Cavs still a lock to make it to Finals?

[HugeUnderdog]

The other part of my statement is that value will disappear as the season goes on. Some books adjust these futures after week 1-2-3 and so on. So you have a limited time
to pick something out. If the the falcons started the season 7/1 to win their division. After week 3 I think they were -300.

 

[PatsFan1283]

Yeah, that's a different issue altogether. Obviously you wanna get down when the going is good.

 

[HugeUnderdog]

Miss the days when people came together on the forums and helped each other. I know there is a lot of knowledge on here. What would it take for a group of guys to put their heads together and help each other make money in this area. Think Tank! w-thumbs!^

 

[Mr_Mark]

I think they will be fine. 4-1 maybe one 4-2 series on the way there.

 

[Mobdeeper7239]

It's a team game. They have veterans who just won it all for the first time. The approach the hunger is not the same with those guys I don't care what anyone thinks. You can't win a ring as an old group and then come back the next year and win it again without significantly improving your team.

You brought up the spurs. But they never repeated. EVER.

It is a different mentality after you have won it all. I don't know about you but I don't see this cleveland team as a "dynasty"

 

[Mobdeeper7239]

I made a solid point about channing frye. Not sure why you didn't choose to disagree there too. But when you spread the floor as a 4 or a 5. It opens the lane. It spreads the floor. It gives guys like kyrie and lebron many of options. Cats out the bag this year. They road him to the finals and then he turned into a non factor vs golden st. He has one part to his game. People hadn't seen him compete for a real team in so long that they forgot how to gameplan for him. Now he won't do what he did last playoffs. I can guarantee that. So even though they cruised last year in the playoffs, that key production will have to be made up else where. Kyle Korver will have a couple good games but he's a guard. They knew they needed a key shooter because what they got out of Frye in the eastern conference playoffs was something nobody saw coming and to expect it again would be idiotic.

 

[PatsFan1283]

Plenty of veteran teams have won b2b titles with mostly the same cast. How did they maintain that hunger but the Cavs won't or the Warriors didn't last year?

You're just talking yourself in circles, you have no clue what their motivation level is.

If you're going to say it is harder to win b2b titles then you should put that more in the general fatigue/degree of difficulty category, not some random armchair psych analysis like "Kyrie thinks XYZ now" "LeBron thinks ABC"

That's for the Skip Bayless types of the world

 

[PatsFan1283]

I made a solid point about channing frye. Not sure why you didn't choose to disagree there too. But when you spread the floor as a 4 or a 5. It opens the lane. It spreads the floor. It gives guys like kyrie and lebron many of options. Cats out the bag this year. They road him to the finals and then he turned into a non factor vs golden st. He has one part to his game. People hadn't seen him compete for a real team in so long that they forgot how to gameplan for him. Now he won't do what he did last playoffs. I can guarantee that. So even though they cruised last year in the playoffs, that key production will have to be made up else where. Kyle Korver will have a couple good games but he's a guard. They knew they needed a key shooter because what they got out of Frye in the eastern conference playoffs was something nobody saw coming and to expect it again would be idiotic.

^

That's a basketball opinion whether I agree with it or disagree with it.

Has nothing to do with motivation or intangibles. But just a general fwiw Frye's dropoff in the fnals had more to do with the matchup rather than any element of surprise. Frye is known as a big man shooter, wasn't some random surprise to people. That's the only reason hes in the league.

 

[Mobdeeper7239]

Motivation is the most overrated capping tool there is. I wouldn't call it their motivation......I call it fate. It happens due to a chain of events that coincide. They all go together. I said the team is not as hungry. That's my belief. I don't know the players but I know human beings and I know sports. Nothing more psychological about it. I'm not reading minds. I'm making long term predictions based on emotions and human reactions. The fact you said cleveland is more favored now then ever before tells me this will be Lebrons hardest time ever reaching the finals. But also because I know for a fact that they lived on cloud 9 after winning that title. Something that couldn't be done for that city, they did it. That has weight on players. It's like....ok go prove that wasn't a fluke now.

Because after the celebrating stops you have to go back to work and do it again. And with the players I see this year, I think they're beatable in the East. Good discussion.

 

[PatsFan1283]

Oh it's fate now? Wow.

Destiny even.

Curt Schilling once said after being asked about the Sox getting over the hump of beating the Yankees

"Destiny and Mystique are just strippers."

 

[Mobdeeper7239]

^

That's a basketball opinion whether I agree with it or disagree with it.

Has nothing to do with motivation or intangibles. But just a general fwiw Frye's dropoff in the fnals had more to do with the matchup rather than any element of surprise. Frye is known as a big man shooter, wasn't some random surprise to people. That's the only reason hes in the league.

Lol alright guy. Point is they gave him too much credit and leverage to do something else. Golden st got right up on him and said....dribble by me. He couldn't. All of the other teams refused to do that because they decided to play gim straight up. They knew he could shoot, no shit. But I dont care. No one saw that coming until Golden st said damn we not going to let him do that to us.

