May 24, 2013

While We’re Waiting… Cleveland Suffering, Assigning Blame and Hall of Fame Oddity

February 9, 2011 by 9 Comments

While We’re Waiting serves as the early morning gathering of WFNY-esque information for your viewing pleasure. Have something you think we should see? Send it to our tips email at tips@waitingfornextyear.com.

Scott’s latest published at The Post Game- “What Cleveland is enduring at this point is not only unexpected, but the aforementioned revolution. As distinguished writer Clay Shirky states, within revolutions, old ideals get broken faster than the new ideals can be put in its place, and the magnitude of any given experiment is not apparent at the moment it appears. During times of chaos, short-term resolutions do not always resolve. Coupling this with the information age and the constant reminder of inferiority, this hardwood hell becomes even more gut-wrenching.” [Scott/The Post Game]

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So the players shoulder no responsibility?- “It is hard writing this without making it an “I-told-you-so” piece. The issue with it is that I didn’t tell it like this, so I can’t say “I told you so.” I picked 12 wins for this team, but I also assumed the Cavs would break it up after two months or so, once the reality of that lacking roster hit home. They didn’t work it out that way, but through injuries, the expected exodus of Williams and Varejao came through without the added luxury of actually receiving assets in return. It’s the worst of both worlds, as the Cavs struggle to hit double-figure wins with the remnants of the LeBron era still dotting the roster. Suffice to say, this has been badly, badly mishandled.” [Dwyer/Ball Don't Lie]

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Remember Sasha ‘My Offense is my Defense’ Pavlovic? Check this out. [Yahoo Block of the Night]

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NFL salary cap figures for 2011. If it ends up mattering. [Yasinskas/ESPN] (Hat tip- Dawgs by Nature)

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Interesting tidbit here- “Found so many cool things doing this rather pointless exercise — but probably nothing cooler than finding that only three big-league pitchers born from 1911-1920 made the Hall of Fame, and all three pitched predominantly for the Cleveland Indians of the 1940s and 1950s.” [Posnanski/Joe Blogs]

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Finally, I’m sure everyone else has seen this. It was the first time for me. – Leave Cleveland Alone. (Hat Tip Hardwood Paroxysm)

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(AP Photo/Amy Sancetta)

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  • http://gooddoctorzeus.blogspot.com DocZeus

    Another day, another national media article blaming Dan Gilbert’s ego and “coddling” of LeBron James.

  • Max

    @Doc Zeus…yeah its everyone’s fault but the players and the league that set their system up so that the young millionaires have all the leverage, can go into “operation shutdown” whenever they don’t get their way, and pout until they do get their way. It also doesn’t help that the large national sports media outlet glorifies these players and their self centered antics, thus enabling them to keep on keepin’ on

    Dan Gilbert had no choice but to mollify the player who left. Had he not mollified that kid from Akron, there would have been all sorts of reports in the mainstream media about how he was unhappy here, and he was mistreated, and they couldnt get what he needed, etc etc. All that would have done is grease the skids for an earlier exit that the mainstream media would tout as “justified” because the Cavs organization wasn’t giving him what he needed.

  • http://www.waitingfornextyear.com Andrew

    As though Cleveland did anything different than any other organization would do/has done with their star players. As though this would have played out any differently with any other owner. The fact is, LeBron didn’t want to be in Cleveland, he always wanted to play somewhere else with Dwyane Wade, and nothing Dan Gilbert did in the past or could have done differently would have changed the situation the Cavs find themselves in. Dan Gilbert went for broke and spent money and did everything in his power to bring Cleveland a Championship while LeBron was still here.

    At the end of the day, though, LeBron disappeared in the Celtics series and the rest of the team wasn’t good enough to make up for it. You can blame LeBron for quitting and for not doing enough to recruit other impact players to Cleveland, you can blame the other players for not stepping up when LeBron quit, you can blame John Paxson for mishandling the Boozer situation and for trading away valuable draft picks for Jiri Welsch, you can blame Danny Ferry for signing Larry Hughes and Donyell Marshall to lucrative contracts that spiraled the team into cap hell, you can blame Mike Brown for not being a better offensive coach. I realize the buck always stops at the top, but I just don’t see what Dan Gilbert did that was so atrocious that it directly lead to him being the sole cause for the Cavs being where they are.

    This was just yet another excuse for KD to rip apart Dan Gilbert, whom KD despises not for sports reasons, but for political reasons. KD has not been shy about his strong dislike of Gilbert because of Quicken’s part in the housing crisis. It’s a shame that KD can’t keep his political feelings about Gilbert separate from his analysis of Gilbert as an owner. Dan Gilbert the sports owner is one of the assets the Cavaliers have going for them, regardless of whether you feel Quicken Loans is an ethical/moral company or not.

  • MattyFos

    I have decided that I want the Cavs to draft Derrick Williams from Zona.

    Check out his game log. 27 pts on 10 shots on Nov 18 v. NMST.. He has been very efficient all year. Obviously, we don’t take him number one overall. Maybe we draft Irving then move him for Williams and a future pick or something. But after watching Antawn against the Mavs 8 of 23 shooting for 17 pts, I think. I believe if we replaced Antawn at the 3 with Williams, we would have won that game and probably a few more.

    Then we move Antawn/Andy/Mo (I still love Mo) for picks/cap and stink it up next year (again) for another shot at drafting a good player… Gilchrist/Rivers

  • P Mack

    @Andrew-pardon a stupid question from a newbie – who the heck is “KD”?

  • http://www.waitingfornextyear.com/ Rick

    P Mack- Kelly Dwyer, the author of that article linked above.

  • http://www.waitingfornextyear.com Andrew

    Kelly Dwyer. He writes for Yahoo’s Ball Dont Lie blog, and he’s truly my favorite NBA writer now that I can’t read Windhorst anymore. I just can’t stand the way he attacks Gilbert for reasons that have nothing to do with basketball.

  • mgbode

    @Andrew – thanks for the extra info on Dwyer there. I was wondering why he was ridiculing the approach when he has been a long proponent that teams need to completely tear down in order to build back up rather than staying in mediocrity. seemed liked a strange read from him.

  • Alex

    Unlike Andrew, his constant Gilbert-bashing has totally turned me off his other writing. Before the end of last season, I read him regularly. His other writing is actually quite good. And, proving that media writers can do nothing if not use hindsight, he didn’t write much at all that was critical of 6 or Gilbert before everything happened. Since every article he writes about the Cavs now bashes Gilbert without rational thought, I can no longer read him – I know what all those articles are going to say.

    And don’t forget the article or two he wrote when the casino law passed. KD didn’t like that much either.