Before say I anything about the Cavs, let me just say this about the all-star game: I’m not smart enough for both teams to have the split colored jerseys. Maybe if both had white in the front, or if there were 4 colors involved, but the west white front, east white back, I’m spending more time figuring out what’s going on than following the action.
In related news, get off my lawn, you damned kids!
Watching Boobie’s near win in the 3 point shooting contest, I couldn’t help but ponder what our team could look like. Imagine if our top 6 right now was Hughes, Kapono, Lebron, Boozer, Z and Boobie. Better still, had we kept Boozer, we might not have moved for Hughes and we would probably have a “real” point guard right now. Oh well, it’s all what could have, should have, might have been.
Instead it looks like Lebron’s best bet is bring in a mid-level player, hopefully a decent ball-handler and a scorer. But since nothing is immiment, let’s just reflect on how we’ve managed 29 wins in our first 52 games.
Lebron James
Obviously, every one of those 29 wins comes courtesy of the King. His numbers are up across the board, he’s taken on more responsibility defensively, and his 6 game absence showed how criminal it would be to award the MVP to anybody else:
Grade: A-
Zydrunas Ilgaukas
Big Z has seen his scoring and rebounding dip since the first month of the season, but he’s settled in at around 14 and 9. His biggest fault is that those aren’t a reliable 14 and 9. When his jumper is falling, he becomes the primary recipient of the attention Lebron draws. When he has the size advantage inside, he demoralizes the opposition with his volleyball second chance points. Also, importantly, Z is the Cavs only iron man this year.
Grade: B+
Daniel Gibson
Boobie picked up where he left off the Pistons series: scorching. His biggest fault this year has been his lack of shots. 15 times this season he’s put up double digit attempts. Likewise, 15 times he’s taken 6 or fewer shots. As he gets more comfortable with the ball in traffic – he already has a good handle, just not body control and vision – his shots will go up because he’ll find the ball in his hands more often.
Grade: B
Drew Gooden
Gooden probably hasn’t been the 4th best, but he does have one dramatic edge: his presence. Gooden’s 49 games are 2nd only to Z, and with injuries and holdouts taking such a toll, his being able to play has meant a lot. Since Varejao ended up holdout, Gooden’s numbers dropped precipitously, but early on he was a beast. If he can keep his head in the game for the 2nd half, he’s a huge asset, since he is probably our most dangerous back to the basket scorer.
Grade: C+
Larry Hughes
Why he should be higher: February 11th.
Why he should be lower: 11/4, 12/29.
Maybe I’m just blinded by optimism, but I still believe he’s (slowly) developing into our reliable 2nd option.
Grade: C+
Anderson Varejao
When he’s played, he’s been worth every penny and more. Unfortunately, that’s only been 22 games. If he ends up playing 50 games this season with those numbers and the same impact, he’d be near the top of this list.
Grade: Incomplete
Damon Jones
The closest thing to a true point guard on the Cavs, DJ has had a big impact on the success of the 2nd unit. Additionally, despite shooting well, he’s dropped the hand gestures. It says a lot that he’s finished more than a few games this year.
Grade: C
Ira Newble
It’s harder to place Newble than Andy. He can’t get an incomplete, since he’s been healthy for the most part, he just couldn’t get in. Of course, once he was forced into the lineup, he’s provided the glue, switching between playing shooting guard and power forward seamlessly. Once we’re back to full strength, Mike Brown will have a tough decision to make with these minutes.
Grade: C-
Devin Brown
The third in a string of glue guys, Devin Brown has, at moments, seemed like he could be 6th man of the year and at others, looked on par with Shannon Brown. Newble has bene muscling away some of his minutes the past few weeks. All the more reason to support Frankenstein style stem cell research.
Grade: C-
Dwayne Jones
DJII is the poor man’s Gooden, I guess. He’s been there, played when necessary and usually managed to avoid embarassing himself. Without any injuries, he would never see the floor. If Cedric Simmons wasn’t awful, he’d never see the floor. Nonetheless, he does, and when he has he’s provided some athleticism by rebounding and blocking shots.
Grade: D+
Sasha Pavlovic
It hurts to put Sasha this low when I’m so optimistic he’ll pick up where he left off when he returns from injury. Still, most of the time he played, he was awful. Unassertive, ineffctive, unreliable. Holding out, even if it didn’t cost him many games, definitely hurt. If he comes back and looks like he did all December, he might not see many minutes down the stretch.
Grade: D
Donyell Marshall
Amazingly, Marshall is one of 5 Cavs in the positive on 82games.com. As he plays more, as he actually begins to contribute, that will probably change. With Andy coming back and Lebron and Ira effective at the 4, he might not see much time, though, now that he’s healthy.
Grade: Incomplete
Eric Snow
Shannon Brown
Cedric Simmons
Thanks for filling out the roster guys! Those suits sure look sharp on you. Let’s hope we get to see a lot more of them.
Grade: Incomplete
Coach Mike Brown
It’s a shame that injuries have provided such a necessary excuse, since this year should have been a good year to measure Mike Brown’s improvement as a coach. Honestly, I like what he’s done. Of course, it’s big that we’ve had an upward trajectory with all the injuries. At times the offense seems like it flows functionally. As our chemistry renews, that should improve. Publicly, he’s said all the right things. Everybody in the organization, including Lebron seems to support him, which goes a long way. Again, injuries have forced his hand, but he made decisive moves in putting DJ on the bench early and was humble enough to give him minutes again once he showed some commitment to defense.
Grade: B
I’m happy looking ahead to a 3rd or 4th seed. The road back to the finals goes through Detroit and Boston, two teams we’ve shown we can beat. Let’s use the next 30 games to build our team to something better than what it was last year so we can finish the job.
Go Cavs!
