The Boss;766224 wrote:Yeah, you're right, Skip Bayless has been dead on about LeBron after saying he isn't clutch for all of these years--when the stats clearly show otherwise.
And Y-Town, trust me, I know the roster would have looked different had he stayed. They still wouldn't have beat the Celtics though, and they wouldn't have gotten much better during the biggest FA period in league history. Apparently that's LeBron's fault because he's supposed to be the GM too I guess, but look at all the teams in the East that got better that would have been better than the Cavs. Chicago, Boston, Miami with Bosh and whatever else Pat Riley's genius would have pulled off with the money they spent on LeBron. Remember when the Cavs played the C's? 4 of the best 5 players on the court were in GREEN jerseys. What happens if LeBron stays and they lose to the Celtics again? Then what? What would your reaction be today if LeBron was in a Cavs jersey and last night they got beat by the C's and you KNEW LeBron was coming back next season? You'd still be talking shit.
Well I must say I disagree with the majority of your points here and for good reason. First of all, it's purely speculative to say that the Cavs wouldn't have gotten better. If you look at the roster each year sicne LeBron was drafted they improved it. Like I said, the Cavs had a sign and trade in place for Bosh and certainly would've made some moves either via FA or more likely via trade. With the upgrade at coach in Byron Scott it's certainly likely that the Cavs would've been a better team than the ones that won over 60 games in consecutive seasons (say what you want about the meaning of the regular season, but mediocre teams don't win 66 and 62 out of 82 games). Also I completely disagree that this year's Celtics team would've beaten the Cavs. Hell they even lost a game to the actual rebuilding Cavs. The Celtics team that just played was far and away a shell of the teams LeBron faced in 2008 and 2010...honestly I don't know how any sane person could argue differently. The Cavs (with their worst roster in the last few years) took those Celtics (NBA champions and best of the last few years) to the final minute of game 7 and then inexplicably crumbled between Games 4 and 6 (LeBron included) against last year's Celtics who were EC champions after giving them their WORST home loss in franchise history (a detail many tend to forget) in Game 3. Certainly a team playing at least at a comparable level to last year's Cavs would've disposed of the 2011 Celtics. Let's not forget the Cavs experience quite a bit of bad luck last year (much like the Celtics this year) with the late season injury to Shaq causing him and Jamison to play together in only 1 game before the playoffs (and for good measure I'll even point out LBJ's elbow which supposedly hampered him ). Who knows how that series would've played out had Shaq (who was playing his best bball of the season to that point had not gotten his hand messed up by Big Baby.
You mention that 4 of the best 5 players on the court last year in that series were wearing Celtics green. Is that dramatically different from 3 of the best players on the court THIS YEAR were still wearing Celtic green? Heck Z was still the starter on this team for most of the season. In my opinion LeBron had plenty of reasons to leave Cleveland. Wanted to play with his friends, wanted to live in warm weather, wanted a change of scenery from a place he's live for 26 years, wanted to party in south beach, new challenge, etc....but a reason certainly wasn't that he couldn't have won a title in Cleveland. Much like Jordan in the late 80s they were just beginning to break through.
