Besides health, what issues stop us from winning the title?

The Heart of a Champion (or the lack thereof)

 

In game adjustments, recognising and taking advantage of mismatches or changing the rotations to avoid being taken advantage of a bad mismatch is what leads to winning in the postseason between teams with similar talent level.
If it's regular season where noone cares much or your team is a lot more stacked with talent then sure. You can't not care.

 

Really surprised defense isn't one of the options.

Defensive rebounding and becoming tighter on our defensive rotations - those are the two areas that could make our break us. If Houston can switch as cleanly as a team like GS does, watch out - this team will be unstoppable. We have a few very good defenders and a few very good rebounders but as a team, we need a complete effort across the board in those areas. Dwight can't box out everyone - that's where having one or two guys giving up on a play really hurts us. Same with our rotations - just didn't seem as crisp as the better teams like GS and the Clippers(when they were locked in)

People think GSW breezed through the league last year because of injuries, and good shooting and that's partially true, but I think they won the title because they were one of the best if not THE best defensive teams in the league last year. Frankly as the league turns into a PnR league and switching becomes the best defense against that style of play - the teams that can seamlessly make switches, and help out on defenders caught in mismatches for a split second - those are the teams that are going to have an advantage.

 

well that's impossible. We can't switch because the roster isn't build like that. Harden AND lawson are bad defenders. That type of Switching requires great length and defence at both wing positions and a big who can guard in the perimeter. A big pointguard helps too instead of a midget.
GSW illustrated the virtue of versatility and having two way players. We don't have that.
But we didn't aim or couldn't aim for that either, since our roster is based on two one way stars.

BTW about the lack of injuries it was interesting reading about the monitors the Warriors used and how they took out Klay and Curry in March because the monitors indicated they were in risk of getting injured due to fatigue.
It was luck but it wasn't only luck. Roster depth and advance in science were vital.

 

Deez nuts.

Lol jk but honestly I think the only thing stopping us is ourselves. If we make bonehead plays or just shoot poorly or bad defense. We have the skills and talent, let's just put it together.

 

While many may disagree, PF/C depth.

Too much youth in the back-half of the roster.

Defense (though this remains to be seen)

 

I think too much hero-ball, not trusting or playing within a system, or even having a system most nights. We got bailed out of a lot of games last year by Harden's heroics. Let's hope that's not the course this year.

 

Basketball IQ
Defense
Coaching

 

i agree... which goes hand in hand with poor coaching and being too reliant on one guy's focus...

 

Defense and coaching are largely one and the same.

A good coach can engineer a great team defense, even with some individual minus defenders.

 

there is no coach who can make a good defence out of three bad defenders in the starting lineup.( Lawson, Harden, Jones- for the beginning of the season at least- ). And in a B2B if Capella is the starting center even worse.
You can't blame Mchale for everything. But you can blame the players. Esp Harden who has the athletic ability and height and wingspan to be a good defender.

 

Clevelands defense sure looked good in the postseason.

 

It didn't look amazing it looked ok. And conveniently it was when Love who is an awful defender was out and Kyrie who is even worse didn't play in the finals.
So in the end their starting lineup was consisted of good individual defenders. 4/5. (since TT isn't a great defender, still better than Love tho).

 

I respectfully disagree. First of all, "bad" at defense is pretty subjective, statistically Harden and Jones were average last season at worst on defense. Not sure about Lawson.

If a coach can get the players to buy into a well thought out defensive scheme, then you'll have a decent defense.

 

In the previous rounds it looked good as well. Mozzy, Love, Bron, Jr, Kyrie doesn't sound like a defensive squad to me.

 

Harden did show an improvement in defence but he's miles behind from being a good defender.
Particularly nowadays that there is an emphasis on win defence.
I am not a coach so I don't know. Maybe some genious mastermind defensive coach can hide three bad defenders. But I haven't seen it. If your whole backcourt (lawson+ Harden) are bad defenders then?
Ofcourse defence depends a lot on hustle and effort but some players just are incapable either becaue of athleticism , wingspan ,lateral quickness or bball iq.

That lineup was against who? The celtics? A team that wouldn't even dream to be in the po in the west? The difference in talent (and experience) was so tremendous that no real conclusions can be made.
After that TT and also Shumbert played much more.
Jr isn't a bad defender at all btw (WHEN he wants). And Mozgov is one of the best at contesting attempts at the rim.

 

This was a hard decision, but I went with Free Throws because of how important Dwight will be in the post-season to any championship run. With Lawson and Harden breaking down defenses, Howard will get lots of rebounds and shot attempts....basically causing teams to foul him on purpose even more to stop our momentum. If he shoots above 65%, we will probably win it all. May win it all even with him shooting 50% or below.

 

Harden is a good defender when he wants to be or has the energy to be, especially in the post. He was a solid to good defender later on in OKC to where they had put him on Kobe and he did a pretty good job if memory serves. The problem is effort and attention paid. How many times have we seen him come up for with a clutch block or steal or just flat out shut someone down when the game is on the line and his senses are heightened on the defensive end because they HAD to be? Him letting someone sneak past him on a backdoor cut, because he was ball watching is an issue about paying attention and putting in effort. With Lawson on our team, the hope is that he can take enough off Harden's plate where Harden will have energy to dedicate himself to playing more consistent D throughout the game. Lawson on the other hand may never be even average simply due to how small he is. As long as he can stay in front of the speediest of PG's that will be good enough for me.

 

Lack of high percentage outside shooting.

Same problem with the astros, relying on the long ball wont win you a title. Look at Braves last season and the Collapstros this season. Low percentages always hurt you in the end.

 

Free throw shooting is still the most pressing issue to me. I'm convinced Jones is what he is on the free throw line (and everywhere else) but I think Dmo has the potential to be an 80%+ free throw shooter so there is some hope that at least one post player on this team isn't a complete joke at the line.