Thank You Lebron

[celticsclay]

If both Love and Lebron missed as many games as they did, I think the Cavs would have been the 6th seed.  I'm not sure they even beat the Sixers in the 1st round in that scenario given Butler is actually one of the better Lebron defenders.

That said, if Lebron had re-signed, I think the Cavs would have pretty aggressively gone after Butler.  Does a package centered around Sexton top what the Sixers ended up getting him for, especially if they would have taken Dieng's bloated contract off their hands?  Given all of the trades it is hard to do the numbers on these things but something like Sexton, Osman, Clarkson, Smith for Butler and Dieng.  I don't know if that is a better trade than the Wolves got, but it would have provided them some additional salary relief.  The Cavs would have then been Hill, Butler, James, Love, Thompson with Hood, Korver, Nance, and Zizic (plus whatever veteran minimum type players they would have added).  That is probably still the best team in the East this year.

I doubt that team would be the best team in the East this year, a Hill-Butler-Bron-Love-Dieng lineup isn't on par with the Raptors and Celtics imo. They would still be in the mix to make the finals though simply because the Raptors have Bronphobia lol, so they could make the finals if the Celtics face the Raptors in the second round.

I'd absolutely favor that Cavs teams over the Raptors, Bucks, and Celtics.  Lebron is still a top 5 player in the league (and playoff Lebron might very well still be the best player in the league).  Butler was widely regarded as a top 10 to 12 player entering the year, plus as such a great wing defender he can actually take some defensive pressure off of Lebron.  You move Love back into that 3rd option role and he can really thrive.  Hill is a pretty solid PG for that team in that role (3 and D type player).  Thompson, Nance and Dieng all do the dirty work down low.  They still have Korver making daggers and Hood being a nice offensive option off the bench.

On what basis is Lebron a top 5 player in the league? I didn’t think even his biggest fans thought that anymore... did you miss his defense the entire season?

[celticsclay]

Lebron barely scraped out of a weaker East last season. I doubt he'd have gotten out of this second round if he'd stayed in Cleveland.

This is the most frustrating part of that loss to me. It would have been incredible to go to the finals with our team last, even though I am quite certain we would have been smoked. However, the tougher part is that because Jaylen Brown and some other young players could not hit a 3 to save their life, we have to deal with perhaps years of fantasies talking about how Lebron ruled the east and could have continued to have when in reality, the Cavs were already turning into a thoroughly solid team as previous contributors rapidly aged (hill, smith, korver) or succumbed to constant injuries (love).

Korver averaged 6 minutes a game in the playoffs this year and averaged 2 pts a game.
Jr Smith may never play in the league again
Love has not played in more than 60 games in a season since 2015-2016 and was recently described by Zach Lowe as the third worst contract in the game (wall, westrbrook).
Hill averaged 6.8 points this year on 43% shooting, 28% 3 and missed another 20 games.

These guys are all old, many dealing with injuries for years and most of them are making a ton of money... that team was done and everyone knew it.