Tim Duncan Took a Paycut to Lower the San Antonio Spurs’ Tax Bill

Everything I ever heard about TD, he was never said to be selfish. Bro has always had class. Good Heath for the next
season.

Durant looked great to me.
I watched the Finals. Kobe shot the Lakers out of the series. Everyone who isn’t concerned with fondling Kobe knows he shot them out of that Finals because we watched the games.
If you believe that Ben Wallace was more able to guard Shaq than Deke, then that’s one you. Ben Wallace did nothing with Shaq. He was shooting like crazy. As I pointed out on a previous thread, Kobe took 153 more shots than Shaq during that playoffs and only MADE eight more buckets.
Think about that. 153 more shots, and only eight more made buckets.
If a team double teamed Kobe Bryant and he didn’t figure out a way to get the world’s most dominant player the ball, then Kobe Bryant is nowhere near as great as you believe him to be.
Which one is it?
You say the numbers lie?
Shaq had 34 and 11 on 81 percent shooting in game one. That’s right, he took 16 shots and made 13. You know what Kobe shot that game? 10 for 27! that is 37 percent!
He had 36 and 20 in game Four on 71 percent shooting. You know what Kobe shot that game? 8 for 25.
Shaq only had one bad game the entire series. Kobe shot them out of that series. Any one who believes otherwise is a liar. The entire world watched it happen and the freaking numbers back it up.

Allenp, I agree with you that Kobe forced the issue a lot in 2004 NBA Finals. But man, LA was a broken team at the time. Kobe was forced to shoot long jumpers against a great defender in Prince (and a great team defense from Detroit, that packed the paint) because no one was moving, asking for the ball or in position to shoot.
Remember, Payton was had no interest in the games whatsoever. It was disgunting to see, specially from someone who really admired his game. Malone was hurt. And the only supporting cast player who had a good game was Luke Walton (!), in game 2.
And Shaq, he didn’t look that interested too. He wasn’t fighting for position, wasn’t active defensively or crashing the offensive boards. Obviously, when he got the ball, he scored, because he was really great and Wallace, as good a defender as he was, is 6-9, agains Shaq’s 7-1 frame. But, to me, he really didn’t want to play with Kobe anymore, and he was letting everyone know that with his play.
Regarding Seed’s comments of Durant, I understand what he says. KD averaged 30 PPG in the Finals with 50% plus shooting, but he wasn’t dominant, and he was Lebronesque in the 4th quarters of all games, except game 1. As the proclaimed 2nd best player in the league, he should’ve said “No way we’re losing these games, give me the f#ckin ball!” and gone to work. He should’ve tried to will OKC to win, but he didn’t.
On the other side, Westbrook played BY HIMSELF in Game 4, and almost won the game singlehandedly. And he struggled in other games, specially Game 5, but he left all he had in the floor. But I didn’t have this impression from KD.

Wait, why is my Kobe defense comment not appearing but the above one which I posted after posting the previous one appears?? And why is slam effing around with my mail ID everytime I post something new lol??? The mail ID changes in every new window I open.

Sergio
I agree with you. Shaq checked out at some points.
You know why? Because there is nothing more disheartening to a big man than wrestling with a 270 pound monster for position and then watching your guard jack a 20-foot jumper after one dribble. I really, really don’t think people who play on the perimeter can appreciate how angry this makes a post player. So he checked out. But he was still Shaq.

Shaq can’t shoot free throws, he’s lazy on defense and his only dependable “move” is a jump hook.
And he parlayed that and his amazing physical talents into being a top five center of all time.
That field goal disparity I posted wouldn’t be so bad if the field goals made wasn’t so different.
153 more shots.
8 more makes.
Do the math people.

@Allenp………..NO perimeter player sans Kobe shot about 30% for the Lakers that series ( Kobe was 39% ). Shaq was beasting on O but not putting in much effort on D. Surely you aren’t one of those guys who think going exclusively to the post for most of the game is gonna get you the W? Esp. when they pack the paint and don’t get called for fouls?? Seriously, DFish was the next best with 30%! 30%!!! What I do agree with is how Kobe jacked up 3s. That was the ONLY point where I was totally pissed off. That and he usually tried to leak away on transition and didn’t get as many rebs as he should’ve done.

@Lakeshow you wanna talk about the unwritten rules of basketball, what happens to reward the big man? You do realize that Wilt or Kareem never had trouble getting their shots 22.5/18.1 fgapg for their careers respectively. That Detroit team was designed to stop wing players, Ben Wallace couldn’t do anything with Shaq except flop, the D on Kobe and the rest of the Laker’s wing players is what won/lost the series.

Drig, and Sergio are sane minded basketball, and Kobe fans.
Good to see your still out there fellas.

