The Basketball Thread

[iseah100 5,612]

Haha I know you're a Bulls fan but no chance they're better. Tbh, maybe chemistry wise the Chicago three might fit better, but still Cavs got the bigger three. We don't know if Rose is truly back either (even though they're saying he's looking like a beast at the US camp) but even then, Lebron is Lebron, and K Love was easily one of the best players in the league last year (top 5). Kyrie is almost a true elite PG too.

Love is mediocre defensively. Gasol and Noah are elite defensively. Rose is back to his old self and one of the best players (top 5) when healthy. Chi's big 3 is more well rounded. Kyrie can be elite, but is miles behind D Rose.

[The Skipper 20,593]

Love is mediocre defensively. Gasol and Noah are elite defensively. Rose is back to his old self and one of the best players (top 5) when healthy. Chi's big 3 is more well rounded. Kyrie can be elite, but is miles behind D Rose.

Love is average defensively but superior to both Gasol and Noah offensively, not even a debate tbh.

As I said, chemistry wise Chicago might be better definitely and I agree when you say that Bulls big three are more rounded but still, the Lebron factor is too much.

[iseah100 5,612]

Love is average defensively but superior to both Gasol and Noah offensively, not even a debate tbh.

As I said, chemistry wise Chicago might be better definitely and I agree when you say that Bulls big three are more rounded but still, the Lebron factor is too much.

Noah was a triple double machine last year, and Pau is no slouch and still one of the best PF in the league. A starting 5 of Noah-Gasol-Butler-McDermott?- Rose is top notch. I think the LeBron factor outweighs it all, but Chicago can match them. They were able to against Miami.

[Sheva. 5,373]

Hope everything goes well for D.Rose, such a beast.

[Amblève. 4,995]

Gasol is elite defensively? lmao

[iseah100 5,612]

Gasol is elite defensively? lmao

Maybe not elite, but a good rim protector and better than Love. Noah is the reigning DPOTY.

[TorontoChelsea 4,064]

Love is average defensively but superior to both Gasol and Noah offensively, not even a debate tbh.

As I said, chemistry wise Chicago might be better definitely and I agree when you say that Bulls big three are more rounded but still, the Lebron factor is too much.

It's not just that Love is superior offensively, it's that he is a matchup nightmare. Gasol and Noah are both excellent players but they are typical NBA players. Love is the most dominant rebounder in the league he can hit from downtown and can pass. 3 offensive rebounds a game, 2.5 3PM per game, and 4.4 assists per game. That's an insane combination and think of the room it gives Lebron and Irving to drive to the middle as the opposing bigs have to chase Love out to the 3 point line. It means that the Cavs will be impossible to defend.

That said, I think the Bulls are the only team that can beat the Cavs but I give the Cavs the edge because

1) Rose has been injured A LOT in the past few years. He's played 49 games in 3 years and his playing style makes him very injury prone. Without Rose, the Bulls don't have a single great scorer.

2) Bulls lack of outside shooting. Rose is dominant at the basket but is a 1.5 3PM per game sort of a guy. Jimmy Butler has amazing potential but he only got 1 3PM a game last season. That puts an incredible amount of pressure on Doug Mcdermott who as a rookie is likely to struggle. The Cavs have no offensive holes.

The always entertaining Nate Silver. http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/cleveland-cavaliers-lebron-james-kevin-love-trade-wins/

[iseah100 5,612]

The Cavs have no offensive holes.

Wouldn't go that far. Are they better than the Heat were 2 years ago? They have 3 good players. Waiters will not be as good as he'll be a 4th option. They have a week bench.

A front court of Gasol-Noah is very goid offensively and defensively. Love is a good player, but not better than even Chris Bosh. Also, you're forgetting Chicago has THE BEST defensive coach in the NBA. Thibs.

[Amblève. 4,995]

Maybe not elite, but a good rim protector and better than Love. Noah is the reigning DPOTY.

Gasol had a 110,4 defensive rating, that is enough to give him the second worst spot among all forwards (50 games minimum) and is worse than the Lakers def rating last season which stood at a 107,9 mark. Love, however, has a 104,1 rating which is the exact same as the Timberwolves'.

Pau Gasol is definitely not better than KLove, let alone a good rim protector.

[The Skipper 20,593]

A front court of Gasol-Noah is very goid offensively and defensively. Love is a good player, but not better than even Chris Bosh.

Love is definitely better than current Chris Bosh I think, but then again I've never really liked Bosh that much anyway. I mean Love was the third most effective player in the NBA statistically, after KD and Bron (PER). Dion Waiters is a much better 4th option than let's say Mario Chalmers. Kyrie is on the verge of becoming an elite PG. Wade is finished IMO (he's more than happy to prove me wrong though now he'll be more of a main guy at Miami).

On paper, Cavs are monstrous offensively, I agree with TC on that. Whether that'll actually translate to the court? We'll see.

[TorontoChelsea 4,064]

Wouldn't go that far. Are they better than the Heat were 2 years ago? They have 3 good players. Waiters will not be as good as he'll be a 4th option. They have a week bench.

A front court of Gasol-Noah is very goid offensively and defensively. Love is a good player, but not better than even Chris Bosh. Also, you're forgetting Chicago has THE BEST defensive coach in the NBA. Thibs.

