Cavs Fans, are you worried on your bench?

[coined]

Thompson
Love
Lebron
JR Smith
Irving


legit backup: Shumpert.

Andersen way past it for rim protection, Dunleavy coming from back surgeries.
Kay Felder way too young to trust first season in championship aspirations. Frye-Jefersson are there in age.


- Need rim protection
- Need Back up point guard
- Back up Lebron

[FreezingTsmoove]

They should be m8

They got a midget anchoring the bench :lol

Cant wait to watch the Warriors bully the little fella around :roll:

[jbryan1984]

Consider this, Delly is all we lost who was part of our regular rotation. Mozgov rarely played and Mo rarely played when Delly returned early in the season.

[JebronLames]

lol Frye and RJ are more important than shump

[G0ATbe]

Wait..... Cavs new backup pg is 5'9 :roll: ? Good lord. Livingston is gonna look like the 2nd coming of Jesus Christ every matchup.:rockon:

[RedBlackAttack]

Dunleavy could turn out to be a really nice pickup. Yes, he's a little long in the tooth, but his game couldn't be a more perfect match for how we play. If ever he were going to have another season of shooting 40+% from three, this will be it. And, while he was never a great defender even in his prime, he also isn't terrible. He has a high basketball IQ and he doesn't lose focus like truly bad defenders.

Mozgov was so bad last year, it almost feels like Birdman can't be any worse. At the very least, he is going to bring energy and at least the threat of rim protection to the table. Mozgov was almost literally a negative anytime he stepped on the floor.

The only real loss is Delly and to expect a 5-foot-8 second round pick to step into his shoes seamlessly seems highly unlikely. Felder is going to bring a different element off of the bench and I have no doubt he'll play right from the start of the season ... but the energy Delly brought as a combo guard isn't easily replaceable.


What the Cavs have historically done is to use the first few months of the season to evaluate what they need most. In 2015, big changes were necessary and they brought in a wing defender, shooter at the 2 and rim protector. Last year, things weren't as dire, but we still had no bigs who could stretch the floor off the bench ... bring in Channing Frye.

This year, we'll see ... but it wouldn't surprise me if they moved for a backup PG at the deadline. We'll see.

[Hey Yo]

They'll eventually sign a back-up PG but it's no big rush just for the sake of doing so.

LeBron can do the job while Kyrie is resting. I don't see them 2 on the bench together.... but if so, it won't be for long periods of time.

[jrjim]

Wait..... Cavs new backup pg is 5'9 :roll: ? Good lord. Livingston is gonna look like the 2nd coming of Jesus Christ every matchup.:rockon:

He's not gonna play in the finals. Shump/JR/Jefferson/Dunleav will be "pg" while Kyrie rests but Lebron will be in the game. Any one of those dudes can guard livingston

[TommyGriffin]

As a Cavs fan I am more worried about Steph Curry coming back 100% healthy. He has killed us every time for the past two years. :mad:

[aj1987]

As a Cavs fan I am more worried about Steph Curry coming back 100% healthy. He has killed us every time for the past two years. :mad:
Didn't a fully healthy Cuckry go 0/11 and lose FMVP to a bench player? :cheers:

Also, I don't think his bruised ****** hurt his game too much in the Finals.

[TommyGriffin]

Didn't a fully healthy Cuckry go 0/11 and lose FMVP to a bench player? :cheers:
I don't believe he was fully healthy last season.

[aj1987]

I don't believe he was fully healthy last season.
He was 100% healthy in '15 and as I said, Cuckry's bruised ******s didn't really limit his game.

[Nilocon165]

Get his ass Aj

[warriorfan]

.

Perhaps the most critical segment of this series came at the end of the third quarter of Game 4, Cleveland cutting the Warriors lead to three. The Q was rocking. The Finals hung in the balance.

Curry calmly called for the ball, shook a defender and drained a three, pushing Golden State to a six-point lead. In a reversal of roles, a gassed LeBron tried to answer with a three of his own at the buzzer, only to miss badly. When James went to the bench to rest at the start of the fourth quarter, the Warriors seized control of the game and the Finals.

