Maybe he just doesn’t like the preseason?

Just hours before the season gets underway, and a full 28 hours before the Cavs first tip-off, Sasha Pavlovic has come back into the fold for the Cavs.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – especially for what they were asking, bringing back Sasha was a lot more important than bringing back Varejao.

His agent, Marc Cornstein, refused to divulge the value of the contract, so presumably it’s closer to the 3 mil per the Cavs were offering than the 6 mil per Pavlovic wanted. Now with Hughes and Sasha locked up for a few years, we know that we’ll have the time to see if Boobie or Shannon Brown is a long term solution next to Lebron.

Watching him create on his own towards the end of last season, it became increasingly clear to me that Sasha is this teams 2nd most talented player and the best bet to play wingman to Lebron.

Now I better get back to work before I get fired…

Copycat!

Somehow, we missed the boat the whole blog preview thing over at Celticsblog.com. It couldn’t possibly be the fact that we didn’t start this party until 3 weeks after that party started. I can’t put my finger on it, but let’s rectify it.

For full disclosure, I’ll admit that I’ve opened up the Cavs previews, but aside from YaySports, I didn’t bother reading them. Once I finish this’n off, I’ll go soak in some other bloggers well researched opinions on the Cavs upcoming season. But, without further ado…

5 Questions about your 2007-08 Cleveland Cavaliers!

1. What significant moves were made during the offseason?
Ettore Messina blew through town. Rather than talking about what moves weren’t made, let’s use this time to look at the big picture. The Cavs biggest flaw has been the lack of an offensive system. I believe Coach Mike knows what he’s doing, even if his methodology is a bit flawed.

Remember how Bill Belichick used to run Eric Metcalf up the middle on 3rd and 10, probably trying to keep the opposition off balance while we were busy punting? Well, sooner or later, it worked; Belichick put together a system that is difficult to defend – impossible with the right pieces. Hopefully Mike Brown’s learning curve is a bit swifter, and I think bringing a coach with a definite style and strategy, in Ettore Messina, will give Brown principles to build on. This team got to the finals on defense, and that defense certainly didn’t come together overnight. We spent parts of last season, primarily early on, thinking about running a system, and now we’ll have another year of focusing on exactly that.

2. What are the team’s biggest strengths?
Lebron and James. Name any aspect to the game, and Lebron is potentially the best on this team. Scoring? Obviously. Ball-handling, mid-range shooting, going to the hoop, shooting 3s, offensive rebounding, defensive rebounding, passing? His main weakness is the way he sags off his man to play for a steal and gives up open jumpers as a result. Still, with a little work, his speed, length and timing could put him atop the list of our best help defenders and man defenders. So how do we get the most out of him? Look, the easiest, obvious answer is to get him the ball and clear out, so that’s what the Cavs do when they need a score. If anybody has a better answer that can be implemented with our or other attainable personnel, email Danny.Ferry@ClevelandCavaliers.com just as soon as you can.

3. What are the team’s biggest weaknesses?
We call ourselves LeCavs for a reason: It’s all about Lebron here. The fact is, we don’t have a system that maximizes our personnel, but our offense would sure look a lot better if Lebron would limit his dribbling, especially when he’s stationary above the free throw line. Since our true greatest weakness is our lack of a 2nd playmaker, we need the guy who is our best playmaker to, you know, make as many plays as possible. Clearly we rely on our defense, so why not leverage that by playing defense as much as possible, after pushing for a quick score? Over the course of each game, the 5 minutes of idle dribbling means 10 fewer possessions for the world’s greatest basketball player – a success for the opposition.

4. What are the goals for this team?
My personal philosophy is that if you’re not moving forward, you’re falling back. Regardless of how things have gone so far this summer, all I can take is our last meaningful action and say I want to build on that. If the Cavs end up losing a 7 game war against the Kobe-led Bulls in the Eastern Conference Finals, is it the end of the world? Maybe… Probably not. I’d be awfully disappointed though. And I firmly believe that no matter who we play, no matter how good they are, we won’t lay another egg in the finals. Even if just to cement his icon status, Lebron would make a point of winning singlehandedly.

