LeBron James

[col63onel]

if Wagner panned out like I was hoping he could, him, Boozer and LeBron would have been an athletic young core

Heck, Darius Miles might've been the 2nd best athlete on the team. Diop was also on that team. Imagine the athleticism of a Wagner - LeBron - Miles - Boozer - Diop lineup. The fact that 3 of them had a negative basketball IQ nothwistanding

 

[Captain S]

Heck, Darius Miles might've been the 2nd best athlete on the team. Diop was also on that team. Imagine the athleticism of a Wagner - LeBron - Miles - Boozer - Diop lineup. The fact that 3 of them had a negative basketball IQ nothwistanding

Ironically that sounds quite like Minnesota trotting out

Dieng - young - young LeBron - wiggins - LaVine

That would be a crazy fast break, lacking in skill compared to Cleveland's but still

 

[Pioneer10]

If anything, we should thank the Mavericks for who LeBron James is today. If they hadn't pasted the Heat in the 2011 Finals, I'm not convinced LeBron ever would have ran out of excuses and been forced to grow up.

The Mavs are interesting as they were constructed very differently then the present Cavs. A bunch of very good to great defenders (Marion, Kidd, Chandler) centered around one offensive star (Dirk) and a couple of roleplaying shooters to keep the spacing/release pressure (Terry, Barea, etc.). This has been a tried and true formula thru the year (Bad Boy Pistons, even the Jordan Bulls to an extent). Our focus is going to be a bunch of great scorers with roleplaying defenders to cover holes. Not sure what the best comparison to us is in terms of past winners

 

[Jack Brickman]

The Mavs are interesting as they were constructed very differently then the present Cavs. A bunch of very good to great defenders (Marion, Kidd, Chandler) centered around one offensive star (Dirk) and a couple of roleplaying shooters to keep the spacing/release pressure (Terry, Barea, etc.). This has been a tried and true formula thru the year (Bad Boy Pistons, even the Jordan Bulls to an extent). Our focus is going to be a bunch of great scorers with roleplaying defenders to cover holes. Not sure what the best comparison to us is in terms of past winners

I wasn't comparing the two teams.

 

[Pioneer10]

I wasn't comparing the two teams.

Who suggested you were? Just pointing out the construction of this team is a unusual. Doesn't mean they can't win the title but there is precedence for teams who can defend like heck and depend on a transcendent offensive star to win. Especially without a traditional defensive center, we're going to have to outscore opponents. Equation may change as there is a chance Waiters and Delly become above average/elite defenders but that's not certain right now.

 

[amil99]

The 09 and 10 Lakers had some pretty bad defenders on those teams playing significant minutes(Fisher,ect..) but their talent was so overwhelming they were beating teams while giving up 100 ppg in 09. They also gave up a record setting fg% at the time to the Magic in The finals that year but ended up winning in 5 games. I could see it being something like that but I doubt we are that bad defensively with Lebron and Blatt at the helm.

 

[bobcat22]

The Mavs are interesting as they were constructed very differently then the present Cavs. A bunch of very good to great defenders (Marion, Kidd, Chandler) centered around one offensive star (Dirk) and a couple of roleplaying shooters to keep the spacing/release pressure (Terry, Barea, etc.). This has been a tried and true formula thru the year (Bad Boy Pistons, even the Jordan Bulls to an extent). Our focus is going to be a bunch of great scorers with roleplaying defenders to cover holes. Not sure what the best comparison to us is in terms of past winners

The Showtime Lakers. It's an odd comparison, but this team resembles them more than any other since Showtime.

Magic and LeBron are a wash. Dion is essentially Byron Scott. Worthy and Kyrie played different positions, but they are about the same in terms of impact on their team. Worthy was never the same once Showtime ended. We have our big that can score in K Love like they had an old Kareem who played no D. The fifth guy, Rambis or AC Green is like a Varejao. Athletic, energetic and great teammate. Shawn Marion is the old version of Michael Cooper on this team.

Remember, Magic and Kareem at that time were below average defenders. The rest of that team had to step up on that end and out score opponents at the other end.

 

[I-77 NORTH]

This is a Lebron thread.

This is a Lebron thread

This is a Lebron thread.

 

[rabman_gold]

Well technically, at least LeBron knows what it takes to win it all. He can apply what he learned in 2011-2014 and get Cleveland it's final vantage point. It doesn't hurt that Andy knows what it takes to get to the NBA Finals, as does Marion, Mike Miller, James Jones, etc. And everyone else will gain what LeBron already has. That's kind of why LeBron is back, so let's see if we can acquire the knowledge too.

 

[CavsHomer]

Found this on RealGM:

Sept 17

 

[clevelandrox23]

Uncanny, did his body reject the hair plugs? Hopefully he doesn't have graft versus host disease...

 

[Pioneer10]

The Showtime Lakers. It's an odd comparison, but this team resembles them more than any other since Showtime.

Magic and LeBron are a wash. Dion is essentially Byron Scott. Worthy and Kyrie played different positions, but they are about the same in terms of impact on their team. Worthy was never the same once Showtime ended. We have our big that can score in K Love like they had an old Kareem who played no D. The fifth guy, Rambis or AC Green is like a Varejao. Athletic, energetic and great teammate. Shawn Marion is the old version of Michael Cooper on this team.

Remember, Magic and Kareem at that time were below average defenders. The rest of that team had to step up on that end and out score opponents at the other end.

Yeah I was thinking about Showtime. It's not perfect but probably the closest we have.
Magic is my favorite player of all time but I think Lebron is actually better when you consider how much better he is at on defense. After that I think the comparison falls short somewhat on the perimeter. Dion may become as good as defender as Scott but between Scott, Worthy (who was freakishly quick for a guy his size: reminds me in some ways of Lebron), and of course Cooper they were a very strong perimeter defensive teammate. This is where it's important for Dion and Delly to improve because. Also the other issues is the comparison is the lack of size: thrown in Rambis/Green and Jabbar/Thompson they at least had the size to take up space

 

[cavsfever]

The Mavs are interesting as they were constructed very differently then the present Cavs. A bunch of very good to great defenders (Marion, Kidd, Chandler) centered around one offensive star (Dirk) and a couple of roleplaying shooters to keep the spacing/release pressure (Terry, Barea, etc.). This has been a tried and true formula thru the year (Bad Boy Pistons, even the Jordan Bulls to an extent). Our focus is going to be a bunch of great scorers with roleplaying defenders to cover holes. Not sure what the best comparison to us is in terms of past winners

I think the '80s teams, particularly the showtime Lakers and also the Celtics, are the best comp. Those teams featured a number of great offensive stars, lots of ball movement and passing, and less emphasis on defense and iso play. The Lakers are an interesting comp when Lebron is at point, the Celtics featured a really good point guard with a transcendent forward (Bird) playing next to a really good power forward (McHale). Of course, we do not have the true center that both those teams had, and today's greater use of the 3-point line changes things too.

IMO the move to a single iso-star on offense + tough defense made the game more boring, so I am really really looking forward to seeing this team play.

[Whoops, I didn't see Bobcat's post above, he already made some of these points, but I'll leave this up anyway]

 

[mds]

The hair thing is odd. Here's Deadspin's article: http://deadspin.com/lebrons-hair-is...source=deadspin_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow

 

[eclark232]

Lebron going for the World B Free look.