DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum NBA Finals: Avoiding the Sweep

Sorry Vers, your whining about people whining isn't any better. Getting to the finals is great, going into it feeling like you have a reasonable chance to win is far better.

A lot of people didn't give the Cavs much of a chance.. for 2+ hours during game 1 things changed because if we could steal one there, it improved our chances dramatically of winning (or at least going deep into the series).. then we got royally screwed out of that.. people are dejected. the team has played hard but they look like Spain trying to beat the US in the Olympics.. talented team, just nowhere near talented enough.

Curry and Thompson had historically bad nights on the road in our building, LeBron played pretty damn well, we got a decent performance from Love, and surprise boost from Hood.. and it still wasn't enough...

So for my part, I'll just say that I'm sorry I'm down, I wanted to WIN the finals or at least have a chance to.. I'm sorry I'm dejected that we may very well lose LeBron soon and be back to a lottery team for at least a few years.. I'm sorry I I'm critical during the games of the players and the coach because I wish my team was doing better... I'm sorry I don't have a pet unicorn with Cavs colored rainbows shooting out of its butt for me to enjoy...

My thoughts about Lebron leaving is this. Obviously he makes this team what it is, but thats both good and bad. He keeps us competitive, but he also prevents us from building something sustainable. You can't redo the roster twice a year and keep something championship caliber going. Theres literally 3 people on the team that were here last year. So as far as him going or staying its like this for me. Commit to something long term, allow Gilbert to get a decent GM/coach and retool this for a sustained run for the rest of lebron's prime. But if he insists on these 1/1 contracts, just let him go, and start the rebuild.. Maybe get some additional picks in a sign and trade with him. Obviously we will be better with option one. I don't think we are that far away. We just need better coaching and another consistent playmaker. I keep thinking how nice it would have been to had wade/frye for these finals. I think both would have helped tremendously

And I'm sorry [actually I'm not] that I can enjoy my team having success and I don't feel the need to trash my team just because we didn't win it all.

Let me just say that I agree with you.. In many ways, LeBron has been his own worst enemy.. from the period a couple of years before he left, we heard from several FAs that they were reluctant to sign a longer term deal here because they didn't have a warm fuzzy that LeBron was going to stay.. his reluctance to commit made us worse. In an effort to keep LeBron happy and entice him to stay, the FO made a series of knee-jerk reactions and bad contracts that put us in a perpetual bad position to make the moves necessary to improve the team. The team has never been built with a PLAN to complement LeBron and build a sustainable team.. Not everything was bad but enough was.. and some of that is LeBron's fault.

I don't think that this is possible...nor do I see the point..

If the fan base cannot appreciate being in the finals, and the best player of all time playing the best ball of his life, whats the point....

korver has been totally out of his element this series, and not just on defense

I would go on a limb and say LeBron COMING back is how it got mismanaged. We fell into the same hole we did last time, with "making" him happy, shelling out contracts and trdes that we should not have made.

I am dejected and mad because for 11 years in his prime, we have had the GREATEST basketball player of all time IMO on this team, and we ONLY have 1 ship to show for it. That is a disgrace. Everyone wants to say "Dan got us a ship!" Dan has literally screwed up twice now, a ONCE IN A LIFETIME chance at having the GOAT and not surrounding him with a supporting cast.

Put it this way. Durant, steph, klay, they are good players, 2 of them are HOF candidates. And I will tell you right now, that not one of them can

It infuriates me.

And he has had 0 chance to win this series....that's why we are mad, well at least myself. Its a disgrace.

EveDawg has landed. I'm having lunch downtown.

Cavs fans everywhere.

My hotel is very nice.
My flight was very good.

Later I will have dinner with my bff from middle school.

Cant wait for the game tomorrow night! I am pumped!

Have fun Eve! Hopefully the Cavs pull through tomorrow night.

