Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="champs99and04, post: 2753251, member: 488"] My first reaction was to think that the "KD is redundant" take is stupid, but I can sort of see what he's getting at, even if they're obviously better with him. You saw it against Houston more than you did against Cleveland. When Golden State gets lured into going to KD every possession (kind of hard not to do when he's guarded by P.J. Tucker or Chris Paul), they play a completely different style. Playing a different style can be less effective even when you have better players. Draymond's game is fairly static regardless of whether it's Durant or Barnes at that spot. Steph, on the other hand, takes over two less shots per 36 minutes than he did two years ag0 (I imagine that gap widens when they share the court). Klay takes a little less than two fewer shots per 36 minutes. Iggy's usage has gone down (oddly, Livingston's has gone way up). If you take the additional seven shots per 36 minutes that KD took over Barnes (who is a good player, even if overpaid) and split them between Steph, Klay, and Draymond, you have a team that is worse but not necessarily by the amount that a normal team would get if they lost KD. That's the shame of it, in my mind. You want to find the happy medium between making great players fully exert themselves but not overworking them like Russ or LeBron. We're never going to be able to fully appreciate the talent if KD is in Golden State. [/QUOTE]