Brandsdale
Big Yella
This team equally has a chance and tbh it's 50-50 right now. LeBron brought this team to the finals without Kevin and Kyrie and STILL only lost in 6 without JR and shumpert as well. You forget that this team swept their first 2 rounds before the Raptors and even then every win they have in conference finals is 20+ differential.
It's possible that there's a dumber post in this thread, but damn it'd be hard to find it.
Kyrie is good at certain things, but he is NOT good at leading the team. He kills the flow by overdribbling and does not have especially strong court vision. He's been playing far better individually during the playoffs than he did during the regular season, but there are major things missing from his team game and trying to be the focal point of the offense exposes them.
And then you go and say the player who finished #3 in MVP voting this season will win the chip by limiting his role to the thing he does worst.
It's as if you had said that the key to OKC beating the Warriors would have been for Durant to do all the creating and Westbrook to shoot threes.
Weren't you the guy making those embarrassing crackbaby-level posts about how rings alone determine how good a player is?
Everyone needs a competent team to win a championship. Wade and Bosh did not make the Heat into any sort of all-time best supporting cast when Lebron won titles with them. Bosh was out for half the 2012 playoffs, and Lebron led the Heat to a Game 7 victory over the Spurs when Bosh scored zero.
Losing to the 73-win favorites with the unanimous MVP, who just took 3 straight from a team that had 2 of the 4 best players in the league AND a strong supporting cast, would actually make you look any differently at Lebron than you already do?
Yes, I trust the Golden State defense more than the Cavs defense. You're really going to question that?
The three most important players on offense for the Dubs are Curry, Thompson, and Green. The Cavs starters defending them are Kyrie, JR, and Love. No one in basketball history said that's a trio to "trust" on defense.
Green is a better defender than anyone on Cleveland right now. Bogut is a better rim protector than anyone on Cleveland. Thompson is a better defender than either of Cleveland's starting guards. And then they bring Iggy off the bench, who won the 2015 Finals MVP with his defense.
In 2007 Larry Hughes got hurt and missed most of the Finals. Hughes was supposed to be the Cavs #2 player, but honestly, he might have taken away more than he added. Still, an injury that makes Daniel Gibson your second-biggest offensive threat clearly does leave you with a meaningful team. The fact that the Cavs #2 player got hurt and missed most of the Finals, and that you don't even remember that, shows just how bad their supporting cast was.
In 2011 Haslem missed almost the entire season and half the playoffs, and was awful during the Finals while still trying to work his way back. Miller also missed half the season with injuries and wasn't 100% in the Finals either, where he also played terrible. Those were supposed to be 2 of Miami's top 5 players before they got hurt. Miami was also starting the corpse of Mike Bibby at point guard and a D-league level "player" named Joel Anthony at center.
In 2014 Wade missed 30 games during the season and was clearly not 100% and looked horrible during the Finals (remember he averaged 15-4-3 on 44% shooting). Anderson, Miller, and Battier were fighting injuries during the Finals too (Anderson was hurting all year and missed multiple ECF games), though distinguishing between "injuries" and "old age" blurs the line a bit. Then, of course, you had the supposedly "accidental" AC malfunction leading to Lebron's leg cramps which took him out of Game 1.
LeBron has 4 MVPs and the Cavs were the 1st seed in the east this sht is anyone's game, despite the feeling that GSW wins anyway
LeBron has 7 finals appearances and if he loses hes 2-7 in terms of wins and losses looking at ever major HOFer with finals wins and theyre the finals MVP or main contributor their record is untarnished...and I'm saying nikkas only lost on the finals 1-2 times MAX on multiple appearances
