The Best team Vs The Best Player

As a person who likes watching good basketball and still plays basketball. I am ppretty happy at the way the NBA finals are going. Its not that I hgave a strong vendetta against eh Miami heat or anything like that. My cousin tends to root for them so I root against them I guess. But I say this because these finals are showing that fundemental basketball is still good. And just because you have the most athletic player on your team does not guarantee you will win.

If you look at the spurs makeup of their team you have a mix of age and skill level on that team. I mean their team is like you going to the gym and playing a pick up game with whoever is their. AGain I say this is good it will show young people who want to play basketball that you dont have to jump the highest to be good at this sport.

IN last nights game the whole roster for Spurs scored. I think that is kind of unheard of in todays NBA. The leading scorer had 20 points. That just speaks of the total team effort everyone on the team is contributing and not just standing and watching.

I know the Spurs are the flashiest team out there and knwone on the team has an out rageoue personality. But I hope more and more people and basketball fans take notice of them and their style of basketball. And hopefully the league will tak enotice as well. And not just say we need 2 great players to win. when what you need is a good TEAM to win.

a reply to: American-philosopher

Spurs?

These are the original Spurs. Founded 1882 :-

en.wikipedia.org...

a reply to: American-philosopher

A good team, but with great coaching I feel is the key component to making this all work. Popovich is one hell of a coach and he seems to get it done year in and year out, not via free agency, but through the draft, taking kids who are not "me" types, but "team" guys who understand that the whole is more important than any individual and that egos need to be left at the door. The Spurs are surgical the way they play. One night they can play the pick and roll/pop, and the next they make adjustments to the weave which throws off Miami. They are also great at spacing the floor, creating mismatches, and hitting the open man on the floor for a high % attempt. They really are a special team and truly fun to watch, especially when you appreciate well-played basketball. It will be a sad day when Tim Duncan calls it quits, he is really a special player and arguably one of the greatest power forwards to ever play the game.

I'm a huge Hockey fan. But, the team dynamics still fundamentally applies to all sports teams. A team's General manager has to identify who is the team's core is and build around them. A GM drafts or signs "Team-first" players over a "Me-first" player who wants to pad his stats. It surprises an opponent to face a team with so many weapons/sources of scoring. With a team that is dependent on a dominate player, you figure out a way to shut him down.

I'm rooting for the Spurs, but I'm keeping an eye on the Heat/Spurs Final because I don't like Chris Bosh. He set back the Toronto Raptors a few season by tanking his last year in Toronto. He could've gave Brian Coangleos(sic), Raptors' GM at the time, a heads up that he wasn't going to re-sign with the Raptors. I believe he faked an injury at the tail end of the season to ride out the final days of his contract. With Bosh not re-signing in Toronto, he made it extremely hard to get U.S. players to play in Canada. Bosh said(paraphasing here) his head wasn't clear in Toronto and eyed playing in the U.S. He got delusions of grandeur thinking he would be the man and get endorsement deals in the U.S. Didn't quite work out for him, instead he became LeBron's stooge. Bosh is not a guy that you can build a team around because he couldn't win any championship on his own. He had to take the easy way out to Miami and ride on Lebron and Dewayne's coattails.

Spurs in 6 games. LA Kings in 5.

I think the whole team is more important than the best player on the floor almost every time. If you have a good team of good players who know each other and work together with a good coach, you can overcome one really good player by finding ways to isolate and marginalize him. He can only be in so many places at once.

Obviously, this is more obvious in larger team settings like football where I have more experience, but it still holds true in basketball, too.

The thing is that you rarely see that level of teamwork. Most times, you have a few guys working together as a unit and one guy who's out there as himself + the team. They really have to be a whole team functioning as a unit to pull it off, and that's why coaching is so important. The coach is the guy who helps provide that leadership to get them to buy in to the team mentality rather than a collection of individuals.