yeah but you dont need Kevin Love to just be a spotup shooter. there are plenty of guys they couldve brought in who arent gonna be looking for max contracts that can knock down shots for LeBron lol stretch 4 is a nice commodity for creating mismatches and extra floor space, but i really don't feel like this team looks like it missed a beat when Love went out. they look just as capable without him.. maybe better defensively.
Doesn't matter how the remaining games play out in the East...ATL has no shot with a dinged-up DeMarre and no Korver. Cleveland doesn't have a shot to win more than 1-2 games (I have the Warriors in 5) because no matter how you stack it, GS is going to have an advantage. If you put LeBron on Curry, Curry is going to use his speed to get around LeBron. If you put a hobbled Kyrie on Curry, he's going to burn the Cavs all night. If you put a hobbled Kyrie on Klay Thompson, you open up another great mismatch to exploit. Tristan Thompson is having himself a breakout year, but he doesn't match up well with Andrew Bogut nor with Draymond Green. Timofey Mozgov is having a decent year, but he matches up poorly with Bogut and I don't like his odds with David Lee, either. JR Smith is going to be a liability on defense no matter who he's tasked with guarding. I might give the Cavs a slight edge when Shumpert is guarding the wing, whether that's Iguodala or Harrison Barnes. And the Warriors have a much deeper bench than do the Cavs, to boot.
Yeah sure there's plenty of spotup shooters, but zero of them bring what Love does to the table. He can rebound, post, create space, lead the outlets and is a very capable passer in half court sets as well. On top of that when they need to go small you throw Love at the 5 and start pulling their center away from the basket for easy rebounds. He's one of the best pairings to go with Mozgov since he has to stay so close to the post. If you run Thompson at the 4 with Mozgov at 5 their spacing goes to absolute shit and they have not one, but two ballhandlers that like to take it to the rim. The stretch 4 is a commodity for most teams, but for slashing teams like the Cavs it's a necessity. If they would've kept Wiggins that's THREE slashers with NO spacing, that's just turrible. Wiggins is developing the jump shot faster than most anticipated, but he's still a guy who attacks the rim first. One aspect not talked about much is that Love can simply just leave and Cavs will once again have money to spend to please Lebron. With that you can add a more cohesive piece than Wiggins or Love, depending on what you feel the Cavs team needs. Wiggins isn't even that good at wing defense, they would've been at the same spot defensively maybe even worse if you want to count him taking minutes away from Shumpert (you don't have to count it though since that trade probably doesn't happen if they keep Wiggins). His DRPM ranks 26th at his position which puts him in Kyle Singler (lol) range. He does have more potential than Love on the defensive end, but when you're Lebron it's always win-now mode and you don't have time to wait for potential. I feel like people give up on teams waaaaaaay too fast, so many kneejerk reactions, just like the first year with the Heat when they failed to win it all year one. They need chemistry still and this current team has only been together since the all-star break.... and they're still in the ECF and on pace to sweep as well. Warriors squad has been running together for a few years now, we had to build chemistry together too.. it wasn't like Kerr came in and just instantly made them all better, it was a work in progress that he pushed over the top with a cohesive gameplan. How can you expect Blatt to do this as a 7-month experience coach with a team that's been together for 3 months? Things rarely work that fast in the NBA. Same with the Hawks too, they virtually have the same team as last year and ended up with the #1 seed in the leastern conference because they've had time to gel.
Everything is right except Mozgov will feast on Lee if they matched up. Lee is too finesse to bang in the post with Mozgov.. he'd be better off vs Thompson, which would still be a mismatch. Luckily Speights should be back by then and he has a much stronger body and also quicker feet for draw charges.. he's just really inconsistent all around.
Get ready to see that Lebron 3 pointer for the next 4 months, anything he does is x100 it's simple bron math.
Cavs simply don't have enough to beat GS's fully healthy and clicking squad. Give LeBron a healthy Kyrie and Love and I'd probably be saying something different. It will take the splash brothers' losing their shooting ability and LeBron being unreal.
...That suppose to make you feel better about your Bulls squad getting laughed off the court in 6? jk jk
steph just took a nasty fall. hope he's ok. that's the type where you don't know where you're at when you first get up