Minnesota Sports Forum

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

Q12543 wrote:A few thoughts....

- Curry choked big time in that 4th quarter. Not only did he make that absolutely bone-headed behind the back pass to Klay, he also missed a wide open 3. Add to that Kyrie's late 3 right in Curry's face and you have one of the least clutch performances of a league MVP I've ever seen. I love how Curry has elevated pure skill back into the game. But he looked overmatched in this series.

- Kevin Love came to play last night, as some of you already mentioned. I thought that defensive possession that Monster brought up when he was switched onto Curry was his signature moment of the game. He was in the game in the 4th quarter and helped close out a Championship.

- Back to Curry....Teams have figured out that the best way to guard him is to flat out switch. The Warriors are having to resort to more and more innovative ways to free him up for shots because teams realize trying to fight over screens just doesn't work. Crowd him at the 3-point line and make him put it on the floor. Oftentimes mistakes ensue. I don't think we'll see another season from him like the one he just had.

- Back to Love....Despite a storybook ending for him, I still think he gets traded this offseason. Perhaps this playoff run with LeBron and Cleveland has toughened him up. He showed me something last night.

- Varajeo was an absolute joke. I'm so glad the refs caught onto his ridiculous flopping act after being fooled a couple of times in Game 5 or 6 and stopped rewarding him for it. He looked like an idiot out there, as that vine Volans posted demonstrated.

- LeBron was huge, but offensively, I thought he was sometimes tentative and mistake-prone. Not that he didn't still put up some huge numbers, but his iso-dribble-drive game was not always very efficient. It was his defense that was absolutely epic in my opinion. Those steals and chase-down blocks were absolutely huge.

The Warriors will be a team to be reckoned with for a long time still, but I'm glad they got brought back down to earth. Green especially evolved into a cocky, borderline dirty player this season and he deserved a little comeuppance. And Joe Lacob and all his Silicon Valley crowd deserved a bit of humble pie as well. I got a little tired about reading how great and brilliant they all are.

As with others... a lot of pretty overwhelming points about last night.

- The Varajeo thing. Good god. He was beyond worthless out there. And he's just bad for basketball. I hated every second he was on the court. As a guy who digs the Warriors, I liked them less the more he played.
- We've talked about Barnes losing money. What about Ezeli? Did the Finals do enough to temper the ridiculousness of his next contract?
- DRIVE AND KICK!!! It's still a huge part of basketball. I don't know why the Warriors didn't push it more. Curry has the handles to drive the ball... especially against a guy like Love. So many reasons to be disappointed... too many for one post.
- Love WILL get traded. But this could redeem him enough to get Cleveland a slightly better haul in return for him?

longstrangetrip wrote:

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

Q12543 wrote:A few thoughts....

- Curry choked big time in that 4th quarter. Not only did he make that absolutely bone-headed behind the back pass to Klay, he also missed a wide open 3. Add to that Kyrie's late 3 right in Curry's face and you have one of the least clutch performances of a league MVP I've ever seen. I love how Curry has elevated pure skill back into the game. But he looked overmatched in this series.

- Kevin Love came to play last night, as some of you already mentioned. I thought that defensive possession that Monster brought up when he was switched onto Curry was his signature moment of the game. He was in the game in the 4th quarter and helped close out a Championship.

- Back to Curry....Teams have figured out that the best way to guard him is to flat out switch. The Warriors are having to resort to more and more innovative ways to free him up for shots because teams realize trying to fight over screens just doesn't work. Crowd him at the 3-point line and make him put it on the floor. Oftentimes mistakes ensue. I don't think we'll see another season from him like the one he just had.

- Back to Love....Despite a storybook ending for him, I still think he gets traded this offseason. Perhaps this playoff run with LeBron and Cleveland has toughened him up. He showed me something last night.

- Varajeo was an absolute joke. I'm so glad the refs caught onto his ridiculous flopping act after being fooled a couple of times in Game 5 or 6 and stopped rewarding him for it. He looked like an idiot out there, as that vine Volans posted demonstrated.

- LeBron was huge, but offensively, I thought he was sometimes tentative and mistake-prone. Not that he didn't still put up some huge numbers, but his iso-dribble-drive game was not always very efficient. It was his defense that was absolutely epic in my opinion. Those steals and chase-down blocks were absolutely huge.

The Warriors will be a team to be reckoned with for a long time still, but I'm glad they got brought back down to earth. Green especially evolved into a cocky, borderline dirty player this season and he deserved a little comeuppance. And Joe Lacob and all his Silicon Valley crowd deserved a bit of humble pie as well. I got a little tired about reading how great and brilliant they all are.

As with others... a lot of pretty overwhelming points about last night.

