Bulls 107, Cavs 96
–This game went south in a hurry for the Cavs and it was plain as day to see why. They played like a bad team plays in the second half, settling for chucking up jumpers on the offensive end and only playing half-hearted defense the other way. It was much like the way they won in New York last night, which is not their style of play. And the Pacers, who they play next, will want to run with them, too. This is a bit of a challenge to overcome.
–LeBron had 39 points and he made a lot of crazy shots and that’s fine, that’s what he does. But he started playing street ball in the second half and that is not his way and it was surprising. All you have to do is look at one thing, his assists. Make that assist. He had one, by far his lowest of the season. He is more than entitled to take jumpers, but when he’s forcing shots and just taking jumpers you know he’s off. A couple of times he went 1-on-3 in the second half. That is not playing to his standard. Maybe he was tired, maybe he was still thinking like it was outscore those Knicks at the Garden, but he was not himself. No doubt. He knows it, too. He said the collision with Kirk Hinrich in the first half hurt his elbow, which had been bothering him. But that hasn’t nothing to do with it in my opinion.
–Now, the Bulls deserve credit because they made some shots, which was bound to happen. Also, Joakim Noah wanted it more than anyone. He may respect Ben Wallace, but he also wants to prove he’s better and he’s probably sick of being compared to Anderson Varejao. So kicked both their butts for good measure. To me, Anderson is really still feeling that ankle. He can’t jump. That is a major injury and it will take him awhile to get back and it is showing. Noah is one thing, but Aaron Gray outplayed him tonight. Wallace did OK, but Noah got him over and over too.
–Zydrunas Ilgauskas’ absence really showed up tonight. Not just with the rebounding issues, but also on offense. When he gets a putback or scores from the post he steadies things. Even when he misses from the post, it rarely leads to a run out at the other end. Since Ilgauskas has been out the Cavs have had streaks of 1-of-15 shooting and, tonight, 1-of-13. He is the Cavs second-best player and missing him is going to sting and tonight it did. Also, after watching Wallace play for six games now, I think he is probably going to be at his best when he is alongside Z. For many reasons, but mostly because it gives him some more freedom. Overall, though, I have not been impressed so far.
–Wally Szczerbiak and Delonte West’s absence from the team has shown up the last two nights, both haven’t been very good. West was been nonexistent. Maybe they are also coming down from a bit of an energy high after the trade.
Recap:
Pregame
Starting lineups
Cavs: Delonte West, Devin Brown, LeBron James, Ben Wallace, Anderson Varejao
Bulls: Kirk Hinrich, Larry Hughes, Luol Deng, Drew Gooden, Joakim Noah
–Tyrus Thomas is suspended so Gooden will play a bunch. He has been playing pretty well. The Bulls interior will be a challenge for the Cavs, although not like the Knicks. Varejao doesn’t look right to me and Noah, Gooden and Thomas gave him and Wallace all they could handle last weekend. I think Wallace has trouble at this point with active players based on what I have seen and right now Andy can’t jump on that bad ankle. He’s also wearing a wrap on his left knee. The Bulls activity will get them second shots.
–The Cavs defense last night was poor, especially with dribble penetration. The Bulls are a drive-and-kick team, though they are very much a jump shot heavy team. West did a good job on Hinrich and Deng wasn’t able to get his mid-range shots on Sunday, but West was not good on defense last night and now the Bulls are at home.
–The Cavs schedule in regards to back-to-backs has been brutal, and having the early start (6 p.m.) local after flying in from New York overnight did them no favors. We’ll see if there are carryovers.
Halftime — Cavs 51, Bulls 47
–LeBron has 26 points and has made shots at the buzzer of the first quarter and second quarter. He’s 10-of-15. The guy is the two-time defending player of the month and he’s just now getting warmed up. Stay tuned.
–The Cavs are getting handled on the boards. They tightened it up in the second quarter but the Bulls have 14 second chance points, which is why they are in the game despite shooting just 33 percent. Noah has 11 rebounds and he’s eating up Varejao and Wallace. Now that is hard to say because Ben had seven rebounds and Andy has nine, but they are getting beat by Noah.
–It has been fun to watch the little stuff. Krik Hinrich and Wally Szczerbiak have been battling away from the ball, at one point Kirk threw Wally down. Then there’s the Larry Hughes/LeBron matchup. When Larry gives up a hoop, you can just see how he wants to go down and get a shot. With LeBron, Larry picked his pocket and then LeBron caught him from behind and blocked his shot. A rivalry is being developed here.