Do you bet or post the nba? Because I have never seen it.

 

[Mobdeeper7239]

Oh it's fate now? Wow.

Destiny even.

Curt Schilling once said after being asked about the Sox getting over the hump of beating the Yankees

"Destiny and Mystique are just strippers."

And curt schillling is a broke fuck selling warcraft video games for a living...enjoy

 

[PatsFan1283]

Lol alright guy. Point is they gave him too much credit and leverage. Golden st got right up on him and said....dribble by me. He couldn't. All of the other teams refused to do that because they decided to play gim straight up. They knew he could shoot, no shit. But I dont care. No one saw that coming until Golden st said damn we not going to let him do that to us.

Do you bet or post the nba? Because I have never seen it.

I usually put what I'm betting in discussion threads so if you've read those then you would see it. Mostly bet series bets, win totals, futures and playoff games.

Not enough volume to make a thread and that just wouldn't interest me to do that.

Not sure what that has to do with your Channing Frye comment having nothing to do with the discussion we're having.

 

[festeringZit]

Oh it's fate now? Wow.

Destiny even.

Curt Schilling once said after being asked about the Sox getting over the hump of beating the Yankees

"Destiny and Mystique are just strippers."

Haha great quote!

 

[PatsFan1283]

Lol alright guy. Point is they gave him too much credit and leverage to do something else. Golden st got right up on him and said....dribble by me. He couldn't. All of the other teams refused to do that because they decided to play gim straight up. They knew he could shoot, no shit. But I dont care. No one saw that coming until Golden st said damn we not going to let him do that to us.

Do you bet or post the nba? Because I have never seen it.

The reason he couldn't play vs GS is because when he would come into the game they could just put Green at the 5 and make him defend a high PnR vs Green/Curry every play and he was hopeless with that.

The other teams don't have that luxury and couldn't play him off the court.

 

[Mobdeeper7239]

The reason he couldn't play vs GS is because when he would come into the game they could just put Green at the 5 and make him defend a high PnR vs Green/Curry every play and he was hopeless with that.

The other teams don't have that luxury and couldn't play him off the court.

Yeah they can go small and be good that's no secret. Green plays the 5. Dude played 10 minutes a game and never shot the ball because they didn't let him

 

[PatsFan1283]

Yeah they can go small and be good that's no secret. Green plays the 5. Dude played 10 minutes a game and never shot the ball because they didn't let him

It was very deliberate though. The 1st time he came on the court in game 1, they made the sub and he was basically taken out of it.

They did the same thing to a much better player the previous rd in Enes Kanter. By the end of that series OKC was down to having 6 functional guys and I'm sure that fatigued played a role in them blowing a 3-1 lead.

That is the luxury of having someone as versatile as Green. He can play useful players right off the court.

Doesn't have much to do with the overall discussion but just saying..

 

[Mobdeeper7239]

Green was out in game 5 and frye didn't even play lol hmmmm. He didn't even see the court. So maybe had to do with how golden st treated him as well. Did schilling make that destiny game?

 

[PatsFan1283]

Yeah Green was the main guy but they would do it with other guys too. Iguodala, Livingston, Barnes. They can just play 5 small guys vs Frye and it isn't like he is gonna hit the boards or post up.

Most teams can't play like that obviously. Like the Hawks aren't gonna take Al Horford out of the game, put some bum in and then make Frye defend him.

This is from a Zach Lowe column about 2 years ago.


[FONT=&quot]“If you’re a stretch 4 today, you’d better have a lightning-quick release,” says Daryl Morey, the Rockets GM.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Guys like Ryan Anderson, Ersan Ilyasova, and Channing Frye are more multidimensional, but they aren’t as lethal as they were two or three years ago, and they can only thrive in specific environments. If they had better post games, they could beat up smaller defenders and force opponents into uncomfortable readjustments. But they can’t — at least not consistently.[/FONT]


<body id="cke_pastebin" style="position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 1px; height: 1px; overflow: hidden; left: -1000px;">[FONT=&quot]“If you’re a stretch 4 today, you’d better have a lightning-quick release,” says Daryl Morey, the Rockets GM.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Guys like Ryan Anderson, Ersan Ilyasova, and Channing Frye are more multidimensional, but they aren’t as lethal as they were two or three years ago, and they can only thrive in specific environments. If they had better post games, they could beat up smaller defenders and force opponents into uncomfortable readjustments. But they can’t — at least not consistently.[/FONT]


</body>

 

[HugeUnderdog]

Oh it's fate now? Wow.

Destiny even.

Curt Schilling once said after being asked about the Sox getting over the hump of beating the Yankees

"Destiny and Mystique are just strippers."

Yea, just strippers. It was Kevin Millar grabbing the team by the ballz and saying "cowboy up mofos". Boston was not better than the Yankees all of a
sudden. What was it? Anyway. I agree, good discussion. We all made our points and some will probably agree to disagree. I insist we put our heads together..
Buenos Nachos!