In Case You Missed It
.500 Ball Club Bulls Take One At Club Q, 86-85
At Power Forward For Your Cleveland Cavaliers: DeJuan Blair!
Larry Bird: “I Hope [LeBron] Stays in Cleveland”
Week One Power Rankings, in Collaboration With Docksquad Sports
Cavs Get 3rd Straight Win, Beat Wizards 102-90
Why No Contract Extension For Rudy Gay Should Be News For The Cavaliers
“Blowing the Whistle,” by Tim Donaghy: Separating Fact From Fiction
A Look Ahead
Perhaps one of the most important weeks of the young season is already approaching the Cavs. How can it be this early? It’s this early when the Cavs next three opponents are the Magic, Heat and Jazz and the Cavs have yet to prove much of anything this season except for a little early season disappointment.
While there is certainly no need to freak out or make these games out as a “must win”, these games by all means are important in re-establishing that the Cavs will be someone to be reckoned with come playoff time. As of now, no one can possibly say that is true. Right now the Cavs are an underachieving team, flat out. They have all the pieces and all the talent, they just need to put it all together. They still have plenty of time to do it but they’d be better off doing it sooner rather than later and this week would be the perfect time.
The Cavs play three games within four days with one back-to-back (at Orlando and then at Miami). The Cavs did that last week with Washington, Chicago and New York but the back-to-back games were at home versus inferior teams and the one road game was a gimme game. The Cavs have had since Friday to rest and will get until Wednesday night until they have to play again.
This may be just a little bump in the road but it could either deflate the tires further or take some pressure off of the tires.
Mike Brown’s Hair-Pulling Rotations
One of the biggest criticisms of Mike Brown throughout his career as Cleveland Cavaliers head coach has been his questionable rotations and sometimes unexplainable substitution pattern. So far this season he’s done nothing to quiet any critics.
He’s done such things as playing Shaquille O’Neal and Zydrunas Ilgauskas together despite an unfavorable matchup. He’s left Mo Williams on the bench when LeBron James has been on the bench, leaving out his two best perimeter playmakers. He’s buried Jamario Moon at the end of the bench for most games and relegated him to mop-up minutes. He’s played a 34 year old Anthony Parker an average of 33 minutes per game and has played him 35+ minutes in 3 out of the 7 games this season. These are just a few of the notable blunders that Mike Brown has committed this year.
Let me say this: I’m a Mike Brown guy, I like Mike Brown. But it’s hard to like him when some of the lineups he trots out onto the court leave you thinking, “What in the world is he doing?”, which seems to happen at least once or twice a game.
Part of the reason for this teams struggles this far is that the team has yet to find a rhythm with each other because of the constant shuffling of the rotations. NBA players are creatures of habit and getting players to create some on-court chemistry with each other is critical in establishing a strong team. Any time you have 3-4 new rotational pieces, you want to try to establish a routine pattern so those players can adjust. Shuffling lineups and creating even more confusion for the new players is not the pattern for success.
I understand Mike Brown is trying to get a feel for his team and is trying to see what works. But it’s obvious after awhile what does and does not work. It doesn’t take 3-4 games to tell the Z and Shaq combination is just not going to work.
What Brown needs to do is establish a general rotation and stick with it. Obviously it will change a little bit by game with different situations occurring but their should be a consistent rotation set in place by now.
Let’s hope the New York game was a turning point for Mike Brown. There were no twin towers. There was no burying Jamario Moon on the bench. There was no keeping JJ Hickson on the bench as well. There was no more playing Anthony Parker a ton of minutes. He still left LeBron and Mo out of the game at the same time for long stretches but for the most part he broke out of some bad habits for the time being.
10 Things I Think
1. Here’s a good website to track the progress of Cavs 1st round draft pick Christian Eyenga. Eyenga is playing on DKV Joventut Badalona, a high level Euro League team. Don’t be alarmed by the amount of minutes he’s playing either. Brandon Jennings only got an average of 17 minutes per game while he was over there. You actually earn playing time in Europe, nothing is handed to you.
2. I’m excited to see Leon Powe return to health in February. I really want to see if he’ll be able to be as effective as he was before his injury. Anything close would be nice.
3. Seeing JJ Hickson in the starting lineup versus the Knicks was surprising, I’d never thought I’d see Mike Brown make a move like that. Quite frankly I like it. Hickson needs playing time and getting him some minutes right off the bat and around 12 minutes or so a game is perfect. Hickson also gives the Cavs much needed athleticism up front. Putting him next to Shaq and LeBron may be just what he needs.
4. Yes I know it’s early in the season. And yes I know Detroit isn’t as good as offensively as Cleveland. But so far Detroit is ranked 20th in offensive efficiency and 20th in TS%. Meanwhile the Cavs are 17th in both categories. While Kuester was certainly a key piece to Cleveland’s offensive success last year, why all of a sudden does he get credit for all their success when he was here since 2007 and barely mentioned previous to last year? Most of the credit should fall on Mo Williams’s shoulders, the first real point guard Cleveland has had in awhile.
5. Semi-OT: Greg Monroe will be the next great NBA big man. He’s the next Pau Gasol. I hope the Cavs can find some way to get him.
6. Some smart Cavalier fans have come up with a proposition: for this season, it might be easier to find someone to play SF and allow LeBron to play PF and be the compliment we’re looking for next to Shaq. While I certainly like the idea, the problem I have is defensively. While LeBron can guard KG, McDyess, and maybe even Gasol, LeBron getting in foul trouble is not something I want. He’s also shown he’s better helping other players and when he’s allowed to roam freely on defense.
7. The biggest problem the Cavs have right now is the Shaq and Z combo. I understand the Cavs want size down-low but there’s a point where size is negated because of lack of mobility. The Cavs internally will point to all the contenders having size up front. The different between the Cavs size and the contenders size is their size has mobility, the Cavs doesn’t. The Celtics have mobile bigs like KG and Rasheed. The Magic have a very athletic frontline with Bass, Howard, Gortat, Lewis and Anderson. The Lakers have Gasol, Bynum and Odom, three very versatile, athletic bigs. Meanwhile the Cavs have Shaq and Z.
8. Something that’s worrisome too: the Cavs are shooting 45% from the field and 68% from the free-throw line. The Cavs have only 4 players shooting above 43% from the field and only have 3 players shooting over 73% from the line. Last year, by seasons end, the Cavs had 11 players shooting above the 43% clip from the field and 8 players shooting above the 73% clip from the line. It’s obvious the Cavs need to work on shooting ball better.
9. I’ll be interested to see if Danny Ferry uses Wally Szczerbiak in a trade like Keith Van Horn was used a few years back. If the Cavs get desperate enough, they certainly could and would.
10. As far as this whole LeBron-Shaq dynamic goes, let’s remember one thing: LeBron wanted this to happen and promised Ferry he’d make it work.
Tweet Of The Week
KevinHignett: I had a similar vision in my head. Chris Rock sounded like a fool. Saying he can shoot better than a pro? Loser.
(Send your Tweets to CavAttitude on Twitter and you could be featured here.)
Music Of The Week
This week I present the best rapper in the game, period, and maybe even in the history of hip-hop. Call me crazy but here’s a sample of my man, One Be Lo.
(NSFW – Language)
Loading ...
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Nicely done, Smooth.
Wally Szczerbiak?
If the Cavs end up with Greg Monroe, I don’t think that’s a good thing…. Monroe is a top-5 pick, if you catch my drift….