The physical advantage over Golden State

Cleveland Cavaliers general manager Koby Altman took every player even remotely hovering around his own age and sent them to live on a farm far off somewhere. Prior to that the team looked old, slow, and apathetic on the defensive end. The price of doing business was sending away the only first round pick to change teams this deadline. By doing so he was able to dramatically reshape the Cleveland roster on the fly, breathing new life into what has been classified by many experts as a really bad situation.

Where Isaiah was too short and Channing Frye far too long for the playing of defense, Clarkson and Nance split the difference at 6’5 and 6’8 and can realistically guard their positions. Clarkson has to be the best Mario Chalmers he can be and a little more, there is a litany of formidable point guards in the playoffs.

How George Hill and Rodney Hood materialized out of Derrick Rose, Jae Crowder, and Iman Shumpert is inexplicable. Actually, Utah not wanting to pay Hood this offseason and Hill’s already bad contract is the best explanation. From a basketball standpoint, it’s no contest. The Cavs actually looked good getting back in transition defense against the Celtics and Thunder.

The younger legs brought in by Altman have provided the Cavs with physical advantages at each position against the Warriors. Hill and Hood both have comparable physical gifts to Steph and Klay, while Clarkson and JR each have a step on them. At 33, Lebron is playing like Karl Malone’s body possessed by Oscar Robertson’s ghost. He pulled a 1990 Jordan trying to get over the hump vs the Pistons and added fifteen pounds of muscle this past offseason. Where Jordan did it because he was tired of getting beat up in the playoffs, Lebron got bigger so he can go beat up entire teams. And Nance will attempt and succeed at least once in trying to jump over Draymond, and then pay the entirely fair price of getting hit in the nuts for it. The edge is there at forward.

As far as the bigs go, Tristan and Love have it over Zaza and David West. Jordan Bell could be an X-factor, but his 14 minutes played per game prior to his ankle injury will be evaporated by the time playoff rotations tighten. Off the bench Iguodala, Livingston, and McCaw will have difficulty dealing with the superior athleticism of Clarkson and Green. No one wants to chase 36 year old Kyle Korver through that many freaking screens, and Cedi in transition looks like the fastest sausage racer ever got loose from Miller Park then donned a Cavs uniform.

But pump all the brakes real quick.

None of this means the Cavaliers are the favorites. From a talent standpoint, the Warriors are still head and shoulders above the Cavs; their disadvantage on the athletic side of the ball is not a death sentence. It means The Death Lineup might not be able to swing games against great teams like it used to, especially with Iguodala shooting 22 percent on threes.

Golden State can expect to roll over their first round matchup, after that the Western conference gauntlet begins. Though they have distinct advantages over the Spurs, Rockets, Thunder, and Twolves that should allow them to ultimately prevail in a series, each have a puncher’s chance to knock the Warriors out. They’ll enter the Finals with at least a few bruises, maybe some welts if they run into the Thunder.

Lebron should do his usual cakewalk into the finals, Eastern Conference teams are forever a year away from figuring it out. The last time Lebron had a real scare on his way to the finals? The Garnett-Pierce era Celtics and the Hibbert-PG13 Pacers. The Raptors and Celtics are not in the same caliber as those squads. Continuity for the Raptors is a nicer condensed version of saying "we’re running back the same guys he beats every year". And Hayward doesn’t solve the rebounding/rim protection issue for the Celtics that make good teams hard to beat and great ones always impossible.

Golden State have been victims of their own success with the last three final runs practically tacking on a fourth season. They’ve dropped among league worst in transition defense, and it’s not a style of play issue, since they’ve been among league leaders in this category in recent history. The Warriors have been notoriously turnover prone which at times derails their high potency offense, and if the longer active limbs Cleveland added find their way consistently into passing lanes they’ll have easy transition dunks and uncontested threes.

That’s a recipe for success, Moreyball 101 if you will.