Curry finished with 22 that night. He then dropped 37, including 17 in the fourth quarter, in Game 5. On Tuesday, he dropped a couple of massive threes to help stem a fourth-quarter Cleveland surge, then when double-teamed, hit a wide-open Klay Thompson for another.



Not only did Curry average an MVP-like 26 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 steals in 43 minutes per game, but as Kerr told his point guard, sometimes a point guard has to put his own game now in favor of managing the game for his teammates.

That is what Curry relayed when he said in the postgame press conference, "The Finals are not that different from normal NBA games. It's just the spotlight is different, and soar are the expectations. When you have an average game, you find out in the Finals that people were expecting more. But really, that stuff doesn't matter. It's all about winning. That's what I've learned. I just need to impact games, be myself every other night, do other things to help my team win and be OK with that. Manage the game from a point-guard standpoint, find a way to win and that's what we did … At the end of the day, stats really don't matter. It really doesn't matter."

This coming from a man who still had 25 points, 6 rebounds and 8 assists in 43 minutes from a Game 6 that he was supposedly managing the game for others, downplaying his own role.

This coming from a man who still scored 156 points in a six-game Finals with a .585 true shooting percentage—a scoring total and efficiency only topped by three players in NBA Finals history (who all also did it coincidentally in six-game series): 1992 Michael Jordan, who scored 215 points with a .617 TSP; 2011 Dwyane Wade, who scored 159 points with a .614 TSP; 1987 Magic Johnson, who scored 157 points with a .590 TSP.



They did it with a wizard, Stephen Curry, at point guard. Curry nailed three key threes in Golden State’s 105-97 Game 6 victory in Cleveland Tuesday night, because that’s what he does. In the clincher, however, the regular-season MVP’s passing stood out. He patiently let the Cavs double-team him far from the basket – what choice did the Cavs have against a guy who can sink shots from Cincinnati? – and hit cutters down the lane. Or flipped one-handed passes down low. Or skipped the ball cross-court, or into the corner, to open three-point shooters. Curry had eight assists. Golden State finished with 13 three-pointers.


https://cdn3.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/4bYYPLGiZavZr6odQMT2_61HGAc=/cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/3783750/warriorsball.0.gif

http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/55785bd86da811a06574389c/draymond%20miss%201.gif

https://espngrantland.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/game-3-4.gif

http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/557856666bb3f7950ef731a9/stephen%20curry%203.gif


Most 4th Quarter Points during the Finals

1995 Shaquille O'Neal 11.5
2000 Shaquille O'Neal 11.5 (61.1% TS)
2015 Stephen Curry 10.8 (75.1% TS)
1997 Michael Jordan 10.7 (55.1% TS)
1998 Michael Jordan 10.6 (50.6% TS)
2011 Dirk Nowitzki 10.3 (68.0% TS)
1993 Michael Jordan 10.3

2015 Steph Curry had one of the most clutch performance in NBA history. The only player to score more 4th Quarter Finals points than Steph Curry was Shaquille Oneal, and he didn't even score one point more than Curry while Curry scored 14% more efficiently than Shaquille


Steph Curry was the best player during the 2015 NBA Finals

[Bankaii]

Lol no. Lebron was the best overall player in the finals.
Iggy was the most impactful for the Warriors, while Steph was their best player.

On topic, the Cavs will be fine. Their bench was almost just as bad last year. Frye crapped out in the Finals after a hot start in the playoffs. Mozgov was utter trash. With Kyrie getting better on defense and Delly getting worse on offense he was useless. Shump is a 3&D player with an inconsistent 3 and his D hasn't been as good since his injury. RJ the only consistent bench player.

If the Cavs starters can outplay the Warriors starters the difference in benches shouldn't really effect the series too much.

[Doranku]

Depth is overrated. As long as their core ~8 guys are healthy in June, that's all that matters.