5. Is Lebron still a small forward?
Of course he is. We have a ton of mediocre guards and few solid bigs to keep him sandwiched in the middle of the lineup. That said, without Anderson Varejao, and after seeing the damage he can do in the post, we might see a lot more Power Lebron this year. Of course, that flies in the face of the drive and kick offense we’ll be showing, but after ditching our newly installed system 15 games into the season last year, this is the look we’ll adopt when we decide to ride Lebron through the winter and spring. And there’s your key to a championship. Seriously, name one pantheon player, one championship player who did it without turning his back to the basket. MJ’s move was the fadeaway from the high post, Magic’s first defining moment was stepping in at center. Only Isiah Thomas led a team to multiple championships without a post game.

Final Predictions
50-32 record and an NBA Championship. 3rd time’s the charm, right?

Cavs Sign Demetris Nichols!

Demitris Nichols who was waived by the New York Knickerbocker, was signed by the Cavs today! I know that the name doesn’t blow you away, but this was a big pick-up for the Cavs. Nichols is actually one of those players who could contribute early in the`season to this team.

Coming out of Syracuse and the Big East (Best Basketball Conference in the land!), I’ve watched my fair share of Orange games and this guy is just a scorer. He’s 6′8, has a really nice outside touch and is pretty athletic. Almost a cross between Darius Miles and Carmelo Anthony, except he doesn’t drive to the hoop like Anthony (skinnier), and he doesn’t have the talent and genes of DMiles yet but he’s probably already a better scorer.

I expect that Nichols comes right in and plays as Lebron’s primary backup (a better option than Newble and finally some scoring of the bench) and even at the PF and SG spots until either Sasha or Andy resign.

Good move Cavs!

Is it impossible?

I am absolutely convinced this team needs Kobe Bryant.

Not just for his basketball playing ability, but also for his demeanor and killer instinct. Lebron has often said that he admires how competitive Kobe is and how he never wants to lose. I think on this team, that attitude could be infectious.

Are the Cavs not exploring this option at all? I know the Bulls are the most likely destination, but Kobe will be in the same situation he is in LA if the Bulls trade away all their talent to get him. Will the Lakers not take Larry Hughes, Boobie Gibson, Drew Gooden, Damon Jones and a 1st round pick for Kobe?

Then we resign Varejao, let Sasha walk, and pick up Earl Boykins.

Our new line-up:

PG- Earl Boykins (Eric Snow)
SG- Kobe Bryant (Devin Brown)
SF- Lebron James (Ira Newble)
PF- Anderson Varejao (Donyell Marshall)
C- Zydrunas Ilgauskas (Dwayne Jones)

That’s a team that scores, that plays good defense, gets rebounds, and is well rounded.

That’s a team that wins NBA Championships.

I’m talking Preseason!

“We talkin ’bout preseason!? Preseason?! Y’all got me up on this blog talkin‘ bout preseason? I mean…Preseason! We’re sitting here, and I’m supposed to be the franchise blogger, and we’re talking about preseason!? I mean listen, we’re sitting here talking about preseason, not a game, not a game, not a game, but we’re talking about preseason. Not the game that I go out there and die for and write every game like it’s my last but we’re talking about preseason man. How silly is that?

I know it’s important, I honestly do, but we’re talking about preseason. We’re talking about preseason man. (laughter from the media crowd) We’re talking about preseason. We’re not talking about the game. We’re talking about preseason. When you come to the blog, and you see me write, you’ve seen me write, right? You’ve seen me give everything I’ve got, but we’re talking about preseason right now. (more laughter)”

End Scene!

The game against the Toronto Raptors last night (we lost 111-78) wasn’t on TV, so I can only go by the box scores and the recaps. And yes, I know it is preseason. Still, there were quite a few troubling things to take from this game. Let’s start with:

THE GOOD: Lebron James was good. He usually is. He has 9 of the Cavs 16 assists in limited minutes, had some highlight dunks, and played solid all around.
Damon Jones was pretty good. I can’t believe I just wrote that. He had 16 points, 10 of which did NOT come from 3 pointers. I cannot even imagine how he scored those points. I don’t believe that he had 10 points inside of the arc (not including free throws) all of last season. Was he cutting to the hoop? Was he dunking on people? Can someone please get this on Youtube? (I can only assume the Cavs are hyping and giving alot of playing time to our “DJ’s” Damon and Dwayne Jones, for some purpose; Damon so they can hopefully trade him, and Dwayne to put some pressure on Varejao to sign already.)
Z-Killa (Ilgauskas) wasn’t bad, he had 3 blocked shots, got some rebounds, hit some shots.

