I've looked at every finals team in the past 45 years to see how rare it is to do what Lebron's doing with such a weak supporting cast. Here's the list I've finalists whose second and third options might be as bad as larry hughes and big Z.2003 Spurs - Young Parker, Old Robinson 1993 Rockets - Otis Thorpe, Vernon Maxwell, Kenny the Jet 1978 Bullets - Mitch Kupchak, Bob Dandridge It's pretty damned near unprecedented to take a team with that kind of supporting cast to the finals, even in the east.
True that. I give props to Bron for doing what hes done.Against the Spurs though I think obviously Bron has to step up but so does Illguaskas and Hughes. Their two key factors.
Well, I dont think with a type of player like LeBron you need 2 or 3 other allstars. LeBron basicly needs a side man(Hughes, or in some nights case Gibson), shooters, garbage players. And Big Z is a bonus cause his low post scoring helps alot when hes going. Hes such a offensivley versitle player he can almost always do someting productive with the ball in his hands. Give it to a shooter, get his own shot, pass is downlow for a easy dunk for the bigs. Does that remind you of anybody?But his supporting cast is the most talented, but its not like hes not getting help cause he is. In his press conference, LeBron said "we've improved every year, <u>the organization has put players around me that I can make affective the most</u>." The Cavs could probably get another B rate star on the team, but they feel with the team they have now, it suits LeBron best.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (austingriz @ Jun 2 2007, 11:33 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Well, I dont think with a type of player like LeBron you need 2 or 3 other allstars. LeBron basicly needs a side man(Hughes, or in some nights case Gibson), shooters, garbage players. And Big Z is a bonus cause his low post scoring helps alot when hes going. Hes such a offensivley versitle player he can almost always do someting productive with the ball in his hands. Give it to a shooter, get his own shot, pass is downlow for a easy dunk for the bigs. Does that remind you of anybody?But his supporting cast is the most talented, but its not like hes not getting help cause he is. In his press conference, LeBron said "we've improved every year, <u>the organization has put players around me that I can make affective the most</u>." The Cavs could probably get another B rate star on the team, but they feel with the team they have now, it suits LeBron best.</div>Yes, we all know Lebron is a phenomenal player so that's the supporting cast he needs. The point is, it's insane that anybody could possibly get to the finals with that kind of supporting cast. There are probably less than 10 players in the league who could get to the PLAYOFFS with Lebron's supporting cast.
True. Hes a <u>great</u> player. Not many has done it. And we all know Big Z can play good now and then...but he hasnt been consistant. So LeBron has done this without a dominant big man. Today, I saw small parts of Magic Johnson in him(controlling the offense without attempting that many shots...from good passing.). And the last player we saw take his team to the Finals without a big was Jordan. Saying that, LeBron didnt have the obstacles Jordan had. So I dont think LeBron is near that level at all...but I do think this post-season and what LeBron has done shows us the he has lived up to the hype, surpassed it, and just might become that good...in reference to him being better than Jordan..or any player for that matter.
Yes, but most years this team wouldn't have made the finals. I mean look at how horrible the East was. I can count 6 or 7 teams that had the talent to make it to the ECF that are in the West this year.
2001 Sixers should be up there too... that team overachieved like crazy thanks to AI and Larry Brown... and they played in an Eastern Conference that was tougher (not by too much, but tougher than the East currently is)...
Lebrons supporting cast is not that bad. Cleveland has added a few pieces and they have people who can score. The one thing cleveland has is a fair amount of depth, you might beat one guy one night but then another guy will show up the next night. I'm very surprised the cavs are in the finals, and while this is one of the weaker casts it has its pieces(post player-Z Perimeter defender-Larry Hughes and 2nd scorer - boobie) the Cavaliers have gotten to the finals as a team and just because on paper they dont look that great, they still are a good team. You do have 3 players who atone time or another were allstars technically also so it cant be rated amongst the worst(Hughes,Lebron,Z)
The problem with that supporting cast is their inconsistency. They have good players, but they cant all play good at the same time for some reason. But with the way they play, thats a terrible cast to be in the Finals.
IMO the 76ers cast in 2001 wasnt even half the team the Cavaliers are this year. But then again most of the early 2000s eastern finals teams were pretty sh*tty other then NY.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Kobebryant_24OWNEDME @ Jun 3 2007, 03:18 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>I've looked at every finals team in the past 45 years to see how rare it is to do what Lebron's doing with such a weak supporting cast. Here's the list I've finalists whose second and third options might be as bad as larry hughes and big Z.2003 Spurs - Young Parker, Old Robinson 1993 Rockets - Otis Thorpe, Vernon Maxwell, Kenny the Jet 1978 Bullets - Mitch Kupchak, Bob Dandridge It's pretty damned near unprecedented to take a team with that kind of supporting cast to the finals, even in the east.</div>Not in this year's East...Lebron wouldn't have made it past the 2nd round if he played in the West..maybe not even the first round if you switch them with Houston or some other team.
For the people who are saying the 2001 sixers, I think that, since I was mainly just talking about second and third best players, Ratliff and Mutumbo had better seasons that year than Hughes and Z.
I don't think it's one of the worst but it's not good. Look at the road they took to get here though, pretty easy.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Universe @ Jun 3 2007, 11:06 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>I don't think it's one of the worst but it's not good. Look at the road they took to get here though, pretty easy.</div>how can you say it's not "one of the worst" when it's easily one of the ten worst ever for a finalist?
LeBron certainly doesn't have much to work with, but at the same time he has had one of the easiest roads to the Finals in a long time. They beat a Wizards team without their 2 best players, a Nets team without their only low post scorer (and the Cavs got lucky in game 4...series should have went 7) and then they got one of those teams that they simply matchup real well with. When all teams are healthy, I feel there are 3 other teams in the East that can beat them in a 7 game series (Heat, Bulls and Nets).With that said, what he has done has been pretty amazing. He really willed his team to win the ECF, and deserves everything he has worked for in getting to the Finals.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Kobebryant_24OWNEDME @ Jun 3 2007, 01:01 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>For the people who are saying the 2001 sixers, I think that, since I was mainly just talking about second and third best players, Ratliff and Mutumbo had better seasons that year than Hughes and Z.</div>Yeah, but a supporting cast is more than the second and third best players... I think everybody that has replied has looked at the entire roster from top to bottom.You're right, Cleveland is up there, but I don't know if they were worse than the '01 Sixers in terms of the entire roster.
Well that's what happens when you take a great player and put him into one of the worst conferences in history.
