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

Yes and then Harden becomes the next Steph or Pippen, a footnote on NBA history...

Hope James realizes that he does not need it,he does not need more rings to be the GOAT, and that his place and his legacy is with the Cavs.

Is there no way out from under all this underperforming money?

If there is, how does signing top guys from other teams like a Chris Paul or Paul George help when they have to play second fiddle to Lebron help?

I don’t know anything about Kevin Loves stats prior to coming to Cleveland, but he doesn’t have it on a regular basis. Which is what kills us. He does seem to be getting tougher though, I’ll say that.

If Korver and Smith were consistent shooters, this would be an entirely different conversation.

You're not going to get all-star caliber players for back of the first round draft picks. You just aren't. To get guys of that level, you have to have lottery picks. We could maybe package late-first rounders to move a bad contract, but then you're basically giving up assets to correct other bad mistakes. And unless you are unloading ALL your bad contracts, getting rid of one or two isn't going to open up any cap-space.

Then there's the whole thing of who you can actually draft in the late first. As I've said before, these are the equivalent of 3rd round draft picks. You're hoping to strike gold, but usually you're getting a bench body. The guys drafted in the spots we gave up for Timothy Mozgov are Timothé Luwawu-Cabarrot and Furkan Korkmaz. You think those guys are seeing any minutes at all on our team? The guy drafted right before Cabarrot was Ante Zizic, and he barely gets minutes. The guy drafted with the pick we gave up for Kyle Korver was Caleb Swanigan. He spent most the year in the D-League.

If we were building up a young roster, then yeah, these picks would be beneficial, but Lebron wants to win now. We need guy like Kyle Korver over projects like Caleb Swanigan.

It's just not happening. The NBA is nothing like the NFL. Contracts are guaranteed and stay on your cap. You can't just cut a guy if he's under-performing and it's extremely difficult to unload a guy like that onto another team, as you have to take on equal contract value back, and also give up assets to make the trade worthwhile for the other side.

And as far as free agents, you cannot sign any unless you can fit that contract under the cap. Or convince the team that has their rights to do some sort of sign-and-trade, which they don't necessarily have to do. So say Paul says he wants to come here, we don't have the cap space to sign him. We would have to match up enough contracts to match his, and then give enough assets back in return for Houston to want to make that trade. Otherwise, they could tell Paul to go pound sand, and he would have to sign somewhere else.

I guess what I'm getting at is, don't buy into the lazy journalism narrative that the Cavs didn't do anything to help Lebron. The majority of our problems stem directly from Lebron's desire to win now at all costs. He wanted to trade for Love immediately, keep JR, TT and Iman, no matter the cost, and Kyrie's desire to get out of town ASAP, was likely because of Lebron.

This is a repeat of what happened the first time around, where the front office seemed to be pushed to make "win now" moves, and sacrificed long-term stability to make short term advances. And we wound up with a bunch of over-priced, under-performing veterans.

From a short-term perspective, most of the moves we made (outside of the Kyrie one) helped us in the short-term and were probably good moves at the time we made them. There's no real deals we passed up or should of made that make you wonder why we didn't do that instead. Honestly, the biggest mistake I can think of was giving Shumpert 10 million a year instead of Delly. But was anybody calling that move out at the time?

Thanks, I was afraid of that. Well, hopefully Lebron still means what he said in that article when he came back.

Whatever happens, I hate to see him go.

I hope the Cavs win tonight.

Damn straight!

LeBron said he wants to win a championSHIP (singular) in the article. He did that. he did what he promised. If he leaves, it will suck, but he owes this city nothing.

Me too.

I think what we see sometimes here is that people like their team so much, that it can be frustrating when the team makes bad moves, the coaching is poor, or the players' heads aren't in the game. Criticism doesn't mean that someone wants the team to lose.. often times it's just the opposite.

We'll see what happens tonight. Just get it to game 5 and go from there.

Yep as more than a casual fan you look at this team and the situation and realize what a gift you've been given....twice, and to see it squandered by poor management. Most frustrating thing on earth. The chances of this happening in anyones lifetime again is very slim. We're the Buffalo Bills of the NBA

My relationship with Northeast Ohio is bigger than basketball. I didn’t realize that four years ago. I do now.
Lebron James

He went a lot deeper than championships in that article.

I like muting everything until the game starts.

Going out with a whimper

And just like that a 6-0 run

Yeah they gave up

GS going in for the kill early, looking sharp.

End of first quarter, 34 to 25, Warriors up.

Being here is quite the spectical!
Our seats are great.

But seems the Cavs just want to stand around.
Our O sucks. They hardly try to rebound.

We need a new coach.

Take a pic of yourself there and post it here!

Looks like they're doing a pretty good job on the glass to me, just not taking advantage of the 2nd shot opportunities like they should.

Our starting lineup is the biggest issue.

Our bench is bringing us back.

If Lebron stays, the only person worth keeping as a starter is Love. Hill, jr, and TT can go

Lebron looks like he's going through the motions on defense.

I’d keep Hill, but bring him off the bench.

Pretty sure JaVale McGee is the finals MVP.

JR just watched that shot fall back down 5 feet away from him.

Yeah...I don't understand that...the ball was literally 5 feet in front of him.

If the NBA was smart they would make Jeff Van Gundy head of the rules committee and get a lot of this crap out of the game... It's old watching these guys play for the foul more than they are playing the game

61 to 52 at halftime, Warriors still up.

This is so much fun. If I lived in Cleveland I would be at the game all the time.

There are way too many GS fans here though.

Find one thats over 25 and ask them to name any 2 players who played for GSW before the Curry/Steve Kerr era began...

Monta Ellis and Baron Davis

Cavs are close to giving up... down by 15. If they don't get a run soon to get this back under 10, it could get real ugly.

When you get owned by McGee like TT has all series, you should give your game checks back

It kinda feels like they've been going through the motions all game.

So far this quarter?

Glad they are sticking with Hill.. he gives the Cavs so much.

According to Game 1 standards, that was a blocking foul on Durant.

20 mil a year for hill. Cavs are the home of the bad contracts

Outside of our poor FO situation. Coaching is criminal