2015-16 Season Thread

[Main Event]

I'm guessing Harrison Barnes is in on the "fix" then? Dude has been horrible

[JMarkJohns]

I'm guessing Harrison Barnes is in on the "fix" then? Dude has been horrible

He was good fin their game 3 loss :/

[Chicat]

You know what's better for the NBA than a 5 game series? A 6 or 7 game series.

*cough*

*cough cough*

[Alieberman]

Channing played a key role for the Cavs in playoffs but is not playing in finals.... Why?

[84Cat]

Channing played a key role for the Cavs in playoffs but is not playing in finals.... Why?

This series has turned into bully ball. He's just not tough enough for that. He also doesn't match up well with the Warrior's players.

[rgdeuce]

My biggest beef is with them re-writing history, no matter who the victor is. This series was done after game 4. Lebron gave up. We know when Lebron gives up. He has done it in numerous finals, did it against the Celtics before he bolted to Miami, etc. We know what that looks like and when it is coming, and history has showed us Lebron does not have that fight in him when hes back into a corner without something major coming along. People credit Lebron for baiting Green, which appears to be true, but I also saw a desperate man who was frustrated and throwing a temper tantrum because he was going home ringless again. I laugh because he only got super brave once two teammates got between him and Green, but he really took it to the next level and was in 2pac nothing to lose mode. And then, with less than a minute left and the series over in his mind, he goes after Curry's shooting arm on an in-bounds play and blatantly tries to Kevin Love his shoulder. Then starts getting in his face in im taking my ball home with me mode.

This should have played out like it has all these past years. Lebron faces adversity and gives up. The better team slaughtered the queen in 5, end of story. Instead, not only does the league prolong this to 7 games, it makes Lebron look like this valiant hero who finally grew a heart and willed his team back against the greatest team of all time. Nevermind the fact that the two HUGE pieces GSW has that are largely responsible for defending Lebron, Green and Iguodala, were either removed from a game or hampered with an injury. And hell, they got all the momentum in the world now in a winner take all game. Even if things are officiated fair, one game when the two more before were "assisted" by the league is not how series should be decided. That is why they play 7, to avoid an off night or "in the zone" night deciding a champion. If that happens in a legit back and forth, thats life, but not when the other team is given crutches to get back into it. ESPN and the other Lebron groupies will tell you otherwise, but this title would play out just like the other ones - Kyrie with the "Ray Allen bailout" aka three straight 30 plus games, and the league manipulating outcomes by removing Green to reignite a dead Cavs team/series followed by horrible officiating, a la his title against the Thunder which was completely one sided in terms of officiating. Always an excuse when he loses, but he does it all when he wins.

[Jefe]

Turns out the guy it hit is the son of the Cavs minority owner

[CalStateTempe]

NBA wants to give Lebron and Cleveland a chipper.

Yup nothing's changed since I lost interest in 98.

[scumdevils86]

NBA wants to give Lebron and Cleveland a chipper.

Yup nothing's changed since I lost interest in 98.

Yep. I got a little interested this year because of GS but now it really doesn't matter to me again.

[Alieberman]

NBA wants to give Lebron and Cleveland a chipper.

Yup nothing's changed since I lost interest in 98.

Yep. I got a little interested this year because of GS but now it really doesn't matter to me again.

I'm rooting for RJ and Channing to get a ring.

RJ has been awesome in this series.

[Longhorned]

Do I deserve to watch game 7 of the finals? Or should I get out there and mow the lawn for 2.5 hours in the cool of twilight before several days of steaming hot thunderstorms threaten to make it impossible to mow?

[UAEebs86]

What a game. Think LeBron just broke his wrist.

[FreeSpiritCat]

So is Golden State the best team of all time? haha

[MrBug708]

Tyrone Lue....nba championship coach. Just shows with the the right situation, anyone can be a title winning coach

[ASUHATER!]

So is Golden State the best team of all time? haha

Well they certainly are really Damn good.

[CalStateTempe]

NBA gets what NBA wants.

Good for James to bring a chipper to Cleveland though. Gotta give him props for that.

[CalStateTempe]

Who'se this ABC broad.

Doris?

She sounds housewife drugged up.

[Longhorned]

Curry is no Kyrie Irving.

[rgdeuce]

Sucks to be put in that position, but 4 and a half minutes without a bucket? They executed their offense like the Thunder down the stretch.

