JonFromVA wrote:jbk1234 wrote:toooskies wrote:Jerome, Merrill, and Strus all have the same agent.
Jerome’s agent might have wanted Jerome to find a new team because he wanted to maximize the combined salary of Jerome and Merrill and Cleveland would only sign one of them. If Jerome signs in Cleveland for whatever price, Merrill might have to look elsewhere. That may have been less appealing for his agent— Jerome should have had more external interest than Merrill.
We didn’t really replace Ty. Maybe that works better for Mobley and Hunter to get more touches in those bench units. But I think we’ll mostly just be a little worse.
The best argument I can make is that the F.O. wants this team to learn to win close games against other good teams by playing better defense at the cost of some of our offense.
We won 64 games and I don't believe many of them were all that close late in the 4th quarter. One thing the Pacers series exposed is that we really couldn't slow the game down without Garland, and the pace inevitably favored the Pacers. If the Cavs can maintain or increase their rebounding advantage, while running a little more time off the clock, the Pacers get fewer possessions.
In general we need to focus on traits which work in the playoffs against teams without severe flaws and who have competent coaching.
Seems were still missing some rugged players and a pocket rocket who can blow by any man D no matter how tough.
I'm comfortable with the idea that either Mitchell or Garland can penetrate the defense and force a rotation. We'll see if Tyson and Proctor can be more physical, but one of our two-ways guys needs to be a physical big.
