Finals Live Thread: Game 4, Cavs vs Warriors

If you’re like me, your head’s been spinning the last few days. Ever since the Cavs lost Game 3 of the finals, you’ve heard eight billion stupid opinions, read dozens of headlines with ridiculously click-baity conjecture about what the Cavs are gonna do this offseason, and have been nauseated by the suggestions of the inevitability of Warrior victory. I know that was a lot to take in, but that describes the state of my brain. Here’s some of my responses to this onslaught of inanity.

First, let’s address the absolutely idiotic suggestion that that the Cavs should or will blow this team up in the offseason. First up in the dumb ideas bin: trading Kevin Love for Paul George or Jimmy Butler. From a purely basketball standpoint, these ideas makes zero sense. Why would you add a guy who is at his best with the ball in his hands when you already have Kyrie Irving and LeBron James? That rules out Jimmy Butler. When it comes to Paul George, why would you give up Kevin Love’s 11.1 rebounds to get George’s 6.6? Yeah, George scores 23.7 to Kev’s 19.1, but that’s as the first option on his team. Like Seriously, you’re going to give up a guy who gets you 19 and 11 as a third option? Who’s going to rebound for you? Nobody, that’s who.

Second in the bin: moving Kyrie Irving. I actually floated the idea of Irving for CP3, but Mike Schreiner shot me down. The Cavs can’t participate in sign-and-trade when you’re in the luxury tax the way they are. So that rules that out. And there’s really no one else to move him ‘for. Also, now that Steph Curry is gonna get paid, Kyrie is going to be on the best contract bargain in the league. Tom Pestak said it best.

Part of me thinks that Kyrie is who he is and part of me thinks he has an insane amount of room for improvement.  Defense, running an offense, clock awareness.  He remains one of the lowest basketball IQ players in the league.  Maybe he still has another few levels before hitting his ceiling

Some came up with the idea of moving JR, Channing, and Iman, but, the question is who would take them? Channing will be $34 and making $7.5 million. JR is coming off a down year and has close to $45  left over the next few years. Tough move.

But this all belies the fact that the series isn’t freaking over yet. Why are we talking about this!? Let’s play the games before we engineer a blowup that can’t probably can’t happen because the Cavs don’t have a lot of assets that teams are going to want. And who knows, anything is possible. I just wanna see ’em take it one game at a time.

So that brings us to the stupidest rumor of the day: that LeBron’s taking his talents to the West Coast to play with the Lakers or the Clippers. First off, why in God’s name would he want to risk not making the finals every year, by playing against the Dubs and the Spurs and the Rockets on the west coast? All those teams are better than the teams the Cavs are going to finish ahead of in the East for the forseeable future. So yeah, maybe LeBron cares more about movies than playing in the finals, but I doubt it.

Then There’s the Banana Boat rumors. EG is right on here.

I’m sure there will be a resurrection of the Banana Boat Squad trade rumors this off-season (provided the Cavs don’t pull off the Nate Smith miracle comeback)… Kyrie and a contract (either Shump or JR) to Clips for CP3… Kev to Knicks for Melo, a pick and Kylo Quinn… TT and Cedi to the Bulls for DWade and either Portis or Lauvergne… convince Bosh to risk it… Starting lineup: CP3, DWade, LBJ, Melo and Bosh.

Yep, that about sums it up.

I take my queues from Ben Werth on this series. It wasn’t inevitable that the Warriors would win. Who knew that the non LeBron/Kevin Cavs would play like garbage in the first two games and that Lue would make bad decision, and the Cavs would blow game three?

This series has been more about huge weaknesses than lack of strength. The Warriors don’t play stupidly except for the occasional turnover. They have a lot of guys who stick to the gameplan. You have to play with total concentration to beat them but not because they aren’t beatable.

Honestly, in this series, if every minute Shump played was played by Ariza or Joe ingles, hell, old Vince Carter, I think the Cavs win pretty convincingly.

If Lue recognised how much certain rotation issues kill him, the Cavs win.

If Lue had the team run Kyrie some off ball screens like we finally saw and like Coach Nick talked about, they win.
I really think the problem with this team is basic hubris and intellect. A great coach and maturity from Kyrie can help that. Ky is an awful regular season player because he doesn’t try. He’s not a great defender but he’s pretty good when he gives effort and isn’t being left out to dry on backside rotations.

It sounds like I’m just hating on Shump. It is because he almost cost the team the chip last year and he has cost the team this year. You just can’t make certain kinds of mistakes and expect to win. His 2nd quarter of Game 3 killed the Cavs attempt to hold a bigger lead. Yes, I mean Game 3. Just as bad as the game 2 run I wrote about.

Shump is probably really good at one on one. Bad coaches and lots of players get confused into thinking that matters much in 5 time.

So, that’s my longwinded way of saying the Cavs don’t need a major move.  The need a subtraction and a replacement that knows his role, is smart, and has the size to switch onto Durant at times.

CP3 would make the regular season team better but he is too small and doesn’t have another level in the playoffs. He’s great but I don’t think it’s worth it. Kyrie for George, I might still do if their were a way to make contracts work longterm. Not for Love.

So my take? This Cavs team is good enough to compete with the Warriors. If Kyrie gets smarter as LeBron ages, if JR Smith doesn’t break his hand and have a daughter born four months premature, if Tristan starts rebounding, if Shumpert stops dribbling, the Cavs can certainly beat the Warriors. But further than that, I don’t feel this series is over. And if the Cavs win this one, then they can win any one. One game at a time, folks.

Finally, I leave you with one of the better pieces I’ve read in a while, from Cullen Galagher on why the Warriors represent all the worst parts of America. You could focus on Cullen’s description of why he hates Steph Curry.

It was made all the worse by the shoulder-shimmying rich kid swagger of Steph Curry. He of the chomped mouthguard and pube beard — someone whose entire persona can be summed up by the phrase “my dad bought this for me.” He was a winner without context, an icon without style (seriously, look at his shoes), and a champion without adversity. He was the perfect leader for Silicon Valley’s team.

Or you could take his quotes on Kevin Durant…

As much as this move made sense for everyone else involved, I just can’t understand it from Kevin Durant. He’s clearly cemented his legacy as not the guy. He will end his career with multiple championships, sure, but on a team that didn’t need him to win one. He won’t have faced any adversity, won’t have thrown a team on his back to win anything, and won’t have proven himself as a singular talent. He’ll be Scottie Pippen but never Michael Jordan. He might be fine with that. Many players think championships are a surrogate for legacy, but they’re not.

But ultimately, it’s that the Warriors are just the freaking worst.

The Warriors are the fantasyland America that Donald Trump sold us. They bizarre idea that nonstop winning is possible without giving up any concessions. That we don’t have to play by the rules because the world will still want to be friends with us no matter how many times we kick them in the nuts. That it doesn’t matter how you win because winning is cool and good is dumb. You cheer loudly and obnxiously (“Waaaaaaar-yers!”) and spend more time ridiculing those you beat then appreciating the significance of the achievment. The one championship Cleveland won means more to that city than all of the championships in the world would mean to the Bay Area. When your life is good, this is just another Tesla in a garage full of them.

So be a Warriors fan. But recognize that you are bad and you should feel bad, too. You are either a bandwagon fan, a nouveau riche tech douche with no understanding of the game, or a rampaging nihilist who cares not for the institution, but only for your own wellbeing. Be a Warriors fan. But if you want to be a human, at least recognize that you should feel at least a twinge of remorse about it.

#EffTheDubs . Go Cavs.