Is Lebron's supporting cast better than it was in Cleveland?

Buckeye-NBAFan · Post #21 » by **Buckeye-NBAFan** » Mon Jul 16, 2018 11:31 pm

Coachcavplaya23 wrote:
Frank Dux wrote:Do we really have to have this thread every day?

Outside of Kevin Love that Cavs roster was awful.

The cavs would still beat the Lakers any day.

Do the Cavs have to win 35 games next year and the Lakers less than 50 to prove that?

mademan · Post #22 » by **mademan** » Mon Jul 16, 2018 11:32 pm

They may not be as good offensively, but thats a top 10 defense, imo. Ball-KCP-Ingram is one of the best 1-2-3 defensive combos, with Hart, another strong defender, coming off the bench. If they can rebound collectively (will be a problem) i think theyll be signficantly better than the Cavs. There were a lot of scrubs on that team and they were, for a while, the worst defensive team in basketball

NPZ · Post #23 » by **NPZ** » Mon Jul 16, 2018 11:34 pm

Frank Dux wrote:
Coachcavplaya23 wrote:
Frank Dux wrote:Do we really have to have this thread every day?

Outside of Kevin Love that Cavs roster was awful.

The cavs would still beat the Lakers any day.

Yeah I don't know about that. Love with a supporting cast of Calderon, Clarkson, Nance, Tristian Thompson, and J.R. Smith is probably a bottom two team.

Lakers beat em from opening tap at Staples. Closer game at Cavs. 1-1. I know outside observers may think one thing, but I'll take what we have over that lineup any day of the week. Yuck. What I'd rather do is switch conferences than teammates.

BAMAFREAK · Post #24 » by **BAMAFREAK** » Mon Jul 16, 2018 11:34 pm

LakersDynasty14 wrote:LeBron’s supporting cast is miles above the scrubs he had in Cleveland.

Ball is a straight stud, best passer and floor general in the NBA. For the first time in his career LeBron actually has a teammate who will make HIM better.

Kuzma and Ingram are both better than anyone he had on Cleveland as well.

They also have a lockdown wing defender in KCP and they just signed one of the all time great playoff performers in Rondo and stole the starting C from the Warriors championship team.

This is by far the best supporting cast LeBron has ever had, and it’s only looking to improve from here.

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Haha I needed that. That is good stuff my man

Gerald3Wallace · Post #25 » by **Gerald3Wallace** » Mon Jul 16, 2018 11:41 pm

Lakers won 35 games last year.... I don’t think Cavs with Love would even sniff that. That’s how bad that Cavs team was.

Defensively the lakers team is a lot more versatile with Zo, Ingram, and KCP on the wings. Then you got Rondo, Hart and Stevenson.
They are clearly better.

ButCanMarkDunk · Post #26 » by **ButCanMarkDunk** » Mon Jul 16, 2018 11:42 pm

Its not even close. If the Lakers are projected to win 50 in the West, they would win 60+ in the East.

Post #27 » by **THE J0KER** » Tue Jul 17, 2018 12:02 am

WORSE, BUT BETTER!

In 80%+ cases NBA players playing better bball at 21y than at 20y (Ball and Ingram case), and also in 80%+ of cases as 23y old sophomores they playing better than a year before as rookies (Kuzma and Hart). And Ball, Ingram, Kuzma, and Hart are crucial in whole this story.

Cleveland playoff 2018 team without LBJ is slightly better than the current group of LA players at the end of the last regular season (because of the exit of Randle, Lopez, Thomas), but if we add projected improvement of these 4 crucial players which I mentioned (+presence of Rondo and mysterious center which still not sign), for 2019 playoff LAL2019 supporting cast will be stronger than CLE2018 supporting cast, despite there is nobody so good as Kevin Love is.

So LAL18<CLE18<LAL19, because of LAL18<<LAL19 after at least three out of four youngsters (Ball, Ingram, Kuzma, Hart) significantly improve during 2018-19 season.

Catchall · Post #28 » by **Catchall** » Tue Jul 17, 2018 12:06 am

LakersDynasty14 wrote:LeBron’s supporting cast is miles above the scrubs he had in Cleveland.

Ball is a straight stud, best passer and floor general in the NBA. For the first time in his career LeBron actually has a teammate who will make HIM better.

Kuzma and Ingram are both better than anyone he had on Cleveland as well.

They also have a lockdown wing defender in KCP and they just signed one of the all time great playoff performers in Rondo and stole the starting C from the Warriors championship team.

This is by far the best supporting cast LeBron has ever had, and it’s only looking to improve from.

Fixed for you.

Greyhound · Post #29 » by **Greyhound** » Tue Jul 17, 2018 12:07 am

Depends on what type of defensive team the Lakers turn out to be.

Love is great on offense but that is mitigated by the fact that teams view him as a bullseye on defense.

The Lakers will not be a better offensive team then last season's Cavaliers however, if the Lakers can field a starting unit without a hole in need of hiding (or covering), they could be a lot better defensively.

If they can be a top defensive team that forces deflections and runs, they can be a better overall team than last season's Cavaliers.

Catchall · Post #30 » by **Catchall** » Tue Jul 17, 2018 12:13 am

It depends how Kuzma and Ingram step up offensively. There's also the question of interior defense and rebounding to go along with shooting/floor spacing.

Also, fwiw the best player on last year's 35-win Lakers was Julius Randle.

