Don’t bet against LeBron James taking these weird Cavaliers to the NBA Finals

Wrote about the Cavs. They are still going to the Finals because LeBron still exists. An excerpt:

Before trading Irving to the biggest threat to their Eastern Conference supremacy, the Cavaliers signed Jeff Green and Derrick Rose to minimum contracts, gave Kyle Korver a contract that runs two years longer than LeBron James’ and thus two years longer than his usefulness to the team, and brought Cedi Osman across the ocean.

After shipping Irving up to Boston for Isaiah Thomas (who was flat-out better than Irving last year but is also tiny and three years older than Irving and won’t get on the court until January at the earliest and is a free-agent next summer), Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic, one of the famed Nets picks and a future second, the Cavaliers signed Dwyane Wade; gave Kendrick Perkins a camp invite; cut Kendrick Perkins and offered him a coaching spot, depriving us of the chance to see him lay out Irving with a dirty screen in the season-opener; cut Richard Jefferson and Richard Jefferson’s podcast; decided to turn Kevin Love into a center and bring Tristan Thompson off the bench; decided one of the NBA’s best big shooters (Channing Frye) doesn’t belong in the rotation right now; decided it’s a good idea to start Rose and Wade in the backcourt together even though neither one of them can shoot (or defend) anymore; and saw one of their assistant coaches like an Instagram post about how starting Rose and Wade together even though neither one of them can shoot (or defend anymore) instead of just leaving J.R. Smith in the starting lineup is a bad idea.

And all of this happened with the backdrop of James having a player option that everybody in the league thinks he’s using to get out of dodge next summer.

Read the full story at The Step Back.