They don't have 3 good players. They have the best player in the NBA, a top-5-10 player in the NBA and another fantastic player. Their supporting cast is good enough as well..Lebron is also an incredibly efficient player and neither Irving nor Love have ever played with other great players so while their counting stats will go down, it is safe to say that they will become more efficient overall. Also, not just Rose is injury-prone but both Gasol and Noah are as well and it would be very surprising if all three of them made it through the year without missing a fair bit of time.. The Bulls big three is simply not nearly as good either. .

In Hollinger's player efficiency ratings, the Cavs have the #1, #3, and #27 players from last year. The Bulls have the #29, the #38 and DNQ. The Cavs might not gel right away of course and team basketball can win you everything so the Bulls are still very much a contender, but on paper, the Cavs are a much better team right now.

[Korea 734]

I like how gasol is elite defensively and how rose is back to drose of years past....

If cavs dont come out of the east, Lebron failed... The east sucks and cavs have lebron, love and kyrie. The best overall player, one of the best big man with better perimeter game than Bosh (but bosh is superior in terms of defense) and kyrie irving,the best young talent in the nba with the greatest fundamentals...Also, waiters is a decent 6th man and the Brazilian is a perfect role player for lebron (however, i would trade waiters for an athletic defensive wing)

I can see love and lebron working perfectly, but all three of them I'm not too sure about....

Minnesota got a great deal in thad young and wiggins on a run and gun minn team...

[Korea 734]

Bulls would be title contenders if they had Russel westbrook as their pg, rather than D rose....

[iseah100 5,612]

kyrie irving,the best young talent in the nba with the greatest fundamentals..

Best young player? No. He hasn't made the playoffs and isn't better than Wall, Lillard, George or Rose, who at Kyrie's age won an MVP and led his team to the ECF.

Not to mention Kyrie barely had his first full season. He's not even the best young PG.

Bulls would be title contenders if they had Russel westbrook as their pg, rather than D rose....

LMAO. They did alright last time Rose was healthy.

[Korea 734]

Team USA has a lot of dropouts....

PG: irving

SG; CUrry

SF: Harden

PF:

C: AD

Question is who starts at the 4? Usually, it could be kd, love, melo or lbj, but none of them are going.... Unless, they put cousins at the 5 and ad at the 4. It will be interesting

[Kezza 1,965]

New Zealand thought they dance was gone intimidate us.... That ain't nothing but the A town stump! #GoUSA #FIBAWorldCup2014

— Andre Iguodala (@andre)

No fucking respect!

[NishC300 1,865]

I don't think they do need another scorer. They play a defensive game and have enough offensive weapons to score. San Antonio won last year with no one player getting more than 16.7 PPG and only 2 averaging over 12.8. Rose, is healthy is an over 20 PPG guy and Butler, Gibson, Noah, and Gasol can all score so it is definitely enough offense to win. This was a team that (tied) for the third best record in the East and is adding Rose and Gasol. If Rose isn't healthy, which is a decent possibility, they will still make the playoffs, but won't be a contender. Anthony would have destroyed the team. They are a cohesive defensive unit, one of the top few units in the NBA and adding someone who can't play defense and doesn't care destroys that. It's best for Anthony and all other teams that he went back to the Knicks where he can launch his 22 shots per game, miss the playoffs, and still pretend he's an elite player.

Another year of zero ball movement and JR Smith and Carmelo sizing up their opponents and launching hero 2 pointers ;p

btw what do u guys make of the Mavs? The MAX finish we could have is 4th. Hope this huge burden placed on Parsons because of his wages doesn't affect his game. Golden State made a great addition in Livingston. Livingston can take over some of the ball handling duties from Curry and is a pretty tall guard like Thompson. It's gonna be tough for a rookie head Coach Steve Kerr to heal the scars of the fact that Klay Thompson, David Lee and Harrison Barnes were being offered to the T-Wolves. You wouldn't like showing their peers that the result of hard work is getting shipped of to Minnesota.

[Styles 9,790]

New Zealand thought they dance was gone intimidate us.... That ain't nothing but the A town stump! #GoUSA #FIBAWorldCup2014

— Andre Iguodala (@andre)

No fucking respect!

Iguodala should just retire from Twitter; that's not the first time he's embarrassed himself with a tweet.

Another year of zero ball movement and JR Smith and Carmelo sizing up their opponents and launching hero 2 pointers ;p

btw what do u guys make of the Mavs? The MAX finish we could have is 4th. Hope this huge burden placed on Parsons because of his wages doesn't affect his game. Golden State made a great addition in Livingston. Livingston can take over some of the ball handling duties from Curry and is a pretty tall guard like Thompson. It's gonna be tough for a rookie head Coach Steve Kerr to heal the scars of the fact that Klay Thompson, David Lee and Harrison Barnes were being offered to the T-Wolves. You wouldn't like showing their peers that the result of hard work is getting shipped of to Minnesota.

I can't believe the deal Parsons got - that's not to say he's a bad player but that's big money, the demands are going to be quite big. He's on about twice as much as Dirk!

Kerr wanted to keep Klay so I think that helps his cause a lot. It's no secret that the Warriors want to move Lee (but can't because of his salary) so there's no love lost there, and Barnes is coming off a poor season so that should serve as a wake-up call for him. Kerr sounds like he has some good ideas about the game/style of play and the Warriors have hired some experienced coaches; I think they'll have a good season.

You guys been watching the Fiba World Cup? I haven't seen much but have heard Rose has looked pretty rusty which is understandable but also worrying. I'd love to see this guy come back even close to what he was.