Author Topic: Cleveland already preparing for excuses?  (Read 9523 times)

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Re: Cleveland already preparing for excuses?
« Reply #15 on: June 03, 2015, 11:46:51 AM »

Offline D.o.s.

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What about Steve Nash? Derrick Rose?

MVP voting has little to do with best player status, although one of the league's best players always wins the MVP award.
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Re: Cleveland already preparing for excuses?
« Reply #16 on: June 03, 2015, 11:48:26 AM »

Online Roy H.

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I don't see how this is an excuse. LeBron is the face of the franchise, and one of the best players in the NBA. Why not have him front and center?

He is THE best player in the NBA.  Has being for years.

MVP votes disagree with you.
MVP has nothing to do with who the best player is.

And so Lebron is just the definitive best player, no questions asked? I'd say Curry was the best player in the league this year, and Durant was the best player in the league last year. No arguing that Lebron was one of the best, though.

I agree with Moranis.  Lebron has been the best player in the league for awhile now, and MVP voters get sick of voting for him.

Steph isn't better in my opinion.  The two were roughly equal scorers and passers, but Lebron is a much better rebounder and defender.


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Re: Cleveland already preparing for excuses?
« Reply #17 on: June 03, 2015, 12:20:08 PM »

Offline PhoSita

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LeBron's the best player in the world in a vacuum, but Curry was the most valuable player over the course of the regular season for the team that was far and away the best in the league.
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Re: Cleveland already preparing for excuses?
« Reply #18 on: June 03, 2015, 01:02:26 PM »

Offline LarBrd33

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Lebron is still definitely the best player in the league.  Probably one of the 5 greatest players ever.  Golden State has what some believe may be a top 5 team of all time.   Would take a superhuman performance from James to beat them.  If anyone has it in him, it's James.  I think golden state will be too much though.

Re: Cleveland already preparing for excuses?
« Reply #19 on: June 03, 2015, 01:06:14 PM »

Offline rocknrollforyoursoul

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I don't see how this is an excuse. LeBron is the face of the franchise, and one of the best players in the NBA. Why not have him front and center?

He is THE best player in the NBA.  Has being for years.

MVP votes disagree with you.
MVP has nothing to do with who the best player is.

And so Lebron is just the definitive best player, no questions asked? I'd say Curry was the best player in the league this year, and Durant was the best player in the league last year. No arguing that Lebron was one of the best, though.

I agree with Moranis.  Lebron has been the best player in the league for awhile now, and MVP voters get sick of voting for him.

Steph isn't better in my opinion.  The two were roughly equal scorers and passers, but Lebron is a much better rebounder and defender.

No offense to LilRip or anyone else, but I don't see how this is even debatable. Curry's a great player, and I love him, but no one can hold a candle to LeBron in terms of overall basketball skill and effectiveness.

Lebron is still definitely the best player in the league.  Golden State has what some believe may be a top 5 team of all time.   Would take a superhuman performance from James to beat them.

A superhuman LeBron performance is just what we might see, á la 2012 Eastern Conference Finals Game 6 LeBron. Wouldn't surprise me at all, and wouldn't surprise me if Cleveland won, though I'm hoping that's not the case (though I do feel sympathy for CLE fans and would be happy for them).
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Re: Cleveland already preparing for excuses?
« Reply #20 on: June 03, 2015, 01:07:37 PM »

Online Donoghus

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Lebron is still definitely the best player in the league.  Probably one of the 5 greatest players ever.  Golden State has what some believe may be a top 5 team of all time.   Would take a superhuman performance from James to beat them.  If anyone has it in him, it's James.  I think golden state will be too much though.

This is how I'm leaning.  Although the declaraions of Golden State being a top 5 all-time team  may be pretty ambitious.  That debate is for the future, though.

Lebron would need to put together multiple "all-time" type games for CLE to win this series, IMO.  It could certainly happen, we've seen him put together games like that before but he is facing a very formidable team.


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Re: Cleveland already preparing for excuses?
« Reply #21 on: June 03, 2015, 01:09:34 PM »

Offline PhoSita

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Quote from: LrBrd33
It would take a superhuman performance from James to beat them.

A superhuman LeBron performance is just what we might see, á la 2012 Eastern Conference Finals Game 6 LeBron. Wouldn't surprise me at all, and wouldn't surprise me if Cleveland won, though I'm hoping that's not the case (though I do feel sympathy for CLE fans and would be happy for them).

