***Official NBA Playoffs Thread***
- Thread starter NewClone09
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Five. What's more likely to happen again in this series - LeBron barely cracking double digits or Marcus Smart knocking down seven threes in one game?
It was a perfect storm - the Cavs took their foot off the gas, Smart had a career night, LeBron was human, and Bradley got the shooter's roll on the game winner.
I know I'm a couple days late to this but the MVP award is based on the regular season performance. Not ability or talent level, not playoff speculation. LeBron goes to another level in the Playoffs but his regular season performance wasn't top three this year.
Are you suggesting he wouldn't be able to sustain an MVP level of performance for the whole regular season and through the playoffs at this stage of his career then?
I wouldn't say he cant. I think the Cavs know their best chance in beating the Warriors is to be as rested as possible.
It's definitely tough to tell because he literally lead the league in MPG (and Kyrie was second). I think we can all agree that's their strategy to an extent (in terms of sitting games, and it's the right one to take at that). But, that also leaves it up for debate as to whether he truly could sustain that level of performance or not considering that still leaves him more time on the floor to really display whether or not he can give an MVP performance like that night in and night out at this point and yet he wasn't putting up top 3 numbers.
I should also clarify I'm assuming you're referring to the rest "for the Warriors" as in their strategy over the regular season leading up to the playoffs. Because he's obviously not struggled establishing a case for himself in the playoffs like he technically did with the actual regular season.
Look at this stats. He played at an MVP type level and still saved himself for the playoffs.
Was he really playing at a level among the top 3 though? I've looked at the stats and I just don't see it.
You could argue that he played as good as Kawhi, Harden or Westbrook. A lot of things LeBron does doesn't show up in the stat sheet.
I would think that Westbrook and Harden were 1 and 2 in voting. Kawhi is the close one in comparison to LeBron which is where I could see it potentially coming down to interpretation; but even then, Kawhi, to me, has set himself apart from everyone else in the league in the terms of value that he brings on both sides of the ball combined. He was effectively a wash with LeBron in PPG.
Understandably, LeBron was more efficient (due to the nature of his looks and the intangibles from his supporting cast), but he really doesn't jump out (let alone doesn't lead all of the other three) in any of the other offensive categories (other than the fact that he is the only player in the top 10 of PPG to shoot less than 70% from the free throw line).
Defensively, I don't think LeBron compares to Kawhi from this last season. I get it, he's an outstanding playoff player and a very, very good regular season player. But that's not what the MVP award recognizes.
For the record, none of this matters, as I'd imagine the award is going to Russell regardless of how the others shook out.
And that's the problem with calling it the Most Valuable Player Award. If you're just going to vote for the guy who had the best season, then call it the Most Outstanding Player award or something.
No other team in the league has more at stake riding on the health and performance of one guy. Take Russ out of the Thunder lineup and they drop from a six seed to a lottery team. OK, so what? It's not like they were going anywhere anyway. Lebron is the key figure on a team that is basically championship or bust every year. That's more valuable.
The naming is just a formality and I see what everyone's referring to in LeBron's value between both the regular and postseason, but that's just not what the award is when you consider the time frame and voting. Which, that could be another debate in itself.
And I know you're just proposing a hypothetical, but if you take LeBron away from the Cavs, they're still a playoff team likely in the 4-6 range (around the Wizards, Hawks, Bucks neighborhood). Given the East has grown in parity recently, but that's still not far off from making the Eastern Conference Finals where cards can play favorably from random injuries.
Dropping 2-4 spots in the playoffs could be considered less of a loss in value in comparison to going from the playoffs period to a lottery pick team (Disclaimer: I'm not actually suggesting Russell is more valuable than LeBron, just pointing out that it's a regular season award).
Most likely as Shams reported he's interested in resigning. He's considered the hottest PF on the FA market.
Morris worked out for the Kings today. Not playoff news but thought people would like to know. Kings got a pick at 34.
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