Exactly.. I'm not sure how you meant to end that next to last paragraph but I'm assuming with something like "... can carry LeBron's jock".. because you'd be right...

I'm happy the Cavs got a ring.. don't get me wrong..

But in 50 years, the Indians have had 2 or 3 legit chances to bring home a ring and fallen short? The Browns have had a couple chances in the 80s but didn't even get to the super bowl.. the Cavs ran up against Jordan in the 90s that kept them from getting the championship.. now we have had LeBron and many appearances but only 1 ring.. I'm sorry if that bugs me.

As a fan base we've watched the Yankees and the Patriots and the Spurs and the Bulls and the Steelers and the SF Giants (for heaven's sake) and a number of others have these periods of multiple championships.. I'm sorry.. no, I will not apologize.. we deserved more. We deserved our own mini-dynasty, not of the east, but of the NBA...

* Edit - for the record, I think it's highly likely that all 3 of those players you listed end up in the hall of fame... Klay Thompson has a lot of years left to play and he needs to be back in a situation where he is the #2 option instead of #3.. and he could very well end up in the HoF..

Have fun Eve. Just don't read the crybabies on this board and ruin the experience.

Here's the deal.

Friday, the Cavs either lose and the season is over...or...
The Cavs, must win the next three games including two at Golden State.

Just like 2016.

The super team thing is going to keep escalating. Warriors seem unstoppable right now. Any team that wants a chance at a championship in the next year or two needs to build their own super super team. Feels like it's getting out of control and basketball becoming less entertaining.

Personally, I think Lebron leaves. If he wants to win rings, I don't think that can happen here. As others mentioned, short term, bad decisions were made to keep him happy and what we currently have is the result. The Lebron era will end eventually, not going to be sad if he leaves, just means it is time to start working on the future. If they can work out a way to keep him, great.

j/c:

I've been thinking about if I have been too harsh on all the guys who whine on almost every post. DC made some comments about wanting his team to win and such. I get that. I will try and clarify my position.

--First of all, I don't post during games. I never have during a Brown's regular season game and only have a couple of times w/the Cavs. There are two reasons for that. The first is that you cannot possibly watch the game as closely while reading other posts and typing out your replies. I like to totally get into a game. The second reason is that people say the dumbest things during games that make them look really stupid when the game ends. BB is a game of ebb and flows. Making summative statements during a BB game is absurd.

--For the record, I get mad during games. I yell at the TV. I get depressed, as well. It kills me when we lose. However, I try to post my thoughts after the game when I'm not quite as emotional.

--There are 30 NBA teams. 28 of them are at home and their fans are wishing that they were in the Finals. Only one team can win. Only two teams can participate in the Finals. While I am sad we aren't winning, I am still appreciative that my team has achieved so much. Four straight years and one of those years ended in a championship.

--I come on this board and the constant negativity that was started by one guy and followed by others is a real downer. If we win, let's not say much. If we lose, or even losing, let's call the team trash. Let's wish illness on the coach because you don't like him. Let's wish "horrible things to happen to someone's family" because you don't agree w/their takes. And yeah, the dude said it twice while my son was battling cancer. And people let that crap slide?

--I love the Browns, but they have won 4 games in 3 years. 1 in 2 years, and 0 last year. Thus, I am thankful for the Cavs having a winning record, making the playoffs, winning playoff rounds, winning the ECF, and not embarrassing themselves in the Finals.

--While I wish they would win, I can still appreciate the journey in general and some of the great plays specifically. I loved how TT got all up in Draymond's face. I loved how Love got physical w/their guys inside. I enjoyed seeing JR make some shots. I like how Hood redeemed himself after quitting. And I am appreciative of LeBron's greatness because I know when he leaves, this team is going to be Sacramento, Memphis [this year], Orlando, etc.

--I think following this team is like life in a way. It might not always go the way you want and you can wish for more. And in the end, you lose the ultimate game and die. There is nothing wrong w/being critical, but damn man, enjoy the ride........especially when it's pretty damn good.

