Weary, dreary road for Cavs
Posted January 16th, 2006 by bwindhorst
Portland — I don’t have a lot of time, but I felt I needed to express some thoughts following the Cavs fourth straight loss last night.
As I’ve been saying since the Cavs lost Larry Hughes seven games ago, there are in for a market correction. In other words, without Hughes they were an overvalued team at 20-11. With Drew Gooden now gone for a few games, I’d be a little surprised if he tried to play in Denver on Wednesday, the team is even further devalued. The losses are going to keep coming.
What will mark this Cavs spell is how the roster parts step up. Zydrunas Ilgauskas and LeBron James have raised the level of their games since Hughes went down. But with those two around, the Cavs missed the playoffs the last two seasons. They need help, they’re begging for it. All teams have injuries, it cannot be an excuse to losing to last-place teams.
Donyell Marshall has been in a form a slump for a month and we’ve all seen how Damon Jones has been shooting. Those two must contribute more effective immediately if the Cavs are going to have a chance to weather this storm. Also, no matter if it is Luke Jackson or Anderson Varejao or Sasha Pavlovic, someone is going to have to give consistnet minutes off the bench. They’re capable, it has been seen in flashes, they’ve got to do it.
Mike Brown also has to step up. The Cavs defense has been good enough to keep them in these games for the most part. Their offense has been mostly a failure. They forget about Z when they need him most, James too often settles for jumpers, and he’s hasn’t shown that he can draw up and get his players to execute a play when they really need it.
This is a defining time, even if there are continued losses. The Cavs have to better themselves so when they come through it they are a better team. Right now, it seems it could go either way.
If you get a chance read my Sunday column grading Mike Brown.
January 16th, 2006 at 4:27 pm
If Wally Szczerbiak got hurt, or however he spells his name, would it then cause the Timberwolves to lose multiple games? If Lamar Odom got hurt, would it then cause the Lakers to lose multiple games? Ummm…probably not. Blaming Mike Brown is entirely misplaced. Coaches coach, players play. He wasn’t the one that signed a roster of marginal bench players to multi-year cap-busting contracts. The guy’s not a miracle worker. If Larry Brown was coaching this crew, he’d have already put a bullet in his bladder.
So let’s talk about the guy who’s really responsible: Why, as usual, is the media again giving Danny Ferry the three billionth free pass of his long and illustrious Cavaliers career? There is James, and then there is everybody else, most of whom have little trade value. I really don’t think it’s premature to judge the level of talent the team actually received by way of free agency…And speaking of egregious free media passes received during a career, why is it simply accepted that a 7′3″ guy is “hauling in” four to five rebounds a night? I mean, let’s be honest here: That is sorry. Not only that, those offensive rebounds he gets are typically not from other players’ shots. Rather, they’re from his very own missed shots. So Ilgauskas had better score at least 25 points a game, because between the poor rebounding and the poor defense, that’s what he gives up on a fairly consistent basis. They could and should move him while he still has value and could get some value in return, but you know Ferry won’t.
And on another subject related to the Cavaliers’ “braintrust,” why is that foreign kid with the really, really long name collecting dust on his butt while staring at the back of Mike Brown’s shiny melon? Seriously. I was under the impression the NBA Developmental League was created for the purpose of developing NBA players.
January 16th, 2006 at 10:46 pm
Your blame is very misplaced. Let’s think about the offseason for a second. Players weren’t exactly lining up to sign with the Cavs. Donyell Marshall’s contract isn’t bad and Damon Jones’ could be 2 years shorter but Ferry did what he had to do.
The team needed three point shooters and they signed two of the best ones from last season. Who knew that they would be in these long slumps? No one can predict that.
As for Ilgauskas, he is still the 2nd best center in the East behind Shaq (Ben Wallace is more of a PF, as is Jermaine O’Neal) and is a great shooter. Talent like that is hard to find. Other ‘centers’ earning his salary like Samuel Delmbert and Tyson Chandler are not putting up the numbers Ilgauskas is. Is his contract too long? Yes, I think that it is too long by 2 years but thats what we had to do to keep him.
