NBA Champion - Cleveland Cavaliers 2016-2017 Season Thread

• like_that

  

  BR1986FB;1854839 wrote:Nice to see them come back and pull this out. Biggest bright spot was Kyrie stepping up as a leader. This team better tighten up their defense quickly if they even have a shot in the Finals. Golden State will hit those open 3's that Boston is clanging.

  Well the difference is Golden State will hit them, but not be saved by the board or rim 10x a game.
• sleeper

  

  Good to see Kyrie back to savage mode. The last play where he drove and faked the behind the back pass was absolutely beautiful basketball.
• sleeper

  

  I have to confess something, too. When the Cavs traded Wiggins for Love, I was not a fan of the trade. Kyrie was not a good defender, and I didn't like the idea of two starters being such defensive liabilities.
  
  However, Love put on a defensive rebounding clinic tonight. Combine that with his going Gary Payton on Curry in the closing minutes of last year's Finals Game 7 and putting on the size this last offseason, I am officially glad that we made the trade.

  I was in the same boat. The trade was the correct one and I ended up being wrong. Love has really earned his contract as well.
• Automatik

  

  sleeper;1854894 wrote:Good to see Kyrie back to savage mode. The last play where he drove and faked the behind the back pass was absolutely beautiful basketball.

  That was filthy.
  
  People and the media tend to forget how good Kyrie is due to the LeBron slurping. I get it, but I wish he would do that more often.
• Commander of Awesome

  

  When Kyrie went down in the 3rd, I thought our season was over.
• ernest_t_bass

  

  sleeper;1854894 wrote:Good to see Kyrie back to savage mode. The last play where he drove and faked the behind the back pass was absolutely beautiful basketball.

  And it was a definite (awesome) middle-finger/nail in coffin.
• Ironman92

  

  sleeper;1854896 wrote:I was in the same boat. The trade was the correct one and I ended up being wrong. Love has really earned his contract as well.

  Big if true
• Sonofanump

  [INDENT]Irving’s handle is probably better than anyone else in the NBA...
  [/INDENT]Of course it is. It’s much easier to dribble on a flat surface.
  
  -Deadspin
• like_that

  

  sleeper;1854896 wrote:I was in the same boat. The trade was the correct one and I ended up being wrong. Love has really earned his contract as well.

  I wasn't a fan of the trade either, but winning the title put an end to that. You have to appreciate the Cavs went all in and got it done. We will always have that 2016 title, and I would take that any day of the week waiting for a player with potential to blossom (if he ever does). This season was Love's best season imo. I know he was out 5-6 weeks, but the fact Horford received 1 All-NBA vote and Love didn't is a complete joke.
  
  Wiggins is still very young and can become very good, but by the time that happens Lebron's window might be closed.
  

  Automatik;1854906 wrote:That was filthy.
  
  People and the media tend to forget how good Kyrie is due to the LeBron slurping. I get it, but I wish he would do that more often.

  Same and it actually is frustrating. There is no reason Kyrie and Love can't win games on their own in the regular season against garbage teams when Lebron sits out.
• SportsAndLady

  

  Jefferson said that Lebron was sick in game 3. Makes sense, he seemed completely out of it Sunday night.
• sleeper

  

  SportsAndLady;1854952 wrote:Jefferson said that Lebron was sick in game 3. Makes sense, he seemed completely out of it Sunday night.

  This doesn't surprise me. Glad he is back healthy.
• Sonofanump

  like_that;1854944 wrote:Wiggins is still very young and can become very good, but by the time that happens Lebron's window might be closed.

  This can not be overlooked, great point.
• Sonofanump

  SportsAndLady;1854952 wrote:Jefferson said that Lebron was sick in game 3. Makes sense, he seemed completely out of it Sunday night.

  He seemed to be sweating and dragging during pregame warmups, now it makes sense indeed.
• O-Trap

  

  like_that;1854944 wrote:I wasn't a fan of the trade either, but winning the title put an end to that. You have to appreciate the Cavs went all in and got it done. We will always have that 2016 title, and I would take that any day of the week waiting for a player with potential to blossom (if he ever does). This season was Love's best season imo. I know he was out 5-6 weeks, but the fact Horford received 1 All-NBA vote and Love didn't is a complete joke.
  
  Wiggins is still very young and can become very good, but by the time that happens Lebron's window might be closed.

  Yep. I'm happy to eat my words on that trade today.
  
  My big hangup was that while Wiggins was young and not as good an offensive tool, he was already a better defender.
  
  I've been looking at something lately. It seems like they built this team to do their best to outscore opponents as opposed to focusing on being a lockdown on opponents.
  
  While outscoring is a risky play against most teams, it does seem like it's well-suited to going up against the Warriors. They're going to get their points almost every game, regardless of how good the defense is. You're probably better suited to trying to outscore them than you are trying to lock them down and win a low-scoring game with them.
  

  SportsAndLady;1854952 wrote:Jefferson said that Lebron was sick in game 3. Makes sense, he seemed completely out of it Sunday night.

  It makes a TON of sense. I even noticed it watching pregame on television. He just looked like he was dragging.
• Benny The Jet

  

  I know the narrative was Wiggins is/should be a great defender coming out of college. That hasn't panned out, he's very average to below average on defense if you watch him.
• BR1986FB

  It's the Warriors job to say stupid shit for bulletin board material. Shut your hole, Lue. Seems like a ridiculous statement.
  
  http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/19455225/tyronn-lue-cleveland-cavaliers-says-boston-celtics-tougher-defend-golden-state-warriors
• Crimson streak

  

  BR1986FB;1855018 wrote:It's the Warriors job to say stupid shit for bulletin board material. Shut your hole, Lue. Seems like a ridiculous statement.
  
  http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/19455225/tyronn-lue-cleveland-cavaliers-says-boston-celtics-tougher-defend-golden-state-warriors

  He does have a point though.
  
  
  Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
• SportsAndLady

  

  Just think he worded it weird. And the media heard "harder to defend than warriors" and ran with their hot take story.
  
  He was just saying the Celtics run a more complex offense, schematically. They don't have as good as players, but their offense as a scheme is tougher to defend.
  
  Warriors do run an offense but a lot of their plays are just Curry launching a 28 foot 3 pointer with 19 seconds on the shot clock. Of course, he makes a good amount of them so from that standpoint they are very difficult to defend. But in terms of X'a and O's basketball, the Celtics have a difficult offense to defend.
• BR1986FB

  SportsAndLady;1855032 wrote:Just think he worded it weird. And the media heard "harder to defend than warriors" and ran with their hot take story.
  
  He was just saying the Celtics run a more complex offense, schematically. They don't have as good as players, but their offense as a scheme is tougher to defend.
  
  Warriors do run an offense but a lot of their plays are just Curry launching a 28 foot 3 pointer with 19 seconds on the shot clock. Of course, he makes a good amount of them so from that standpoint they are very difficult to defend. But in terms of X'a and O's basketball, the Celtics have a difficult offense to defend.

  Completely understood and point taken but I wish these guys would just keep their mouths shut sometimes. I don't think he meant it as a slight toward GS but of course ESPN will run with anything.
• ernest_t_bass

  

  Lebron playing out his ass.
  Sick move by Kyrie.
• like_that

  

  Good start so far.
• ironman02

  Do not let up. Finish these guys now!!
• like_that

  

  ironman02;1855166 wrote:Do not let up. Finish these guys now!!

  Yeah, please don't chuck garbage shots and let them back in.
• like_that

  

  Smart is such a flopping *****.
• ironman02

  Freaking foul fest. This might not be over until midnight.