Why were the Spurs a much better team than the Heat in 2014?

[DoctorP]

The Heat won in 2013, so you're saying Pop got better than Spo by record amount in 1 year?

I don't think so.. A blowout that severe goes deeper than that

so what was it then?

[3ball]

So what was it then

I think the historical record speaks for itself

Coaches aren't able to design great ball movement and team play around lebron's skillset

So his team's talent usually wins early on in his tenures (07'... 12'... 16')

But then his brand gets overtaken by a superior brand with a much higher ceiling, usually by record amount (14' and 17/18')

Rinse repeat... So expect lebron to win 1 or 2 rings early in his Lakers tenure, before breaking his own record for margin of loss as the clippers or another team figures out and completely usurps his brand ... it's gonna be ugly...

[DoctorP]

I think the historical record speaks for itself

Coaches aren't able to design great ball movement and team play around lebron's skillset

So his team's talent usually wins early on in his tenures (07'... 12'... 16')

But then his brand gets overtaken by a superior brand with a much higher ceiling, usually by record amount (14' and 17/18')

Rinse repeat... So expect lebron to win 1 or 2 rings early in his Lakers tenure, before breaking his own record for margin of loss as the clippers or another team figures out and completely usurps his brand ... it's gonna be ugly...

i agree. we all know Bran-ball has a ceiling. In 13 the Heat were much more balanced, in 14 bran-ball took over because of the decline of Wade and Bosh's effectiveness. Bran took over and then lost. A refresh was needed. Bran left.

[iamgine]

You think the Heat win if Wade gets his ECF averages of 19 on 55%, instead of the 15 on 42% he got in the Finals???

I don't think so.. a blowout that severe is deeper than just "Wade wasn't good enough"

Don't forget defense part.

"Main reason" already implies there are other lesser reasons.

[3ball]

i agree. we all know Bran-ball has a ceiling. In 13 the Heat were much more balanced, in 14 bran-ball took over because of the decline of Wade and Bosh's effectiveness. Bran took over and then lost. A refresh was needed. Bran left.

Pippen played like Wade in the 96' and 98' Finals, but the Bulls had goat teamwork, so other guys were playing to capacity and stepped up

With Wade struggling, it would've been nice to activate Bosh, but he'd been reduced to spot-up shooter in bran-ball

Coaches simply can't design great ball movement and team play around lebron's skillset, so lebron ceded the best teams of his era to other guys that beat him (Duncan, Curry, Dirk)

[DoctorP]

Pippen played like Wade in the 96' and 98' Finals, but the Bulls had goat teamwork, so other guys were playing to capacity and stepped up

With Wade struggling, it would've been nice to activate Bosh, but he'd been reduced to spot-up shooter in bran-ball

Coaches simply can't design great ball movement and team play around lebron's skillset, lebron ceded the best teams of his era to other guys that beat him (Duncan, Curry, Dirk)

interesting to see what happens with AD in LA

[sdot_thadon]

Pretty much everything that went into it was mentioned here.

Spurs had a deep, motivated cast. They were chomping at the bit all season to get back at miami.

Miami as a team was tired, more on that later in the post. 4 straight finals and had some pretty hard fought series. 2012 olympics sprinkled dead in the middle of that run. A team full of vets. And if you stop with the bs narrative the spurs were a younger team overall.

The Spurs had 4 guys with +10 season careers
The Heat had 9, i know double the amount.

The Spurs actual playing rotation had 4 guys over 30
The Heats rotation had 4 guys under 30

that should help clear things up.

Now. About that defense. I keep seeing you admit you don't actually watch the modern games, I'll help you understand what actually happened under the surface. The Heat played a type of defense that required alot of energy, switching and scrambling recoveries on the weak side to make up for odd defensive rotation. It worked brilliantly the 1st 3 years even though there was a slow decline in defensive rank from season to season. Lebron, Wade, and Bosh made it work but everyone with any sense was going on about how it wasn't a sustainable style of defense to play for a veteran team. By 2014 it was clear and their defense was considerably worse in the regular season than it had been. Pop being the genius he is figured out ways to wear them down even more with even more ball movement. The passing style of the spurs was really making good, safe passes and getting the ball to switch sides of the floor multiple times a posession if possible. That required the heat to do alot of scrambling to cover switches etc. for a bunch of guys in their mid 30s it wasn't happening. So the spurs routinely got good looks in that finals series and when they got them, they nailed them.