This is my second divorce from the NBA. Not gonna pretend one of our Wildcats wont bring me back again

[Main Event]

Welcome to the top 5 Bron

[rgdeuce]

I think Lebron's clearly been in the top 5 for a while, so what comes next is probably moot anyhow. But I don't think anything he did in this series is something that propels him any higher on an all-time list, nor does it change his legacy. The Lebron fan is going to be like like "Down 3-1 first time ever, against the best team of all time, carried his team on his back ROAR."

Being a Lebron hater, this is admittedly going to be biased. But to me, Lebron was on the verge of going 2-5 in the finals. 1) It took him picking a fight with Green and stepping over him, 2) then going to the league complaining, 3) the league either giving in cuz it's their golden boy or in the interest of prolonging the series for revenue, 4) that huge piece missing in game 5 (defense especially), 5) another huge piece Iguodala playing with a bum back in game 6; 6) An important interior presence in Bogut being gone for the series (injuries happen, but neither happen/matter if the series ended in 5); 7) Kyrie Irving averaging 31 points per game over the final 5 games of the series; officiating that was anywhere from slightly Cleveland biased to "Donaghy is right," depending on which game, and mid-series switched to a style that benefitted one time over the other; 9) Curry and the Warriors going 4.5 minutes without scoring (crazy no matter how well Cleveland defended them) and 10) Kyrie knocking down the clutch 3 when nobody on either team was making crap for four minutes. Yes Lebron a couple of big buckets midway through the fourth, but the dude also finished 0-4 in the 4:30 with a turnover or two, and when it looked like Golden State was on the verge of winning fairly comfortably, he had 2 of his team's 26 points during a 26-12 run to start the third. Second half he was 4-13 (30%) from the floor. People will point to the gaudy numbers, but Lebron is always going to near double digits in rebounds and assists because of his size, how he dominates the ball, how you have to defend him, and the nature of his game. Because of this, it takes the most garbage of performances for a stat sheet to look bad for Lebron, and they are often times not indicative of how he looked on the court.

So through complete or "a little" manipulation, he avoided going 2-5 in the finals in his career and doing so in an embarrassing five games. The stars all had to align, for whatever reasons they aligned. His title against the Thunder was completely one-sided in terms of officiating. He nutted up in game 7 in his title against SAS but it took Ray Allen hitting a freak 3 on an improbable bounce/non-rebound and a chris bosh block to save his poor play down the stretch and him going home in game 7. He still has been able to cruise through the eastern conference playoffs for six straight years without any halfway decent resistance. He still had to either collude with two superstars or join a team with one already and bring another in. He's had the easiest path to titles in the modern NBA and he still pursues the easier path, whether its forming super teams or crying until he gets Green out. An all time top 5 player no doubt, probably the most TALENTED player to ever lace them up, but he is a complete wussy who has still managed to only win three titles despite all this help and good fortune.

[MrBug708]

You glossed over so many important points. Like Andrew Bogut being out "helped the Cavs. Sure I guess it did and that helped Lebron bring home ring number one, but if we are complaining about 5th or 6 options being out, you gotta consider last year when Lebron didn't have Love or Irving for every game in the Finals. So that means, by your logic, Lebron should have been 4-3 in the NBA finals. Complaining about Bogut is like a Cavs fan complaining about Dellavedova being out for the postseason. If you want to take your "logic" further, we can go back to Lebron's first NBA championship appearance. He took a team where Larry Hughes was the second best player and Drew Gooden was the third best player. Think about that. If Steph Curry took the 76ers to the NBA finals and lost, would he be considered a failure? Choke artist? No. So again, using more logic, Lebron really should be 4-2, taking way his loss in that game. So 4-2 with one series not his fault in the slightest is a pretty good mark by all accounts.

Now excuse me while I go take a shower as I feel pretty trashy for having to defend Lebron.

[MrBug708]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r06rvgRLSw" target="_blank

[legallykenny]

Welcome to the top 5 Bron

I don't quite get that reaction. LeBron is what we've always known him to be. Probably the all time greatest physical talent who comes up just a little short on the attitude/intensity side to catch Jordan and Russell. Anyone who didn't already rank him there two days ago but ranks him there now either hates him for the sake of hating or puts too much value on accomplishments out of a player's control. He's in no way a different level of historical talent if Curry doesn't shit the bed and hits two more shots yesterday.

This series told us far more about Curry than LeBron, and even there you can't put too much weight on any single run of games (though his generally being shit for most of the playoffs is a bit more interesting).

I find Pippen spouting off to everyone who will listen incredibly annoying, but he's absolutely right that the '96 Bulls would not have let either this Cavs or this Warriors team get to 7 games, that's for sure.

[Jefe]

So now we find out exactly how injured Steph was. Shoulder and knee surgery scheduled?