Minnesota Sports Forum

Camden wrote:It might be time to bench Kyrie and start Dellavedova.

For what it's worth...

Cavaliers Regular Season NetRtg:

James, Love & Irving: +7.3
Love & James w/out Irving: +16.2
Love & Irving w/out James: -2.1

Another one...

The Warriors have outscored the Cavaliers by 42 points with Kyrie Irving on the floor this season.

Irving really struggles on the defensive side of the ball against GS. Kerr seems to know exactly how to go after him, and they do seem to play better with Delly in there...had no idea the numbers were so dramatic though. The problem is if Love can't pass the concussion test before Wednesday, Lue may have to play Irving a lot just to get some offense on the floor...the Cavs were as bad offensively tonight as defensively.

I don't know if I would have the balls or I don't know if Lue has the balls but I would go back to what worked last year and bench love and irving and put in mosgov and Delly and play the slow down action. I made the argument that the Cavs were a better team last year with Delly and Mosgov in instead of Irving and Love against the Warriors because they can muck it up and play a slow pace. They can't play that way the whole year because it would be to exhausting for lebron to go through that but for this series I think I would roll the dice. You can play Irving and Love when, off the bench of scoring or when Leborn is out

Great player on a bad team, dead weight on a good team.

I really wanted the Thunder to win it all this year, but I guess I'm okay with Love getting thumped, not only as part of the team, but in his individual matchup where he's been a net negative!!

I've always thought Irving was the weak link of the three. He's a worse defender than Love and he's a me first player. I've thought for two years now the deal that made the most sense was to swap Kyrie for CP3 because you can't have a me first guy in a big 3. All 3 guys need to make sacrifices like the big 3 did in Miami and Irving isn't that player. At the end of the day though Love is likely the one to be moved because he's the one who's numbers have dropped the most since the forming of this big 3. He's the one seen as the third wheel when in reality he's the second best player on that team when used correctly. Kyrie has been overrated since day 1. His teams never did anything and at least we were fighting for a playoff spot the year everyone was healthy. Heck I'd try to send Kyrie to the Celtics for the rights to Dunn, Avery Bradley and Smart. Rebuild your whole backcourt with ruthless defenders and I think a Lebron/Love two man game when used properly can carry an offense. Kyrie and Love just don't work together on a team because they are both high volume offensive players trying to also play next to Lebron. Love used to take the lunch from guys like Ibaka (at his peak defensive prowess) when he played for us and now he's just a third wheel who doesn't fit. It's sad to watch.

khans2k5 wrote:I've always thought Irving was the weak link of the three. He's a worse defender than Love and he's a me first player. I've thought for two years now the deal that made the most sense was to swap Kyrie for CP3 because you can't have a me first guy in a big 3. All 3 guys need to make sacrifices like the big 3 did in Miami and Irving isn't that player. At the end of the day though Love is likely the one to be moved because he's the one who's numbers have dropped the most since the forming of this big 3. He's the one seen as the third wheel when in reality he's the second best player on that team when used correctly. Kyrie has been overrated since day 1. His teams never did anything and at least we were fighting for a playoff spot the year everyone was healthy. Heck I'd try to send Kyrie to the Celtics for the rights to Dunn, Avery Bradley and Smart. Rebuild your whole backcourt with ruthless defenders and I think a Lebron/Love two man game when used properly can carry an offense. Kyrie and Love just don't work together on a team because they are both high volume offensive players trying to also play next to Lebron. Love used to take the lunch from guys like Ibaka (at his peak defensive prowess) when he played for us and now he's just a third wheel who doesn't fit. It's sad to watch.

Well said. Completely agree with this.

Love isn't the savior but it seemed like things really started falling apart around the time he was out of the game. Lue went to the uber small lineup and that got crushed.

