• Eric Snow is going to start at PG.  As I explained in my Sunday column, Snow is gets the edge because he’s a better defender and Mike Brown always thinks defense first.  But I expect him to split minutes with Damon Jones, almost evenly.
• Injuries and a new system will mean a slow start.  After starting 0-5 in 2003 and 0-3 last year, the hope is that the Cavs could get going a little quicker this year.  But the team only played about two or three quarters with its full roster in the preseason and missed a lot of practice time.  Considering they’re all learning new systems and after the cup cake opener they have a three-game road trip, I don’t expect a hot start this season either.
• The early word going around the league is that the Cavs might be greatly improved.  From what I’ve heard, scouts that have been watching in the preseason have been impressed.  Mostly with how much deeper the Cavs are and how they are more dedicated to defense.   
• Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Drew Gooden both had excellent preseasons.  But don’t watch the offensive numbers, watch them at the defensive end.  How they help and recover, as called for in Brown’s system, is what they’re going to be judged on.  Teams will test them, especially Ilgauskas on the pick-and-roll.
• Luke Jackson and Sasha Pavlovic haven’t separated from each other.  Both have looked good and bad.  Sasha was slowed by an injury and Jackson looked good early, but Sasha has been better recently.  Neither seem to have their complete game working yet.
• Damon Jones and Donyell Marshall will only be as effective as their teammates allow them.  I’d prefer the Cavs to run more inside-out.  Like throw the ball to Z, wait for the defense to help and then throw it out.  But with Larry Hughes and LeBron, they run more of a drive and kick.  So far that has meant more turnovers than open 3’s.  Plus I don’t think Z’s thrown the ball out of the post yet.
• Mike Brown has been up and down with in-game decisions. Right now, he’s probably at his best teaching on the practice floor, like most assistants.  The Cavs have emerged from timeouts and run excellent drawn up plays and made adjustments at times.  But they’ve also been lost on offense and failed at times, despite numerous timeouts, to break the press.

On a personal note, sorry for the absence.  First, it was technical issues here and then I was down with a bad cold.

Keep an eye out for my first podcast, which will debut here and on Ohio.com on Wednesday.  I’ll be making my prediction on where the Cavs will finish and what they’re record will be.

I’m sorry for not posting in a few days.  I will not take the blame, there seems to be some issues with this site’s host.  Hopefully things will be back to normal very soon, I have some good stuff to share.

Cleveland sports lost a great one today, when Hal Lebovitz passed away.   He was 89.

I’m not sure how many of you will know who Hal is, he’s been semi-retired for some time.  He was one of the greatest sportswriters ever to work in Cleveland and a member of the writer’s wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

I didn’t get to know Hal that well, he was 62 years older than me and was already a legend by the time I was born.  But even a newbie working in the Cleveland-area media felt his presence.  He came from a different age, when political correctness and absolute objectivity weren’t as valued as they are today.  His style was both a reminder of a different world and yet a breath of fresh air.  He worked for decades at the Cleveland News, the Plain Dealer and the Lake County News-Herald.

Until his final days, Hal wrote a Sunday column in the News-Herald that almost weekly broke news.  I can’t ever remember seeing him at the Cavs game over the last few years, but he was actually the guy who broke the news that Danny Ferry was going to be the new Cavs general manager last summer.  Said Bob Finnan, the Cavs writer at the News-Herald: "I’m scrambling like a mad man, calling this guy, who’s calling this other guy, trying to find out what was happening and Hal makes one call and breaks the news."

He had many famous stories, none more than "Never Cut a Boy," an essay he wrote in the 1960s about why high school coaches should never make cuts.  It is still re-run yearly by some publications.

Until recently, Hal pounded out his stories on an ancient Tandy word processor that ran on double A batteries.  In an age of wireless high-speed Internet, he hooked up couplers to his old telephone to transmit them after his wife proofread them.  He would have team PR people read press releases to him over the phone even though they begged him to let them buy him a fax machine.  Cavs VP of PR Tad Carper often spent hours on the phone with Hal, I’m sure especially the day they drafted Martynas Andriuskevicius.

Recently the News-Herald bought him a new computer.  He never did get it, as Finnan famously tells, when the technicians were setting it up he quizzically asked: "Does this thing have w-w-w on it?"

It reminded me of when I showed the Internet to my own grandfather, who died at the age of 91 a few years ago, and he said: "So what’s the big deal."   You know, I didn’t really have a good answer for him.

When I was a boy I used to read the Sporting News and every week looked forward to Hal’s "Ask the Referee" column.  I later shared the same chair with Hal on More Sports and Les Levine, where Hal was a weekly guest and dubbed as the "Man in the Know."  For that, I was honored.

I never got to know Hal well and he surely wouldn’t understand the point of this blog, but that isn’t the point.  Hal entertained and informed millions with his stories of the sports we love and in his footsteps all us hacks follow.

