Wrapping the preseason (finally)
Posted October 28th, 2006 by Brian Windhorst
I’m shaking off the malaise that has been the preseason. Frankly there has been little to write about and not much but mental note-taking during this training camp. I can sense the team hasn’t been too interested in things over the last 10 days or so. They are quite bored with practice, which is one of the reasons Mike Brown gave them this whole weekend off. Here’s some stuff I’ve noticed:
–Shannon Brown and Daniel Gibson aren’t going to play right now. Both were OK in the preseason, they had some moments. But they were also on the floor and partially responsible for the blowing of three leads and losses.
–David Wesley and Damon Jones didn’t do much for me. Neither shot more than 32 percent and both seemed to play an awful lot of empty minutes. One of the assistant coaches told me they were working specifically on the new motion sets in the offense and not so much the pick-and-rolls, which didn’t give Wesley and Jones too many spot-up jumper tries. That is true, but doesn’t change my opinion much. If/when Larry Hughes goes down again, there is going to be an issue.
–Drew Gooden was great in the preseason, especially at the offensive end. Larry Hughes also looked healthy and was very productive. Donyell Marshall looks like he’s turned the clock back three years or so, playing well under the basket. Zydrunas Ilgauskas, LeBron James, Anderson Varejao, and Eric Snow all did what they do. I’m confident those seven players give the Cavs a rock solid front line.
–I know Snow is everyone’s favorite target, I’ve read enough message boards to know how many fans feel about him. But listen, he’s the best the Cavs have at the point. He’s going to do what he’s going to do. I asked him about his perception yesterday and he had a testy reaction, which I relate in this story. I know that this perception bothers him somewhat. I agree that he is under appreciated. But I also agree that when he’s on the floor it makes the Cavs easier to guard and that’s just the way it is.
–I’m going to "unveil" my season prediction for the Cavs later this week. But tomorrow the Beacon Journal will have its Cavs season preview, in which I rank the NBA teams 1-30 (a little preview: Dallas is No. 1, Portland in No. 30 and Miami is No. 5).
October 28th, 2006 at 2:32 pm
bri,
i love ya, man but snow does not have a “perception” problem. his problem is STAT and FACT based. people’s perception of him is based on his play. this isn’t like Z where people have a problem with his style or things like that. cuz Z is thought of as a pretty good center around the league.
and snow’s D is good but is it good enough to offset the other problems? i don’t see how any reasonable person could say “yes” to that question.
and your comments on brown and gibson are very true but slightly unfair in so much as, yes, they were on the floor during those blown leads but so were the end of the cavs bench. and if brown plays he will be surrounded by starters and first-off-the-bench players. so, imho, that means they still might contribute in THAT situation. though, i realize that won’t happen ’til probably january. i have no illusions about coach brown playing rookies any sooner than that!
October 29th, 2006 at 3:55 am
It’s too easy to criticize Snow’s offense these days as he’s widely and correctly regarded as the worst shooting starting guard in the league.
I do have to question the leadership of a guy who seems to toot his own horn to the press so much, then repeatedly makes dunderhead passes at the end of playoff games.
And the 76ers were in the finals how long ago?
October 29th, 2006 at 8:22 am
I’d just want to officially make myself known as someone who loves Eric Snow. The guy plays D and can help lead a team. He takes charges. He feeds the ball to Z. He can setup the offense (which is a lot on this team sometimes). He does little things that others dont do/ know how to do. He helps us win games–plain and simle. I’ll never forget the Eric Snow game against the Wizards in the playoffs, as I dubbed it. We would have lost without him (even though he almost blew it by throwing the ball down court. I still defend it as a savvy move though.) I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Give me 10 Eric Snows and 1 LeBron James and I’ll win a championship.
October 29th, 2006 at 8:48 am
i’m with larry on this one, chris. snow makes turnovers a man of his nba experience should not make.
and i kinda resent the implication from snow and his defenders that if one criticizes snow, one doesn’t REALLY know the game and all the nuances that snow is a master at. oh, and shouldn’t a clutch, veteran leader be a good FT shooter? his FT% went down all most 10 points last year compared to ‘03/’04!
look, we have what we have and clearly the cavs CAN win with snow but quite honestly we could win with any number of other point guards as well. there is no need to trumpet snow as being something he isn’t. he’s a capable defender but a serious offensive liability.
