mreinman wrote:

holfresh wrote:Winslow could be Iggy..

dont think that he is any where close to the athlete that iggy is.

The intangibles during the NCAA tourney were impressive along with his defense..

That may be true but Irving, before he was injured again, was very very good.

TripleThreat wrote:

holfresh wrote:I mean, not for nothing, Cleveland gave them all they could handle without Kyre and Love..2 all stars..Also Varejo..

I've said this before but LBJ gets to decide who plays with him. And this is a major problem.

Because LeBron James the player always has to work three times as hard to compensate for LeBron James the really lousy de facto GM of these teams.

LBJ is a rare point power forward. So what does he do? He decides to keep playing along a ball dominant point guard with iffy defense and spotty health record. Then he trades Wiggins, who would have been easily a major difference maker in this series, for Love, who is a no defense PF gunner.

Then he gets the Cavs to blow money on his buddy Mike Miller and his long time bud Sideshow Varejao, instead of spending it on players who can help him.

The first run with the Cavs, poor team construction based on giving in to LBJ's whims ( Danny Ferry has acquitted himself pretty well with the Hawks considering he was able to get away from defacto LBJ) Then the Heat, more poor team construction based on LBJ's whims. then this version of the Cavs, more poor construction because of LBJ.

Without Irving and Love, the Cavs could actually put some real defenders out there. It's a team with a lot of talent but with a very poor fit.

Andrew Wiggins would have turned the tide of this series. He is already an elite defender and he would have locked down more of that Golden State offense. Also he could have eased the scoring burden on LBJ.

Ironically, the Warriors walked past a Kevin Love trade because they didn't want to give up defense in Klay Thompson for a no defense PF in Love.

Amusing how the media wants to portray LBJ as this gunslinger who was fighting his way out of a corner when his own choices got him stuck in that corner in the first place.

Always a tradeoff with players- not always easy to get a player who is great on both ends.

holfresh wrote:Lin might be a good option for Cleveland if they could convince him that he isn't taking the last shot..

holfresh wrote:Lin might be a good option for Cleveland if they could convince him that he isn't taking the last shot..

I actually was thinking the same thing.

TripleThreat wrote:

WaltLongmire wrote:Have not seen enough of Wiggins this year, but an interesting theory. Love did help to spread things out a bit, and Irving would have taken a lot of offensive pressure off James.

Always a tradeoff with players- not always easy to get a player who is great on both ends.

Let's try this, for example.

Remove the Cavs bizarre trades for Luol Deng and Spencer Hawes, which cost them three valuable draft picks in an ill fated attempt to make the playoffs the year before LBJ came back.

IF LBJ had simply committed to Cleveland early in free agency and was willing to leave money on the table ( Sadly, seeing some of the press at the time, he equated the amount of money he makes to how much respect he gets ) , then the Cavs could have kept another draft asset and kept Sergey Karasev and Tyler Zeller, two former first rounders, young guys with upside and nice pedigree, they might not be stars, but they might have been far more useful than old roster churn like James Jones and Shawn Marion.

Trading Wiggins ending up being a triple hit. First, Wiggins, plus Bennett, were young rookies on COST CONTROLLED CONTRACTS. They would have gotten elite play out of Wiggins, plus his prime, plus him outperforming his contract over and over exponentially for years. Instead, they traded him for the lesser defender but, in theory, the better scorer, who would need a massive contract extension to justify the move. It was adding a poor fit, far less defense and avoided the issue that LBJ needed help on the defensive perimeter ( hence the Shumpert trade) That's the three hits, they lose the value of Wiggins and a superior fit, they add a poor fit and a massive amount of cap flexibility and they had to spend more valuable assets to replace Wiggins with a lesser situation ( Shumpert) to make up for the defensive issues.

LBJ, as de facto GM of the Cavs, could have still made a deal for Mozgov, never spent money on Varejao ( that's like burning money) and feeding his old buddy Mike Miller ( totally shot at this point) and never had to spend what will be soon a massive extension for Love ( or risk him leaving)

The Cavs could have then traded Irving ( simply cannot have another ball dominant player fit with LBJ) and maybe Waiters for other assets.

The Cavs could have been LBJ, Wiggins, all those draft picks back, and massive cap space plus Mozgov, Zeller and Karasev and what is now Delladova and whatever return they could have gotten on trading Irving, Waiters and maybe Thompson.

The Cavs could have picked up a Jimmy Butler or a DeMarre Carroll in free agency plus all the assets they didn't burn, maybe they grab a nice young rookie in this draft too.

Instead, now he's on a team that's stuck. They gave up a lot for Mozgov and Love, so they have to extend them. Varejao and Miller are dead weight. And over time, injury and poor fit will slowly erode Irvings' overall trade value.

LBJ could have won this year's ring and the next four. But he's a lousy GM.

Thats a good post. Its so true--when the players act as de facto GM its almost always they get it wrong. I said the Wiggins trade would backfire on him--look back on this site to how many fans thought it was a good trade. It was AWFUL just moronic traded the number 1 pick +++ for K Love who is hurt every year has padded stats and looks like he did not get along with his teammates same as Minny?