I agree that the Rockets are a better team, but I also know to never count a player like Lebron out, especially Lebron. Stars are stars because they can turn your world upside down by themselves. Superstars are especially good at that.
CLE hit its stride at a good time, then injuries derailed it. Very hard to say what kind of CLE we are getting since they haven't had a ton of time together when they actually got good. Being in the East helps them "dominate" for sure, but I assume this power ranking is if they were in a vacuum together? Note that we are not comparing Rockets of last yr to CLE of this yr. We are comparing Rockets of this upcoming yr to CLE of this yr...
Are we watching the same playoffs? LBJ gets helped about half as often as he gets screwed by the refs. I don't think I see a player of such high profile get physically manhandled as often as LBJ does with no whistle. He takes it like a champ since he's built like a tank, and maybe his lack of 'reaction' contributes to fewer whistles...but no, I would not agree that LBJ is propped up by refs. Net negative.
Cle is a scary team. They challenged GS without a healthy Irving and Love. Very scary. I would say the rankings are: GS Cle SA OKC Hou LAC
Lebron is a pretty notorious flopper. He isn't the worse offender of course but he has a lot of egregious flops.
After Curry and Thompson got hurt in the Houston series that helped Cleveland in the first 3 games. Once the Curry shooting slump ceased Cav's got whipped... even with Lebron getting aided by the league. We are going to embarrass Cleveland.
I saw a few plays in game 4 and 5 where Lebron didn't get the call he flops for but other than those few possessions the refs and the nba has Lebron's back more than what they did the last time he played for Cleveland. Their a hard team to beat moreso because of that. Even when we beat them in Houston during the season the refs tried to give Lebron the game by giving him free throws at the end that he missed.
Let's face it, if you don't flop, you never get the call. Look at Dream. He never got calls even though he was abused by defenders on a nightly basis.
I'm speaking on Lebron being pumped up in terms of understanding he's really not the deadly heart breaking cut throat players Jordan and Kobe were... to me he still can't kill you with a jumper consistently enough. On the other hand he's still a beast but the nba imo pumps him up to the level of Jordan/ Kobe when he really isnt. He can be stopped simply because his jumper... not saying it's easy. Then the finals series he stepped up big but it came down to closing games and to me Harden did just as well but without the love of the league. Game one and two were close in the Hou/Cle series without Bev and DMo so that to me was just as impressive as how Cleveland challenged them.
I think anything in the top 5 is totally fair. This guy hits on key points that it seems like every other national person misses. Dwight missed half of last season and we still won 56 games.
Not true at all. No denying that LeBron is a beast and sure there were call he didn't get, but really nobody in this league gets away with the kind of push offs LeBron gets away with. Oh yeah and dude travels A LOT too!!
very fair ranking. i wouldn't be offended if we were bumped down one spot under the clippers. They look crazy good on paper.
Not true at all. No denying that LeBron is a beast and sure there were call he didn't get, but really nobody in this league gets away with the kind of push offs LeBron gets away with. Oh yeah and dude travels A LOT too!!
I'm obviously a biased homer but I'm so sure that we are the best team in the league right now! We are going to demolish everyone!
I disagree with this list a bit. SA is overrated; their age will continue to hurt them even with the addition of Aldridge. OKC needs to show that they can play a season without injuries. Yes, Lawson is an x-factor for us, but PG was our glaring issue. LAC got better. Cleveland should be amazing if they're all healthy. GSW are the class of the NBA. 1. Golden State 2. Cleveland 3. Houston 4. Los Angeles Clippers 5. San Antonio Spurs 6. Oklahoma City
Nobody gets off with those push offs? Even HARDEN gets away with a ton of push offs. Blake Griffin went through the whole series against us essentially having a partial shielding push off arm every time he went in lol. Plenty of star players get away with stuff. KD is still living off of rip throughs and getting to the line non-stop, smh. LBJ is high profile, but from the games I have watched, he gets more non-calls than calls (not saying he doesn't get calls to go his way, even when they shouldn't, but that's true of a lot of superstars).
??? LBJ just carried a D-League team with epic performances against GSW to snag some games away from the now-reigning champs. Is LBJ's jumper as deadly as prime Kobe or MJ? No. But LBJ has a significantly better post game than them and he abuses that. He's much more athletically dominating and a better passer, making it even tougher for defenders to guard him. nba isn't "pumping" LBJ up. LBJ is. And as hurt as our team was, CLE's was a lot worse...
