CLEVELAND – It looks as if Delonte West will be in coach Mike Brown’s rotation until he has to deal with his legal issues.
But even with West back, Brown doesn’t plan to make any changes to his starting lineup just yet.
‘’For now I like it and I’m going to keep grinding away to see how it turns out, but if I feel like I need to make a change, I will,’’ he said.
Of course West was last year’s starter at shooting guard, the spot now occupied by Anthony Parker (9.2 points, 2.2 rebounds, 2.4 assists) and that may very well happen again.
I haven’t said anything to our team about this being set in stone or this is how it’s going to be for the rest of the year,’’ Brown said.
Brown is aware of the lift that West’s presence provides to his team, but that alone doesn’t guarantee a starting spot.
‘’Whenever he’s on the floor and it would be the same if we were missing Z or LeBron or Mo or Andy, when that piece comes back on the floor, you tend to get a boost,’’ he said.
West and refs
One of the first things casual observers jumped on regarding West was a technical foul he received on his first night back.   For anyone else that might have been no big deal, for West, given recent events, there might be a tendency to over react.  Brown isn’t, however.
‘’I don’t like any of our guys getting techs, so anybody who gets (them), I’m going to watch close,‘’ he said. ‘’We pride ourselves on being a no-excuse team, but yeah we want to get our point across at times, but we do not want to give up points to help our opponent just so we can get the last word in.’’
Rose in bloom?
Chicago Bulls point guard phenom Derrick Rose sat out most of the preseason with a sprained ankle.  By all accounts he’s looked a bit rusty in the regular season and that injury still isn’t fully healed.  Brown doesn’t expect that ankle to be a hindrance as the Bulls stampede into Quicken Loans Arena tonight.
‘’He’s developing very well.  You can just feel the maturity he has on the floor, comfort level he has on the floor has just skyrocketed,’’ he said of Rose.   ‘’He’s already talented as it is.  He’s already athtletic as it is and now he’s putting it all together.’’

Raptors 101, Cavs 91

So who do the Cavs miss most?  Delonte West or former assistant Jon Kuester? Considering they’re having problems on both sides of the ball right now, the short answer might ”both.”

Defensively speakign the Cavs let the Toronto Raptors have their way with them the entire first half, going into the locker room down 57-39.   The shot just 31 percent in the first half and it didn’t get much better in the second.   They finished the game shooting just 35 percent.

Mike Brown was succint in his appraisal of what’s going on the defensive side of the ball:

We go through stretches defensively right now, where the effort isn’t there.  Even if coverage breaks down the effort can be there.

The one key moment when the effort was there, the Cavs enjoyed some success, coming back from that 18 point halftime deficit to tie the game at 69.  For much of the third quarter, they held the Raptors at bay.  It didn’ t last  as Toronto went on a 9-2 run to end the quarter.

Brown says the effort wasn’t there.  Players say it’s a matter of gelling.  Right now, it’s probably a bit of both. But they also have to be missing West right now.  Other than James, he’s the most complete player on the team.

As for the offense: ditto Kuester.  When the team racked up those high scores and long winning streaks last year, they did so courtesy of, yes, their defense but some high-flying offense by Kuester.  Right now, it’s difficult to see which direction they’re headin there.

Game: Cavs vs. Raptors

Broadcast:  TV: FSOhio. Radio; WAKR (1590 AM); WTAM (1100 AM), WHBC (1480 AM)

Starters: Cavs:  LeBron James (F); Anderson Varejao (F); Shaquille O’Neal (C); Anthony Parker (G); Mo Williams (G).  Raptors:  Hedo Turkoglu (F); Chris Bosh (F);  Andrea  Bargnani; DeMar DeRozen; Jose Calderon (G).

Injured and inactive:  Cavs:  Delonte West; Leon Powe, Daniel Green.  Raptors:  Sonny Weems; Reggie Evans; Quincy Douby.

Officials: Greg Willard; Sean Corbin; Tommy Nunez Jr.

