So I get off work at 9, get home at 9:40ish and have to decide if I want to watch the Cavs lose by 20 to the Wizards (which I tivo'd).
Now, it's entirely possible that I'll turn this on at some point tonight (or tomorrow), but there's definitely a chance that I won't. Not gonna lie, I have no desire to watch Sasha Pavlovic shoot 1-7, Shannon Brown shoot 6-14 and Drew Gooden shoot 5-14. All I know is, if Brown and Gooden combine for 28 shots while Zydrunas Ilgauskas gets just 7 (with both LeBron and Larry Hughes out) then something is extremely screwed up.
So ya... can't wait to cue this one up...
5 comments:
Hmm...you weren't too far off there, Ben.
I'm not sure what else to say other than the Cavs w/out LeBron are very bad.
Now that I really think about it, when you step back from the AV situation, it's obvious that however the whole thing with him turns out, it doesn't matter one bit.
All that matter's to the Cavs is LeBron.
The thing is, with LeBron, this team looks pretty good. Guys know their roles, there's ball movement and they listen to Mike Brown.
Without LeBron it seems to be a free for all and it has produced some ugly basketball.
Many fans are attributing the Cavs' slide to the fact that the roster is a steaming heap of compost outside of LeBron, a percieved fact which they invariably use as a convenient inroad to bashing Danny Ferry.
If you go to the "this bad" thread on the TCF message boards, you will even find one poster pining for the return of Jim Paxson.
Egad. Are we that out of touch?
A number of Cavs fans seem to have forgotten that LeBron isn't the only player on the bench in a suit. The Cavs are also missing Larry Hughes, Donyell Marshall and (until next week) Anderson Varejao.
Anyone can say what they will about Hughes and Marshall sucking, but Hughes still takes 10-15 points with him to the bench, and not having Marshall and Varejao means this team has zero frontcourt depth off the bench.
Who is left to get the minutes? Inexperienced project players like Dwayne Jones and Shannon Brown. Sure, they've played well in spurts, but if anyone thinks those guys can compensate (or are an improvement) over the guys who are injured, they really don't understand how a roster works.
Any team, even the Spurs and Mavs, would be far worse off if their back-of-the-bench guys are getting big minutes because two starters and two major bench players are out.
What you're seeing right now is not just the effects of losing LeBron, but a cumulative result of missing one-third of your normal active roster.
Eric, I agree. The Cavs are missing Hughes, LeBron, Marshall and Varejao.
They're playing projects (Shannon Brown is auditioning for a trade) and there's simply no energy.
Some of this is coaching as well, how Z only got 7 shots (3 of which were put backs) boggles my mind. How are he and Gooden not the focus of the offense when LeBron is out? Lets not forget, Z basically beat the Wizards on his own last year in the first round.
Ferry is fine, he has the Cavs in a good cap position (see my next post)
I think they actually are trying to run more through Gooden without LeBron, but per Brian Windhorst, Gooden's open shots are drying up like the Mojave Desert because the defense doesn't have to double-team LeBron.
But I'm definitely with you on Z, Ben. How can a 7'-3" guy who can consistently knock down 15-18 foot jumpers become a footnote to an offense that's missing LeBron?
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