NBA thread
 

Cleveland wins it all. Ill take Lebron for the next 3-5 years, especially if he stays so healthy. Irving is better then Wade right now, Love is better then Bosh. Should be a great year. I expect another step forward from Golden St. I think its Cleveland vs Golden St for the championship.

Westbrook going off right now. 35 points with 6min left in the 3rd. He is going to average 30-35 until KD comes back, and he will take close to 30 shots a night. He loves it.

Cavs win 70 games if they stay healthy.

well, maybe 69

That's a stretch my friend. Its going to take a little time and their defense isn't very good. 60 wins is possible but the goal is be playoff ready.

I think opening night vs the Knicks was totally explainable and understandable. I think the team that won in Chicago on Thursday is the team we see all year. My finals prediction is Cavs vs Warriors.

With the east being the east, they get a free ride into the conference final. Derek Rose didn't play OT and most of the fourth quarter Friday and gasol is still learning his rotations in that system plus no jimmy butler. Cavs were life and death to best the bulls without their starting backcourt.

Cavs are thin, thin, thin. They aren't winning any final.

As crazy as it sounds, I am actually buying your golden st prediction in that I agree they will be good. Don't know about finals but they are top four in the west.

IMO they are definitely the team best suited to win a ton of regular season games and get home court throughout. I was impressed last week they won a back to back the 2nd night winning at Portland. Thats not easy. They need to stay healthy, like everyone else I guess. Bogut needs to stay healthy.

Check out the Cavs Blazers game right now....
65 points in the 1st quarter. Over 4min into the second and they have added 2 points to that 65 total.

I'd love for someone who watched that Cavs "offense" in the 4th quarter tonight to tell me how they're the favorites to win anything.

Right?!?!

The only thing worse than the cavs offense was the cav defense...specifically the backcourt. Kyrie Irving is perhaps the worst defender in the league.

Their defense is awful.

If you ask Chuck its not possible that he is worst then big game James.

Melo playing great ball right now. 7 or 8 turnovers last night, 2 lazy to check. And a stellar 3 for 16 right now as the Knicks are losing by 12 to win less Detroit.

Cavs about to get blown out again.... Wow
Ok maybe 70 wins was crazy. Ill drop it down to 50.

Golden St w/ a legit statement game right now.

6 assists tonight. Six! They're gonna get that coach fired by Christmas if they keep this up.

Im not sure Blatt's job was ever safe. Unless they came out and started really hot or something. He was hired before Lebron signed...
Anyway, they have been awful the last 2 games.

Irving had zero assists. They got a lot of work to do

Irving is the key to this whole thing, in a sense..... He either wants to win and is the 2/2b or he clashes with Lebron and keeps gunning and doing dumb ****. If that's the case this team has no chance at all. I just assumed Irving would know his role. Maybe not. Waiters is enough of an issue, with his gunning and thinking he is the man, Irving cant be that also. Again I just assumed these guys would realize who they are playing with and fall into place.

A few seasons ago, when Chris Paul was traded to the Lakers, I made a point. I never thought it would work because he's a ball dominating point guard. Jordan won six titles with BJ Armstrong, John Paxson, and Ron Harper playing point. Kobe won five with Fisher. James won two with Chalmers. Wade didn't have a top point guard. Bird ran Boston's offense. The point is that when you have an outstanding, ball dominating wing man that you run the offense through, taking the ball out of his hands is not the way to go. I've always felt that James is a natural point guard. Everything else he does he does just because he can but by nature, he's a point guard. Irving is not. Both are used to controlling the ball. Both are best with the ball. It takes a sacrifice to make it work. Wade was able to make it because he'd already won a title and wasn't trying to establish himself as a star anymore. Wade, as well as Bosh and James, decided together that they would join up and each knew that sacrifices would have to be made. Irving signed an extension in Cleveland with every thought that it was his team, he was "The Man"....then ten days later, here comes James then a month later, here comes Love. Can Irving change his mindset that fast? I don't think so. The day after James talked about the need to play more unselfish, Irving takes 23 shots with ZERO assists. Coincidence? I don't think so. Personally, I would have moved Irving for Love and kept Wiggins but that's done now. It's still not too late to ship Irving out though.

This is about the coach as much as it is about the players. The Bulls look very good already with missing pieces cause Thibs demands people know their roles.

How any of those clowns could think they are the man in Cleveland, with LeBron there, is ridiculous. LeBron will take them to the woodshed and they will be fine.

