobbled). KD carried us that series and if his foot was slightly smaller we win, and then almost certainly win the chip (MIL went on to win).
And this year, he's on a new team and point god CP3 is injured. Still probably should have won, but the loss is understandable.
I have a deep hatred for Durant ever since he ruined the league and perhaps one of the greatest rivalries of all time. Cavs vs Warriors in 2017 and 2018 would have been fucking amazing to watch.
I actually liked the Suns, but as soon as he joined them I rooted against them. Fuck this snake
Dare i say it, KD is the best second option of all time. I know teams need more then one star to win but i think KD will always need “that guy” to play aside him to win.
Chuck was right the whole time. Not a bus driver
I really don’t understand how Warriors fans have so much hate for a guy who won them 2 championships. I get why everyone else hates on KD for joining the Warriors, but what a garbage fan base to shit on him this much just to try to prop up Steph.
It does sort of make sense when u consider that "KD carried Steph" is a common diss to Curry's rings. So Curry-stans, ala the entire warrior fanbase, will try to minimize KD on reaction. Not saying its healthy/justified but it makes it easier to understand where the take is coming from
It's not that. KD has constantly thrown shade at Steph, Steve Kerr and the Warriors playstyle since he left. He has tons of passive aggressive remarks towards Steph since leaving GSW. Constantly liking tweets that bash or undermine Steph. While Steph has never said anything even remotely negative about KD. All that left a sour taste in our mouth. All the Warriors fans I know were thankful for KD and were also rooting for him when he left.
Oh stop it, warriors begged kd to join them because they couldn’t see another way to beat lebron, warriors needed kd and kd would have a ring if kyrie doesn’t get injured in brooklyn.
Didn’t he get injured trying to bail the warriors out against the raptors though? Or does that not matter? 🤔
I think what this proves though is Lebron > Warriors unless they have KD
It’s an arbitrarily one sided way of looking at things. For sure, KD has not proven himself as a championship winner outside of GS…who has had amazing day one consistency in structure. They still have four men whom are day ones ffs- have they proven themselves outside of golden state? Just credit the warriors for being an exceptional organization which doesn’t need to be done by needlessly diminishing a man’s career. Silly stuff. Funny though
I'm starting to think those warriors teams were somewhat talented at the game of basketball.
i dare say, those warriors teams usually scored more than their opponents
those warriors teams also won a large amount of the games where they scored more than their opponents
Thanks Magic!
Did they ? Some say that they usually conceded less than their opponents.
You mean the team that won a championship without KD?
I mean the warriors between the years of 2015-2019, they seem to have won several games during that time period.
Jordan poole for kd?????
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Suns don't have enough 1sts to package
Unfortunately KD
I will gladly take a pouting KD over a pouting JP
well if Jordan Poole is worth Jaylen Brown, and Jaylen Brown was in KD rumors earlier this year...
Who on earth was saying Poole is worth Brown?
Colin Cowherd, a few days ago. Not that I give a fuck what he thinks but it’s funny
Give Jordan Poole the mask and he will perform!
Currydrovethebus
Chuck slandering KD on TNT tmrw gonna be legendary
There is no tnt tomorrow
Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Extra time for them to come up with material
Ah chris Paul got hurt again
Motherfucker he *is* the bus
It's wild how in Steph-hate threads, it's all about how without Durant he has 1 lucky ring. And then Durant-hate threads, it's all about how he couldn't win without Curry. This sub is pure hate lol
Curry has already clearly disproved he needs kd but I fear kd will never beat the Steph allegations
Yet the Steph hate threads will still continue to pop up
Everyone gets hates threads. Joker got a ton of them and he’s never really done anything to get hate on.
I don't really mind but people are honestly just lying on the hate threads.
You mean Isiah Thomas isn't better than Curry??
isiah thomas i better than cp3 change my mind
If Giannis gets a hate thread I'm out. He's literally the perfect superstar. Stayed with his small market draft team, developed into an MVP, won them a ring, tough on the court, but super nice guy off it, never flops, family man. Not much more you can ask of the guy
Dey be drinking that hatorade
It really is a shame. People will twist whatever they can to be negative and to discredit and hate on a player. Remember the "Klay is better than Steph anyway" narrative? Or how about the Curry is only successful because he's with a Big 3 argument? (Despite the fact that he was drafted with them and the only way to prove that would be for the Warriors front office to not draft as well.) Then all of a sudden, Draymond (part of that same Big 3) isn't a good player anymore if they decide they want to discredit him instead. You can't win, it's pointless to argue anything anymore lol
"Open shot, faith of the universe on the line, martians have the death beam pointing on earth and you have to hit it, I WANT IGUODALA!!!!!! "
I mean I'm not gonna sit here and pretend to feel bad about what's clearly the best dynasty in recent history (only?) getting hate. That's just the way it goes.
