****The Official 2014-15 NBA Thread****

Chris Bosh is like move out my way, I'm taking over.

Damn.

Gonna need more from Deng and the PGs to win. Wade and Bosh cannot carry all the load.

Spo, the last two games with some weird rotations. Low minutes for Deng and Ennis. Not good.

Holy **** what a shot from Hayward. Great win for Utah.

It's starting to look like Cleveland is going to take a significant amount longer to gel than Miami did when coming together. Their bench seems clumsy as hell.

Team has injuries.....Bird, UD, Deng is limited, McBob is on min. restriction and Granger has a hammy.....

What is important is that Bosh and Wade looked great, again.

Tough to win that game vs. the 2nd best Center in the NBA with 2 healthy front line players and one of them is J-Ham.

As far as Ennis...he blows too many assignments to get 4th quarter minutes, but Spo has thrown him out there each game as a "Heat Check".

I commented on Twitter that Spo seems to be tailoring the rotations as if he is laying the groundwork for Napier to start soon. He is purposely Inserting Shabazz Napier in a way that matches him up with the other team's best PG, and then he is giving him the entire 4th quarter to play.

"Section126 wrote:

Team has injuries.....Bird, UD, Deng is limited, McBob is on min. restriction and Granger has a hammy.....

What is important is that Bosh and Wade looked great, again.

Tough to win that game vs. the 2nd best Center in the NBA with 2 healthy front line players and one of them is J-Ham.

As far as Ennis...he blows too many assignments to get 4th quarter minutes, but Spo has thrown him out there each game as a "Heat Check".

I commented on Twitter that Spo seems to be tailoring the rotations as if he is laying the groundwork for Napier to start soon. He is purposely Inserting Shabazz Napier in a way that matches him up with the other team's best PG, and then he is giving him the entire 4th quarter to play.

We look fine with injuries too! Not worried at all.

Wade played well in the 4th...made a run in the end, closed the gap but couldn't score in the very end.

"aesop wrote:

It's starting to look like Cleveland is going to take a significant amount longer to gel than Miami did when coming together. Their bench seems clumsy as hell.

While that may be true, I don't think that is the problem (Delly would make the bench look better as well). When you are trying to win and only manage to have 4 assists though 44 minutes, that's a problem.

"Stitches wrote:

While that may be true, I don't think that is the problem (Delly would make the bench look better as well). When you are trying to win and only manage to have 4 assists though 44 minutes, that's a problem.

Kyrie had one of the weirdest games I've ever seen. He was crazy efficient and kept the Cavs in it a lot - but his head was just down trying to take 2-3 guys off the dribble on every possession. Kevin Love was just hanging out wide open outside the 3 pt line doing nothing and Kyrie didn't even glance that way.

It's like - sure, you're making crazy acrobatic layups over 3 guys - but you could probably just pass over here to the wide open Kevin Love for a 3 instead.

I don't think it's time to freak out with the Cavs yet. The Heat struggled early when the big 3 came together. We all knew it would take time to figure it out. Anyone who didn't think that was kidding themselves.

Not worried at all and we got the 4 games in 5 nights schedule out of the way, we won't have that again the rest of the season, thank god. It was a tough stretch especially to start the season.

So LeBron yelled at Kyrie for dominating the ball 2 nights ago and then Kyrie came out and played completely ball-dominant in "F YOU" scoring mode last night?

This is getting good.

"PhiNomina wrote:

So LeBron yelled at Kyrie for dominating the ball 2 nights ago and then Kyrie came out and played completely ball-dominant in "F YOU" scoring mode last night?

This is getting good.

Drama begins. Lebron back to Miami :lol:

Kidding.

"Alex44 wrote:

Drama begins. Lebron back to Miami :lol:

Kidding.

No thanks, I know you're kidding but there won't be a sweeter feeling when we eliminate the Cavaliers in the playoffs. Not even an NBA Championship will feel as good. Riley and the Heat organization is way above bending over for Lebron James.

It won't be that feeling like Kevin Love and Danny Granger felt when they both said they were happy to see us lose against the Mavericks, meanwhile they were watching from their couch as if they had anything to do with it. Wade and Bosh will watch the Cavaliers with their heads down in disappointment headed to the locker room after we eliminate them.

"Vertical Limit wrote:

No thanks, I know you're kidding but there won't be a sweeter feeling when we eliminate the Cavaliers in the playoffs. Not even an NBA Championship will feel as good. Riley and the Heat organization is way above bending over for Lebron James.

It won't be that feeling like Kevin Love and Danny Granger felt when they both said they were happy to see us lose against the Mavericks, meanwhile they were watching from their couch as if they had anything to do with it. Wade and Bosh will watch the Cavaliers with their heads down in disappointment headed to the locker room after we eliminate them.

Hey I'm the one everyone trashed and called a liar for saying I don't want Lebron back so we are on the same page.