I've never been a Spurs fan but thar was beautiful basketball in 2014.

[3ball]

Pretty much everything that went into it was mentioned here.

Spurs had a deep, motivated cast. They were chomping at the bit all season to get back at miami.

Miami as a team was tired, more on that later in the post. 4 straight finals and had some pretty hard fought series. 2012 olympics sprinkled dead in the middle of that run. A team full of vets. And if you stop with the bs narrative the spurs were a younger team overall.

The Spurs had 4 guys with +10 season careers
The Heat had 9, i know double the amount.

The Spurs actual playing rotation had 4 guys over 30
The Heats rotation had 4 guys under 30

that should help clear things up.

Now. About that defense. I keep seeing you admit you don't actually watch the modern games, I'll help you understand what actually happened under the surface. The Heat played a type of defense that required alot of energy, switching and scrambling recoveries on the weak side to make up for odd defensive rotation. It worked brilliantly the 1st 3 years even though there was a slow decline in defensive rank from season to season. Lebron, Wade, and Bosh made it work but everyone with any sense was going on about how it wasn't a sustainable style of defense to play for a veteran team. By 2014 it was clear and their defense was considerably worse in the regular season than it had been. Pop being the genius he is figured out ways to wear them down even more with even more ball movement. The passing style of the spurs was really making good, safe passes and getting the ball to switch sides of the floor multiple times a posession if possible. That required the heat to do alot of scrambling to cover switches etc. for a bunch of guys in their mid 30s it wasn't happening. So the spurs routinely got good looks in that finals series and when they got them, they nailed them.

I've never been a Spurs fan but thar was beautiful basketball in 2014.

MJ handled all the difficulties that come with 3-peating, and succeeded in doing it twice

Otoh, Lebron failed to 3-peat because he's inferior as a leader and mentally.. and his style gives teams lower ceilings than MJ and most championship teams, 3/9

Coaches simply can't design great ball movement and teamwork around his skillset, so his team's struggle on the championship level - they frequently get beat by record amount or swept

[sdot_thadon]

MJ handled all the difficulties that come with 3-peating, and succeeded in doing it twice

Otoh, Lebron failed to 3-peat because he's inferior as a leader and mentally.. and his style gives teams lower ceilings than MJ and most championship teams, 3/9

Coaches simply can't design great ball movement and teamwork around his skillset, so his team's struggle on the championship level - they frequently get beat by record amount or swept

aka "I got nothing for that bro"

you quoted my entire post and couldn't address a single point? Sounds like we're done here.

[Hey Yo]

Pippen played like Wade in the 96' and 98' Finals, but the Bulls had goat teamwork, so other guys were playing to capacity and stepped up

With Wade struggling, it would've been nice to activate Bosh, but he'd been reduced to spot-up shooter in bran-ball

Coaches simply can't design great ball movement and team play around lebron's skillset, so lebron ceded the best teams of his era to other guys that beat him (Duncan, Curry, Dirk)

May 2014:

"The only way Heat center Chris Bosh will see himself playing in the post again is by watching old highlight videos.

Bosh made it even clearer Saturday his days of living on the block are gone.

As in R.I.P to his post game.

"I don't bang anybody anymore," Bosh said. "It's a tired thing for me. It's not my strength and I understand that."

[3ball]

aka "I got nothing for that bro"

you quoted my entire post and couldn't address a single point? Sounds like we're done here.

There's nothing to address

You typed one long ass excuse

I can make excuses for MJ's losses too, like the ones in 89' and 90', or 95'

If we can excuse away losses then mj has 15 rings and Lebron has 17 and kobe has 20

Have a good day

(Btw, you don't address my posts either half the time, especially if they're too long)

[thefatmiral]

They were better the previous year too.

[TheCorporation]

I'm assuming you are new to basketball...That Spurs team was much better than most teams in NBA history, not just the 2014 broken down Heat.

SRS, top 30 team all time

Keep up.

Sheesh

[red1]

because lebron got locked down by the klaw.




we'll see part 2 this coming may.

[TheCorporation]

Side question:


Which of MJ's Finals opponets comes close to 2014 Spurs SRS rank

This should be good