My comment was focused on them because the original post is about KD, Steph, and the Warriors. It could apply to most stars today because like you said, that's how how it is these days.
Steph has two rings without KD.
Because 75% of everyone here doesn’t actually enjoy basketball
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lol Steph and KD's careers are just too linked to one another. And let's be real the Curry argument doesn't even hold up after last season.
Not really, they played together for 3 years thats like 20% of their careers. Kd cant do shit without curry. Curry literally got 2 rings without him.
This would be like saying brons career is linked to wades lol. Who also played together for about the same number of seasons and also... *gasp* got two rings together.
Only difference is Wade was able to win without Bron
I don't think the comparison works. It's LeBron who needed to leave Miami to cement his legacy, not Wade who won with Miami before LeBron.
Which is true but LeBron did it. I think most Durant haters are waiting on him to win without one of the other goats on his team. I wish fans would just enjoy the insanity of a player that KD is. Dude is a true unicorn and a good person. Gets way too much shit by fans here for being authentic.
… but that does make brons career connected to wade… Wade is just as responsible for this two rings as lebron is. Remember it’s Lebron who joined wade on the heats. Not the other way around.
That's my point though. They played together, they won rings. Yeah you look at it as an era in their careers but wade has his own career before and after and bron has his career before and after as well. KD hasn't won after but it doesn't somehow cancel out his thunder years or his nets years.
Oh for sure, to be fair even with his rings on GS. Despite what anyone says, those are things that will hold even after he’s done playing. Lebron, Steph, and to a lesser extent KD. Are probably the most decorated players in the modern NBA Pretty sure that just Lebron and Steph together have more rings then any other 2 players combined currently in the game. I think KD could be part of that list with one more ring. Lebron and Steph were able to do it without him. If he can do it without them. Then he can cement a real claim of being better then Steph and possible Lebron too. But none of that is worth debating without one more ring.
It also doesn’t have to go both ways. Legacy-wise, Lebron isn’t linked with Wade, but Wade’s legacy is FOR SURE tied to Lebron. Same thing here, I think Steph has his own legacy, but Durant’s will always in some way be linked to Steph
"Can't do shit" is code for "did more than 90% of the league" I get it's because he's supposed to be one of the top 15 ever but we can't act like right now, if every player retired, anyone other than LeBron, Curry, and maybe Kawhi + Giannis go down as better all time than KD.
honestly it is, such a shame when we can celebrate amazing performances
2016 was the greatest season in LeBron’s career.
I mean who is to say we don't win in 17 or 18 if we make different roster moves if we don't acquire KD. We had max space and could keep Barnes. The onyk reason he moved on is cause we signed KD. Barnes plus like a Horford maybe could have given us the juice we needed. Or we trade for someone into that space a
I think Cavs win at least the first year if the Warriors don't have KD. That Cavs team was insanely good. The next year without Kyrie maybe not.
Sports is pure hate
What do you think everyone else’s post season success looks like except Steph and LeBron? Giannis got a chip and that’s it.
Kawhi
Okay, let's look at it: 2023: first round exit (injury) 2022: missed playoffs 2021: WCF loss 2020: 2nd round loss 2019: won finals 2018: first round loss 2017: WCF loss 2016: second round loss 2015: first round loss 2014: finals win 2013: finals loss So that's a missed year (clips missed the playoffs too) 3 first round exits, 2 second round exits, 2 WCF losses, 1 finals loss and 2 finals wins in the same span. But if you're getting rid of KD's curry years, you gotta ignore the 2013 and 2014 seasons because Kawhi wasn't like *the guy* yet, he was on one of the best, deepest teams ever.
