The "The Last Dance" Thread

I mean, he would be the Thomas Decision for the team, wouldn't he? I can kind of see both sides - There is clearly something about how he plays that makes his teammates better when he's -not- playing the past couple of years, and he seems like a pain in the ass to deal with, BUT, fuck that guy can score and the Cavs don't win the title without him. I'd probably take someone else though, just because even if you only look at his positives, the gap from Irving to Next Best isn't especially drastic. Like, gimme Curry and Chris Paul and Lowry at one G position, and Harden and Thompson and Lillard at the other, and I think things will be fine.

 

If for no other reason not to pick him, the chances Irving will have an injury of some sort next summer are very good.

 

That was four years ago.

 

As he should have, there was no upside in fighting for his inclusion. Chuck knew Jordan hated him. Magic and Isiah were on the outs and I'm positive Larry Bird never liked him and if he did the 1987 incident ended that without question. Sure you could replace those three with Isiah, Dominique and...Larry Johnson (I think he was NBA Rookie of the Year) and still won by 20 each game without a sweat. But this was about the NBA trying to plant its flag in the global sports market and that isn't getting done without Michael Jordan.

 

Chances of Irving getting injured during the Olympics would be so high.

 

Kyrie Irving is about as skilled as anyone in the league. Seriously. He may have the best handle I've ever seen.

The downside of Kyrie is that he's a nutcase and when he's a team leader the team is better off without him. But if he's on a roster like this one? The dude would be a monster. I think he's an easy inclusion.

(And just to be clear... there is a MASSIVE dropoff from Kyrie to Lowry. Lowry's not sniffing my roster.)

 

You say that, but the makeup of a guy plays a big part. Some guys don't do well when they are going to be a 12th or 11th guy in the pecking order. I think what Lowry brings in that slot based on his history is more than what Irving could bring, considering the potential headaches when he sees he's behind A, B, C, etc.

 

Would Kyrie agree to travel to Japan?
Isn’t he afraid he’d fall off the edge of the earth?

 

Kyrie would be fine in that kind of role on an Olympic team. He acknowledged a year ago that his need to get out of LeBron's shadow and be The Man was pretty misguided. One summer with the best players in the world? He'd be great.

And seriously, Lowry is 34 and brings a mediocre mid-range jumper and just plain bad 3 point shooting. He's a good complementary piece for the Raptors. He doesn't belong on the national team unless about 20 guys say no.

 

Lowry is fine Olympic competition because he's willing to do the hustle stuff. He'll take the charges, dive for the loose balls, play actual defense, get to the line, move the ball around. It isn't like points are going to be hard to come by. There's a reason why Coach K was so complementary of him in the 2016 Games and it wasn't because of the five points and three rebounds a game he got.

He and Paul George were the defensive stoppers on that team. I think it was against Serbia or Argentina, or someone that jumped out to an early big lead and he came in and shut it down.

 

He’s much more than a complementary player on those Raptors teams.

 

Yeah, that's fair. He was the third or fourth most important guy on the title team. Other years, probably second most important.