D-Wade To Cleveland - CLE Now Strong Enough To At Least Challenge Golden State?

No. Not enough floor spacing. Wade is past his prime. Thomas will miss half the season and is still a major defensive liability. Rose still has questionable knee health. I suppose they have more depth now though.

Wade will be an interesting story-line with LeBron, but he's been on the downhill side of his career for a while. He doesn't have enough left to make a significant impact.

Might be more than interesting Wade may have lost a step but he makes up for it with his basket sense, he usually finds a way to be in the right spot at the right time.

I think a lot of this has to do with how Derrick Rose performs. Thomas is fools gold, hopefully Rose feels he has something to prove (which he does).

How will GSW look when the reach the finals, probably more battered than Cleveland. (GASP) do one of these newly retooled West teams overtake GSW? Highly unlikely but GSW's road TO the finals just got a little bumpier.

I put the west like this:
1. GSW
2A. HOU
2B. OKC
3. Spurs
4. Portland

I put the East like this:
1. CLE
2.
3.
4. Boston
5.
6A. Toronto
6B. DC
6C. Charlotte

LeBron had to carry Wade in LeBron's last 2 years in Miami b/c of Wade's bad knees - perhaps Wade is a little healthier these days but he's by no means the old Wade - if Wade was still Wade IMO good chance LeBron would have not left Miami and would've continued chasing championships in Miami.

I think losing Kyrie is a big loss, w/o him IMO CLE would have not won their championship.

NBA = MLS

I think Wade will be in more of a leadership role than a playmaker on the floor. Maybe he can get JR Smith and Tristan Thompson motivated to actually do something.

I love Dwyane (sp?) Wade, but signing Kobe Bryant now would be just as effective

Kyrie meant so much more to CLE than he got credit for. That's why he was audi 5000.

I wouldn't be surprised the CLE chemistry is way off. Three 1/2 players (Rose, Wade, Thomas) should not equal or exceed one healthy, excellent player. LBJ may be good enough to carry them all, but he may start breaking down, too.

Don't count out TOR or WAS in the east.

like my daddy used to say Golden states ass is grass and Cleveland is the lawn mower!

D wade and rose are both making $20 million less than they did in their prime. How the mighty have fallen. Are they taking the pay cuts to play with lebron?

^^^ I think they are taking pay cuts just to keep up the cash flow as long as possible.

^^ Even after that pay cut they make a hell of a lot more than I.

Same story. West is stacked as fuck, even more stacked now. Golden State, like always, will have a tough road to the finals. Cleveland, however, will once again cruise to the finals. UNLESS, Kyrie and Gordon Heyward can get something going in Boston. Sweet baby Jesus I hope they do.

OKC, Houston, and Spurs were always tough and look even scarier now. Don't forget about Portland with young Lilliard and CJ up there.

Still, it's all about my muthafuckin Warriors!

most likely golden state will repeat as champs.
there is a team in the western conference that i think just might finish with a better record than the spurs and portland-don't sleep on the t-wolves.

As deep and talented as Cleveland is right now, their second best player is freaking Dwyane Wade. Think about that. I'm not sure if that's an indictment on Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson or a compliment to Dwyane Wade. Isaiah Thomas can only play one side of the court. No one on the Cavs will give the Warriors much trouble except LeBron. Kyrie Irving struggled against Klay Thompson; Wade will have an even harder time.

The Cavs still don't have an answer for Kevin Durant or an answer for Steph Curry. They still don't have an elite defender and LeBron is no longer an elite defender. Thompson's probably their next best defender after LeBron, but can't guard the perimeter effectively against the Warriors backcourt and KD. I'm not sure that Wade and Thomas together are any better (worse probably) than Kyrie Irving and JR Smith together overall. Sure the bench is better, but you only really go 7 deep in the Finals. The best bench player is probably JR Smith and then Crowder. Rose probably starts until Thomas gets healthy unless they start Smith and run LeBron as point forward.

If the Warriors stay healthy, they still beat the Cavs in a short series unless the Thunder upset them. The Cavs are still easily the best team in the East though. Boston improved somewhat with Irving or Gordon Hayward, but lost two starters in Bradley and Crowder.

^^^^^damn, great breakdown! Can't wait for the season to start!

We'll see what happens when the season starts, on paper everything looks great but once someone gets smashed in the head shit has a way of changing.

Nope...I'm a Cavs fan.......only Cleveland team I root for although I go to Indians games when in town. The issue or at least the biggest one last year was transition defense......Wade does nothing to solve the problem. It's an interesting story line...his coming to Cleveland to reunite with LeBron but it doesn't push them to an NBA title barring a massive meltdown or injury riddled season by GS and or SA/OkC.

On a side note the stripper population in Clev seems fired up about him coming to town....

LeBron is the GOAT

Remember when the NY strip clubs offered LeBron lifetime free lap dances if he came to the NY Knicks when he was a free agent?