Are Cavs better without Kyrie & Love?

[JZ600]

How much of a difference would they really have made in the playoffs?
Assuming they are both 100%
Discuss

[DMAVS41]

[Andrei89]

With Kyrie and Love healthy, Cavs take this in 5.

[imdaman99]

Only defensively. They have been able to uglify the games and keep the scores somewhat low to keep themselves in the games because of it. But no, I don't think they are better. You shouldn't either unless you are a Lebron stan that loves him putting up crazy statlines.

[Blue&Orange]

defensively yes, overall no, not even close.

Can't say the same thing about Love. How bad would the cavs be if instead of Thomson rebounding Lebron misses, Love was standing behind the 3pt line?

[JZ600]

Overall they are better no doubt.
But with kyrie love in I see steph going off more and who knows what kind of chain reaction that can cause

[Nuff Said]

defensively yes, overall no, not even close.

Can't say the same thing about Love. How bad would the cavs be if instead of Thomson rebounding Lebron misses, Love was standing behind the 3pt line?

What if he would pass to Love instead of taking 30 shots, inevitably wearing himself down?

[Thorn]

Maybe I'm completely delusional on this, but I think it's possible that without those two they match up better vs Golden State. Neither of them are good defenders, and it's clear that their replacements in Delly/TT have been putting in work defensively. I know that just having them would lighten the offensive load on Lebron, but instead of these low scoring games so far, Kyrie and Love would kind of push the pace more to what Golden State wants.

Of course, this kind of lineup would never work in the RS, because Lebron would break down in like 20 games since he's carrying an enormous load on offense. But just for this particular 7 game series against this particular team? I don't think it's out of the question that having Delly/TT playing the majority of minutes at PG/PF makes them better compared to having Kyrie/Love in there.

That said, it'd still be better to have Kyrie/Love healthy and able to play if needed instead of not having the option to play them at all.

[Quickening]

People don't seem to take into consideration how much it hurts Cavs depth as much as just their first 5, arguing that delly is playing just as well as Kyrie etc... The reason Cavs are getting hammered in the 4th is because they can barely muster a decent starting 5 therefore everyone has to play big minutes, or the trash second team comes on... Therefore fatigue hits. There's a reason having lots of quality players tends to beat top heavy teams in a series

[keep-itreal]

I'm pretty sure with Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving healthy, Cavs would beat the Warriors pretty easily.

Yeah Kevin Love sucks on defense and rebounding, but he has height advantage over Draymond Green, so he's not going to murdered on rebound or anything.

Kyrie Irving would go at Stephen Curry and wear him out just like he did in game 1.

Cavs in 5 if Big 3 was there

[Pointguard]

Against GS this year, yes, without question. As a young team they without identity, with Kyrie they would have embraced more of an offensive game because they would have two top 10 scorers. I believe Atlanta would have beat them as well. Without Kyrie they embraced a defensive minded team which is the way to beat GS and Atlanta. A unit centered around one piece is easier to corral and pick up the energy with. Of course team dept is what's killing them now.

Next year they will have more of an identity and Kyrie will fit in better. Only concern would be good teams have effective PG's and Kyrie is definitely a fall off from Delly. But Kyrie is one of the best offensively.

[97 bulls]

Maybe I'm completely delusional on this, but I think it's possible that without those two they match up better vs Golden State. Neither of them are good defenders, and it's clear that their replacements in Delly/TT have been putting in work defensively. I know that just having them would lighten the offensive load on Lebron, but instead of these low scoring games so far, Kyrie and Love would kind of push the pace more to what Golden State wants.

Of course, this kind of lineup would never work in the RS, because Lebron would break down in like 20 games since he's carrying an enormous load on offense. But just for this particular 7 game series against this particular team? I don't think it's out of the question that having Delly/TT playing the majority of minutes at PG/PF makes them better compared to having Kyrie/Love in there.

That said, it'd still be better to have Kyrie/Love healthy and able to play if needed instead of not having the option to play them at all.

Couldn't have said it better myself

[J Shuttlesworth]

lol @ people delusional enough to think they are better. Don't forget that the Cavs had a better record than the Warriors in the latter half of the season and went 15-1 against the West.

Kyrie did as good of a job defensively in game 1 as Delly did in games 3 and 4. Plus it would force Kyrie to actually have to work on the defensive end since he'd be covering Kyrie instead of Delly. Love provides some much needed spacing and scoring, and both of these guys take the giant burden off LeBron that caused him to become gassed in game 4 after playing 47 mpg.

I mean it's not very difficult to understand. What they lose in defense, they more than make up for with scoring and depth. They'd have an actual 9 man rotation. LeBron is unable to sit at all in these games because the second he does, there is nobody able to create their own shot. You're telling me that Kyrie/Love wouldn't help that?

[tpols]

lol @ people delusional enough to think they are better. Don't forget that the Cavs had a better record than the Warriors in the latter half of the season and went 15-1 against the West.

Kyrie did as good of a job defensively in game 1 as Delly did in games 3 and 4. Plus it would force Kyrie to actually have to work on the defensive end since he'd be covering Kyrie instead of Delly. Love provides some much needed spacing and scoring, and both of these guys take the giant burden off LeBron that caused him to become gassed in game 4 after playing 47 mpg.

I mean it's not very difficult to understand. What they lose in defense, they more than make up for with scoring and depth. They'd have an actual 9 man rotation. LeBron is unable to sit at all in these games because the second he does, there is nobody able to create their own shot. You're telling me that Kyrie/Love wouldn't help that?

There's a whole lot of delusional people then... just look at this page and its coming from completely different fanbases.

[3ball]

They were better when Lebron's strategy of controlling pace by shooting 36 times per game hadn't been solved.

But now that it has (he's getting doubled), his teammates need to make plays - but most of his teammates are just play-finishers, not play-MAKERS like Kyrie...

When Lebron is doubled and gives the ball up, Cavs need play-MAKERS, which is where Kyrie's value comes in.