There’s no knocking Nocioni
Posted December 27th, 2005 by Brian Windhorst
Newark — I never been so happy to be in New Jersey, safely in New Jersey that is. It was quite a journey here this morning, especially the 40-minute van ride from LaGuardia Airport over here. Nothing like a half dozen near death experiences weaving through Chinatown to change your perspective on life.
Last night’s Cavs victory over the Bulls was enjoyable to watch, just for the Nocioni factor. I’ve liked Andres Nocioni since first time I saw him play in the Olympics for Argentina, which is about the time he 
started getting under American players’ skin.
He’s a rough-houser and he doesn’t care who he offends, which is why it is pure entertainment and wildly comic to watch him play against LeBron James. It is too bad the Bulls don’t assign him to cover LeBron full-time, Luol Deng usually plays half the time on him. It would be great, watching Nocioni elbow him in the ribs and bump him at every chance. LeBron continually trying to bait him into fouls like he did a couple times last night. But the best is what you can’t hear or see on TV. Nocioni wears a mouthpiece — smartly, if you ask me — talks with an accent and loves to whine about every call. A lot like his countryman Manu Ginobilli.
Last night Andres complained about a call but it was muffled and LeBron thought he said something about him. So LeBron spent the next few minutes staring him down and daring him to repeat what he said. Nocioni regarded him balefully, refusing to look at him. When LeBron got him off his feet with a head fake and forced him to commit his fifth foul, LeBron had a few words for him when the lined up for free throws. As Andres was leaving the game he waved LeBron off with his hand in the same carefree manner Kobe Bryant dismisses wide open teammates.
The thing is, LeBron hasn’t been a trash-talker at any time in his career. Perhaps in pickup games, but almost never in serious competition. He’s always let his game do the talking, which speaks loud enough. But the fact that Nocioni gets him going just shows what kind of dynamic the two have.
Some fans complain that foreign players too often don’t play hard and aren’t tough because they don’t concentrate on playing in the paint. In many cases that may be true, but Nocioni is a fine exception. LeBron got the best of him last night, but he’s gotten the best of LeBron in the past.
Heading into tonight’s game with Jersey, the Cavs are 5-6 against teams with winning records. Their next three — tonight, Saturday vs. Detroit and next week in Milwaukee — are against winning teams. They have a nice record and win streak, these next three games are quality litmus test.
December 27th, 2005 at 12:41 pm
I like Nocioni as well. I’d like to see Danny Ferry come up with a player like him to add to the Cavs roster for next sseason. The Cavaliers need more toughness and one thing about Nocioni is that he can also shoot the three and take the ball to the hole as well as defend, play physical dfense, take charges, and dive for loose balls. There’s got to be some similar foreign players out there. I hope the Cavs reel one in soon.
December 28th, 2005 at 6:27 am
I donn’t think it was a swamp NOT AT ALL.Aright they played cacth up all night,but they only lost by six.So at there worst they played ther best.
December 28th, 2005 at 11:59 am
Actually, Eric, they lost by five, not six. And that’s a key point, because it should tell everybody just what this squad is all about…Talentwise, if you look at the roster from top to bottom and compare it to the 17-65 roster from a few years ago, it’s pretty much the same kind of assembly of role players and bad players. With, of course, the substantive exception being a single magnificent stud. But other than that, it’s pretty much the same team with yet another foolish GM giving Lexus-type contracts to Yugo-level talent. That Damon Jones contract, for one, made me sick to my stomach when I first heard about it, and months later, it still makes me sick to my stomach. And that’s even without taking the stuff the doctors have given me to prepare for my colonoscopy tomorrow. Four years, over four million a year, for a clown already dumped by nine different teams in seven years. Who was Ferry bidding against, the manager of United Dairy Farmers?
But getting back to that FIVE point loss…It should be extremely troubling to any fan, let alone the always embarrassingly lapdog-ish Cleveland/Akron/Lorain media, about what happened near the end of the game. I haven’t read word one about it anywhere: James shoots an airball with seven seconds left. The Cavs are down by five. The Nets get the rebound. So how do the Cavs and their coach react? “Gosh, we gave it a go. Game over. Oh, well.” Excuse me? There are SEVEN seconds left. Down by only five. Any team with any serious desire to win would have immediately fouled. Jersey goes to the line. They might miss one. They might miss both. Then hurry down the court and shoot a three. If you make it, then you’re only down by three. Or maybe even two. Still time left on the clock. You foul again. And maybe you again get lucky, they miss at least one, and you hustle and get off another shot that maybe goes in. You’ve then got yourself a victory or overtime. Of course it’s not a strong probability, but at least it’s worth busting your butt and truly making the effort. That’s what professionals do.
