Kevin Durant

LeBron, the Lakers and Playoff Sweeps Examined

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The Lakers are on the verge of being swept by the Nuggets for the second year in a row.  Last year, there was talk that, despite the sweep, that the Lakers were competitive and in every game.  For what it’s worth, this year, the Lakers have blown several big leads and are arguably just as competitive.  That got me wondering whether the 2022-23 Lakers were truly the “closest” sweep ever.  There are a lot of ways to quantify the competitiveness of a swept team but I thought we … [Read more...] about LeBron, the Lakers and Playoff Sweeps Examined

A Quick Look At Some Older Stars

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The main question going into the stretch run of the season is whether any team can beat the Celtics.  We’ll come back to that question in a few weeks but, for now, I was interested in the durability of and performance of the old stars in the Western Conference.  While they aren’t quite the top of the conference, the Clippers, Suns, Warriors, and Lakers are riding old stars in a way that NBA team rarely have since the time that the Jordan Bulls, Stockton-Malone Jazz, and … [Read more...] about A Quick Look At Some Older Stars

End of KD/Kyrie Era FAQ

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Well, I’ve put it off as long as I could but it’s time to touch on the end of the Kevin Durant/Kyrie Irving Era in Brooklyn.  This is not exactly new territory and it seems that the consensus is that, while there is much blame to go around, the largest share lies with Kyrie and his frequent flair for controversy.  I largely agree with that assessment but I thought we could do a quick examination of the end of this partnership, FAQ style, and hopefully touch on some issues that haven’t … [Read more...] about End of KD/Kyrie Era FAQ

More On Kyrie (Sigh)

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When I first heard about the latest Kyrie Irving controversy, I shrugged and basically ignored it. I’ve long been tired of Kyrie’s off-court baggage going back to his flat-Earth days and was hoping this most recent outburst would be given similar weight by the public and quickly dismissed.  The NBA and the Nets were clearly hoping the same, as they did not initially come down very hard on Irving and, instead, put out generic statements against anti-Semitism, without confronting Kyrie. … [Read more...] about More On Kyrie (Sigh)

The KD/Kyrie Drama Examined

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Have you ever had one of those dreams where your goal is to complete a task and, each time you get close, some weird happenstance prevents the completion?  This dream is the Kevin Durant-Kyrie Irving Nets in a nutshell.  They were a KD toe away from a possible title last year and now both stars want out after a disaster of a season in 2021-22.  Brooklyn was close to accomplishing greatness but seems to be ending in failure.  The public consensus seems to be that Kyrie is … [Read more...] about The KD/Kyrie Drama Examined

A Quick Look at Peak SF Advanced Stats

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A few days ago, we did a tweet thread on the career advanced stats for the SFs who made the top 75 and those that likely narrowly missed.  I had a couple of requests for how these players rated at peak. So,  I took the 3 best consecutive years for each of the players.  I also added Bird, Durant + Dr J for comparison/context (did not use ABA Erving).  Anyway, here they are:  -Bird 1984-87: 26.2 PER, .242 WS48, 9.0 BPM, 25.7 VORP -KD 2011-14: 28.2 PER, .275 WS48, 9.0 … [Read more...] about A Quick Look at Peak SF Advanced Stats

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