Cavs had 3 guys in double figures. They got beat on the board and had 77 points. How in the heck does a team like that struggle to score so badly? It's almost bizarre even if you give the appropriate credit to the Warriors on defense. The offense is a mess. Lebron took the most 3's and I am not sure I have seen him this in-confident in shooting out there since idk maybe when he was young and I really didn't see the guy play. The role players other than TT and Jefferson have given them next to nothing. Frey has been next to invisible. JR smith has 10 points in the series and Delly hasn't done a whole lot. When Barbosa is rolling off the bench and out scoring your offensive starting SG that's bad news. At this point it looks like the Cavs are more "who we thought they were" rolling offensively through some mediocre teams especially defensively. It will be interesting if they can show something in Cleveland.

Also at some point in the 3rd quarter Lebron looked beat or at least confounded. I sorta feel bad for the guy. I mean he got a lot of what he wanted but regardless of the power he holds he still seems like a guy that's about team and playing good basketball and that's not happening right now.

On wondering if They can get Blatt back I think if the Cavs get smoked in this series and maybe they never really all come together Blatt is gonna keep looking better and better a year from now and could easily be a hot name especially if he has a really successful team over in Turkey. I do hope and think he will get another shot if he wants it and it has sounded like he does.

This series so far has made me appreciate the Warriors style of play and team concept even more compared to what I have seen at times from the Cavs.

Camden0916 wrote:

khans2k5 wrote:I've always thought Irving was the weak link of the three. He's a worse defender than Love and he's a me first player. I've thought for two years now the deal that made the most sense was to swap Kyrie for CP3 because you can't have a me first guy in a big 3. All 3 guys need to make sacrifices like the big 3 did in Miami and Irving isn't that player. At the end of the day though Love is likely the one to be moved because he's the one who's numbers have dropped the most since the forming of this big 3. He's the one seen as the third wheel when in reality he's the second best player on that team when used correctly. Kyrie has been overrated since day 1. His teams never did anything and at least we were fighting for a playoff spot the year everyone was healthy. Heck I'd try to send Kyrie to the Celtics for the rights to Dunn, Avery Bradley and Smart. Rebuild your whole backcourt with ruthless defenders and I think a Lebron/Love two man game when used properly can carry an offense. Kyrie and Love just don't work together on a team because they are both high volume offensive players trying to also play next to Lebron. Love used to take the lunch from guys like Ibaka (at his peak defensive prowess) when he played for us and now he's just a third wheel who doesn't fit. It's sad to watch.

Well said. Completely agree with this.

I also agree don't think Boston is the team though because Isiah and Irving are so similar in skill set. Just spit balling would a Irving for marc gasol trade make sense. Gasol is a great passer, great defender and is good offensive skill set. But he is getting up there in age and Memphis championship window is shut. Conley is a free agent it could make sense

I haven't seen the Cavs play a lot this year except in the post season but when it comes to Kyrie it seems like he needs to do more as a playmaker. I know Lebron is a better PG type player but Kyrie needs to take on more of that and take some of that pressure off Lebron. It feels like Kyrie is basically plays the role of just a really skilled SG not a PG. Curry doesn't really play a classic PG style but his shooting opens up the game for others and when it's needed the guy makes plays that make guys better. I know the Cavs have forced him into a bunch turnovers in this finals but Curry has grown in the area of passing and knowing when to make those plays instead of scoring for himself. I don't see Kyrie making those plays enough. That has to change. He needs to take on more responsive unity of creating for others and closing the gap between him and Lebron when it comes to making plays for other guys. Maybe Kyrie isn't a great passer but his ball handling is terrific and his physical skills don't hold him back either. The guy is 24 he can grow as a player but how much has he grown? He is in a tricky position playing on the Cavs but he also gets to play with some terrific players. You would think he could drop some serious dimes playing with guys like Love and Lebron but that doesn't seem to be his mentality in general but I don't know what he is being asked to do.

....or may be Golden State is the greatest team of all time. I'm not sure there are any "weak links" on Cleveland. It's more like they ran into a historically great team and they aren't equally historically great.

If the Cavs get swept. How good does that make the Thunder look?