Kyrie, Kevin Love, and LeBron

[BoBoBREWSKI]

Minus LeBron, because he only agreed to return to CLE if they traded Wiggins and scraps for Love. He wasn't interested in being part of a rebuilding project dependent on a teenage rookie. He would only return if they were 100% in win now mode.

BNM

True. And they probably wouldn't of come back vs G.State last year and won the championship without Love.

 

[Minstrel]

Love is a really great (offensive) player. He looks a lot worse in Cleveland because--you know what they say--there's only one ball to go around. The Warriors made it work because they run a dynamic, passing-dependent offense that hunts the best shots no matter who gets them. The Cavaliers are basically a souped-up version of the old Thunder, where James and Irving take turns isolating. It works better when you have arguably the greatest player of all-time (and James is honestly willing to distribute), but it still marginalizes guys like Love.

 

[Pinwheel1]

Wrong. It's about one man. And that man is LeBron.

Lebron played great (as did Kyrie) but the Warriors averaged 122 points in 5 games. I am not really sure they cared how much Lebron and Kyrie scored because they knew as a team they could not play at the Warrior's offensive level for 48 minutes. Hell for some stretches of the game they had guys like Livingston covering Lebron. But when you see Curry out hustling Lebron for a rebound late in the game like last night, you can see how much opposing players eventually wear down again them. Which makes the comments about certain Blazers players choking in the 4th against them ridiculous.

The Warriors were spectacular all season long with Durant in the line up. They were blowing teams out on most nights which is why I said before the Blazer series not to read too much into our performance. (especially without Nurk) The Warriors tend to embarrass a lot of teams. The only way the Cavs could have won this series was for the Warriors to get hurt or suspended.

 

[Nate]

The cavs had some garbage lineups out there last night...

At one point they had:

Korver, Smith, Williams, Shumpert, Kyrie....

Another lineup that I was confused about was.

Lebron, Korver, Jefferson, Williams, and Smith/Thompson

Lebron makes scrubs look good.

I remember lookin at the warriors and they had curry, Thompson, green, Andre, and someone not named Durant...

Lebron should've won the MVP.

 

[Boob-No-More]

Lebron should've won the MVP.

Kinda hard not to give it too the guy whose team won with him averaging 35.2 ppg on .698 TS%.

Yeah, LeBron had a great individual series, but so did Durant - and his team won 4 games to 1.

BNM

 

[Nate]

Kinda hard not to give it too the guy whose team won with him averaging 35.2 ppg on .698 TS%.

Yeah, LeBron had a great individual series, but so did Durant - and his team won 4 games to 1.

BNM

It's not about who won the championship, it's about who was the most valuable player.

Switch lebron and KD and the warriors sweep the cavs by 30 every game.

 

[Boob-No-More]

It's not about who won the championship, it's about who was the most valuable player.

Switch lebron and KD and the warriors sweep the cavs by 30 every game.

So, who is more valuable, the guys who averages 35 ppg on the winning team, or the guy who average 33 ppg on the losing team?

Winning matters. If it didn't, they wouldn't keep score. Durant's team won, and he had one of the greatest series in NBA finals history. He deserved the MVP.

BNM

 

[Pinwheel1]

It's not about who won the championship, it's about who was the most valuable player.

Switch lebron and KD and the warriors sweep the cavs by 30 every game.

Kind of hard to give it to LeBron when his team got their asses kicked. The games were not that close.

Lebron played great, but lets face it the Warrior's game plan did not appear to focus on stopping him like most teams do. Of course Durant benefited from the same thing since the Warriors have so many weapons. Both often got single coverage because of it.

 

[Minstrel]

Durant also guarded LeBron James well, in most of the games, whereas James was not that effective in guarding Durant.

I'm someone who believes that James has a very strong argument for GOAT, but I think Durant was a very defensible choice for MVP of this series. He had an amazing series, he arguably played as well as James did. Durant won the series because he had other guys playing well, too, but he basically matched James on his own.

 

[Orion Bailey]

That lineup of Durant, Iguodala, Curry, Thompson and Green.


I don't know a team in the NBA that can be that. Now, then or in the future....

Iguodala can drive to the hoop and dunk in your face and hit a three the next time down... and his defense...
wow. Someone blow this team up please....

 

[Minstrel]

I've come around to the idea that they'll likely trade one of their stars (almost surely Thompson) when they're staring at $300M+ payrolls, as Green and Thompson come up for "super max" contracts in 2019 and 2020.

So how sustainable this team is will partially depend on how well they execute that deal and what types of (presumably young and cheap) assets they get back in return.

Of course, even if they botch it, Curry/Durant/Green is still a pretty good core.

 

[BonesJones]

That lineup of Durant, Iguodala, Curry, Thompson and Green.


I don't know a team in the NBA that can be that. Now, then or in the future....

Iguodala can drive to the hoop and dunk in your face and hit a three the next time down... and his defense...
wow. Someone blow this team up please....

The only way this team will get blown up is if the team takes a trip to Syria. So I wouldn't exactly wish for that.