₦airaland Forum

A40:
Had he opted in then it could have also meant a possible trade was in the works. As it stands Cleveland still have an outside shot.

That shot is a long one, I just don't see lebron staying back at Cleveland.
Ultimately this move just ensures the warriors still comes out from the west. Houston is not beating the warriors especially if the warriors are more healthy and hungrier next season to get the three peat. Also the warriors would revamp their back up roster.
OKC is not just good enough even with PG and they are capped out already.
Lakers with Kwahi, Lebron and PG will be a problem especially if they can get cheap vets to fill in the gaps, but I don't see The spurs sending kwahi there.

If lebron joins the Sixer's, then Sixers Vs Celtics will be a bloodbath

Yes! Lebron opts out of cavs deal and enter free agency. That eliminates the rockets from the running, Now it's either Lakers or Philadelphia.
He's definitely joining Purple and Gold

SmooshCHN:
Lmao!!! Pole postion Bruh!!! F1 fan?? Chai!! Next season go sweet fa. Get rid of Zaza and let McGee play backup..


But, these are just speculations though..

If the warriors get Dwight and a couple of back up shooters, the league should just forget it, its over for another year. The warriors need to go in for him because they will need his rim protection against whatever beast lebron is creating.

Yeah big f1 fan, Ferrari lover. Fucking Mercedes are like the warriors of f1.

Meanwhile Bleep you pop, thanks for being a jerk by standing in the way of the laker super team.

I smell Dwight Howard to the warriors The rich about to get richer.
The guy is about going ring chasing.
Can't join the Houston or potential Lakers super team because of past incidents.
Celtics have all horford.

Warriors definitely in pole position

SIRcumalot:
The injury nko ?
Make we see the guy first.
Am happy his leaving the spurs that whole franchise and their fans have this kain uppity attitude I can't stand.
Fork em and fork KD.

There is always a risk to take, kawhi is Just 26yrs old damn!

Geez if the Celtics somehow get kwahi by trading multiple picks, Morris and rozier mehn the league should just shut down. Kyrie+ kwahi+Tatum+jaleyn+Hayward core will dominate the league for years.

Popovich please don't do this

Again as for phili apart from Simmons and Embiid who else on their roster has enough upside for them to make the trade?
Unless spurs will trade kawhi for a bunch of very good players but who can never be potentially great.
If I was the spurs I will ask for lonzo, Ingram and kuzma from the Lakers . That way both teams win.

The Lakers can build their team around Kawhi, James and George although they will lack depth but this is a superstar league.

And trust me if popovich gets kuzma, lonzo and Ingram he will build a super team in two years.

donlittle25:
I like to be realistic lol, and this is not one of them.

You guys can not get kawhi. At all. There is a zero chance. If celtics wants Kawhi or Philly, which i am sure they will be interested, they have more pieces than you guys.



Jaylen Brown, and Tatum have proven themselves that they are here to stay. Ball, and Ingram haven't. Deng is a shell of himself.

What else do you guys have?

Philly? Yes
Boston ? No
Why would Boston trade two sure superstars in the making on rookie contracts for a player just coming back from injury ? Maybe before the playoffs it made sense but Tatum and Jaleyn brown balled out for them when it mattered.

If Celtics trade for kawhi, they will likely have to let Kyrie walk next year or even use him in the trade or they will end up with Kyrie and kawhi asking for max contracts while Horford and Hayward are already on one.

Kawhi Leonard wants out from the San Antonio Spurs, league sources tell Yahoo.

Lakers do it for world peace
I doubt the spurs will trade him to a western team though.
But lonzo, ingram and Deng should do the trick

donlittle25:
Every Summer:

Lakers Fan:
We will pursue this blah blah blah blah blah.

End of summer, ends up with tier-4 players.

Lebron fans: we will get cousins, Paul George, kawhi and melo to play with Lebron and gun for the championship.

End of summer, ends up Thomas, George hill, clarkston e.t.c

: why are you destroying our hopes now ? At least let's day dream small. Well I saw Jeanie buss cryptic tweet yesterday. And there are only two conclusions :
1) a big free agent mocked the Lakers and told them he can't come because the team is not good enough OR
2) Lakers have set up super team.
Regardless of the outcome this yr , The Lakers are in a going to be in a strong position for free agents.

Worse case scenario we don't get any major star. The Lakers can resign randle for around 20 million. And fill the rest of the cap with one yr contracts. By the end of next season, Ingram and kuzma would have developed further & we will know if lonzo is trully a bust or not.
Deng's contract will be almost up and more easy to trade. In the next one or two years potential free agents are going to be Kevin Durant, Anthony Davis and Kyrie.

It would be more easier to get one of them & let's be real, lebron has a max of two years at this god level before he gradually begjns to decline.