- The Varajeo thing. Good god. He was beyond worthless out there. And he's just bad for basketball. I hated every second he was on the court. As a guy who digs the Warriors, I liked them less the more he played.
- We've talked about Barnes losing money. What about Ezeli? Did the Finals do enough to temper the ridiculousness of his next contract?
- DRIVE AND KICK!!! It's still a huge part of basketball. I don't know why the Warriors didn't push it more. Curry has the handles to drive the ball... especially against a guy like Love. So many reasons to be disappointed... too many for one post.
- Love WILL get traded. But this could redeem him enough to get Cleveland a slightly better haul in return for him?

Excellent observations by both Q and Abe here. I agree with almost every point, except for (big surprise) the Kevin Love part. While I admired his defensive stand at the end of the game like everyone here, it doesn't change the fact that he had a horrible championship series. He averaged 6 PPG in the final four games, shot 35% (25% on threes) for the series and (his great defense on Curry notwithstanding) struggled mightily on defense the entire series. In all fairness, he did rebound well as usual. He has 4 more years on a contract that will pay him close to $26 million in the final year, and I just don't think teams will be lining up to take on that contract after his poor showing against GS. And after trading Wig for him just two years ago, I think the Cavs will be unwilling to accept a deal where the return is substantially less
than Wig. I think it's going to be tough to move him for perceived value, and my prediction is he stays.

longstrangetrip wrote:

monsterpile wrote:

CoolBreeze44 wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:

lipoli390 wrote:It's amazing how important every shot is in a given game. Klay Thompson was 2-10 from behind the arc; Curry 4-16 and Iggy 0-3. If just two of those three hit one more of their threes the Warriors win the game even though all three would have still ended up well below their season average 3-point percentage. The Cavs guarded them well, but Klay and Stephen both missed several wide-open threes they usually make. In the case of the Warriors, it's the old "live by the sword, die by the sword." Three point shooting plus defense propelled them to their historic 73 regular season wins and 7th game of the finals. But in the end, missing threes did them in.

One of the things I like about the Wolves roster is the potential for a more diversified offense than the Warriors have. In Wiggins we have a guy who can be a big time scorer slashing to the basket, drawing fouls and hitting mid-range jumpers. In LaVine we have a guy who can rain threes off the dribble and off the catch while also scoring at the rim on the break and perhaps even scoring some at the rim in the half court using his speed and hops. In KAT we have a guy who can score posting up, drawing fouls, shooting mid-range fade always and stepping out to the three-point line. Gorgui has a very accurate mid-range shot, can score a bit in the paint and has added three-point range to his arsenal. Then there's Ricky, the mistro conductor and distributor. That's pretty impressive.

If Thibs can get these guys to play defense at a high level and add some depth, especially 3-point shooters off the bench, then sky's the limit for this team.

Yeah, every shot is important in a classic close Game 7 like this one. And I would say the most important were the critical 3-point attempts at the end of the game. Robson tweeted it best: "Make or miss league. Irving made. Curry missed."

Curry had one of the greatest NBA seasons we have ever seen, but I feel his star is a little tarnished after this series. His foolish errant behind the back pass to Klay at a critical moment in the game is a memory I won't soon forget.

Yeah, I feel kind of bad for Curry. He was outplayed by both Lebron and Kyrie in the series. There is now a blueprint for how you slow the splash brothers down. And it's probably going to force fundamental changes in the way the Warriors play offense. Their just not going to be able to bring the ball across the time line and dribble into a comfortable 3 point shots anymore. Threes are going to have to come out of the flow of their offensive sets, and to do that they are going to need a better inside presence. Steph had a season for the ages, no question about that. But it's going to be very difficult to replicate it in the future.

Like I have said in other threads I think Curry should and will work on being more of a assist guy breaking down the defense. He has the handle to be able to do it its up to him to work on having more of that mindset and making proper decisions. Easier said than done but I think that's his next progression.

Curry has a great handle, and I agree he is young enough to reinvent himself...still be a great shooter but improve as a facilitator.

It's interesting that the poor defending Wolves might be the blueprint for defending the potent GS offense. Sam's strategy of automatically switching on picks and letting his long, agile bigs defend Curry and Klay was as effective as any defensive strategy all year (helpful to have guys like KAT and G who are effective on the perimeter), and led to some very entertaining games...including the wonderful upset in Oakland.

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.

monsterpile wrote:

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.

I basically agree. The Cavs are my pick to win it all next year. They have a couple questions on their roster like what they do with Love (I think he stays) and if JR comes back (my guess is yes but it's a question) and Richard Jefferson needs to be brought back. Other than that things are pretty well set and they have their young championship coach Lebron will be a year older but Kyrie a year older and they can start fresh with what they want to do from the beginning and have a different probably more relieving pressure of repeating than trying to win the first one with all the drama of this year. Plus they are still in the east.

The other contenders have some questions on who will come back but they may also have some cap room to work with.

lipoli390 wrote:

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.

Q12543 wrote:

lipoli390 wrote:

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!

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.

Q12543 wrote:

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!