Giannis Antetokounmpo Is Not The Best Player In The World

So, your argument is they have a good coach? I don't even know how to factor that in.

And the swapping teams argument is also total speculation. I am sure we would be a much better defensive team and not as good on offense, mainly because we don't have another play maker when CP3 is injured. When Paul is healthy, I don't see why having Giannis instead of Harden would not make us the top team. We would have a very different offense though.

We do have more injuries. I give you that. But do the injuries amount to 12 losses? I don't know.

 

ROTY only means that he was better than the other rookies in his rookie year. He has never gained an All Star status. In fact, he had never averaged more than 30 mpg.

Basically, the Bucks only have one star and a bunch of average to above average role players. Again, their Net Rating is better than any other team by a wide margin.

 

My argument is that Coach Bud has made a tremendous difference for that team. The moment he comes in the Bucks skyrocket up the rankings for assists, ppg, offensive efficiency, and 3 pointers made and attempted while having pretty much the same roster as last season. Their defense also goes from 17th to 1st. Giannis averaged 27, 10, and 5 last year, and the Bucks were still mediocre with pretty much this same squad. Coach Bud is just as big a reason as Giannis for the Bucks being the 1 seed in the East.

Paul is guaranteed to miss his usual 20+ games, and with EG and Capela out as well, it doesn’t take much speculation to conclude that there’s no way in hell Giannis would’ve carried the Rockets in that situation like Harden was able to.

 

They’ve been trying to anoint Anthony Davis for years and he can barely sneak a team into the playoffs in a best case scenario.

People love freak athletes. Simple as that. Giannis is great but the best player in the league is Harden.

 

This is a joke of a post.. clearly a Harden hater.

 

I thought you said the Cupcake Snake doesn't care about the regular season so why are you saying he carried OKC to #1 seed? Thats regular season accomplishment which according to you Cupcake Snake didnt care about.

Look it's either he cared or he didn't, if he cared about the regular season the Warriors going 5-6 THIS YEAR matters more than something he did 4 years ago. 4 years ago Harden wasn't this good and Giannis wasn't developed so whats the point of bringing it up?

I think KD has regressed when he came to GSW, he lost that edge that he had because he was clearly being a leader in OKC now he says he never wants to be a leader after he started sucking up to Steph. So pointing out his accomplishments in OKC doesn't matter as he is no longer OKC KD, he is GSW KD. It's like Laker Lebron has clearly regressed from Miami Lebron.

 

Dude I don't think you read--or you just latch onto something and carry away the whole argument. You do this with every poster on this site which is why nobody can actually discuss anything with you. I meant currently. KD and the warriors team coast during the RS. It was pretty clear, and to run away with that is typical. I'm done here.

 

Dude you clearly said KD took OKC to no 1 without RW, am I wrong? That's not current season. If you meant current season then why bring that up?

In the current season, GSW went 5-6 without Steph Curry. If you are saying KD is the best player in the league in the current season then why are GSW losing when Steph is out? He still has 2 all stars so why is that not enough?

If you say KD doesn't care about the regular season ok, in the playoffs why did the Rox take GSW to 7 games? GSW has 4 all stars on their team including KD who according to you is the best player. That's double what Houston had so why didnt they crush the Rockets then? In fact before Cp3 went down Rox were leading the series 3-1...3-1 with half the allstars GSW had. Rox only lost when it became 1 all star vs 4 all stars lol, thats not exactly a surprise. Cleveland getting swept is not a suprise too, pretty sure even MJ will get swept if its 1v4.

The facts just show KD isn't the best player, both in the regular season and in the playoffs. I don't care how many FMVPs KD has, its easy to put up monster stats when you have 3 all stars on your team.

 

Sound logic, considering I stated that I dislike GSW and Durant yet rated him top 2. SMH.

Sorry that you can’t handle an objective opinion from someone that’s not a biased Rockets fan. Instead it’s easier to chalk it up as hating instead of being open to the idea that Harden isn’t as good or impactful as KD, Curry, or even Kawhi. I’m far from the minority in that belief.

Not so oddly, all of those players have been vital to championship teams. KD gravytrained, but the other two led their teams and were involved from the get go. What’s Harden done, if he’s as great as you believe and better than those players? Don’t give me the CP3 injury excuse either. I’m a KINGS fan and could easily make excuses why they should have won circa 2002-2004, but the fact is they didn’t and neither has Harden.

As of today, Harden hasn’t accomplished anything to separate himself from Russell Westbrook— who isn’t better than KD, Curry, or Kawhi either.

 

What objective opinion did u give? U gave a delusional opinion. The fact that u actually uttered that Westbrook’s little 20 point triple doubles were as impressive as Harden’s 32 straight games of at least 30 points shows u don’t have an objective bone in your body. Harden averaged an efficient 41 ppg during that stretch and took the Rockets from out of the playoffs all the way up to the 5th seed in the West. He did this while multiple rotation players were out with injury as well.