It takes a lot of faith in Bron to think that he could go into Game 6 mode for 4 games out of 7, against the best defensive team in the league, after expending so much energy to get the Cavs to where they are, not to mention playing well into June for 5 straight seasons.   

He's an incredible physical specimen, but he doesn't have an infinite reserve of energy.
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Re: Cleveland already preparing for excuses?
« Reply #22 on: June 03, 2015, 01:16:04 PM »

Offline rocknrollforyoursoul

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Quote from: LrBrd33
It would take a superhuman performance from James to beat them.

A superhuman LeBron performance is just what we might see, á la 2012 Eastern Conference Finals Game 6 LeBron. Wouldn't surprise me at all, and wouldn't surprise me if Cleveland won, though I'm hoping that's not the case (though I do feel sympathy for CLE fans and would be happy for them).

It takes a lot of faith in Bron to think that he could go into Game 6 mode for 4 games out of 7, against the best defensive team in the league, after expending so much energy to get the Cavs to where they are, not to mention playing well into June for 5 straight seasons.   

He's an incredible physical specimen, but he doesn't have an infinite reserve of energy.

Infinite, no, but he seems to have more energy (naturally or artificially) than anyone else. Like I said before, I want GS to win, but as a Celtics fan and LeBron anti-fan, I've seen enough of his heroics to not rule out the possibility of him seizing control of the series.
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Re: Cleveland already preparing for excuses?
« Reply #23 on: June 03, 2015, 01:18:37 PM »

Offline D.o.s.

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Lebron is still definitely the best player in the league.  Probably one of the 5 greatest players ever.  Golden State has what some believe may be a top 5 team of all time.   Would take a superhuman performance from James to beat them.  If anyone has it in him, it's James.  I think golden state will be too much though.


Probably meaning "not really but I'm going to say it" in this instance?
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Re: Cleveland already preparing for excuses?
« Reply #24 on: June 03, 2015, 01:20:34 PM »

Offline snively

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Cleveland isn't so far away from Golden St. that they need Game 6 LeBron for 4 games to win the series.

They just need Klay Thompson to struggle a la Ray against them in 2008 and the field levels significantly.
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Re: Cleveland already preparing for excuses?
« Reply #25 on: June 03, 2015, 01:23:21 PM »

Offline D.o.s.

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Cleveland isn't so far away from Golden St. that they need Game 6 LeBron for 4 games to win the series.

They just need Klay Thompson to struggle a la Ray against them in 2008 and the field levels significantly.

Well, right -- one of the biggest disadvantages Cleveland has going into this series is that they have nowhere to hide Kyrie Irving on defense. If Thompson, or Curry, go cold it makes their lives roughly a million times easier.
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Re: Cleveland already preparing for excuses?
« Reply #26 on: June 03, 2015, 01:25:45 PM »

Online Moranis

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I'm very interested to see what Cleveland does defensively this series, and more specifically what they do with Irving and Smith when they are in the game.  Assuming the Cavs start Irving, Shump, and James, it will be very telling to see who they have on whom.  I mean would the Cavs try to hide Irving on Barnes with Shump on Curry and James on Thompson, or do they see if Irving can guard Thompson with Shump on Curry and James on Barnes in a help mode.  Also interested to see how much James guards Curry and what that does to his energy offensively. 
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Re: Cleveland already preparing for excuses?
« Reply #27 on: June 03, 2015, 01:34:58 PM »

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My guess is this was designed like this for one of three reasons:

Option A:  Lebron is the face of the franchise; AV has been around the longest; Love is a key free agent; or

Option B:  AV and Love aren't going to play in the Finals, but the Cavs want to reinforce that they're still a big part of the team; or

Option C:  The Cavs are trying to be "inclusive" and market to blacks, whites, and Latinos by including a player of each heritage

For whatever it's worth, Irving, Shump, Delladoeva, and J.R. Smith are the Cavs' twitter background image

Option D:  They have more than one banner:

(Though if there was only one, I'd go with Option C).


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Re: Cleveland already preparing for excuses?
« Reply #28 on: June 03, 2015, 01:35:50 PM »

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And there you go!  Mystery solved.


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Re: Cleveland already preparing for excuses?
« Reply #29 on: June 03, 2015, 01:36:57 PM »

Offline OwnthePaint

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Not sure about the conspiracy here. Seems to me like if your playoff slogan is "ALL IN" it is important to get as many players on the banners as you can. To me, the fact that some of the bigger names are more prominently featured is pretty much just marketing 101.