Cavs have won 11 straight

[celticsclay]

If healthy, the Cavs were always the team to beat in the East.  They have the best player in the world, the best PF in the east, and the second best PG in the east.  Getting Shumpert and Smith for Waiters was a great move.  As was turning 2 late firsts into Mozgov.  When Varejao comes back they will have one of the better benches in the east as well.  They might actually be the team to beat in basketball right now, not just the east.

I'd take Wall over Irving.  Better defender, better passer, better rebounder.

Is Irving clearly better then Lowry, rose, or even Teague?

[Moranis]

If healthy, the Cavs were always the team to beat in the East.  They have the best player in the world, the best PF in the east, and the second best PG in the east.  Getting Shumpert and Smith for Waiters was a great move.  As was turning 2 late firsts into Mozgov.  When Varejao comes back they will have one of the better benches in the east as well.  They might actually be the team to beat in basketball right now, not just the east.

I'd take Wall over Irving.  Better defender, better passer, better rebounder.

Is Irving clearly better then Lowry, rose, or even Teague?

I think so.  Rose may bet back to that level, but isn't there yet.

[celticsclay]

If healthy, the Cavs were always the team to beat in the East.  They have the best player in the world, the best PF in the east, and the second best PG in the east.  Getting Shumpert and Smith for Waiters was a great move.  As was turning 2 late firsts into Mozgov.  When Varejao comes back they will have one of the better benches in the east as well.  They might actually be the team to beat in basketball right now, not just the east.

I'd take Wall over Irving.  Better defender, better passer, better rebounder.

Is Irving clearly better then Lowry, rose, or even Teague?

I think so.  Rose may bet back to that level, but isn't there yet.

Irving is not a very good passer. I know assists are not everything, but has gone entire games without them while playing 35 minutes at point guard. Overall he averages 5 a game on a team that has some really good shooters. He is also at best an average defender and rebounder. Lowry is a very good rebounding point guard, a much better passer and in my opinion probably a better defender (although I would leave it to the stat heads to confirm that.

Irving is a really great scorer, his 55 point game was a good example of how unstoppable he can be when he gets his deep shot going. However, as a complete player there are a lot of areas of his game that need growth.

[celticsclay]

With respect to the Cavs winning streak, any 11 game winning streak is really impressive in the NBA so I am not saying it is not a good sign or that they are not playing better. However, this has been with the exception of a few games the softest stretch of their schedule. 3 of the teams have been over .500 (Bulls, Clippers, Portland) while 6 have been against bad to really bad teams (76ers, Minnesota, Lakers, Utah, Philly, Detroit, Charlotte).

I will be really interested to see how they look against the Clippers on Thursday (at home). If they win that one I will be fully on board that they are playing dominating ball and not just feasting on the weak

By comparison when the Hawks recently won 25 out of 26 they really played most of the top teams in the league (which is kind of expected since it is more than a quarter of the season)
Of the 26 games, 15 were against above .500 teams. That is incredible.

[inverselock]

Irving, Wiggins, James.   That would be better.

[AngryAndIrritable]

Cavs are so so so good on paper. Their record says otherwise, but maybe they are turning it around now.

Fact is that in weak East, regular season is pretty meaningless. If they start playing to potential, they have an easy ticket to the Finals - and no, I don't think the Hawks are meaningful competition if Cavs are peaking.

Basketball isn't played on paper.

The Hawks are defeating mostly their foes in the East so that would indicate to me their ability to deal with that in the playoffs.

As far as the East playoffs go who knows? The Wizards are ascending, Cavs are the nouveau riche team with plenty of talent and not so much chemistry and with solid coaching and a reasonably healthy roster you can never rule out the Bulls.