In the wake of the Warriors‘ second championship in three years, Zach Lowe of ESPN.com details the scene in the team’s locker room a year ago, following Golden State’s Game 7 loss to the Cavaliers in the 2016 Finals. As Lowe describes it, Andre Iguodala told his teammates that if the Warriors responded the right way, they could put themselves in position to chase several titles.
According to Lowe, Kevin Durant‘s name wasn’t mentioned, and Iguodala never said anything about free agency, but there were some glances at Harrison Barnes and Andrew Bogut, who would be the expendable pieces if Durant came to Golden State. A couple weeks later, Durant was a Warrior, and a year later, he has captured the first title of his career, as well as being named Finals MVP.
Here’s more from Lowe’s latest piece for ESPN.com:
- There are some team executives around the NBA who believe the league should have pushed harder to avoid last year’s cap spike after the union rejected the NBA’s cap-smoothing proposal, according to Lowe. That spike helped make the Warriors‘ signing of Durant possible.
- While some executives who have talked to Lowe believe there may be fewer “win-now” transactions made by teams looking to knock off the Warriors and Cavaliers, several teams won’t change their approach to roster-building, including the Rockets and Spurs. “They are not unbeatable,” Rockets GM Daryl Morey said of the Warriors. “There have been bigger upsets in sports history. We are going to keep improving our roster.”
- Celtics GM Danny Ainge expressed a similar sentiment, though he acknowledged that his club isn’t looking to give up key assets for small improvements either. “We are definitely not in punt mode,” Ainge said. “But trading away picks and promising young players for a veteran who might be 5 percent better is not in our plans, either.”
- The Heat aren’t shying away from win-now moves either. League sources confirm to Lowe that Miami is “loading up” to pursue Gordon Hayward in free agency.
- The Warriors have traded their first- and second-round picks for 2017, but are trying to buy their way back into this year’s draft, according to Lowe.
Trade: Love for PG13
Trade: Thompson & Shumpert for Brook Lopez
Works money wise. Not like the Nets can sign anyone, they get matched on every RFA they try to get. Lopez has 1 year left, what’s the best they’ll get for him?
Pacers would never do that trade same with the nets
Let me show you what the Pacers get when PG13 walks in a year:
Shumpert and Thompson sucks. Nets aren’t trading a all star for two bums. Same with pacers. George isn’t going there for love.
Celtics seem more likely to keep the 1st overall pick and sign Gordon Hayward. Are the Lakers going to trade the #2 overall pick for him? Maybe.
I’d rather the Pacers go to the Lakers and see what young assets they’d be willing to offer. Love would just end up leaving when his contract expires and his value is less than what Cleveland originally gave up for him and what Paul George’s value is now. I know Magic said that Brandon Ingram is the only “untouchable” so the Pacers should be asking for the #2 pick or Russell as a starting point (I’d be fine with both though lol) and maybe some other assets to top off the deal (other/future first round picks, Nance, etc). Pacers could take back one of Deng/Mozgov to sweeten the deal a little bit for the Lakers. And while I know the Lakers could just sit back and assume he’ll sign with them next offseason, there isn’t a guarantee he would. As much as George has expressed his fondness for playing in LA, I think he’d rather go to a team with a better chance to win first. Even if George were to sign with the Lakers next year, they’re still another two years (best case scenario) before even being a serious contender. The Clippers, if they retain Chris Paul, would be the more championship ready LA team. Plus I’m sure that teams like the Cavs, Heat, Spurs, and Celtics (depending on where Hayward goes and what they decide to do with the pending contracts of Thomas/Smart/Bradley) would all be interested as well.
If I’m the Cavs I wouldn’t make that deal. Why is there this perception that PG13 is better than Love? Why? Let’s understand, you put Love on the Pacers and he too would be a 23-25 pt a game shooter. Both PG13 and Love shoot around 43% from the floor and in around 37-39% from the 3 point land. Love is a true PF and PG13 is not. He doesn’t like to play the post. Love is much more suited for a low post position (PF/C) and a MUCH better rebounder 7 rebounds to 11 per game. You trade Love and then you’re left with Thompson as the only rebounder and your forced to play either PG or LBJ at the PF position, something neither wants to do.
Pg13 is a 2 way player, love and kyrie don’t play defense, George can
If the Cavs are trying to match up with the Warriors, then Paul George is a better fit than Love. Love’s skills are his 3 point shooting, passing skills (for a big), and rebounding. If he isn’t hitting his shots then he’s almost worthless against the Warriors since he can’t really defend anyone except the GS bigs (as a switch onto Curry/Thompson/Durant would expose his defense). And while I mentioned Love’s passing abilities above, he isn’t a playmaker. Paul George, on the other hand, has a much better all around skillset than Kevin Love outside of rebounding. George can get hotter and drop more points than Love can, is a better playmaker (and can actually have the offense run through him), and can also work in a switch-everything defense (i.e. where Love might get exposed trying to cover Curry/Thompson/Durant, George can more than hold his own there). Part of the Cavs problem in the Finals was that LeBron was the only person who could guard Durant. Adding a Paul George would solve that issue.