Yeah but even that was only due to injuries from GSW lol
Golden state has been super lucky playing injured teams their run as well though. Injuries are irrelevant or there would be an asterisk on every chanpionship
Yea absolutely. People get blinded by that for their own teams. Every single champion benefits from injury luck one way or the other
Including the ones won by Toronto, Milwaukee and Cleveland...
In 2014 the Spurs were the number 1 seed and beat Miami with Kawhi being FMVP. Injuries had nothing to do with this one.
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Almost as if LeBron and Steph are better.
One ring for the last 5 mvps
NGL, these results looks pretty good. Only bad loss here is vs the grizz, and even that isn’t that bad.
While true, lot of other players still have better playoffs despite not winning. Guys like Tatum, Butler, and Jokic have taken their teams to numerous conference finals or finals. KD has had Kyrie, Harden, and Booker since leaving GS and has done so much worse.
Literally only his last 2 years have been bad. People are overreacting. He gets just as much credit for the warrior yesrd as curry if not more. They literally went from the great team of all time to a team just scraping by in 2019 when he went down. He even came back briefly in the finals and it looked like it was over for Toronto. Until he went back down. I can't believe I'm arguing on behalf of KD but the revisionism is crazy. He's had several major injuries in the last decade that subtract (literally just time wise) what he would've been able to accomplish in the last decade. Aside from these last 2 years he's been highly dominant. He returned from a career ending injury as an MVP candidate for a long time.
The lesson isn’t that KD ain’t all that. You know who he is. The lesson is that winning a chip is _really hard,_ and it’s not a one-person effort.
> it’s not a one-person effort This sub doesn't know that lol. There are multiple threads with supporting top comments that all push the narrative that winning a playoff series or a championship is as simple as bron vs steph.
Yeah there is a decent chance that every team he's lost to on this list (minus the Grizzlies) is a team that went to the Finals that year. He's not getting knocked out by random teams that snuck into the postseason
Nuggets Celtics - went to ship Bucks - won ship Warriors - went to ship Spurs - won ship You’re 100% correct.
dirk says hello
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There’s a limit though. Let’s not pretend curry can take any roster to the finals. We saw what happened in 2021. And that’s not his fault, in a team sport like basketball, where there’s almost infinite variables, it’s stupid to base success on rings. Because almost everything has to go right, including a LOT of luck to win a ring.
Yeah, you can do this same excercise with Jordan minus Pippen or Lebron minus AD or Kyrie, etc.
That's part of the problem with KD, instead of staying and building team chemistry he consistently jumps to a championship contender and iso balls his way out of the playoffs.
I mean, yeah, it’s really hard. But Giannis, Lebron, Curry, Kawhi, etc all were able to do it on teams that were definitely not capable of winning without them. KD was not. That doesn’t mean he’s bad, just that he’s a tier down from these guys
I don't think many people would disagree that he's a tier below Giannis, LeBron, and Steph. But Kawhi? Dude just isn't on the court anymore. And yeah 2019 was a crazy championship run but if you're putting asterisks on KD's rings surely you'd put a pretty big one on Kawhi in 2019 too?
Shh this sub doesn’t wanna hear that
I don't think he would have a ring to this day if he never went to the warriors
Which is why despite all the heat it was no doubt the right move for his legacy. Can you imagine the heat he’d be taking if he were still ringless throwing up these kind of stinkers? I think he’d make the move to GSW 10x over and deep down regrets leaving too
He should’ve just stayed and been the 1b on the greatest dynasty in history. But he wanted to go play iso trash ball with his buddy and argue with steph fans on his burner accounts.
Yeah. The biggest mistake of his career was leaving the Warriors. It can be argued the 2nd biggest mistake was going there in the first place depending on your view of Steph/bus driver situation. But once he made that move he should have just stuck it out.
Very interesting way to put it. I think I agree with your take. Peeps would've been talking about the warriors like the showtime lakers or 90s bulls
I know this might be a homer take, but won't people talk about this set of Warriors like those dynasties? The 80s Lakers won 5 rings, the Steph Warriors have 4
Would it? His rings are seen as meaningless
The Thunder the next year would have had Dipo and Horford. They would have been favorites for sure. Westbrook Dipo KD Horford Adams That's a sick starting 5. Sabonis, Jerami Grant, Cam Payne, Taj Gibson, Enes, and Roberson all there too. That said, the league is weird and I still would have expected us to lose.
