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This is a really good prediction. I would expect this or something similar to happen this season, but there can be things that unexpectedly happen. If any team wants to win a title, health is a very important factor. Should the Warriors have all of their players healthy or at least relatively healthy, they have a great chance at repeating.
Agreed. My season predictions were based on everyone staying healthy since it's difficult to predict who's going to be unhealthy other than the usual suspects like D. Rose. If all the teams lose key players for a significant amount of time to injuries, my pick would definitely be the Spurs because they rely on a system and team concept rather than any individual. They seem to be able to win no matter who plays during the regular season and usually find the right guys for their system. As great as LaMarcus Alridge is, I doubt he averages 30 minutes per game in San Antonio as Pop tries to preserve the longevity of Aldridge's career. However, as long as the Warriors don't lose Curry, Thompson, or Green for long periods of time, I feel like they'll get a 1-seed and make it through the mighty West to beat the Cavs in the finals again. With that said, repeating is difficult and I could definitely see the Cavs or Spurs taking it.
The Spurs' key isn't any of the new additions, it's Tony Parker. He's always been a Warrior killer, and his injury/ineffectiveness last postseason is the reason the Spurs dropped out so early. If he regains form, the Spurs will be just as dangerous as anyone.
The Spurs' key isn't any of the new additions, it's Tony Parker. He's always been a Warrior killer, and his injury/ineffectiveness last postseason is the reason the Spurs dropped out so early. If he regains form, the Spurs will be just as dangerous as anyone.
And Duncan and Ginobli...way too many older guys to rely upon IMO.
No denying that they are deep with great coaching.
You expect me to believe that you actually found a NY fan?
I personally feel JR isn't that great but Cleveland has him cheap and so if he becomes a problem they can dump him. He'll also see seriously reduced minutes (a good thing) with KI back.
My complaint is that he takes a lot of ill-advised circus shots and while sure...he makes some and can get streaky.....that's not anything Cleveland needs with the much more efficient scorers they have in Love, Lebron, KI.
Frankly, I'd prefer him gone but he's not hurting anything with his little 1 year contract.
He was MIA in the Finals, he had a game in Atlanta that the Cavs won becuase of him and another in the playoffs that we won with a great deal of help from him. For the non-headache 5M a year version of JR, its hard to argue his exclusion from the team.
The Bulls need Noah and Gasol to be healthy and play well to win. Their full front court including Mirotic and Taj beats any in the East if they all play well.
Also the Bulls would've been up 3-1 if the ref whistled the Cavs for a timeout they didn't have.
And you got closed out by Delly. It was great series don't get me wrong, KI was hurt and out for parts, Love was out, Gasol was hurt and out for parts. It wasn't the best of both teams, but the Cavs have gained more since that series.
The East had their opportunity...even I said it last year. I picked the Bulls #1 seed Cavs #2 with the Cavs narrowly beating the Bulls in Finals.
The gap is getting wider with the Cavs being deeper on the bench, another year to gel, a year for the rookie coach to get established. We can still add another guy with a 10M trade exception.
And if the Cavs are healthy...its curtains. I was honest last year, I'll be honest this year.
And Duncan and Ginobli...way too many older guys to rely upon IMO.
No denying that they are deep with great coaching.
Spurs won't be relying on them like they used to. Hell, to be honest they haven't relied on the big 3 for years. Re-watch some games over the past couple years where they were blowing teams out with the big 3 only combining for 10 or 15 points.
This year you will see Kawhi and LaMarcus handle the lion's share of the scoring while Parker becomes more of a distributor. As usual, most of the points will come from sharing the ball. I'm surprised most people haven't figured this out about the Spurs yet.
He was MIA in the Finals, he had a game in Atlanta that the Cavs won becuase of him and another in the playoffs that we won with a great deal of help from him. For the non-headache 5M a year version of JR, its hard to argue his exclusion from the team.
And...He's not a liability on the defensive end.
If JR Smith is willing to be primarily a defensive specialist and settle for the occasional UNGAURDED 3-pointer and is happy with that role then it's awesome for Cleveland.
You just do NOT want him taking many FGA's from the 3 primary scorers.
He wasn't MIA in the finals....that would have been a blessing. He was front and center taking 13 shots a night and making about 4-5 of them shooting just barely over 30%. 6 assists in 6 games and only got to the line in 2 of the 6 games averaging less than 2 FT's per game. In short, he hung around at the arc and took an average of almost NINE 3's a game often while being close guarded which resulted in him being 15 of 51 from 3-pt. range.
Now with Love and KI on the court if his FGA's are more like 6 per game then I would think he'll be fine in the playoffs this upcoming year.
As raw and inexperienced as GSW was last year in the finals I think Clevelands injuries caused them to miss a golden (no pun intended) opportunity for a championship as GSW took 2 games or so to settle down and then blasted Cleveland down the stretch. With Love and KI they'd have been able to take advantage for an early series lead that they'd had a better chance of then holding onto.
If JR Smith is willing to be primarily a defensive specialist and settle for the occasional UNGAURDED 3-pointer and is happy with that role then it's awesome for Cleveland.
You just do NOT want him taking many FGA's from the 3 primary scorers.
He wasn't MIA in the finals....that would have been a blessing. He was front and center taking 13 shots a night and making about 4-5 of them shooting just barely over 30%. 6 assists in 6 games and only got to the line in 2 of the 6 games averaging less than 2 FT's per game. In short, he hung around at the arc and took an average of almost NINE 3's a game often while being close guarded which resulted in him being 15 of 51 from 3-pt. range.
Now with Love and KI on the court if his FGA's are more like 6 per game then I would think he'll be fine in the playoffs this upcoming year.
As raw and inexperienced as GSW was last year in the finals I think Clevelands injuries caused them to miss a golden (no pun intended) opportunity for a championship as GSW took 2 games or so to settle down and then blasted Cleveland down the stretch. With Love and KI they'd have been able to take advantage for an early series lead that they'd had a better chance of then holding onto.
With Love and KI out it affected Lebron GREATLY. He had a bad Finals...if you look past the scoring output. He wasn't Lebron. We were essentially a half of big three because his effectiveness is truly felt more as a distributor.
Aside from Thompson and Mozy I didn't see ANY other Cav elevate their game. Granted we were asking guys like Mike Miller and Delly to play more than they had EVER played all season to step into a NBA Finals.
The league can whine but our Golden opportunity is this season and hopefully the next season too.
With Cleveland's fractured lineup GSW found the right mix when they went small and took Bogut out. I thought giving Mozy a limited role was dumb. If nothing else, He was impacting shots on GSW drives. He was also stepping out and hitting jumpers. We didn't play our hand very well either. With GSW it wasn't a let's get acclimated here situation (the Finals are too big for us)...it was a change in the lineup after the first three games. That and Iggy playing out of his mind.
Every fan base can point to a call, mine is the Mozy phantom travel that cost us game 1...it would have been nice to be up 3-0.
Spurs won't be relying on them like they used to. Hell, to be honest they haven't relied on the big 3 for years. Re-watch some games over the past couple years where they were blowing teams out with the big 3 only combining for 10 or 15 points.
This year you will see Kawhi and LaMarcus handle the lion's share of the scoring while Parker becomes more of a distributor. As usual, most of the points will come from sharing the ball. I'm surprised most people haven't figured this out about the Spurs yet.
exactly the days of manu or tim or parker being the must have scoring are gone. leonard and LA are the future along with green. tim will contribute, tone will as well, and manu will get about 15 minutes but leonard and LA are going to combine to lead the team.
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