Minnesota Sports Forum

Camden wrote:Love is still going to get his no matter the team he's on. It's how he scores that's important. Spot up jumpers, putbacks, free throws, P&R and the occasional post up. All of this will translate. It's Irving who is going to take a significant hit in stats, not Love.

Agree cam. Love will get his especially the rebounding. He has always moved well without the ball and get himself to good scoring positions. Bron will find him.

I still rank pippen first among 2nd bananas simply because he has 6 rings and those championship bulls teams won a number of games. He also defended the best wing guy every game at a time where there were lots of really good wing players. Could also defend 4 positions. As ive mentioned, pippen can do a lot of things at the same level jordan could except score 30 a night. Still, you can count on him to give you 20+ a night.

If any of his numbers take a dip I think it will be in scoring. But it would be marginal at best. I expected his already exceptional assist numbers to climb along with his rebounds. His target just got alot bigger and more athletic on those outlet passes. 25 14 and 5 isnt unrealistic. Didnt Kg have 23 13 and 6 one year with a far lesser squad?
God Kg was a monster for a 5 year stretch . His Defensive intensitity was off the charts too. But I digress.:)

Remember all those times LeBron would drive and kick to Bosh for three? Yeah, now there's Kevin Love that gets to have those wide open looks. Love is going to be more than fine in the box score.

Camden0916 wrote:Remember all those times LeBron would drive and kick to Bosh for three? Yeah, now there's Kevin Love that gets to have those wide open looks. Love is going to be more than fine in the box score.

Yeah I was thinking Love might take fewer shots but his FG% might go up its possible he still ends up around 25ppg because his offensive game is so diverse and he might be the only real bigman option in the post so he will get touches there.

I don't see there being enough shots to go around with Irving, Waiters, LeBron and Love. I think LeBron and Love will be happy to take less shots as long as they are winning. I think Irving and Waiters are still proving their place in the league. Both like to play with the ball. The mix seems off to me. Defense will be the key. A team that plays with 5 players on offense will exploit them. Their coach will certainly have a challenge with this team.

Bleed... I agree and also think that the biggest problem will be defense. The Cavs have three elite scorers...but only 1 above average defender. I don't think waiters fits at all on the team and they should be looking for a defensive minded hustle player SG. Why brewer wasn't added to the trade is a little strange .

maelstrom11 wrote:Bleed... I agree and also think that the biggest problem will be defense. The Cavs have three elite scorers...but only 1 above average defender. I don't think waiters fits at all on the team and they should be looking for a defensive minded hustle player SG. Why brewer wasn't added to the trade is a little strange .

If Waiters isn't willing to defer some to 2 of the top 5 scorers in the entire league he might find himself somewhere else. He is sort of the forgotten guy and might be the biggest X-factor he is a great guy to bring up.

I think the reason Brewer wasn't included is Flip wanted to keep him and the Cavs didn't push really hard to get him. My guess is if they had given up something of value that Flip wanted *lthough I don't know what that would be maybe TT) he may have done it.

One last point about the Cavs is they should be a really good rebounding team with Love, AV, Lebron, TT and Haywood all being above average to elite rebounders. That will help their defense but getting Marion would be huge since I can't think of a wing defender on their team other than Lebron.

Within this very strange and narrow context (best "definitively second best" player in history), it's Pippen by a huge margin. Jordan was probably the GOAT, and Pippen was very nearly as good as Jordan.

Also, the Kobe/Shaq pairing definitely wasn't a "two main guys" situation. It was one main guy and one egomaniac who thought he was a main guy. Look up Shaq's stats during their three finals appearances together and it's obvious Kobe was the second best player on that team - obvious if you're not Kobe or someone hanging from his nuts, anyways. When it was Kobe by himself, the Lakers were garbage. They returned to prominence when the front office managed to put together the longest and most skilled front court in the league (Odom, Gasol, Bynum), but everyone attributes those rings directly to Kobe - even when he stunk up the joint throughout those finals appearances.

Pardon the obsession, but I can't stand the cult of aggrandizement that has sprung up around Bryant. The reality of what happened doesn't align with his superstar narrative, and that incongruity buts the hell out of me whenever I see it. Doesn't mean he wasn't a great player, but being great doesn't mean you can't be overrated to hell and back. See: Jeter.

I get the Kobe frustration, but no need to bring Jeter into it. He's one of the game's greatest contact hitters and defensive shortstops of all-time. His legacy is legitimate.

That's an interesting take on Kobe. I'll say this Kobe is probably my least favorite star NBA player of my lifetime but I have respect his game.

The issue about Jeter is that he was put in positions to win and was in a market where he got gets a lot of attention. Jeter was a very good probably great player and his ability to do it for a long long time was part of his legacy. Jeter deserves the credit he gets I think the problem is that other players deserved more credit than they got and it makes Jeter seem overrated. Jeter also seems to be well respected as a player and person.