It's a bogus argument. One you can make when you win.
I'm someone who used to watch a lot of basketball back in the day with Magic Johnson, Bird, even Kevin McHale and Parish and Dennis Johnson, all the way through Jordan getting drafted and being awesome. Even Jordan had some good-great players around him in Pippen (HOF), Kerr, and many other clutch performers.
But nobody was ever at Lebron James' level. He's the best player I've ever seen play the game. Bar none.
If Lebron had even one of their injured players healthy, just one, and I don't even care which one you pick, they win that series. GS small-ball rotation was necessary to beat a one-man wrecking crew. With their injuries, James couldn't guard everyone, so it was only a matter of time before the most talented team won with a lot of passing and long-range jumpers. James could rotate on the pick and rolls, but it's impossible for him to guard everyone on penetrate and kickouts. Impossible.
The rest of Cleveland's starting squad, after injuries, wouldn't even see the floor in most finals. That's a fact. You take the other 4 starters after injuries and they aren't even starting in the regular season, let alone the playoffs or finals.
JR Smith was the antithesis of good basketball. When he was on the floor the Cavs had a negative grade in productivity because of turnovers, bad defense, lack of assists, and missed shots. He's awful.
Coach Blatt had an inescapable problem, given that half his starting lineup was injured. He couldn't go small against GS, that's insane, obviously. But when he went big or even semi-big, it clogged up the middle for James, who couldn't create the space he needed on drives. Smith was the primary culprit obviously, given that he sucks and everything, because when James would drive he never once, not once, rotated to the top of the key or to the 3/4 key area, to create space when James was driving to his corner of the 3 point line (where Smith usually just stood like a statue). He never slid over at all when he saw James drive.
Nobody rotated, due to a lack of talent and experience. And frankly, James made some phenomenal passes Tuesday, right down into the paint or into the key where it should have resulted either in points or an assist on points, but too often it was blocked, stolen, or missed. That's a lack of talent, not design.
It's the small things that add up. No rotation, no sliding into other spots when you see a huge beast like James' drive (I mean, really JR, get the F out of there and slide over to another 3 point spot), and overall just a lack of talent to make very easy 5 or 10 foot shots, which James provided them all night.
It's nice and all to give D'antoni credit. That's cool. Very classy. But it's not indicative of the truth. It's laughable frankly. D'antoni was going up against a full San Antonio Spurs roster every year. One stacked to the gills with talent. I like D'antoni, but let's not pretend like GS played any kind of premier team. They had a soft playoff schedule in the playoffs and in the finals played one of the most depleted rosters in the history of the NBA.
Lebron James by himself almost ruined them. With one other player he would have.
