Friday, March 02, 2007

Free Throws

Bud Shaw (from the latest 'Hire Mark Price' column)
:So . . . greatest shooter in franchise history meets Team Clang. . . . sounds like an ad for Match.com.

"I've offered," said Price, who will be honored Saturday with the 1986-87 Cavs. "I'd definitely be open to helping. But a lot of times teams wait for players to initiate it."

They also wait until the off-season. Cavs' GM Danny Ferry, Price's former teammate, doesn't need convincing that free throws are a problem. In fact, the profile of the missed free throw is raised because it's fixable trouble. The Cavs didn't get a point guard at the trade deadline. Their amnesia in the half-court offense won't suddenly remedy itself. Here's an improvement they can make.

Ferry put Price and Cavs assistant Chris Jent in contact a few weeks ago when Price was in town. The Cavs also had Price sit down and watch tape of point guard play with rookie Daniel Gibson.

"I think we're addressing our free-throw situation seriously," said Ferry.

"At the same time we don't want to confuse the issue in the middle of the season."

So the offseason, huh? Part of me agrees with this; you don't want to mess around with a whole lot of things during the season. However, at the same time, the Cavs are last in the NBA in free throw percentage. Who cares if you mess with it during the season? The Cavs are awful, what's the worse case scenario? They get worse? LeBron shoots 50%?

Fix it.

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