NBA Finals Grades - AlexBrady's Blog

AlexBrady's Blog

NBA Finals Grades

Posted on June 16, 2017 at 03:56 PM.

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With the NBA Finals wrapping up here are some of my personal grades from the series.

Cleveland Cavaliers

Kyrie Irving- Grade- C-plus Had some success scoring in isolations but dominated the ball too much.

J.R. Smith- Grade- C-minus Mostly invisible early in the series before coming to life later. Didn't play defense and made foolish plays.

LeBron James- Grade- B-plus Attacked the basket, passed, and rebounded but couldn't defend or hit long balls. Didn't get it done in the clutch in game 3.

Kevin Love- Grade D Rebounding was outstanding as usual but didn't hit his treys and couldn't guard anyone.

Tristan Thompson-Grade D-minus A no show. Didn't attack the boards or protect the basket.

Deron Williams- Grade-F Was totally ineffective.

Iman Shumpert- Grade-D Made too many dumb plays.

Richard Jefferson- Grade-C Would have benefited from more team play on offense. He just can't guard like he used to.

Kyle Korver- Grade D+ Didn't hit enough of his quick release triples and couldn't guard.

Coach Tyronn Lue-Grade C-minus His club didn't play any defense in half-court or transition. On offense they lacked man movement, simply relying on LeBron and Kyrie to create.

Golden State Warriors

Stephen Curry- Grade-B Didn't quite shoot the lights out but used his handle to get to the hoop. Read traps well and made the right passes. Even helped out on the boards.

Klay Thompson- Grade- B-minus Played outstanding defense and though he didn't shoot well overall did hit enough treys.

Kevin Durant- Grade- A Scored from near and far, passed, rebounded, and played alert help defense.

Draymond Green- Grade-B-minus Didn't shoot accurately and committed too many silly fouls. But he did anchor their team defense and did strong board work.

Zaza Pachulia- Grade- D-plus Didn't consistently protect the basket or come up with rebounds. A liability.

Ian Clark- Grade-D As expected had trouble guarding Irving man to man.

Shaun Livingston- Grade-B His mid-range turnarounds were money.

Patrick McCaw- Grade- C-minus Played like a rookie.

Andre Igoudala- Grade-B-plus Dunked, passed, rebounded, and had his moments on defense. One of the more underrated clutch players in history.

David West- Grade-C-plus Set bruising screens and had success when posting. Not much defense.

Javale McGee- Grade- C-minus Some good defensive rotations but more bad ones.

Coach Steve Kerr- Grade-B His Warriors showcased their trademark ball and player movement on offense. Their defense was very inconsistent though and they were not ready to go at the start of game 4. Kerr has much more talent at his disposal than Lue does.

Referees- Grade-D It was hard to know what call was going to be made at any time. The Draymond Green technical situation was a disaster.