–As I said Sunday at the half, you must figure that the Bulls will get hot from the outside at some point. They will make a run. Will the Cavs take care of allowing the easy putbacks and transition points to deal with it? We’ll see. Then again, maybe LeBron will score 50 again and it won’t matter.
Postgame
Stars
Joakim Noah, 13 points, 20 rebounds
Ben Gordon, 23 points, six rebounds
Luol Deng, 23 points, eight rebounds
LeBron James, 39 points
Quotes
Mike Brown: “We didn’t box out, we just sort of went to the glass. And (Noah) is so long and active and athletic that he just jumped over us.”
Noah: “I was just on tonight. I just try to do what I can do to help our team win.”
LeBron: “We need to get back to focusing on defense, we’ve played pretty good basketball and we don’t want this one loss to deter it.”
{ 33 comments… read them below or add one }
A playoff tested team like the Cavs must respond in these
situations. We must control Gordon and Deng to win. I
assume Larry will be happy to shoot 20 times again. Any
updates on Daniel and Pavs? I think Pavs has been out
since Jan 23 which by my count is 6 weeks and Daniel
about 2 1/2 weeks. Get the whirlpool going Benton and
get these guys on the floor. And no Alan, Lebron does not
have his shopping cart out.
Wow, Devin Brown really sounds like Tim Meadows. That one caught me a big off guard.
Nib High Football and Lebron rule
LeBron’s going for fifty again tonight!
This attack is way too unbalanced to be succesfull. Has
anyone scored fifty for the NBA champions in the last 5 years?
Pistons/Spurs frown on this one dimensional offense. Even
Superman can be defended by an NBA team one on five. What is Brown thinking?
THere is a downside when Lebron does all the scoring. His ego gets inflated and he sorta transforms into a scorer, instead of a facilitator. In that first half he was jacking up a lot of shots and the team was standing around watching. In the second half he’s gone cold and now we’re screwed.
I’d much rather have Lebron score 30 and get 10 and 10, than watch him score 50 every night. This is, after all, a team game.
This is painful
Andy is bumming me out with his poor shooting since his injury. Not that anyone besides Lebron is shooting well tonight, but he needs to step up 2-11 now
This is ugly. We don’t look like a very good team right now — porous defense.
I got news for ya, this team is regressing ina hurry. The defense tonight is horrendous. The offense is pathetic. LJ is awesome but it leads to the other guys standing around like deer in headlights. Watching Szczerbiak guard Deng is embarrassing. Nocione can score on any one of our guys at anytime. This is a joke. It took 50 by LJ ot beat the Knicks, and we can’t even compete with the Bulls. It’s a sad spectacle.
Wow. Many panic-stricken comments tonight. The national media just had a 24-hour freak out about how dangerous the Cavaliers are going to be come playoff time and now we’re back to fatalism after one tired performance. Yes a bad game. And LeBron was on MVP heroin tonight. You could see in his eyes he was thinking back-to-back 50s. No assists until the 4th quarter is Vinsanity not LeBron. This is the second night of a back-to-back. Andy doesn’t have his legs at all yet. Z’s at the chiropractor. Gibson’s out. The new guys are still learning the plays. Relax. Saturday, we make the Pacers pay. That, and a return to the Mike Brown defense would be nice wouldn’t it? Oh that’s right. He’s a lousy coach. Let’s hire Scott Skiles…or maybe Doug Collins…or Fratello…or Hubie Brown. Those unemployed geniuses always sound so smart don’t they? Cheer up. Hughes is gone and at least we didn’t trade for Shaq.
Wow… I feel as if we were beaten by an inferior, sub-500 team with Larry Hughes at the helm… Oh wait…
Quick hitter thoughts from a terrible game:
1. Few teams win both games on a road back-to-back so it’s not like losing tonight was so disgraceful but the way they played was bad.
2. I agree with everyone that Lebron has MVP on the brain right now. It doesn’t really bother me in terms of wins and losses right now but it does bother me that he is expending this much energy in early March when all the Cavs are playing for is seeding and as long as they have home court in the first round, it doesn’t really matter anyway. A lot of people were pissed that Lebron was on cruise control in the first half last year and I don’t know if the two were related but he was an absolute terror in the playoffs. I worry that he carries too much of the load on this team to play all out for 75 games and then still have enough gas left in the tank for the playoffs.
