LeBron James

[Rich]

Sergey Karasev would have taken us to the promised land, boys.

I don't want to be dismissive, but you've been on the "we're better w/o LBJ train" for a while now. After two straight games w/o James, your position has become tougher to defend. This Karasev praise takes the cake. In no world would I take Wiggins and Karasev over LeBron and Love moving forward. That's insane and I'm just gonna move on from that.

 

[NorthCoastBias]

Glad we have LeBron, but we ain't winning fuckin shit with the guy.

 

[Rich]

Sergey Karasev would have taken us to the promised land, boys.

I don't want to be dismissive, but you've been on the "we're better w/o LBJ train" for a while now. After two straight games w/o James, your position has become tougher to defend. This Karasev praise takes the cake. In no world would I take Wiggins and Karasev over LeBron and Love moving forward. That's insane and I'm just gonna move on from that.

Karasev has been....a guy. He very well might have a bright future in the league, but he still isn't a knockdown shooter (like he's supposed to be) and has quite a ways to go to start making an impact.

 

[Snarly]

After watching this game tonight, I am convinced that this is all a message from our top players that these players suck and big changes need to be made.

It might not even have much to do with Blatt. This team is awful.

I agree the only one who shown up was Kyrie and Sometimes T.T Amunduson has to go ASAP he was the was who killed out momentum a few times tonight.

 

[Futuredome]

After watching this game tonight, I am convinced that this is all a message from our top players that these players suck and big changes need to be made.

It might not even have much to do with Blatt. This team is awful.

There is a message, but it isn't the roster.

 

[supermario21]

I would have taken Karasev and Wiggins/Bennett over LBJ and Love. Those guys were impressionable and ready to learn. Blatt was praising Sergey after a couple days of summer practice. Blatt gave Karasev a big break when he brought him into the 2012 Russian national team. He was sort of the Laettner/Dream Team player for Russia. The ball movement in summer league was beautiful. Those guys would have respected Blatt. Now we've got a bunch of prima donnas.

 

[KilgoreTrout]

Fellas- Say something to lift Kilgore's spirits. Kilgore is so dejected, heading into the new year. Was not 2015 supposed to be The Year of the Cav?

 

[crabbyshark]

Sergey Karasev would have taken us to the promised land, boys.

I don't want to be dismissive, but you've been on the "we're better w/o LBJ train" for a while now. After two straight games w/o James, your position has become tougher to defend. This Karasev praise takes the cake. In no world would I take Wiggins and Karasev over LeBron and Love moving forward. That's insane and I'm just gonna move on from that.

Kyrie Irving would be the one taking us to the promised land. Karasev would have been a role player helping us get there.

Two straight games without LeBron... and Shawn Marion and with Kevin Love on the mend.

What about a world where Kevin Love "can't defend" and "can't hit open shots"?

With LBJ playing the way LBJ is currently playing, the Cavs would be better playing without him.

How do the Cavs lose by 30 to ATL with LBJ playing then lose by 8 without him playing two weeks later?

If LBJ started playing like LBJ again, the Cavs would likely beat ATL by 30, like they did earlier this season.

 

[MirORich]

Man...Boobie nailed it about the tin foil hats. Except they need to be mailing those out to more than half the posters in CavsTalk.

We see Marion get his ankle rolled....and he misses a few games

We see LeBron get shaken up when he dove into the stands in
Miami(as well as the speculation about not being 100% healthy) and he misses a few games

Love gets back spasms, has to sit most of the 2nd half in Atlanta and misses tonights game.

Andy tears his achilles, has surgery, and is out for the year.

But hold on, wait for it, its better than that, its actually fake injuries so the Love and LeBron can send a message to the front office that we need a better bench.

And then to top it off, we get cherry picked highlights of Wiggins and Karasev as some sort of passive aggressive indirect argument that passing on LeBron and Love could have been a better future.

I mean after every thing Cleveland sports fans have been through, we don't even have fans that can handle a rough, first half of this teams first year together. Treating 18-15 as if its cellar dwelling. Making comparisons of tonights game without 4 starters to the 55 point Lakers loss last year. Acting as if this we have no means to add to this team this year and in the offseason. Like the whole thing is built and will never change. And over reacting to every single game. Like, we know there are problems, we acknowledge there are things to fix and that it will take time to fix and develop, and then after acknowledging that, the very next game we play that shows those problems, we freak out all over again like its a new thing or somehow exponentially worse than the issues we already knew we had yesterday. It's your own damn fault if you thought the moves of the offseason were actually us winning a championship or being a championship ready team from day one. I mean, most of us praised LeBron for in the Letter acknowledging that it will not be easy, will take patience, and be a process. Did you think he was referring to patience and difficult in getting all 15 guys fingers measured correctly for 2015 championship rings? No, he meant what we are seeing right now. Why is it such a surprise to people and why are people freaking out as if this very scenario hasn't happened to tons of new teams with new coaches before? We'll learn and grow from it(over a time period, not in any one "fix it" game) or we won't. Life goes on either way.

 

[JSS2306]

I don't know about tinfoil hats but I do know this team is not built for the playoffs. So there's that.

Too many softy specialist and not enough long athletic guards to hang with all the other teams both in and out of the Eastern Conference and that's putting aside our deficiencies at center.