But absolutely no effort was made by any of the players or the head coach to truly fight for the win at the end of the game. Why? Because the players and their coach really don’t give a damn. Just another regular season game on the road, and the bi-monthly paycheck ain’t gonna bounce because of it. Nuances are great indicators. This shows just how far this roster can go this year, and with the salary cap all capped out by the former towel-waver, it’s also a great indicator as to how far they’ll be going in the foreseeable future.
Yeah, I know the season is still young. But you can’t turn passive personality players into angry no-holds-barred beasts. They will only go as far as James’ tremendous skills single-handedly take them. But even King James simply waved the white flag, accepted defeat and surrendered. For season-ticket buyers and all the average Joe fans out on the street, it is enlightening to learn 100% of the Cavaliers’ player roster and 100% of the Cavaliers’ coaching staff can’t help but treat business and war like they’re cheese-eating Frenchmen.
December 28th, 2005 at 2:59 pm
Alan, I actually read the whole thing. While I mostly agree, one thing you forgot to mention is that they had just won six games in a row. That is pretty impressive. Also, they had just played the night before. I don’t care who you are it affects you. Once Wild Thing is back he will bring that needed spark to get the Cavs back in the game when they start to lose their focus. Look for them to be running on all cylinders when he returns even when ‘Bron has an off night.
December 28th, 2005 at 7:04 pm
Oh, come off it Alan. There was only a miniscule chance to win that game with 7 seconds to go. The sad truth is that with an 82 game season individual games rarely mean that much. Last year it did, this year it won’t, because we’ll make the playoffs with plenty of room to spare.
December 28th, 2005 at 7:44 pm
Bob, isn’t that a rather silly comment? It “affects you?” In the last seven seconds of a close game, when you have an outside chance to win, it “affects you?” That makes as much sense as saying with seven seconds to go during sex, you should simply give up because the sex you had the night before “affects you.”
They made no effort to try to win the game. And even if these are really lazy and/or really dumb players, was Mike Brown also too tired from the previous game to instruct, “When they get the ball back after LeBron takes his shot, foul them. Am I making myself clear?”
No, this is simply the same wretched brand of team they had pre-James. It doesn’t matter what their record is now. It means nothing. Besides, if memory serves, didn’t they have roughly the same record at this point last year? And, not coincidentally, just like last year, their record continues to be lousy against teams with some talent and a winning record.
Don’t confuse LeBron James with the remainder of the team. During a seven-game series, that’s when the zits really show their pus. The team itself is still bad. The only additional incoming talent is due to James himself. A great talent is becoming even greater. The team, per se, still stinks in a major way. I don’t claim to be Miss Cleo, but if James ever gets hurt and is out for an extended perioed of time, their record will immediately morph into something resembling the Ronnie Duncan Devil Rays.
December 28th, 2005 at 11:29 pm
If James is all that they have then why do they win more when he shoots/scored less?? They are 0-6 when he shoots more than 25 shoots a game. Although I agree they are not fantastic, I think you’re selling them short at least a bit. Marshall is a solid player who reminds me of Horry, much better than Jumaine Jones. Damon isn’t what I wanted him to be, but isn’t doing too bad I’ll give him and ricky davis a tie. Gooden probably loses to Boozer, although the booz of then is not the booz of now. I would take both Larry and/or Snow over Wagner or Palacio, and both Marshal and Gooden over Diop. Tyrone hill was a shell of himself, and Smush Parker just wasn’t ready. Mihm? Brown? Bimbo coles? To compare this team to that team is a diservice.
December 29th, 2005 at 6:55 am
They are better, not great but better. If they could focus for an entire game at a time, they might be dangerous.
December 29th, 2005 at 9:59 am
Aaron, Hughes and Davis offset. It’s sure not Jones and Davis.
