Allow the greatest basketball mind in human history to inject this board with profound basketball wisdom:
1. Golden State is HANDING James wide open threes off the dribble when he initiates pick and rolls as the ball handler.
James must shoot this shot EVERY single time he is presented with it. He wouldn't even have to make those shots at an impressively high rate for them to qualify as extremely efficient offense. There are several factors to remember here for those of you interested in performing the calculations that I am too lazy to do myself: A) Half-Court offense is typically significantly less efficient than total offense combined. B) If James initiates copious pick and rolls early in copious shot clocks and shoots copious wide open threes off the dribble while copiously abstaining from making one pass on copious possessions, he can drastically reduce Cavalier turnovers. C) The offensive rebounding percentage associated with missed threes is higher than missed long twos and leads to less fast breaks than both missed long twos and missed paint shots. I know James is shooting putridly from the three this postseason, but he has shot sufficiently well from the three over the last several seasons to validate my point here. If he decides to follow my advice and continues to shoot putridly from the three, then he simply doesn't deserve to win this championship. Golden State will probably win anyway, but my point stands.
2. JR Smith has possibly wasted more talent than any player in NBA history due to putrid shot selection.
JR Smith has INCREDIBLE acceleration off the dribble. If he exchanged all of his isolation, step-back, fadeaway threes for attempts at blowing past his defender, he would probably legitimately be one of the best players in the league. It appears as if Golden State knows that he wants to shoot those ridiculous threes at a high rate. The defenders on Smith seem to be predicting that he will shoot those ridiculous threes and playing defense accordingly. For the Cavaliers to have a chance, Smith must put a TREMENDOUS emphasis on trying to blow past defenders off the dribble.
3. The Cavaliers must switch as many Curry pick and rolls as possible
Curry will absolutely demolish the traps, zone-ups, and hedge-and-recovers. Against the traps, he will simply dump the ball to the roller, prompting the roller to drive toward the paint and kick to the corner for a wide open three. Against the zone-ups, he will simply launch a three off the dribble with sufficient airspace to demolish the defense. Against the hedge-and-recovers, he will do damage in a variety of ways. The only chance the Cavaliers have is switching. Tristan is one of the best power forwards for switching onto guards. He has absolutely elite lateral quickness for a power forward. If James is giving effort on defense, he is one of the best threes for switching onto guards.
4. James must use the floating, semi-fadeaway, running hook shot off the dribble in the paint in exchange for the midrange jumper as much as possible. It sounds like that floating shot would be a bad shot for most players, but the finishing ability of James on those shots is absolutely superb. He needs to look for those shots when he is in the post instead of jacking a long two. There is ESPECIALLY no excuse for him to catch the ball in the post and jack a long two early in the shot clock without looking for better options first. The only time he should jack a long two from the post is when the shot clock is dying. Even if a defender gave James ridiculous space, he could drive toward one hip of the defender, either euro-step or spin around the defender, and finish at the rim. This is one of the biggest mistakes highly skilled players who can't shoot make in the NBA. They decide to shoot when coaxed into the shot by being given lots of space. There are moves available that can allow a player to drive effectively against a defender giving lots of space. Two of them are the euro-step and spin move. This can lead to charges, but if an offensive player knows the tendencies of the defenders, they can drastically reduce charges. The offensive player can also manipulate the rate at which he drives against space depending on how much he is in foul trouble.