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2020-2021 Cavs Season General Discussion

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One huge takeaway from last night was the age difference in the teams. Here are the ages of the Nets players who played more than 12 of the 58 minutes:

Green (34), Jordan (32), Durant (32), Harden (31), Harris (29), and Irving (28). Five of them played 42-51 minutes while Jordan played 24. Two young guys played 11 and 12 minutes and combined for 4 points.

Now for the Cavs:

Nance (28), Drummond (27), Prince and Dotson (26), Cedi (25), Sexton and Allen (22), and Okoro (19). On Friday they should also have Windler (24) and Garland (20).

The Cavs were much younger and deeper last night, and they'll be even deeper on Friday and deeper yet when Love returns. This team is going to get better and better. Bickerstaff will have incredible flexibility in terms of 5-man lineups. Last night he ended up going with a one guard, three forward, one center lineup of Sexton, Cedi, Okoro, Nance, and Allen in crunch time.

By the way, are they turning Cedi into a shooting guard? He's averaging 5.2 assists per game in January and has had four games with seven assists. I've been very impressed with his passing. He's not much of a rebounder and rarely blocks a shot. If Porter is no longer in the picture and with Okoro, Prince, and Windler at small forward are they sliding Cedi to shooting guard where his 3-point shooting and passing is an asset while his lack of physicality on the glass is not a problem?
 
Cedi has always been a shooting guard. Even after transforming his body he does not have the girth or the strength to adequately defend small forwards. He’s not much quicker than he is strong, but at least he doesn’t give up any size playing the two. He is now a somewhat competent shooter as well so he is playable as an archetypal SG on offense.
 
During the last two seasons LBJ was here, the regular season often was a chore to watch. Team didn't put out consistent effort, there was infighting, and you'd have a knot in your stomach worried about whether the Cavs could turn it around by the playoffs. It was unpleasant.

This Cavs team has made the regular season - which is the vast majority of games - actually fun to watch again. It is so much easier to just enjoy the game for itself now.

Hey Q-Tip, we had been arguing about it a year or two ago. Not me and you, but me and some others.

I wanted to watch a team compete and be built in an organic fashion. I said I did not enjoy watching Lebron's Cavs under Ty Lue and got flack for it. I had been told that building a competitive team would be impossible and I should appreciate the fact that we had Lebron.

Well I guess it was worth it. I enjoy the team way more now and i'm hopeful for the future. We have a present and a future.

Team organic.
 
Terrific defensively, an excellent passer, and the 3-point shot is really coming along. He's becoming the classic "3-and-D" guy. Now he needs to get more aggressive taking it to the rim and finishing. I'd like to see him get a little stronger on the defensive glass as that is a weakness for the Cavs this season and his rebounding numbers are low. I get that he's challenging a lot of shots and he lacks bulk, but I'd still like to see him use his quickness and leaping ability to pull in a few more boards.

I'd love to see him develop into Dennis Rodman with a 40% three-point shot. (Actually, he's at 44.4% on 3's this year).

I think calling him a 3&D guy is a bit of a disservice. He's moving more towards the Draymond Green, do everything, not-your-best-player-but-key-to-team-success glue guy role.
 
Last night was a game changer.
We went eye to eye with the new super team, and the super team blinked. This is like a shot of Red Bull for the teams conference. I now fully expect the Cavs to be playoff contenders.
That will make for some interesting debate. When we cut/trade KPJ we will have a choice. Should we fill the roster spot with some G-Leaguer? Or should we sign a vet that actually might help in some spots. Like Shump?
 
I think calling him a 3&D guy is a bit of a disservice. He's moving more towards the Draymond Green, do everything, not-your-best-player-but-key-to-team-success glue guy role.
I feel like lebron made specialists like Tristan, JR, etc look good. Even Kyrie was a scoring specialist. But guys like Nance who do a little bit of everything, Lebron doesn’t make them better. Nance looks better outside of the Lebron orbit.
 
Cedi has always been a shooting guard. Even after transforming his body he does not have the girth or the strength to adequately defend small forwards. He’s not much quicker than he is strong, but at least he doesn’t give up any size playing the two. He is now a somewhat competent shooter as well so he is playable as an archetypal SG on offense.
Honestly I think Cedi might be a better all around player than Joe Harris. Obviously Harris is the better shooter but Cedi might have him beat in all other aspects. With KPJ now out of the picture I think it's a great idea to give him more minutes at SG (although the lines are so blurred at the wing between SF and SG). What's crystal clear is the team is so much better now that they aren't forced to give him minutes at PF.
 