ISayshowmee · Post #31 » by **ISayshowmee** » Tue Jul 17, 2018 12:14 am

Coachcavplaya23 wrote:
Frank Dux wrote:Do we really have to have this thread every day?

Outside of Kevin Love that Cavs roster was awful.

The cavs would still beat the Lakers any day.

Nah...JR will find a way to give the Lakers the W

NBAFan93 · Post #32 » by **NBAFan93** » Tue Jul 17, 2018 12:15 am

Catchall wrote:
LakersDynasty14 wrote:LeBron’s supporting cast is miles above the scrubs he had in Cleveland.

Ball is a straight stud, best passer and floor general in the NBA. For the first time in his career LeBron actually has a teammate who will make HIM better.

Kuzma and Ingram are both better than anyone he had on Cleveland as well.

They also have a lockdown wing defender in KCP and they just signed one of the all time great playoff performers in Rondo and stole the starting C from the Warriors championship team.

This is by far the best supporting cast LeBron has ever had, and it’s only looking to improve from here.

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This post is unreal, top to bottom.

Between these types of posts and the ones that say the Spurs should trade Kawhi for Deng + whichever one of those still not ready for primetime young LAL players that they feel is the worst at the moment, I’m about done w/ any thread related to Lakers. It appears some of their fans don’t watch the games of any other teams - just all Laker hype all the time.

jswede · Post #33 » by **jswede** » Tue Jul 17, 2018 12:16 am

LakersDynasty14 wrote:LeBron’s supporting cast is miles above the scrubs he had in Cleveland.

Ball is a straight stud, best passer and floor general in the NBA. For the first time in his career LeBron actually has a teammate who will make HIM better.

Kuzma and Ingram are both better than anyone he had on Cleveland as well.

They also have a lockdown wing defender in KCP and they just signed one of the all time great playoff performers in Rondo and stole the starting C from the Warriors championship team.

This is by far the best supporting cast LeBron has ever had, and it’s only looking to improve from here.

Sent from my iPhone using RealGM Forums

When did you start watching basketball?

ChartFiction · Post #34 » by **ChartFiction** » Tue Jul 17, 2018 12:23 am

It's pretty much the same, if not worse. Depends on how much the young guys improve.

it's just his Cleveland supporting cast already had their reputation trashed. Once the supporting cast on the Lakers gets trashed when they lose a significant amount of games, it'll be more clear that it's the same or worse.

Catchall · Post #35 » by **Catchall** » Tue Jul 17, 2018 12:45 am

Catchall wrote:
LakersDynasty14 wrote:[LeBron’s supporting cast is miles above the scrubs he had in Cleveland.

Ball is a straight stud, best passer and floor general in the NBA. For the first time in his career LeBron actually has a teammate who will make HIM better.

Kuzma and Ingram are both better than anyone he had on Cleveland as well.

They also have a lockdown wing defender in KCP and they just signed one of the all time great playoff performers in Rondo and stole the starting C from the Warriors championship team.

This is by far the best supporting cast LeBron has ever had, and it’s only looking to improve from.

Fixed for you.

Karate Diop · Post #36 » by **Karate Diop** » Tue Jul 17, 2018 12:48 am

Mentally I think they're a notch or two below, but they're better (slightly) by virtue of their youth and energy...

levon · Post #37 » by **levon** » Tue Jul 17, 2018 12:50 am

sicknastydunker wrote:Are the Lakers even better than Cleveland was last year? I don't really see it. Cleveland at least had Kevin Love. Who's LA's second best player? Kyle Kuzma? Kentavious Caldwell-Pope?

And LeGM bringing in Rondo, Lance and McGee? really? Those are 3 horrible players.

https://twitter.com/JacobEGoldstein/

This guy's model has LA as barely making the 8th seed

You're not encouraging any discussion, just inflamed responses from all sides. Seems like you already know what you want to hear. Thanks for the not-so-subtle trolljob.

LivingLegend · Post #38 » by **LivingLegend** » Tue Jul 17, 2018 12:56 am

Clevelands roster was entirely hand picked to fit LeBrons play style. From Korver, JR and even Love. They all fit so well with what he looks to do on offense. The Lakers seemed to go out and do the exact opposite and surround him with a bunch of defenders and non shooters.

It can work, maybe. But Ive watched LB long enough to know you need shooters around him to maximize what he can do on offense. Im sure it sounds all good and dandy right now but when the Lakers go 5-24 from three and they start dropping games because of it, Im interested to see what people will say.

TheGOATRises007 · Post #39 » by **TheGOATRises007** » Tue Jul 17, 2018 1:16 am

No, not at the moment.

This is the worst supporting cast Lebron has had in almost a decade(keyword: at the moment).

Ingram, Lonzo, Kuzma could improve, but I doubt they improve much.

lakerz12 · Post #40 » by **lakerz12** » Tue Jul 17, 2018 1:28 am

Karate Diop wrote:Mentally I think they're a notch or two below, but they're better (slightly) by virtue of their youth and energy...

Care to elaborate?

You're talking about a group that started J.R. Smith...

Love seems shaky. Hood capitulated in the playoffs. Who's the mental juggernaut over there? Tristan Thompson?

Lebron even hinted at "needing the right minds" in a press conference.

Rondo and Ball are better basketball minds than anyone on the Cavs. And how are Ingram, Kuzma, Hart, etc. any worse than the Cav guys?