To the OP, in response to your points.
1. We overcame the Bulls largely due to a series-ending injury to Rajon Rondo (who had been killing us in that series) in addition to the elite defensive job Avery Bradley did on Jimmy Butler - Bradley is now gone.
Lol! So where was Bradley pre-Rondo injury? If he was the answer, why didnt he answered the first 2 games at home...? They was one technical adjustment the coach made. just one! And it worked! Brad Stevens himself acknowledged it. But you guys keep referring to defense. Why didn't the defense composed of Bradley and Crowder notably do anything to help us win those first two games...?? We won thanks to an injury and an OFFENSIVE adjustment! Taking out a defender (in Amir) and putting in an floor spacing offensive threat (in Gerald Green)!! I dont know how i could be the only one seeing this! lol!
2. We barely overcame the Wizards in a 7 game series because the team played with no heart and no energy in half of those games. They basically laid down and said "do what you want with me, I won't fight it". There was a lack of effort on both ends of the court in the games we lost - and the blowout margins were proof of that.
This is besides my point! If last year team was so great defensively they should have been able to rely on it to win the games and maybe close the series earlier! But they relied on offensive outbursts from IT earlier in the series and Olynyk in game 7! Offense saved us here yet again! Not that defense is useless (mind you Beal was killing us and no one was found to stop him, not bradley, not crowder for ***** sake!) but the clear advantage that got us over the hump against the wizards was those offensive outbursts! Again you might not agree but that's what happened! Heart and energy can take you far but without the necessary talent to back it up they will be moments were the overachievers crash back down.... And we upgraded our team talent wise!
3. We got destroyed by the Cavs because of terrible rebounding (which has gotten worse this year) and because, as with the Washington series, we played with no heart and no effort to start the series. When IT went down the team seemed to play motivated again (as if they wanted to play harder for him, or were making up for the loss) and after actually playing with some effort and heart for the first time in the series, Boston actually took a game.
We still have an open roster spot so we could improve our rebounding which is clearly a weakness right now. But lets all agree that last year team was extremely bad in rebounding and still managed to get 1st seed and reach the ECF, so...
I think we got destroyed by a team with a well oiled offensive machine. They were scoring at will against out TOP NOTCH defenders like Crowder and Bradley... Kicking our asses at historical levels in our own building!! Yet some of you will still think we are losing so much in trading our best defenders... I think we are going to improve so much offensively that we will be able to hang with those teams like the cavs and warriors while our defense will be better than last year thanks to better length and athleticism, no IT to hide, and better low post defense.
That one game we took was more Smart offensive OUTBURST than any secret defensive strategy... otherwise why couldn't we use that same "secret defensive strategy" for the other 4 games we lost...?
4. The Cavs do have a poor defence, you are right. But they also had Kyrie Irving (one of the best closers in the game) and Lebron James (the best player in the game), and the duo of Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson (one of the best rebounding frontcourts in the NBA). When you have three offensive superstars on your team who are capable of scoring 70 PPG on their own, combined with two three frontcourt players who are capable of pulling down around 30 RPG between them, then you can kinda make up for a lack of great defence.
Unfortunately our top 3 scorers only averaged 60 PPG last year between them, our top 3 rebounding starters only averaged around 17 RPG between them, and our bench is made up almost entirely of young prospects - many of whom have yet to play a single NBA game. So we cannot get by with a bad defence quite so easily as Cleveland could last year.
Except that now we have Kyrie on OUR team! Plus Hayward! And some good defenders around them... I will take my chance with this year's team!
5. You take a Kyrie three over Steph in the finals over any AB defence? That's interesting, because without AB's defense against Jimmy Butler in Chicago we probably wouldn't make it out of the first round, I which case your Kyrie 3PT in the finals becomes nothing but a pipe dream.
I already covered this in the first point.
AB and Crowder defense was getting killed 0 - 2 on our own building until Rajon got a freak injury and Stevens made an OFFENSIVE adjustment to spread the floor! Offense got us by the Bulls! And Kyrie's shot more than Lebron's block got Cleveland their Banner!
6. Our defense is not better then last year, don't make me laugh. Our top six defenders last year were (not in any order) Avery Bradley, Jae Crowder, Al Horford, Marcus Smart, Amir Johnson, Kelly Olynyk. We lost four of those six guys. In return we gained two above average defenders (Morris and Baynes), one average defender (Hayward) and one terrible defender (Kyrie). The only consolation here is that Kyrie replaces Thomas, who was an even worse defender. Other then that we are worse on defence - way worse. Unless Brown and Tatum shock us that is.
We are better my friend. With better pieces (expect for Bradley and Crowder), with more length and athleticism, with no more hiding IT and with some better low post defense. We will be better defensively than last year's team (that you guys are now OVERRATING)...