David Blatt is a former NBA coach

[Paul]

fixed it

 

[Chris Parker]

The problem with simply plugging in JJ at the 3 and moving LeBron to the 4 is that JJ is a wretched rebounded and is regularly posted up by the opposition when he plays. I'd rather play a top-notch defense and expect to get more points from defense. We won't be able to run the drive & dish, but Blatt is a creative dude, I know there were actual offensive plays in his book, that look like traditional basketball. And, honestly, against the Bulls, we are better off playing with TT and T-Mo because we're a VERY mediocre defensive rebounding team without Love. I know it kill space to play TT and TMo together but at least TMo has that little 16 ft jumper. I think we'll need his offense if Love & Smith are unavailable.

I doubt it will happen, but if it were me, I'd look to initiate more offense with Irving, play LeBron in the post and use Marion, who is a very good cutter. That's more of an option if hte team plays in the post off LeBron. TMo, TT and even Ky are great cutters, but LeBron would need to play more with his back to the basket than he maybe is comfortable with these days physically. Marion creates points for himself without shots, and JJ has been shooting below 30% all month. I know he gets hot, but he is such a drain on defense, I doubt it's truly worth it.

my 2 cents...

 

[spydy13]

The problem with simply plugging in JJ at the 3 and moving LeBron to the 4 is that JJ is a wretched rebounded and is regularly posted up by the opposition when he plays. I'd rather play a top-notch defense and expect to get more points from defense. We won't be able to run the drive & dish, but Blatt is a creative dude, I know there were actual offensive plays in his book, that look like traditional basketball. And, honestly, against the Bulls, we are better off playing with TT and T-Mo because we're a VERY mediocre defensive rebounding team without Love. I know it kill space to play TT and TMo together but at least TMo has that little 16 ft jumper. I think we'll need his offense if Love & Smith are unavailable.

I doubt it will happen, but if it were me, I'd look to initiate more offense with Irving, play LeBron in the post and use Marion, who is a very good cutter. That's more of an option if hte team plays in the post off LeBron. TMo, TT and even Ky are great cutters, but LeBron would need to play more with his back to the basket than he maybe is comfortable with these days physically. Marion creates points for himself without shots, and JJ has been shooting below 30% all month. I know he gets hot, but he is such a drain on defense, I doubt it's truly worth it.

my 2 cents...

Blatt will definitely need to earn his money in the next round. He will probably have to try a few different lineups and see what works, and then he'll have to adjust when Thibs tries to take those things away.

I agree with you that especially in however many games we are without JR that we need to focus on defense and generating offense and fastbreaks from that defense, so Marion makes sense. Hopefully one of JJ or Miller can get hot to fill in some minutes for JR, but other than that I don't think we should rely on them to play heavy minutes.

 

[Paul]

The problem with simply plugging in JJ at the 3 and moving LeBron to the 4 is that JJ is a wretched rebounded and is regularly posted up by the opposition when he plays. I'd rather play a top-notch defense and expect to get more points from defense. We won't be able to run the drive & dish, but Blatt is a creative dude, I know there were actual offensive plays in his book, that look like traditional basketball. And, honestly, against the Bulls, we are better off playing with TT and T-Mo because we're a VERY mediocre defensive rebounding team without Love. I know it kill space to play TT and TMo together but at least TMo has that little 16 ft jumper. I think we'll need his offense if Love & Smith are unavailable.

I doubt it will happen, but if it were me, I'd look to initiate more offense with Irving, play LeBron in the post and use Marion, who is a very good cutter. That's more of an option if hte team plays in the post off LeBron. TMo, TT and even Ky are great cutters, but LeBron would need to play more with his back to the basket than he maybe is comfortable with these days physically. Marion creates points for himself without shots, and JJ has been shooting below 30% all month. I know he gets hot, but he is such a drain on defense, I doubt it's truly worth it.

my 2 cents...