I can't believe the Lakers drafted lonzo ball & traded Russell for peanuts, lavar is just sabotaging every little chance we had to get lebron on fox sports. I hope one team will be stupid enough to take lonzo and Deng in a trade so we can sign randle and any other two stars in free agency

The Cavs are in for some fun in terms of salary for the next two years. They owe Tristan Thompson, George Hill, Jordan Clarkson, J.R. Smith, and Kyle Korver a combined $144.4 million over the next two seasons. #NBA https:///UDp4mUtGKh

Why do the people hate Dan gillbert and put all the blame on him. Yes! He may have messed up the kyrie and david griffin issue but he has paid millions to surround lebron with who ever he wants. He has made several trades to make the team win. If the warriors didn't happen the cavs would have two to four titles now.
Okc couldn't keep a core of generation talents in part because they didn't want to spend the money needed to keep harden or the guts to sack underperforming coaches yet their management is viewed as geniuses meanwhile Dan Gilbert lays everything on the line and is viewed as a jerk. Bleep media narratives!
Its like most of these shoes are puppets for some people to drive agendas. You can't even find sensible analysis again. Nick wright, Skip bayless and max kellerman in particular are so stupid that's it's nauseating.

Hindsight is 20/20 but let's be honest a fit wade, Isaiah Thomas and D.rose would have done far better than George hill, Jr Smith and Jordan clarkaon in the playoffs. The defense may be worse but those three guys guarantee you a solid 30-40 points combined per game. The problem was in how they fit together and how the Cavs not patient enough to work it out.

Hindsight is 20/20 but let's honest a fit wade, Isaiah Thomas and D.rose would have done far better than George hill, Jr Smith and Jordan clarkaon in the playoffs. The defense may be worse but those three guys guarantee you a solid 30-40 points combined per game. The problem was in how they fit together and how the Cavs not patient enough to work it out.

Just watching the interviews of retired players of the NBA during this finals made me understand the dire need for a NBA star to win the title at least once. From chauncey billups to pierce, Chris bosh, Shaq even scalabraine etc those guys come on air flaunting their rings. They brag about it at the slightest opportunity, its like the ultimate validation for them. As a champion when you speak everyone else listens. You can't tell me that the likes of Charles Barkley won't trade anything for that missing piece of the puzzle.

This brings me to my second observation. The damage the dominance of lebron and warrior's over the last few years has done to the legacy and psyche of many great players in the league is massive.

The likes of Chris Paul, Westbrook, Paul George, Harden and Lilliard if they don't win a title in the next one or two years that it may take for Boston and phily to figurie out how to win. This is huge pressure on these guys to make the necessary sacrifice to win right away.
Then you have guys who the honeymon period will be over for soon. Guys like Giannis, Anthony Davis, KAT must face the music soon.
Antony Davis in particular because he's a generational talent must move from the pelicans to get that validation he needs.

Then you have the guys who still have some years at the top and have already won rings, they have lesser pressure on them. In fact, they are the media darlings all they need to do is just to see how much more they can win. I call them the "greedy boys" Lebron, kawhi, curry and ?KD already belong to this group. These guys are like the illuminati holding the legacy of many other players to ransome

Thatwasepic:
Underrated part of series: Warriors centers feasting on easy looks vs Cavaliers defensive breakdowns.
JaVale: 13/16 FG
Jordan Bell: 8/12 FG
Kevon Looney: 4/5 FG
The three combined: 25/33 FG

As in it was deliberate attack on the paint, they just kept taking highly efficient shots. People think the warriors are just aboutbthree points, but they kill teams in so many ways. The cavs rim protection is shit sha.

As for kd, I think he's even more unguardable than Jordan but Jordan just had that killer mentality kd lacks.

Bron threatened Cavs front office into giving JR and Tristan that contract.

Damn! Lebron is undoubtedly in the G.O.A.T conversation, most complete player I have ever seen.

Let's not kid ourselves this series was only close because the warriors choked in game 4 and 5. They lost a 10 point lead and scored abt 15 points in the fourth quarter of game 4. With iguodala in the line up I think this series would have ended in 5 especially with his stellar defense on harden and chris Paul holding them to 1 / 41 when defending them in isolation.

Another perspective that's bee overlooked is that although Curry was physically fit, he hasn't played much with the Hampton 5 this year and this showed in their execution in tight games. The better team ultimately won.


Cavs vs warriors depend on the cavs defense and winning the offensive rebounding battle to get second looks, if they are average in both, the series maybe over quickly.

Well said ! But some people will say lebron has no help. I beg to differ, these guys are not superstars but they are not a bunch of farmers either.

Some said this on twitter:
Look...Brad Stevens is a great coach...but the main thing that is killin the Cavs, is that the offense plays to the strengths of ONE player...JUST ONE. Its a horrible offense..and horrible offense =horrible defense.

