Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Gibson to Start

We've been clamoring for it, we've been screaming for and now it's finally happening:

A team source said Brown plans to start rookie Daniel Gibson at point guard tonight when the Cavs host the Golden State Warriors. Snow has started 139 consecutive games for the Cavs, including playoffs, dating to the end of the 2004-05 season. The team is 83-57 with him as a starter.

Brown has appeared to be drawing closer to this decision the past two games, giving Gibson more minutes than Snow in both as he has searched for more offense out of the position. Snow has played 13 minutes in each of the games, the fewest minutes he has seen in any game this season. Brown has been giving more minutes to veteran David Wesley the past week, as well.

Quite frankly, I'm shocked by all of this. I never expected Gibson to start at point guard this season barring an injury to Snow. I could see him getting more minutes or playing in crunch time... but starting? Brown loves his veterans. Windhorst says that this probably isn't a decision Brown took lightly:
Watching the last two games, you could see it coming. Gibson's minutes have been rising, Snow's dropping. In the last two games, Snow has played just 13 minutes each. Those are his fewest of the year. After the game, Brown indicated he wanted to give Gibson an extended look.

[snip]

That said, knowing Mike the way I do, he didn't come to this decision on a whim. He's probably been thinking about it for a long time before making the decision. We'll see how it works out. Who knows, maybe he'll change his mind, but he's told Eric he's not going to start.
Maybe Brown has been mulling this decision for awhile, but I don't buy it. I would bet that public opinion or (more likely) Dan Gilbert's opinion may have affected Brown's thought process a tad. Gibson's minutes haven't exactly been 'rising'- they've spiked:

Date - Team - Min - Reb - Ast - PT
1/20 - @GSW - 3 - 1 - 0 - 0
1/22 - ORL - 4 - 1 - 0 - 0
1/24 - PHI - 0 - 0 -0 - 0
1/26 - @PHI - 22 - 2 - 5 - 11
1/28 - PHX - 19 - 3 - 5 - 6
3 minutes, 4 minutes, finally a DNP-CD and suddenly 20+ minutes. Hmmm... Somehow I don't really believe that coach Mike came to this decision all by himself. The Cavaliers and their offense were struggling before the Philly game; the last half of the West coast swing was brutal. Gibson has needed more playing time (if not starting) for the last few weeks. Brown is just now putting him in after the terrible loss to Philly. My guess would be that Brown felt pressure from the fans and (more likely) Dan Gilbert to play the rookie more.

My thoughts? I like this, but I wonder how it's going to play out, especially if LeBron is missing the next few games. Part of me feels like this could be a 'too much, too soon' scenario. Gibson has deserved more minutes for awhile now, but three games ago he never got off the bench and now he's starting? All I've been clamoring for is simply a steady diet of court time every game. I wonder if this doesn't work out, will Brown just go back to playing him 4 minutes a game. Or will this finally lead to Boobie getting decent minutes every night.

Either way, this season just got that much more interesting.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Finally!

Hopefully this will get us back in the win column.

LargeBill said...

This is not too dissimilar to fans screaming for playing time based on exhibition football games. A coach sees things in practice that a player needs to work on that we don't see during the few minutes that player gets in a game. A good coach eases a player into more playing time. By then the player has been prepared properly and is able to succeed. Then we as fans beat up the coach for not playing him earlier not realizing that the player was developing in practice.