Shawn Marion

[Cassius]

What are you even arguing at this point? Waiters is starting. There no if and or buts about it, move on.

Why can't you answer the simpliest question? Why do you think it is best to cram the floor with offensive talent, rather than picking up a primary perimeter defender? Dion may start, but would that really be what's best for the team?

Lebron will take the opposing team's best player. He has enough clout in the league to not get in foul trouble early, and there's so much firepower around him that all he'll have to be is a glorified decoy while Kyrie & Love do their thing with no double teams. With that kind of setup, you'll want a guy like Dion catching swing passes and either draining 3s or driving & dishing to Andy.

Lebron is finally going to have the role he should have had in Miami: cleanup up man off the G/PF pick and roll, but Spoelstra was too dumb to give Chris Bosh a feature role in the offense.

[Rod700]

[Lebron will take the opposing team's best player. He has enough clout in the league to not get in foul trouble early, and there's so much firepower around him that all he'll have to be is a glorified decoy while Kyrie & Love do their thing with no double teams. With that kind of setup, you'll want a guy like Dion catching swing passes and either draining 3s or driving & dishing to Andy.

Lebron is finally going to have the role he should have had in Miami: cleanup up man off the G/PF pick and roll, but Spoelstra was too dumb to give Chris Bosh a feature role in the offense.

Thank you for having some reasoning behind your opinion instead of just condescendingly dismissing people with no justification for comments like the other 2. I like your overall strategy, but I can never wrap my head around using a team's best scorer as a primary perimeter defender. It just seems to wear them down too much and their effort on D inevitably wanes. Maybe that is why Lebron dropped so much weight though, to increase stamina on defense. All in all, I would still like to see a perimeter defender start though. Jordan had Pippen*, Bird had Dennis Johnson, Kobe had Artest (when Kobe was the primary scorer), the Spurs have had Bowen, Khami, etc, etc. It just seems like a formula for dynasties.

[antistrat]

[Lebron will take the opposing team's best player. He has enough clout in the league to not get in foul trouble early, and there's so much firepower around him that all he'll have to be is a glorified decoy while Kyrie & Love do their thing with no double teams. With that kind of setup, you'll want a guy like Dion catching swing passes and either draining 3s or driving & dishing to Andy.

Lebron is finally going to have the role he should have had in Miami: cleanup up man off the G/PF pick and roll, but Spoelstra was too dumb to give Chris Bosh a feature role in the offense.

Thank you for having some reasoning behind your opinion instead of just condescendingly dismissing people with no justification for comments like the other 2. I like your overall strategy, but I can never wrap my head around using a team's best scorer as a primary perimeter defender. It just seems to wear them down too much and their effort on D inevitably wanes. Maybe that is why Lebron dropped so much weight though, to increase stamina on defense. All in all, I would still like to see a perimeter defender start though. Jordan had Pippen, Magic had Cooper, Bird had Dennis Johnson, Kobe had Artest (when Kobe was the primary scorer), the Spurs have had Bowen, Khami, etc, etc. It just seems like a formula for dynasties.

But in all those cases you mentioned - Pippen, Cooper, Johnson, Artest, Bowen and Kawhi - those were all the best perimeter defenders on their teams (I, like Chuck Daly, take Pip over MJ on defense). LeBron is the best defender on his team and the best scorer on his team. Actually, if the Heat DIDN'T put LeBron on guys like Rose and Durant down the stretch in games, the Heat probably would've lost a lot of those matchups.

Ideally you wouldn't want to have to use LeBron like that... but if nobody can do it better, then what are you supposed to do? I think that's why a lot of Cavs fans want Wiggins to stay.

I don't think Marion is going to change that too much.

[Dupp]

Like 99% of teams players will guard at their position until crunch time then you might see lebron moved to a non sf.

Worrying about who's gonna take the best perimeter player really doesnt matter. Improving team defender is a bigger focus.