There are potentially 4 or 5 other teams in our conference that could hang with or dismantle us in the post season. If that's not a concern, it should be.

Happy new years!

 

[Big Finish]

It was the Love trade, not clearing space for Lebron, which was the crucial error. It's clear now that making Lebron slim down to fit Love has sacrificed much of the physical dominance that made him unstoppable in Miami. Furthermore, the wrong pieces were traded and what's left doesn't fit. Imagine this lineup:

Irving
Karasev
Wiggins
Lebron
Zeller

This could have been achieved by trading Waiters and not extending Varejao. It's a lineup that would only get better over time, and is quite possibly better than the current one.

Best of all, it would have been home grown rather than a team of mercenaries.

 

[Snarly]

This may seem odd but I the talks with Boston is to get Zeller back. My question can and when can that happen and would Boston do it? Okay back to Bron and it is simple. If we want a ring and a chance for a parade we kinda have to give into LeBron. I said it before and I will say it again. LeBron is almost as powerful as the NBA its self. Meaning he either has to chill or do what knows will work. I will trust in him till the end of the year.

If I were Bron I would have Lue coach and run plays for the vets and Blatt run plays for the youngsters second unit. It called working together. A team of coaches and people forget this. A team of coaches has to work well like the ones on the floor. And it seems Lue and Blatt do not see eye to eye. Maybe that is why Bron is trying to call offensive plays.

 

[wuck]

The Cavs cannot reacquire Zeller (or anyone else traded since July 1, 2014) until July 1, 2015. So, it's certainly not happening anytime soon.

Perhaps someone could create a "Spilled Milk thread" or a "Water under the Bridge thread" or the "Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda thread" or the "Second Guessers thread" or the "I told you so thread". Because there is a whole lot of that going on at this point in most of the active threads. I'm not talking about you, Snarly.

I prefer the "What we should do now" posts, even the hopefully optimistic ones. Because what is done is done. I understand the frustration and the rants, and perhaps threads about Griffin, or about Gilbert, should be revived. I'm just a little more concerned in this thread about whether LeBron's knee is going to bother him all year (or longer), and if he, well, wants to or is able to play hard this year. Oh, and also wondering just how much the Cavs organization will cater, or have to cater, to him about everything.

 

[Snarly]

The Cavs cannot reacquire Zeller (or anyone else traded since July 1, 2014) until July 1, 2015. So, it's certainly not happening anytime soon.

Perhaps someone could create a "Spilled Milk thread" or a "Water under the Bridge thread" or the "Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda thread" or the "Second Guessers thread" or the "I told you so thread". Because there is a whole lot of that going on at this point in most of the active threads.

Honestly, I prefer the "What we should do now" posts, even the hopefully optimistic ones. Because what is done is done.

This is the first New Years Eve I had off in a very very long time. That said I vote for the "What should we do now" thread. I know what is done is done but a steady diet of wine, beer, and Jack Daniels has me thinking things that will never happen with Zeller. Screw it I hope this is a much better year for the Cavs and as much as the tortured fan comes out in me I do see a light. In my drunken state and all the stupid BS I spew all I have to say is go Cavs, Go Indians... and (sigh) go Browns.

 

[Steve_424]

I have to take exception with this.

One of the best points you consistently make is that the Cavs should be giving Alex Kirk more burn. He isn't going to get better sitting on the bench. I think Blatt is so concerned about wins right now that he isn't trying guys he isn't convinced are ready to play. But those guys never get ready to play always sitting on the bench.


After LeBron left, the Cavs screwed up the first time trying to make the playoffs without him. The Cavs continued screwing up switching coaches mid-rebuild. Andrew Bynum, Luol Deng... they screwed up again with the playoff mandate/trading Henry Sims, two draft picks and Earl Clark (who had a team option for this year) for 2.5 months of Spencer Hawes.

The Cavs appeared to have finally course corrected with the hiring of Blatt. Golden State wanted him. The hiring was universally lauded. Kyrie Irving had bought in from the jump.

One of the biggest problems the Cavs have right now is finding someone to guard the freaking perimeter. Here is an article from today about Sergei Karasev's defense: SOURCE

Here's Karasev flying back on defense to intercept a pass which he accidentally saves to Joakim Noah:


DAT SMILE AS HE GETS UP

The article mentions Karasev played for Blatt in the Olympics on the Russian national team. That would've been interesting.

Here's highlights from Andrew Wiggins game last night:


Here's multiple angles of the monster jam:



The future of this team would not have been bleak.

Player A: .412 FG%, .310 3PT%, 74% FT, 14.7 PPG, 2.4 RPG, 3.0 APG, 1.0 SPG, 0.3 BPG, 2.0 TOPG
Player B: .407 FG%, .395 3PT%, 68% FT, 13.9 PPG, 3.9 RPG, 1.4 APG, 1.0 SPG, 0.5 BPG, 2.0 TOPG.

Pretty comparable, right?

Player A is 21 year old rookie Dion Waiters. Player B is 19 year old rookie Andrew Wiggins.

I get that Wiggins is exciting and flashy and full of potential, but it's not like the Cavs traded an Anthony Davis-caliber prospect away for Love.