Some of this is on Mike Brown. He needs to act like the coach and not the adoring fan and step in sometimes when Lebron is trying to go for 50 and limit his minutes. I can’t fault Lebron for trying to compete every night. I can certainly fault Mike Brown if the tank is on empty come playoff time.
3. Not to pile on Mike Brown but the guy gets to keep his job because the Cavs play defense. They haven’t defended well since the trade. I know some of this is guys learning to play together but good lord this is bad. If the Cavs are going to turn into a mediocre defensive team (and that’s being kind right now), Mike is going to have a hard time justifying his presence on the bench. Nights like tonight that really expose how inept the Cavs offense is aren’t going to help.
4. The rotation is still really messed up. I don’t always understand why when guys are having terrible nights, Brown gives them regular minutes. Andy was atrocious tonight and I felt like he was out there forever (and yes, I know Z is hurt). Is it so radical to go with the hot hand….or on nights like tonight, maybe the lukewarm hand…..the non-frigid hand?
5. Ben Wallace, come on man. 20 rebounds for Jo Noah? Wallace is in Mike Brown’s situation to a degree. If you’re a one or two trick pony, you gotta do those tricks well. If Wallace can’t score, he could at least box out, rebound, and try to play a little D. He didn’t do any of those tonight. How do you like that stinging criticism Big Ben? It hurts doesn’t it. Oh sure, you may still get your quarter-million dollar game check but its luster has surely been tarnished by my ridicule!
Just so we’re clear, I well aware that Wallace is 85% washed up but boxing out isn’t all that difficult. This is going to get frustrating if it doesn’t get better (but not as frustrating as watching a certain smirky overpaid jump shooter jack up terrible 18 footers at crucial moments). I guess I’m just going to have to make peace with the fact that Wallace for Hughes was addition by subtraction. Maybe Wallace can work on perfecting his new trick, not being Larry Hughes, on the bench for 25-30 minutes a game.
6. I always think Delonte West is playing decently until I see the box score and realize that he was terrible. Someone please explain this to me. He’s the anti-Drew Gooden. He looks like he’s reasonably quick. Why can’t he start taking guys off the dribble more?
7. I’m gonna go with the patience thing for another 5 games or so (even though I’m already starting to believe it less and less) and if they haven’t started showing signs of life as a team by then……. I’m going back to the expiring contract talk.
Bonus Note: Michael Redd left tonight’s Bucks game with a lacerated nose. I think I speak for all of Cavs nation when I say that our thoughts and prayers are with you Mike.
Hughes and LeBron developing a rivalry? Maybe a one sided one. It was just one of those games for the Cavs.. wait a minute they played crappy all week and barely got by bad teams. I’m not worried though when everyone gets back we will be fine.
I’m gald to hear you say you’re not impressed with Wallace so far but you are still being too kind by not calling out Mike Brown for his player parings and offensive game plans. He continues to not utilize the talent he has to it’s fullest. Why doens’t Joe Smith get more time? Why does he play andy and Wallce together so much when they are both so offensively challenged? Why does he run so many plays for Wallace and Andy when they can’t even consistently finish a dunk? Why does Ferry put up with this?
Biff, great points, as usual. Keep on posting.
Lebron looked, well unlike Lebron tonight. Brian hit on it pretty well. That was not Lebron’s M.O. last night. And everyone saying that is 100% correct. However, the help has to make shots. Lebron is taking the difficult shots and still hit nearly 50% of them. The help, while getting great looks, shot 35%. So, Lebron strarts taking bad shots. Not a good scenario. Z being out is tough. NO inside scoring and Lebron thinks he has to turn into the 2005 version of Kobe. Once Z gets back and the other guys get back, I think we’ll see more of the normal Lebron.
Thoughts on last night’s loss to the Bulls:
- The Cavs ran themselves out of gas last night. By not staying focused on the defensive end, especially rebounding, they put themselves in a position where they would have to execute well on offense and make shots. But they didn’t have the energy (or the personnel) to accomplish that. Back-to-backs on the road are hard, but they are even harder when you stop paying attention to the fundamentals. They’re pretty much impossible when you give up 21 offensive rebounds.
- LeBron has to create for his teammates, and he has to put huge amounts of pressure on the defense with his ability to get to the hoop. He didn’t do either very well last night, especially in the second half. 39 points is great, but the other aspects of his game are what make LeBron the best in the league. He wasn’t that player last night.