Streaking: Cavs have lost one.  This is the season opener for the Raptors.

Things to look for:

The Cavs need to rebound from a weak offensive performance Tuesday night.  Last night’s game was the first of the season, but that doesn’t excuse the fact taht overall it lacked consistency.

Ditto the defense.  They started out gangbusters, but quickly faded.  While they protected the paint, the exterior defense allowed unchallenged, wide-open threes.

You can never accuse the Washington Wizards of having long memories. The team that injuries decimated last season is healthy, has a new coach and, apparently a new life.

Some things never change, however and that’s the fact that the Wizards kinda, sort of, well…detest the Cavs and, it would seem LeBron James in particular.  But the level of vitriol was taken to a new level – I’ll leave it to you to decide whether it’s high or low – the other day during a practice.

Mike Miller, a player the Wizards acquired in the offseason from the Minnesota Timberwolves and a good friend of James, wore some of the Cleveland superstar’s signature shoes in practice.  The reaction was immediate according to the Washington Post.

Miller has been wearing Adidas since he was a sophomore in high school but switched to Nike after signing a contract with them this summer. He’s been urged by Deshawn Stevenson, Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison to wear any pair but the ones donned by the could-be King.

Much of this is apparently being driven by Deshawn Stevenson, a second-tier player who has an on-going thing with James.

“We already talked about that,” said Stevenson, a noted James agitator. “He got to get ‘em out of here. We already had a discussion. He said he going to try some new shoes. Me, Caron, Antawn told him about how we feel about them. LeBron shoes — we off that. We already got war against them. He can’t wear that. It’s all beef right there.”

 James has had a short week of feuds and controversy.  You can’t blame him for wanting to put things behind him.

‘’I don’t have feuds with anybody.  Everybody has feuds with me.  I don’t know why,’’ he said.

We’ll get back to the regular game blog format when the regular season rolls around.

In the meantime, here are a couple of highlgiths from the Cavs-Bobcats game at Quicken Loans Arena Tuesday night.

Shaquille O’Neal and LeBron James look very comfortable out on the floor together.  The entire starting lineup looked comfortable, despite the fact that there were two new faces in O’Neal and Anthony Parker. One thing that apparently caught at least Anderson Varejao by surprise – O’Neal’s ability to pass the ball.  He tossed one to Varejao that the power forward didn’t expect and the result was a turnover.  As the month wears on, O’Neal’s teammates will get used to it.

J.J. Hickson, who looked so out of sorts on the court last season played with confidence against the Bobcats.  He, along with James, led all scorers with 15 points a piece.  Hickson hit from the outside with a mid-range jumper.  He drove to the hoop with confidence and showed some creativity getting the ball up and in the hoop on a couple of occasions.

Coach Mike Brown wasn’t ready to praise him effusively just yet, however.  He harped on the fact that Hickson needs to work on his defense, specifically guarding players on the weak side.

And a couple of ugly things came to light.  The Bobcats scored 40 points in the paint and as a team and the Cavs committed 19 turnovers.  Those problems can be corrected given the fact that it’s early in the preseason.

Bad news Cavs fans:  The Cavaliers aren’t the favorite, even with the additions of Shaquille O’Neal and Anthony Parker, to win the NBA’s championship this season.  They’re not even the favorite to win the league’s Eastern Conference – at least not with the league’s general managers.

Just 17.9 percent of league GMs say that the Cavs are good enough to win this year’s championship and they’re tied with the 2007-08 champs, the Boston Celtics.  The reigning champs, the Los Angeles Lakers, are favored to repeat by 60.7 of the NBA’s top execs.

Fifty-percent of GMs expect the Celtics, who will have the Boston Three Party in tact to start the season, to reassert themselves atop the Eastern Conference.  More than 42 percent said the Cavs will find themselves in The Finals.

Individually, there was good news for LeBron James as GMs expect him to repeat as NBA MVP. 