Thanks for the post Vers.. I'm as appreciative of what LeBron has done for Cleveland as anybody.. but still upset that if handled better it could have been so much more.. and the frustrating thing at the moment is that LeBron staying means the Cavs stay relevant, but not likely championship relevant, for a few more years.. or LeBron can leave and the Cavs can go back to sucking for a few years and hopefully begin rebuilding something..

Either way, he gave us a ton of excitement and brought us a championship which is something no other Cleveland sports legend has done since Jim Brown.. so there is that.

yeah, this is my outlook now as well. Not my outlook in 2010, but it is in 2018

This reminds me of when John Lennon was asked if Ringo was the best drummer in the world. He replied, "he's not even the best drummer in The Beatles".

How can you say that...

Houston was a much better team than Golden State, and I could say that the Celtics are also a better team, GS are not that far away from the Cavs, and we are not that good team.

This media hype is one thing, reading fans posting non-sense is another.

thats just silly...Houston was not much better..if they were they could have beaten GS..they didn't

But what you dont get is that you constantly bitching about what others do(post) is just as annoying as the people who are bitching

No worries Vers. I've heard worse, especially in the politics section.

I root for the Cavs, and all Cleveland sports teams. I do appreciate what the Cavs have done and have always thought a competitive team that comes up short is more fun to watch than a bottom feeder. The Cavs went 97-215 in the four seasons Lebron was in Miami. That's not so good.

I do have some gripes with the team. Part of this is because given the incredible run of good luck this team had, I really believe it could have and should have been more.

Call it spoiled or whatever but say you were building a team, and you started with Kyrie Irving and Lebron James. Not only do you have a relatively clean cap sheet, you have an owner who is willing to go deep into the luxury tax. You have all your own picks, plus a war chest of picks from other teams. You spike two more #1 overall picks (not including James and Irving) and throw in a couple additional top 5 picks in for good measure.

Four years later your team is Lebron James, Kevin Love, and a bunch of role players (at best). How does that happen? (Granted, this was slightly out of chronological order, but it's still crazy.)


I'd say if I had 4 bothers about this team it would be these:

Transactions - Largely covered above. More specific would be we get fleeced in trade after trade and overpay marginal role players. There are gaping holes at the 1, 2, and 5 for what should be a championship caliber team. With the benefit of hindsight, when is the last time the Cavs made a good move (trade, free agency, re-signing own players) of any significance?

We're in the Finals again you say? Lebron, duh. Every series is the same.. the other team is more complete, fits together better, plays harder and is better coached? We have Lebron. That's literally what we say; go back and check the threads.

Camaraderie - Sometimes it seems like there is none. The players don't like each other. Even long-time Cavs favorite Anderson Varejao made mention of this over two years ago when he joined the Warriors. He said something to the effect that they like each other and play hard for each other.

Do you see that with the Cavs? I don't. It's only gotten worse with time. 4.7 seconds left in a tied Finals game and they don't talk. Go to OT and they won't even look at each other. It's hard to watch.

Coaching - It honestly seems like we're an uncoached team. Little effort or passion. When is the last time we acquired a new player, and that player maintained his play from their previous team? There are a lot of new players but it seems like they all regressed. It's the coaching and (non) system.

You have to go back to David Blatt's tenure to when guys actually developed, we found a couple diamonds in the rough (Delly), and players actually improved. That guy could coach. He may have been raw in the NBA and struggled with the personalities but he sure could teach the game.

Defense/effort - The team didn't play defense all year and all of a sudden they think they can turn it on against this juggernaut. Ha! How many times do you see the other team get a wide open look under the basket because there was a miscommunication? I see it more from the Cavs than any other team in the league, guys don't know when to switch or who to guard or JR's mind wanders and forgets to chase his guy or whatever. Call it coaching, or effort, or whatever. It's frustrating.

