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Cavs vs. Warriors -- 2017 NBA Finals

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Who wins?

  • Cavs in 4

    Votes: 23 8.4%
  • Cavs in 5

    Votes: 20 7.3%
  • Cavs in 6

    Votes: 146 53.1%
  • Cavs in 7

    Votes: 55 20.0%
  • Warriors in 7

    Votes: 2 0.7%
  • Warriors in 6

    Votes: 10 3.6%
  • Warriors in 5

    Votes: 7 2.5%
  • Warriors in 4

    Votes: 12 4.4%

  • Total voters
    275
  • Poll closed .
I agree Love isnt optimal against this new lineup, but any time Iggy is on the court that's who he'd get match-up wise. There's no clear upgrade anyway so why not go into next season as constructed and see how it plays out?

I think people are caught up in the shock of an MVP caliber player joining a 73 win team and overlooking the still-relevant flaws that cost GS a title. The Cavs still have a massive advantage on the boards, and they can still get Irving or James switched onto Steph. That hasnt changed, nor will it.

Add in the fact that GS at this point has zero rim protection outside of Green and will likely have major bench/depth issues, I'm not sure GS is a significantly better overall team today. Time will tell.

Not glossing over the fact they clearly they have a chance to be historically great offensively, better than last year even...
 
Whats their Most Lineup gonna be?

Curry,Klay,Iggy,KD,Green

Now while thats a brutal Offensive and Shooting lineup we cant be struck in fear and remember.. only so many Shots per Game. KD and Curry will score 22-25 each Klay 15-17 .. they wont score 30 each in every Game.

Now that Lineup we would slaughter on the Boards. We would get Offensive Rebounds like crazy.

Not saying it will be easy or that they wont be a crazy Team... But again.. i think we all should have learned that Fear is of no use and ANY Team is beatable.
 
Y'know guys, Kevin Durant averaged 8.2 rebounds per game last year, and he did it on a team with a great front line. The Warriors just got better on the boards, at least when their death lineup is playing.
 
You guys are freaking out....You give our team that just gelled in games 5,6, and 7 with arguably the most ascendant young talent in the game outside of Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving, no credit.

You start to reach a level of decreasing marginal returns at a certain level when adding star players. We see it time and time again when Team USA takes on good teams like Spain or Argentina that play team basketball.

The Cavs need to keep their roster and continue to focus on gelling as ONE.

Adding D Wade will not be salvation... You really want to take away shots from a guy like Kyrie Irving who is quickly becoming the MOST deadly scorer in the game? You really want to start D Wade over JR Smith who is a much better 3 point shooter and will definitely try harder on defense?

With Kyrie and Lebron you need shooters that are ready to fire. We just WON a freaking title playing that way. We gelled as the series went on against GSW. We finally started to play our game versus them.

Durant is not Lebron. He is a scorer going to a team that already doesn't have trouble scoring. Can he get the tough buckets that Klay and Stepth couldn't get down the stretch in games 5,6 and 7? Yes he can. Can he also play mediocre defense, shoot way too early in the clock, refuse to be a team player, pout when he doesn't get enough shots? Yes he can.

Durant is not Lebron. He doesn't have other magisterial aspects to his game above and beyond scoring like Lebron does. He can't simply be a top 5 passer, rebounder, and defender like Lebron can if he so choses to be. Is he arguably the best pure scorer in the game? Yes.

Did Durant put up games that much better than Kyrie in Oracle? No.

Id love to see us keep Delly, find one more wing player, and another versatile big man.

You don't trade Kevin Love. With Bogut gone, Love has earned every right to play against the Warriors. You saw how freaking gassed Dreymond was at the end of game 7? It's because the Cavs front court of LBJ, Love and TT wore them down.

The Cavs have issues with teams that punch in the mouth. They don't have issues with teams that want to play fast basketball. We have caught up with the Warriors and Durant doesn't solve their issues against us.
 
I agree that they are better offensively. My argument is that it's marginal.

Defensively, they are worse.
I disagree my man Durant played at 90% Lebron level on defense in the 2016 WCF. He was so good I actually thought he finally surpassed LeBron on that end until the King enacted prima nocta on the Warriors. He's absolutely gonna make the Death Lineup better defensively. I think KLove will exploit his skinny ass in the post better than he could against Barnes tho. He's always been soft against LeBron.
 