Went to the wizards-cavs game last night. Some random observations:

- Kevin love is simply overrated and I can't believe they traded wiggins and Bennett for him. Offensively he is a pure pick and pop guy with limited post moves. Defensively he is a pure liability. He is much smaller than listed and the wiz went to whoever he was guarding in the post like a pack of lions go to a wounded gazelle. It is clear the 20/10 he put up in Minnesota were empty stats on bad teams. A solid player on the right team for sure but a max player worthy of two number ones? No way.

- dion Waiters is a better defender than advertised and is trying to fit in. Just seems lost right now but is no longer jacking shots and giving clear paths. I was impressed.

- Kyrie Irving did exactly what king glorious said. When they got down he would dribble the shot clock down to 4 seconds and either chuck it up or dish to someone to bail him out. Defensively, he made john wall look like Pre injury Derrick rose.

-Lebron is playing too many minutes. Way too many minutes. You could blame sub patterns but what else can that coach do?

You know what I would do with this team? I would say screw it and go really small. I would play love at five, Lebron at 4 and spread shooters around them. They are too small anyway and at least love will be able to draw the bigs away from the basket.

Something crazier I would consider? Bring Kyrie off the bench. I know, I know- he won't go for it. At the same time, it could really help this team. Thoughts?

I like the play small idea. Lebron has guarded other 4's in the playoffs anyway. Anderson and Tristan would be huge energy guys off the bench. I still think they win the east, just by default, but who knows.

The small thing might be a good idea. Similar to what Miami did.

Steph Curry is really, really good.

That Anthony Davis dude ain't bad either.

He's incredible. He's fast approaching that "if you were starting a team, who would you take first?" conversation.

This dude is sharp.

Cavs much better when love got hurt

And Irving to be honest, kinda scary to think what they could be though if those 2 buy into playing D and sharing the ball. Imagine Thompsons 15 rebounds and Delly's D and energy off the bench. I think the series is tonight. Cavs win its over GS wins, they take home court back and they are back to heavy chalks.

Hope the games better than this Usher opening...

What is going on in the stands anyway

Well Morty would be mortified if he saw how little attention being made to the CAVS.

This was easy to buy into when they kept winning in playoffs and even I might have a bit, but it was so untrue. In the end they won "despite" the Love and Irving injuries not "because" of them which became a cool narrative. I do think they missed what Irving can do more than what Love can do in the finals. But they missed both of them in the end. A lot. They went 34-9 to finish the regular season with Love and Irving. They played great because JR Smith was their 4th scoring option, not their 2nd.

It's much easier playing a bit of a banged up Bulls and Hawks teams rather than a healthy golden state to think they are better without Love. Playing out the finals was clear indication that "no, they are not much better". There's every chance they may have lost the finals with a healthy Irving and Love, but I'm not sure. I am sure they lost the finals without both of them.

Totally agree with Irving. They were lost without him and needed another ball handler. Don't agree on Love. Thompson played fantastic on both sides of the court. His rebounding and aggressiveness gave Cleveland multiple opportunities and he was great on defense. I thought besides Lebron he was reason the were able to win any games.

People also forget AV he was a starter. Imagine Thompson with all that energy off the bench? If Golden St lost Bogut early for the year, then lost Green and Thompson where would they be? What Lebron did this year is amazing and will never truly be appreciated.

Love was beneficial mainly early in the game. The team's pattern in regular season was normally in close games Thompson was in in the 4th rather than Love due to the defense, but those 15 to 20 points by Love came in handy!! Love's 7 to 9 defensive boards a game also relieved LeBron of that duty which he picked up in the playoffs. LeBron had his lowest rebounding average of his career this season, but averaged over 11 in the playoffs mainly due to Love's injury....he had to pick up that slack. Thompson did average over 26 minutes per game in regular season. I think both him and LeBron wore down in the 4th quarter of games in the Golden State series due to over use. They were both playing 8 to 10 minutes more than normal per game due to the injuries. I don't think they definitely win the series without the injuries as many Cleveland fans are saying, but the chances certainly would have been better. Love had a good year. He averaged about 17 and 10 and shot the 3 well....37 percent. I honestly don't know why so many were down on him all season.

All off-season decisions go through LeBronCorp.

The year of RhT fan continues! Nice call!

Cavs vs GS parlay was over 50-1 at the time I predicted it on sportsinteraction.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6364ItTQwUw

This is why they lost.