Breakdown of China game 2
Posted October 20th, 2007 by bwindhorst
The Cavs got beat again early this morning by the Magic, 100-84, in Macao, China. Or is it Macau? Whatever, the casino town on the South China Sea and are now on their way back home. Here are some thoughts on the game.
–Again, don’t pay attention to the final score, the Magic padded it with a huge fourth quarter. The Cavs starters played OK. LeBron didn’t shoot much but he passed well and, most interestingly, Mike Brown ran a bunch of post up plays for him and he worked down there well. He may very well have the best season of his career if he keeps this up. Brown is keeping his minutes way down in the preseason, which is good common sense.
–Zydrunas Ilgauskas also played well, he had 12 points and 11 rebounds in just 25 or so minutes. He has also looked like he’s in midseason form already. Z spent two months in Europe over the summer and not working on his game much. But with him and his feet, it seems any sort of rest, even if it is a couple days here and there, really does him well. He looks rested and ready.
–Larry Hughes did some good things and was aggressive in getting to the basket. But he was 4-of-12 and missed a bunch of jumpers after he made a couple early. Despite his hard work, if he keeps trying to live on those jumpers it will simply not help.
–The Cavs offense has been so mixed this preseason. Sometimes they have great ball movement and their so-called “drive-and-kick” game looks OK. But it seems like a lot of times they are forcing it because Brown is really pushing them to do it. As a result, they end up getting into bad spots on the floor and turning the ball over in bunches. In addition, LeBron continues to stop the ball on the outside and dribble and everything stops. This is a serious concern for the team, they are less talented offensively right now and if LeBron bucks the system and stops the ball they are again going to have trouble scoring in the halfcourt. This goes above and beyond personnel changes, but it goes to how much confidence LeBron has in his teammates and the system. We’ll see how it develops.
–Shannon Brown again looked athletic and played hard. He’s going to get minutes and I respect how hard he’s working. I just can’t quite figure out how he fits in with his skillset yet.
–The Cavs’ second team is a total mess offensively. I feel they are going to have to make a move to add some scoring there if Sasha Pavlovic and Anderson Varejao stay unsigned. They have open roster spots. In addition, Devin Brown did not play on Saturday for reasons I am still trying to determine as the Cavs take their 15-hour flight home. Daniel Gibson, who had hurt his hamstring, did play.
October 20th, 2007 at 1:14 pm
[...] Original post by Brian Windhorst on the Cleveland Cavaliers [...]
October 20th, 2007 at 1:27 pm
[...] Original post by Brian Windhorst on the Cleveland Cavaliers [...]
October 20th, 2007 at 6:32 pm
Brian - I had some similar thoughts about Shannon Brown that I threw out in my blog, LeCavs.com, last night. His so-so handle and subpar shooting make him seem like a poor man’s Larry Hughes, and that’s not what the Cavs need on either end.
If Lebron buys into being more uptempo, I think it’ll lead to less dribbling, but I don’t blame him for the lack of confidence in the backcourt.
October 20th, 2007 at 7:07 pm
Too bad the Beacon Journal was too cheap to send you on the trip. Folks were entitled to a Windhorst restaurant review comparing real Chinese food to the stuff they serve over here.
October 21st, 2007 at 1:48 am
[...] bwindhorst created an interesting post today on Breakdown of China game 2.Here’s a short outline:Z spent two months in Europe over the summer and not working on his game much. But with him and his feet, it seems any sort of rest, even if it is a couple days here and there, really does him well. He looks rested and ready. … [...]
October 21st, 2007 at 12:07 pm
Brian, I have the feeling that LeBron simply does not want to give up dribbling the ball at the top of the key on most plays. Didn’t he play that same way when he was in high school in Akron?
The plays created off of it simply do not work in big games with teams of top talent. LeBron is basketball smart. I would think that he would understand this. Am I wrong?
October 22nd, 2007 at 1:35 pm
Uh does anybody really understand what they miss with
Sasha. An athletic shooting guard who can shoot from
outside better than anybody they have and drain treys.
He is simply to good not to sign and Lefreethrow better
be taking 1000 a day because he is going to get hacked
constantly. Boat shoes and Gilbert better pass on the
cheap act and get those two freaks signed now!!!!!!!!!!
Boy lets spend a ton of money on maroon seats and fancy
offices and let our young talent get away. What a frickin
moron. Heres a Jmoeism: focus on whats important Danny
like the team.