It's not like they're going to be losing to anyone in the East because they have a weak bench. :lol

[Suguru101]

Dunleavy could turn out to be a really nice pickup.

What the Cavs have historically done is to use the first few months of the season to evaluate what they need most. In 2015, big changes were necessary and they brought in a wing defender, shooter at the 2 and rim protector. Last year, things weren't as dire, but we still had no bigs who could stretch the floor off the bench ... bring in Channing Frye.

This year, we'll see ... but it wouldn't surprise me if they moved for a backup PG at the deadline. We'll see.

You really are going to keep acting like the Cavs are perennial contenders who do this shit year in year out? In 2015 Waiters didn't fit, so they traded him and a pick away for a roster fix. Cool. Last year they just got Frye as a veteran pick up for a playoff run. The Cavs aren't some cerebral organization nor have they been doing this long enough that you could say "historically".

It's a semantics issue really, but it grinds my gears. You make it sound like they're a Spurs-like contenders with the "historically" bit.

[Doranku]

You really are going to keep acting like the Cavs are perennial contenders who do this shit year in year out? In 2015 Waiters didn't fit, so they traded him and a pick away for a roster fix. Cool. Last year they just got Frye as a veteran pick up for a playoff run. The Cavs aren't some cerebral organization nor have they been doing this long enough that you could say "historically".

It's a semantics issue really, but it grinds my gears. You make it sound like they're a Spurs-like contenders with the "historically" bit.
:oldlol: What the **** are you talking about, dude? All he was saying is that historically, as in, their previous tendencies, are to wait a few months before making changes to their team.

He didn't compliment them like you see to be assuming.

[RedBlackAttack]

They'll eventually sign a back-up PG but it's no big rush just for the sake of doing so.

LeBron can do the job while Kyrie is resting. I don't see them 2 on the bench together.... but if so, it won't be for long periods of time.
I know it is hard to count on him at this point, but Shump has looked a lot better in the preseason. I definitely don't trust him to be used as a backup PG, but he can at least bring the ball up the court occasionally if Kyrie is resting and they don't want to over-expend LeBron ... or even run some of the offense through Love at the elbow or the high post.

We all have to keep in mind ... this is really the first time the Cavs have been completely whole -- with this nucleus -- for an offseason and preseason. I have to think chemistry will be much improved this season.

[RedBlackAttack]

You really are going to keep acting like the Cavs are perennial contenders who do this shit year in year out? In 2015 Waiters didn't fit, so they traded him and a pick away for a roster fix. Cool. Last year they just got Frye as a veteran pick up for a playoff run. The Cavs aren't some cerebral organization nor have they been doing this long enough that you could say "historically".

It's a semantics issue really, but it grinds my gears. You make it sound like they're a Spurs-like contenders with the "historically" bit.
Your gears must be easily ground.

You know what grinds my gears? People freaking out about absolutely nothing. Carry on, though.

[LikeABosh]

Yea, how will they ever recover from the devastating loss of Dellavedova?

[Monta Ellis MVP]

Long time Pacers fan but also a fan of the Cavaliers as well here. I'm not worried. Our rotation looks great. We should be able to dominate the East fairly easily.

[Nash]

already won doe, who cares

[Inferno]

already won doe, who cares

You're telling me the Cavs aren't gonna go for the repeat? :coleman:

[RedBlackAttack]

There is a little bit of truth to that sentiment though. I'm sure the Cavs will "try," but they're playing with house money this season. Durant completely tilted the competitive balance of the league, making the Warriors' roster head-shakingly stacked even in an era of "super teams."

No one expects the Cavs to win for a second consecutive season, injuries notwithstanding. And, LeBron, Kyrie, Love, Tristan, etc... this whole team has their legacies cemented within this franchise regardless of what happens beyond 2016. All they can do is add to what they've done. The pressure to win one for Cleveland is permanently over.

It's a pretty advantageous position to be in, actually.

Every tiny speck of pressure is on Golden State to be significantly better than they've been in the last two seasons, and that includes a run to the title and a 73-win season.