Of course, they were. Felder and Grant were creating their own shots + getting into the lane at will. Who was playing PG tonight?
Everyone lets Felder into the lane because he's too damn shifty to stay in front of. But he can't hit shyt when he gets inside anyway, he was 1-4 in the key for the game. Grant was an incredible 1-2 in the key if you don't count the 2 buckets he scored on fast breaks.
Lebron is far too big to stay in front of guys 100 pounds lighter than him, but he makes up for it by lurking behind them so they can't do anything in there anyway. It's not like they were creating disruption inside and feeding the big men. It's not like they were regularly making the defense collapse to get the three-point shooters open. The shooters were hitting shots in the regular flow of the offense.
The Bulls played well last night because their outside shooters were on fire. They were hitting shyt from WAY back last night. And it's true that the Cavs in general have a crap defense (as they did last year) and continue to be poor at defending three-point shooters (as they have been going back several years). To turn that into a "the Chicago PG's were killin' the Cavs" is a gigantic stretch of a narrative.
See the problem with this is, the PG rarely ever is just guarding the PG on an island. With all the PnR play, it's more a team effort than anything else. It's not the fact that Kyrie or Rose are bad defenders, it's the fact that the Cavs defense is
bad. I guess we now know which player will be LeBron's scapegoat this season.
Hell yeah, the Cav defense is bad. They've fumbled together a roster based on guys who can get it done on one end or the other, not both. The unwillingness to sacrifice assets in the offseason to get two-way players has cost them any shot at a title for right now.
My latest crazy trade thought, to be put into effect in December when Teague becomes available.
TT, Shump, and Rose to the Timberwolves, Teague and Gibson to the Cavs.
J.R., Frye, and the Nets pick to the Bucks, Middleton and Henson to the Cavs.
Neither Teague nor Gibson look like they're really working with the Timberwolves and neither one is really in the future for their young core, so they might think it's worth it to reunite Rose with Thibs and brings in younger guys in TT/Shump who do have some talent.
Milwaukee is playing for the Giannis future, they don't look bound to Henson at all, and might be willing to give Middleton for the pick.
Teague
Middleton
Lebron
Love
Henson
Is a far more balanced lineup than anything the Cavs have run recently. And having Teague or Middleton in there with Henson and Lebron protecting the rim would make it possible to actually give IT some burn. Plus they'd have real tools like Crowder, Gibson, Wade, and Korver to bring in off the bench. They'd still lack a backup big man unless Zizic shows up, but that wouldn't be an issue against Golden State as Henson/Gibson would be enough to hold it down against their lineups.
Talent-to-talent, it still doesn't line up with the Warriors on paper, but in terms of balance and creating matchup issues I think it could be a real problem for them, especially with how thin the Warriors looking in their second unit.