- Delonte West had two bad games in a row. Maybe it’s just a hiccup, maybe it was the fact that LeBron was commanding the ball so much in those games. But he is not the point guard savior, and he does not have the ability to take his man off the dribble. That’s why his only offensive move in the half court is the shot from the elbow where he shoves his defender back with his right arm.
- Ben Wallace didn’t show a lot of heart last night. If he can’t get up for his first game back in Chicago, the fire he used to have might be completely out. Say what you will about Larry Hughes, but what have you seen in Ben Wallace so far that makes you think he cares about winning any more than Hughes? He certainly didn’t show it in Chicago, and things haven’t changed much in Cleveland, especially in the games where the Cavs have struggled collectively.
- I really thought that Szczerbiak was going to be a suitable replacement for Hughes offensively. While he might not be as prolific as Hughes can be once in a blue moon, I thought he would be a more consistent scorer. So much for that thought. Another 4-11 game from Wally last night, meaning that since he became a Cavalier he is shooting 19-60, for 31.6%. Meanwhile, Hughes is 40-96 as a Bull, shooting 41.6%.
- Anyone who has thought that Z is not a vital component of the Cavs success might want to change that tune now. Yes, the Cavs need everyone healthy and contributing to make a strong playoff run. But without Z, the Cavs are far more susceptible to a first round exit.
Go Cavs. What’s up with the 1:00 start on Saturday?
Mike C.
It was frustrating to watch Wallace last night. As Biff said, if you are a one trick pony, you better at least do that trick well. It pained me to watch Drew Gooden beating Wallace one-on-one. Isn’t Wallace supposed to be good at defense?
It’s obvious the Cavs will need to play either Z or Joe Smith at all times, one of them has to be in the game at all times, right? So that leaves at a maximum 48 combined minutes for Andy and Big Ben. That’s how I see this…hopefully Mike Brown will see it like this too.
Despite their pathetic offense, the Cavs used to win games like this because of their defense and rebounding. D was awful last night and for most of the season and does not look like it it going to regain the form from last year. Most nights the Cavs will outrebound the opponent, but missing Z and having a gimpy AV, and a no-heart Ben Wallace was not going to get it done last night.
It was painfully obvious to me that Lebron was going for 50 last night and probably had hopes of Bulls fans chanting MVP. Most likely by next game the echos from Madison Square Garden will subside from his brain and he will remember winninng a championship is the goal, not winning the MVP.
Because the Cavs are not playing defense on the level of last year, they need to play better on offense to go far in the playoffs. I don’t see that happening. Yes, I realize Lebron is the most talented player in league, but he dominates the ball too much and every player on the team defers to him (as well as MB). The Cavs have two plays:
Delonte or whoever is playing PG dribble up the court and make sure to pass it to Lebron once you are past halfcourt. Lebron will now either drive, shoot, or penetrate and dish to an open guy (who is probably bored to tears by this offense).
The other play is much like the first, only Lebron will do a pick and roll with either Z or AV.
Many times this sad pathetic excuse for an offense will actually be good enough to win, because of just how great Lebron is, but I don’t see them winning a championship with this approach.
Unless the Cavs somehow get an elite PG who will not defer to Lebron all the time (I know not likely, teams that have them don’t give them up) or get a coach who has a clue about offense, I don’t see much changing.
At least the offense won’t be so bad when Gibson, Z, and Sasha are back. Also it would help if Wally would stop trying to impersonate Larry Hughes with his shooting %. He is afterall a career 49% shooter (40% from 3).
I am an optimist most days telling Boston fans here not to get too excited, ’cause the Cavs are going to beat them in the playoffs, but feeling less optimistic today…
Joe Hoops is absolutely right. The defense also has been lacking for over a month. I don’t know what the difference is but they seem to be less focused on defense just like when the season first started. The defense was off before the trade.
Sasha says he’s 10 days away. Gibson of course is around April.
I like S.P. but can’t wait for Big Shot Boobie.
I couldn’t agree more with Joe Hoops and John. D has been suspect since the beginning of the season. It improved for a couple weeks, then fell back off b4 the trade. Sasha says 10 days I think Boobie will be back sometime in April.
My favorite moment was when the albino guy wearing a Delonte West jersey came running out of the stands to hug him.