With respect to that silly stat regarding James and their record, it’s like so many other stats that a coach and/or their PR people will yank out of their butts to falsely support something to gloss over reality. It’s a business, and bad teams don’t sell tickets or merchandise. That’s why they leak nonsense stats to the media. The reason James has games that he shoots over 25 shots a game is because the other guys happen to be stinking up the gym. So he has to shoot a lot. It’s not because he’s taking quality shots away from others. That 0-6 record means absolutely nothing.
So many stats are misleading, or are simply bogus. They’re just used for the benefit of whoever is spouting them. Northeast Ohio’s Golden Retriever media will never challenge them. For example, what was the official PR Mantra when McInnis came to town? “Terrific assists-to-turnover ratio.” Uhhh…So what.
Hey, here’s some trivia I bet you didn’t know: Do you know who led the *entire* NBA in assists-to-turnover ratio the season that preceded Paxson signing the future Hall-of-Famer Kevin Ollie to a ridiculous multi-year free agent contract? That’s right. It was Kevin Ollie.
Like the expression mistakenly credited to Mark Twain goes, there’s three kinds of lies: Lies, damned lies and statistics.
Third post, but I couldn’t let that silliness go unrebutted. Give me a break, I’m having a colonoscopy in an hour. It’s gonna be Party Central.
December 29th, 2005 at 5:32 pm
ok Alan I’ll bite. NJ loss James with 26 shots. Damon had 4-9 from the 3 line. Marshall 4-7 from the 3 line 14 points. Z 7-11 22 points. Next, Memphis loss Gooden 6-14 16 points 10 boards, Hughes 7-16 21 points, Z 5-11 11 boards and 14 points Jones 5-9 and 12 points. Granted these are only two examples, but neither of those are examples of everyone else “stinking up the gym” eh? Good luck on the colonoscopy, let us know how it “ends up” sorry bad pun.
December 29th, 2005 at 9:04 pm
You proved my point, Aaron…In four out of the six games James took more than 25 shots, the big contract guys were stinking up the gym. In other words, the “0-6″ PR stat they casually leaked to the media for the sole purpose of purportedly showing there’s a lot more to the team than James’ greatness…Well, that stat been exposed as a fraud. Their misleading statistic du jour actually proved absolutely nothing except proving that many statistics can mean whatever you sell them to mean.
With respect to my colonoscopy, I just walked in the door. Both figuratively and literally, as I’m still a bit woozy. That’s why I’m going over the two-drink minimum right now. Or it is the two-post maximum. Well, whatever. Point is, I’m drugged, my intestines are rumbling like the Indonesia earthquake, and I have no idea what I’m doing. Some good and some bad, but I promise I will heed your request and you’ll receive my full colonoscopy report when my gorgeous polyps get back from the lab. You can pretend you’re reading J.R. Bremer’s scouting report.
December 30th, 2005 at 12:28 pm
Alan Tucker writes better than Terry Pluto. I’m so happy to read witty, clever sports takes without having to go to an out-of-town source or Pete Kotz to do so.
Understand.
Pluto is boring and I don’t know when he became a jesus freak but i feel like it happened sometime between the Browns moving to Baltimore and the Pedro shutting down the Indians in the ALDS Game Five fiasco.
Quick. Can I get a Ronnie Duncan reference.
I wonder if LeBron is legally getting tanked as I write this?
December 30th, 2005 at 12:34 pm
Cavs beat reporter rankings:
1. Brian Windhorst
2. Burt Graeff
3. Alan Tucker
3b. Bob August
4.Bob Finnan
5.Blank
6.Branson Wrong
December 31st, 2005 at 4:18 am
Okay, I know that we all want the Cavs to win 60+ games this year, but I wonder at all the rancor about a team that is seven games over .500 and projects to 50 wins.
The season is young, and a cast of new players is here learning to play with one another. You would expect (especially on defense) for them to play worse at the start of the season. Wouldn’t you?
The team had an 16-11 record last year through 27 games, but they had played (at that time) — statistically, and by a wide margin — the easiest schedule in the NBA. This year (as measured by SOS on ESPN.com), they have played an average schedule.
So a new collection of talent has played a game better against a significantly tougher schedule.
BTW, wasn’t Damon Jones brought in to shoot and make 3’s? Hasn’t he? Do you all remember how poorly this team shot the three last year?