Either you’re a huge fan of Fournier or I’m missing something here. Fournier is like Bruce Brown for me. Good role player, can have an impact on the floor, but ultimately replaceable on a contender.
Interestingly that's exactly how I would describe Tobias Harris and Jrue Holiday. Good role players who can have an impact on the floor, but ultimately replacable on a contender.
It's also how I would describe guys like Steve Kerr, Bruce Bowen, Robert Horry and Andre Iguodala in his later years with GS. These guys were all impact role players, yet played crucial roles in helping thier teams win championships.
Sometimes having the right role players giving you the right impact in the right roles can be the difference between getting knocked out in the conference semis vs winning a championship ring.
Is Jrue Holiday better overall then Fournier? Sure, I'll say he is a noteworthy step up. But Tatum is also a far better player then Middleton right now, and come playoff time I'm not convinced Giannis has the advantage over Lillard. Game 7 against the Sixers, Gainnis was completely invisible for the last 6 minutes or so of the game. Everything was going through Jrue and Middleton. I think you could have taken Giannis off the court and it wouldn't have even noticed he was gone. When you're in a close game in a tight playoff series and it comes down to clutch time - I honestly think I'd rather have Lillard on my team with the ball then Giannis.
And how are the Nets trio dysfunctional? They seemed to function fine when beating us and I don’t think Milwaukee wins the series if all 3 were healthy. Among the teams I listed, the Sixers seem the most beatable mainly because of how poorly Simmons plays.
We had an absolutely horrible year, barely made the playoffs, were without out 2nd best player the entire series (and our 3rd best player for multiple games too). What part of "they beat us" is impressive?
Also the "if all 3 were healthy" is part of the disfunction. Kyrie misses a ton of games every year, and this year he missed a bunch of them without even having a medical issue - just decided he didn't care enough to play. then in the playoffs he got injured again - which seems to be almost an annual occurance at this point. And it was his first year there, as the biggest head case in the NBA. God only knows what antics he might throw next season.
Lastly, Tatum arguably didn’t even make all-NBA this year (he could’ve been 3rd team if we didn’t have position restrictions) but Dame led 2nd team (and could’ve been 1st team if we didn’t have those position restrictions). I’m not sure Dame comes in as the 2nd best player.
Sorry, I meant that Tatum (as our second best player) is capable of going toe-to-toe with pretty much anybody on that list. Not that Lillard would be our second best player. Vague wording on my part.
