Minnesota Sports Forum

All Big Threes are not created equally. The knee jerk reaction when LeBron put together his second Big Three in Cleveland was that he would win multiple championships there. NBA pundits were so certain of this that they concluded that it was a no brainer for the Cavs to give up the #1 pick in the draft for Kevin Love. And as Cleveland bullied their way through the weaker Eastern Conference, that conclusion was reinforced. But the problem was always that Irving and Love are not Wade and Bosh...they are not in the same zip code defensively, and they both lack that intangible "winner" gene.

It will be interesting to see what Cleveland does in the off-season. Gilbert is on the hook for $260 million for Irving, Love and TT and still has to pay James too when he does his year-to-year opt in, and it has to be killing him to have to pay a repeater luxury tax fine when it is clear his roster isn't good enough to compete with the Warriors...and perhaps several Western Conference teams. Irving's contract is more favorable than Love's, so they might be able to execute a more favorable trade for Irving than Love. I don't think there is going to be an attractive market for a PF who doesn't play defense and is owed over $83 million. And while the concussion is unfortunate, teams are certainly going to take notice of the timing of yet another injury along with last year's shoulder and the infamous "knuckle pushups" debacle. I certainly would not want to be in Dan Gilbert's situation right now.

Q12543 wrote:....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.

Q, still sticking with Cavs in 6? :)

Soooo...last year was David Blatt's fault? Time for a new coach next year because it's not LeBron's fault or how the team is constructed, right?

bleedspeed177 wrote:If the Cavs get swept. How good does that make the Thunder look?

If we haven't learned by now... doesn't matter. Why look at context when we can simply look to see who played in the Finals. For example, Steve Nash was a perennial choker. He never made a Finals... ahem.

My favorite running narrative is that LeBron James' teams just haven't been good enough to win the Finals. I even heard a couple of national "experts" claim his team was the underdog in every Finals. Umm... Yet nobody mentions that the teams were good enough to go 70 - 22 vs. the East in the Playoffs.

So apparently, James gets ALL the credit for destroying the East. But NONE of the blame for losing in the Finals.

BizarroJerry wrote:

Q12543 wrote:....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.

Q, still sticking with Cavs in 6? :)

Heh. Well, it's still mathematically possible! But yeah, not likely.

A couple thoughts on the Cavs

Assuming they don't win the title (series isn't over yet) they are maybe 1 season behind reasonable expectations for winning one? They had a shot last year but putting a team together like they did it was unlikely to win it all the first year.

Everybody figured when the Cavs put together that team that the West was on a be strong but nobody saw this GS team putting together something this special. Curry went out and won back to back MVPs. Timing matters.

The Cavs coaching situation is something to consider. Lue has been completely running the show for less than a season and making a coaching change in the middle of a season and expecting to win a title seemed unlikely. Is Lue the right guy? Idk I'm a fan of him but I really don't know. Maybe an offseason and training camp could help take that team in the direction he wants to go and get something more cohesive which has been a problem for the Cavs much of the year from what I have gathered.

Should the Cavs make a major move? Idk it's obviously a talented group and there is some upside there. The downside is Lebron isn't getting younger. Maybe another small trade or a tweak is all they need to take another step forward. GS could lose some young pieces this offseason. If they do will they be able to repair them with guys that help or do they have some young guys on the roster already?

As for Gilbert wallet maybe he can raise a few bucks by auctioning that fart machine he put under Mike Brown's chair during a playoff press conference. Since Blatt took a job in Turkey I would imagine the Cavs don't get any relief of his salary like if he had got any job in the NBA. It's gotta suck getting paid millions of dollars by 2 jobs. Lol

I don't see any way that Love returns to Cleveland if they don't win the title.

I'm not sure they keep them even with a title... unless he's the best or 2nd best player over the next 5 games.

Cavs miss Mozgov, he was a beast last year. Too bad he's either hurt or not being utilized by Ty Lue.

BizarroJerry wrote:Cavs miss Mozgov, he was a beast last year. Too bad he's either hurt or not being utilized by Ty Lue.

Just listened to Lowe and Windhorst discussing this. The Cavs played better this season without Mozgov. Plus, the team that used Mozgov in the Finals last season was very different than this one.

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

BizarroJerry wrote:Cavs miss Mozgov, he was a beast last year. Too bad he's either hurt or not being utilized by Ty Lue.

Just listened to Lowe and Windhorst discussing this. The Cavs played better this season without Mozgov. Plus, the team that used Mozgov in the Finals last season was very different than this one.

How so? Injuries last year? I heard Windy on a different show discussing how they also haven't gone after Draymond Green, has anybody hit him with a hard foul yet or even tried to rattle him? I know it's easier said than done.