Cavs just need to focus, take one game at a time and step up on defense and they’ll be alright. God, I hate sports cliches and the simpletons that use them.
Yo, can you blame Lebron for being ‘un-Lebron-like’ or whatever? You can make the sweetest passes in the world, and if no one makes a shot/layup, then no assist for you! Eventually you’re gonna stop passing for a little while, especially when you score what, 76 points in 6 quarters leading up to it.
No one shot well last night, but Wallace needs to not get schooled by the likes of Noah. Someone needs to make him angry or something.
The people who were dissin’ Z this year should look at the stats and the last few games and realize that we’re lucky to have him, he is an underrated component on the Cavs. Alan got mad at me for saying that Z ‘bleeds Cleveland’ earlier in the season, but I maintain that Z is a loyal Cavalier and always has been, and he overcame his early injuries and has had a great career for us. I can’t wait for him to come back, Andy to be 100%, and Pavs and Gibson to get back too.
I don’t think many remarks on here qualify as ‘fatalism’, folks are just analyzing the moves and it’s a little painful to watch the incontinuity with the new guys and the injuries to boot. We all have faith in the King, else we wouldn’t bother reading.
I will say BW makes a lot of typos, gotta watch that man!
from day 1 , i said i was never a fan of this trade . this trade was made just to make a trade but the cavs never addressed their need for an athletic scorer who can create his own shot as well as shots for others . next year , you have to trade wally or even in the summer , his expiring contract is great bait . delonte is not an nba starting point guard , cavs keep getting career backups (mcinnis ,snow ,west) to play starting point guard .cavs also need a coach who is more than a one trick pony and who can put their players in the best position to succeed on the offensive end of the floor . also a coach who is not in complete awe of the star player and has the balls to actually coach the star player .
Nick:
You make some good points but allow me to respond to some of them. First, this wasn’t a trade just to make a trade. I highly doubt Dan Gilbert would put up the kind of extra cash that this deal commands just to make a trade. My guess is that Ferry and Gilbert decided that they needed to get rid of Hughes (so that a fan didn’t come out of the stands at the Q and choke him) but that they couldn’t do it without getting some guard help to replace him. They also knew that his contract was so bad that they could only move it for something equally bad. Thus, the Bulls became an obvious first team to involve in the trade with Wallace’s remains under a ridiculously bad contract. They probably figured they could dump Hughes and actually get more polished depth at the 4 in Wallace and Smith (as opposed to the decidedly unpolished Drew Gooden). Then, Seattle comes in looking to give away a free backcourt, allowing us to replace some of Hughes’ scoring and upgrading the point and a logical deal is born. Plus, keep in mind that Ferry probably doesn’t sneeze without Lebron’s permission. What I mean by that is that when Ferry told Lebron he was going to trade Hughes, we can gather from the resulting trade that Lebron didn’t exactly picket outside of Ferry’s office to protest the deal.
In regard to the point guard talk, West is certainly not a great point guard but the truth of the matter is that those guys don’t hit the market very often. A lot of the really good guards like Paul, Williams, Parker, etc. are with the teams that drafted them. After Boston, Toronto, and Minnesota all gave away Billups, Golden State gave away Arenas, and Dallas parted with Nash, I think teams have gotten a little gun shy about letting franchise PGs walk. The ones that hit the market now are usually on the market for a reason. See Kidd, Jason or Bibby, Mike. Even on a team looking to rebuild and shed salary, the franchise point guard is the last guy they’re going to give away. So, either the Cavs are going to have to get lucky, draft the right guy, or just make do without. The franchise point guard you are looking for probably isn’t just going to show up on the market next year.
I’m torn on the coach thing. Brown is really a doofus on offense and I wonder sometimes if you can win a title with a guy like that. But, at the same time, do you remember how bad the Cavs were on defense before he go there? Almost as bad as they’ve been since the trade!!! Also, if the Cavs fired the guy who was at the helm when the one man band made it to the NBA finals, they would have a lot of explaining to do. If the new coach didn’t do better, and only 1 team a year does better, they would be crucified. It’s a tough spot for them to be in. Truthfully though, none of this talk matters because I think Brown has at least 2 more years before he has to worry about his job.
When the Cavs are on offense, watch Ben Wallace. He is running around out their like a junior high third stringer. He doesn’t seem to know what he’s doing.
And Andy needs to make a few layups!!
