MVN - Most Valuable Network

Let The Conspiracy Theories Begin

On Friday afternoon, I was listening to “The Dan Patrick Show” in my car on my way to class. Of course, the headline topic at the start of DP’s show was the Cavs-Celtics series and the disappointing disaster that has been LeBron James.

And as is the case with Patrick, any and all conversations involving LeBron James have to involve LB’s long-term future in Cleveland.

When I first started here at MVN, the LeBron-is-leaving talk bothered the hell out of me. Heck, sometimes I felt like attacking any LeBron-is-leaving-Cleveland proponent physically. In fact, an hour after LeBron re-signed back in July of ‘06, I already went on MVN flaunting the revelation in the faces of the national media, and our boy Henry Abbott at TrueHoop picked up on it almost immediately.

That was then. This is now.

It was a bit harder for me to envision myself pounding Patrick’s face onto the pavement of a sidewalk as he discussed LeBron’s future in Cleveland on Friday. That’s because five years into LeBron’s career, the group that has been put around LeBron is absolutely sickening.

Cleveland’s center is at his best 15 feet away from the basket. There are virtually no low post options other than a 32-year old Joe Smith, who has been a shell of a shell of himself in this Cleveland part of his career. Wally Szczerbiak has followed in a long line of players who mysteriously lost any semblance of basketball skill the minute they put on a Cleveland jersey (see: Hughes, Laura). Ben Wallace, like Patrick said on the air on Friday, is overrated, most especially at this point of his career (at least he isn’t Laura Hughes, though - that makes him a winner in my book).

The one part about Patrick’s assessment that I have to disagree on is his take on Cleveland’s lack of a point guard, as Delonte West has been more than solid in his tenure as a Cavalier. Like we said before, we don’t need a Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Steve Nash, or Jason Kidd (circa anytime before 2008) to run the point for the Cavs to be a successful team.

But the Cavaliers do need somebody. Anybody. Because you have to, at some point, put yourself in LeBron James’ shoes and look at the world, the Cavaliers organization, the city of Cleveland, and the unlimited marketing potential before moving forward.

Since LeBron was drafted, you can make the argument that the Cavaliers have regressed. The progression as a team may strictly be due to the individual progression of LeBron mixed in with a little luck. While I know that owner Dan Gilbert and GM Danny Ferry weren’t around at the time, LeBron should have followed Carlos Boozer out of town the minute this franchise made the most underrated goof in the history of professional sports.

Sure, we still wish the worst on Carlos Boozer here at Cavalier Attitude (I mean it: the worst), but what team has willingly let a player on the cusp of a big pay day out of his contract knowing that they don’t have the cap room to give him market value? Which team? Name one! There are none!

Imagine LeBron and Boozer together now. Boozer’s only 26. LeBron is 23. They both would be running mates throughout the prime of their careers together. You can make the argument that Boston’s “Big Three” would be underdogs against a team featuring both LeBron and Boozer, who would be in Year #5 together.

Instead, we’re here watching Anderson Varejao put the ball on the floor and drive to the basket as if he’s Kobe Bryant and Zydrunas Ilgauskas absolutely disregarding the fact that he’s freaking 7-foot-3 and playing like a two-guard.

But I would be fooling myself if I told you that I can put it better than “WaitingForNextYear” did in their Friday piece:

“I feel embarrassed. We all should. We let ourselves be deluded into thinking that this team could win again in the playoffs despite not having the first clue how to run an offense. Shame on us. Our first clue should have been when this team lost a playoff game by 40 points in the first round. Championship teams don’t do that. Good teams don’t do that. How dare we pretend like this team could be an elite team. They barely won more games than they lost. They rarely looked like a good team, let alone a championship caliber team. Sure, they had those rare games where everything clicked and they looked unstoppable. Somehow I think we let that get in the way of what was really happening. The saying goes ‘Fool me once, shame on you….fool me twice, shame on me.’ Well, the Wizards blowout was the first one. This is the second one. And I’m done being fooled. The Cavaliers are a mediocre basketball team with one transcendent superstar. All year long I’ve said how unfair it is of this organization to lean so heavily on LeBron, and now we were are finally seeing the side effects of it. LeBron can’t do this all by himself, especially when he’s not making his shots.”

Michael Jordan wasn’t perfect. But he had Scottie Pippen getting his back when he wasn’t feeling it. His shooters made shots, especially when the Bulls needed them the most (see: Paxson, John in the ‘93 Finals and Kerr, Steve in the ‘97 Finals). Who the hell does LeBron have? Ever since Boozer left, LeBron has had nobody. Nobody.

I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again: if LeBron James has no choice but to be a one-man team, why the hell would a guy like him want to do it in Cleveland? If you’re a Cavs fan, shed your allegiances for just 30 seconds and think about this: LeBron James taking on the world in a market like New York and packing Madison Square Garden compared to doing it in a midwestern city like Cleveland and packing the Q. Again, put yourself in LB’s shoes, and for the love of God, be honest.

It’s also hard for me to find much fault with FoxSports’ Ian O’Connor, who came out with this piece entitled “Clock is running down for Cavs” on Wednesday following Game 1:

“The Cavaliers deserve to keep James home for the core of his prime. They’ve already landed him in one NBA Finals. They’ve already honored their commitment to competing for a title by making the in-season deal for Ben Wallace, Joe Smith, Wally Szczerbiak, and Delonte West, taking payroll and luxury tax hits along the way…But neither life nor the NBA pecking order is fair. So when the Celtics beat the Cavaliers by a 76-72 count in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semis, and beat them on a night when James could’ve used a Pippen to cover for his Jordan, the larger issue looms over the Cavs like the Boston banners above.”

A guy like Michael Redd or Joe Johnson would have been huge to have alongside LeBron in this series in which he’s practically trying to go one-on-three. Boozer would have been huge. So would have Pau Gasol, but that luxury is Kobe’s now.

LeBron played far, far below what we expect of him in the first two games of this series. There are no two ways around it. But you have to wonder if that still would have been the case if he had an All-Star like Boozer or Gasol feeling it on the inside or Redd or Johnson feeling it from the outside.

Instead, what we are left with in our non-fantasy world is wondering if Zydrunas Ilgauskas can ever get 20 points without being one of the most unorthodox 7-foot-3 centers ever or if second-round pick Daniel Gibson can get hot again from three-point range in time to save LeBron from what has turned out to be a complete debacle against Boston.

So rather than getting angry with the national media, get angry as a basketball fan if you are forced to see the Cavs rob LeBron of what could have been a better first five years of his career. And get pissed if he gives them a chance to waste his prime if he re-signs with this same team after 2010.

And if you blame him for leaving Cleveland given the current state of the team around him - grow up.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 9th, 2008 at 1:45 pm and is filed under Delonte West, Michael Redd, Carlos Boozer, Dan Patrick, Deron Williams, Danny Ferry, Wally Szczerbiak, Dan Gilbert, TrueHoop, Joe Johnson, Henry Abbott, Jason Kidd, Joe Smith, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Steve Nash, Cleveland Cavaliers, Chris Paul, Daniel Gibson, Ben Wallace, Pau Gasol, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Larry Hughes, Boston Celtics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.