THE BAD:
Devin Brown (1-5), Larry Hughes (6-14), Shannon Brown (2-7) and Donyell Marshall (0-3) all had bad shooting nights. Really, nobody on the team played exceptionally well. Boobie Gibson is done for the preseason due to injury. Although he should rejoin the team for the opener. Eric Snow is out for the first few weeks of the season. Cedric Simmons came back from injury and played for limited minutes, but it seems as if the Cavs don’t expect much from him this year anyway.

THE UGLY: Tyrone Hill. Doesn’t he still play for us?

Turnovers. Shooting. Laziness. Overall not being goodness.
The Cavs committed 20 turnovers and shot 18 percent from 3-point range. It looks like we came out pretty strong in the first quarter and then just stopped playing well on defense (or offense). The Cavs are now 1-5 in the preseason.

Here’s Coach Brown’s reaction “Sometimes the execution from our defensive scheme is not there, and sometimes our effort level is not there,” Brown said. “It is preseason, but I’m concerned because we’re averaging 22 turnovers per game. We come out in the first quarter execution wise with our guns blazing, but as the game goes along our execution gets worse.”

The season is a few days away.
Awesome.

2nd best

Just to get the results of the last (and first!) poll on the record…

It seems our readership tends to agree that Drew Gooden is the second best player on the Cavs.  I take that viewpoint by working from the combination of talent, current ability and potential.

Big Z came in at #2 in the poll, meaning #3 on the Cavs.  Clearly his track record is unrivaled, primarily since nobody else has been around for long.  But, he also brings a unique skillset with his size and touch.  I hope our offense finds a way for him to age gracefully, continuing to live off of 17 footers and putbacks.

Boobie Gibson edged out Larry Hughes for the 3rd runner up.  I suspect that’s largely on the strength of playoff performance, where Hughes contributed defensively, as the only Cavs able to trouble Chauncey Billups, despite severe injury, while Daniel Gibson managed to seep through the cracks of the opposing game plans and find his nook in the corner.

If it were all about to me, I’d have left Boobie clearly in last, with Hughes and Z, at separate points in their career, battling for sub-supremacy behind Gooden.

The fact remains, the Cavs are the only team with Lebron, meaning that in this new poll, the only possibility is championship.

Go Cavs!

Trade winds blowing

Sasha Pavlovic lost some leverage tonight as the Heat, the sole team mentioned as having interest in the Pavs, filled their need for a live body to take Dwyane Wade’s minutes.

The Heat picked up Ricky “Triple Double Trouble” Davis and big stiff Mark Blount from the Timberwolves in exchange for Antoine Walker, Michael Doleac and Wayne Simien.

From the Cavs perspective, this has just a bit of impact. Most immediately this could affect Sasha’s willingness to just get into camp. I can’t blame him for wanting more money. I’m off the belief that 3 mil per is a lowball offer from Ferry, but clearly now there’s no interest elsewhere.

The longer term impact comes into focus when you look at the Heat as a competitor to the Cavs in the East. Last year when Wade went down, the Heat’s fortunes fell to whether Shaq was hungry that day, because nobody else on the roster could make things happen. By picking up Davis, they’ve added a slasher and ballhandler who’ll be more than willing to try for 50 while Wade is sidelined and has the skill set, if not the maturity, to play alongside Flash.

The southeast conference is a complete crapshoot. Nonetheless, this trade should earn the Heat a few extra regular season wins and a shot at home court in the first round.

King James’s Court: Week 0

Lebron James is the unequivocal leader of this team, but who is kissing the King’s Eastern Conference Champions ring? And who is the court jester? We’ll use this space each week to offer power rankings from within the team.