Here’s to you, old-timer.

Nothing like a second night of a preseason back-to-back sans LeBron to incite a little boredom.  So how did the Cavs kill the time before they played a meaningless game Saturday?  They watched football, of course.

Well, let me correct that.  They illegally watched football.  In the locker room before the game they were supposed to be watching game film of a previous Bucks preseason game.  But someone, ahem, I don’t remember who, turned the channel to the Notre Dame-USC game.

Eric Snow was depressed his Michigan State Spartans couldn’t close the deal against Ohio State.  I pointed out it’s hard for Sparty to win when they are bound and determined to play 10 against 11.  As I explained to Mr. Snow, it is hard to imagine anyone from Michigan could count that high so the blocked field goal was bound to happen at some point.

At least Eric was getting ready for the game.  When Mike Brown came back in from getting dressed and saw the game film was off, he found Damon Jones sitting in a chair in front of the TV just as Notre Dame scored the go ahead touchdown.

Jones, you see, just sits there in his street clothes and chills out before the game instead of taking extra shooting.  His reason for this is he feels he only has so many makes in a one night, so why waste them in warmups.  I actually agree with this philosophy, somewhat.  It was Orlando Cepeda, I believe, who threw away a bat each time he got a hit because, well, you don’t know how many hits are in a bat, and what if it’s just one.

However, I have already learned that Damon often is, ahem, full of it.  Not sure if this passes the smell test.  But shooters, like left-handed pitchers, are often eccentric, so I’ll let him be.  Anyway, Brown lets Damon off the hook and never finds the real culprit and I’m not going to give him up now.

So the players just have to sneak out to watch the TVs in the hall to the court, which is what the media did.   Luke Jackson seems to be the only one rooting for USC, which we dismiss as West Coast idiocy, er, bias.  Then, he was the only one happy with the wacky result.  Why is no one pointing out that after the fumble the ball shouldn’t been on the 3 or 4 not the 1!

The game stunk, but veteran ref Jess Kersey made it fun for those of us at the press table.
When left coaster Luke Jackson questioned a call, Jess informed him he’d had two hands on the offensive player, a no-no.  "Maybe I was seeing double.  Maybe it was one and I saw two," Kersey said.  "If it was two then I guess I should’ve seen three hands."

Me: No, actually that would be four.

Best was when Zendon Hamilton complained about a foul.  Apparently, he didn’t think it was called.  Said Kers: "He fouled you, I called it, now you’re going to shoot two free throws, what the hell are you bitching about."

Jess, we’re all just killing time until November.

I assume that many fans are concerned about LeBron James and there’s good reason.  Tuesday night it seemed as if LeBron could play but was just sitting out because it was a preseason game.  Then, Wednesday he told us the pain was bad and there was no way he could play.  Then Thursday we learn he’s been admitted to the hospital.

I have been assured by Cavs officials over and over that all this is precautionary and all the tests have come back fine.  I believe them that they don’t think it is anything serious.  It stands to reason that if you are having pains on the left side of your chest and they are getting worse, even if you are just a 21-year-old world-class athlete, you should address it.  That makes sense.  They have some of the best doctors in the world at the Cleveland Clinic and so I’m sure they have it under control.

My concern is that usually people don’t stay in the hospital for two days with a muscle strain and this injury seems to be getting worse to me.  So I’m going to be keeping a watchful eye on all of it.

For the first time in training camp, I got a chance to see the guts of a practice today.  Let me just say that Mike Brown is an INTENSE coach.

He’s out there running, constantly coaching, personally demonstating the way he wants things done. Extremely hands on and vocal.  He often stops things to make corrections.  The practice and scrimmage are both intricate and fast-paced.  After the workout, Brown probably needs a shower as much as the players.

His defensive style constants of nonstop help and rotation.  He’s really forcing the players to be aware of the opposing offense’s spacing.  I think with all the help defense they play they will give up open jump shots at times, but least he seems to be correcting the way individual breakdowns crushed the Cavs last season.  The offense is lagging behind, so don’t expect to see much in the preseason games this week.

I talk a lot more about the defense in my Sunday notes from today.

I have a note in there about how Donyell Marshall used to get mistaken all the time for rapper Ludacris…

Well, maybe I buy that.  However, I don’t think Donyell looks angry enough in this photo to be a hip hop artist.  Plus he needs more bling to be taken seriously.

How about some other Cav lookalikes.  Like…

Former Cav Jiri Welsch and John Cusack?  One made their career with Say Anything.  Everytime the other touched the ball down the stretch last season, Cavs fans pleaded: Don’t Shoot Anything.

Drew Gooden and New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin?  Both of them are focused on rebounding…and their next contract. 

Anderson Varejao, American Idol loser Justin Guarini and Sideshow Bob?  One will play 15 minutes a game, one had 15 minutes of fame, the other wants to give Bart 15 minutes of pain.