I think it's too early to paint MarShon Brooks one way or the other.
So what if he sucked defensively. So did Kyrie Irving. Most rookies do. Let's worry about it if it's still in issue two years from now.
Ya, I really thought Irving looked super lost out there at points. I think the good thing is that currently he's on the Cavs so he can learn the ropes at his own pace, because I'm not sure if he'd be quite ready to play on a competitive team. Could really damage his psyche and debilitate his growth.
Nice advocating.
Kyrie lead all players in clutch scoring last year. He's ready.
With Brooks, he played poor defense during his 4 years at Providence, too. It's a large part of the reason why he fell to the end of the first round in his draft.
That and he played for a bad team and only had one year of good college numbers.
Irving is nice. But second best player on a contending team? Too soon for that argument for me. I do like him, but the guy hasn't even sniffed the playoffs let alone the finals. He didn't even get to play in the NCAA tourney. So when was the last time he played in any kind of elimination style game? High School?
He is just too unknown to me and unproven. I saw Tyreke kill it his rookie year and was a no show the next two. I thought making a binkie be the second best player was a risk even if it is with Lebron. I think it's likely a conference finals team. LA and Portland will give it trouble though. At this point I don't see even Lebron beating this Laker's team. They're beastly.
I think the "one year of good numbers" comment was in relation to MarShon Brooks.
I think you're wrong about Irving, though. The kid came in as a 19 year old and was his team's unquestioned leader. He put up huge numbers, and did it efficiently. He was statistically the most clutch player in the entire NBA.
I think the Mavs are better than the Lakers by a decent margin, but we can leave that to the matchup arguments if we get to that point.
I just look at the match ups. I wasn't hating on your squad obviously if I think it is a Conference Finals team. Any team with James is elite. La just did a great job of building a roster that attacks James.
Tony Allen is the best perimeter defender in the game. He will harass LeBron and make life as difficult as possible for him. He will attack Lebron with his defense, this will be constant. I remember in 2010 against the Cavs Allen's D on James was terrific.
On Defense Lebron can't take off. He has to guard one of Gay, Horford, or LA. The latter two are All-Stars and Rudy Gay is a top 5 SF. I just see LeBron having no opportunity to take a couple plays off unless he guards Tony Allen.
I like Lowry in a matchup with Kyrie. Irving isn't an elite athlete by any stretch. Lowry will consistently make him work on both ends. His size advantage on Irving is big in that matchup in my opinion.
After that you really don't have a lot of offense. I think the talent on the Lakers is better then what the 2012 Celtics had in the ECF. I also think the 2012 Miami Heat had a lot more talent with Wade then Dallas does. I guess you can say Kyrie could duplicate what Wade did, but I will go back to match ups. Wade was being guarded by Ray Allen on one leg. Kyrie will be getting hounded by Lowry.