But anyway, that's all out of my system.

It's game day, go Cavs. Mostly I just don't want to see them get swept on our home floor, but there's always that chance of winning 4 in a row. To do that in this series, against this team, that would be sweet.

Constantly? I always give my thoughts on the games. What I say them is a very small portion of my post. I can't believe you are defending posts that say stuff like: "This team is trash," and that same guy might post that 3-4 times in a game. That's not analysis. It's crap!

As admitted I'm not a big basketball fan though my wife and daughter are huge fans. For the life of me I can't understand how a really decent group of players including IMO the best ever can run so hot and cold. Something lacks somewhere and I don't know if it's chemistry, personality, coaching, ownership or a combination of all.

The league is tough but this group seemingly should have achieved higher.

I hate to say it, but a lot of that falls on Lebron. Actually, all four of your gripes can really be traced back to Lebron. (I'll get into that later)

Two of those #1 picks you talked about were used to get Kevin Love, and that was pretty much at Lebron's request. Dion Waiters and Tristan Thompson were to only two other "top" draft picks we had. Dion and another late first rounder were traded for Mozgov, probably again at Lebron's behest, because we sorely lacked an inside presence, and Dion wanted to to ball hog when Lebron was on the floor. In hindsight, that was probably a bad trade, but I think Mozgov got injured after the 2015 season and never came back the same. He looked pretty good for us that 2015 year. At the time it was a good trade.

We also turned Traded Lou Amundson, Alex Kirk and a 2019 second-round draft pick into J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert. I'd say that was a pretty dang good trade.

Then in late 2015 we start making our bad moves, we signed TT to a huge, near-max deal. Again, more or less at Lebron's request since his friend was the agent and TT was his little brother. This is probably the start of our bad moves. Just before that we gave Shump a big 4 year deal and opt NOT to give Delly a decent contract, signing him to a one year qualifying offer.

That winter we get Channing Frye for Jared Cunningham, Anderson Varejao and a first and second-round draft pick. That's a pretty hefty haul for Frye, but we did win a Championship with him. Oh, we also fired Blatt and replaced him with Ty.

We win a Championship, but follow it up by giving JR a huge 4-year contract. Again, likely because Lebron wanted him here. We also have to let Delly walk because Shump, TT and JR (In addition to Lebron, Love and Kyrie) have tied up all our cap space.

We've pretty much invested everything into those 6 guys. From that point, half of those guys say "thanks for the money and ring". Then start going through the motions and things come apart. After a year, Kyrie demands a trade and we're forced to get pennies on the dollar for him. The trades from then on are almost damage control:

- Acquired G Kyle Korver from Atlanta for F Mike Dunleavy, G Mo Williams, cash and a protected future first-round draft pick.

- Traded G Kyrie Irving to the Boston Celtics for G Isaiah Thomas, F Jae Crowder, C Ante Zizic and a 2018 first-round draft pick.

- Isaiah Thomas, Channing Frye, and their own 2018 first-round pick for Jordan Clarkson and Larry Nance Jr.

- George Hill and Rodney Hood to the Cavaliers; Derrick Rose and Jae Crowder to the Jazz; Joe Johnson, Iman Shumpert, and 2020 second-round pick to Sacramento.

Other than the Kyrie trade (which was forced), those are pretty decent trades. The biggest problems we made were paying guys like TT, Shumpert, and JR, and then watching their production vanish. Most the moves were made for either short-term gains to satisfy Lebron's need to compete now or to swap out under-performers with someone else.

I mean is there anything there trade-wise you look at and say, "OMG, why did we do that?"

Houston with C.Paul and Boston with Kyrie are much better teams.

Houston was far superior to GS, with a bit more experience and less injuries and they would have beaten Golden State.

Houston was the best team this year, both in the regular season and in the playoffs, only the ones who don't follow can say the opposite.