I remember rookie cedi being tasked to defend the opponent's scoring guard and he did well. Then he started putting on weight and tried to become a 3/4 combo and failed. Now he's back to being a 2/3 combo and it's working wonders.
 
I don’t agree that a team is successful only if it wins championships. Many NBA teams haven’t won one. Does that mean being a fan of any of those teams is no good?

We all know how hard it is to win championships without at least one superstar and ideally more than one. It’s also very hard to get those guys. We were incredibly lucky to win the 2003 lottery, which was the most important #1 overall pick to get since Lew Alcindor. We just missed on Doncic but did well to get Sexton.

So we can all keep banging our heads against walls because we don’t have that guy or we can enjoy the rebuild and entertaining team we have that is young and will get better.

I want that superstar too, but if we don’t get that it’s not going to mean I won’t enjoy watching our team. I don’t think I’ve enjoyed regular season games this much since LeBron‘s very early years, with the possible exception of the 14-15 season after LeBron came back from injury and we got Mozgov.
 
The Athletic had this on Bickerstaff's options after adding Allen and Prince.

Now comes the difficult part of working through lineups, rotations and delegating minutes to players. After the multitude of injuries at the beginning of the season, Bickerstaff said he will gladly take that challenge to find time for his players. Bickerstaff said they’ve even discussed playing with two different styles: a bigger, methodical style and a smaller, faster-paced style that has more spacing on the floor.

“Teams in the past have been able to operate that way,” Bickerstaff said. “It’s hard to guard and it’s hard to prepare for as an opponent. But I think we have the pieces the way we’re currently constructed to make it happen.”
 
Hey Q-Tip, we had been arguing about it a year or two ago. Not me and you, but me and some others.

I wanted to watch a team compete and be built in an organic fashion. I said I did not enjoy watching Lebron's Cavs under Ty Lue and got flack for it. I had been told that building a competitive team would be impossible and I should appreciate the fact that we had Lebron.

Well I guess it was worth it. I enjoy the team way more now and i'm hopeful for the future. We have a present and a future.

Team organic.

It's so much matter a matter of personal preference that I'm not sure there is a right or wrong answer.

Before 2016 for me personally, the ache for a championship overrode everything else. But once that happened, that overpowering urge for a championship above all else weakened. And then when -- at least to me -- we played very ugly for the 16-17 and 17-18 regular seasons, it just wasn't much fun to watch. It would usually be a bunch of shitty basketball before LBJ decided to put out effort in the 4th, and then we'd get about a half-quarter of the LBJ show.

I'd honestly rather watch this group fight their way through this season than watch the 17-18 Cavs season again. This team won't win as many games, and won't make it nearly as far in the playoffs if they make it at all. But at least for me, they are much more likeable, and more fun to watch.
 
This group is going to be a winning team for a lot of years. As for this year, I think they could put two legitimate NBA teams on the floor.

Team Wine: Drummond, Love, Okoro, Garland, Sexton (probable starting lineup when everyone is healthy)

Team Gold: Allen, Nance, Prince, Delly, Cedi

Allen: 4th year, 180 starts
Nance: 6th year, 329 games, 108 starts
Prince: 5th year, 204 starts
Delly: 7th year, 434 games
Cedi: 4th year, 160 starts

Our second team consists entirely of young veterans with extensive starting experience with the exception of Delly. No rookies, projects, or 33-year-olds hanging on by a thread.

Reserves: Windler, Dotson, Stevens, Wade

This is a really deep team even without Porter. For example, last night Prince was +20, Dotson +14, and Allen +10. I think this is an indication of how the Cavs' bench is going to dominate. We're going to have a bench of young veterans with extensive starting experience. I can see our starters playing even against a lot of teams but the bench consistently winning their minutes by double figures.

The Nets played like this was a playoff game. Harden was on the floor for 51 of 58 minutes. Jeff Green, age 34, played 45 minutes. Durant played 50 minutes and Kyrie 48. Nobody plays their starters this many minutes in a regular season game, especially against a team that isn't expected to contend for the playoffs. It's not like they were playing the Bucks and wanted to send a message. Heck, they beat the Bucks two night earlier without Kyrie.

Last night's win was really impressive, especially since Sexton missed five games and Allen/Prince were playing their first game with the Cavs.
 

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