2019 Regular Season Predictions

jking948 said:

The Cavs are expected to give way too many minutes to rookies and young guys that have no track record of positive defensive play. The team may not be as bad as last year, but last year was the worst NBA defense in the past twenty years.

Click to expand...

This keeps getting repeated, but it's important to note that scoring is up all over the league. They weren't the worst team ever for no reason, they were the worst in the best offensive season ever because everyone is launching 3's. All the "worst defensive teams ever" have been in the last 2 yeas and it is no coincidence.

25-57

BOOK IT!

Cavatt said:

This keeps getting repeated, but it's important to note that scoring is up all over the league. They weren't the worst team ever for no reason, they were the worst in the best offensive season ever because everyone is launching 3's. All the "worst defensive teams ever" have been in the last 2 yeas and it is no coincidence.

Click to expand...

No, they had the worst defensive rating per 100 possessions in the NBA over the last twenty years. It has absolutely zero to do with offense being up. They were just horrid. They were the worst of the era at defending layups, dunks, midrangers, and threes.

Cavs are not winning 25 games this season.

I like Sexton and Garland. Sexton is gonna be a nice 1st guard off the bench player. Garland is gonna be a nice shooting PG. Very smooth. But they are the 2 worst starting guards in the NBA.

Osman is the worst starting SF in the NBA.

It is gonna be tough to win 20 games this year.

raiders91sc said:

Cavs are not winning 25 games this season.

I like Sexton and Garland. Sexton is gonna be a nice 1st guard off the bench player. Garland is gonna be a nice shooting PG. Very smooth. But they are the 2 worst starting guards in the NBA.

Osman is the worst starting SF in the NBA.

It is gonna be tough to win 20 games this year.

Click to expand...

I think alot of what we saw tonight was Beilein's gap in understanding the difference between the NBA and college game. There will be a learning curve for him and how he can put his players in the best position to succeed.

I actually was encouraged with how they had Sexton and Garland play together in the first quarter. I actually think it can work but they will have to try to focus on running the offense thru the guards more, running things thru TT and Nance will have to be reduce to push the offense forward. Beilein needs to learn how to use Love as a stretch 4. He will also need to understand that Cedi and Sexton are players that play better with short rest periods. Also that Clarkson needs someone to be his brain and control how many or little shots he can take and where.

Around 20 wins is the best they got. You have already been warned. Next year won't be a bunch better either.

On the plus side Lebron's dead corpses he stuck the franchise with will be moved out of here by February

raiders91sc said:

Cavs are not winning 25 games this season.

I like Sexton and Garland. Sexton is gonna be a nice 1st guard off the bench player. Garland is gonna be a nice shooting PG. Very smooth. But they are the 2 worst starting guards in the NBA.

Osman is the worst starting SF in the NBA.

It is gonna be tough to win 20 games this year.

Click to expand...

Sexton is Lou Williams if he hits his potential. Will be a very nice piece off the bench.

have to say game 1 in the TT v Nance debate goes to TT

Futuredome said:

Around 20 wins is the best they got. You have already been warned. Next year won't be a bunch better either.

On the plus side Lebron's dead corpses he stuck the franchise with will be moved out of here by February

Click to expand...

I think there will be a jump at some point his season and if the coaching staff stays the same next season that it won't be as bad.

I think right now we are seeing a new coaching staff and a head coach with no NBA experience trying to translate his college offense to the NBA. Larry Drew had experience with these players before he took over and knew how to position most of the guys to play well. I think they had more of an identity at the end of last year than they do right now.

We will see how quickly Beilein can adjust on the fly. Maybe some of the vets will get him to start including some of their staple plays to get things working better. I think most of us here seem to understand how and where guys like the ball more than Beilein does at this point.

cabs said:

have to say game 1 in the TT v Nance debate goes to TT

Click to expand...