King – Lebron James: James has been his usual dominant self in some low-intensity and very limited minutes. He’s shooting well enough from the field and the line and stuffing the stat sheet. He does it so easily, I can understand why he gets bored and coasts.

Queen – Zydrunas Ilgauskas: Zydrunas is probably one of those androgyous Lithuanian names, right? Big Z has been averaging 8 and 8 through the preseason in just 24 minutes each game. He’s also the 2nd most accurate shooter behind Lebron, at 46%. It’s the Cavs MO to pound the ball inside to set the tone and getting off on the right foot will be crucial to snagging a few wins on the early west coast swing.

Jack – Daniel “Boobie” Gibson: Despite his small frame already breaking down from the rigors of the grueling preseason schedule, Boobie has put up some of the best numbers on the team, shooting the lights out from anywhere on the court. He’d leapfrog Z if he was healthy and/or managed an assist to turnover ratio better than 1:1 from the point guard spot.

10 – Dwayne Jones: Nobody really deserves to be slotted here, so we’re giving it to Dwayne Jones for being the teams best rebounder, edging out Z on a per minute basis and miles ahead of Drew “Managed Expectations” Gooden. No way Anderson Varejao is worth 8 figures, so let’s build this guy up.

9 – Damon Jones: With the team as a whole turning it over more often than earning an assist, DJ has impressively managed a 3:1 ratio. With no legit PG and Eric Snow out for at least a month, Jones will see lots of time. If he can continue to take care of the ball and shoot 42% from deep, he’ll make great trade bait.

8 – Shannon Brown: Everybody has been raving about his growth and performance, so I’m going to give everybody the benefit of the doubt here. You know, ignore the fact that he has more turnovers than field goals, can’t defend his position and can’t do anything but dive straight for the rim. At least he has a lot of points.

7 – Larry Hughes: He’d be much higher if he could hit a shot. Really, any shot would do. He’s be lower if he wasn’t the embodiment of our “new offense”, regularly driving and more able than anybody but Lebron to get into the lane under control and create a basket for himself or a teammate.

6 – Devin Brown: Brown is using the preseason to demonstrate his flexibility. He’s likely to see minutes backing up the 1, 2 and 3. Too bad he hasn’t shown, yet, that he can do it well.

5 – Drew Gooden: I’ve not jumping ship yet, but so far this season, Gooden is KILLING me. Somebody please slap him around every time he faces up and settles for a 15 footer. It worked a bit in the finals with Duncan sagging into the lane, but it’s not his game. And staying so far from the hoop, his rebounding numbers are poor compared to the rest of the front court, when he should be setting the pace.

4 – Donyell Marshall: We’re all looking forward to another inconsistent year from Donyell. He’s shown some hustle, he’s gotten some incomprehensible blocks (Dwight Howard, flat-footed), and he’s ready and willing to take the shot when the ball comes his way. As he ages and widens, his game gets more one-dimensional, and so far that dimension is missing.

3 – Ira Newble: Once trade talk kicks up, Newble will shoot up the list without ever setting foot on the floor. Really, his value goes up the less he steps on the court, anyway.

2 – Eric Snow: Snow is another player who might be more valuable off the court than on, though unlike Newble, I’d love to see him stick around and coach. Still, without a point who can slow the game down and protect the ball, we might see some late leads slip away until returns.

Jokers – Anderson Varejao and Sasha Pavlovic: Do they think they’ll make more by not playing?

See you next Wednesday night with some real, live, regular season rankings. Go Cavs!

Boobie must be BIG!

I like my Cleveland Cavaliers like I like my women.

7′3 Inches tall. (Z)

Duck Tail haircut (Gooden)

A strong muscular body from a young age (‘Bron)

Long and lanky limbs (Hughes)

And one single beautiful Boobie.

To the right you see a picture of my dream girl. Her name is LeBrina and she is from Lithuania. One day I will have her. She will love me. Such a thing of beauty comes along very rarely in the form of a woman, but is even more rare in the game of Basketball. As you can clearly see this woman, much like our Cavs team, is the total package. As much as I gripe and worry about my Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team doing nothing amidst all the movement in the eastern conference, I am still quite pleased with the core of this team.