Shutup, I agree on allot of your points.
I think you still aren’t quite giving Ben Wallace enough credit.
I was off on my 20 FG’s limit with Centers, but the truth still stands that Centers are not able to have the free reign of the floor that Guards have. Vince Carter shot as many or more FG attempts over his career than most GREAT Centers have. Is that because he is a ball hog? Maybe sometimes, but he just played his style of game. Which is 20 FGA at 45% style. If you don’t like it you don’t have to.
I play every position on the floor when I play basketball. I understand the frustration of not getting the ball in the post and also the frustration of watching a team mate not make free throws when fouled(Everytime) when given the ball in a good position to score.
There’s two sides to this story.
I truly think Kobe and Shaq are of equal blame on that 03-04 team. That’s fine if you see it otherwise.

Vince Carter didn’t play with SHAQ!
I think people miss this incredibly important point. If you play with a dominant big, you shouldn’t shoot a horrible percentage and you shouldn’t be jacking bad shots. You should force the defense to adjust to your dominant big, and then get good shots.
We told this to Steve Francis and Cuttino Mobley with Yao. We said the same thing about Orlando’s gunner with Dwight Howard. The Rockets knew who to get the ball. Same with the Spurs. Jerry West got hit shots, but he also got Wilt his looks. Magic fed Kareem.
When you’re a wing by yourself and you’re the main scoring option, your percentage is going to dip because it’s tougher to carry teams from the wing. That’s why Jordan is so revered. But, when you’re a wing, with a great big man, and you’re taking the shots only wings without big men should take, then people are going to be upset.
Kobe is not criticized because he takes tough shots, at least not by smart people. Sometimes in basketball you have to take tough shots, and often Kobe is stuck with the ball at the end of the shot clock and forced to take a tough shot. Kobe is criticized because throughout his career he was willfully sought out tough shots to take as a means of displaying his skills, even if that came at the expense of winning games. Phil Jackson saw it. We all have seen it.
Chucking isn’t about how many shots you take, it’s about how many better shots you prevent other people from taking.

Yup, Steve Francis, and Cuttino with Yao are a great example to use for players similar to the Kobe, Shaq dynamic….
Jerry West averaged twice as many shots per game as Wilt in 1971-72. Four more people took more shots than Wilt did that Championship year.
Magic is a point guard. not only that, but the best PG of all time. It’s no surprise he was better at getting the ball to Kareem more-so than Kobe was to Shaq. Just like Magic wasn’t nearly the prolific scorer Kobe is.
Sometimes (never) you can’t just dump the ball down to the post for that 60% FG you are supposedly getting ‘every time’.
Kobe shoots bad shots, and doesn’t make his team mates better (in general).
Shaq was unmotivated and never took his defensive assignments as seriously as he should have (in general).
Sorry, not gunna blame it all on Kobe like you.

You said what I know, and agree with…^
Your still blaming it on Kobe though. I don’t see how you can blame him for losing the series for them there and then say Shaq won them the other titles.
Like you said: “unacceptable for an all-time center”
Agreed. Just like it was unacceptable for an all time shooting guard. The Lakers were bad that playoffs. They were all talent and no team. If you wanna say that’s Kobe’s fault that’s fine. I’m not going to say that.

@shutup: sry i messed ur nick up, typed while bein vast asleep

Think about this you as a player shoot 13-16 thats .841% score 34 and grab 11 boards yet your teammate shoots 27 shots and makes only 10 you lose by 12; how does that make you feel? Also the only game the Lakers won during those finals is the only game Kobe managed to shoot a good % (meaning >.40) Game 2 he shot 14/27 for 33 points, Shaq shot 10/20 for 29 points. never once in the series did Shaq shoot under .5. For the series Shaq made 53/84. Kobe made just 43/113. Sorry to keep piling these stats on, I don’t want to come off as some Kobe hater, I just was disappointed the ways things went down in LA. @dan no prob I also check slam in the middle of the night when I cant sleep or get off work and gotta wind down.

Also, regarding the 00,01 and 02 titles, the role players stepped up in all of them as well. They shot a good percentage in all of them. In 04, nobody stepped up. The FG attempts tell only half the story and skewer a lot of the negative points towards Kobe. But look at how the rest of them performed as well and then you’ll get the entire picture : LAL as a team failed. Payton, Fisher, Luke and Devan played half the minutes Kobe did but averaged the same number of fouls. And most of them went to Rip and Chauncey who were good FT shooters to say the least. LAL had Shaq going to the line most times and he shot 50% . That was also a factor. ( Still think Kobe was fouled many times during the course of the series and the refs swallowed their whistles. ) Kobe made the glaring mistake. But the rest of them weren’t grade A or B….everyone sans Shaq and Kobe were C or C- that series.