Discussing Other Teams' Moves - Part 6

[Ruzious]

It's going to be interesting to see who gets the shots with IT, Derrick Rose, and Dwyane Wade on that team.

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All 3 love to shoot, and they still have Kyle Korver and JR Smith at SG who need to be fed. There's likely to be some disgruntled players in this group. The Cavs will be a real coaching challenge.

I'm not sure this is going to be much of a problem. Irving & IT took the same number of shots last year. No change in losing the one & gaining the other.

Neither Smith nor Korver took a lot of shots (per 40 minutes) last year. In fact, Korver has never taken a lot of shots in his career -- he just makes a lot of those he does take!

I don't think anyone will care what Rose wants to do. I doubt he'll get much playing time for that matter (certainly not once IT is back).

Wade could pose a problem -- if he wanted to. But I kind of doubt he'll want to.

Yeah, I don't see a problem - especially because IT and Rose aren't going to play together, Wade's a great passer who understands that winning is most important - he's understood that since his early days in Miami playing with Shaq. And the other guys are in there to stretch defenses - so they help everyone else. Cleveland is the clear favorite in the East, imo. Btw, Felder's now their 4th string PG. I thought they'd have a depth problem - but with the Boston trade and the signings they've made, they've taken care of depth issues, and when IT's healthy, they're starting lineup is arguably better than last year's because of Crowder, imo.

[Kanyewest]

All 3 love to shoot, and they still have Kyle Korver and JR Smith at SG who need to be fed. There's likely to be some disgruntled players in this group. The Cavs will be a real coaching challenge.

I'm not sure this is going to be much of a problem. Irving & IT took the same number of shots last year. No change in losing the one & gaining the other.

Neither Smith nor Korver took a lot of shots (per 40 minutes) last year. In fact, Korver has never taken a lot of shots in his career -- he just makes a lot of those he does take!

I don't think anyone will care what Rose wants to do. I doubt he'll get much playing time for that matter (certainly not once IT is back).

Wade could pose a problem -- if he wanted to. But I kind of doubt he'll want to.

I don't think they will have any trouble on offense. They have a lot of scorers, but all of them know how to share the ball (except perhaps Rose). The problem is defense. Only Lebron and Tristan Thompson are above average. Everybody else varies from poor (Love, Smith, Wade) to horrific (Rose, IT, Korver).

Jae Crowder.

I would argue that JR Smith is an above average defender especially when consulting with Cavs fan and when you consider Klay Thompson's #s in the past 3 NBA Finals.

Shumpert is a decent defender although his offense is below average.

Richard Jefferson is an average defender- sometimes he has a really good defensive game like he did in game 4 in the NBA Finals against Durant (although officiating may have played a role including Cleveland getting 20+ free throws in the first quarter).

Kevin Love's defense is average. Although that may not be good enough against the Warriors.

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Korver is at least a good team defender. But yeah he's at best slightly below average.

Wade's effort is not there. Although like Rose, maybe his effort can improve in the postseason with fewer minutes.

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[nate33]

I'm not sure this is going to be much of a problem. Irving & IT took the same number of shots last year. No change in losing the one & gaining the other.

Neither Smith nor Korver took a lot of shots (per 40 minutes) last year. In fact, Korver has never taken a lot of shots in his career -- he just makes a lot of those he does take!

I don't think anyone will care what Rose wants to do. I doubt he'll get much playing time for that matter (certainly not once IT is back).

Wade could pose a problem -- if he wanted to. But I kind of doubt he'll want to.

I don't think they will have any trouble on offense. They have a lot of scorers, but all of them know how to share the ball (except perhaps Rose). The problem is defense. Only Lebron and Tristan Thompson are above average. Everybody else varies from poor (Love, Smith, Wade) to horrific (Rose, IT, Korver).

Jae Crowder.

I would argue that JR Smith is an above average defender especially when consulting with Cavs fan and when you consider Klay Thompson's #s in the past 3 NBA Finals.

Shumpert is a decent defender although his offense is below average.

Richard Jefferson is an average defender- sometimes he has a really good defensive game like he did in game 4 in the NBA Finals against Durant (although officiating may have played a role including Cleveland getting 20+ free throws in the first quarter).

