It's interesting though that the Cavs were 21-26 after acquiring Luol Deng (12-23 before that) and now they're swapping Deng for LeBron while Miami is simultaneously swapping LeBron for Deng. If LeBron over Deng is worth 6 wins shouldn't that put the Cavs at 43 wins and Miami at 48 wins? In 2014 that would've seen Miami a 3 seed and Cleveland a 7 seed.
Mike Miller moves like his scrotum is stapled to the inside of both thighs. I can't sit here and take seriously the idea that signing Mike Miller and James Jones actually has an impact for the Cavs.
That's pretty closely in line with Secs data analysis on win shares from earlier. Look anyone not saying Lebron will make the Cavs a much better team is clearly sore. But I do think it is accurate to say the Heat last year were a much better team for winning in the playoffs than this current Cavs roster...and they didn't win it all. Lebron's the best player on the planet....hands down. But he didn't have enough help last year. And now he has less.
In reality though I think Miami is more like a 50 or 51 win team, rather than a 48 win team. First off I don't believe they were really a 54 win team last year. I think they were a 56 win team that decided to unprioritize the season finish because they didn't mind being a 2 seed. Second I think that though losing Ray Allen is a blow, Josh McRoberts is a bigger gain. That gets me to somewhere around 50 wins or perhaps 51 wins.
Of course the idea of LeBron James being worth only 6 wins has to be questioned quite a bit. Consider that the Cavs were a 61 win team when LeBron left and became a 19 win team the very next year.
Losing Miller had an impact on the Heat and Lebron leaving. You really think Lebron wants a bum to come play in Cleveland or that Cleveland would have been interested if Lebron didn't want him? I love how fans turn on players when they leave.
I don't think Cleveland's roster right now is better than the Heat's last year but Cleveland doesn't have to beat last year's Heat team either. I don't think its far fetched to think Cleveland can win the East with a clearly weakened Heat team and Indy non improved.
I agree with that. I also don't think it's far fetched they finish third or fourth in the east. I said before the east is a bag of question marks. The team that gets the best answer wins (well wins the east at least)
In fairness to Miller, he did not look quite as broken down last year in Memphis. He played almost 21 mins a game for them and his ppg was higher than in any year in Miami. He also played in every single game of the season for the first time since he was a rookie. Of course he's a year older though, and it might be unreasonable to expect him to put two seasons together like that will all of his health issues. If he does though, he could have an impact in Cleveland.
Even if healthy while he makes a nice impact he alone isn't the difference between a 3 seed and a 1-2 seed.
I'm talking about dude looked like he had walked out of a vicious car wreck into the floor....on every play lol. It was like he was involved in full body contact on every single play somehow.
Even when he was supposedly healthy for us he looked crippled. Then he'd rise up and nail a three and I'd just be like "ummm what?"
This has nothing to do with LeBron. I've been defending him against character attacks constantly. This is purely an objective statement about Mike Miller's effectiveness as a player. The guy can hardly move. He can still shoot, but he's essentially a stationary turret. And James Jones is even worse than that, somehow.
Miller will have an impact if he stays healthy. My biggest concern about the Cavs right now, in order: 1) Injury history of a few guys 2) Youth 3) Coaching inexperience
Is that assuming Wade sits out around 25 games? Cause I think that's going to happen, and I don't think they're well-equipped to win 50 with him sitting out one of every 3 or 4 games. I think they'd rather settle for the four-seed than push Wade's knees in the process of getting the two-seed.
Thank you for posting this. Sad that anyone pointing out the obvious is being 'butthurt' or a 'jilted ex'. Irregardless of the players, championship caliber cohesion and gelling together doesnt just magically happen overnight or even in one offseason. And Brons supporting cast just got downgraded. Not much to debate. They will go from nonfactors to competitors in the mix, that much is obvious, but they arent going to be crowned anything of significance by anyone other than CLE fans or heat haters any time soon.
I don't think they'll rest Wade the same way they did last year. I keep hearing that Wade's recovery has been a two year plan and he should be healthier next year. They were a 56 or 57 win type of team last year even with Wade sitting that much.
Let me explain something to you. The only thing that lured Lebron to Cleveland is that he was born in that city. The highest profile free agent that Cleveland has ever lured is Larry Hughes. You seem to forget that he left BECAUSE they COULDN'T LURE ANYBODY! You also have a convenient failure of appreciation for what you saw the last 4 years. Lebron James had 2 first ballot unanimous hall of famers as teammates and for the last two years, he had THREE first ballot HOFers. Where is the ONE HOFer teammate in Cleveland? I said this would happen, I just had no idea that the amnesia was gonna set in within 1 week of the guy leaving.
doesn't work that way. You go with the projected Win Shares produced for each team. The Heat won 54 games last year, but underachieved. They were a projected 62 win team. So you go with that number. The Newest projection has the subtraction of LJ and addition of the new contributors costing the Heat roughly around 10 wins on the low end and 14 on the high end. On the flip side...the addition of Lebron James to Cleveland gave them an improvement of 15 games on the low end, to 19 on the high end. This speaks to two things. A) How good Lebron is and the Impact he realizes. B) How good the Team in Miami was around Lebron. As for replacing Lebron, on simple win shares which is a very predictive metric, it takes at least 2 players to replace his production from just one year, and possibly another 2 the following year to completely replace his impact. SO it takes two years to alleviate the loss of a Lebron James. There are only two players in the NBA that have this impact. KD and LJ.
Wade is trolling.... Will say this...something Lebron never had, and I wished he would develop, was Wade's mean streak. Lebron doesn't have mean bone in his body when it comes to basketball. Wade's mean streak is unrivaled. He is gonna hav eto rely on it plenty from here on out. Here he is ...starting on his slow...troll...
I do miss the old D Wade, dude was an extremely violent player who would launch himself like a missile at the basket. He also had a penchant for last second game winning heroics.
He's not going to be young Wade again but he could be somewhere close to his 2010 self. People keep dismissing the fact that last year was about rebuilding strength and explosion in his knee for -this year-. It was supposed to be that way from the moment he had his procedure but no-one wants to acknowledge it for some odd reason.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...eals-full-story-of-heat-stars-injury-recovery Great article really. Grover seems to think at this point it's more about Wade adjusting mentally and not worrying about his knee as much on the floor because it is fine.
I'm not sure how they'd get Jamal Crawford, but that would be amazing. Maybe you mean Jordan Crawford, who is a FA, but probably will cost more than the minimum.
http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/07/17/report-cavaliers-willing-to-trade-andrew-wiggins-for-kevin-love/ Sounds like there might be a Love trade relatively soon.
If the Cavs can get Kevin Love then I'll start believing the talk of them being among the very top teams in the East. Hell if they pull that off you could make the case the LeBron going back to Cleveland was just a good basketball decision.
This. If they really do give up Wiggins and get Love they would be a legitimate threat. And you know that this is LeBron pushing them to get this deal done. When he signed that 2 year deal he was essentially telling Gilbert "you are going to do what I want you to do or I'm leaving." And he clearly wants this as he mentioned just about every player in the Cavs rotation but Wiggins in his SI letter.
And for the Wolves, that would be a nice get and give them a ton of upside with Wiggins, LaVine, and Glenn Robinson. Too bad those guys would probably leave for a better city eventually, but still lots of talent nonetheless.
Too bad the damned Warriors dragged their feet with this. They could have had Love a long time ago if they would have just given up Thompson.
I'm just hoping it crashes through the floor for some reason. Like maybe Minnesota gets to be a real stickler on the price and Dan Gilbert starts leaving nasty drunk phone messages, then Minnesota gets so mad they trade him elsewhere for cheaper.