October 30th, 2006 at 7:04 am
Only realy knock I have against Snow is how is fre throw percentage dipped last season after a very nice upward trend during his career. He takes care of the ball for the vast majority of the time he has it. We already don’t have enough shots to go around with a talented offensive player like Drew not getting as many shots as he should during most games. I don’t really see why or how we can put another player in the starting line-up who would deserve to get 10+ shots a game.
October 30th, 2006 at 2:00 pm
Well, the issue is that when Snow is in the starting lineup the other side gets to double-team someone for free, since they don’t have to guard Eric. The point is not that our PG should take 10 shots per game, but that the PG should be able to hit a totally open jumper if the other team leaves him unguarded.
With that said…Snow did come through offensively in a couple of key playoff games last year. That showed a lot.
October 30th, 2006 at 8:19 pm
There is much to criticize about Eric Snow, and there’s little with which to be infatuated.
That said, I don’t really agree that his turnovers are a concern. As a Cav, he’s averaged something like 1.3 turnovers a game, which is hardly excessive, especially for a point guard. While he hasn’t been a big assist guy, his assist-to-turnover ratio has been in the top 10 or so in the league each year with the Cavs. These two categories may be his only strengths.
I do agree that it’s silly of him to suggest that those people who are critical of his play are uninformed. I suppose that’s the athlete’s ego for you, and more power to him if it helps him play better. Still, I can’t imagine many scouts or statheads in the NBA who would rate him as even an average player. It isn’t just the posters who see gaping flaws in his game.
October 31st, 2006 at 8:04 am
hey kevin,
what you say is true but i think larry d. and i were refering to his TO’s in the playoffs, specifically. for some reason i can’t find his TO stats in the playoffs but anecdotally i recall more than a few really bad TO’s by snow. and his FT% against det. was horrific. he shot under 55%, for the love of god!
he just doesn’t seem that good in the clutch and seems to get flustered and rattled far too easily for a veteran point guard.
but having said all this, he’s gonna start and all we can hope is that he is better at the FT line this year and that by mid-season, either wesley or brown take away minutes from him. i, of course, would prefer it to be brown…
October 31st, 2006 at 11:57 am
For future use, http://www.basketball-reference.com has game logs going back a couple years for the regular season and the playoffs. Eric did come up big in a few of the playoff games at least as far as points were concerned.
October 31st, 2006 at 2:52 pm
Bookmark all these Windhourst blog entries, and then read them again in the next offseason. Odds are they’ll be the same comments, just a different date.
It’s really kind of sorry that Ferry has left this squad in such a position that the sole upside is a nutty fantasy that Gilbert and Brown will be knights in shining armor. Frankly, when you think about it, given Damon Jones’ lack of talent and Hughes’ annual propensity for running with scissors, maybe resigning Ron Murray wouldn’t have been such a bad idea.
James or bust. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think Ferry could have used some fine-tuning in his efforts to mimic the Spurs model. I’d blame the hair for getting in his eyes, but I don’t think that explanation would fly.
By the way, whatever happened to Ilgauskas’ purportedly painful knee? Or do daily practices and 82-game seasons and 7-game playoff series’ actually ease the pain?
Oh, well.
October 31st, 2006 at 2:55 pm
I just read my post…Did I write Gilbert and Brown instead of Gibson and Brown? Wow. Talk about a Freudian slip.
October 31st, 2006 at 2:59 pm
Sorry, Brian, I misspelled your last name. No offense. If you legally changed your name to “Smith” or “Larry the Cable Guy,” neither I nor other folks would have this problem.
October 31st, 2006 at 6:06 pm
hey, tucker, you “just read your post,” eh? well, that makes one person whose read your post! congrats. i suggest to save time in the future, you just go to blogspot, create your own blog, and then comment on what you write there. it’ll be more satisfying for you, as reading your own writing is CLEARLY all you want to do and that will leave us grown-ups here to continue to discuss and debate the cavs intelligently, ok?
thanks.
November 1st, 2006 at 1:53 am
Tucker, take Lebron out of the Cavs lineup and they are a mediocre team. Take Duncan out of the Spurs lineup, same thing. Take every star player off every team and you have a bunch of mediocre teams.
Ferry has been on job for little more than a year. We all have suffered through some terrible Cavs teams for the past 35 years. Give Ferry a chance.