If KD is so impactful, tell me why GS is only 24-21 in games Steph has missed since the start of the 16-17 season? Tell me why GS with KD and 3 other all stars beside him was down 3-2 to Harden and 33 yo CP3 in the playoffs? If KD is so much more impactful than Harden, then he should’ve waxed the Rockets since he’s not only more impactful than Harden like u claim, but he had double the amount of stars. Harden is more impactful than KD. U can put any collection of decent talent around Harden, and he will give u an elite level offense. U can’t say the same for KD. The amount of points that Harden is able to create via his scoring and assists is something KD is simply not able to do. GS’s offense was barely above average when KD was leading it with Steph out. Harden is also not a horrible defender anymore, and it’s not like KD is DPOY caliber on that end, so the difference between their defense doesn’t make up for the edge Harden has offensively. That is why Harden is always near the top in advanced offensive stats and things like RPM. Harden and his collection of role players have the 2nd best offense in the NBA. Give him a Big 4 like what GS has and watch the Rockets have by far the best offense in NBA history.

Curry has been on a stacked team for years. Give Harden Klay and Draymond, and then KD, and he’d have multiple rings too. Foh with that argument. Kawhi had Pop and multiple HOF players around him. Harden had dumbass, declining Dwight, a bunch of role players/scrubs/G-League dudes, and aging CP3. U think Steph or Kawhi would have titles with that collection of talent? U think KD would? Hell nah. KD lost Russ in 12-13, and then lost to Memphis in 5 with HCA...

I like how u say “don’t give me the CP3 injury excuse” when that was obviously the main reason we lost to GS and Harden doesn’t have a title right now. Without CP3, it was 1 against 4.

Wtf has Westbrook done other than rack up meaningless triple doubles? Without KD, he got his ass beat by Harden and a bunch of role players in the 2017 playoffs, and then he lost in the 1st round to Utah who was led by a rookie while having HCA and a star like PG next to him. Harden has been to 2 WCF with far less help than the likes of Curry, KD, and Russ are accustomed to, and he guided that 16-17 squad who many thought would be a 6-8 seed to 55 wins and the 2nd round. He is currently having 1 of the greatest scoring seasons in NBA history with a level of efficiency that Russ could only dream of having. Don’t come here with this nonsense man.

 

What makes your opinion more objective than anyone else’s, because you said so? None of those players won anything without multiple all stars on their team. The year harden finally gets a second star he immediate takes the team to the best record in the NBA above a team widely acknowledged as one of the greatest teams in nba history. Rockets would’ve won with their 2 stars as well, but Cp3s injury meant a huge disparity in talent as well as lack of depth. At that point no one expected rockets to win that series but us fans. Yet they still almost beat 4 all stars and the refs.

If Durant and Westbrook are better than harden then why couldn’t they win anything while together? They had a good a supporting cast in OKC, and never had to go through a historic team like the current day warriors. Saying Westbrook is on hardens level makes Durant look even more weak. He couldn’t get it done with another mvp level player so he had to flee to a team with an mvp AND 2 other all stars.

Btw Westbrook is the second best player on his team this year and okc has a similar record to Houston despite Houston never having a full roster. Who carried the rockets to wins during those stretches ?

 

not as good? who will be the PG when CP3 is injured?

 

LOL so replacing Harden with those guys automatically gives Rockets more wins and those teams less wins?

 

Short answer is winning. Since joining the Rockets, Harden has won the *most* with the *least* while playing in the tougher conference. He's won regardless of teammates, teammates' health, and coaching. No other player last decade can boast his resume all things considered. Not even close. It's easy to see Harden impacts winning like no other player in the league.

 

Giannis goes subpar against the LeBron-led Lakers: MIL wins.
Giannis goes supernova against a really good Utah team: MIL loses.

He's a great player, and on some nights, he looks like the best player in the game, but Harden would have won that game against the Jazz.

I know the sample size is small (n=2), but in just these two games alone, Giannis is just not quite the MVP (yet).

 

You can bet Scott Foster will be at that game.

 

Definitely yes. Not about talent it’s about health and building chemistry. Fully healthy I’ll take the Rockets squad over Milwaukee. But during Hardens streak did he even play with the same starting lineup for more than 3 games in a row?

So much more goes into just East vs West. Not all about wins and losses. Soo many more easy wins in east. Getting blow out wins resting your starters to be healthy for all 82 games etc. all factors into not having let down games etc. The west has only the Suns and honestly even they aren’t that bad. They just beat the Lakers last night.

For a lot of the streak harden was playing with guys like Rivers, Ennis, Green, House, Clark, Tucker, NeNe, starting..... We were just picking players up off the street and inserting them into the starting lineup with no practice. The fact that we won that many games is unheard of. And it was the hardest part of our schedule. He just threw fire on the all the top teams, I couldn’t believe what I wasn’t seeing.

 

Did you see the game? It was further proof that Giannis has a tough time imposing his will at the end of games, since he's not a great shooter nor can hit FTs reliably (only 71%). Utah basically started sending him to the FT line, and would only make 1.

Imposing your will is what Donovan Mitchell did.

Giannis is going to have trouble in the playoffs, but he has the shooters and PG to win a few rounds.

 

THIS

 

Looking at his stat line . .. how did they lose to Utah?
43 - 14 - 8

Rocket River