Agreed that Lebron has had undue influence over a lot of the decisions. As great as he is as a player, he handicaps his own teams by trying to play GM. He'd be so much better off if he just stuck to recruiting superstars and let the GMs do their jobs after that.

As far as the trades, yes there is a trade that makes me say, OMG, why did we do that: The Irving trade. It may have been forced (but really wasn't, even Lebron protested it), it may have seemed like a lot at the time, but it will go down as one of the all-time worst trades.

The rest of the trades were not as excruciatingly bad, but weren't really good either. Can you point to any of them and say, "WOW, what a great trade?" How are those new players playing in the Finals?

If I had to rank them (from worst to first), it would go:

- Irving trade

- Thomas, Frye, 1st round pick for Clarkson and Nance - Frye would have been useful in the postseason. Clarkson is so overrated, has a bad contract and taking that on should have been enough to land Nance. We gifted them a first.. even if it's a late first it still has value.

The others are alright I suppose, pretty fair on all sides. Could quibble a little on the details but it's not like we got any all-stars out of them.

Golden State is the best team, plain and simple.

The Rockets are a great team, they have the talent, coaching, and seem to be built specifically to counter the Warriors. Far superior? No way.. far superior teams don't lose 4 games out of 7 and get outscored by 63 points in the process. It was a very competitive series and they had bad injury luck. I don't think the Rockets win game 6 with CP3.. game 7? maybe. They caught a bad break and we'll never know.

I don't see Cavs or Celtics as being on the same level of either of the Western Conference Finals teams.. not this year anyway.

I wanted to get back to your four gripes and how it ties back to Lebron.



I covered a lot of this in my last post, but outside of the Kyrie deal, nothing is really a "bad" move. The biggest mistakes were handing out big contracts to TT, JR and Shump, and those were mostly at the request of Lebron to pay his guys.



Again, I think this falls back on Lebron and his brand of leadership, and it's probably not even his fault. I think he wants to be a good leader and teammate, but he was never really taught how to do it. The media demands that he wins championship and that he pushes his team to do it like Jordan did. He tries to do it, but I think he goes about it the wrong way and he just doesn't know any better.

I think he tends to show up his teammates too much when he probably doesn't intend to. It's hard to explain, but it's just little things. Like when he wants to do a little side-line coaching, he gets a little too demonstrative and it almost comes across as condescending. When he shook hands with Kyrie in his first game as a Celtic, he patted him on his head, and Kyrie patted him back, so Lebron patted him on the head one more time, as if to say, "no, YOU are the little brother". And When JR made that bone-headed play in Game 1, he gave that "WTF are you doing????" expression that was a little over the top. I think little things like that just tend to eat at his teammates.

And when he tries to lead, it probably comes across more as a dictatorship than a leadership. I think his teammates are afraid of making mistakes and disappointing him and they aren't really enjoying playing with him. At times anyway. I think that's ultimately why Kyrie wanted to leave.

That's sort of the nature of trades. You usually don't get a one-sided haul unless someone's desperate. The trade we made for JR and Iman was a pretty good steal though.



They're playing better than the guys we traded away are.




The Irving trade was a tough one. Kyrie was threatening to have knee surgery and sit out the year. In hindsight, maybe we just deal with that, and then if Lebron leaves we still have Kyrie on the roster. I think the goal of that trade was to get a lottery-level first round pick so that we could potentially trade it for an all-star later in the winter. You can't get all-stars by trading spare parts. You need a potential top-3 pick for that.

The problem was that both Crowder and IT turned out to be bums and IT was a locker-room cancer at that. Probably because Brad Stevens is a really good coach, and knew how to get max value out of his players. Brooklyn also played better than expected and that draft pick lost value. Nobody bit on the trade offer. It blew up in our face. Had Brooklyn sucked and say New Orleans had a bad year. Then maybe we trade for Boogie Cousins. I think that was ultimately the goal, but we probably gambled way too much for that.



