Perhaps you've heard that the Cavaliers are loaded. LeBron, Kyrie, Love, Tristan Thompson, JR Smith - it's a beastly roster that was good enough to beat the Warriors last year.
Now it's got Deron Williams, a weirdly resurgent Derrick Williams, and Andrew Bogut on the way.
Realistically, the biggest issue facing the Cavs is how their coach is going to handle all of this. Tyronn Lue is the guy who has played LeBron 40+ minutes 14 times in his past 40 games. Lue is also the guy who gets 24 year old Kyrie Irving's minutes to trend down as the season progresses while 32 year old LeBron's go up. Lue also looks like he's watching his son walk into traffic and is frozen in fear on the sideline most of the time.
On Wednesday night in Boston, Ty Lue had a new toy available in Deron Williams. The whole reason for getting a backup point guard has been to spell LeBron, who largely runs the point for the 2nd unit. Lue said prior to the game that he expected Deron to get 10-15 minutes on the floor, particularly because Deron Williams hadn't played at all in two weeks.
So coach Lue did what any rational coach might in his situation: He played LeBron over 40 minutes, played Derrick Williams (finishing up his 2nd 10-day contract) 31 minutes, and played newcomer Deron Williams about 24.
Shockingly, Deron admitted his legs were a bit heavy by the end of the game, when he missed an uncontested go-ahead three from the corner with less than five seconds left.
Who could've seen that coming? Not Ty Lue, apparently. Deron was supposed to play about 15 minutes and instead played the final 15 minutes consecutively while Derrick played from 6:26 remaining in the 3rd until about 2:00 left in the 4th.
Those seem to be...questionable coaching decisions. But hey, Ty Lue is a professional, so there must be some explanations, right? Let's see if we can't figure out how this happened.
1) He forgot how the rules work.
This is the most obvious explanation, I'd say. Maybe he thought that you can only use 8 players per quarter and once someone is in they have to stay in for several minutes or once they're out you can't use them again. This could explain why the entire defensive game plan was to stop Isiah Thomas but Lue left the team's best defender (Iman Shumpert) on the bench for the final (checking box score) 15 minutes? Can that be right?
It can. Shump came out with 3:00 left in the 3rd and never returned. His shot was off - he's been shooting poorly the past month - but he's still the best defender on the team until LeBron starts trying again on defense.
Similarly, Channing Frye, who shoots 40% from three and is starting in Kevin Love's place, played a grand total of 12:39 in this one. Channing played 5:30 to start the 3rd quarter and was done for the night.
The only thing that makes sense is that Ty Lue was thinking of the over-35 men's softball league he joined recently where once you pinch-hit for someone, that guy is out for the rest of the game.
2) He's making an omelette.
They say you have to break a few eggs to make an omelette, and the omelette here is winning another title. It takes time to figure out, according to the argument I'm making up for Ty Lue.
Of course, winning 11 out of the past 12 games LeBron was active for might suggest that whatever Lue was doing had been working, but that's clearly wrong. It's wrong because adding Deron Williams means you have to change what you're doing to accomodate him, duh. He didn't earn the nickname King Deron for nothing.
Gotta cater to him.
3) He's been sick.
This one's actually true. Coach Lue got strep from LeBron over the weekend and was sick for Monday's game. It's entirely possible that his weakened immune system led to clouded judgment like, I don't know, playing Deron Williams 24 minutes as the lead defender on one of the best attacking point guards in the NBA despite Deron Williams being an objectively bad defender.
Side note, imagine being one of LBJ's kid's classmates. You got strep, then you gave it to LBJ's kid because that's what happens with kids - they are cesspools of bacteria and schools are petri dishes in which those bacteria (technically strep is a virus, but whatever, this is my metaphor) can run rampant. Anyway, so you get LBJ's kid sick and then you start feeling better because it goes away fast. Next thing you know, LeBron is sitting out Saturday night's game because he has strep. YOU DID THAT. YOU BROUGHT DOWN A HUMAN VERSION OF VOLTRON. Put that on your resume, kid. You're the only one who has figured out how to slow down LeBron James.
4) Tyronn Lue is playing possum.
The most reasonable explanation is that the Cavs are going to switch up some game-plans in the postseason so they're not showing their hand yet. Teams do this all the time; they don't give away their best ideas during the regular season if they can save them for when it counts.
I'm not 100% sure that's what Lue is doing here, because I don't have all that much confidence in him, but it's the only thing that can really make sense.
Unless Ty Lue is 2 kids standing on each other's shoulders who are overwhelmed by the pressure of coaching the defending NBA champions because they also have a multiplication-table test in their 3rd grade class this week.
5) Ty Lue is two kids standing on each other's shoulders who are overwhelmed by the pressure of coaching the defending NBA champions because they also have a multiplication-table test in their 3rd grade class this week.
