I don't even know if there's any basketball analysis to be done. The Cavaliers showed no heart, no effort and absolutely zero toughness on Thursday night. They were absolutely terrible.
Does this game get added to the list? The Shot, the Fumble, The Drive, The Decision and The Return? Really, how much worse could it have been? The Cavs lost by 28 points!! Was this not the biggest game of the year?
The Heat players tried. They looked like they gave a shit. They looked like they didn't want to lose this game for LeBron (who played and conducted himself quite well). The Miami Heat played like this game mattered.
The Cavs players? Well, they lost by 28 points. The Heat got whatever they wanted offensively. Not one Cavalier offered any resistance. No hard fouls. No getting in anybody's face. No trash talking or chippiness. No one paid for going inside.
Nothing.
Bah. This sucks. Sports are supposed to be fun. The players are supposed to give a shit. Isn't that the trade off? We give you millions of dollars, you at least pretend to give a shit. Get off my lawn. Bah humbug.
I dunno. I'm feeling a bit jaded at the moment, but can you blame me? Dan Gilbert seems pissed off too, I wouldn't be surprised if he trades the whole team today, he tweets:
CavsFans: Words don't express my feelings so I won't even try. Know this:There's nothing U are feeling that I'm not. The best B-Ball player ever once said: "My pain was my motivation"....And so it will be with us...
But hey, look at the bright side, at least no one threw anything. The fans didn't embarrass the city.
The team did.
7 comments:
And now I think it's time to blow this thing up. Any sign of life in this team should have happened last night. If you can't feed off of that crowd and keep it close, I don't see the point of trying to make the playoffs. I think we lost a lot of fans last night. Not nationwide, but locally. What did you see last night that made you want to rally behind this underdog team, go to games, and cheer for them? This was the biggest game of their entire season.
It's not that they didn't show heart or drive. It's that they're not any good. It's hard to exhibit pluck, guile and fortitude when your roster is mostly slow, short, skinny and soft.
Can you blame LeBron for leaving these guys? They're awful. The product of years of shitty drafting and/or no drafting, and Ferry's attempts to cover the roster in band-aids. Which he did an amazingly good job of (66 and 61wins after starting out with no draft picks, Larry Hughes and Damon Jones as building blocks). But it's really hard to build a team when you're plugging holes all the time.
In the end, Jim Paxson laid the groundwork for LeBron's departure. It was he who made the cupboard so bare that the Cavs got LBJ in the first place, and it was also he who botched up the '04 and '05 drafts (the best chance to build a long-term nucleus around LeBron) and forced Ferry to be Mr. Fix-It for five years on the job.
This is why you have to build a team around a philosophy. You can't build around a single player. You have to build a team.
**And lest we forget the Boozer fiasco.
What? You're saying the GM who presided over the 17 win team wasn't the right guy to build a contender around LeBron? Waah?
The 2004 Luke Jackson pick is the one that stands out to me. This was the last time they'd be drafting that high (#10) and they completely botched it. Paxson passed on both Al Jefferson, Josh Smith and J.R. Smith. Could you imagine LeBron with a legit low post presence? Or teaming up with Josh Smith?
Their 2005 pick was traded back in 1997 as part of the Wesley Person deal. The Cavs would've been picking 13th (could've had Danny Granger).
Ferry drafted Shannon Brown in 2006.
The Cavs owned Toronto's 2007 pick (#22) but traded it for Sasha Pavlovic in 2005. They also traded their own 2007 first rounder (#24)for Jiri Welsch in 2005.
3 first round picks used on Luke Jackson, Sasha Pavlovic and Jiri Welsch. Jim Paxson kept trying to draft himself.
You combine that with letting Boozer walk and ya. No young talent at all.
Ya Jeff, I agree. They were talking about this on 850 this morning, but I feel the Cavs (this particular group anyways) lost a lot of customers last night.
Blow it up. Start over.
Had it been a close game last night and they were in it and fighting until the end, then press on with the team. But, they were lazy, heartless, and emotionless in this game that had more fan support, enthusiasm, and devotion to a team that didn't rise to the challenge or even show up to the event. It's obvious now that this team isn't the 7-8 seed in the East that we thought they might be.
Everythings got to come down before it can build back up. Tear them apart Gilbert. There are 4 people I would like to see stay with the team.
1) Dan Gilbert, He's one of the best sport franchise owners i've seen in a while, he cares, wants to win, and has proven that spending money isn't an issue to win
2)Byron Scott, in order to rebuild properly you're going to need a solid coach with a set style and game plan to draft and trade for the right players to fit into it
3)J.J. Hickson, he is young, aggressive, extremely athletic, and can play in Scotts style of game, did i also mention he is young? because he is the guy that will be dominating this league in future years to come
4)Daniel Gibson, I've been a huge supporter of Gibson since the '07 Eastern Conference Finals against Detroit. He stepped up huge in that series (and last night he was the only player to step up) and was set aside when other players were brought to this team, he's always delivered when he's been on the court and i'll never understand why he was always looked over
As for the rest of the team, break them up, beat them down, and get what you can for them.
I'd disagree on the subject of Hickson. He's uber-athletic, but he's a space cadet. His attention fades out for long stretches and his basketball IQ is very questionable.
Yeah, he's still very young so he might yet learn some things. But you can't change personality tendencies.
Hickson's ceiling is a decent role player, a third or fourth option scorer on a contender. And that's if you're willing to live with the Gooden-esque spaceouts.
But he is not a centerpiece player. If the Cavs try to build a winner around him, it's going to be an exercise in futility.
I think by the time the Cavs are good again, Hickson will be long gone.
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