TheOUTLAW wrote:Some of that is because Pau went from being the first option on his team to the second or third on the Lakers while Mo has gone from being the second option to being the second option with slightly better looks.
Well no kidding. That's kind of the point. Pau is benefiting from not having to be THE man, which is why his efficiency has sky-rocketed. Mo is still the second option and is doing about the same as he was prior to LeBron, which is to say that he's been a pretty damn good player.
What it boils down to is that the Lakers have more talent than the Cavs do on offense. They have the best (or most well-rounded) offensive player in the league, followed by a couple of very efficient big men and role players that play well off of those guys, not to mention a great system that everyone knows.
The Cavs, however, have more talent in terms of defense. They have players that are simply mentally tougher and have bought in Mike Brown's system. The Lakers might have some of that same athleticism and youth, but they do not have the mentality (outside of 2 or 3 guys) to be that good defensively.
So, the real question is, what do you value more? If it's offense then you want Kobe's cast. If it's defense, then it's LeBron's. Now this is a bit tricky because the Lakers are a better defensive team with Bynum when he is actually committed to defense. We saw that the first month of the season when the Lakers dominated on that end like nobodies business (or maybe it was fools gold -- I have no idea). If we are talking about that Lakers team, then clearly there is a significant talent gap. But, we haven't seen that team in quite some time so we'll just go with the current supporting casts which does not include a defensive-minded Andrew Bynum.
