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Cleveland Cavs (2016 NBA Champions)

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Report: LeBron, Kyrie to play reduced minutes next season

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With several Eastern Conference rivals getting significantly stronger this offseason, if the Cleveland Cavaliers want to make it back to the NBA Finals in 2016, they’re going to have to do some maintenance around the edges. And the team apparently knows it very well.

According to a report on Saturday by Terry Pluto of The Plain Dealer, the Cavaliers plan to reduce the minutes of both LeBron James and Kyrie Irving in the 2015-16 season.

As he heads into his age-31 season, James, the four-time NBA MVP, has an enormous amount of wear on his wheels. Akron’s favorite son has logged 43,330 minutes (regular season and playoffs) in his 12-year career. The hot stat this offseason has been that James has already played more minutes than Celtics legend Larry Bird did in his entire career.

James averaged 36.1 minutes per game last season, a career-low, but that number spiked to a Chamberlain-esque 42.2 as he tried to singlehandedly shoulder the title hopes of the entire state of Ohio in the playoffs. Long gone are the days in Miami when Erik Spoelstra used to tell James simply that he couldn’t get tired. As he ages, the simple reality is that James, contrary to popular belief, is in fact human and beginning to get seriously fatigued from all the playing time he has received. Who could forget the infamous two-week vacation he took at the turn of the calendar year last season because of general soreness?

Entire article: http://www.foxsports.com/nba/story/...ing-to-see-reduced-minutes-next-season-082215
 
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With mo Williams here now, kyrie will definitely get fewer minutes. People also forget how bad delly played at the start of the year last season.

With the roster having little turnover in the top 10 of the rotation, it will be much easier to cut minutes.
 
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Mo and RJ are the biggest additions to cut minutes for Kyrie and Lebron. It was never a problem for Love with TT on the bench. Right now there are really only 2-3 rosters spots that won't be part of the rotation. Delly and Kaun are basically insurance for injuries for the regular rotation guys. Even if RJ pulls a Marrion/Miller and doesn't show up JR can end up playing more 3 when Lebron rests and Delly will take the backup SG minutes. This roster can really match any type of lineup that gets throw at it.

Looking at the Kaun contract I'm betting he gets a crack at backup big before Andy since they only get a year to decide if he gets a bigger contract.
 
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Kind of lame and concerning, but honestly not a big deal.

The 2015 calendar year should mean absolutely nothing to Cavs fans. Once the year turns, the 4-5 months building up to the playoffs will mean everything, and up until the playoffs, besides some seeding, the regular season means about diddly-poo. It's all about what this team does in the playoffs/Finals.

Until then- it's football season.
 
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It might not be a bad idea to see if they can find another true PG for the roster to at least keep Kyrie's seat warm. I feel good about Mo starting, but if something happens to him we are stuck with Delly again. At least this will give them time to figure a better fit for Love in the offense since they will only have one ball dominate player.
 
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Yeah, the Love aspect is an underrated component. This may give Love an opportunity to become a centerpiece in the offense. Hopefully when Kyrie comes back, Love can keep his role and Kyrie can slide back into doing what he does. It'll be interesting to see Delly coming off the bench for the first few months, because that's likely his last chance to earn a big contract for last year. He won't see the floor all that often once the team is healthy.
 
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BuckeyeMafia said:
Yeah, the Love aspect is an underrated component. This may give Love an opportunity to become a centerpiece in the offense. Hopefully when Kyrie comes back, Love can keep his role and Kyrie can slide back into doing what he does. It'll be interesting to see Delly coming off the bench for the first few months, because that's likely his last chance to earn a big contract for last year. He won't see the floor all that often once the team is healthy.
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Delly's restricted again next year so he's probably fucked. His best bet would be to improve his spot up 3pt shooting to an elite level. There is always room for for a hard nose defender if he can shoot like Ray Allen.
 
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No way any good agent would let a guy sign the QO with 85 mil on the table. Even if someplace else gives him a max deal next year it will only be for 4 years. Way too much risk. Paul is trying to get everything he can from the Cavs, but he'll end up taking something slightly higher than Green got so it can look like everyone wins. The longer this drags on the more the fanbase is going to turn on TT so he really needs to end this ASAP.
 
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exhawg said:
No way any good agent would let a guy sign the QO with 85 mil on the table. Even if someplace else gives him a max deal next year it will only be for 4 years. Way too much risk. Paul is trying to get everything he can from the Cavs, but he'll end up taking something slightly higher than Green got so it can look like everyone wins. The longer this drags on the more the fanbase is going to turn on TT so he really needs to end this ASAP.
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I suspect he's not been offered anything close to what green got, because if he did, he'd have pounced on it. As for going to Toronto, outside of passing up $7 million this year, he'd be pissing away a ton of that money in taxes. It would be beyond stupid.
 
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