LeBron "surprised" by Bosh comments, doesn't want to see him

[NumberSix]

Bosh is gonna put a lot of y'all on notice this season. Y'all forgot, this dude is a legit franchise player and this season will be a top 5 player in the NBA.

[3ball]

Anyone here ever have a friend who, as soon as they discover something new that they really like, won't shut the f[COLOR="Black"]uc[/COLOR]k up about it and take every opportunity to go on and on and on about how great it is?

nah bruh - you and i both know that the media (probably you too) swore that lebron was on MJ's level and would 3-peat.

but now that lebron got smashed yet again in the Finals and exposed for his suboptimal style and subjugation of teammates, i'm not going to let you or anyone else that was dead wrong trying to shove the Lebron 3-peat notion down my throat, forget about it... capiche?
.

[RedBlackAttack]

Bosh never really fit in at all.

But D-Wade and LeBron the first two years was a thing of beauty. No, their offensive games didn't fit perfectly, but that caliber of athleticism on the perimeter was just awe-inspiring.

The fast breaks, the alley oops, the full-court lobs, it was unreal to watch two of the best wings ever run together like they did. It didn't fit in the half-court, but they were too good for that to matter for the most part. When they locked in defensively they became a historically great team.

It'll be interesting to see how the Cavs fit, and I agree that it will probably work better in the half court, (Love especially will give you more than Bosh could) but Irving doesn't give you that same dynamic, especially defensively, that Wade did before he broke down.

That being said though Irving can give you a very different, (and better fit next to LeBron) look than Wade did with his shooting.

The one thing that bothers me about the constant criticisms of Kyrie Irving's defense... never does there seem to be even a caveat that he's still very young and guys that talented offensively often take a few years to get their defense in order.

Hell, his first two years in the league, LeBron was a borderline atrocious defender. It was the biggest knock on his game and one of the biggest reasons the Cavs brought Mike Brown in to mentor him.

Kyrie has been a bad defender in each of his first three seasons, but he did improve last year... and he was actually Team USA's most consistent perimeter defender in the FIBA games aside from Thompson off the bench. I'm actually very confident that since the Cavs are now presumably in the ECF title race which will give the games more importance than they held prior and Kyrie will have to carry much less of the scoring load on the other end, his defense is going to improve by leaps and bounds.

I think Kyrie's presence really presents an opportunity for LeBron to focus his game on some very specific areas instead of being the "Jack of All Trades" that he's been basically since coming into the league.

I actually do expect Kyrie to do the majority of the ball-handling and initiating the offensive sets. That doesn't mean LeBron won't have the ball -- a lot -- but just that he can focus on attacking from advantageous positions on the court.


Don't know if you read Zach Lowe's article about the Cavs' potential offensively from a few days ago, but it was really interesting. The potential of running simultaneous screens on both sides of the court involving Irving-Love-James-Waiters-Varejao really could force mismatches on every possession.

If these guys buy-in and are patient enough to allow the system to work out the early kinks... yikes.

Right away, the Cavs are going to be an offensive colossus. LeBron James is one by himself, and in Love, Blatt has found the perfect big man for a hybrid Princeton system that bends defenses with constant screening on and off the ball.

...

Legit size is part of what makes Cleveland so terrifying on offense. Miami had to contort itself uncomfortably to find the ideal floor spacing for LeBron’s inside-out game to breathe. The Heat downsized, with Shane Battier as an undersize shooting power forward, and held it together on defense with frantic rotations and elite speed.

The Cavaliers can functionally play small while remaining big, and that’s because of Love. He’s a real power forward, not a wing bravely masquerading as one, and he has true quick-release 3-point range. Cleveland might not be able to mimic Miami’s “five-out” style in a literal sense, since its centers can’t shoot 3s like Chris Bosh, but that distinction is meaningless.

The “five-out” thing didn’t really exist when Dwyane Wade was on the floor, and Miami’s other non-LeBron wings didn’t have Waiters’s athleticism or shooting potential. Waiters shot 37 percent from deep last season, and he could push 40 percent if he ditches all the ridiculous off-the-dribble chucking that no longer has a place on this loaded team.

The Cavs will surround Varejao/Thompson with four good-to-elite shooters, all of whom are able to work off the dribble. That is better than a forced “five-out.”

God help the NBA when Blatt goes ultra-spacey with small-ball lineups like Irving-Waiters–Mike Miller–LeBron-Love. That will be a rare,3 defensively challenged look, but it is completely unguardable. Defensive limitations don’t matter when you go on a 15-2 run in 90 seconds.

...

And holy crap, is this team going to be great on offense. Blatt’s sets are filled with constant motion, both on the ball and away from it, involving all kinds of screens. A LeBron-Varejao pick-and-roll might be happening on the right side while Love sets a down screen for Irving on the left side, and those dueling actions will flow into two more elements.

Every pick presents a chance to punch a hole through one section of the defense. That innocent Love pick for Irving away from the ball? If Love hits it flush, his guy might have to rush toward the baseline to account for Irving’s basket cut.