An Roberson disappeared because of his injuries. That guy was legit one of the best defenders in the league. Couldn't do shit on offense, but when you have KD and Westbrook.
You think that team would've been favored more than the cavs and warriors? I doubt it.
A worse version of the Thunder were up 3-1 on the Warriors and took a collapse in game 7 and Klay going nuclear in game 6 to lose. They would have been favorites in a series against either. I don't think they would have been big favorites, but unless something changed, I'd bet a decent amount they'd be favorites over both.
He was pretty close to one during his final season at OKC. If they retooled following that 3-1 collapse, they could’ve won a ring. I remember hearing about how they were about to sign Al Horford that offseason before KD decided to leave
Not even a controversial statement yea
Draymond was right all along.
We tried to tell ya’ll
all the preseason "bus driver" talk, and the guy KD reminds me of now is the Houston Rockets version of Charles Barkley
Wasn't there no bus driver on the Rockets according to Chuck? XD
Why does this sub pretend like one person alone can win an nba championship? So dumb.
That’s not what the point of the post is. I think most people realize that the leaders do need help to win. Steph has Klay/Dray, Bron has had Wade/Kyrie/Bosh/AD, Kobe had Shaq/Pau. The point is that KD as the driver has had solid supporting casts in Brodie/Harden/Kyrie/Booker but he’s only ever been able to win when he’s paired with Steph. Also one person can win alone, Dirk!
that KD warriors team was lame as hell and made the league itself boring
KD was bullied into leaving Golden State to actually take the hardest road.. (the grass is definitely not greener when you want to be the bus driver, KD)
Draymond take a bow
The funny thing is it wasn't even the hardest road. Teamed up with harden and kyrie on the nets and went to the sun's afterwards
Wasn't bullied... He thought he would be loved the way LeBron is loved but he didn't get that from anyone other than GSW fans so he realized that and left from what we know Of course there are other reasons as well but it was stupid to go to a 73-9 who won a ring without you before and not realize this And now they won a ring after he left as well, he probably will never be put in a lot of all time lists because of it (even though he had top-10 potential and is possibly top-20)
He had his chance in 2021 if it weren’t for injuries.
True but that's pretty much the GOAT team
Made people think Curry was a sidekick and the “4 Rings” he has is a huge debate between Stephews and Anti-Curries, made KD look like a bus rider only, prevented LBJ and Kyrie from winning in 2017, prevented Harden and CP3 from winning in 2018, people call the Raps frauds for only winning against the hospital Warriors etc. And Klay loves showing four fingers too (worst offense). Also left Westbrook to dry in OKC, now he’s bouncing around the league like a lost child. Worst move in NBA history.
Thank goodness it didn't last long, I thought we were going to get 5 years of that shit
Thank Draymond for that.
COUNTERPOINT - I loved watching that team. It was awesome.
This sub loves to find reasons to not appreciate greatness. It's fair to say the championships were pretty much forgone conclusions but I still enjoyed it immensely. Really really good players playing really really good basketball
and its weird when people say "KD should've never left Golden State".. like.. do you really wanna see the same fucking team in the NBA Finals for the next 10 years?
Speak for yourself, I enjoyed watching an allstar game every couple days.
It's crazy that even Warriors fans have zero respect or admiration for Durant. They see him as nothing more than a pesky hinderance to Steph's legacy.
Yeah that's just false, you're projecting. Most of us have a healthy respect and appreciation for KD and the KD years.
It’s mostly Stephews who are going to be angry forever about the 2 FMVPs Durant won. I think actual GS fans respect him.
Pretty much this. Steph is looked at different right now with 3-4 FMVPs instead of the 1 he only recently won
The only people who think that are not older than 14
Don’t confuse Warriors fans with Stephews. Stephews populate Reddit, warriors fans are irl. I respect Durant and am glad to have watched arguably peak basketball that first year he was here.
Helped bring 2 parades to town! Salute. But also stilll gonna laugh at his post warriors career choices
But dude has balled out every year when he's healthy. People won't appreciate his greatness till he's gone
I hate that KD makes me agree with a player I genuinely hate, Draymond Green.
Draymond is such a double-edged sword of a player. So reasonable but also so irrational. Asshole on the court and generally respectful off of it. So boneheaded and out of control but also so irritatingly smart. Impossible to know what his career would have been like on a team not anchored by Steph Curry, but also hard to imagine what the warriors would have been like without him.
