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January 6, 2011Just when we think things are cleared up between JJ Hickson and Cavaliers head coach Byron Scott, it appears that the two parties have taken a sizable step back.
In the Wednesday night 120-105 loss to the Toronto Raptors, Hickson was mysteriously benched for the entire 48 minutes, receiving a DNP-CD on the box score. Despite a fairly productive weekend of back-to-back contests (Hickson provided 21 points, eight rebounds and two blocked shots against the Bulls), and word that he and Coach Scott had a one-on-one meeting to clear up any prior misunderstandings, Hickson opted to not attend a mandatory workout that was scheduled to take place on Monday morning.
“It’s something that I really don’t want to get into,” said Hickson following the game. “It is what it is, I missed a practice. Coach and I discussed it and it’s in the past.”
The Cavaliers as a team were given Monday off as they typically are following consecutive games. In this instance, Hickson was called in for a special mandatory practice, likely to continue working on his on-again-off-again defense and on-court focus.
Hickson stated that he and Coach Scott discussed his absence, leading to Wednesday night’s “coaches decision” to not play the power forward. In a game where the team was already without Anthony Parker and both Leon Powe and Daniel Gibson left with injuries, Hickson’s active benching forced the Cavaliers to go with a seven-man rotation for most of the evening.
Hickson’s up-and-down season has been well-documented to this point, including a bit of a verbal spat between he and Scott during loss earlier in the season. When asked if this instance would be a one-game punishment, Hickson said that it was his understanding that that would be the case.
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(AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
13 Comments
I can’t remember a Cavs season that has felt so predictably tedious.
JJ is not someone I’d prefer the team to build around – I just have doubts that he is capable of putting it all together. Too many question marks…sort of reminds me of Darius Miles
Hopefully this kid starts to mature before the Cavs get rid of him. Would hate to see him get it together somewhere else.
I’ve pretty much given up on Hickson. The guy plays like he puts butter on his hands every time he comes on the court. I knew we were in trouble when in the first game of the season he actually hit a few outside jumpers and fell in love with it. I don’t understand how a guy that has 3 years in the league doesn’t start to “get it” on defense and constantly has to be pulled by Scott whenever he misses his defensive rotations. Trade him to any team stupid enough to think he has the ability to become a rotation player on their team.
Sounds like Lebron James is in Jay Jay’s ear?
I wonder what would happen if I just didn’t show up for work one day…
I’m with Byron Scott on this one: JJ needs to learn who’s boss. He needs to start taking defense seriously. He needs to realize that his job is to do his best to win games, and recently he’s not been doing his job. He currently has a superstar attitude without superstar numbers, and that’s going to keep hurting him.
“We’re talking about practice, man. I mean, how silly is that? We’re talking about practice. I know I’m supposed to be there. I know I’m supposed to lead by example . . . I know it’s important . . . I honestly do. But we’re talking about practice, man. What are we talking about? Practice?”
I think there should be a WFNY contest in which we guess the next win…go ahead look at the schedule…I will take Feb 9th.
@ Swig…as Montgomery Burns once said to Homer (paraphrasing):
Monty: “If you don’t show up for work Friday, then don’t bother showing up on Monday either!”
Homer: “WOO-HOO!!! Four Day WEEKEND!!!”
This guy has never struck me as being the brightest bulb in the bunch. For all his athletic ability his intangibles are lacking incredibly. I wouldn’t care in the least if he was traded. I’d have given him up just to rent Amare.
swig – You’d get promoted. Just watch Office Space.
I think you have to wonder if JJ came into the league at the impressionable age of 19 and was immediately taught the culture of the NBA by Lebron and the rest of the fun-loving team at that point, and is now irreperably damaged.
When talking about ridding our organization of players hungover from the culture that existed here with LBJ, I think you have to start with Hickson. Trade him for a fresh face and a draft pick and move forward with guys that are hungry to take advantage of the opportunity a struggling team brings.
@ Tommy
Is there anyone not named Daniel Gibson who has come off as ‘hungry’ this year ? We need to blow this whole thing up, the Cadavers are back.