Some obvious similarities to the 2002 Cs. Here's one of 'em:
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@TheHoopCentral
An anonymous player on Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown:
“Tatum & Brown can’t be your Superstars, They only do things to help their game. They don’t get anyone else easy shots. All the know how to do is score.”
That is not true about Pierce and Antoine. Sure, they had their difficulties coexisting with eachother, but they ended up being winning players who sacrificed their personal games to achieve team success. Pierce was the best player on a title team, and Antoine was a vocal leader and crucial part of the 06 Heat championship squad.
Exactly. Pierce and Walker as teammates are frankly evidence of the same basic point here.
Walker and Pierce weren't Superstars. And they didn't win together. They had to embrace -- whether they liked it or not -- that they weren't winning **** as the lead dog on an NBA team, and sacrifice in the pecking order and on the stat sheet to win.
Pierce, as good as he was, needed a Superstar player (albeit on the back 9 of his career) and one of the greatest shooters ever to get over the hump. Walker was a role player in 2006 on a team with two Superstars.
Will be interesting to see where Tatum and Brown net out. Statistically, both are having great seasons. And the team is sub .500. They're iso-scoring isn't leading to winning.
You need 2 Superstars or 3 Stars to win an NBA championship. The former is preferable if you want to win multiple.
Both Tatum and Jaylen are on the star track, but not Superstar -- frankly, that ship has probably sailed. Hard to see them becoming LeBron or Giannis or Larry or Magic or the like. Guys that good show up to the league with a next level differentiation almost immediately. They're both really good! But they're both essentially out of their rookie contracts, and neither is really making their teammates better with any regularity (Tatum is still dealing with COVID holdover effects, IMO).
And no, Kemba Walker ain't a Star.