Darkseid wrote:Ok now I'm a little scared.
They traded dead roster spots for 4 guy shot who can provide meaningful minutes.
With no IT anymore, that clears the way for a fresh start.
But I'm confident we can beat them.
I'm not so worried. They have the next 25-30 games to basically integrate half the roster into well-defined meaningful roles that can play a completely new style with LeBron. Then, by the time the playoffs roll around, they'll have to integrate Kevin Love, for whom they've already had problems re-defining a role for. And on top of all that, Frye took a bit of pressure off Love when on the court b/c he was their only other big who could hit the 3-shot with any reliability. But he's gone, so more defensive focus will be placed on Love as a result.
Plus, Love will still be their 2nd most important scorer, so when he comes back, from a hand-injury to boot, he'll have to take shots away from other guys like Hood and Hill, and acclimate to them and the new style.
We've seen it take about 30-35 games for OKC to acclimate to George & Melo. Similarly, we were in the situation Cleveland is now, with Lowry out and the influx of two defensive guys like Ibaka and Tucker. We saw how the lineup was shaky enough to cause issues when Lowry came back, and even earlish into this season we were still figuring out how to play everyone to their strengths.
With the East even stronger now, Cavs might end up continuing to drop in the standings, and may even lose homecourt throughout the playoffs. And if that's the case,, they'll have tough matchups against East playoff teams.
I think with Frye out, JV won't need to move out to the perimeter anymore to guard Frye while Ibaka guards Love. Should allow him to drop back deep into the post and save his energy for offense, in which case they'll likely throw Perkins at him for all 6 fouls.