October 22nd, 2007 at 2:56 pm
You’re living in the past, Jmoe.
It was last year that Pavs and Sideshow were proof that Ferry was developing a young, promising roster.
This year, they’re just a couple bums who can be replaced off the waiver wire.
October 23rd, 2007 at 12:35 pm
When are they going to fix this website? When I click the sports tab, and then your name, I get a screen with nothing more than your name on it. With the other writers, I get a full screen of recent stories.
Just wondering?
October 23rd, 2007 at 2:56 pm
Have you paid your BeaconInsider bill this month? I forgot once and couldn’t get my Windhorst fix for a couple days.
October 23rd, 2007 at 11:03 pm
I know the feeling, larry. I forgot to pay my PDInsider bill, and now I can’t observe Pluto praying for Paul Byrd.
October 24th, 2007 at 2:51 pm
The Terry Pluto angst continues unabated!
Get over it. He’s religious. Obviously it’s not “cool” anymore to pray or have any sense of spirituality. WE GET IT.
New content, AT, new content.
As for Pavs. He’s way too turnover prone for big moments/big games as he showed many times last year. The most shining example was the Charlotte game in late March.
Let the Cavs take some on the chin for the first half of the season. The key is to get improvement out of Gooden, Gibson, and Shannon Brown. Midseason, hopefully they can land a vet PG like Sam Cassel that wants out of his losing situation.
As long as we don’t take an entitlement approach to this season we will be fine. Don’t EXPECT the Cavs to go anywhere unless they earn it again. They’re a tough bunch and somehow the target on their back is now TINY! I have no idea how this happened, but I think the embarrassing amount of disrespect the Cavs get from the rest of the league and the media is going to only help their cause.
October 24th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
Tom, there is nothing wrong with being religious. But I took a peek at Pluto’s (”sports”) column about Byrd, and he actually wrote that Byrd should pray. Really. Now, if Pluto wrote that “Byrd should prey on hitters,” that would have been pretty cool. But that’s not what he wrote. I think most people would agree that when a sportswriter starts mixing things like God, Jesus and human growth hormone in the very same sports column, then that sportswriter has completely lost his mind.
Now see what you did, Tom? You turned on my Pluto switch. It’s like a Viagra boner, it’s so damned hard to turn off.
By the way, Tom, how are they going to afford somebody like Sam Cassell at any point during this season? I’d be interested to know. I suppose a player with Cassell’s skills would help, but Ferry couldn’t even afford Luis Scola.
October 25th, 2007 at 2:44 pm
There isn’t anything wrong with religion in the paper, but I would think a religion writer would have some sort of special insight or expertise into such an important topic. Feeling sorry for some embarrassing past sins doesn’t really qualify.
And when you report on sports from a religious perspective, it’s pretty odd and boring. What if a movie reviewer wrote about films from a religious perspective? How long would that fly?
Pluto’s all thumbs and I’m sometimes embarrassed for him.
October 25th, 2007 at 4:16 pm
Pluto’s the best sports writer around Cleveland, (no disrepect to BW) and he knows it. He can write about whatever he wants to and he’ll still have a job in this town. At this point in his career, he happens to enjoy writing about his religion, so that’s what he does. He probably knows that it will turn a lot of readers away, but writes about religion anyhow because it is obviously important to him.
So, he’s using his talents to promote what he personally believes is important, to a large audience. I don’t find anything embarassing about that, but on the other hand, I actually do read movie reviews from a religious perspective.
October 25th, 2007 at 11:40 pm
Pluto is writing strictly on reputation. The man peaked about 12 years ago, shortly before he went all Popemobile on us. Reading Pluto today is the sportswriting equivalent of trying to watch Pat Ewing play basketball today. It ain’t pretty. Really, who in their right mind writes a column in the sports section and tells the subject of his column to pray. I repeat, in the sports section. As larry said, I too am sometimes embarrassed for him.
But enough of this Pluto nonsense … let’s talk about something serious. Like why is Miami making moves, and Ferry continues to contemplate his navel.
October 26th, 2007 at 9:57 am
Hah….you wanted the Cavs to make a deal for Ricky Davis? No thank you. We need to accept that in order to make this team better, it has to get worse now. Any moves we make are just jeopardizing the cap room we’re going to have in 2 years. That’s why Ferry can’t give Varejao $60 million. Forget that….Let Varejao go and give $60 million to a real player next year or the year after (I still think Agent Zero would look awesome in a Cavs uniform).
