Aussies:
– can’t wait to see how Patty goes in the NBA… rest assured I’ll be checking internet streams during Blazer garbage time
– did you know that Jawai has the 12th best Offensive Rebound Rate in the league? Of course you didn’t, it’s a useless stat, but at least Jawai has a legitimate NBA skill other than being a big body that can soak up fouls.

Pistons:
- Detroit went into rebuild mode as soon as they traded Billups for AI’s expiring contract. Problem is they spent their offseason money on Gordon and Villaneuva so now they’re stuck with a bunch of 2nd & 3rd bananas. I agree that changes need to be made, just not sure what those changes should be.

Kidd/Nash/Isiah/KG:
Entertaining to not only hear you sound off on these guys, but to also read the replies in the comments.
- I can’t help but feel that arguing between Kidd and Nash is a bit like arguing over who was the best loser. If Tim Duncan was reading these comments (and I’m sure he does frequent NBAMate in between games of Dungeons & Dragons) then he’d probably just sit back, laugh and look at the NBA rings on his fingers.
- Funny how the perception of KG changed from a battler on an underdog team into an arrogant bully on an all-star laden team.
- Despite being a hardcore Celtics fan, Locsy’s favourite player of all time is John Stockton???

All Decade teams:
- No major problems with any selections (though I prob woulda had Wade over Allen) but I did notice you implied that the Spurs were the consensus team of the decade. I’d say Lakers were team of the decade myself.
- You wrote “how void of a single dominant figure the 2000s were”. Maybe the problem is there were actually 3 dominant figures in the 2000s

@robd – As far as huge playoff games, in KG’s prime of 03 and 04, he put up the following;

v. Lakers 1st round ‘03:
Game 2 – 35/20/7
Game 3 – 33/14/4
Game 4 – 28/18/5

v. Nuggets 1sd round ‘04:
Game 1 – 30/20/4
Game 2 – 20/22/10

v. Kings 2nd round ‘04
Game 7 – 30/21/2

v. Lakers WCF ‘04
Game 5 – 30/19/4

That last one led a team of Darrick Martin/Trenton Hassell/Spree/KG/Michael Olowakandi to a do-or-die win over that Lakers all-star squad. Sounds pretty clutch to me.

The thing is, Garnett suffered a lot from being in a small-market team on the west coast, who had already lost like 5 first-round series in a row before Garnett truly hit his prime, which led to him being unfairly typecast as a “loser” or a “choker” or whatever. Btw, this doesn’t negate the fact that he’s an absolute wanker – I just believe people grade him way too harshly considering his team-mates in Minny this decade would have struggled to be competetive in the D-League.

Two things I didn’t agree with though were Paul Pierce and Ben Wallace being selected where they were…

Paul Pierce should be stripped any props for his WWE wheelchair antics in the 2008 Finals and Ben Wallace had his ups and downs but I think we could even give D12 the nod over Wallace… now that’s a statement.

Cool article though like I said.

But as for KG’s playoff appearances, I don’t buy the whole “the fact that KG even dragged his sorry teams to the playoffs is a credit to him”. For a few reasons.

1) Minesotta finished with 50+ wins a few times during KG’s reign. It’s not like they were playoff fodder. They were good teams with (supposedly) one of the Top 5 players in the league.

2) They actually had home-court in one of the series and still lost.

3) They didn’t just consistently lose in the first-round. They got soundly thumped, usually 3-1 (or 4-1) or swept. KG never even pushed a deciding game. At least Kobe in ‘06 pushed the Suns (2nd seed) to 7 games. And Wade last year pushed the Hawks to 7.

I’m sure if you go through all the box-scores you will find KG did play some good games. But the fact I can’t remember ANY of them probably goes to show how meaningless they were.

And I’m not necessarily knocking him for lack of “clutch shots” (though that too), but “clutch games” of which Duncan and Dirk have had plenty. I’m talking 30-20-8 games or 40 point games when your season is on the line. Duncan and Dirk have pulled them out when needed, KG never really did (except for that Sac game).

And you’re telling me Cassell wasn’t known as a big finisher? You’re kidding me, right? Cassell earned a clutch rep as a rookie with Houston, he hit a bunch of big shots for them during those championship years, and did the same for Milwaukee, Minnesota, and even the Clippers. I can’t think of many players that were more clutch between 1995 and 2005. He was perfect for KG.

And yes, I remember the 2003 All-Star game. KG was phenomenal. Honestly, KG was one of my fav players for years. I’m just getting fired up because Simmons ranked him ahead of Isiah, who is one of my idols.

Pierce as the #1 SF of the decade just seems so wrong, but you make a good case.

I would put Wade ahead of AI. but otherwise I pretty much agree.

My biggest knock against KG is that in 2004 when he had his best Minnesota team, he got completely shut down by Karl Malone in the WCFs. Karl Malone! He was like 40 years old and KG was the MVP. That was the one match up where everyone thought KG could dominate, but he didn’t.

As for Isiah, from all accounts he was a real pr*ck of a bloke, almost too ruthless on the court. That surely counts for something?

First off, Kidd’s supporting cast was umpteen times better than Garnett’s one. As a snapshot, consider that 5 players outside Kidd/RJ/K-Mart on the ‘02 team posted a PER of >15 (the league average). While having K-Mart as your second-best player isn’t ideal, those teams did have really nice depth.

Compare that to KG’s WCF team; Fred Hoiberg, Gary Trent, Mark Madsen and Trenton Hassell all played over 1000 minutes. None would have even made the Nets’ rotation, nevermind gotten significant minutes.

As for the post-season jokes directed at Garnett, they were there for sure. But if you look at his actual perfomances in the playoffs (whether it’s in final quarters, or in deciding games, whatever) they stack up very well. It was just a matter of being completely out-talented by the other teams, and the fact that KG even dragged his sorry teams to the playoffs is a credit to him.

If you hold his inability to hit a “clutch shot” so to speak against him, you have to hold it against nearly every big guy except Nowitzki. I mean, Duncan’s 2 best-known “clutch” shots were both complete flukes. I can’t remember Shaq ever nailing a clutch pull-up to win a game either. It’s just not part of the big man arsenal.

Also, you call Cassell and Spree “pretty good finishers”. Yet neither were known for that when they came to Minny. Ditto Wally World. KG managed to make them look like assassins when in reality they were 3 pretty average guards.

I’d recommend pulling out the tape of the 2003 All-Star game – it, better than anything else, reinforces that KG was the best player in the league at the time. There was actually a surprising amount of D played in that game, and KG was dominant among stars.

On KG, maybe the the friends/fans I associated with were extra brutal, but I guarantee you no player had more post-season and choking jokes made at their expense over a 5-6 year period. All that huffing and puffing and intense facade was just that – a facade, because KG’s willingness to step up and take over was clearly missing.

When KG popped up for a big game (like that Game 7 against Sac) it shocked everyone. How can you be a top 20-25 player when people are surprised when you pull out a clutch game? Talent-wise he was phenomenal and one of my favorite players. No doubt.

As for starting a team from scratch (with the benefit of hindsight), would you really pick KG knowing that he doesn’t like the big moments, knowing that you can’t really rely on him down the stretch of games? You would then need to make sure you have some pretty good finishers to surround him (i.e Cassell and Spree in 03-04). I would pick Isiah, without question. Because you surround him with enough decent role players and he will carry them on his back, and demand to take all the big shots. And I guess I value that more than the incredible numbers that KG gives you.

agree with Ant that calling KG a ‘laughing stock’ is harsh. he got you 20-5-5 for like 10 years. and his team was never any good, until he came to Boston really.