I agree about Clarkson, but I think Nance for Frye was a pretty good swap. Frye just wasn't cutting it anymore and provided no defense at all in the middle. Don't think like lead on these late first round picks though. The NBA draft is so top heavy that you have to think of the top 10 picks as first rounders, the next 10 as 2nd rounder and the last 10 as 3rd rounders. There's a reason that the NBA draft is only 2 rounds long. In fact, several teams have traded out of the back of the first round, into the second for basically nothing, because you have to give a guaranteed contract to a first round pick. The second round picks almost have more value because you can grab a "Euro-stash" guy that you don't have to have on your salary cap.

Even late first round picks still have decent value in the NBA. I know the talent drops off more quickly in the draft. People went too far with this though. If you go back to earlier in the decade, this is actually how Chris Grant was able to stockpile so many first round picks from other teams.

He correctly foresaw changes to the league and collective bargaining agreement that made first round picks more valuable. You can find decent role players later on in the draft and put them on cost-controlled rookie contracts. This is an important aspect of roster building when you have 3 max contracts or whatever.

I know it's not a huge thing.. a late first at this stage. It has been more of a long-term trend where we send out players and picks and the guys we get in return don't contribute as much or for as long as they should.

Realistically, we'd be in MUCH better shape (and LBJ would probably want to stay) if we didn't have the terrible contracts of JR and TT, and Kyrie would have stayed.

At that point, we could have added Paul George, Demarcus Cousins, Kawhai Leonard, etc ... and LBJ could easily stay

Also you have to look beyond just drafting a developing players. Maybe that's not so realistic right now but those firsts could be packaged with other assets to ship out the bad contracts D4L mentioned and/or bring in an all-star caliber player. Kawhi was probably a pipe dream but Paul George, Chris Paul, or someone else could have been able to happen.

That's exactly what i was going to say, lol..

Your right, in the 90s we ran into Jordan, with LeBron - WE HAVE THE JORDAN of this time!! Both parties are to blame, Lebron and the team. LeBron for wanting to get his friends paid all the time, and the TEAM for allowing Lebron to be defacto GM.

I truly get what your saying, I do. ( and i truly hope your son is going better, and am disgraced someone would say something like that).

But as a fan, i can multitask. I can be completely appreciative of what we have accomplished, as well as completely upset we did not accomplish more. It doest make me a bad fan, because i wanted more, and it doesn't make me a bad fan to see what a travesty it has been that we didn't accomplish more.

Put this into perspective. When did MJ come onto the scene? Since then how many Grant Hills, Tracey McGradys, Penny Hardaways, etc etc where compared to Jordan? How many years since a player was as dominate as Jordan? Go to Lebrons draft year, subject the year Jordan retired, and that's your answer.

Lebron is a once in a generation type talent....It is just a travesty we haven't won 2,3,4 rings in the 11 years he was here.

Interesting.

We'll see what happens, but I cannot see him moving to the West, and maybe not getting to the Finals. I can see us making some moves this off-season, and maybe even keeping our draft pick, especially if Trae Young is there when we pick. (who Lebron really likes) We'll see what happens, but at least I have a small amount of hope that Lebron could be back next year.

As LeBron James considers where he'd have best chance to beat Warriors, he notes Cavaliers had 'opportunity' in two of three games
https://www.cleveland.com/cavs/index.ssf/2018/06/where_would_lebron_james_have.html

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- If LeBron James' free agency is a purely basketball decision, it will boil down to one question and one question only.

Where would he have the best chance to beat the Warriors?

"Now everyone is trying to figure that out," James said Thursday. "How do you put together a group of talent but also a group of minds to be able to compete with Golden State, to be able to compete for a championship?"

The Cavs trail the Warriors 3-0 in the Finals for the second consecutive year, and they could be swept via Game 4 Friday.