Thompson and Mozgov will both play huge minutes im sure, if they can stay out of foul trouble. We have about 70 to 75 minutes between JR and K Love that we need to replace, and TT and Mozgov will surely absorb some of that. Blatt basically has JJ, Miller, Delly, Marion and Perkins in his bag of tricks after that. Those players could all see some minutes. His default replacement for Love seems to be James Jones, though, and he also knows that LeBron really likes having Jones on the floor and that LeBron feels he has a better rapport with Jones. Jones has tons of holes in his game which is why Kevin Love is so valuable to us. I think that K Loves value has been of course partly the quality of his own play, but the K Love differential is also largely just in the fact that it keeps guys like Jones and Miller off the floor. He hasn't been great this year but the dropoff after him is huge.

 

[kookoo]

The question is how do we start Tristan, but also have him at the 5 when TMo is on the bench while giving Perkins as few minutes as possible? I think we really screwed up our depth picking up Kendrick. If we had a center who provided something on at least one end of the floor instead of KP, we would be in a much better position to play against Chicago and their size. The only time or LeBron can give us minutes at the 4 is when Mirotic is playing the same position. I don't think they have the size to keep up with Gasol, Noah or Gibson (which is probably a combined 72 minutes) That means Mozgov and Tristan will have to play the bulk of those minutes and we're going to have to sub in LeBron and Marion at the PF for a combined 24 minutes a game IF Tom plays Nikola exclusively as a power forward. Earn your money Blatt.

 

[David.]

speaking out would have been worth the fine. What happened today is a travesty.

i take this back. obviously we have to be on good behavior right now if we want JR 's help for the bulls.

 

[CHIMOCHIS]

Mr. Blatt

Now it's time to actually coach

Figure out your best starting lineup

Show us what you're made of

Let's shock the world

 

[Paul]

The question is how do we start Tristan, but also have him at the 5 when TMo is on the bench while giving Perkins as few minutes as possible? I think we really screwed up our depth picking up Kendrick. If we had a center who provided something on at least one end of the floor instead of KP, we would be in a much better position to play against Chicago and their size. The only time or LeBron can give us minutes at the 4 is when Mirotic is playing the same position. I don't think they have the size to keep up with Gasol, Noah or Gibson (which is probably a combined 72 minutes) That means Mozgov and Tristan will have to play the bulk of those minutes and we're going to have to sub in LeBron and Marion at the PF for a combined 24 minutes a game IF Tom plays Nikola exclusively as a power forward. Earn your money Blatt.

I think almost no one will agree with me, but Haywood actually looked pretty good in the last game of the season, I wouldn't mind seeing him get some minutes. Perkins looks bad to me on both ends, maybe we could sort of platoon Perkins and Haywood to absorb some of K Love's minutes. Maybe get like 5 mins from each of them, especially if it's a situation where Mozgov and Tristan are getting into foul trouble. It's hard to imagine those two not getting into foul trouble against the Bulls.

 

[kookoo]

I think almost no one will agree with me, but Haywood actually looked pretty good in the last game of the season, I wouldn't mind seeing him get some minutes. Perkins looks bad to me on both ends, maybe we could sort of platoon Perkins and Haywood to absorb some of K Love's minutes. Maybe get like 5 mins from each of them, especially if it's a situation where Mozgov and Tristan are getting into foul trouble. It's hard to imagine those two not getting into foul trouble against the Bulls.

I would have agreed with you earlier in the season, but in addition to being large players, the Chicago bigs are also extremely mobile. I'd sooner play Marion on Gibson than Perkins and Haywood. I mean, if we get desperate, throw in Haywood. But he's just so damn slow, as is Perks.

 

[mhi]

The question is how do we start Tristan, but also have him at the 5 when TMo is on the bench while giving Perkins as few minutes as possible? I think we really screwed up our depth picking up Kendrick.

Lots of flaws with the roster that the next round and our circumstances will expose.

1) Our backup PG is M.Delly.
2) Duplication: 3 backup wings who play no defense (Jones, Miller, Harris)
3) Way too many centers. 2 of which should never see the floor. (Perkins and Haywood).

