There are a five things we can be certain of at this point:
1. The Cavs are not in sync at the offensive end
2. LeBron James looks dialed in (triple double)
3. We're gonna see a lot of Mike Brown/Eric Wedge jokes over the next few days
4. Last year they started 1-2
5. It's a long season
I'm gonna have more tomorrow (haven't watched any of the game yet, but I did get to hear a disappointed Joe Tait) but this obviously wasn't the start the Cavs were hoping to have. It's a long, long season and it's obvious that every one is still figuring each other out (the flu, injuries and Delonteness made it the Preseason of Coby Karl).
It's a long season and you have to figure that this team will be better in February than they are now and better in May than they were in February. Though I will say, they can only suffer so many losses against potential playoff opponents before it will hurt their head-to-head tiebreakers.
And while this start stinks, it's not going to put them in danger of actually missing the playoffs (a concern a friend of mine actually voiced tonight). No matter how bad the Shaq-periment (gonna be a long year with the Shaq puns, fyi) goes, they aren't going to go from 66 wins to finishing 9th in the East.
Worse case scenario: Shaq (who had a +/- of -25 tonight) and Parker move to the bench, they go with last year's starting five (let's not forget that the only rotation players they lost from their 66 win team were Ben Wallace and Sasha Pavlovic) and we get to watch Mike Brown and Danny Ferry play the role of Steve Kerr.
Wait- check that. The actual worst case scenario: this early trend continues, Brown refuses to move Shaq to bench either due to being intimidated or simple Coach Mike obtuseness and we'll have to suffer terrible offense every day of winter (as opposed to just on Sundays) until Brown gets canned in a mid-year panic move made by a team desperate to accommodate Shaq and/or win a title in what could be LeBron's last year in a Cavalier uniform.
*gulp*
3 comments:
Of course, Roker does, in fact, go with Shaq/Z against Toronto, freeing Andrea Bargnani to look like Dirk Nowitzki.
When MB goes big against Toronto's snipers and dribble-drivers because it worked somewhat against Boston's slow, aging frontcourt, that worries me. Roker is back to throwing crap against the wall to see what sticks.
Of course, there is always going to be experimentation going on early in the season, but some of what he's doing with substitutions and scheming just doesn't make sense. He seems as lost as his players. A continuation of the ECF.
First, MB gets outcoached by SVG. Then it comes to light that the upper-ups in the organization were divided on whether he should even stay on as head coach. Then they trade for Shaq. I don't know where MB is mentally right now.
It could be that the last time he was sure of himself as a head coach was Game 4 of the Atlanta series.
at least they got minnesota next. surely that's the cure-all for any struggling team. we can only hope.
Good Luck Cavs! I sure hope these two games are NOT a sign for things to come.
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