What was the tightest of Finals matchups -- Golden State beat the Cavs seven times to Cleveland's six wins over the 2015 and 2016 Finals, with one trophy for each -- has turned into a laugher since Kevin Durant joined the Warriors.

Going to a place where he could win is why, James said on Thursday, he left the Cavs as a free agent in the summer of 2010, because "I knew that my talent level here in Cleveland couldn't succeed getting past a Boston, getting past the San Antonios."

The Heat won two titles and went to four straight Finals, but James came home and joined Kyrie Irving and pushed for a trade for Kevin Love. The Cavs had enough to win a championship, obviously, because that's what happened in 2016.

Then Durant arrived. And now they don't, or so one might deduce. They lost in five games with Irving on their side in 2017, and now Irving's gone. Cleveland's staring down the barrel of a sweep. "We've had an opportunity to win two of these games in this three-game series so far, and we haven't come up with it," James said.

That was his response when asked the golden question, the only question that matters if James' upcoming free agency is only about basketball. Do the Cavs have enough (or, allowing room for a follow up, can they have enough to catch the Warriors?)?

Count James' Thursday session with the media as an early exercise in reading tea leaves until he actually decides what to do in July.

"Obviously, from a talent perspective, if you're looking at Golden State from their top five best players to our top five players, you would say they're stacked better than us," James said, as we ran down the obvious -- Durant joining a team that already had Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green made the Warriors better than, well, anyone.

"We have a lot of talent as well," James continued. "We've been in a position where we could win two out of these three games.

"So what do we have to do? Do we have to make more shots? Is it we have to have our minds into it a little bit more? Is it if there is a ball on the ground we can't reach for it but you've got to dive for it?"

The Cavs should have won Game 1. Referees did them no favors with their questionable video review of a block/charge play involving James and Durant that was changed to a defensive foul on James. George Hill missed a free throw with 4.7 seconds left and JR Smith dribbled out the clock after the rebound rather than attempt a game-winning shot.

When it was James and Irving threading the needle with epic performances in Games 5-7 to lead the Cavs back from a 3-1 deficit in 2016, there were no such mistakes.

In the last two Games 3s in the Finals, Kyle Korver has missed wide-open 3s, Durant burned them with 3s at critical junctures, and the Cavs suffered lapses (like the third quarter on Wednesday) they couldn't afford. They led by 13 on Wednesday.

James is averaging 37.7 points, 9.0 rebounds and 10.7 wins in this series, and has no wins to show for it. He's put together a postseason for the ages and enjoyed arguably the best regular season of his career, at age 33. He knows any team he's on can get to a Finals, or, if he's out West, will go until they meet the Warriors in the playoffs. But where, if anywhere, will there be enough talent, enough basketball "minds" as he kept saying Thursday, to beat the Durant-led juggernaut?

There isn't an answer for that right now. He'll spend June and the first part of July trying to figure it out. In the meantime, James said "every player does not want to -- sad to say, but every player doesn't want to compete for a championship and be in a position where every possession is pressure."

It's hard to say if that was a veiled shot at Irving, for asking to be traded away from James and the Finals-bound Cavs, if he was offering commentary on current teammates, or perhaps speaking generally about conversations he's had with players he'd potentially partner with in the future.

James also, for the first time, acknowledged that he's thought about what his best friend and three-time champion Dwyane Wade might've meant to the Cavs in the playoffs.

Wade was traded to the Heat on Feb. 8 for a future, conditional second rounder. James didn't condemn the trade at all when it happened.

"Not only from a brotherhood aspect and what we know about one another, and also from an experience factor," James said. "I believe that he would have been very, very good for us in the postseason. He's a guy that's kind of built for the postseason at this point in his career, who lives for the moment.

"So definitely, definitely think about that. It seems so long ago that he was even a part of this ballclub, but definitely think about it from time to time."

Your right, the cavs are close, but what you have to realize, is teams like Houston are close too. And if james was there, they would be the juggernaut.

We'll see.