Teams that won a title without Top 5 Player

[rapsuperstar31]

They have those elite role players. Some are being paid super well though too, I always thought the elite defenders / role players were undervalued. But OG for instance is now making 42 per season. So paid extremely well now.

Not sure how they afford KAT, Brunson and all those other guys to be honest. Maybe some backroom deals going on?

OG has been amazing for sure. He's never averaged more than 18 PPG in any regular season OR playoffs until this playoff run with the Knicks. He's overtaken KAT as the Knicks' 2nd option and is averaging 20 PPG in the playoffs on super efficient shooting numbers. He's playing like a Max player and should win Finals MVP if the Knicks close this out.

My guess is that Connelly and Finch are watching this and saying, "That could be Jaden!". Of course, the other outcome for Jaden could be Mikal Bridges, which is still a really good player. But OG has taken his game to another level entirely.

Jaden is just inconsistent. At times he plays like a max player, at other times he doesn't show up. So IDk what to expect from him going forward, we'll see.

I think Jaden is mostly in his head if he wants to be more than he is. There are too many games, he gets mad either a missed shot or he feels like he gets fouled and he retaliates by fouling right away. In some instances he retaliates in back to back possessions to pick up two fouls in 10 seconds. At least he isn't punching the wall anymore, but I do think he has the potential to be so much more if he can get his emotions in check.

[Q-is-here]

They have those elite role players. Some are being paid super well though too, I always thought the elite defenders / role players were undervalued. But OG for instance is now making 42 per season. So paid extremely well now.

Not sure how they afford KAT, Brunson and all those other guys to be honest. Maybe some backroom deals going on?

OG has been amazing for sure. He's never averaged more than 18 PPG in any regular season OR playoffs until this playoff run with the Knicks. He's overtaken KAT as the Knicks' 2nd option and is averaging 20 PPG in the playoffs on super efficient shooting numbers. He's playing like a Max player and should win Finals MVP if the Knicks close this out.

My guess is that Connelly and Finch are watching this and saying, "That could be Jaden!". Of course, the other outcome for Jaden could be Mikal Bridges, which is still a really good player. But OG has taken his game to another level entirely.

Jaden is just inconsistent. At times he plays like a max player, at other times he doesn't show up. So IDk what to expect from him going forward, we'll see.

Yeah, he disappeared in the Spurs series but his awful play was overshadowed by Randle's. Still, I think the lesson with OG is that he's in his 9th year and about to turn 29 years old. Perhaps he just needed some time to climb the totem pole, so to speak, and certainly Jaden has some reasonable excuses for not being able to spread his wings all the way.

[Wolvesfan21]

OG has been amazing for sure. He's never averaged more than 18 PPG in any regular season OR playoffs until this playoff run with the Knicks. He's overtaken KAT as the Knicks' 2nd option and is averaging 20 PPG in the playoffs on super efficient shooting numbers. He's playing like a Max player and should win Finals MVP if the Knicks close this out.

My guess is that Connelly and Finch are watching this and saying, "That could be Jaden!". Of course, the other outcome for Jaden could be Mikal Bridges, which is still a really good player. But OG has taken his game to another level entirely.

Jaden is just inconsistent. At times he plays like a max player, at other times he doesn't show up. So IDk what to expect from him going forward, we'll see.

I think Jaden is mostly in his head if he wants to be more than he is. There are too many games, he gets mad either a missed shot or he feels like he gets fouled and he retaliates by fouling right away. In some instances he retaliates in back to back possessions to pick up two fouls in 10 seconds. At least he isn't punching the wall anymore, but I do think he has the potential to be so much more if he can get his emotions in check.

He has reigned in most of the stupid fouls or punching walls, but they do show up still as you say. Like the SA series, he was just not impactful like we needed.

[Coolbreeze44]

They have those elite role players. Some are being paid super well though too, I always thought the elite defenders / role players were undervalued. But OG for instance is now making 42 per season. So paid extremely well now.

Not sure how they afford KAT, Brunson and all those other guys to be honest. Maybe some backroom deals going on?

OG has been amazing for sure. He's never averaged more than 18 PPG in any regular season OR playoffs until this playoff run with the Knicks. He's overtaken KAT as the Knicks' 2nd option and is averaging 20 PPG in the playoffs on super efficient shooting numbers. He's playing like a Max player and should win Finals MVP if the Knicks close this out.

My guess is that Connelly and Finch are watching this and saying, "That could be Jaden!". Of course, the other outcome for Jaden could be Mikal Bridges, which is still a really good player. But OG has taken his game to another level entirely.

Jaden is just inconsistent. At times he plays like a max player, at other times he doesn't show up. So IDk what to expect from him going forward, we'll see.

He might be the most consistent player on the team. His defense shows up every night. His offense is purely predicated on how much usage the supposed big 2 allow him to have. His shooting percentages don't lie.

[AbeVigodaLive]

OG has been amazing for sure. He's never averaged more than 18 PPG in any regular season OR playoffs until this playoff run with the Knicks. He's overtaken KAT as the Knicks' 2nd option and is averaging 20 PPG in the playoffs on super efficient shooting numbers. He's playing like a Max player and should win Finals MVP if the Knicks close this out.

My guess is that Connelly and Finch are watching this and saying, "That could be Jaden!". Of course, the other outcome for Jaden could be Mikal Bridges, which is still a really good player. But OG has taken his game to another level entirely.

