Trade Deadline - Feb 8 at 3:00 EST

[WorldFreeB]

View: https://twitter.com/stevekylernba/status/953640987598966784


His response to a Demarre Carroll/ TT swap and the pick

Um it seems that they are talking about the cavs first rounder not the Brooklyn first the cavs got from Boston. I don't know how he got Brooklyn pick ,,,the trade would be with Brooklyn.

 

[Pierre Pan]

Um it seems that they are talking about the cavs first rounder not the Brooklyn first the cavs got from Boston. I don't know how he got Brooklyn pick ,,,the trade would be with Brooklyn.

While it might have been referring to the Cavs’ own pick, they do have the ability to trade Brooklyn’s pick back to the Nets. Of course, I don’t see anything on their roster worthy of it.

 

[Tressel33]

Since LBJ isn't going to let us know if he's resigning here or not, then DON'T trade the pick.
This years draft has some nice talent, and surely the Cavs can grab a nice player. Don't screw it up and trade it away, unless of course it's for a Paul George.

 

[Splitz]

Batum could probably be had for Shump+Frye, and then I’d trade TT for the best C I can find. Would be a huge hit to Dans wallet but it’s one way to potentially add a high level player for cheap if Batum can start playing well.

His shooting issues seem to mirror JR. He seems to have lost all confidence. Do you think he just needs a change of scenery? It's an instant upgrade on the defensive end though I'm sure.

 

[Lyuokdea]

As far as I see it - to build an "anti-GS" defense, you really need 3 things:

1.) A player to Guard Draymond Green - Who can switch onto Curry in pick-and-rolls. The optimal player in the league for this is LBJ, and we have him. Check.

2.) A player to guard Curry, who can switch onto Draymond Green in pick and rolls. Our best bet is Shumpert, but he's not a particularly good anti-Curry defender. Dwayne Wade might be able to do it in spurts.

Curry isn't exceptionally quick, so you probably want a bigger SG with long arms who can bother Curry's shot and can also defend Green near the post. Optimal players would be a Danny Green, a Jrue Holiday, or maybe more active SG/SF type?

Among players we could get - Batum or Bazemore probably wouldn't be bad.

3.) A player who can guard Durant 1-1: Our best bet is LBJ (but he's better guarding Green). The best bet on the team is probably Green.

There's obviously nobody in the league who can totally do this. The best bets are a Kawhi Leonard, or a Giannis. Maybe a Paul George, Porzingis or Thabo Sefolosha? Tony Allen for some reason has always been good at this? Also could think about an Aaron Gordon, Blake Griffin, Brandom Ingram, or another player who could at least athletically accomplish this feat?

Among players we could get - Gordon? Griffin? ????

After that, I think you need normal defensive players. You need a guy that can run around with Klay Thompson, you could add a rim-protecting center, or a guy with long arms to stuff up the passing lanes, or maybe hide an offensive player like IT on Iggy. A lot of options, but I think defensive players #2 and #3 are what we really need to target.

 

[BigJ]

There is a Rumour over at hoopshype.com that the Cavs are talking to the Jazz about Favors.

What do you guys think?

He is no Deandre Jordan caliber but is also propably much easier to get. He is a good(not great) Rim Protector. Good Roll Man and Post Player. And he is quite agile for a Big and very athletic.

 

[billmac91]

As far as I see it - to build an "anti-GS" defense, you really need 3 things:

1.) A player to Guard Draymond Green - Who can switch onto Curry in pick-and-rolls. The optimal player in the league for this is LBJ, and we have him. Check.

2.) A player to guard Curry, who can switch onto Draymond Green in pick and rolls. Our best bet is Shumpert, but he's not a particularly good anti-Curry defender. Dwayne Wade might be able to do it in spurts.

Curry isn't exceptionally quick, so you probably want a bigger SG with long arms who can bother Curry's shot and can also defend Green near the post. Optimal players would be a Danny Green, a Jrue Holiday, or maybe more active SG/SF type?

Among players we could get - Batum or Bazemore probably wouldn't be bad.

3.) A player who can guard Durant 1-1: Our best bet is LBJ (but he's better guarding Green). The best bet on the team is probably Green.

There's obviously nobody in the league who can totally do this. The best bets are a Kawhi Leonard, or a Giannis. Maybe a Paul George, Porzingis or Thabo Sefolosha? Tony Allen for some reason has always been good at this? Also could think about an Aaron Gordon, Blake Griffin, Brandom Ingram, or another player who could at least athletically accomplish this feat?

Among players we could get - Gordon? Griffin? ????

After that, I think you need normal defensive players. You need a guy that can run around with Klay Thompson, you could add a rim-protecting center, or a guy with long arms to stuff up the passing lanes, or maybe hide an offensive player like IT on Iggy. A lot of options, but I think defensive players #2 and #3 are what we really need to target.