I don't think you trade Love: don't live and die preparing for one team. That kills you in the NBA because you have to prepare for the whole season. Rememer that dumb Shaq trade to matchup with Howard? Yeah that worked well.

Love, TT, Frye will be needed for the playoffs and the Warriors are going to be very vulnerable to foul trouble and getting worn down in the paint. For all the talk of small ball they needed to go big to save themselves OKC. TT and Love are going to be tough matchups for Durant and Green because they are going to have to try to stay in the paint to prevent total domination on the defensive glass. The metrics completely go with this: defensive rebounding makes a huge difference on your defensive rating.

Yes we may not be able to play Love in the 4th but that is ok: you need to wear them down. Right now I'm praying McRae develops because he's exactly the type of player if he pans out we need and then use the TPE to find a big wing.
 
Thank you KD for making LeBron's move (aside from the ridiculous decision charade), look far less "RING-CHASEY" than yours. This will no doubt help LeBron's Cleveland legacy.

you spelled bitchmade wrong
 
I agree Love isnt optimal against this new lineup, but any time Iggy is on the court that's who he'd get match-up wise. There's no clear upgrade anyway so why not go into next season as constructed and see how it plays out?

I think people are caught up in the shock of an MVP caliber player joining a 73 win team and overlooking the still-relevant flaws that cost GS a title. The Cavs still have a massive advantage on the boards, and they can still get Irving or James switched onto Steph. That hasnt changed, nor will it.

Add in the fact that GS at this point has zero rim protection outside of Green and will likely have major bench/depth issues, I'm not sure GS is a significantly better overall team today. Time will tell.

Not glossing over the fact they clearly they have a chance to be historically great offensively, better than last year even...

Yes I think whatever Golden State ends up with outside of Curry, Thompson, Iggy, Dre, Durant and Livingston will be very interesting. It will largely decide whether this was a successful move or not. In many ways the acquisition on paper is just breath taking. But we all know winning basketball isn't about having 5 superstars and a bunch of scrubs. Roles, balance, the ability to win in different ways etc are ultimately what makes for a championship team.

However, the biggest reason why the LBJ-Wade-Bosh thing worked was because LBJ was playing better basketball than Michael Jordan in his prime for those 4 seasons. Lebron is a versatile talent. He can go do other things and be top 5 in those areas if he wants to be like rebounding, passing or defense.

Durant is a top 3 NBA scorer, a decent rebounder, a decent passer, and a decent defender when he wants to be. But he needs the ball in his hands A LOT, not a little bit. The Warriors like to use ball movement with the occasional Steph Curry freak out session. In fact the Warriors were absolutely at their worst when they went ISO with Steph and Clay.

Its the greatest thing to happen to Steve Kerr and probably also the worst thing to happen because if things get difficult with this crew, it won't be so easy to fix.
 
Really not as concerned as a lot of fans seem to be, they still have no one that can defend LBJ or Kyrie effectively, plus we havent even seen the best of this Cavs group yet.

Im also fully against trading Love unless we get Westbrook in return lol. We shouldnt be worrying about matching up vs one team, we saw how that worked out.
 
I disagree my man Durant played at 90% Lebron level on defense in the 2016 WCF. He was so good I actually thought he finally surpassed LeBron on that end until the King enacted prima nocta on the Warriors. He's absolutely gonna make the Death Lineup better defensively. I think KLove will exploit his skinny ass in the post better than he could against Barnes tho. He's always been soft against LeBron.

90 percent Lebron level?

To be honest outside of Roberson and Adams I wasn't so enthralled with the Thunders defense. I thought Westbrook gambles too much although he could be the best defensive point guard in the NBA if he wanted to be. He kind of has the same mental issues as Kyrie on that end.

And I think Durant is solid but he is mostly a soft player. We gave WAY WAY WAY WAY too much props to OKC defensively against the Warriors. What OKC did to GSW that was spectacular was on the boards. They out rebounded them in 6 of the 7 games. That was spectacular and what allowed them to really kick their ass.


I liked if not loved our defense against GSW in all 7 games. I thought we got into trouble and lost the 3 games when we stopped scoring and stopped running good offense. We did well against them on the boards when we absolutely had to but we defended them even better than OKC did. We didn't get nearly enough credit for that.
 
Steph and Durant both have horrible history of foot injuries wouldn't be surprised if they both missed the playoffs
 

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