2006 NBA Finals

Name Team Year PPG RPG APG FG% PER

Dwyane Wade Mia 2006 34.7 7.8 3.8 46.8 33.8

If Pippen did or Gasol ever does put up numbers like this, then I guess I’m wrong. Wade is better than both, hands down. You can have the last word, I’m done on this topic.

You’re making statements that fly in the face of reality (i.e. Gasol and Pippen have led teams to the playoffs, Kobe was Shaq’s sidekick, Wade played with a little guy called Shaq when they won), so excuse me for being “snarky.” I’m not sure how to respond. I just find it completely baseless to say that two players cannot play together because they’re both too good… I doubt they end up together, but I think they’d be ok if they did… as indynasty ok if paired with a couple shooters and a good frontcourt.

Pippen is easily one of the top 50 of all-time. There’s not that much higher Wade can climb. Other wingmen include Kobe (to Shaq), Kareem (to Magic)… top players.

Wade’s supporting cast???? How about Shaq? You know, that large guy with all the rings on his fingers… Antoine Walker, 3 time All-Star who had the ability to do even more when motivated. James Posey, who shot .614 TS% in the playoffs. Udonis Haslem. Jason Williams. Zo and Gary Payton on the bench, just a couple of HOFers at the end of the bench. But, no, Miami didn’t have a very strong rotation… 2 HOFers up top, an All-Star caliber player, a sharp-shooter/defender, a work-man PF, a PG with a great handle and good passing ability, 2 HOF veterans on the bench… Doesn’t sound like every other championship rotation at all………… How can I not be “snarky” about that.

My point is that huge contracts don’t work out as often as they do, if not more often… I never said because the player didn’t deserve the contract. If a guy gets injured and doesn’t retire because of it, he’s still sitting on your books. (Amare, in particular, may be an injury risk to the point where his contract is uninsurable.)

JO was a much better defender than Amare. Not the scorer Amare is, but probably just as good overall. Again, All-NBA is based on subjective votes. If you’re a big scorer on a top team you’re on there.

Amare had two seasons in the .530s and has been above .600 only since Nash got there. It’s not like he improved a lot from rookie season to season two and then got even better once Nash got there… his improvement coincided exactly with Nash’s arrival. I’m not saying he CAN’T do it without Nash, I’m just saying that because he HASN’T it’s tough to say for sure that he CAN. (And I do believe 100% he can do it with LeBron, by the way… which is still the Knicks’ #1 priority.)

The other guys don’t seem to have a problem getting insured.

I wouldn’t say those are the only guys who deserve a max contract. If you have a 50/50 chance that your max guy craps the bed on you, though, I would be very careful giving out that kind of money.

pretty subjective reasoning on your part — Grant Hill was INJURED, not a bad player. Can’t blame a team for signing a guy and then having him get injured. That’s not a bust, that’s bad luck. Ben Wallace was a great player, but was obviously a bad sign because he was already showing signs of slipping and was 32. Jermaine O’Neal was really not in the same class as Amare — 2 NBA 3rd teams and 1 NBA 2nd team, but he also was brought down by injuries. Arenas was also an injury guy.

Re: his TS being 53.6 without Nash – that was his second season – he hasn’t been below 61.5 since.

Re: him not making All-NBA in 08-09- he missed 27 games with an eye injury. Maybe that’s why they didn’t make the playoffs. And he was made to play 3rd banana to Shaq and Nash.

Look- there’s no doubt that anytime you hand $100M to a player with a history of injuries, there’s a risk of further injury. But find me one player other than Lebron who is in the prime of his career, is as dynamic as Amare is, and is remotely obtainable (ie. not Durant or Howard) who doesn’t have a worse injury history. Hint- there isn’t one. By your reasoning, only Lebron, Durant, and Howard should be max players, which is just not realistic in this world.

PS Let’s keep it civil here, and stop with the condescending, snarky comments please.

d-mar, when a guy has carried a team to the playoffs it’s very hard to say that he couldn’t do so.

The one year in his prime where Pippen played without Jordan he led the Bulls and they swept the 1st round before getting to a Game 7 in the 2nd round against eventual EC Champ Knicks.

Gasol was the leader of a Memphis team that won 50 games a couple of times…

But, no way, those guys couldn’t lead teams to the playoffs…

Anyway, that’s a ridiculously subjective and largely irrelevant criteria as basketball is a team game and none of these guys, even Wade, has led a team to the playoffs BY THEMSELVES.

My point, I believe, stands. HOF caliber players have been wingmen or been paired together. Pippen was the best wing defender in the league, a great passer, and a good scorer. By all accounts also the vocal leader on the Bulls. Shaq/Kobe, Magic/Kareem……….

A first rounder would be nice. The problems I see are 1. suddenly Amare isn’t a 5 year $20 mill per gamble, but a 6 year $20 mill per gamble… that’s not worth a 1st rounder to me and 2. do the Suns really value the trade exception that much? They’re cheap enough that they might not.
If the Knicks could still only give Amare 5 years and the Suns actually wanted the trade exception… could be a good idea.

@205 “A Bosh/Wade/Haywood (using Bucher’s idea/fake tweet as a template) and Calderon pairing”

I don’t think the Heat have cap space for all 4, but only 3 of the 4. Calderon would, I believe, mean no Haywood. Not that I think Haywood is leaving Dallas anyway.

@210 “The cap is slotted so that every team has one max player, several $8-$10 mil players, several MLE players, several rookie scale players, and a few minimum guys rounding out the practice squads.”

Most of the time teams have just given their best player a max deal even though he’s not a legit max-level player using logic similar to this it’s failed pretty miserably. If you don’t have a top 5-10 player I think you’re theoretically better off spreading spreading your pot around to several good players. The difference between the best player and 5th best player in the league may be a lot greater than between the 10th best and 50th best player, if you follow me.

I mean, he will never be more famous than if he moves to New York and wins a championship there with Amar’e. But it’s not like he somehow *wouldn’t* be the best player on that Miami team. What a bizarre team that would be, three superstars and a bunch of filler.

They still would need to move the Bease to have any shot at LBJ though, right? If that’s still true, this *is* good news for LeBron. I mean, the Knicks. The only available outside-CLE choices would be us with Amar’e, CHI with Rose (I’d love to believe the rumours he doesn’t want James; that would make him such a punk!), or NJ with Brook Lopez and Devin Harris. Hahaha.

I’m giddy for primetime tomorrow!