When I first joined RealGM, I was treated to a poster who was both intelligent and had uncanny humor. RickyPryor was one of my favorite posters on the board and it is so nice to see you again, my dear friend. For those whom may not know or come to understand said humor. Ricky once made a post that I'll never forget: About Sam's being a Haitian and how it could correspond to him sucking. It was humorous and accurate. Would Sam possibly have a basketball IQ if he was born in the USA and played basketball all his life instead of his late teens?
Nobody knows, but that post was truly epic. I've come to enjoy Ricky and the humor and the depth of basketball knowledge he provided. I myself, was disgusted with Maurice Cheeks. So it didn't come as a surprise when in the 3rd game of the season Ricky blasted Cheeks and provided the RealGM fourms with the knowledge we'd come to know: That Cheeks had NO substitution pattern to speak of. Never mind a game plan, offensively or defensively.
Cheeks did this thing in the pre-season with a press/trap defense. We never saw it since, to my dissapointment. We had the roster to play such a defense.
I'd like to state I disagree with him on Thaddeus Young. Could Young have done better defensively this season? Yes. But he switched from the 3 back to the 4. So I imagine it's gotta be tough, between deciding to guard the perimeter player or to crash the boards. He's done a pretty nice job of it, averaging a respectable 5 RPG though I'd like to see it get up to 7.
And more importantly, the GOOD that Thad Young has shown. I'm sure you agree with me when I say Thad Young is the best fundamental scorer we have outside of Andre Miller. He can post it up, he can take it to people and he can shoot the 3. When he was averaging 20/5 in March, he was ALL OVER the place offensively. He was becoming a go-to-guy.
Iggy/Thad/Brand is our Fab 3. If Iggy improves on his shot and our PG next season is a respectable shooter/defender. I have to disagree with you on another thing:
We can handle Boston/CLE in a series.