The Lebron Thread (2015-16 Pt. 4)

[Dupp]

Kevin Love playing for his future on Sunday. No way he isn't a goner if they lose.

He's likely a goner no matter what happens--and that includes the highly unlikely 30/15 game from Love. And its best for everyone--including Kevin.

Agreed. Move Bron to the 4, jumper or no jumper. Set Love free, get pieces in return. Let him go to a team where they can use him better.

This is obviously the winning formula but I can't see lebron wanting to play pf all season long. We need someone that can fill that role throughout the season imo.
I guess the new era of small ball makes it a bit easier for bron but there's still plenty of big bodies out there he's not gonna want to bang with for 82 games.
Which is air enough given the workload he's put in over his career and I imagine he wants to have a very long career too.

[rich316]

I keep thinking about how unusual and fascinating this series is. After the first two games it looked like the Dubs would win in 4 or 5. Since then, the Cavs have blown them out in 3 out of 4 games, and lost a close one. If the series had started with game 3, there would be little question that the Cavs were about to go out and dominate the Dubs again on the way to a title. And yet, game 7 on the road...everything we know about the NBA tells us that the 73 win home team just finds a way to win. Such a hard game to call. I felt pretty confident predicting games 2-5, and it went more or less like you would expect. Game 6 was the outlier - I picked the Dubs to restore order and win again in Cleveland but Lebron happened. I have absolutely no idea what's going to happen on Sunday - nothing would surprise me, a blowout either way or a close game.

[Dupp]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/AnnaHorford/status/743651660849876996[/tweet]


[tweet]https://twitter.com/AnnaHorford/status/742563145823203328[/tweet]


This woman still salty as hell.

[SideshowBob]

Cavs with 119.7 ORTG in last 4 games. Much improved after that piss poor start in GS

[Dupp]

Cavs with 119.7 ORTG in last 4 games. Much improved after that piss poor start in GS

How we sitting on the all time playoff ORTG now?

[MisterHibachi]

Cavs with 119.7 ORTG in last 4 games. Much improved after that piss poor start in GS

Do you have their playoff ORtg minus Game 1 and 2 in GS.

[lorak]

Cavs with 119.7 ORTG in last 4 games. Much improved after that piss poor start in GS

Do you have their playoff ORtg minus Game 1 and 2 in GS.

120.1 playoffs ortg without G1&2.

[ceiling raiser]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/SteveKerr/status/440219555437109248[/tweet]

[SideshowBob]

Cavs with 119.7 ORTG in last 4 games. Much improved after that piss poor start in GS

Do you have their playoff ORtg minus Game 1 and 2 in GS.

lorak/DS already covered it - 120.2 and +16.1 vs opp DRTG

Cavs with 119.7 ORTG in last 4 games. Much improved after that piss poor start in GS

How we sitting on the all time playoff ORTG now?

Not bad but not #1: 117.2, #12 all time

Adjusted for opp DRTG they're higher though.

05 PHO +17.0
56 MNL +14.0
01 LAL +13.6
03 POR +13.4
10 PHO +13.4
16 CLE +13.1

Obviously more impressive for a Finals team.

They're also really high for Adjusted Net Rating (Relative Offense + Defense, basically SRS per 100):

01 LAL +20.7
96 CHI +16.9
91 CHI +15.8
16 CLE +15.4

Courtesy of ElGee - this data goes back to 1952!

[JordansBulls]

Do you see GSW doing anything different next game on Lebron and/or Kyrie? Maybe double teaming or simply sticking to same formula and play them one on one?

[colts18]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/SteveKerr/status/440219555437109248[/tweet]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/andre/status/187370918576799745[/tweet]

[rich316]

Do you see GSW doing anything different next game on Lebron and/or Kyrie? Maybe double teaming or simply sticking to same formula and play them one on one?

Kerr is too smart to not go into this game with multiple schemes if Lebron is tearing them up again. He will definitely go to a hard double on Lebron if he is dominating them in the 2nd half and Iggy is hobbling.

[JordansBulls]

Id prefer to sell high on kyrie and bank on the LeBron/Love combo working like it did earlier in the season.

