2014-15 NBA General Discussion Thread

Originally posted by JustinMT:

Originally posted by 4ML:

Originally posted by JustinMT:

Originally posted by Jcool:

Brian Windhorst ‏@WindhorstESPN

Kyrie Irving has played 5 quarters and taken 24 shots since his last assist.

Awesome point guard play.

I'll judge the team after 25-30 games. It'll be silly to read too much into anything right now.

The whole team had 6 assists tonight. lol Like how is that even possible when you're in the NBA? I don't get it.

Definitely a lot of 1-on-1 basketball. I bet Lebron had 4-5 assists out of 6. That's something Kyrie has to adapt in his game. Lebron has said he wants Kyrie to run the offense most of the time. Not sure how long that experiment will last but long term success of the team depends on some of the young players to become multi-dimensional players. That has always been an issue with Kyrie, Waiters, and Thompson. Pretty sure Lebron and Blatt will try to get these guys to play more team basketball but it won't happen over night. Will take couple months at the very least.

Originally posted by Jcool:

Brian Windhorst ‏@WindhorstESPN

Kyrie Irving has played 5 quarters and taken 24 shots since his last assist.

Lmao.

6 total team assists on a team with Lebron and Love is pretty paltry. Zero assists in what, 45 minutes, for a starting PG with those weapons around him is almost inexcusable.

That said, the team will eventually put it together, I doubt they could look any worse, only way to go is up. Installing a new offense, getting guys to buy in, determining fit and gaining chemistry is no easy task that will be done overnight.

Offensively, they'll eventually begin to gel, it'll come together; what's more worrisome IMO is their defense (or lack thereof) and thin depth.

Wolves have a better record than the Cavs. Suck on that K Love

Originally posted by valrod33:
Wolves have a better record than the Cavs. Suck on that K Love

lol KLove missing Minnesota all of a sudden

btw, hella random but this s**t was hilarious

Is Gordon Hayward the best 2 guard in the league this year?... He may be. I would choose him and Klay over the beard, that's for sure.

Originally posted by sacniner:
Is Gordon Hayward the best 2 guard in the league this year?... He may be. I would choose him and Klay over the beard, that's for sure.

Klay is #1. He's taken a huge leap since last year.

Originally posted by LA9erFan:

Originally posted by sacniner:
Is Gordon Hayward the best 2 guard in the league this year?... He may be. I would choose him and Klay over the beard, that's for sure.

Klay is #1. He's taken a huge leap since last year.

Is Hayward better than Harden you think?

Klay has been beasting this year.

Hayward = Money well spent

Hayward = Money well spent

Originally posted by sacniner:
Is Hayward better than Harden you think?

Klay has been beasting this year.

I'd put Harden ahead of Hayward. I'm not a huge fan of his, but he's a tremendous offensive weapon, even with his defensive deficiencies. I'd say that the SG rankings right now are...

1) Klay Thompson
2) James Harden
3) Kobe Bryant
4) Dwyane Wade
5) Gordon Hayward

JMO

Originally posted by LA9erFan:

Originally posted by sacniner:
Is Hayward better than Harden you think?

Klay has been beasting this year.

I'd put Harden ahead of Hayward. I'm not a huge fan of his, but he's a tremendous offensive weapon, even with his defensive deficiencies. I'd say that the SG rankings right now are...

1) Klay Thompson
2) James Harden
3) Kobe Bryant
4) Dwyane Wade
5) Gordon Hayward

JMO

I think Harden is the best offensive 2 guard in basketball but that Klay is the top all around player. His defense has just gotten so much better over the past 2 years.

Pete... realistically... do you think the Warriors have a shot at the NBA title this year?

Hayward has to prove he can put up 18+ consistently and I would put him top 2 or 3. Harden may score 568 a night but he lacks the defense Hayward can play. Hayward was one of 5 players who averaged 15, 5 and 5 last year. That's with a semi poor shooting percentage. Snyder is going to help him get that percentage up with a much better offensive philosophy. Last year he was forcing way too many shots because Corbin's offense was slow and lazidazical(sp). This years offense allows him to play a lot more free with less stress.

Originally posted by JiksJuicy:
Hayward has to prove he can put up 18+ consistently and I would put him top 2 or 3. Harden may score 568 a night but he lacks the defense Hayward can play. Hayward was one of 5 players who averaged 15, 5 and 5 last year. That's with a semi poor shooting percentage. Snyder is going to help him get that percentage up with a much better offensive philosophy. Last year he was forcing way too many shots because Corbin's offense was slow and lazidazical(sp). This years offense allows him to play a lot more free with less stress.

And the fact that we're even having this talk today shows how much he has improved under Snyder's offense. I questioned his contract as did a lot of other guys but his stats right now are incredible. 19 ppg, 5.5 apg, 6.5 rpg is just awesome especially since his shot selection has vastly improved this year compared to last year and its showing in his shooting percentage. He's shooting 50% from the floor compared to last year's 41% and his 3 point shooting is up to 35% from last year's 30%. Its still extremely early of course and I think he's probably gonna shoot around 45% from the floor this year, but its pretty obvious that he isn't being relied on so heavily this year and is a lot more relaxed because of it.

Originally posted by NeonNiner:
6 total team assists on a team with Lebron and Love is pretty paltry. Zero assists in what, 45 minutes, for a starting PG with those weapons around him is almost inexcusable.

That said, the team will eventually put it together, I doubt they could look any worse, only way to go is up. Installing a new offense, getting guys to buy in, determining fit and gaining chemistry is no easy task that will be done overnight.

Offensively, they'll eventually begin to gel, it'll come together; what's more worrisome IMO is their defense (or lack thereof) and thin depth.

What's hilarious is...before the game on Wednesday evening:

David Blatt tried to establish the Cavs' food chain during Wednesday's film session and team meeting. According to a source with knowledge of the meeting, Blatt essentially told the players that LeBron James and Kevin Love eat first and that it's Kyrie Irving's job as point guard to feed them. Irving can then find his own rhythm after the first two guys get going.

...what does Irving do? He goes out and takes most shots and doesn't have 1 assist lol. It's gonna take a while but I'm sure he'll it figure it out.

And, look at the contrasting answers by Lebron and Kyrie on a 6 assist night:

"No, no, no," Irving said when asked if he is concerned about the lack of assists. "We have great players on this team. Sometimes, things happen in the game, and you have to take it. Me and 'Bron saw that at the end of the game. We gave guys ample opportunities; guys just weren't hitting."

"There's no way you're going to win a basketball game like that, just having six assists," James said. "We had two in the first half, we had four in the second half and we had actually four [total] until the last minute and a half of the game. We just can't win like that, and we got to figure out a way to help each other and not make it so tough."

And, that's the biggest roadblock with Kyrie. He thinks he's playing great because he's scoring points.

..and - it's not just Irving. It will take Blatt 25-30 games to really figure out everything too. Cavs have the 2nd slowest pace in the league lol

Lebron has been passive-aggressive as well and wants Kyrie to figure it out

So, it's early and like any other inexperienced team - they gotta fall first before they win anything meaningful.