Jaden is just inconsistent. At times he plays like a max player, at other times he doesn't show up. So IDk what to expect from him going forward, we'll see.

He might be the most consistent player on the team. His defense shows up every night. His offense is purely predicated on how much usage the supposed big 2 allow him to have. His shooting percentages don't lie.

To be fair, McDaniels shot 10 - 42 (24%) in the playoffs on threes. That was atrocious and very inconsistent from his regular season.

Somehow, it was even worse than Randle in the postseason (10 - 41 3fg).

[Wolvesfan21]

OG has been amazing for sure. He's never averaged more than 18 PPG in any regular season OR playoffs until this playoff run with the Knicks. He's overtaken KAT as the Knicks' 2nd option and is averaging 20 PPG in the playoffs on super efficient shooting numbers. He's playing like a Max player and should win Finals MVP if the Knicks close this out.

My guess is that Connelly and Finch are watching this and saying, "That could be Jaden!". Of course, the other outcome for Jaden could be Mikal Bridges, which is still a really good player. But OG has taken his game to another level entirely.

Jaden is just inconsistent. At times he plays like a max player, at other times he doesn't show up. So IDk what to expect from him going forward, we'll see.

He might be the most consistent player on the team. His defense shows up every night. His offense is purely predicated on how much usage the supposed big 2 allow him to have. His shooting percentages don't lie.

IDK about every night, most nights and when he's not in foul trouble. We all love Jaden but he's no Pippen or OG.

[Coolbreeze44]

Jaden is just inconsistent. At times he plays like a max player, at other times he doesn't show up. So IDk what to expect from him going forward, we'll see.

He might be the most consistent player on the team. His defense shows up every night. His offense is purely predicated on how much usage the supposed big 2 allow him to have. His shooting percentages don't lie.

To be fair, McDaniels shot 10 - 42 (24%) in the playoffs on threes. That was atrocious and very inconsistent from his regular season.

Somehow, it was even worse than Randle in the postseason (10 - 41 3fg).

To be fair, one cherry picked stat in a small sample size is somewhat extraneous. Though his 3 point shooting was bad in the playoffs, he shot over 50% from 2 point range and was 44.3% overall. The team in the playoffs shot 43.7%.

[AbeVigodaLive]

He might be the most consistent player on the team. His defense shows up every night. His offense is purely predicated on how much usage the supposed big 2 allow him to have. His shooting percentages don't lie.

To be fair, McDaniels shot 10 - 42 (24%) in the playoffs on threes. That was atrocious and very inconsistent from his regular season.

Somehow, it was even worse than Randle in the postseason (10 - 41 3fg).

To be fair, one cherry picked stat in a small sample size is somewhat extraneous. Though his 3 point shooting was bad in the playoffs, he shot over 50% from 2 point range and was 44.3% overall. The team in the playoffs shot 43.7%.

You mentioned shooting percentage + playoffs + consistency.

So I think that stat was relevant. After all, any playoff statistic could be waved off as "small sample size" if we want.

I will say that McDaniels showed improvement by finding ways to insert himself offensively more consistently in these playoffs, in part probably out of necessity. He scored at least 12 in every game, whether he shot well or not. He scored fewer than 12 points 6 times in 15 playoff games last season.



[Edit: Cool didn't mention playoffs. Apparently, I made that part up. Oops.]

[Wolvesfan21]

To be fair, McDaniels shot 10 - 42 (24%) in the playoffs on threes. That was atrocious and very inconsistent from his regular season.

Somehow, it was even worse than Randle in the postseason (10 - 41 3fg).

To be fair, one cherry picked stat in a small sample size is somewhat extraneous. Though his 3 point shooting was bad in the playoffs, he shot over 50% from 2 point range and was 44.3% overall. The team in the playoffs shot 43.7%.

You mentioned shooting percentage + playoffs + consistency.

So I think that stat was relevant. After all, any playoff statistic could be waved off as "small sample size" if we want.

That is a solid number of shots too, it's not like 1 game or even 3. Obviously he was just in a bit of a funk, as his regular season numbers were nice. To be a top dog team though, we are going to probably need more Pippen then McCants.

[AussieWolf3]

To be fair, one cherry picked stat in a small sample size is somewhat extraneous. Though his 3 point shooting was bad in the playoffs, he shot over 50% from 2 point range and was 44.3% overall. The team in the playoffs shot 43.7%.

You mentioned shooting percentage + playoffs + consistency.

So I think that stat was relevant. After all, any playoff statistic could be waved off as "small sample size" if we want.

That is a solid number of shots too, it's not like 1 game or even 3. Obviously he was just in a bit of a funk, as his regular season numbers were nice. To be a top dog team though, we are going to probably need more Pippen then McCants.

I'm fairly confident that you could find 42 shot samples in just about any elite shooter's season where they have that low of a percentage, it's just not that many shots in the grand scheme of it all.

And y'all acting like he had some kind of awful drop off in the PS. He didn't, 17.6 ppg: 48% on midrange and 67% at the rim all while playing great defense - at time game breaking defense.

The Spurs series was disappointing for sure, but the whole team was kinda dysfunctional in hindsight.

Give him so real usage and run sets with him running PnR, give him a chance at volume scoring and I'm absolutely certain he wont disappoint. Can he rise to all star or better levels, and be legit number 2? I don't know but it's not outside the realm of possibility, not by a long shot