That actually may not be a bad idea, problem is who would you get for him in return?

[rich316]

What do you all make of Delly being nailed to the bench and turning into a complete non-factor in this series? I get that Lue has tightened his rotations, but it's surprising to me considering how good he was in the regular season - he was much, much better than Shumpert, who has been the 3rd guard off the bench in the finals. I don't think Shump has been horrible, he has played adequate defense, but that's supposed to be Delly's strength too, in addition to being a more impactful offensive player. Is it all an evil plan by the Cavs to depress his free agency value? I don't think that's actually it, but it's odd.

[gothehornets]

What do you all make of Delly being nailed to the bench and turning into a complete non-factor in this series? I get that Lue has tightened his rotations, but it's surprising to me considering how good he was in the regular season - he was much, much better than Shumpert, who has been the 3rd guard off the bench in the finals. I don't think Shump has been horrible, he has played adequate defense, but that's supposed to be Delly's strength too, in addition to being a more impactful offensive player. Is it all an evil plan by the Cavs to depress his free agency value? I don't think that's actually it, but it's odd.

hes kinda dropped off for last few months

[Dupp]

Id prefer to sell high on kyrie and bank on the LeBron/Love combo working like it did earlier in the season.

That actually may not be a bad idea, problem is who would you get for him in return?

If kyrie has another good game no way hes going anywhere, same with tristan.

Love isnt magically get better hes clearly already on the downward spiral. He can even out a bit but dont think him and lebron are gonna be some great duo like kyrie and bron can be,

[JVL]

He's gonna need that and more to win game 7 on the road. I expect Curry and Klay to have their 2k cheese on...

Then I'm going to make the asinine bold prediction and say this series is over and the Cavaliers win their first title. These last 2 games might be the best 2-game stretch I've seen in an NBA Finals and Lebron is the architect of it all.
The Warriors haven't faced this kind of adversity. They recovered impressively from being down 3-1 against OKC, but in my opinion OKC (not statistically but watching the games) took themselves out of the series with abandoning all the reasons that gave them the 3-1 lead and reverting to boneheaded ISO heroball.

Not Cleveland. Everyone is dialed in, the momentum is there, they've won G5 in the Oracle Arena already and by the looks of it they took the Warriors their soul.

Statistics and history favor the Warriors, but my gut tells me this is over and it will be another blowout. Cleveland in 7.

Not sure what your point is....GSW literally won the last two games of the OKC series with 2K cheese from Klay and Curry. I simply expect Curry to some of that in game 7 at home. Not sure what's so asinine or bold about that. That's who Curry is at this point.

It's obvious you don't know what my point is since you completely missed it.

[Dupp]

Drives to the basket

LBJ: 84 drives
Kyrie: 63 drives

147 drives, 62 total FTs

Curry: 37 drives
Klay: 31 drives

68 drives, 55 total FTs

[Dr Spaceman]

I said before the Finals LeBron could be the best player in the world at 36 and I wouldn't bat an eye. Win or lose, this is maybe the best performance we'll see in our lifetimes and it's so insane to see a guy playing maybe the best ball of his career at 31 with this insane mileage in him. As crazy as it sounds given his history it wouldn't surprise me to see LeBron even outdo himself in this G7. What a great time to be a fan.

[BasketballFan7]

What do you all make of Delly being nailed to the bench and turning into a complete non-factor in this series? I get that Lue has tightened his rotations, but it's surprising to me considering how good he was in the regular season - he was much, much better than Shumpert, who has been the 3rd guard off the bench in the finals. I don't think Shump has been horrible, he has played adequate defense, but that's supposed to be Delly's strength too, in addition to being a more impactful offensive player. Is it all an evil plan by the Cavs to depress his free agency value? I don't think that's actually it, but it's odd.

Shumpert HAS been horrible. He allows too much separation for a so-called "defensive specialist" and he misses open shots, thinks he can dribble, and can't finish other than on dunks. He has a PER of 6.8 in the playoffs.

Delly should be in there. He struggles as the ball handler against GS but he can be the backup SG or nominal PG.