October 26th, 2007 at 2:39 pm
How long is Ricky Davis’ current contract? Maybe it expires two years down the road, like Z’s and some others, I think. He has probably matured some.
If so, I’d take him over Hughes, hands down. The most disturbing thing about Hughes is no longer his injury history. It’s his playing.
The Cavs could also use a big man. Any big man. Even Pollard.
It looks like they should also bring in one of those motivational speakers, and maybe a mourning counselor.
What a mess!
October 26th, 2007 at 6:20 pm
the cavs will suck this year
October 26th, 2007 at 6:26 pm
Actually, larry, Davis is in his contract year. Which means he’s going to play like a demon. But I wasn’t talking about Miami or Davis, per se, nor the fact that Miami has now set itself up to be $21 million under the cap next summer.
October 26th, 2007 at 10:18 pm
How many rebounds of his own shot at the wrong basket are needed to constitute “playing like a demon”? Seriously, have you guys forgotten what it was like with Ricky Davis on the team? They invented the term “clubhouse cancer” specifically for Ricky Davis. Again, no thanks. I would want no part of him on this team, not even for one lousy season. Why let him corrupt the psyche of the team?
October 26th, 2007 at 11:38 pm
Pal, I wasn’t talking about Davis being on the Cavs. I’m talking about everybody else trying to become better, and Ferry is in his basement doing yoga and having tantric sex, or something. Or whatever he’s doing that takes an awfully long time and takes all of his attention off of his job.
With that said, Davis is going to be a damn good player and a damn good guy to have in Miami, because he’ll be playing for a new contract with whoever next year. The same way that Hughes used his contract year to fool the bejesus out of that bumpkin Ferry. If Davis is a cancer, then Davis is a cancer in total remission.
Mark Blount is a good guy to have, too. Basically an Ilgauskas-type player. Soft, doesn’t like the paint, but has a nice 15-foot offensive game.
Ferry tried to lowball Luis Scola’s agent, but maybe he’s learned his lesson and can trade for somebody like Juwan Howard, or somebody else’s excess. McHale has about 30 spare parts he has to unload, I presume at least one of them could possibly contribute more than Ira Newble. A move like that would get Varejao signed.
October 27th, 2007 at 6:57 am
Has anyone been watching these preseason games? Is anyone worried yet? Frankly, last nights performance was appalling. Same desultory offense, only this year, instead of scrapping and clawing on defense, they stand around and watch. Check out the early schedule; we could be staring at a 1-7 start to the season. So what’s the deal? Is it simply due to Sasha and AV not being in the country? Really? But I thought Shannon Brown was supposed to step up and be a solid rotation guy. That’s what I keep reading on this blog from all the eminent Ferry apologists. Well, he played five minutes last night. Brown doesnt seem to trust him. I guess we have to get ready for more of the Ira Newble Experience. Have the players started to tune the Potato Head out? How many new offenses are you allowed to implement before the team starts to question if you know what the hell youre doing? Apparently this year’s concept was picked up from a coach in Outer Siberia or some such place. It makes great use of that revolutionary idea called “driving and kicking”. Wow. You mean the same offense that you see in pick up games all across the country? How are NBA defenses going to be able to defend that? But let’s get to the real culprit. Boatshoes’ performance this summer has to rank up there all time next to the Billy Kings and Kevin McHales of the GM world. First, he shaves his head and then neglects to renew his prescription-strength Clearisil. Then he decides to play hardball with AV and Sasha. Fine. But time elapses. No one is signed. No contingency plan is implemented. Training camp rolls around and his solution is to fly down to Brazil, begging Sideshow to please come to his senses. Yeah, very professional. He scrambles to pickup BlueHeron Simmons and Devin Brown off the scrap heap. Now I hear that the inactivity this summer is related to a plan to achieve “getter salary cap flexibility”. Oh, you mean those shackling, ridiculous contracts that he himself signed the likes of Bongyell, Hughes, and Z to? Those salary restraints? Oh I see. So the plan is to suck it up and struggle this year. Then next year go after Gilbert Arenas. Brilliant. Tank the season after you get to the Finals. That’s some strategy. The fans are going to love it. Lebron is going to just love it. What a disaster. At least it was warm well into autumn, thus allowing Ferry to stay sockless and boatshoed while outside longer than usual.
October 27th, 2007 at 6:26 pm
I’m far more disgusted by the fact that Ferry cut Hassan Adams. I’ve always wanted to root for a guy named “Hassan.”