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David Blatt is a former NBA coach

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Two things:

1) James will never play under 30 minutes a night. Of course his minutes will go down when blowing out opponent after opponent, but he won't average under 35 minutes. Just won't happen...

2) While I like the idea of playing small ball at times, it shouldn't be our usual "go-to-lineup" in crunch time and it certainly shouldn't be our "standard", let alone starting line up.
While it's clear that Love will be the centerpiece of our bigs on offense, it really shouldn't be the same on defense. I don't like the approach of trying to play more small ball because our center rotation doesn't allow otherwise. Yes, it worked in parts for the Heat, but still, their biggest weakness remained their center spot and it ultimately was one of the main reasons, why the Heat had such problems it's last two seasons. Their philosophy of playing small ball was more born of necessity than anything else.

I can't see James playing a lot as our power forward and I think he also doesn't want to spend too many minutes as our 4.
It was one of the reasons he left Miami. Their forward position (Battier/Lewis/Beasly/Haslem) was a complete joke and it was one of Miami's biggest flaws LeBron had to cover.
So getting a solid back up center should remain our top priority.
I wonder what we'll end up with Haywood's Contract. His 10m unguranteed with Memphis pick could be even mean Marc Gasol if he's convinced. Haywood and Mem pick is the most important things going forward. Mozzy would've been great too but we need to stick with the pick.
 
And i also wanna bring this here

http://youtu.be/exLt0VIlLxs

The press conf. after the final game of Euroleague which they won in the OT as exploding offensively. He talked with so much class and charism and he admitted that they might not won if that was a series. He handles his business in a very classy way. Feels much better after Brown :cha (28):
 
This is the first time in LeBron's career that he has been coached by an elite level coach. Spo I think had his strengths. Specifically I think he was good at using analytics to get the most efficiency out of his top players. Like Mike Brown he was awful at making in-game adjustments, and when matched up against coaches that were better, he was completely out classed (pop and Carlisle).

I'm really excited to see what this team can do with so much talent that actually fits and a coach that knows how to use all of his pieces, can dictate the tempo he wants, and make suitable in game adjustments.
 
Two things:

1) James will never play under 30 minutes a night. Of course his minutes will go down when blowing out opponent after opponent, but he won't average under 35 minutes. Just won't happen...

I will be disappointed if LeBron (or any other player, yes, including Kyrie and Love) averages above 35 mpg during regular season. It will mean something's wrong.
Mark my words - no player will average above 35 mpg.
Sure, in "big" games he will probably play more, and come playoffs he'll probably play above 40, but in "normal" regular season he'll play under 35 on average.
 
It was one of the reasons he left Miami. Their forward position (Battier/Lewis/Beasly/Haslem) was a complete joke and it was one of Miami's biggest flaws LeBron had to cover.
So getting a solid back up center should remain our top priority.

I don't think that was their biggest weakness. Their biggest weakness was one or two of their big three not showing up when it mattered.

They lost in 2011 because LeBron played like hot garbage. They lost this year because Wade and Bosh both failed to show up. If all three of them play well each Finals, they win four titles instead of two.
 
I will be disappointed if LeBron (or any other player, yes, including Kyrie and Love) averages above 35 mpg during regular season. It will mean something's wrong.
Mark my words - no player will average above 35 mpg.
Sure, in "big" games he will probably play more, and come playoffs he'll probably play above 40, but in "normal" regular season he'll play under 35 on average.

Ok, I will mark your words! ;)
I don't want to make a contest out of this, but I would be really, really surprised if both, James and Love, will average under 35 mpg. Can't see it happen.
 
I don't think that was their biggest weakness. Their biggest weakness was one or two of their big three not showing up when it mattered.

They lost in 2011 because LeBron played like hot garbage. They lost this year because Wade and Bosh both failed to show up. If all three of them play well each Finals, they win four titles instead of two.

While you're right, I wasn't only referring to the NBA Finals. Yes, Wade and Bosh (and Chalmers) underperformed massively and it probably was the Heat's biggest weakness during the Finals. But during the season, Miami had it's biggest problems on the forward rotation. I remember that they started different players (at power forward) almost every game, alternating between Battier, Lewis, Haslem and Beasly. To make things worse, all of those players didn't contribute AT ALL.
So as a result, they had no rhythm as a starting five, which limited not only the Heat's offensive but also their defensive production. The long-term consequence was their regular season struggle.

And I disagree with you about your last point. I don't think Miami would've won the Finals, if their Big 3 was healthy. But that's a different story I guess. ;)
 
David Blatt interviewed from yesterday's visit at the golf course:
He talks about his first meeting with Lebron and a little bit about the meeting he had with the other 29 coaches of the league.
 
I've said this before and I'll say it again: LeBron's minutes won't be as significantly limited as a lot of you guys seem to think.

Just his ruthless & competitive nature, spirit and drive to be the best alone argues otherwise. He'll be on the floor a lot - you can count on that.
 
I've said this before and I'll say it again: LeBron's minutes won't be as significantly limited as a lot of you guys seem to think.

Just his ruthless & competitive nature, spirit and drive to be the best alone argues otherwise. He'll be on the floor a lot - you can count on that.

I think he's too intelligent not to want to limit his regular season minutes. And he's coming from a situation where an aging core player and the lack of a good bench were key elements in the failure of the Heat. The shadow of Dwayne Wade must be a big consideration for him.

So consider the weight loss/diet adjustments he made this summer. This is a guy that knows he's getting older, and needs to take as good care of his body as possible. Having him play fewer minutes has two enormous benefits that he's too smart to overlook.

The first is the obvious benefit to his own body of playing fewer regular season minutes. He doesn't want what happened to his best friend to happen to him. And the second is that his absence from the floor gives more playing opportunities to other guys, and helps them develop their own games more. That makes for a deeper, more capable bench come the playoffs.
 
Lebron will play as much as he needs to. We are afforded the luxury of being an incredibly deep team so he pick and choose his spots when he sits.

However, when the 4th quarter rolls around in tight-game situations, i don't expect him to be sitting much at all. Gone will be the days of Lebron sitting the first five minutes regardless of what the score is. Bye, bye Mike Brown! Hallelujah!
 
Gone will be the days of Lebron sitting the first five minutes regardless of what the score is. Bye, bye Mike Brown! Hallelujah!

and no more losing our lead every single third quarter.
 
great article from Pluto...Blatt might just be the luckiest guy on earth
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Cleveland Cavaliers new coach David Blatt talks LeBron, luck and expectations -- Terry Pluto - <a href="http://t.co/I6zvQ9HA8z">http://t.co/I6zvQ9HA8z</a> clevelanddotcom</p>&mdash; Terry Pluto (@terrypluto) <a href="">September 23, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 
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