I knew there was a simple explanation here.
Now it's got Deron Williams, a weirdly resurgent Derrick Williams, and Andrew Bogut on the way.
Realistically, the biggest issue facing the Cavs is how their coach is going to handle all of this. Tyronn Lue is the guy who has played LeBron 40+ minutes 14 times in his past 40 games. Lue is also the guy who gets 24 year old Kyrie Irving's minutes to trend down as the season progresses while 32 year old LeBron's go up. Lue also looks like he's watching his son walk into traffic and is frozen in fear on the sideline most of the time.
On Wednesday night in Boston, Ty Lue had a new toy available in Deron Williams. The whole reason for getting a backup point guard has been to spell LeBron, who largely runs the point for the 2nd unit. Lue said prior to the game that he expected Deron to get 10-15 minutes on the floor, particularly because Deron Williams hadn't played at all in two weeks.
So coach Lue did what any rational coach might in his situation: He played LeBron over 40 minutes, played Derrick Williams (finishing up his 2nd 10-day contract) 31 minutes, and played newcomer Deron Williams about 24.
Shockingly, Deron admitted his legs were a bit heavy by the end of the game, when he missed an uncontested go-ahead three from the corner with less than five seconds left.
Who could've seen that coming? Not Ty Lue, apparently. Deron was supposed to play about 15 minutes and instead played the final 15 minutes consecutively while Derrick played from 6:26 remaining in the 3rd until about 2:00 left in the 4th.
Those seem to be...questionable coaching decisions. But hey, Ty Lue is a professional, so there must be some explanations, right? Let's see if we can't figure out how this happened.
1) He forgot how the rules work.
This is the most obvious explanation, I'd say. Maybe he thought that you can only use 8 players per quarter and once someone is in they have to stay in for several minutes or once they're out you can't use them again. This could explain why the entire defensive game plan was to stop Isiah Thomas but Lue left the team's best defender (Iman Shumpert) on the bench for the final (checking box score) 15 minutes? Can that be right?
It can. Shump came out with 3:00 left in the 3rd and never returned. His shot was off - he's been shooting poorly the past month - but he's still the best defender on the team until LeBron starts trying again on defense.
Similarly, Channing Frye, who shoots 40% from three and is starting in Kevin Love's place, played a grand total of 12:39 in this one. Channing played 5:30 to start the 3rd quarter and was done for the night.
The only thing that makes sense is that Ty Lue was thinking of the over-35 men's softball league he joined recently where once you pinch-hit for someone, that guy is out for the rest of the game.
2) He's making an omelette.
They say you have to break a few eggs to make an omelette, and the omelette here is winning another title. It takes time to figure out, according to the argument I'm making up for Ty Lue.
Of course, winning 11 out of the past 12 games LeBron was active for might suggest that whatever Lue was doing had been working, but that's clearly wrong. It's wrong because adding Deron Williams means you have to change what you're doing to accomodate him, duh. He didn't earn the nickname King Deron for nothing.
Gotta cater to him.
3) He's been sick.
This one's actually true. Coach Lue got strep from LeBron over the weekend and was sick for Monday's game. It's entirely possible that his weakened immune system led to clouded judgment like, I don't know, playing Deron Williams 24 minutes as the lead defender on one of the best attacking point guards in the NBA despite Deron Williams being an objectively bad defender.
Side note, imagine being one of LBJ's kid's classmates. You got strep, then you gave it to LBJ's kid because that's what happens with kids - they are cesspools of bacteria and schools are petri dishes in which those bacteria (technically strep is a virus, but whatever, this is my metaphor) can run rampant. Anyway, so you get LBJ's kid sick and then you start feeling better because it goes away fast. Next thing you know, LeBron is sitting out Saturday night's game because he has strep. YOU DID THAT. YOU BROUGHT DOWN A HUMAN VERSION OF VOLTRON. Put that on your resume, kid. You're the only one who has figured out how to slow down LeBron James.
4) Tyronn Lue is playing possum.
The most reasonable explanation is that the Cavs are going to switch up some game-plans in the postseason so they're not showing their hand yet. Teams do this all the time; they don't give away their best ideas during the regular season if they can save them for when it counts.
I'm not 100% sure that's what Lue is doing here, because I don't have all that much confidence in him, but it's the only thing that can really make sense.
Unless Ty Lue is 2 kids standing on each other's shoulders who are overwhelmed by the pressure of coaching the defending NBA champions because they also have a multiplication-table test in their 3rd grade class this week.
5) Ty Lue is two kids standing on each other's shoulders who are overwhelmed by the pressure of coaching the defending NBA champions because they also have a multiplication-table test in their 3rd grade class this week.
I knew there was a simple explanation here.
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