Kevin Love's defense is average. Although that may not be good enough against the Warriors.

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Korver is at least a good team defender. But yeah he's at best slightly below average.

Wade's effort is not there. Although like Rose, maybe his effort can improve in the postseason with fewer minutes.

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Good point on Crowder. I forgot to mention him. He is overrated as a defender, but still at least average. And since he figures to play a lot of minutes, his defensive contribution should help them.

Shumpert is a good defender but he never plays. It's going to be even harder to find minutes for him now with Wade around.

I don't know how much Jefferson is gonna play either, given the addition of Crowder. Lebron and Love (and maybe a little bit of Frye) will get almost all of the PF minutes. Crowder will get 30+ minutes at SF. That leaves Wade, Korver, Smith and Jefferson to fight over those other 15-18 minutes at SF.

[I_Like_Dirt]

Shumpert is a truly abysmal offensive player, though. The key to beating the Warriors isn't defending them. You really can't defend them all that well no matter what, and it's a completely different animal once the Warriors up their game in the conference finals and finals than it is when they're coasting in the regular season or the start of the playoffs against opponents they don't need to take as seriously.

The Cavs are already in a position where they can defend the Warriors as well as most anybody else. I actually think Love is a pretty good defender; his real weakness is as a physical defender against more aggressive Cs, but that's a dying role in the NBA nowadays as teams are now able to exploit those bigger Cs on the other end of the floor, and the Cavs are no exception. The Cavs probably don't want to run too much time with both Love and Thompson on the floor together, but they really don't have to, either. I agree that Crowder is overrated but he's still pretty good. Lebron is a very good defender. The thing about defenses is that, when you start collecting heady team defenders, there seems to be a sort of exponential return, as the more guys with defensive awareness you have out there, the fewer holes need to be covered for and the better the defense holds collectively. It's weird statistically, and I'm far too lazy to put in the work to really look into it, but it seems when things break down, the big/athletic guys who can cover for broken plays tend to look better and when the defense hold, those guys stop being so necessary and everyone starts looking better collectively, which is why you get guys like Whiteside with excellent defensive numbers, but still being driven from the league as teams look for more flexible team defenders than guys who can cover for breakdowns.

I think the Cavs have improved on defense this offseason because they have added some heady defenders. Wade isn't a very good defender anymore, but I don't think he will be a problem provided he's okay with taking a step back on offense and focusing more on his defensive assignments, which isn't a guarantee and isn't something I've seen him willing to do in the past. That said, I still don't think they're anywhere close to beating the Warriors, but that has everything to do with the Warriors making a case for being the best team of all time than it does anything in particular being wrong with the Cavs.

[Wizardspride]

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[payitforward]

Wade is at the end of his career; he isn't going to play a huge number of minutes. Rose neither (certainly not once IT is back in the lineup).

[long suffrin' boulez fan]

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Didn't really see this one coming. Thought he'd be LA bound.

[payitforward]

Just watched highlights of Boston-Charlotte game from last night. I've been touting Abdel Nader -- whom Boston picked at #53 !! in 2016 & who was D-League Rookie of the Year last year -- & he looked terrific. As did Daniel Theis, the 25-year old German rookie they added this off-season.

Of course it's pre-season, & it was highlights.... Still... it must be nice to have a competent Front Office.

[zero2hero]

Just watched highlights of Boston-Charlotte game from last night. I've been touting Abdel Nader -- whom Boston picked at #53 !! in 2016 & who was D-League Rookie of the Year last year -- & he looked terrific. As did Daniel Theis, the 25-year old German rookie they added this off-season.

Of course it's pre-season, & it was highlights.... Still... it must be nice to have a competent Front Office.

It's hard for me not to feel jealous when watching the Celtics play. It's preseason and they were already running beautiful sets out there. You can always count on them to be well-prepared.

[LyricalRico]

That Embiid contract tho.

[montestewart]

That Embiid contract tho.

Tough for Sixers, lucking into potentially the best talent (Noel, Embiid) in consecutive drafts without having the first pick, and having player fragility undermine that, at least in part. Simmons could still turn out to be a similar issue. When healthy, Embiid looks like a potentially generational talent, and if they tried to get him for less, I wouldn't be surprised if some other team might forced them back up, maybe ticking Embiid off in the process. Or maybe they'd just lose him. Sort of reminds me of the Arenas situation. Resign a fragile top player, or start over.

