Giannis Calls Cavs Best Team in the NBA

[MavsDirk41]

Cleveland deserves the love but although Boston lost to Chicago the other night and Cleveland dismantled Milwaukee…Boston is the best team in the nba

[Sharkboy242]

Shots fired at the Celtics. Can they recover from this?

[JujitsuFlip]

Giannis looks at standings.
Cavs have best record.
Giannis says: Cavs are best. And explains they are better than no 2 (OKC).

Nothing more. Nothing less.

Nah, Giannis plays both teams. The article speaks to how the size of Allen, Mobley, and even Wade is very disruptive.

He said it makes it hard to drive and kick. They cover for each other.

Wade being hurt the past two postseasons really hamstrung you. He’s a legit two-way guy.

It's been the past 3, it's actually every spring, someone said. Like even back to college.

[jokeboy86]

The key thing I noticed Giannis said about Cleveland compared to OKC is that they're bigger and I assumed he's talking about Allen/Mobley specifically. The only teams I think Giannis truly dreads(not fear) going against are the Celtics, Heat because how good they usually are defensively and teams with two legit bigs like Cleveland now has. Those teams make him earn every point he gets.

This is why as good as OKC is defensively I do wonder what would happen if they have to play the Lakers and especially the Nuggets in a playoff series because AD and Jokic could have a field day against their bigs. Fortunately there are only about 5 elite bigs in the league so depending on seeding they might only have to face two at most to get to the Finals.

[OkcSinceSGA]

I imagine a lot of that has to do with the Thunder missing a DPOY tier big man lol? Of course for him Cleveland and Mobley are harder to go against than an OKC team missing Chet. But no, they aren't better defensively.

[SFour]

best team is crowned in the playoffs, not after 30 reg season games

but it's not that serious, Giannis is just referring to the best team record-wise.

[taikibansei]

Cavs won 1 playoffs series in the last 34 years without LeBron. It would be nice if they can reach the Conference Finals this season but I don't think they can beat the Heat or Sixers with a healthy Butler or Embiid which is a very likely match-up in the 1st round of playoffs the way this season goes. Let's just hope for a healthy postseason this time around.

I think there's a better chance of seeing a healthy Yeti in the playoffs than a healthy Embiid...unless, of course, the 76ers somehow end up playing the Hornets again.

[Patches Perry]

Cavs have the best record in the league, so not really a controversial statement.

I do think his statement about Cavs defense being better than OKC is based on his own personal experience. OKC doesn't have the personnel to guard him specifically, so Giannis is naturally more aggressive against them. But even in their victory against OKC, they scored less points than they did in their loss to Cleveland. Defense wasn't really the problem for OKC in that game, it was shooting 5 for 32 from three.

[picc]

I really like the Cavs. Not one player on the team that I dislike, which is a huge feat since I'm easily annoyed, and I love their coach. I hope they win the East this year.

[GeorgeSears]

No.1 in Offense rating, No. 7 in Defensive rating. That's typically a recipe for success.

[mrmsix6]

Going from 18th to 1st in offense just by changing coaches is pretty wild.

[ijspeelman]

Cavs won 1 playoffs series in the last 34 years without LeBron. It would be nice if they can reach the Conference Finals this season but I don't think they can beat the Heat or Sixers with a healthy Butler or Embiid which is a very likely match-up in the 1st round of playoffs the way this season goes. Let's just hope for a healthy postseason this time around.

A healthy embiid in the playoffs makes very little difference.

Tbf we haven't seen a healthy Embiid in the playoffs so we don't know if it makes a difference (I am willing to bet it does, but who knows on this current iteration of the 6ers)

[JujitsuFlip]

Going from 18th to 1st in offense just by changing coaches is pretty wild.

jb never cared about offense the 5 years he was the coach.

Where Kenny made offense his number one priority. Kenny's extended rotation helps too, i think.

[Iwasawitness]

Going from 18th to 1st in offense just by changing coaches is pretty wild.

To be fair, it isn’t just changing coaches.

Garland got healthy again and Jerome is as well. They’re both a big reason for Cleveland’s improved offense.

[Johnny Tomala]

I rated Cavs last season and I picked Celtics in 6. They won one game due to injuries but I think Cavaliers will be the biggest obstacle to Celtics, along with Bucks. I don't rate Knicks that highly, they are overhyped although they upgraded massively with KAT trade (Bridges is and always was very overrated).

[Mr Loggins]

the cavs have the guy I loathe to admit, and be envious of, the player who changes franchises. Mobley is a legit needle mover all the way back to hs

last 5-6 games he seems to have *really* leveled up

[JonFromVA]

Going from 18th to 1st in offense just by changing coaches is pretty wild.

To be fair, it isn’t just changing coaches.

Garland got healthy again and Jerome is as well. They’re both a big reason for Cleveland’s improved offense.

Absolutely, but the Cavs had that winning streak last season when injuries forced Bickerstaff to play shooters around Mitchell. A couple years before that the term "Cavalanche" was coined because of the runs we'd go on powered by Ricky Rubio.

The Cavs have shown the potential to be very explosive on offense but Bickerstaff never could figure out exactly why let alone how to create an offense that could create space like Atkinson has done. Instead he demanded max effort on defense, play his favorites too many minutes, and scream at the refs rather than realize why his team kept getting worn down.

[Revived]

Cavs are a fun team to watch. Their likable and very well coached.

[JujitsuFlip]

Going from 18th to 1st in offense just by changing coaches is pretty wild.

To be fair, it isn’t just changing coaches.

Garland got healthy again and Jerome is as well. They’re both a big reason for Cleveland’s improved offense.

Absolutely, but the Cavs had that winning streak last season when injuries forced Bickerstaff to play shooters around Mitchell. A couple years before that the term "Cavalanche" was coined because of the runs we'd go on powered by Ricky Rubio.

The Cavs have shown the potential to be very explosive on offense but Bickerstaff never could figure out exactly why let alone how to create an offense that could create space like Atkinson has done. Instead he demanded max effort on defense, play his favorites too many minutes, and scream at the refs rather than realize why his team kept getting worn down.

Bickerstaff held this team back in the post season the past 3 seasons. Hopefully Kenny can finally get over that hump and at minimum make the ECF.

[Capn'O]

Giannis also said Jaylen Brown is the best player in the NBA a couple months ago.

His thought process seems to be: Finals MVP is the best player and team with best record that just beat Bucks is best team.

That's correct. He's also thinking in terms of motivating himself for the next game. "We've gotta beat the best team." He's not out here looking up SRS.