He goes to ****ing legendary status if they pull this off. The Cavs had no business winning even one game- heck, GSW's bench would be favored against this CLE starting 5. It's unfortunate some of us don't understand the magnitude of what we're seeing here.
Just a couple of examples GSW could make off the top of my head: 1. We've seen 3 full games of Cavs' over-aggressive hedging and trapping on P&Rs. Kerr might want to get his bigs to slip some screens to punish that. 2. Steph could try splitting the D on P&Rs once or twice instead of looping around the hedge every freaking time. For all the talk the Warriors have the best coaching staff and the highest basketball IQ in the league, all I see is them taking a page out of 2012 Thunder's playbook.
Credit? Yes. Good coach? Not yet. Nobody here is taking Blatt over Kerr to coach the Rockets. Y'all are probably fooling yourselves into wanting Dellavedova over Curry now too.
I don't really want Kerr coaching the Rockets. He wasn't good with the Suns and he really didn't have any amazing knowledge when he did play by play.
Which is why they are 2-1 and could've been 3-0 against the Warriors while missing 2 stars....yeah that makes a lot of sense
Coaching is only half of the story. If you look at it objectively, you'll realize that the story is a lot more complicated than it appears. Yes, the Cavs are shorthanded right now but sometimes being shorthanded can be a blessing in disguise. When you don't have 2 of your 3 star players, the role players tend to step up more and they tend to play with more urgency because, well, it's human instinct. You have that underdog mentality going into every game and you have to fight at 100% on every possession just to beat the best team in the league. Having said that, not all shorthanded teams can do it unless you have a All-World leader like Lebron leading the charge. Furthermore, you have to have scrappy PG like Delladova that basically hounds Curry on every possession. While it's got them to 2-1, I don't know if Delladova's body can sustain if the series goes 7. He's already in the hospital due to fatigue and body cramps, as anyone would. Blatt has got to figure out a way to get Delladova some rest while Shump and JR Smith has to step up some of the defensive effort. On the other hand, with the Warriors, the extremely insane defense that the Cavs are playing are throwing their core 5 out of sync. Bogut, Green, and Barnes are basically useless at this point. Curry is out of rhythm and hasn't been shooting his best. What Kerr needs to do if he even wants to smell victory is to make some adjustments. Play more of Lee, Iggy, and even Speights. Lee, Iggy, and Speights give him more offense but they might get beaten on the boards. But that's what Warriors have been about all season. Beating teams but scoring in bunches. They were never THAT good of a defensive team even though have two defensive first team players in Bogut and Green. So they have to find a way to score and Iggy and Lee will open up the floor for you. They will give Curry more breathing room.
Kerr is getting out coached right now, and that's the truth. Kerr has game 4 to respond, and if he doesn't respond with a win then the lost is on Kerr.
As with any group of people, it is hard for people on the outside to allocate credit and blame for decisions made by the group. Did David Blatt come up with the defensive strategy that has worked well or did another member of his staff or even LeBron? Who knows? Maybe David Blatt deserves all or most of the credit. Maybe he is just a guy going along with a decision made by LeBron which he is powerless to resist anyway. What we do know is that David Blatt had done a good job in international competitions and overseas pro-leagues. He took an undermanned team and beat a much more expensive team to win a title just last season. So maybe he does know something about how to give an underdog team the best chance to beat a more talented opponent.
Lol at people hating on Blatt if anything the fraud here is Kerr. brb one of the best shooting back courts of all time brb deep bench brb no injuries brb team gets away with illegal screens all game then people praise him as some genius, he's a fraud and would be no different than a new hire that inherits a bad team
If role players can step up any time on demand, they wouldn't be role players. I have hoped JR step up like he did in the Bulls series, he still hasn't done that for a big part of any of previous 3 games. Tonight is his chance, and this game is actually the real do or die game for Cavs. I don't think they can last a 7-game series with their thin bench and lacking of offensive weapons. As for David Lee, his slowness affects Warriors ball movement, that's why he hasn't seen many minutes. If they play him a lot, Warriors' (moving) screens and constant running for open shots style will be impacted severely. Lee might end up with good stats, but that team will be easier to beat. You can't change your play style in game 4 of a NBA finals. This game is actually completely in refs' hands - if refs blow whistles early on Bogut's moving screen or Delly's hand checking, the game can go completely opposite way. Yeah, give Green's T for screaming after clear fouls. I can't take it any more - role players get over their heads and act like entitled big shots.
Even if they win, I stand by that statement. In the west their record would have fell in that range where they could have been on the road against a team like the Clippers, Spurs, Memphis, Rockets in the first round. If everyone is healthy i think they could potentially lose that series.
At this point, sure, why not take Blatt? Your last statement is ridiculous. Of course no one's taking Dell over Curry. You'd be an absolute moron to do that. But you're going to tell me that taking Kerr over Blatt is that clear-cut? Nope. Kerr did a great job this year in the regular season, for sure. But Blatt has done the best job in the playoffs. Many picked Chicago to beat CLE as the more talented team with Butler, Rose, Gasol, Gibson, Noah, etc. Then, some picked Atlanta, but most didn't pick CLE to sweep a 60-win team- especially w/o Love. Cleveland has swept Boston, no slouch, and then Atlanta, a 60-win team. And they beat Chicago in 6. To date, they have only 3 losses in the entire playoffs. The Boston Celtics Big 3 had 3 LOSSES IN THE FIRST ROUND in 2008. WITH A FULLY HEALTHY SQUAD. I don't care that they're in the East- that's just a crazy insanely good record for a team w/o Love and a hobbled Irving. But just for this alone, just for taking GSW to at least 6 games? That's just insanity. I and most assumed CLE was good for 1 win at home. But 2 wins- and one on the road- and 1 shot away from being up 3-0? That's coaching. Unless you have video evidence to prove that Blatt doesn't design plays, etc., I'm going SCOREBOARD on this one.
I don't think Blatt got outcoached. Last night's game was pretty predictable. Kerr played his last hand by starting Iggy (by far, the best GS player in the Finals) and played Lee a little. Iggy was on fire last night. The Cavs bench, not so much. I think the fatigue is finally catching up to the Cavs. Lebron was missing shots, Delly missing shots, JR Smith doing his best Josh Smith impression by making bone-headed plays and jacking up random 3s....with two days of rest, hopefully the Cavs can get some more energy in their legs. This is all you can hope for at this point when you're playing like this.
You can get away with double teaming Lebron when your wings are not hitting their hots. I'm looking at you JR Smith....and Delly, and James Jones.
