coach brown needs to use younger guards . eric snow is old and slow .

sorry, i remain committed to the believe that no damn good can come from booing your *home* team and i have yet to hear argument why i should think otherwise…

Here’s what I noticed in the loss to the Hawks.

1. The Cavs defense against motion offenses is great. They’re staying low, they’re plugging passing lanes, and they’re rotating with aplumb. That being said, they are still having a real problem dealing with dribble penetration, and even mediocre guards with exceptional speed are able to cause all sorts of havoc. I expect we’ll see more problems tonight with Hinrich and Gordon trying to get into the lane. The problem is, you can’t really solve pick-and-roll penetration by NBA-level guards with standard defense. The only solution is to have an intimidating shot-blocker in the back line to change shots and force kick-outs. My first suggestion would be to let Z go after more blocked shots, and make the forwards focus on rebounding and defending against cutters, but Z might not be agile enough anymore to alter enough shots. While the point defense is slow, Team USA couldn’t defend against Greek “speedsters” in the world championships, so Snow, Jones, and Wesley don’t deserve too much blame. Now, the fact that they each have one basket this year might be a bit of a problem.

2. The Cavaliers offense, on the other hand, has been awful. They have had problems scoring against two of the worst defenses in the league in Charlotte and Atlanta, and they only managed 95 points *in Overtime* on Tuesday. And that’s with LeBron playing almost 48 minutes and scoring over 30. So far the motion offense has not taken advantage of the talent of the players. Why, exactly, would you change Z’s shooting positions? Why would you have an offense the limits dribble penetration when you have LeBron and Larry Hughes? So far, the offensive scheme itself has a long way to go, and then there will be a long transition time where the team is learning it. I don’t think you can give Mike Brown a long time on this either; if things don’t improve soon you’re going to need to make the decision to bring in a coach to work just on the offense. Even Bill Belichick eventually learned that he needed a Charlie Weis to manage the offense if they were going to get to the next level. Phil Jackson didn’t invent the triangle offense, he had Tex Winter to establish the offense while Jackson embraced and imparted the philosophy behind it. A little humility from the head coach could goes a long way, and hopefully it Mike Brown can admit some of his shortcomings and get some help.

3. LeBron looks wrong. Not sure why, but he looks tired at times, disinterested at others. I know it’s still early, but it’s worrisome.

4. The Cavs need to fix Z. You need an interior presence to make games against teams like Charlotte and Atlanta much easier. The Cavs need to run drills in practice to help him avoid turning the ball over down low to small guards. They need to commit to getting him opportunities on the court, without worrying that he might not get off the bench in the second half. I know that a lot of people aren’t Z fans, but he’s like the shy kid in the sports movie. The quarterback needs to pick him up, the team needs to rally behind him, because they’re going to need him to win.

5. Finally, the booing. The loss to the Hawks was a very frustrating experience. Frustrating for the fans, and frustrating for the players. That being said, the Cavaliers lost because they failed to execute a fundamental element of the game. Just like an infielder booting the ground ball that would win the game, missing free throws happens, but it’s never acceptable. And the Cavaliers proceeded to boot 10 ground balls in the fourth quarter and overtime alone. Fans got frustrated, and they booed and they groaned (I heard more groans than boos). LeBron got frustrated, and he walked off the court early, then took a shot at the fans when he was taking questions after the game (”We’re just playing for ourselves now. The players, the coaches, us.”). It was immature of Lebron to make that kind of statement, especially when the Cavaliers, to a man, had no one to blame but themselves for the loss. Neither the booing or the statement was good form, and I hope that both parties regret what happened. We can hug it out.

Well, that’s my haypenny, probably a little too late to really get into the discussion. But at least it was cathartic.

Go Cavs.

Mike

Blog.CavsHQ.com

When Randy Moss quit on his team, it was national hysteria. Why does LeBron get a free pass.

I am a Cavs fan and a huge LeBron fan, but he can’t start doing this.

I guess I’m not being clear because I agree very much. Both Brown and Gibson get very good reports but the fact that they haven’t earned any minutes away from Wesley, Damon Jones and Eric Snow is worrisome.

Hopefully it’s a decision based solely on the two youngsters’ development. But both come from big time college programs and if they’re not better, right now, than the guys the Cavs are playing, I have to wonder how high their ceiling can be.