I mean aside from the schadenfreude angle I don't know why people are looking at this situation where Kyrie Irving refuses to play team-oriented basketball and LeBron keeps having to talk to him about it and we're all pouncing on LeBron for this. This is Irving's deal, and it shows just how special a trio the Heat had managed to put together back in 2010.

I really recommend listening to that Podcast that Lebby did with Riley.

There is a great story there how he thought he was being invited to a Dinner with Jerry Buss where he was gonna be offered the HC Job and instead...Mitch Kupshack and Jerry Buss wanted to talk about our Young players including D-Wade.

That is when Pat Riley realized that Shaquille Oneal was available, and he promptly told Buss that Wade was "Untouchable." Then the Deal was made, right there at that dinner over very expensive bottles of wine. Butler, Grant, Odom and a 1st round pick.

"ckparrothead wrote:

I mean aside from the schadenfreude angle I don't know why people are looking at this situation where Kyrie Irving refuses to play team-oriented basketball and LeBron keeps having to talk to him about it and we're all pouncing on LeBron for this. This is Irving's deal, and it shows just how special a trio the Heat had managed to put together back in 2010.

The weirdest part is that supposedly Blatt held a film session before yesterday's game and told Kyrie he was 3rd in the pecking order and that his job was to feed Love and LeBron. Before that, LeBron had scolded Kyrie in the locker room after the loss to Portland about ball hogging.

So Kyrie comes out and drops 34 pts and 0 assists while taking on 2-3 defenders every time down. Pretty impressive to watch. He went full Melo.

After the game? Blatt praised Kyrie's game.

It's kind of a mess and Blatt might be in over his head. I'm a Cavs fan but this is still wildly entertaining.

"ckparrothead wrote:

I mean aside from the schadenfreude angle I don't know why people are looking at this situation where Kyrie Irving refuses to play team-oriented basketball and LeBron keeps having to talk to him about it and we're all pouncing on LeBron for this. This is Irving's deal, and it shows just how special a trio the Heat had managed to put together back in 2010.

I don't think anyone is blaming Lebron. Unless you mean the media.

In the wake of The Decision, I think there was kind of a fad of everyone trying to go after a Big Three.

But I think the Heat's strategy would more accurately be dubbed a Right Three strategy as opposed to a Big Three strategy.

And I'm not sure that's what is happening in Cleveland.

"Section126 wrote:

I commented on Twitter that Spo seems to be tailoring the rotations as if he is laying the groundwork for Napier to start soon. He is purposely Inserting Shabazz Napier in a way that matches him up with the other team's best PG, and then he is giving him the entire 4th quarter to play.

What's the timeline on that switch, you think? I was thinking around Christmas if they did actually make that change, maybe right after or something. But at the moment the way Cole's going...erm...

And man, this Cavs thing is so strange...and yet so predictable. At least the NBA has national storylines in November, I guess.

In the wake of The Decision, I think there was kind of a fad of everyone trying to go after a Big Three.

But I think the Heat's strategy would more accurately be dubbed a Right Three strategy as opposed to a Big Three strategy.
I think people outside of Miami didn't realize/underestimated how intelligently and professionally Wade handled everything. People had the wrong impression of him for some reason, and maybe underestimated the importance of he and LeBron's friendship. Bosh's super versatile game didn't hurt either...and he's a unique personality.

This is a pretty good one though:

"ckparrothead wrote:

I mean aside from the schadenfreude angle I don't know why people are looking at this situation where Kyrie Irving refuses to play team-oriented basketball and LeBron keeps having to talk to him about it and we're all pouncing on LeBron for this. This is Irving's deal, and it shows just how special a trio the Heat had managed to put together back in 2010.

I really think this part of it is so overlooked. It takes a special kind of player to be able to completely change their game and take a back seat.

"PhiNomina wrote:

The weirdest part is that supposedly Blatt held a film session before yesterday's game and told Kyrie he was 3rd in the pecking order and that his job was to feed Love and LeBron. Before that, LeBron had scolded Kyrie in the locker room after the loss to Portland about ball hogging.

So Kyrie comes out and drops 34 pts and 0 assists while taking on 2-3 defenders every time down. Pretty impressive to watch. He went full Melo.

After the game? Blatt praised Kyrie's game.

It's kind of a mess and Blatt might be in over his head. I'm a Cavs fan but this is still wildly entertaining.

While it's way too early to tell, it always struck me as strange that they felt a guy with zero NBA experience would be the right guy to handle this job. This job, more than any in the NBA, is more about managing egos than the X's and O's of it. This guy has never dealt with one NBA superstar, let alone three (and a guy in Waiters who thinks he's a superstar).

"ckparrothead wrote:

In the wake of The Decision, I think there was kind of a fad of everyone trying to go after a Big Three.

But I think the Heat's strategy would more accurately be dubbed a Right Three strategy as opposed to a Big Three strategy.

And I'm not sure that's what is happening in Cleveland.

I agree with your premise, but it's early in Cleveland. That is something that those three can eventually learn to do. Of course, it's also entirely possible that they never do.