Earlier in this blog writing season, I wrote an article about Drew Gooden, calling him the “Key” to the 2007-08 season for the Cavaliers. Well after some thought, I will say that Gooden’s play is Key “1″ to this season.

But there is a second “Key” to this season. We will call him Key “2″. You may know him as last year’s rookie sensation Daniel Gibson.

I know him as Tig ‘ol Boobie.

The NBA season is about one week away. Sasha “Drazen Petrovic” Pavlovic (Thank you Hubie Brown) doesn’t look like he’s any closer to signing with us. Apparently Miami is pretty hot-to-trot for his services. We need someone to fill his shoes in our starting line-up as a guy who can hit the open three, drive hard to the hoop, and play some solid D. I have faith that this Boobie is ready to fill Sasha’s shoes and his bra!

There are some things not to like Daniel Gibson. This is a guy who looks like he’s 6 years old and weighs about 155 lbs, so he can be easily posted up by bigger shooting guards. He’s not especially fast or quick, so he can be beaten off the dribble by the quicker point guards (remember Tony Parker?)

But here’s what I do like. Boobie has some swagger to his game. In fact, I would say he had more swagger and confidence in his rookie season than Lebron had in his. This was a rookie (2nd rounder no less) last year who was called upon to play alot of big-time minutes in major playoff games. He never hesitated to take big 3 pointers, he hit crucial free throws, and completely threw off the Detroit Pistons who could not afford to triple-team Lebron after Boobie hit shot after shot. And after each of these big shots, Boobie was pounding his chest and smiling in the face of the big bad Pistons, pumping up the team and Cavs fans everywhere.

This year, Gibson needs to keep that swagger. Keep hitting the big shots and work harder to get faster, stronger, and better.

Like all men in Cleveland, I would love it if Boobie grew a few sizes, but he still does it for me at his small size. As long as he makes smart decisions with the ball, and keeps smiling, the men women, and babies of Cleveland will still love Boobie. He’s no LeBrina, but we don’t need him to be at that level of hotness for this season to be a success.

Question: What kind of Bee wins NBA Championships?

Answer: A “Boo-Bee” Gibson.

I just thought up that little riddle right now! Don’t be stealin’ it! That’s how I roll!

Go Cavs!

About the poll…

Over on the right hand column you’ll notice a poll asking who the 2nd best player on the Cavs is. Clearly Lebron is the top dog, but it’s everything after him that has me worried.

See, I was sitting here wanting to vote for “other” just to break up the shut out. Suppose we were running a site about one of our competitors, say the Bulls or the Pistons, and we had a similar poll.

Of course each would have their marquee players listed.

For the Pistons, it would be Rasheed Wallace, Chauncey Billups, Rip Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince, but since we’re talking about talent, you look to the future, as well. Amir Johnson might be scary good. I’d bet he gets some votes. Everybody loves Rodney Stuckey. Hell, even Aaron Afflalo or Jason Maxiell warrant mentioning.

The Bulls are just as deep with Luol Deng, Kirk Hinrich, Ben Gordon, Tyrus Thomas, Thabo Sefolosha, Joakim Noah and Ben Wallace.

Either of those teams look solid now and could be better in 5 years working with the talent already in the system.

What Cavs player has the upside of any of those younger players? Boobie Gibson? I’d trade him right now for Chris Duhon, the young man’s Eric Snow. Shannon Brown? Did I mentioned a single player you wouldn’t trade him for? Cedric Simmons is the highest pick still in development mode, and he’s already written off as a career bench guy. If you asked me which non-Lebron Cavs has the best shot of making the All-Star game first, I’d grit my teeth, look away and quietly answer, “Sasha Pavlovic” but we won’t even give him 4 mil per.

Look, the Cavs are winning the championship this year. Write it down. But I’m greedy. I want to win next year and the year after that. I don’t blame Danny Ferry for not making any major moves this offseason, but I’m begging him to start getting some “others” on the roster.

Lebron aside, we’ll win our championship with or without any of these guys. Now I want more, and so does these girls. Maybe I can vote for them…