[johnnyballgame]

Like 99% of teams players will guard at their position until crunch time then you might see lebron moved to a non sf.

Worrying about who's gonna take the best perimeter player really doesnt matter. Improving team defender is a bigger focus.

Agreed. Improve the team defense and we're up 10 come crunch time due to our vastly superior offensive firepower. It won't matter who Dellavedova, Kirk and Thomas are guarding at the end of the game.
O.K., O.K. dreaming a little.

but only a little.

[B Mac]

What took you so long Shawn?

@ESPNSteinLine
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ESPN sources say Shawn Marion has committed this weekend to sign with the Cavaliers

[Raps in 4]

Maytricks Championsip time is upon us.

[Cassius]

Maytricks Championsip time is upon us.

LOL, only a Raps fan could post that one.

[Dupp]

This is such a great signing. Definitely more important than adding ray. This off season is unbelievable.

[GreenRiddler]

[Dupp]

Cool.

[big_ticket]

i smell a ring for the cavs..another legit big can cement the chip this coming season..

[King Stannis]

Meh, agree with the General Board. No depth.

[SaintofKillers]

How much does Marion have left? Can he defend 2-guards?

Last year we used Trix the same way as we always do: to defend the best SCORER (not necessarily the best perimeter threat) on the opposing team. Ergo, he guarded every position. Unfortunately he isn't as good as he was 2 or 3 years ago but still think (and is used) as a "versatile defender" when those days are long gone.

He's woefully ineffective against every perimeter threat we put him on nowadays. In fact, after the championship, he tends to get lit up by KD, Durant and Melo. He has much better success guarding big men like Randolph, Griffin and Aldridge. They'll shoot over him for sure but he's going to keep them away from the basket because he will obviously be a step or two quicker than them yet strong enough to still grind and battle.

Still, it's hard to really find any faults with the signing. He's a great rebounder that can probably knock down an awkward shot or two (be it in the form of a corner 3 or floaters) and shut down bigs when running him as a small ball 4 while also being competently able to defend on the perimeter.

[crazy_me_87]

i think he will be very good in limited minutes

i think the Mavs overused him a bit so if he can focus on defense in 20-24 minutes a game he maybe will reemerge as a exellent defender


i really like that signing... depth,defence,championchip experience yep that works

also he is a underrated 3pt shooter because of his crazy shot form... he can sure knock down the open 3

great fit

[wallsfamily]

Crazy I agree with you! I think that the 20 minutes is the best. Here is how the minutes should be!


SF- Lebron 24, Marion 14 Miller 10
PF- Love 30 Thompson 12 Marion 6
C- AV. 26. Haywood 12. Thompson 10
SG- Waiters 30 Lebron. 8 Miller 10
PG- Kyrie 34 Dellavadora 14


With missing games and the fact Cavs are playing for the long run this rests Lebron and Love. Keeps Andy ready for the playoffs!!!!

[Calves_fan]

This roster is really coming together.

Lebron's hairline coupled with Marion's hairline has potential to be insane.

[Rod700]

http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/CLE/2015.html
2 of the 3 wins have come with Marion starting. If you look at the link above, you can see that Marion's individual performance and team impact are both better than Waiters. Some people in this preseason post thought that Waiters would certainly start, and that it is an unintelligent insult to think otherwise. I said all long across 2 threads that Marion was a much better fit for the starting lineup than Waiters, who should be used to lead off the bench scoring. It didn't make much sense to cram the starting line-up with 4 scorers.

[Dupp]

And waiters did start like we said.

[Rod700]

And waiters did start like we said.

Really? I figured Waiters would start the whole year, even though Marion was the better fit. The conversation is about who should start. Recently, you've had an opportunity to see the team with Waiters in the starting line-up and with Marion. Marion is a better fit. He has performed better individually, and the team has performed better on the whole. There is not enough ball to go around in the starting line-up for Waiter's talents to be fully utilized, nor is he the best fit. That is the point. Use him as an explosive scorer off the bench.