[LyricalRico]

That Embiid contract tho.

Tough for Sixers, lucking into potentially the best talent (Noel, Embiid) in consecutive drafts without having the first pick, and having player fragility undermine that, at least in part. Simmons could still turn out to be a similar issue. When healthy, Embiid looks like a potentially generational talent, and if they tried to get him for less, I wouldn't be surprised if some other team might forced them back up, maybe ticking Embiid off in the process. Or maybe they'd just lose him. Sort of reminds me of the Arenas situation. Resign a fragile top player, or start over.

Agree that Sixers are in a tough spot, but they didn't have to extend him now. They could have let him prove his health this season, and then offer the same contract next summer (which is more than anyone else). Or better yet, let him sign an offer sheet and match so you only risk 4 years instead of 5. I just don't get why they HAD to commit right now.

[I_Like_Dirt]

I'm not sure, Rico. I don't like the contract one bit, but I can understand the logic. If Embiid had managed to stay healthy this season, some other team would have offered him the max next offseason without any outs in case of future injuries for the duration of the contract.

With his current deal, the Sixers lose if Embiid gets yet another serious injury this season at which point nobody would have offered him the max. But they come out even if Embiid is healthy for this season and the duration of his extension, and they come out ahead if Embiid is healthy this season and hurt over the course of his contract. It was very much a lose-lose scenario, but really, how unlikely is it really for a player to have their lone healthy season be their contract season at which point they're basically hurt for the remainder of their contract? That happens a lot, and I get why it happens. I still think Embiid would have been a longshot to actually manage to pull that off, but if he was going to have a healthy season, his contract season was it. Now he doesn't have a contract season, so there's that. But it might actually be a positive as he'll be less likely to want to try to play through injuries and aggravate things in the future, too. I don't like the Embiid contract, but it's really more a function of where the Sixers put themselves as a franchise and some really unfortunate circumstances.

[TGW]

The Lakers drafted Kyle Kuzma at 27--he'll be the steal of the draft.

The Wizards draft pick is in Indiana now.

[Tricky_Kid]

Trey Burke found new home - NYK. I really thought after failure in DC Wizards will be his last NBA team.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

The Lakers drafted Kyle Kuzma at 27--he'll be the steal of the draft.

The Wizards draft pick is in Indiana now.

I see all the Laker games here in Hawaii. Kuzma looks like he's going to be an All-Star sooner than later.

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[verbal8]

I don't get offering unnecessary extensions.

The team is in control after the rookie deal. I would think the Sixers would be in a position to make a big reduction in the guarranteed money.

That Embiid contract tho.

Tough for Sixers, lucking into potentially the best talent (Noel, Embiid) in consecutive drafts without having the first pick, and having player fragility undermine that, at least in part. Simmons could still turn out to be a similar issue. When healthy, Embiid looks like a potentially generational talent, and if they tried to get him for less, I wouldn't be surprised if some other team might forced them back up, maybe ticking Embiid off in the process. Or maybe they'd just lose him. Sort of reminds me of the Arenas situation. Resign a fragile top player, or start over.

Agree that Sixers are in a tough spot, but they didn't have to extend him now. They could have let him prove his health this season, and then offer the same contract next summer (which is more than anyone else). Or better yet, let him sign an offer sheet and match so you only risk 4 years instead of 5. I just don't get why they HAD to commit right now.

[verbal8]

I don't get the Hawks/Cavs deal. The Cavs send out 2 players the Hawks will waive. Did the Cavs include EG's favorite 2nd rounder - "Cash Considerations"?

[long suffrin' boulez fan]

I don't get the Hawks/Cavs deal. The Cavs send out 2 players the Hawks will waive. Did the Cavs include EG's favorite 2nd rounder - "Cash Considerations"?

I think the Cavs also shipped out 2 second round picks.

[verbal8]

Trey Burke found new home - NYK. I really thought after failure in DC Wizards will be his last NBA team.

The Knicks waived him. He was probably just a camp body.