ECF: Cavs 4 - Hawks 0

[amil99]

Only player on the Hawks im worried about in a 7 game series is Millsap.

 

[Marcus]

Quote from the Wizards board. I find it hilarious that they don't find us threatening. All we need is Lebron Ramone James and we'll smoke them.

That's adorable, they still don't think that Irving and Love are capable of playing defense.

Washington is a pretender. Toronto is a pretender. I'm not even that scared of Atlanta. Barring injury, I'm still going to be surprised if it's not Chicago and Cleveland in the ECF.

 

[InBoobieWeTrust]

Cavs in 5. Superstars matter in the playoffs. Depth means less. The court gets smaller, the game slows down.

 

[JFT]

I saw somebody post this on the HoopsHype NBA media twitter feed tonight, but almost all of Ferry's good moves were done two or three summers ago: Signing Millsap, Signing Korver, letting Josh Smith go, keeping Teague(there were rumors of swapping him for Jennings or Monta), finding Mike Scott, bringing in DeMarre Carroll, drafting Schroeder, hiring Bud.

Other than adding Thabo, he didn't really do much of note in the past 15 months to deserve consideration for the Exec of the Year for this season. Certainly deserves a ton of credit for what is happening in Atlanta though.

David Griffin.

 

[QuadrupleDouble]

I still don't think the Hawks are for real.

I think they're playing out of their heads right now, but I can easily see them as a second round exit right now too.

No evidence or anything to back it up, just my gut

 

[Gus Zing]

Quote from the Wizards board. I find it hilarious that they don't find us threatening. All we need is Lebron Ramone James and we'll smoke them.

As @Frank Reynolds said they are our toughest matchup on paper imo.

I still think we get out of the East. Gasol has brought down the Bulls defense so I dont see them as the top threat anymore.

The Hawks are just built for the regular season imo.

The Wizards head coach is clueless so we can beat them.

The key for us is health. LeBron/Kyrie stay healthy and Love get healthier we should get to the finals imo.

 

[brownindian]

I still don't think the Hawks are for real.

I think they're playing out of their heads right now, but I can easily see them as a second round exit right now too.

No evidence or anything to back it up, just my gut

How big is your gut?

 

[jlegg21]

I love the way Atlanta plays, almost a "Spurs lite" style that is really tough on teams that arent mobile up front (see: Pacers last postseason). The Moz might play a few less mins in that series if it happens.

That said, all the Cavs have to do is go small and it's over. Not sure who guards 23 for them either, Carroll I guess?

Still think the Bulls are the #1 concern if they get there healthy, as many have said.

 

[Deezus]

So does Ferry get executive of the year?

Even if he won, I'm pretty sure he'd be too busy sitting on his hands to accept the award.

 

[bleedwineandgold03]

Atl just got hot..remember guys we not done assembling our team yet and we still look scary

 

[Lazor]

As @Frank Reynolds said they are our toughest matchup on paper imo.

I still think we get out of the East. Gasol has brought down the Bulls defense so I dont see them as the top threat anymore.

The Hawks are just built for the regular season imo.

The Wizards head coach is clueless so we can beat them.

The key for us is health. LeBron/Kyrie stay healthy and Love get healthier we should get to the finals imo.

You don't see the Raptors being a tougher matchup on paper than the Wizards?

Starting lineups
PG: Irving over Lowry
SG: DeRozan over Smith
SF: LeBron over Ross
PF: Love over Amir
C: Jonas over Mozgov maybe even

Backups:
Vasquez over Delly
Williams even Shumpert: Shumperts defense evens this out
James Johnson over Marion: Johnson is basically their Marion on defense but has been better and offers a little more offensively
TT over Patterson and Hansbrough but you need to be careful with Patterson because he can stretch the floor and knock down 3s

What we have on them is experience but we can not sleep on them. Their bench is better than ours and even though our starting line up is better we can't sleep on Lowry. Amir also messed us up earlier in the season but that was before Mozgov. They are 21-6 with Demar in the lineup. If they are healthy imo they are a tougher matchup than the Wizards, Hawks, or Bulls.

I still think we win the series and get through the East but we will struggle the most against them.

 

[All4One1ForAll]

The reason I'm not scared of the Wizards is because we would have 3 of the best 4 players in the game.

 

[redscoon]

I still think its a healthy Cavs vs. a healthy Bulls to settle the East.

I'll take the Spurs and Grizz in the West. I think those are your 4 teams best suited for what it takes to win in the playoffs.

 

[Pioneer10]

Atlanta is tough in that they play like a small ball team with great ball movement, 3 point threats everywhere but the kicker is they have two bigs who can still post up while still spacing the floor.

Traditional switching to a small lineup ti match them is difficult as Millsap and Horford can post up if you go small. What happens though if we throw a Lebron, Marion, Shumpert, Irving, and Mozgov lineup on them. LeBron versatility again could be the trump card: if he can stay out of foul trouble guarding Millsap the Hawks want no part of Millsap trying to guard James

 

[Jack Brickman]

I saw somebody post this on the HoopsHype NBA media twitter feed tonight, but almost all of Ferry's good moves were done two or three summers ago: Signing Millsap, Signing Korver, letting Josh Smith go, keeping Teague(there were rumors of swapping him for Jennings or Monta), finding Mike Scott, bringing in DeMarre Carroll, drafting Schroeder, hiring Bud.

Other than adding Thabo, he didn't really do much of note in the past 15 months to deserve consideration for the Exec of the Year for this season. Certainly deserves a ton of credit for what is happening in Atlanta though.

Plus David Griffin has had that award on lockdown since he signed LeBron James. He could have made zero other moves and still been Executive of the Year.