I hope the Cavs have TIME to get the new players into the flow of the game. I sometimes wonder if these late season trades EVER work out. I mean come on, Detroit has got to have a big time advantage since their same core group of guys have been playing together for years!
It’ll get worse before it gets better.
hey biff , i was one for suggesting that the cavs don’t need a point guard in the traditional sense (john paxson/jason kidd/steve nash) if they had another player who can create for himself off the dribble as well as for teammates at the 2 guard spot (who’s athletic and young enough to play with lebron for years) . but if you go that route (which i believe is the best route considering top flight point guards like nash,paul ,and williams don’t grow on trees and come around often) , you have to have a creative offense that dosen’t rely on point guard play (like the triangle). the way cleveland’s offense (i’m being way generous by saying cleveland has offense) is “designed”, it begs for point guard play and there is no natural point guard on this team or in the mike brown era. that’s why i do not think brown put his players in the best position to succeed , he can’t make the proper adjustments to the roster he has.ultimately , i do not think he will be the coach to get lebron his championship , he has a sound defensive game plan , but that’s it .i agree with what you said about the trade in the contract sense(dumping one bad contract for another) , but was this the best deal that was out there ? i also still believe this trade was made to show lebron and fans that they are not sitting idle , even if it’s not a trade that makes them that much better than before .
Nick:
You’re right about this offense (or absence of offense). It needs a point guard. Without a system, you need someone that can facilitate movement and passing.
As for your other proposal, I just don’t know if another athletic wing player is really the right fit for this team. The problem is that when you have a guy like Lebron, athletic slasher scorer types probably aren’t going to fit in very well. Its very difficult to just duplicate what you already have and win because can’t define their roles.
If you look at the really good teams in the NBA over the last few years, they’ve all had several really good players but that each do something very different. Take the following groups for example: Parker, Duncan Ginobli….Billups, Hamilton, R. Wallace…Nash, Marion, Amare…Shaq, Wade…Garnett, Pierce, Allen.
Every single player in these groups does something different. I just think for chemistry and role playing purposes, you need that. We went the athletic slasher/scorer type one with Larry Hughes, and even though in truth, he was neither althetic or a slasher/scorer, you could tell that such a player would never really fit with Lebron.
As for this trade being the best deal out there….I believe it absolutely was. Not so much the Chicago part which I think was apples for apples, but when Seattle came into it, it became a great deal. My guess is we could’ve had any GM in the NBA at the deadline this year and he would not have been able to do any better. If anything, I give Ferry credit for being creative enough to pull this one off. He drastically improved the depth of his rotation without changing the Cavs cap flexibility. That could not have been easy.
I still believe the Cavs need a top notch power player more than a point guard or wing-type player. They should try and trade Varejao, Gibson and expiring contracts for Elton Brand when he’s healthy.
biff , i think an athletic scorer who can create scoring oppurtunities for himself and others can absolutely work with lebron .just think of jordan and pippen . i always thought from day 1 larry would be a bad fit to play with lebron because throughout his career , he struggled shooting the ball , and at the time larry was obtained , lebron was a bad outside shooter(not great now , but a much better outside shooter than before) . so right then i knew that was a bad combination , plus the fact that larry has never really created offense for others . but i look at a joe johnson type , he’s athletic/he can shoot the rock/he can create his own offense off the dribble /he can create offense for others , he’s a perfect compliment for lebron . i wanted cavs to get him so bad back then over redd (one dimensional) , allen (aging) , and hughes (we all know his shortcomings) , but phoenix made it clear that they would match any offer and the cavs had to get someone . in the right system and a coach who understands the type of players he has , an athletic scorer/facilitator at the 2 guard spot who can consistantly give you 18-20 per night can play along side lebron and be very successful .
also biff , i agree with the seattle part of the deal being the one decent part of the trade . you can see what wally can give you over the last 20 games and if he continues shooting like he has , you can trade his expiring contract this summer or during next season . so there was not risk in that . in delonte , you get a young guard (although not an nba starter imo) who can defend and hit the mid range jumper , but most of all , he’s def. an upgrade over shannon brown and eric snow . but that new depth that you speak of is going to be a curse for mike brown . he already shown that he struggles to put the right line up on the floor in certain situations and he’s not so great in making in game adjustments , so can you imagine when boobie, sasha , and z are healthy ?? will he be able to find minutes for those guys along with devin brown ,joe smith , anderson v , and delonte west ?