Couple things going back to last year that were interesting to me:

1. Spurs in regular season tried guarding Curry with Kawhi to disrupt their offensive flow. It didn’t work....Curry’s release is so quick, and as good of a defender as Kawhi is, he just couldn’t close the needed gap in space to make Curry uncomfortable. They switched to Danny Green/TP/Murray by end of regular season.

It sounds counter intuitive, but I think the best type of defender on Curry is actually a guy who can keep an extremely low center of gravity, and get into Curry’s body without fouling. I mean, nobody does this better than Patrick Beverly but that’s not happening. Bigger/longer guys tend to give too much space thinking their length will disrupt. He just abuses that space though, because his release is just ridiculous.

2. One thing that has always been really interesting to me, is Chris Paul’s defensive success against Durant. Going back to Durant’s days at OKC, Chris Paul has taken it upon himself to guard Durant for big possessions and shorter spot minutes throughout a game. Sure, KD can shoot right over him, but what it does is prevent a bigger guy from getting blown by, creating free lanes to the rim
or a breakdown in the defense leading to a wide open 3. CP3 has that pit bull mentality too....which helps.

3. Almost the complete opposite of this, was the Spurs conceding jump shots to Durant last year in WCF prior to Leonard getting “Zaza’d“. Spurs flat out gave Durant 10 feet of space and literally gave him any shot he wanted outside of 10 feet. And it worked well......analytically, your odds of beating GSW is probably highest when giving Durant wide open 2 pt shots rather than the looks they get in flow of their offense. They’d run him off the 3 pt line, but instead of the next guy rotating over to pick him up, they’d just run to a spot under the hoop taking away a lay-up at rim. Most teams send help in that situation...the Spurs rotated to just take away lay-ups. Either with Aldridge or Gasol. It was awesome until Kawhi got screwed over....

 

[bee-eazy13]

I'm just telling you what I heard. He is directly related to Rich Paul. He is convinced TT is gone, to where he couldn't say.

Couple things going back to last year that were interesting to me:

1. Spurs in regular season tried guarding Curry with Kawhi to disrupt their offensive flow. It didn’t work....Curry’s release is so quick, and as good of a defender as Kawhi is, he just couldn’t close the needed gap in space to make Curry uncomfortable. They switched to Danny Green/TP/Murray by end of regular season.

It sounds counter intuitive, but I think the best type of defender on Curry is actually a guy who can keep an extremely low center of gravity, and get into Curry’s body without fouling. I mean, nobody does this better than Patrick Beverly but that’s not happening. Bigger/longer guys tend to give too much space thinking their length will disrupt. He just abuses that space though, because his release is just ridiculous.

2. One thing that has always been really interesting to me, is Chris Paul’s defensive success against Durant. Going back to Durant’s days at OKC, Chris Paul has taken it upon himself to guard Durant for big possessions and shorter spot minutes throughout a game. Sure, KD can shoot right over him, but what it does is prevent a bigger guy from getting blown by, creating free lanes to the rim
or a breakdown in the defense leading to a wide open 3. CP3 has that pit bull mentality too....which helps.

3. Almost the complete opposite of this, was the Spurs conceding jump shots to Durant last year in WCF prior to Leonard getting “Zaza’d“. Spurs flat out gave Durant 10 feet of space and literally have him any shot he wanted outside of 10 feet. And it worked well......analytically, you’re odds of beating GSW is probably highest when giving Durant wide open 2 pt shots rather than the looks they get in flow of their offense. They’d run him off the 3 pt line, but instead of the next guy rotating over to pick him up, they’d just run to a spot under the hoop taking away a lay-up at rim. Most teams send help in that situation...the Spurs rotated to just take away lay-ups. Either with Aldridge or Gasol. It was awesome until Kawhi got screwed over....

This is why great coaching matters. We have more talent than the Spurs (offensively at least) but they were in full control of the first game until Kawhi went down (small sample size I know) and that was with Curry going off too if I remember correctly.

Spurs really only have Kawhi that can create for himself consistently at a high level, the system gets the others good looks.

Even if we upgraded our roster, I still wouldn’t trust Lue to fully maximize the talent. Even if we only got Bazemore and DeAndre Jordan hypothetically...if Pop was our coach I’d feel really good about our chances.

But then again there’s only 1 Pop...who can coach this team that’s available that can out coach Kerr?

 

[billmac91]

This is why great coaching matters. We have more talent than the Spurs (offensively at least) but they were in full control of the first game until Kawhi went down (small sample size I know) and that was with Curry going off too if I remember correctly.

Spurs really only have Kawhi that can create for himself consistently at a high level, the system gets the others good looks.

Even if we upgraded our roster, I still wouldn’t trust Lue to fully maximize the talent. Even if we only got Bazemore and DeAndre Jordan hypothetically...if Pop was our coach I’d feel really good about our chances.

