khans2k5 wrote:Cleveland won the title. Love is going nowhere. You don't make a major move like trading Love after you win it all. You do everything you can to keep the band together and try to repeat.
The only problem is I'm not sure Kevin Love was ever truly in the band. He was more like a roadie. My guess is that LeBron will green light any attempt by the Cavs to deal Love. And I think Love's agent will push for a trade as well. He's got his ring now, so his attention will probably turn back to cementing his legacy as a great individual player and maximizing his next contract. The Lakers and Celtics beckon!
We also know Love is a student of the game and that winning championships matters. The way Love played in game 7 was probably closer to the vision had of him when he went there. He needs to get back to playing like Kevin Love or even David Lee type instead of being more like Channing Frye and Ryan Anderson.
khans2k5 wrote:What the Cavs did defensively to stifle Curry and Klay isn't legal during the regular season so the Warriors are gonna be just fine. You don't get to hold and chip nearly as much in the regular season and a lot of the contact Klay drew on his drives is a foul in the regular season. I just hope next season's playoffs get the illegal screens under control. It was ridiculous this series how Cleveland was able to force switches by the screen setter just pushing the guy he was screening out of the play. It got annoying by the end of the series.
Great point, Kahns.
I certainly agree that the refs are much more lenient with off-the-ball contact (the grabbing and chipping on guys coming off screens especially), but let's not act like Draymond Green and Andrew Bogut don't push the limits as much as anyone else, including the Cavs. The difference is that Curry especially simply isn't very strong physically, so he ends up worse for the wear versus someone like LeBron or even Kyrie getting knocked around.
The other thing I found laughable in the playoffs is the lack of the post-pump fake travel call on bigs on the perimeter. Does everyone remember early this year how often Dieng and Bjelica got called for that? It was literally every damn game. If they just barely moved their pivot foot before the ball hit the floor, it was a travel. That call got completely abandoned as the season wore on and especially in the playoffs. I never even recall seeing it flagged, yet poor Gorgui and Bjelly were crucified by the refs on that call!
Oh the irony of the Warriors being a perimeter oriented team that is playing in a "hands off league" compared to the 90's and then not being able to finish off their record breaking season with a championship. To me they do need to either have more players like Curry and Klay attack more or bring in someone that plays in the post or attacks the paint. The Cavs were able to basically shut Livingston down after his 20 point outburst in game 1 which was kind of a big deal. If I was GS I would still be happy to be as "flawed" as they are. Lol
There is a lot for the Warriors to learn from both the WCF and Finals. In both series, they lost three of the four factors, the four factors being 1) eFG% differential; 2) Reb% differential; 3) TOV% differential, and 4) FTA/FGA differential.
The one factor they won in both series was eFG% differential because they are such a superior 3-point shooting team. But they lost every other factor. Don't forget that they were on the brink of elimination by OKC too. They could have easily never even made it to the Finals.
The bottom line is they have indeed become too reliant on 3-point shooting at the expense of other facets of the game. They still play excellent defense, but they give up too many offensive rebounds and they don't get to the line enough. That suggests to me that they could use another slashing perimeter player and probably another rebounder/banger in the Tristan Thompson mold.
khans2k5 wrote:Cleveland won the title. Love is going nowhere. You don't make a major move like trading Love after you win it all. You do everything you can to keep the band together and try to repeat.
The only problem is I'm not sure Kevin Love was ever truly in the band. He was more like a roadie. My guess is that LeBron will green light any attempt by the Cavs to deal Love. And I think Love's agent will push for a trade as well. He's got his ring now, so his attention will probably turn back to cementing his legacy as a great individual player and maximizing his next contract. The Lakers and Celtics beckon!
He would be a nice fit on Portland too.
Yep and they have some assets that would actually make a lot of sense for the Cavs.
khans2k5 wrote:What the Cavs did defensively to stifle Curry and Klay isn't legal during the regular season so the Warriors are gonna be just fine. You don't get to hold and chip nearly as much in the regular season and a lot of the contact Klay drew on his drives is a foul in the regular season. I just hope next season's playoffs get the illegal screens under control. It was ridiculous this series how Cleveland was able to force switches by the screen setter just pushing the guy he was screening out of the play. It got annoying by the end of the series.
Great point, Kahns.
I certainly agree that the refs are much more lenient with off-the-ball contact (the grabbing and chipping on guys coming off screens especially), but let's not act like Draymond Green and Andrew Bogut don't push the limits as much as anyone else, including the Cavs. The difference is that Curry especially simply isn't very strong physically, so he ends up worse for the wear versus someone like LeBron or even Kyrie getting knocked around.
The other thing I found laughable in the playoffs is the lack of the post-pump fake travel call on bigs on the perimeter. Does everyone remember early this year how often Dieng and Bjelica got called for that? It was literally every damn game. If they just barely moved their pivot foot before the ball hit the floor, it was a travel. That call got completely abandoned as the season wore on and especially in the playoffs. I never even recall seeing it flagged, yet poor Gorgui and Bjelly were crucified by the refs on that call!
Oh the irony of the Warriors being a perimeter oriented team that is playing in a "hands off league" compared to the 90's and then not being able to finish off their record breaking season with a championship. To me they do need to either have more players like Curry and Klay attack more or bring in someone that plays in the post or attacks the paint. The Cavs were able to basically shut Livingston down after his 20 point outburst in game 1 which was kind of a big deal. If I was GS I would still be happy to be as "flawed" as they are. Lol
There is a lot for the Warriors to learn from both the WCF and Finals. In both series, they lost three of the four factors, the four factors being 1) eFG% differential; 2) Reb% differential; 3) TOV% differential, and 4) FTA/FGA differential.
The one factor they won in both series was eFG% differential because they are such a superior 3-point shooting team. But they lost every other factor. Don't forget that they were on the brink of elimination by OKC too. They could have easily never even made it to the Finals.
The bottom line is they have indeed become too reliant on 3-point shooting at the expense of other facets of the game. They still play excellent defense, but they give up too many offensive rebounds and they don't get to the line enough. That suggests to me that they could use another slashing perimeter player and probably another rebounder/banger in the Tristan Thompson mold.
Typically we look at guys that made themselves money in the playoffs. Not this year. It was mostly bad on that end.
Guys that likely lost some money based on their performance in the finals.
Barnes
Ezeli
Mozgov
Delly
Did I miss anyone?
The only FAs that played well is probably Jefferson and Barbosa but I don't think either guy is really at the stage of looking for or commanding a payday.
monsterpile wrote:Typically we look at guys that made themselves money in the playoffs. Not this year. It was mostly bad on that end.
Guys that likely lost some money based on their performance in the finals.
Barnes
Ezeli
Mozgov
Delly
Did I miss anyone?
The only FAs that played well is probably Jefferson and Barbosa but I don't think either guy is really at the stage of looking for or commanding a payday.
I just don't see a team who just won the title against the greatest regular season team of all time making such a big move after winning the title. Love was a big factor all year for them except for this series. Swapping him out for role players is going to kill Kyrie and Lebron in the regular season next year and they'll have nothing left for the playoffs. You can't play the way the Cavs did in the finals for 82+ games. It's too grueling. It works for 7 games, but they're gonna need Love for the other 90 games.
