Thursday, October 30, 2014

What CST thinks about the Cavs and NBA this year

Well this little blog we started a long time ago has had a toll taken on it by the responsibilities of the writers. Jobs, kids, illness, travel, more kids, bowling leagues, soccer, moving, trips to Vegas, just so many things have kept us from posting as regularly as possible. In the meantime I hope you are following us at @CleveSpTorture where we can vent our anger in 140 characters or less as much as possible.


Regardless, did anything happen this offseason? This article yesterday on fivethirtyeight.com seemed to suggest that our warriors in Wine and Gold made some moves that could pay off.


I think they could be on to something.

Without further ado, here's what we think will happen with the Cavs and the NBA this year.

 Brian

What will the Cavs record be?  65-17. Really, Lebron won 58 games with the Heat last year and 66 games with his old Cavs supporting cast. The 58 o/u is a joke.
What will the Cavs record be in the first 10 games? 7-3. And this is the "slow start".

What will the conference championships results be? Cavs over Raptors. I'll believe a healthy Derrick Rose when I see it. Clippers over Spurs. 
What will the NBA Finals results be? Cavs over Clippers.
Who will win MVP? Come on, man. Lebron James unanimously.

How many PPG will Lebron James average? Dion Waiters?  Lebron: 26.4 ppg, Dion: 13.7 as the microwave 2.0.
How many rebounds will Kevin Love average? Anderson Varejao? Tristan Thompson?  KLove: 13 rpg, Anderson: 10 rpg, Tristan: 9 rpg.
How many assists will Kyrie Irving average? Lebron James? Kyrie: 7.9 apg, Lebron: 7.9 apg.



Tom

What will the Cavs record be?  60-22
What will the Cavs record be in the first 10 games? 7-3.

What will the conference championships results be? Cavs over Wizards, Clippers over Spurs
What will the NBA Finals results be? Clippers over Cavs in 7
Who will win MVP? Lebron James

How many PPG will Lebron James average? Dion Waiters?  Lebron 24ppg,  Dion 12ppg
How many rebounds will Kevin Love average? Anderson Varejao? Tristan Thompson?  Love 12, Varajao 11, Thompson 10
How many assists will Kyrie Irving average? Lebron James? Irving 6, James 8



Doug

What will the Cavs record be?  59-23: Can see a bit of a slow start as the new roster gets acclimated (even the Heat started 9-8 during James's first year) but the remainder of year should be spent mowing down the dregs of the East.
What will the Cavs record be in the first 10 games?  6-4: Local sports radio goes gaga with calls for the Cavs to start Johnny Manziel.

What will the conference championships results be? Cavs over Bulls, Spurs over Warriors
What will the NBA Finals results be? Spurs over Cavs in 6: Will not believe a Cleveland championship can happen until it happens. Also could take playoffs newbies Irving and Love a playoff run to find their mettle.
Who will win MVP? Either LeBron or former Mavs' point guard Mike Iuzzolino.  Seeing as Iuzzolino hasn't been in the league since 1993, I'm predicting James wins the duke.

 

How many PPG will Lebron James average? Dion Waiters?  James, 23.7, Waiters 10.9:  James will get his but scoring distribution among the three stars is fine by me. Waiters's toughness will be as important as his scoring.
How many rebounds will Kevin Love average? Anderson Varejao? Tristan Thompson?  Love, 10.2, Varejao, 9.9, Thompson, 7.7: That's lots of boards to go around, though I don't expect Andy to stay healthy all year.
How many assists will Kyrie Irving average? Lebron James? Irving, 6.5, James, 7.5: Expecting both stars to take on ball-handling duties, though Irving is more of a scorer than a distributer.


Ryan

What will the Cavs record be?  65-17. An injury to Lebron is the only thing that can keep this team from the Finals.
What will the Cavs record be in the first 10 games? 6-4. I do think it will take a little time to gel.

What will the conference championships results be? Cavs over Bulls. Spurs over Clippers.
What will the NBA Finals results be? Cavs over Spurs in 6. The Spurs' age finally catches up with them.
Who will win MVP? Lebron James. With Durant out, there's no way Lebron doesn't win this.

How many PPG will Lebron James average? Dion Waiters?  Lebron: 27 ppg, Dion: 10 ppg.
How many rebounds will Kevin Love average? Anderson Varejao? Tristan Thompson?  11 rpg, 9rpg, 6 rpg.
How many assists will Kyrie Irving average? Lebron James? Kyrie: 6 apg, Lebron: 7.

Vox

What will the Cavs record be?  64-18
What will the Cavs record be in the first 10 games? 7-3

What will the conference championships results be? Cavs over Bullets
What will the NBA Finals results be? Cavs over Mavs
Who will win MVoxP? Matthew Dellavedova

How many PPG will Lebron James average? Dion Waiters?  Who cares. On this team, the shooting percentages will tell the tale. I need Bron to be 2013-efficient, and perhaps the shot selection will rub off on Waiters. If not, I expect to see Mike Miller at the 2 in tight games. 
How many times will Kevin Love pull a Roger Dorn on a defensive switch? Plenty, but he'll probably outscore his mistakes. 
Tristan Thompson? Tristan boards well on the weak side, but his defense is attrocious with two Ts! His offensive game is somewhere between DeSagana Diop and JJ Hickson. Coach Blatt made his first great decision by starting Andy. Make no mistake about it- when Klutz Thompson gets an undeserved fat new contract, it's simply a thank you to Rich Paul and Klutch Sports for delivering on Decision 2.0!
How many assists will Kyrie Irving average? Lebron James? I'm not concerned with any individual numbers. I'm not even worried about the regular season victory total. Wins are a given now. I'll be focused on how we win and Blatt's rotations. 

Cleveland, please remember, the Big Three concept is largely a marketing ploy, and rarely plays out that way on the court. In 2008, Boston's Big Three was Garnett-Pierce-Allen, but Rondo was the best player on the floor. The Spurs Big Three is Parker-Ginobili-Duncan, but Kuwhai was the Finals MVP. The Heat had the most famous threesome of all, but it was LeBron surrounded by the sharpshooting of Miller, Battier and Allen that fueled Miami to two titles. Now can we just fast-forward to June and find out which Cavalier role player makes the difference? My money says it won't be Irving or Love.

Sean

What will the Cavs record be?  59-23
What will the Cavs record be in the first 10 games? 7-3

Who will win MVP? Lebron

How many PPG will Lebron James average? Dion Waiters?  LBJ: 26, Dion:13
How many rebounds will Kevin Love average? Anderson Varejao? Tristan Thompson?  KLove: 9, Andy: 10, TT: 8
How many assists will Kyrie Irving average? Lebron James? 7 each.


Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Haiku Tuesday. Wednesday edition.

I'm so excited!

And I just can't hide it! Cavs
or Pointer Sisters?