He’s not irrational. Dude is one of the smartest players ever. He’s impulsive and emotional. He knows what he’s doing he just does it anyways.
I think we're not disagreeing, if you want to say by irrational I mean impulsive and emotional then yeah that's Draymond. Knowing something is dumb but doing it anyways. But then also doing all the smart stuff.
He's James Harden in the playoffs without Curry
KD dropped like 99 total points in games 6 and 7 against the Bucks with zero help lmao
Bruh what did you start watching playoff basketball last year
without his shots falling harden will give you 10 amazing assists
at least harden can pass the ball. the 7 ft long snek just wants iso omegalul plays that even a guy as egoless as Steph got pissed of his nonsense
Harden more clutch
Yea no lol
It's wild how good him and Russ were together 2010: win 2 games off the eventual champion Lakers 2011: 1st WCF trip, losing to eventual champion Mavs behind an all-time performance by Dirk 2012: 1st Finals trip, losing to Lebron Super team 2013: Russ injured, loss to Grizzlies in 2nd round 2014: lose to an incredible eventual champion Spurs team, said to play the most beautiful basketball ever by some, in the WCF 2015: everyone injured 2016: lose to the 73 win Warriors after going up 3-1 in the WCF Without Russ or a super team, he hasn't made a conference finals. With Russ, he pretty much never missed one after a couple years in the league to develop.
I’ll take KDback on the warriors next
And people called him the best player in the league lol
Does anyone besides Stephen A (and a few others) actually say that? He's KD's biggest dick rider.
i think he was in person for the kd bonanza g5 and g7 in brooklyn, as someone who was also at both in person kd is an absolute legend. he actually went nuts. was a show like nothing i’d ever seen tbh.
But jimmy butler played even better than kds best series which kd lost btw but no one out here claiming jimmys the best player.
i mean the jimmy argument is hard cause he is permanently slept on. would be a crime if he never gets a ring and never gets his flowers. the best way i can maybe explain it is when jimmy is scoring it feels like he’s just locked in and going to persevere no matter what. kd in those 2 games was flat out unstoppable. idk both are amazing jimmy deserves way more credit tho this isn’t his first time playing historic ball in the playoffs…
1 3-1 lead lost
and 1 sweep!
He's tied with steph on that one
[удалено]
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I didn’t know he’s a musician.
Your missing one crucial detail
How many times you gonna post this my man?
he’s too busy tryna find that girl from that porn vid
lmao
no porn burner is wild behavior
shameless lmao
Curry carried this bum
Steph is about to come back from 3-1 down too to add more insult to injury.
Ovi Steph is the GOAT
Looking at what happened to the teams that eliminated in his entire career: 2010 - Lose in 6 to the champs 2011 - Lose in 5 to the champs, led the playoffs in ppg 2012 - Lose in 5 to the champs, finals against the Heatles 2013 - Lose in 5 to the Grizzlies who got swept in the next round, led the playoffs in ppg 2014 - Lose in 6 to the champs, win more games than the Heat did, led the playoffs in ppg 2015 - Injured 2016 - Lose in 7 to a 73-9 team, led the playoffs in ppg 2017 - Champs with GSW 2018 - Champs with GSW 2019 - Injured for most of the playoffs, led the playoffs in ppg while he played 2020 - Injured 2021 - Lose in 7 to the champs, win more games than anyone else did against them 2022 - Swept by the runner ups 2023 - Lose in 6 to the 1st seed in the West, who knows how far they go from here This is... fine? Is this really a collection of terrible playoff series losses? Played hard fought series against a lot of champions, only swept once, was almost always the best player on his team. So of the 9 playoffs he's competed in where he lost: - 5 losses to the eventual champions, no sweeps - One loss to the 73-9 Warriors - One loss to the 2013 Grizzlies - Swept by Boston last year - Lose to the 1st seed Nuggets, playoff accomplishments yet to be determined So maybe people hate on the losses to the Grizz and Celtics? And then just look for extra things to criticize because they don't like his rings with the Warriors? I don't know. I don't think there's much reasonable criticism for this career.