Mike Brown can’t get off scot-free. He has to critice LeBron for taking jump shots and holding the ball for 14 sec when he could drive it (at the same time there are times when no one wants to move and would rather watch LeBron but that is the coach’s job too). Sometimes he doesn’t seem to motivate his players and in close games against the Laker and Blazers there were no good offensive plays drawn up for the last play. One was a LeBron drive and shoot and the other a drive and kick. Not exactly the most sophisticated plays. LeBron maybe is not ready for MJ and Kobe like game winning jumpers and needs a play.
I agree with sending Marty to the D-League. Even if he gets injured or has a hard time it would still be playing time.
January 17th, 2006 at 10:23 am
There was no time limit for Ferry to make moves. The free agent signings had a strong stench of desperation, as if management had only one goal, and that was trying to prove to James they were trying to do SOMETHING to appease him. And now the cap space is all gone. For many years.
Why not wait until good trades could be made during the regular season? Or other free agents could be acquired at a relative short-term bargain for one year, thereby still leaving plenty of additional cap space for later? Wouldn’t that have been the prudent thing to do? A few extra months wouldn’t have caused James to demand a trade, would it? Wouldn’t talent like Artest and Sprewell look pretty good right now, as well as other available talented players, as opposed to power forwards (a contradiction in terms if there ever was) firing up shots from the concession stands and career bench-warmers mugging for his audience like Jim Carrey in “The Mask?”
I STRONGLY disagree that Ilgauskas is the “second-best center” in the East. Compared to what? Ilgauskas has to play on a court with nine other players. Nobody plays in a vacuum. Most problematic is the fact that Ilgauskas and James are as compatible together as the tortoise and the hare. Unless Ilgauskas is planning on having an additional operation to get bionic rockets implanted in his tootsies, that is not going to change. Is it?
And please, would somebody out there kindly provide me a rational explanation as to why Ferry is not using the Developmental League? It’s bad enough he frivolously threw many millions and years of salary cap space against the wall just to see if some of it might stick and persuade LeBron Franchise to calm down. That’s a budget blunder that can never be reversed. But jeez, how much business sense, let alone common sense, does it take to realize guys require competitive time playing on a basketball court? Somebody really needs to advise Danny that his old towel-waving routine is now as dated as Vanilla Ice. Gee, how 1990’s. NBA franchises can now send their bench-warmers, as well as their healthy inactive guys on the roster, to the Developmental League for some quality playing time. Granted, it’s not competition against any NBA-level players, but it sure beats the carpal tunnel syndrome from twirling a towel over your head like an idiot.
January 17th, 2006 at 12:59 pm
Wow, I actually agree with an Alan Tucker comment. The DL is underused throughout the league in my opinion. I can’t believe that Sasha, for example, benefits more from sitting on the bench than he would playing quality minutes in the DL.
Why is Darko not in the DL??? I keep hearing about how he has skills and just needs some PT, but Detroit is so loaded he can’t get any. Wouldn’t it make sense for Detroit to send him down and bring in some veteran scrub to occupy his spot on the end of the bench?