Players can't get into rhythm against good defensive teams when only one player is doing the playmaking. Just look at this

NictisZorander:
Granted playing with LeBron isn't for everyone, puts you in the spot and everyone expects you to make every wide open shot because you'll get a lot of them. But Hood and all these other guys played well in Boston immediately after arriving, why? They had wide open looks and they sunk them. Difference now? The spotlight is in their head and the shots aren't falling. Someone will blame LeBron for JR being a streaky shooter and going 0/7 of mostly open looks.

Less thinking ability than even apes the lot of you.

Lebron played great and admittedly his supporting cast has big flaws, but they are better than what they are producing. The major problem is with the coaching but lebron also shares a bit of the blame. The team lacks a system that can make the role players more involved in the offense. The whole team is built on lebron creating shots for others. There is so little ball movement and defensive coordination.

NictisZorander:
Rodney hood and Crowder are system players. Jazz fans were happy to be rid of him and go and ask jazz players about Crowder now knucklehead. Rose and Wade played well for the Cavs before being traded, I won't expect someone who only reads box scores to understand though.

Nance was coming off the bench in a lottery team and you expect him to do what exactly for this Cavs team? Lol! This forum is the Mecca of dumb people.

Lebron has no help to beat a team without two all stars. A bunch of rookies and sophomores + al horford is crushing a team with the GOAT, another all star, a player you called the best shooter in the league = Kyle korver, JR George hill. Come on ! What do you need ? Micheal Jordan?

NictisZorander:
should


Meaning: Used to indicate what is probable.


Go back to primary school dum dum.

This Dude with ovaries chill, don't commit suicide because the cavs is getting blown away

Rodney Hood was pretty solid before going to the Cavs. Crowder was good on the team he was on before AND after the Cavs. Derrick Rose and Wade both had big playoff moments this year too. And Nance can barely crack the rotation after being a solid player in LA. Makes you think is lebron ball dominance crippling the ability of this team to run a system?

Remove oladipo from the pacers and lebron from the cavs, the rest of the cavs team would be better than the pacers yet it didn't feel like this in the first round.

NictisZorander:
We have a better bench. We should be extending this lead. Glad to see Korver on target again.

ok

NictisZorander:
Put the fear of God in them. As the game progresses bring the others into the fray. Tried the reverse in the previous game and it didn't work just like it didn't against Indiana. This is the much better strategy.


Somebody please shut Jeff Van Jew face up!

Eruditor:
They will double him. That is what they will do.

Today they hedged on Curry and perhaps without KD we might have lost. But Curry was eating close to the rim which was useful as it will change the way they guard him.

The greatest problem was rebounding. Rockets outrebounded GSW in dangerous ways.

They had 17/32 from the paint while GSW had 15/17. I don't like those extra 15 possessions they had at all.

I hope you know Durant can easily get 7-8 assist ? Doubling him will lead to so many open shots,that curry may get red hot?


By the way, i always knew klay would be the major x factor in this series because of harden's sloppiness on defense. Durant and curry will always get theirs but if Klay keeps hitting 5-6 uncontested threes per game, this series will be over fast..

I have a feeling the warriors will be coming for the jugular in game 2. They can smell blood already.
And oh doubling Durant is suicidal when you have roaming klay & curry who won't make only one three point t in subsequent games.

This game exposed the problem of depending on a single playmaker to create shots for a team rather than having a "system". Anytime that primary playmaker has a bad game the whole team stinks. Celtics are the exact opposite of the cavs, always moving and passing the ball. Cavs have the better players but Celtics the better team.

Manutd19:
Does Kyrie and Hayward coming back make this Celtic better?

Yeah! You always need your stars especially when it comes to making the clutch plays and when playing at hostile away arenas.
We can't be carried away with one game. Cavs would be back in game two and I don't see the Celtics role players playing so well on the road.

This cavs don't want to see the warriors in the finals it would be the most lopsided defeat in history.

Rockets vs warriors will come down to who has the mental strength.
What the rockets need apart from playing well is to believe in their abilities that they can beat the warriors.
They look focused & motivated because most of the players on that team has an axe to grind against the warriors or a point to prove to the NBA.
Capela is playing for the contract
Chris Paul and harden for their legacy
D antoini for his legacy
Luc and Ariva have lost several games to the warriors.
Daryl morey's decisions are gonna be scrutinized and like he said a few months ago "The rockets are obsessed with beating Golden state"

To cap it up this is the first time the warriors will be playing a playoffs series without home court advantage since they became a force to be reckon with in the NBA. So the dynamics of the series is different, they can't afford to loose the first two games and give the rockets further confidence boosts.

This is the series that may define an era, golden state going on to be a lasting dynasty or the first step to their loss of power in the nba.

All I hope for is fair officiating and we will get a lit series.