And just that little blip can be death. Maybe Love pops out for an open 3-pointer. Maybe LeBron hits Irving on the cut. Maybe the other team switches in desperation, leaving a little guy to deal with Love on the block.

Every pick is an opportunity when one of the big dudes setting them is a good high-volume 3-point shooter. Blatt has also used fake picks in the past, and those fakes are more convincing, drawing more urgent responses, when the faker is a large man with 3-point range.

Blatt will get tricky with Love, and it’s going to be great. The coach has always featured big men doing stuff on and off the ball at the elbow, and Love thrived in all kinds of funky sets out there in Minnesota. Blatt has used this exact set often in Europe:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=wGIkSJYX-Ig

More Love favorites would include:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=hIxpncuRUzU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=eR0iNfU5jQg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=eR0iNfU5jQg

The threat of Love’s shooting will open up driving lanes for everyone. Good luck defending a LeBron-Love or Irving-Love pick-and-roll, especially when the Cavs precede it with actions that nudge the defense out of position by the time that pick-and-roll starts. LeBron’s post-up game isn’t going anywhere, either. Blatt runs a lot of cross screens under the rim to free his post threats for quick-hitting attacks.

Much has been made about whether Irving can adjust to an off-ball role, but Blatt’s offense will be democratic. The ball will fly around until someone gets it with a gap to attack, and everyone will have the green light to shoot through those gaps. Irving struggled on spot-up shots last season, but he’s a good shooter suddenly plopped onto a killer roster. He’ll be fine.

Toss in offensive rebounding, an area that many of the league’s better scoring teams punt in favor of transition defense, and the Cavs should chase the top spot in the points per possession rankings in Year 1.

There will be hiccups, of course. The Cavs will struggle for spacing when Thompson and Varejao share the floor. Blatt will have to sort out a bunch of thorny rotation questions — how often to go small, and how dramatically to stagger minutes so at least one of his three stars is on the floor at all times. Staggering star minutes is a way to avoid droughts, and pulling LeBron early in the first and third quarters, as the Mavs do with Nowitzki, could be a smart way to unleash hell with LeBron as a small-ball power forward against opposing bench units in the second and fourth quarters. But staggering has a downside: You play your best lineups a bit less than you might otherwise.

Blatt isn’t concerned about this stuff yet. “We’re going to have to see how it all fits together,” he says. “Some of it will depend on how we’re playing, and who we’re playing.”

Many of those rotation questions will vanish in the playoffs, when the stars can ramp up their minutes; we should see approximately zero shared meaningful Thompson-Varejao minutes in high-stakes games. The playoffs will be the real measure of this Cleveland team, and the measuring can start this season.

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/nb...tle-contender/

[SouBeachTalents]

Bosh is gonna put a lot of y'all on notice this season. Y'all forgot, this dude is a legit franchise player and this season will be a top 5 player in the NBA.

Oh, and we all saw what he did as a franchise player. One All-NBA team selection and 3 playoff wins in 7 seasons, in the east no less. Elton Brand was a more successful franchise player than Bosh

[hawksdogsbraves]

The one thing that bothers me about the constant criticisms of Kyrie Irving's defense... never does there seem to be even a caveat that he's still very young and guys that talented offensively often take a few years to get their defense in order.

Hell, his first two years in the league, LeBron was a borderline atrocious defender. It was the biggest knock on his game and one of the biggest reasons the Cavs brought Mike Brown in to mentor him.

Kyrie has been a bad defender in each of his first three seasons, but he did improve last year... and he was actually Team USA's most consistent perimeter defender in the FIBA games aside from Thompson off the bench. I'm actually very confident that since the Cavs are now presumably in the ECF title race which will give the games more importance than they held prior and Kyrie will have to carry much less of the scoring load on the other end, his defense is going to improve by leaps and bounds.

I think Kyrie's presence really presents an opportunity for LeBron to focus his game on some very specific areas instead of being the "Jack of All Trades" that he's been basically since coming into the league.

I actually do expect Kyrie to do the majority of the ball-handling and initiating the offensive sets. That doesn't mean LeBron won't have the ball -- a lot -- but just that he can focus on attacking from advantageous positions on the court.


Don't know if you read Zach Lowe's article about the Cavs' potential offensively from a few days ago, but it was really interesting. The potential of running simultaneous screens on both sides of the court involving Irving-Love-James-Waiters-Varejao really could force mismatches on every possession.

If these guys buy-in and are patient enough to allow the system to work out the early kinks... yikes.




http://grantland.com/the-triangle/nb...tle-contender/

I'm not trying to rag on Kyrie's defense, I agree that it could easily get much better, (and I think Lebron's presence will actually help that a great deal). Just that comparing it to the prime Wade we saw in 2011 and 2012 it's just not really in the same league. That's probably your two single best perimeter defenders in the league right there, so when they locked in on you, it was something really, really special.