You really think LeBron wouldn’t play the 4 if it meant getting Paul George and cementing them as a legit title contender next year? I don’t mean a 5 game loss but George shores up some huge defensive issues.
Add to it the 4 is more or less a wing spot anyways with few guys being just interior players. Think about the 4 that Cleveland just played against. They are looking at Durant or Draymond. Would you rather have George/LeBron guarding that or Love/Thompson? If the trade is for George, it is the right one for where the game is going.
Second part yes. First part, what do you do with Kyrie?
Play him at PG. Don’t need to deal him in that scenario.
1 – Kyrie
2 – JR
3 – PG13
4 – LBJ
5 – Lopez
No bench. None.
Deron williams, JR, RJ, Frye, Felder, Korver, Jokes, Williams would be alright
Cabs need bench player that can score and play defense. They don’t have that now.
I can see money wise why the second trade would make sense, but talent wise, Cleveland would get significantly worse. Lopez is better offensively than Thompson/Shumpert combined, but his numbers would be pitiful when surrounded by LeBron/Kyrie/PG (assuming your scenario). Defensively, they’d fall off a cliff as Thompson is better than Lopez there and now the Cavs need to find a wing to replace Shumpert’s minutes as a 3-and-D wing.
The nets will get an rfa eventually if they’re as aggressive as they were last year
And the cavs issue has been defense all year long and Lopez is as soft a center is going to get
The warriors don’t deserve it especially KD
100% this was all Warriors!!! The team that plays as a team win as team. Best team records breaking all over can’t hide it. Losing last year to get KD was a win as well. 2 out of 3 finals beat the Cavs. Thanks for watching g history no way to change it!!!!
Why? Because they built a team the way you want to? They picked niche players who could improve(Curry, Klay, Green, made a trade for a vet(Iggy) and then signed a big free agent before anyone’s contract came up. That is exactly how you want to build a team. It wasn’t any more shameful than signing a bunch of guys like their Finals opponents who had mostly free agent signings on their roster.
Send Lebron to Celtics and start rebuilding lol
People that have a problem with the KD signing, are the same people that hated the Randy Moss undefeated season in New England. Majority of people were happy they lost outside of New England. B/c it was like “you got Randy Moss, greatest receiver ever for peanuts” And he put up 22 TDs that season.
That’s the equivalent. You took an already great team, and put a all time top player at his position onto the roster.
Teams are gonna try their best to build a contender or a promising young team without breaking laws or league rules. If there are no rules broken, then adding elite talent to great teams allowed to happen.
The best way to build is to get multiple draft picks for the 2022, 2023, 2024 seasons, etc.. lol
Moss is not the greatest WR ever come on now it’s Rice
Moss hadn’t done anything the past couple years with the raiders, nobody expected a season like that or were already handing the Pats the super bowl
The Warriors are beatable and KD will be lucky to get another ring. Cavs simply lacked defense behind Lebron and got no production from the bench. What they really need to do is get rid of Tyronn Lue and bring in Mark Jackson(built GS’s defense, Kerr took the offense to another level). Fire Lue, bring in Jackson to better mold Kyrie on defense and Love and add a defensive small forward like PJ Tucker in free agency. Also if Tristan can’t develop a reliable go to move and jumper it might be time to trade him along with Shumpert.
Mark Jackson is a bad coach, maybe better then Lue but still a bad coach.
What you’re forgetting here is that the Cavs players (including and most importantly LeBron) all respect Lue and will listen to him. Not saying that couldn’t happen with Jackson, but it’s not a guarantee it would be a good fit either. Asking/expecting Kyrie to improve defensively is reasonable, but Love is too slow to keep up with quicker/smaller players and not athletic enough to be a rim protector. I kind of agree that Thompson needs to develop more of an offensive game, but he hardly gets any touches outside of lobs/dump-offs/offensive rebounds that I don’t see him developing a go-to move and a mid-range jumper being that impactful. The only way that his offense significantly benefits the Cleveland offense is if he develops a three point shot, which is probably unlikely.
So with the negative money they have, how are they signing Tucker? MLE would work except they are paying a huge amount of tax already and as a franchise is losing money.
Mark Jackson also can’t coach an offense. Think about how quickly the turn went from a coaching switch. They improved by 16 games. From 51 wins. That is not a casual turn. You act as if some of these players don’t know how to play defense. They do. They just don’t. And Mark Jackson isn’t changing that. Plus he wouldn’t sit there and take crap from LeBron which is a no-no in Cleveland.
You also have to find someone who wants to take Thompson and Shumpert. Shumpert isn’t an easy move as he doesn’t look good on a team featuring LeBron, Kyrie and Love. He literally just has to play D and hit a shot once in a while and can’t. Teams aren’t just taking him and offering up value in return.
I don’t know what the Cavs have to do, but all of the signs point to trading Love as he is more valuable than Thompson while being a poor defender. Thompson only looked bad against GS where he essentially had to guard two spots because Love couldn’t guard one. Find a player who can play next to him or move LeBron to the 4. LeBron being the “4” doesn’t mean he plays down low. Most 4s today aren’t. It means they add a good wing to the team that can allow LeBron more ability to freelance.