There has never been an average or below average defensive team to win a championship,

I don’t know why every argument STARTS with assuming that LeBron IS coming. I really don’t. The main reason is the Cavs are worse, but where? Not in the standings. Their roster isn’t any better than the Knicks’ roster, OK and? I would just rather not here all this speculation and especially not the assumptions for another year. If he’s going to sign here then he’ll be here soon enough.

@ gbaked, _’antoni is NOT adapting his philosophies to the players he has. “Not really running the 7SOL offense” is not adapting. Either he should run a totally new offense, a simplified “non-gimmick” offense or focus on the defensive side of the ball in an effort to score easy fast break points that way.

As far as the rotation or usage of his bench, _’antoni has definitely shown an unwillingness to expand his bench. This is great during a playoff schedule, but throughout a regular season consisting of 82 games, regardless of physical condition, players get worn down. That’s why teams that have a seed locked up will rest their players heading into the playoffs in the last few games. This includes players known for their exceptional conditioning, LeBron, Kobe etc. and they don’t even run a 7SOL “speedball” offense all year. So it is possible to burn players out and it is only counterproductive to your own success if you don’t put trust in your players at the further end of the bench, during the regular season especially, because you never know when you’ll need one of those guys to step up (due to injury or foul trouble) and that experience can be priceless.

“Coach has been pushing stronger D since the preseason.”

Talking about playing better defense and actually giving the team a defensive concept or a philosophy are two different things. The team has shown an ability to defend in stretches. However, the switching, zone and going under picks are cop-outs it breeds no accountability and leads to blown assignments missed rotations etc. Until the coach hands out minutes according to the effort put forth on defense AND he actually puts a defensive game plan in place the team will continue to struggle to maintain solid defense for 48 mins. There are enough guys on this team that are/were good defenders at some point in their career, capable of playing good defense or can put the effort into being a strong defender (this means every player on the roster).

“But his game plan is centered around offense. So he pushes that. Whatever, most of you feel that only 1 kind of basketball can win a championship so not much is gonna change your mind.”

This isn’t just the thought or “belief” of a few posters here it is a known fact. There has never been an average or defensive to win a championship, probably none has ever even made the Finals. Last year the last 4 teams playing to get into the Finals (Denver, LA, Cleveland and Orlando) were the top 4 defensive teams in the league last year if I’m not mistaken, but in any case they weren’t just OK defensively they were all great defensively. Defense wins Championships. Period.

Raymond Felton
Raja Bell
Danilo Gallinari
Wilson Chandler
Eddy Curry

Toney Douglas
Kyle Korver
Joe Alexander
Jason Kapono
Jordan Hill
Jared Jeffries

*Sherron Collins?
*Luke Harangody

Do we get under the cap with that roster? Maybe not, but I think it’s close. A lot closer than what just signing those two guys will leave you left with for a second team. If you’re going to get back to running, you need shooters to sub in. Maybe Bosh and a bunch of shooters will work, but Gay seems to be too much. Why bother locking up the space?

more b-more than anything.lol.