On a serious note, should the Celtics even go after this guy despite his assumed-resentment towards the Celtics and Kelly Olynyk since he torn his labrum? Will this have any impact on his scoring and rebounding abilities, regardless?
My vote is no, just because I don't like Love's attitude in general nor his complete void of defensive effort/ability.
Funny enough though I think Chicago has the edge on Cleveland with or without Love.
I felt so too.
Cleveland is very weak in the front court, and Love+Mozgov vs Gasol+Noah is not a matchup that would have gone Cleveland's way. If they Start Thompson + Mozgov it may actually be better for them, but the lack of depth and frontcourt scoring will hurt them.
Also Chicago's tough interior defense (Noah + Gasol + Gibson) is going to make it much harder for Lebron and Kyrie to get in to the paint. Most likely they will be settling on a larger quantity of jump shots, which really is exactly what you want against a team like this.
Chicago have a lot of scoring potential in Rose, Butler and Gasol and even with Love (who's a major defensive liability) out, Cleveland is still going to have trouble stopping those guys. Defense is not that team's strong point.
I'm going to call a tight series. I pick Chicago for the 4-2 series win. If Love was there I would isntead call it 4-3, but I think for me Chicago is the favorite for me either way.
Same deal if Cleveland played Washington - just too much firepower and size for Cleveland to match in a 7 game series. Wall, Beal, Pierce on offense, plus the size of Nene, Humphries and Gortat? Clevleand are (IMO) no match for that. Plus if there is anybody who has a history of big games against Lebron, it's Paul Pierce. I could almost guarantee that in at least one of those games, Pierce would have Lebron's number.