The Cavs team should scare you more than the Heat honestly. The Cavs have everything the heat had offensively plus Kyrie and waiters.
Love is an upgrade over Bosh, but neither Kyrie nor Waiters are an upgrade over a (healthy) Wade. Wade and LeBron had tons of playoff experience and were MVP-caliber players before they ever teamed up. Kyrie is overhyped (sorry... he is. I can name a handful of PGs I'd take over him) and neither he or Love have a single minute of playoff experience. Hell, neither of them has ever led their teams to a .500 record, so let's pump the breaks on saying they should concern us more then the Heat.
And on defense they have Varejao, and Thompson.
Ummmm... In Anderson Varejao's 10 year career, he's only eclipsed 70+ games three times, and hasn't done it in 5 years. I think of him as a good rebounder and a marginal defender. With all his lower body injuries, his lateral quickness is extremely diminished, so unless LeBron plans on living in the paint this year, he's going to need help patrolling the paint. And Tristan Thompson is a decent developing player, but I wouldn't even consider him an average NBA defender at the four. The guy can grab rebounds -- that's not being a good defender.
If we acquire Love that's one big better than Bosh and then 2 more bigs better than any big the heat had after Bosh.
I'm not following you. I agree that Love > Bosh. Honestly, the gap isn't that substantial. I think Love is a better offensive player, but Bosh's defensive contributions were extremely underrated because the Heat never had a real center (unless you count Greg Oden, which I don't. He was a fucking statue). Outside of that, I really don't think Varejao is "better" then Udonis Haslem was during their first title season. Neither is Tristan Thompson. Or Brendan Haywood
I agree if Mcdermont can score against NBA small forwards the bulls become scary. But if Micky. D fades and Noah isn't protecting you guys rim I don't see that as a good matchup at all. You'd basically have to hope Pau Gasol can control games from the paint
What leads you to believe Noah's defensive prowess is just going to disappear? He was All-NBA First team and Defensive Player of the Year. He's a tremendous defender. So is Taj Gibson. Both of them are phenomenal when it comes to collapsing on drives, rotations and understanding when to slide out to pinch guys on the wing and let other guys plug the lane. Pau's lack of defense will be easier to work around with two guys who will make few mistakes.
And then of course your whole season is dependent on a MVP caliber Rose.
Well, considering that we won 48 games without Rose, nor a primary scorer, Rose simply returning to above-league average will be a coup for this team. This team is 10-guys deep, and I'm not seeing a team who'll shine more defensively. To be honest, how successful this team offensively is going to be more predicated on how much Pau, McDermott and Mirotic contribute. The real ex-factor is Mirotic -- nobody has a clue how much Thibs will be willing to play him.
Your not scared of us, but we aren't scared of Chicago at all unless Rose is ROSE.
Seems like the media has gone with this year as a 3 team race. Cavs bulls or spurs may win it.
I'm just not seeing anyone on the Cavs outside of LeBron and Marion who will contribute on defense for a 48 minute game. On paper, I still think the Cavs are a "better" team because of LeBron. But if he has to carry them during a playoff run again, I think they'll have a similar fate to Miami last year.