Also re: Blatt, it's unfair to expect him to turn into Pop overnight in terms of lineups, matchups and hitting the right buttons. We haven't seen anything from him like that this year (when we dealt with multiple injuries), and this series is much more likely to expose him that it is, make him. I, however, do expect him to turn into 2014 Finals Spo who threw everything at the wall hoping for something to stick.

@Chris Parker I still maintain that our best shot is LJ at the 4, I believe he can guard ANYONE on the Bulls. As far as JJ, I would rather Marion plays next to LJ and we pray to God he can hit the open 3s. For the first two games, you can go with Miller at the 2. Beg Irving to at least deny Rose's first step and live with Butler going off on Miller. Basically, it's not looking good.

A macro thing to watch is whether or not this "adversity" increases or decreases the player's buyin into Blatt.

 

[cavsfever]

Phil Jackson consistently spoke out about the refs the second he felt it wasn't going away. Almost without fail, the next game was far more even/in Chicago's or LA's favor.

I agree with this. It can be very effective for coaches to work the refs, including in public. I feel like Blatt made a real mistake in saying that Boston's commitment to thuggishness ('physical play') as a strategy was just playoff basketball and no big deal. He should have called them out right away and said it was unacceptable and he expected the league to keep this within the bounds of basketball play.

 

[MirORich]

I know that Blatt is not perfect and I'm only going to touch on this on a surface level but it was just funny to me to read about how much Brad Stevens outcoached Blatt.

-The Celtics didn't win a game
-The Celtics led for 0 seconds of the collective 8 second half quarters.
-The Cavs won every game by 8 or more points.

So if Blatt was just enormously outcoached by Stevens as I read in several big time NBA writers columns, then what exactly is happening to coaching media goldenboys Thibodau & Budenholzer?

And I even like Stevens a lot as a coach. But the level that has been fellated over the past week is absurd, as is the notion that he ran circles around Blatt.

 

[Paul]

I know that Blatt is not perfect and I'm only going to touch on this on a surface level but it was just funny to me to read about how much Brad Stevens outcoached Blatt.

-The Celtics didn't win a game
-The Celtics led for 0 seconds of the collective 8 second half quarters.
-The Cavs won every game by 8 or more points.

So if Blatt was just enormously outcoached by Stevens as I read in several big time NBA writers columns, then what exactly is happening to coaching media goldenboys Thibodau & Budenholzer?

And I even like Stevens a lot as a coach. But the level that has been fellated over the past week is absurd, as is the notion that he ran circles around Blatt.

Maybe I'm a Blatt fanboy but I've already basically decided that regardless of what happens with Chicago, he deserves another year at least to show what he can do with this team. I don't know where he ranks among the best coaches of the NBA, but I'm convinced he's already a good NBA coach and has the potential to be a top 5 caliber NBA coach.

 

[KingDavidBlatt]

The answer is Shump. He's gonna play 45 mpg. He's gonna guard Rose, and then Butler, and then anyone else who gets hot. And he's gonna be great at it. And he's gonna be the 3rd option on offense, and he'll do that good too. In Shump we trust.

 

[Adam]

Maybe I'm a Blatt fanboy but I've already basically decided that regardless of what happens with Chicago, he deserves another year at least to show what he can do with this team. I don't know where he ranks among the best coaches of the NBA, but I'm convinced he's already a good NBA coach and has the potential to be a top 5 caliber NBA coach.

I would find it hard to accept that his job is anywhere near in danger. I think after this playoff run whatever it holds, the team will be stronger and more cohesive. Blatt will know his guys and begin to tinker with systems etc..Kyrie loves him, lebron is almost positive now. Cavs need stability know all the pieces are in place.

I've realised that against chicago its not going to be the offensive side thats the issue. If we can keep the game in the 90's we can get the wins we need to progress. Lets see if blatt and lue can get a defensive system in place that will survive a series