Take AD off lakers and KD of nets who wins?

[Bronbron23]

Bron
Schroder
Drummond
Harrell
Kuzma
Tucker
Pope
Caruso
Morris

Harden
Kyrie
Aldridge
Blake
Harris
Jordan
Green
Claxton
Brown

In a 7 game finals series?

Lakers have the clear advantage defensively. It's not even close. Offensively it's close but i'd give a slight advantage to nets. The mistake people are making is thinking Aldridge and especially blake are there prime all star selves. They're both shells of themselves offensively and are still pretty bad defensively.

Looking at these rosters lakers are clearly better built for the post season.

[Airupthere]

Defense will be a huge factor and we caught a glimpse of that in the past game. Lakers have the upper hand on this one.

[FultzNationRISE]

Games arent played on paper.

Lebron is the only clutch player on his roster, the rest are extremely unreliable in big situations. You might get a decent game out of them, you might not. In a seven game series, Lebron always has to carry the load himself for at LEAST 2-3 games.

At 36 that is such a huge ask. He doesnt have the luxury of a Pippen, Rodman, Kukoc, and a HOF coach etc. when he plays in Finals.

A title in his current situation would be stupid impressive to actually win this year, but it is absolutely not reasonable to expect it.

[tpols]

The Lakers without AD had more help in 2019 than they'd have without him today, and they couldn't even make the playoffs. Meanwhile Harden alone is a 50 win season... Add kyrie and you get a contender. So you're comparing lotto to contender here.

[NBAGOAT]

similar to your other post. No they're not close on offense because of spacing even though kd is a better offensive player than ad. Schroder as a 2nd option is just not idea. You also make the same mistake as people do with bkn assuming drummond is useful

[mehyaM24]

lakers have a mediocre offense, which is backed by their #20 ranking. you remove AD and they only get worse. with or without kd, though, brooklyn has an elite one - more or less a prerequisite in today's game.

the nets would be favored just like they are now, as currently constructed.

[Bronbron23]

lakers have a mediocre offense, which is backed by their #20 ranking. you remove AD and they only get worse. with or without kd, though, brooklyn has an elite one - more or less a prerequisite in today's game.

the nets would be favored just like they are now, as currently constructed.

So we're just ignoring lakers huge advantage defensively?

[mehyaM24]

So we're just ignoring lakers huge advantage defensively?

since the merger, no champion has had as BAD of an offense. so ya i'm going to ignore defense, especially in a offensive friendly league.

[Bronbron23]

since the merger, no champion has had as BAD of an offense. so ya i'm going to ignore defense, especially in a offensive friendly league.

I could say the same with nets bottom of the league defense. Difference being if course lakers have the potential to be a top ten offense. Nets can't get any better defensively.

[3ball]

The Lakers are just younger/better - for example, a guy like Kuzma is probably better than Blake at this point in Blake's career..

[999Guy]

Lakers in a pitiful 5, maybe 6 game series.


What a perspective because AD is better than Durant as far as I’m concerned.

I cannot wait for the playoffs.

[Bronbron23]

Lakers in a pitiful 5, maybe 6 game series.


What a perspective because AD is better than Durant as far as I’m concerned.

I cannot wait for the playoffs.

He is now yeah. Kd is 32 coming off an Achilles. That's the problem though everyone is looking at kd like he's the same kd. He's barely been able to stay on the court this year. They're doing the same with blake and Aldridge. At this point in their careers I'm taking Harrell and Drummond over blake and Aldridge all day and it isn't close.

[mehyaM24]

I could say the same with nets bottom of the league defense. Difference being if course lakers have the potential to be a top ten offense. Nets can't get any better defensively.

no, you actually couldn't. the 01 lakers were ranked similar to brooklyn and won a title. scraping bottom of the barrel here, but it was done more recent.

https://www.basketball-reference.com.../LAL/2001.html

a lot of defense is effort based, so you're wrong there too.

[SouBeachTalents]

KD, when he's played that is, has definitely been better than AD this season, who's having a much worse season than he did last year. But that's why it's pointless making all these Nets/Lakers comparisons, because truth be told I have absolutely no idea how these teams are gonna look come playoff time. The Nets have legitimately barely even played together, and LeBron & AD have missed significant time with injuries. Factor in another strange covid postseason, there's just way too many factors at play to know what's going to happen in a few months.

I'm gonna laugh though if the Clippers or some darkhorse ends up winning the title after ALL the focus that's been put on these two teams There's kind of a funny trend in the NBA where the very hyped up team ('04 Lakers, '11 Heat, '13 Lakers, '16 Warriors, '20 Clippers) doesn't win the title

[mehyaM24]

KD, when he's played that is, has definitely been better than AD this season, who's having a much worse season than he did last year. But that's why it's pointless making all these Nets/Lakers comparisons, because truth be told I have absolutely no idea how these teams are gonna look come playoff time. The Nets have legitimately barely even played together, and LeBron & AD have missed significant time with injuries. Factor in another strange covid postseason, there's just way too many factors at play to know what's gonna happen in a few months.

I'm gonna laugh though if the Clippers or some darkhorse end up winning the title after ALL the focus put on these two teams There's kind of a funny trend in the NBA where the very hyped up team ('04 Lakers, '11 Heat, '13 Lakers, '16 Warriors, '20 Clippers) tends not to win

ya good point. the clips are the real sleeper imo. one of few elite teams with a top 10 offense and defense (#1 in ortg). long as they don't face that 7 foot michelin man over in denver, they can definitely go the distance. wouldn't bet on them, but it wouldn't surprise me either.