But then again there’s only 1 Pop...who can coach this team that’s available that can out coach Kerr?

Coaching is our biggest issue. I mean, we saw it in our last game with GSW. We can easily compete with them and have the talent to win.

The issue is our offensive pace when playing them. We can look effective in short stretches, but over the course of 48 minutes, we're rarely going to get the "W" playing that style with them. They're so unselfish, keep the ball moving, and consistently get much better looks throughout the course of the game.

We beat them in the Finals using a David Blatt formula that was instilled from the beginning of that season. Tough defense, and selective fast breaking. It more Miami Heat than GSW.

Trying to out-run GSW is absurd. Especially when we're ranked 29th in defensive efficiency.

 

[Rikkk]

I believe that with IT at 100% the gap with GS is not so big.
We need to solve the problem of the SG and the C. About the SG...JR has to be benched as soon as possible. What if we go with IT and Rose together? It's crazy I know but if we are going to stay like this, I don't see soo many solutions...Shumpert is Shumpert and Wade he's better in the 2unit. Osman is not even an option for Lue.

 

[bee-eazy13]

Coaching is our biggest issue. I mean, we saw it in our last game with GSW. We can easily compete with them and have the talent to win.

The issue is our offensive pace when playing them. We can look effective in short stretches, but over the course of 48 minutes, we're rarely going to get the "W" playing that style with them. They're so unselfish, keep the ball moving, and consistently get much better looks throughout the course of the game.

We beat them in the Finals using a David Blatt formula that was instilled from the beginning of that season. Tough defense, and selective fast breaking. It more Miami Heat than GSW.

Trying to out-run GSW is absurd. Especially when we're ranked 29th in defensive efficiency.

I feel ya. We need to slow it down against them, limit the amount of possessions they get the ball. I agree about the selective fast breaking. I think we should push the ball quickly across half court and hopefully get some mismatches, but from there, use as much shot clock as possible.

And the hell with offensive rebounding, they attack on the break so fast we need to just get back on D.

Problem with playing in the half court is Lebron can’t be the ball handler in that situation. He’s too old at this point to take all their elite wing defenders off the dribble. I’m praying IT becomes the guy we need for that, makes Lebron more effective playing off ball and conserves his energy.

 

[kookoo]

I feel ya. We need to slow it down against them, limit the amount of possessions they get the ball. I agree about the selective fast breaking. I think we should push the ball quickly across half court and hopefully get some mismatches, but from there, use as much shot clock as possible.

And the hell with offensive rebounding, they attack on the break so fast we need to just get back on D.

Problem with playing in the half court is Lebron can’t be the ball handler in that situation. He’s too old at this point to take all their elite wing defenders off the dribble. I’m praying IT becomes the guy we need for that, makes Lebron more effective playing off ball and conserves his energy.

The crazy thing to me is our guys are so lax Golden State had at least 10 points off our made baskets that looked like fast breaks. And no one ever stops the ball.

Igoudala basically sped up the floor 4 or 5 times. The most embarrassing was when Green was guarding him and did a decent job until the 3 point line and decided just to stop guarding him. So essentially our guys are overcommitting on the 3 and undercommitting on the drive. That's bad coaching/defensive scheme. Why fly past when you are better off getting a hand up? You're not going to block a Klay or Steph 3 and they're probably better off a pump fake.

 

[jvpertz]

The Cavs single biggest issue is not the opponent but super mega low efficiency players who are equally abysmal offensively, defensively and most importantly from an iq standpoint.

It would be tough for The 95-96 bulls to be the 95-96 bulls if they had Tristan Thompson and jr Smith logging heavy minutes. It would be really hard.

You have to marvel at how bad of an effect those two players are having on the Cavs right now.

Simply cutting them outright or having them get hurt would DRAMATICALY improve the Cavs chances.

The Cavs have great talent in a league filled with solid teams with solid talent. However I’m not sure there is a non bottom 5 team in the nba playing giving bigger minutes to two such ineffective players.

They literally make every Cavs opponent five points better on the floor...

The other problem is that derick rose is more of the same.... he actually makes the opponent better by playing

 

[Heej]

With the way JR was able to make plays off LeBron screening him when they slotted Curry onto him maybe we can make something work with a JR+TT+Cle 1st for Fournier and Biyombo? Both those guys don't work for the Magic and getting a mid 20s first isn't bad. Fournier would be able to do just enough to punish the Warriors for putting Curry on him if Lebron is the one setting the screen because that'll trigger an automatic switch eventually.

If they're really tryna play games and put Curry on Crowder in that lineup just swap Crowder for Green and let him post up Curry and draw emergency help while he credibly defends KD.

 

[LeeBuckeye]

I don’t know how impactful this is but in 8 out of their 9 losses Klay has had terrible shooting games. The only loss that can’t be attributed to him was agains Detroit where he shot 12/19 from the field.