Tag: los angeles lakers

Maybe Cavs Need Fit More Than Talent.

By the end of this month, it is very likely the roster of the Cleveland Cavaliers will look quite different. The Cavs have the third pick in the draft, and rumors persist of a trade coming involving leading scorer Collin Sexton.

While it may be absurd to many people for a team with one of the worst records in the league over the last three years to move their best player, you have to remember that basketball is not a sport where the best talent wins all the time, there has to be a good fit.

You can’t take players’ statistics and add them together when talking about possibilities. For example, a team made up of Stephen Curry, Bradley Beal, Joel Embiid, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Jayson Tatum, the leading scorers at their respective positions, would not average 146 points per game, which is the accumulation of their scoring averages in 2020-21.

To go really old school, the 1967-68 Los Angeles Lakers won 52 games and went to the NBA Finals behind two of the great players of the era, Jerry West and Elgin Baylor. They also had Archie Clark, who averaged 19.9 points that year. Clark was a prolific scorer, with a career scoring mark of 16 points per contest, with a high season of 25 PPG.

That off-season, the Lakers, feeling they needed something to push them over the top, combat Boston and Bill Russell, and win their first title in LA, traded Clark, center Darrell Imhoff and Jerry Chambers to Philadelphia for Wilt Chamberlain, who we still believe is the greatest center in NBA history.

Surely, the combination of three all time greats would lead to a championship.

The addition of Wilt the Stilt got the Lakers back to The Finals, where they again lost to Boston in 1968-69. Chamberlain missed all but 12 regular seasons the following season, but was back for the playoffs, where again LA lost in seven games to the New York Knicks.

After a loss in the conference finals to Milwaukee in ’70-’71 (Baylor was injured and retired early the following season), the Lakers inserted Jim McMillan in the starting lineup for Baylor and the team became unbeatable, going on a 33 games winning streak (still the all-time record), and won a then league record 69 games and won the title.

McMillan was a good player, not a great one (18.8 points, 6.5 rebounds in the championship season), but was a perfect fit for that team.

The Cavaliers are a losing team, winning 19, 19, and 22 games the last three seasons, and although Sexton was the leading scorer the past two years, he wasn’t the Cavs’ leader in win shares in any of the years he has been on the team. The first two years it was Larry Nance, and last season it was Jarrett Allen.

Based on this, we can see why the Cleveland front office is hesitant to give Sexton a contract extension, and may feel moving him now to bring in some pieces who might fit better with guys like Darius Garland, Allen, and whoever the wine and gold take with the third overall pick.

Although it is difficult to believe, it isn’t always about the talent in basketball, it’s about how that talent fits and the combination of players can play off of each other.

Look at the transformation Chris Paul made with Phoenix. His presence changed the dynamic of the roster.

That happens a lot in the NBA, and could be the answer in Cleveland. We understand that thinking.

On LeBron’s Legacy And What Is The NBA Doing?

The NBA Finals will end either tonight with the LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers winning their first title since 2010, or it will end Wednesday night with the first game seven matchup since the Cavaliers beat Golden State in 2016.

Television ratings are down for the NBA and many have speculated as to why, but it could be just as simple as it is not basketball season. Sports fans have trained themselves throughout the years to watch certain sports at certain times, and sports junkies are watching baseball playoffs and the NFL in October, getting ready for the start of basketball, not viewing the championship series.

If the Lakers win, it will be LeBron James’ fourth title, putting two behind the aura of Michael Jordan. James is also making his 10th appearance in The Finals, and the only two players with more were part of the Celtics’ dynasty of the late 1950’s and 60’s: Bill Russell and Sam Jones, who both appeared in 11.

Would this title erase the “greatest of all time” question for James over Jordan? We wouldn’t be willing to do that personally, although we don’t dismiss the argument as some do. However, an 11th Finals appearance and a fifth championship for James might tilt the discussion for us.

Add in that LeBron very well could wind up his career as the all time leading scorer in professional basketball history, and end up in the top five all time in assists (he is about 1000 shy of Steve Nash for that spot right now), and only someone who thinks the game was better when they were younger could still hold on to the Jordan argument.

Although being 6-0 in The Finals is pretty impressive.

On the other hand, a player who is regarding as someone who thinks pass first becoming the NBA’s all time leading scorer is just as impressive.

Whether you are a “Jordan guy” or a “LeBron guy”, either way, being regarded as the second best player of all time in any sport isn’t an insult. There are only a handful of players who have that status in any sport, and make no doubt, LeBron James is in the conversation.

Now the league in which he plays has an interesting decision to make.

We’ve just said he believe at least part of the issue with the ratings and the overall interest in the sport could be based on the traditional viewing habits of fans, and the date when the league will start the 2020-21 season (or perhaps just the 2021 season) could be important for the future of the league.

It has been rumored the next season may not start until as late as March, four and a half months after the post-season ends, which is close to the normal time period between the end of the playoffs and the start of the next season.

However, the start of that season would be right in the middle of the NCAA conference tournaments and the championship brackets, and the beginning of baseball.

And assuming they would play a standard 82 game schedule, the conference finals and The Finals would wind up competing with the NFL (a behemoth no one wants to compete with), college football, and the World Series.

What would we recommend? The same thing several people have thought. Start around Christmas (when most fans start watching the NBA) and play a shortened 60 game schedule where the playoffs end around the end of June or beginning of July, and then get back on the normal league calendar.

Otherwise, the league may risk a popularity problem. We understand the league may have passed baseball as the #2 viewed sport right now, but thinking it is more popular than it is can be a problem.

An indoor sport competing against outdoor activities? Let’s just say, that could be a problem.