Is there a debate? TT understands his role and does what he knows he can do. Nance thinks he can do anything but can’t. TT > Nance

CavsFanJapan said:

Is there a debate? TT understands his role and does what he knows he can do. Nance thinks he can do anything but can’t. TT > Nance

Click to expand...

Sadly if it was only Nance that thought he could do everything he would be benched. Beilein is the guy who gave him the green light on threes. Last year the coaching staff tried making him the De Facto Point Guard. He has passing skills but not dribbling skills. Early on he was doing okay but when he acts like hes LeBron he needs to be benched for rest of the game. He needs to learn his limits not try to exceed them.

NMCav said:

Sadly if it was only Nance that thought he could do everything he would be benched. Beilein is the guy who gave him the green light on threes. Last year the coaching staff tried making him the De Facto Point Guard. He has passing skills but not dribbling skills. Early on he was doing okay but when he acts like hes LeBron he needs to be benched for rest of the game. He needs to learn his limits not try to exceed them.

Click to expand...

I'm not as worried about Beilein giving Nance the green light with 3 pt shots. I think Nance needs to shoot 3s to be more playable. His 3pt shots were from more spots last night and one spun out that should have went in. The other stuff he does hurts the team more and that where I wonder if Beilein can get to him to try to fix those things. Like his tendency to pass up the right play to try to make a flashy play. The play that he tried to dunk the ball in instead of a tip in and when he passed up a open 3 to dribble drive for a one handed dunk, were more concerning for me.

Cavatt said:

This keeps getting repeated, but it's important to note that scoring is up all over the league. They weren't the worst team ever for no reason, they were the worst in the best offensive season ever because everyone is launching 3's. All the "worst defensive teams ever" have been in the last 2 yeas and it is no coincidence.

Click to expand...

It is irrelevant though. The defensive scheme was horrible, if you can claim there was one that is worth giving a rating. When the team defense is non-existent, all the personal stats become sort of meaningless, or are not good evaluators to say the least since they are not adjusted for bad team defense.
I watched Cedi all my life, he is an above average defender. Put him in a team with good defensive habits, he will be a reliable defender, with occasional very good games with steals, impressive hustle etc. I am more or less confident that this is the case for some of the other players as well. I will not be surprised some of the players to make huge improvements on the defensive end as the season goes by. And would give a lot of credit to Beilein.

can't wait to see who we get with the 6th pick next year.

greenlaker said:

It is irrelevant though. The defensive scheme was horrible, if you can claim there was one that is worth giving a rating. When the team defense is non-existent, all the personal stats become sort of meaningless, or are not good evaluators to say the least since they are not adjusted for bad team defense.
I watched Cedi all my life, he is an above average defender. Put him in a team with good defensive habits, he will be a reliable defender, with occasional very good games with steals, impressive hustle etc. I am more or less confident that this is the case for some of the other players as well. I will not be surprised some of the players to make huge improvements on the defensive end as the season goes by. And would give a lot of credit to Beilein.

Click to expand...

See this is actually my point. Everyone is pointing to the "worst team in NBA history" as if that is their ceiling. It was a confluence of horrible issues from carelessness of the coaching staff and a bad system. Switching is something that experienced players can do well, it makes younger players lazy. I don't think the worst defense ever is symptom of a totally hopeless roster. A lot of people were saying that we just don't have the horses. We may not have the roster to have a top 5 defense, but this team can be average or above if they work at it.

Orlando Scored 92 points last night and I read that the Cavs only did that once last year all year. I was really encouraged by the defense at times. Plenty of lapses, plenty of ball watching and poor off ball defense, but I thought Cedi and Sexton looked better on defense, and Garland was better than I expected. KPJ is going to be a good defender. He needs time and help with his technique, but he is engaged. Cedi was playing the disruptor role last night breaking up plays and getting steals. That was great to see.

I do think that Longabardi's scheme basically gave up a bunch of 3's and it was a death knell and totally demoralizing last year and the year before as well.