I've always been a LeBron fan and I can't wait to see how the Cavs play, I think Irving and Love have the potential to fit really well with him and create something special. The screens like you mentioned combined with the shooting could make for one of the best offenses we've ever seen in the NBA.

All I'm saying is that the raw athleticism and perimeter D was what made those Heat teams so special, and that's a different dynamic from what the Cavs will bring to the table.

[Eric Cartman]

Would I care about another a former teammate if I had a 123 million dollar contract to play basketball in Miami?

[SpecialQue]

nah bruh - you and i both know that the media (probably you too) swore that lebron was on MJ's level and would 3-peat.

but now that lebron got smashed yet again in the Finals and exposed for his suboptimal style and subjugation of teammates, i'm not going to let you or anyone else that was dead wrong trying to shove the Lebron 3-peat notion down my throat, forget about it... capiche?
.

So I'm a Lebron stan now? ISH retards can't seem to decide whether I'm a Kobe stan or a Lebron stan.

[RedBlackAttack]

I'm not trying to rag on Kyrie's defense, I agree that it could easily get much better, (and I think Lebron's presence will actually help that a great deal). Just that comparing it to the prime Wade we saw in 2011 and 2012 it's just not really in the same league. That's probably your two single best perimeter defenders in the league right there, so when they locked in on you, it was something really, really special.

I've always been a LeBron fan and I can't wait to see how the Cavs play, I think Irving and Love have the potential to fit really well with him and create something special. The screens like you mentioned combined with the shooting could make for one of the best offenses we've ever seen in the NBA.

All I'm saying is that the raw athleticism and perimeter D was what made those Heat teams so special, and that's a different dynamic from what the Cavs will bring to the table.

Oh, I agree. Kyrie is still probably 4-5 years away from his absolute prime. And, Wade was on the tail end of his prime in 2010-11. There's no comparison defensively between those Heat teams from a defensive standpoint and this Cavs team. The Heat played the kind of aggressive defense, especially in the early part of the 'Big 3', rarely seen in NBA history. All the hedging and perfect recovery... only supremely athletic guys almost literally playing on a string could accomplish it.

I'm thinking the Cavs have that potential... offensively. They're sort of the opposite of the Heat. Their strength is going to be in outscoring teams. Also, instead of having largely a roster chalk full of guys at the end of their primes, this one is chalk full of guys who are still a few years away from it.

Even Kevin Love at 25 may have his best days ahead of him from an individual performance standpoint.

One thing is for sure... the expectations have changed on Irving, Love, Waiters, Thompson, etc. in a way that I'm not sure they'll fully realize until halfway through this season or longer. Everything they do will now be under a microscope, on and off the court. I just hope they're ready.

Thankfully, having veterans like LeBron, Miller, Jones and Marion around should help expedite that process. Should be a fun season.

[3ball]

Thankfully, having veterans like LeBron, Miller, Jones and Marion around should help expedite that process. Should be a fun season.

Love and Kyrie are BOTH already All-Stars.... the Cavs are the only team itl with 3 All-Stars.

They represent the "cheat code" lebron gets to use to skip the normal player development stages that a supporting cast goes through (like when Pippen and Grant averaged 5.0ppg and 6.5ppg their rookie years and were garbage until year 3).

Lebron's a massive luck box that employs a style to maximize his numbers, even if capable teammates are diminished - don't believe me??... ask Bosh.... I'm just the messenger.

[RedBlackAttack]

Love and Kyrie are BOTH already All-Stars.... the Cavs are the only team itl with 3 All-Stars.

They represent the "cheat code" lebron gets to use to skip the normal player development stages that a supporting cast goes through (like when Pippen and Grant averaged 5.0ppg and 6.5ppg their rookie years and were garbage until year 3).

Lebron's a massive luck box that employs a style to maximize his numbers, even if capable teammates are diminished - don't believe me??... ask Bosh.... I'm just the messenger.

You, sir, have a one track mind. Who -- besides yourself -- is comparing LeBron James to Michael Jordan or this Cavs team to the Bulls in this thread? Why are you attempting to hijack this conversation and turn it into that? Aren't you ever tired of discussing the same topic over and over and over ad nauseum?

James is not in the conversation with MJ and never will be, imo. That good enough? Should we move on now?

[poido123]

So I'm a Lebron stan now? ISH retards can't seem to decide whether I'm a Kobe stan or a Lebron stan.

Guy is nuts.

Obsessed with MJ, yet calls other MJ fans out if they have one negative thing to say about him

[SugarHill]

He's living the life man, you're just jealous.

I can see they've also lowered the rim for him too dunk on, he gets what he wants.

[Nash]

I love how anytime an ex-teammate criticizes Lebron, it's because they're "salty," and not because Lebron may legitimately be an asshole.

who criticized Lebron?

[lilteapot]

who criticized Lebron?

Nobody.

This forum is full of the biggest retards you'll find on the internet.