My assessment?  Nothing wrong with a healthy dose of skepticism or a reality check for the Cavs.  Expectations by Cleveland fans desperate for a winning are so high, I suspect that they’d starte following the Cleveland City Stars, the local pro soccer team.  Yes, there is one.

The reality is the Cavs got better in the off season.  The bench has the depth that most NBA teams would scream for with the additions of Anthony Parker and Jamario Moon.  It gets better when Leon Powe is cleared to play.  But so did many teams in the Eastern Conference. 

The Orlando Magic added Vince Carter to their roster. They probably gave up a lot in Courtney Lee, who will be an All-Star in the future, but it’s quite obvious they want to win now.  As for the Celts:  they added Rasheed Wallace, a personality who’s been a handful in the past, but one that Coach Doc Rivers will be able to tame.

In short:  the Cavs won’t be dancing through the season.

A smiling Anderson Varejao greeted reporters Friday after he learned that his native Brazil – Rio De Janeiro specifically – was awarded the 2016 Summer Olympics, beating out the Windy City – Chicago – and the star power of Pres. Barack Obama as he personally made a pitch to the International Olympic Committee for the games.

‘’It’s huge for my country,’’ Varejao said. ‘’I’m very happy. I hope (the Brazilian men’s basketball team) can make it this time.’’

What would be better than that? Varejao participating. But will he be able to lace them up at the old age of 34? ‘’I hope so,’’ he said with a laugh.

When LeBron James was a junior at St. Vincent-St. Mary and Shaquille O’Neal was with the Lakers, O’Neal watched LeBron play in a tournament game in Canton, while Shaq and the Lakers were in town to play the Cavs.

LeBron said he didn’t talk to Shaq that night but the two talked the next day.

“He just told me to keep working hard,” LeBron said. “That’s what I remembered.”

Now that Shaq and LeBron are together, Shaq said he doesn’t know why there’s talk about whether or not these two superstars can coexist. He said that won’t be an issue at all. 

“Every great team with a 1-2 punch, the big man has always been that other guy,” Shaq said.

Cavs guard Delonte West is happy the season has started because he’s back playing basketball, instead of talking about his recent off-the-court troubles.

Earlier this month, West was arrested after being pulled over by police in Maryland for carrying two concealed weapons, and he had a shotgun in a guitar case.

Delonte, who has talked openly about his bipolar disorder, didn’t want to talk about the incident because it’s an on-going investigation. But he did say “I’m back taking my meds.”

That’s great to hear.

During the Cavs Media Day Monday at Cleveland Clinic Cpurts,  Shaquille O’Neal finally met with the media around 4:30 p.m. (the press conference had to be moved into the weight room because of the loss of power) and it was chaos as reporters jockeyed for position to talk to O’Neal.

 But the thing that caught my attention was how adamant Shaq wass about wanting to win his fifth NBA championship ring. And he’s serious about wanting to be in Cleveland.

“Cleveland has always been very hospitable to me and I’m excited to be here,” Shaq told reporters.

Shaq also said he had a message for Cavs fans.

“Hopefully, I add that belief because the first key (to winning an NBA championship) is belief.”

The one thing that amuses me about Shaq is that for a guy so physically imposing, he talks like he’s always in a library.

Yahoo Sports is reporting that pending a medical exam, the Cavaliers will sign power forward Leon Powe.

Powe tore his anterior cruciate ligament and cartilage in his knee during Game 2 of the Boston Celtics’ first-round series against the Chicago Bulls. He had reconstructive surgery on May 5 – his third major knee surgery – and has been rehabilitating in Los Angeles. Powe hopes to be back on the court by this season’s All-Star break, and the Cavaliers are willing to take a low-risk gamble on him pending the results of his physical.

If Powe can come back, this represents a good move for the Cavs.  He’s a banger and loves playing in the low post.  He’s tough, hustles and can be a nice asset coming off the bench. 

According to reports the Celtics promised to “take care of him” after the season ended.  Powe averaged 7.7 points and 4.9 rebounds off the bench for the Celtics last season before being injured in Game 2 of their playoff series with the Chicago Bulls.