I agree whole heartedly on KG, hence me saying he left some in the tank. There have been whispers about KG coming thru in the clutch MANY times over his career. He simply goes ghost on offense in 4th quarters. He still plays Defense, he still hustles, he still rebounds, sets screens, he's engaged in the game, but when the ball hits his hands, he can't move it along quick enough. It's why he worked out perfectly with Pierce and Ray, he could do work for 3 quarters, then let them do it in the 4th.
He gets credit for all that he's done, but his knock is EASILY his 4th quarter performances. Can you say the same about Dirk?
When we get to Dirk's total updated resume, he will have some blemishes on his resume, everybody does (except Mike) so it will all come down to how each person personally values timing of performance. If you want to weight someone's greatness based on some fantastic December basketball games vs bottom feeding teams, sure, feel free, but when splitting hairs with heavyweights, it comes down to playoff time. Winning and losing time. At least it does for me, and I'm pretty sure many others will agree.
You don't have to put every single game, every single series on a guy. Chris Paul didn't get out of the first round this year, but not a soul on Earth would place blame on him for that one would they? The years that Minny got beat and KG went down giving everything he had but just not enough help, that's fine, credit can at least be given to him for his performance. But when KG doesn't perform his best, especially late in games, then questions need to be asked.
Bron played incredible vs Orlando, and yet still lost. I give him credit for the way HE played, the only argument against him in that series was that his teammates didn't show up, even though they had for 6 months prior to that. It became a debate about how he played, and if they did or didn't show up, did he help them, or hurt them doin big numbers, things like that. The fact he went awol the next year vs Boston left more questions. He redeemed himself vs Boston and Chicago this year, and now 2 weeks after that, the questions are back again. (We may see some answers in the next couple days)
You have to step back and view the entire picture when looking at how to slot their careers. I really don't get why people don't get that. Some years a guy isn't fully healthy, other years you just run into a hot team, bad matchup, etc etc. If you break them down on a case by case basis you'll get a good look at how a player carried their franchise.(s)
He gets credit for all that he's done, but his knock is EASILY his 4th quarter performances. Can you say the same about Dirk?
When we get to Dirk's total updated resume, he will have some blemishes on his resume, everybody does (except Mike) so it will all come down to how each person personally values timing of performance. If you want to weight someone's greatness based on some fantastic December basketball games vs bottom feeding teams, sure, feel free, but when splitting hairs with heavyweights, it comes down to playoff time. Winning and losing time. At least it does for me, and I'm pretty sure many others will agree.
You don't have to put every single game, every single series on a guy. Chris Paul didn't get out of the first round this year, but not a soul on Earth would place blame on him for that one would they? The years that Minny got beat and KG went down giving everything he had but just not enough help, that's fine, credit can at least be given to him for his performance. But when KG doesn't perform his best, especially late in games, then questions need to be asked.
Bron played incredible vs Orlando, and yet still lost. I give him credit for the way HE played, the only argument against him in that series was that his teammates didn't show up, even though they had for 6 months prior to that. It became a debate about how he played, and if they did or didn't show up, did he help them, or hurt them doin big numbers, things like that. The fact he went awol the next year vs Boston left more questions. He redeemed himself vs Boston and Chicago this year, and now 2 weeks after that, the questions are back again. (We may see some answers in the next couple days)
You have to step back and view the entire picture when looking at how to slot their careers. I really don't get why people don't get that. Some years a guy isn't fully healthy, other years you just run into a hot team, bad matchup, etc etc. If you break them down on a case by case basis you'll get a good look at how a player carried their franchise.(s)