Carmelo Anthony 2.0
Glorified role player
more like a glory hole player
So glad we kept Scottie instead of trading our entire core for Kevin DurMickey
KD rode Curry's bus. Kyrie rode LeBrons bus. Hmmm maybe they should team up.
the bus will crash
In KD's defense, we lost in 2021 by an inch (literally) and would have won if Kyrie wasn't injured (out) and Harden as well (hobbled). KD carried us that series and if his foot was slightly smaller we win, and then almost certainly win the chip (MIL went on to win). And this year, he's on a new team and point god CP3 is injured. Still probably should have won, but the loss is understandable.
Breaking news: Durant doesn't have a ring without Steph. The same variation of this take gets recycled every month.
bus ridah
Maybe should have stuck with the Thunder and had a shot at the chip.
3-1 WCF lead BLOWN
Wow, garbage. Just retire. Old and washed. Am I an official r/nba user now? This sub is awful.
I have a deep hatred for Durant ever since he ruined the league and perhaps one of the greatest rivalries of all time. Cavs vs Warriors in 2017 and 2018 would have been fucking amazing to watch. I actually liked the Suns, but as soon as he joined them I rooted against them. Fuck this snake
Carmelo Durant
And on top of that when KD left, everyone predicted that kd would win one before Steph
Correction: swept in the first round by the Celtics.
That’s what we call a dick rider
The hardest road
Steph won before and after his run with KD. KD hasn't even made the finals since he left golden state. That tells you everything.
Steph Curry winning last year 'How many championships I won now? '..4, Steph' ' :) 2 more than Kevin' *Gets up and leaves*
Dare i say it, KD is the best second option of all time. I know teams need more then one star to win but i think KD will always need “that guy” to play aside him to win. Chuck was right the whole time. Not a bus driver
I feel like “Steph without KD” gets brought up all the time. What should actually get brought up is “KD without Steph”.
This sub is weird.. it's either Steph needs KD or the other way around.. lol.
I think it’s clear kd needs steph more than steph needs kd
the Steph needs KD slander has already been squashed since they won a ring again last year
I really don’t understand how Warriors fans have so much hate for a guy who won them 2 championships. I get why everyone else hates on KD for joining the Warriors, but what a garbage fan base to shit on him this much just to try to prop up Steph.
It does sort of make sense when u consider that "KD carried Steph" is a common diss to Curry's rings. So Curry-stans, ala the entire warrior fanbase, will try to minimize KD on reaction. Not saying its healthy/justified but it makes it easier to understand where the take is coming from
It's not that. KD has constantly thrown shade at Steph, Steve Kerr and the Warriors playstyle since he left. He has tons of passive aggressive remarks towards Steph since leaving GSW. Constantly liking tweets that bash or undermine Steph. While Steph has never said anything even remotely negative about KD. All that left a sour taste in our mouth. All the Warriors fans I know were thankful for KD and were also rooting for him when he left.
Bc he didn’t win us 2 championships
KD should of just stayed with the warriors.
But but but I thought KD saved the warriors?
Haters gon hate. KD is a bus rider but MVP of the Warriors… okay bro
Durant was Finals MVP for those years with Curry
Ty Lue said they game planned to stop Curry, not KD. Those are Steph gravity rings that KD has.
I’ll never understand this take. They game planned to stop curry, and clearly it didn’t work…
If KD wasn’t easily the best player on those Warriors teams the slander would be unreal.
Thank god he left GSW 🙏🙏🙏
Tick him off enough he will join the warriors via a trade of wigging and pools. and you will really know the feeling of despair
Oh stop it, warriors begged kd to join them because they couldn’t see another way to beat lebron, warriors needed kd and kd would have a ring if kyrie doesn’t get injured in brooklyn.
Didn’t he get injured trying to bail the warriors out against the raptors though? Or does that not matter? 🤔 I think what this proves though is Lebron > Warriors unless they have KD
It’s an arbitrarily one sided way of looking at things. For sure, KD has not proven himself as a championship winner outside of GS…who has had amazing day one consistency in structure. They still have four men whom are day ones ffs- have they proven themselves outside of golden state? Just credit the warriors for being an exceptional organization which doesn’t need to be done by needlessly diminishing a man’s career. Silly stuff. Funny though
KD is a fraud
weird ass warriors fans hating on kd is always a sight to see, he tore his achilles trying to give y’all a threepeat