January 18th, 2006 at 1:04 pm
ok, let’s get a couple things straight: first, teams are not sold on sending players to the d-league because they don’t have their own people down there. did you guys know that 3 or 4 nba teams share ONE d-league team? it’s not like minor league baseball where you have your own teams with people you hire and then you can impliment your philosphy from the get-go. many teams prefer to keep these players around the team and their coaches and trainers and monitor their progress that way. it is not so crazy an idea when you actually look at it (rather than scream and yell using the same amount of brainpower and analysis as the average sports call-in show regular, which mr. tucker reveals himself to be with each post)…
secondly, the goal this year was to surrond LBJ with veteran shooters to MAKE SURE the cavs made the playoffs. teams, and GM’s, like veterans because they have a track record! and both marshall and jones have PROVEN track records. that’s it. end of story. they are proven shooters who have been struggling the last 15 games. NOT the whole season, as mr. tucker and others have intimated. espn had marshall as second in the “sixth man of the year” award at the quarter point of the season! talk to me at the end of the season about marshall and jones…
oh, and coaches do more than “coach.” they have to have a reliable, consistent rotation, it is the singularly BIGGEST thing a new coach must learn how to do and brown has struggled with that, to be kind. he has to use andy and luke more,as they both have the athletic skill to be good defenders and both are energy guys, which you need so much in the “dog days” of late jan. and feb.
January 18th, 2006 at 4:46 pm
KJ…huh?
Anyway, Brian, how ’bout some first-class reporting that doesn’t involve the players’ first-class chow they get to munch while they’re on the road…Starting with this: Not only is the budget completely blown away with bench players that can’t play, but doesn’t Cavaliers management have any business sense AT ALL? Classic example:
In my opinion, they should never have signed Ilgauskas without a sign-and-trade in the first place. Extraordinarily foolish. But be that as it may, what in the world were they doing binding themselves to HUGE dollars WITHOUT EVEN REQUIRING ILGAUSKAS TO PASS A PHYSICAL??? *Obviously*, this knee problem was a preexisting condition prior to the new contract being signed. Gosh, don’t you think before a business, whether it’s in sports, it’s in entertainment or it’s in aluminum siding, commits one penny of multi-multi-millions, there would be due diligence before binding the business to a contract? This is Business 101. In EVERY business.
What is it with Cleveland sports franchises??? Year after year after year. Decade after decade after decade. Every single sport. The owners and their hired underlings. Egregious gross incompetence. It’s outrageous. Right now, other than Mark Shapiro, who’s forced to operate with little more than a budget of peanuts and Cracker Jacks at his disposal, it’s pure mental retardation.
January 18th, 2006 at 5:49 pm
tucker, did i stutter?? or to quote a former coach, “am i speaking chinese here???”
i told you what-is-what in regards to the D-league, as you were moanin’ about it in your daily “column.” then, i straightened you out about marshall and jones and finally, i slapped you around some more with the explanation on where coach brown has struggled this season.
and since you CLEARLY don’t know anything, let me tell you that LBJ personally asked that the cavs bring back Z.
your silly rant about cleveland sports teams shows you are not really interested in actually talking with other KNOWLEDGEABLE fans about the cavs and the nba.
i have tried to raise the level of basketball discourse here but it keeps getting b(l)ogged down with these types of unintelligent rants by tucker and his ilk…somebody help a brother out here??
anyway, the D-league argument is moot as marty is headed there next week…
February 3rd, 2006 at 10:56 am
Bravo KJ!! Finally some intelligent thoughts on the state of the Cavs.
Personally, we should consider the injury to Larry Hughes as a good thing for 2 reasons. First, it happened early in the season and second, it gives Brown the chance to develop his bench… which, after the woefully awful roadtrip out West proved, had to be addressed fast.
As for Jones and Marshall, I’m not concerned as much with their shooting slump than with their thought that all they have to do to break out of the slump is to keep shooting 3’s. Usually, the best way to break out of a slump is to keep shooting the rock, but that also means starting with shorter range jumpers. I like that Marshall tries the upfake and then drives to the basket. Even Jones tries an occasional 12 footer every now and then. However, both would be served just by moving closer in to take those jump shots rather than looking to bomb from 3-point range all day. Every championship team I can remember had good outside shooters, but more importantly, they were dependable shooters who could take the pressure off the big men. That pressure can be removed by 15-18 footers just as effectively as 3-point field goals. They may not be as flashy, but they will be effective.
Let’s hope that coach Brown drills this point home to our 2 newly signed shooting specialists.